SAMUEL ADAMS TO JAMES Warren PHILADA., Novr. 23, 1778 MY DEAR SIR, I have lately receivd a Letter from our worthy Friend Mr. J. A[dams] of an old Date, the 21st of May. "Our Affairs says he in this Kingdom, I find in a State of Confusion and Darkness that surprizes me. Prodigious Sums of Money have been expended and large Sums are still due; but there are no Books of Accounts nor any Documents from whence I have been able to learn what the United States have receivd as an Equivalent." And yet we are told by a Gentleman lately from France that the Accounts and Documents were left in the Hands of a Person in Paris. My Friend A. L[ee] is called by those who dread his Vigilance "a dissatisfied Man." Having receivd many Letters from him since I last saw you, I know he is dissatisfied. What Man who regards the Publick Interest, or his own Reputation, can be satisfied, when he sees Millions of Livres spent, himself accountable with others for the Expenditure, and the Man through whose hands the greatest Part has passd without consulting him after being repeatedly called upon by him, unready or unwilling to account for them. There are other Things which my Friend complains of, and I think not without Justice. When I consider the high Character which one Man sustains and the Depth of Art which he is Master of; the low mercantile Cunning and plausibility of another, the servile and adulating Disposition of some on this side of the Water, the Commercial Interests and Connections of others, and the too formidable Combination of Men of Ambition, Avarice and Vanity, to sacrifice the Characters of those whose Conduct is a perpetual Remonstrance against them I cannot say I am without Apprehensions of what may befall that eminent American Patriot. I fear America is too unsuspecting long to continue free. Men of corrupt Principles, who seek to accumulate Honor and Wealth to themselves, to the Prejudice of the Publick, will endeavor to lull the People into Security, or, as they will call it, perfect good Humour, that they may not keep a vigilant Eye over them. It is the Right of the People which they ought to exercise, a Duty which they owe to their Posterity to think and speak and publish with a decent Freedom, their Sentiments of publick Men and Measures. Adieu. Decr. 9. The foregoing I had laid aside, and probably should never have forwarded it to you, had not an extraordinary Peice appeard in the last Saturday's paper signd S. Dean, in which he avows himself to be the Author of the Queries I sent you a few Weeks ago. I believe you will find the Plausibility of this Performance, which I shall inclose, to be answerable to a Character I have given you in the Letter above. He "had the Honor to be the Commercial and political Agent of America in Europe." He might have said more justly that he had the Honor of being employd by the secret Committee of Commerce as their Agent, and by the secret Committee of Correspondence as their Intelligencer. Mr. A Lee he says "having by a wanton Display of his Errand, given great and just Cause of Disgust to the Court of Spain, returnd." I will relate to you certain Matters which may explain, if that Court was disgusted with him as Mr. D[eane] asserts, how it came to pass Soon after the secret Committee was appointed, which if I remember rightly was about three years ago, they wrote a Letter to Mr. Lee then in England, requesting a political Correspondence with him, and desiring he would give them the best Intelligence he could, and pledging to him their Confidence. Mr. Lee being thus honord, in Mr. Dean's Sense, as a political Agent of America, and having the solemn Assurance of Confidence and Secrecy, with his usual fidelity and as became him in that Character, proceeded with unsuspecting Frankness to open to the Committee what he thought as well as what he knew of Men and Measures. There was at that time in England a Mr. Carmichael, who is lately arrivd in America and since appointed a Delegate in Congress for the State of Maryland. Mr. Lee had a good opinion of this young Gentleman; and he being at that time about to return hither by the Way of France, Mr. Lee thought him a safe hand, and entrusted him with Dispatches to the secret Committee. His Letter was written on the inner Sides of the Outside Leaves of a small pocket Dictionary, and so neatly closd to the Covers as not to afford the least Suspicion if it should meet with the Fate of being taken by the Enemy. Mr. Carmichael took the Dictionary and went over to France where he remaind till his late Embarkation for Portsmouth at which place he arrivd last Summer. In France he met with Mr. Dean. The Letter was opend! Who probably committed this Act, Mr. Dana can inform you as well as I can. To him I refer you. I desire you would ask him and if you please let him know that I desire it of you. He can tell you more than I chuse to trust in writing. I hope you are by this time become confidential with him. But this is Digression. I have seen the Letter. It is dated the 3d of June, '76.1 There are containd in it free Sentiments of the Minister of Spain, but such as a Man of Mr. Lee's Integrity could not withhold from the Committee. Such Intelligence, I must say, being thus pyrated, Such Secrets betrayd, Judge who "wantonly displayd his Errand,” and by whose Means the Court of Spain saw Cause to distrust Arthur Lee, if they did distrust him. I say if they did distrust