warmth on both Sides. however Baneful Mr. D[eane's] Address may be to our Affairs it finds Advocates here and it is difficult to prevent even many honest Men from being Captivated with an Address that falls in with their Jealousy at a Time when they find themselves uneasy and pressed with many difficulties. but what must the man deserve who while he pretends to be a Patriot can Cooly hazard the ruin of the finest proposals by Exciteing Groundless Jealousies and Animosities when the most perfect Unanimity should subsist to prevent the most desolating ruin. but I hope he and every Body will have their deserts. I may write you more on this subject hereafter when I have had more Opportunity to make my Observations here. As for News I can give you None but what you will find in the Papers.

The Court is setting. I can tell you but little about them. I am told they are upon a new Valuation, a Bill of Confiscation, upon a Tax Bill for 1,000,000 of money, a New Constitution and talk of riseing next week. Your old Friend figures away in the usual Stile. sometimes the pendulum swings one way and sometimes the other - I mean with regard to Whiggism or Toryism, but never fails to swing uniformly against all that wont Bow down and worship a very Silly Image. you will have an Instance in a Letter which I am told has gone forward lately from a Certain Assembly to Congress relating to the Ships here and the Navy Board. this Letter had its rise from him and was Calculated and designed to Carry very Injurious reflections on the Board, but was greatly Amended (to his Mortification) by the other Branch. I believe it contains now but little more than a desire to have the Navy Board under their direction. if Congress think it necessary they should have more Masters they will do it, but I hope at the same time they will appoint one new Member in the room of one old one. I would not detain you longer, but it is necessary you should be acquainted with some Facts. last Decr. the Council requested us to send the Dean with their Brigantine Hazard down to the Eastward to Attack the Enemy. we represented to them that the Navigation was hazardous and that the force proposed was Insufficient, which was also the Opinion of the Board of War. they then proposed we should Join another Ship,

which we consented to, provided they could furnish us with fifty or sixty Men to man the Boston quick, so that they might Sail before the Enemy could know it at Newport and take measures to destroy them, but no such thing was done. we then proposed that they should join the Hazard with the Dean and go on the Coast of Virginia, where their Force was Adequate to the Service; but the Board of War said the Brigantine was not Built to defend the Coasts of other States, would not agree to it and the Council was quite Inattentive to our Arguments and pressing Solicitations. we were therefore finally obliged to order the Deane to that service alone. the hazard is Cruiseing for profitable prizes and the Clamour is that we dont take measures to Clear that Coast.

Has Congress reconsidered their Vote for augmenting our Salaries. we have had no official Information of it. I wish to know how the matter stands. if it be on the old Foot I must quit or be ruined. I am your sincere Friend.

[No signature.]

My best regards to Mr. Gerry and Mr. Lovel. I wish they would let me know how the world goes. No Body writes to me

but you.

The Navy Board has Just received two warrants from your Committee for 100,576 dollars and a promise of 50,000 in Money. My Friend, you must consider this as next to No supply. we have borrowed nearly 50,000 already and paid it away. if we get the 100,000 from the Loan Office in Connecticut, which I dont Expect, it will by no Means supply Huntington, Cotton, and Langdon for the Ships they are Building and Equiping,1 and we shall not have a penny left for all the other great demands on us. what then becomes of your Navy. you must haul up your Ships or supply us Immediately with a much larger Sum.

1 Joshua Huntington (1751-1821), John Cotton, of Chatham, Conn., and John Langdon, of Portsmouth, N.H. Some letters on the operations of these agents will be found in the Huntington Papers, Conn. Hist. Soc. Collections, xx, and in Out-Letters of the Continental Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty, 1776-1780, printed by the Naval History Society.

JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN

PASSY, Feb. 25, 1779

DEAR SIR, Yours of the 1. Jany. was delivered me, by the Marquis de la Fayette. I wish I was as happy as you, in not being obliged to copy my Letters. Sense or Nonsense, frivolous or weighty, I must copy every Line I write, for I know not what Accusations may be brought against me, grounded on my Letters if I do not. My Letters are lyable to more Misfortunes and foul Play too than yours, and I keep no Clerk, so the original and Copy, must be done with these weak Eyes, almost blind with reading and writing; yet every Body complains of me for not writing enough, especially my Wife.

The Address you mention, produced astonishment, here and all over Europe. Yet it seems to be not discountenanced: rather Supported. You have Reason to be confident of Dr. L[ee]'s Integrity and Fidelity -no Man more faithfull, and his Character must be vindicated or no Mans will be safe. I shall not however enter into this Business. He is able to justify himself and willing. You may tell your Lady however, she was not mistaken in the Character she gave me of him.

