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off and the great Business before them. the Ingenuity of our politicians has been Exhausted and their patience wore out. they now begin to be Content with supposeing that propositions of Peace have some how been made to you and that you are Considering the Terms. this alone is no small Object. I have always had my Apprehensions of danger from Negotiations of this Kind. the designs of the disaffected, the Views of the Interested, will have their Influence upon the Timidity of some and Weakness of others to precipitate us into rash and sudden Concessions. The doctrine that almost any peace is preferable to a Continuance of the war is a dangerous one, because it pleases the Feelings and Taste of the Many who have abandoned every valuable Consideration to a rage for Ease, Luxurious Living and Expensive diversions. in Short we are arrived to that Stage of Civilization and polished Manners which I think Incompatible with public or private Virtue, and therefore worse than Barbarism. I wish for Peace, but had rather the War should Continue the remaining part of my Life than Accept a Peace on Bad Terms.

What are to be the Military Operations of this Summer. is there a judicious plan, or are there to be any wild Romantic Expeditions that promise nothing but Expense, Loss and disappointment, Except serving the purposes of falling in with the Views of the Dons of I have not a word of News to tell you. we anxiously wait for Intelligence from Georgia. I saw Mrs. Adams a few days ago very well. I am yours Sincerely

J. W.

I am very happy here in our Friend General Gates, but I fear he is to leave us soon. he is a true Genuine Republican of sterling virtue, etc., etc.

GEORGE WASHINGTON TO JAMES WARREN

HEAD QUARTERS, MiddlebroOK, Mar. 31, 1779 DEAR SIR, I beseech you not to ascribe my delay in answering your obliging favour of the 16th of Decr. to disrespect, or want

of inclination to continue a corrispondance in which I have always taken pleasure, and thought myself honored.

Your letter of the above date came to my hand in Philadelphia, where I attended at the request of Congress to settle some important matters respecting the Army and its future operations; and where I was detained till some time in Febru'y. during that period my time was so much occupied by the immediate and pressing business which carried me there, that I could attend to little else; and upon my return to Camp I found the ordinary business of the army had run so much behind hand, that together with the arrangements I had to carry into execution no leizure was left me to indulge myself sooner in making the acknowledgment I am now about to do, of the pleasure I felt at finding that I still enjoyed a share of your confidence and esteem, and now and then would be informed of it by letter. believe me Sir when I add, that this proof of your holding me in remembrance, is most pleasing and acceptable.

Our conflict is not like to cease so soon as every good man would wish. The measure of inequity is not yet filled, and unless we can return a little more to first principles, and act a little more upon patriotic grounds, I do not know when it will, or, what may be the issue of the contest. Speculation, peculation, engrossing, forestalling, with all their concomitants, afford too many melancholy proofs of the decay of public virtue; and too glaring instances of its being the interest and desire of too many, who would wish to be thought friends, to continue the War.

Nothing I am convinced but the depreciation of our currency proceeding in a great measure from the foregoing causes, aided by stock jobbing and party dissentions, has fed the hopes of the enemy and kept the Arms of Briton in America untill now. They do not scruple to declare this themselves, and add that, we shall be our own conquerors. Cannot our common Country (America) possess virtue enough to disappoint them? Is the consideration of a little dirty pelf, to individuals, to be placed in competition with the essential rights and liberties of the present generation, and of millions yet unborn? shall a few designing men for their own aggrandizement, and to gratify their own avarice, overset

the goodly fabric we have been rearing at the expence of so much time, blood, and treasure? and shall we at last become the victims of our own abominable lust of gain? Forbid it heaven! forbid it all, and every state in the union! by enacting and enforcing, efficatious laws for checking the growth of these monstrous evils, and restoring matters in some degree to the pristine state they were in at the commencement of the War. Our cause is noble, it is the cause of Mankind! and the danger to it springs from ourselves. Shall we slumber and sleep then while we should be punishing those miscreants who have brought these troubles upon us, and who are aiming to continue us in them? While we should be striving to fill our Battalions, and devising ways and means to appreciate the currency, on the credit of which every thing depends? I hope not, let vigorous measures be adopted, not to limit the price of articles, for this I conceive is inconsistent with the very nature of things, and impracticable in itself, but to punish speculators, forestallers, and extortioners, and above all, to sink the money by heavy Taxes. To promote public and private oeconomy, encourage manufactures etca. Measure of this sort gone heartily into by the several states, will strike at once at the root of all our misfortunes, and give the coup-de-grace to British hope of subjugating this great Continent, either by their Arms or their Arts. The first as I have before observed they acknowledge is unequal to the task, the latter I am sure will be so if we are not lost to every thing that is good and virtuous.