him, because I doubt the Fact. If they restricted him to the City of Burgos, as Mr. Dean says, I rather think it was owing to the Caution of that Court, least she should too early offend the Court of London by giving Countenance to an American Commissioner. Mr. Dean says, "At this Place (Berlin) he (A. L[ee]) was so unfortunate as to do nothing, unless indeed he may give the Name of Business to the Loss of his Papers," by which a Discovery was made of the Secrets of his Colleagues and the British Ministry enabled to counteract the Measures taken for the Benefit of America. The Anecdote is this. In Berlin, Mr. Lee being invited and dining abroad, the British Envoy found Means to get his Closet and his Trunk forcd open and his Papers were pilferd. But Mr. Lee having Intelligence of it, immediately made Application to the Minister of Berlin and by his Interposition the Papers were returnd; as I am informd in a few Hours. Mr. Dean designs to hold up my worthy Friend in this Instance as careless of the Secrets of his Colleagues. But what Security is there against the Rape of the Lock? This indeed is the second Instance 1 Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence (Wharton), 11. 95. of his losing his Papers. The first by the Behaviour of the Person to whom he had regularly committed them, for which I will not now give a Name; and the other by the Theft of a British Minister. If he had been as fortunate in the early discovery of the one as the other, Mr. Dean might allow "the Name of Business" to be given, if not to the Loss of his Papers, to his Activity and Address in recovering them. It is pleasant to see Mr. Dean indulging his Talent in Insinuation to lead his Readers to conclude that A. L[ee] was secretly intriguing with the British Ministry and thereby embarrassing our Affairs in France. His Acquaintance with the Earl of Shelburne who had formerly been his Patron in England, was the Ground of Suspicion of his disclosing our Secrets; "joynd to his undisguisd Hatred and Expressions of Contempt of the french Nation in General." I have good Grounds to be satisfied from a Conversation I have had with a Great Man who ought to be and undoubtedly is perfectly acquainted with the French Court,1 that Mr. L[ee] is thought of there differently from what Mr. Dean would have the People here think of him, and that the Insinuation "that he had given universal Disgust to the Nation whose Assistance we sollicited" is void of any just Foundation. But so long ago as "in the Summer of 1777 a Correspondence between a certain Dr. Berkenhout and the Hon Arthur Lee Esq took place." Aye, and it was "on political Subjects." If Mr. L[ee] had left it to be discoverd by the Sagacity of others that there was such a Correspondence between him and Dr. Berkenhout and that Dr. B. was in the Confidence of the British Ministry, Mr. Dean might have supposd there were Grounds to suspect Mr. L[ee]'s Integrity; but unfortunately Mr. Lee told it himself to his Colleagues and related to them a Part of the Correspondence. Mr. D[eane] would here insinuate as he did in his Queries that it was a criminal Correspondence. But if it has been, would Mr. Lee have exposd himself to Mr. Dean? The Man whom he conceivd to be his mortal Enemy? Surely not. A wise Minister will endeavor to possess himself of the secret Designs of the publick Enemy. This is done by a Variety of 1 Gerard, the French Minister. Means. Mr. Lee corresponds with Dr. Berkenhout (as Mr. Dean says) a Confident of the British Ministry. A shortsighted Politician believes or a prejudicd and designing Man insinuates that it is a Criminal Correspondence. If it was so, Why was not Mr. D[eane], who knew it in the Summer of 1777, so faithful as to acquaint his Constituents, the Congress, of it? To have done this would have shown the Appearance of Fidelity. He relates a Story and as he says himself "simply" thus. "A Gentleman of Character told me that his Correspondent in England" etc. (See the 3 Collumn of his piece.) Who this Gentleman of Character is, and who the Correspondent in England, it was needless to tell us; but we learn that in Mr. D[eane]'s Opinion a Gentleman of Character may have an English Correspondent. This Correspondent informd this Gentleman of Character, and because Mr. Dean tells us so, it is sufficient for us faithfully to believe it and damn Dr. Lee's Character. But I fear I have tired your Patience. Adieu. [No signature.] JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN PASSY, Decr. 2, 1778 MY DEAR SIR, - Last Night, I recd. your Letter of Octr. 7th by a Special Messenger from M. De Sartine, who writes me that he knows not how where nor by whom it arrived. I mention this that it may Serve as an Answer in some Measure to the Complaint in your Letter, that neither you nor my other Friends have heard from me. I have wrote very often, to you and them but there is Strange Management with Letters and most that We write are sunk in the Sea. I sincerely grieve for my Country in the News that you are not of either House. But it is some Comfort to me to think that I shall be soon a private Farmer, as well as you, and both pursueing our Experiments in Husbandry. The longer I live and the more I see of public Men, the more I wish to be a private one. Modesty is a Virtue, that can never thrive, in public. Modest Merit! is there such a Thing remaining in public Life? It is now become a |