I shall not enter particularly into the Inconveniences, which must result from such an outrageous Measure as that Address. I wish to know, who will correspond with Us or any Body connected with Us, if they are to be thus exposed. What Prince, Minister or State will confide in Us, if Negociations are thus to be laid open? Where is our Secrecy, or a Possibility of it? Is the Confederation annihilated? Is the Union lost? has Congress so little authority as to be obliged to endure this? God forbid. Yet I think the Probability is that he will succeed, get the two L[ee]'s recalld, and himself appointed to some Trust abroad, if this should be the Case what is to become of Us? at least if this done before they are asked if guilty or not guilty, before they are allowed to defend themselves which I doubt not they can do.

This Publication gave the Ministry a Lift in England, and will hoist the Loan which before labourd. The Capture of St Lucie, also which is just arrived, will give another Spur. Yet the Dis

contents in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales ought to be terrible to Administration. They can do no great Things against Us.

The only Enemy, of any great Consequence which is left to Us is our Currency. Taxation and Oeconomy, must be the Cry in America. a Depreciation and Appreciation Law must be made. The People will not Succumb to G. B. if the Bills depreciate, untill a Thousand Dollars, must be given for a Silver Shilling. They will not Succumbe to G. B. if our regular Army, was wholly disbanded. For even then the English could not make an Excursion into the Country, from under the Guns of their Men of War, without Militia Men enough turning out to knock them in the Head. The Consumption of British Soldiers and Sailors in the West Indies is like to be such that you need not fear, any great force, with you. The Tories must now act against every Light of Conscience, for they know that we cannot now succumbe to G. B. without having France and Spain upon our Backs.

What Clongress] will do with the Paper I dont know, but they had better, by a Vote annihilate it all, or call it in to be burned, infinitely, and go over the same ground again ten times than that G. B. should prevail. Burn it all with my good Will. My share shall go to the Flames with the utmost cheerfulness. call it all in, in a Loan if you will, but then dont let it stand at Sterling Standard to be redeemed. This would be greater Injustice than to burn it all.

This vile Paper discourages and disheartens the Whiggs, and emboldens the Tories, more than it ought. blow it away, any way. Many have a Prejudice, that our Independance is connected with it. Convince both sides that our Independance dont depend upon that. That our Plate, our Stocks and all shall go rather than our Sovereignty depend upon it. It is worth them all and more, nay our Houses and Farms into the Bargain.

Our Remedy is so simple, that I am astonished, there should be the least Hesitation about it, in the Mind of the most ignorant and mean of the People.

Taxation alone, is amply Sufficient to carry on our Share of the War in future. I am sure that the thirteen States can raise Money

enough if they will to bear all their future Expences as they rise. if the People are so blind, blockish and stupid, as not to see it and be willing for it, it is a Pity.

But the Delirium that rages, is enough to discourage every Man of Virtue and Honour, the Foppery, the Avarice, the Ambition, the Vanity, the Rage, the Fury, is enough to induce every Man of Sense and Virtue to abandon such an execrable Race, to their own Perdition, and if they could be ruined alone it would be just. There is Cause to fear that our Countrymen and Women, after having astonished the Universe by their Wisdom and Virtue, will become a Spectacle of Contempt and Derision to the foolish and wicked, and of Grief and shame to the wise among Mankind, and all this in the Space of a few Years.

I see so much Corruption, wherever I cast my Eyes. I see the virtuous few struggling against it, with so little success, that a Retreat infinitely less Splendid than that of Pythagoras, at the Head of a little school to teach a few Children the Elements of Knowledge would be a kind of Heaven to me. I have the Honour to be reduced to a private Citizen and if I could remain there without an eternal Clamour, no Consideration in the World should induce me ever again to rise out of it. But you know the Noise, the Lyes, the Slanders, the stupid Groans and Lamentations, that would be raised at such a Resolution.

However let them groan and hiss and curse as they will, I will never be again with my own Consent the sport of wise Men nor Fools.

[No signature.]

JAMES WARREN TO SAMUEL ADAMS 1

BOSTON, Feby. 28th, 1779

MY DEAR SIR, - I have received yours of the 11th Instant. Your Apprehensions are so far just that the honest and virtuous friends to their Country do not Indeed unite their Councils and Efforts; but it rather proceeds from Inattention and a Multi1 From the Samuel Adams Papers in the New York Public Library.