A little time now, must unfold in some degree, the Enemy's designs. Whether the state of affairs in Europe will permit them to augment their Army with more than recruits for the Regiments now in America, and therewith attempt an active and vigorous campain, or whether with their Canadian and Florida force they will aid and abet the Indians in ravaging on our Western Frontier, while their shipping with detachments harrass (and if they mean. to prosecute the predatory War threatned by Administration through their Commissioners) burn and destroy our Seacoast, or whether contrary to expectation they are more disposed to negotiate than to either, is more than I can determine. The latter will depend very much on their apprehensions of Spain, and

their own foreign alliances. At present we seem to be in a Chaos but this cannot last long, as I presume the ultimate determination of the British Court will be developed at the meeting of Parliament after the hollidays.

Mrs. Washington joins me in a tender of cordial wishes and best respects to Mrs. Warren. she would have done herself the pleasure of writing but the present conveyance by Cap. Gilman to Boston was sudden. I am, with sincere esteem and regard Dr. Sir. Yr. Most Obedt. Ser.

Go. WASHINGTON

SAMUEL ADAMS TO JAMES WArren

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MY DEAR SIR, Mr. Hodgdon forwarded to me your Letter of April. I thank you for the Concern you express for my Health. It is a Blessing which I have less enjoyd the Winter past than in any equal Part of my Life. I hope by the Blessing of God to recover it when I may have the Pleasure of living in my own Country.

We have had on the Carpet Questions relating to our Ministers abroad - Whether they should be recalled. It was agreed that the Question be put severally with Respect to Each. A Majority of Voices were against the Recall of Doctor Franklin, though some Gentlemen spoke warmly against him.1 That, for the Recall of Dr. Lee, met with an equal Division, and so it was lost.2 I will only remark to you that after long Debates, in which as great Freedoms, I suppose, were used as could be consistently with Decency and Truth, his Abilities, his Integrity and warm Attachment to America remain unimpeachable. It is unfortunate when Attempts are made to remove a Servant of the Publick, whose Fidelity shines the brighter, the more his Conduct is sifted, but so it will happen when others wish to supplant him. I do not say this is the Case at present. I hope there is no Motive more unworthy; but I will not answer for all among the Thousands in America, who may conceive themselves fit for important Trusts, 2 Ib., xiv. 542.

I Journals of the Continental Congress, XIII. 500.

and some of them may shortly offer themselves with a View of serving such Purposes as may not be agreable to others. I suspect from a Letter which I have heard publickly read that our Friend J. A[dams] is or will be as obnoxious to a Party as Dr. F[ranklin] and Dr. Lee, and for the same Reason. But I will tell you all when I see you. Pray inform Mr. Story that his Petition is referrd to the Treasury and that I expect it will have a favorable Issue. Be so good as to let Mrs. A. know that I am well, but have not Time to write to her now. Adieu my Friend. Yr. affectionate

May 11th, '79.

S. A

JAMES WARREN TO MERCY WARREN

BOSTON, June 6th, 1779

MY DEAR MERCY, I have read one Excellent Sermon this day and heard two others. What next can I do better than write to a Saint. What if she has Trembling Nerves and a palpitating Heart. She has good Sense she has Exalted Virtue and refined Piety. She is amiable even in that Weakness which is the Consequence of the Exquisite delicacy and softness of her Sex. She would be so to me if she had more of that rough fortitude which the Times and the Circumstances pictured in her Letter of the 2d Instant read yesterday may seem to you to require. All Nature is a Mystery. Why then should I Attempt to Explore the reasons and to say how it is that a Mind, possessed of a Masculine Genius well stocked with Learning, fortified by Phylosophy and Religion, should be so easily Impressed by the adverse Circumstances or Inconveniences of this World; but this will happen whether we can account for it or Not. a brilliant and Busy Imagination often if not always Accompanys great qualities. It Commands Admiration but is often Mischievous and when yours is not directed to the bright side of things, I often wish it as Sluggish as my own, but I long to Banter and Laugh you out of your whimsical Gloom. What! want Fortitude because I have Faith, curious indeed; be un

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