Chapter 45
Your,
________________________________________________________________ 1Cf page 127.
2Cf. John Hanc.o.c.k to Committee of Safety, April 24, 1775. A. E.
Brown, Hanc.o.c.k, His Book, p. 196.
TO MRS. ADAMS.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
PHILADELPHIA June 16 1775
MY DEAR
I have so often wrote to you, without having a single Line in Answer to one of my Letters, that I have doubted whether you have receivd any of them. Had I not heard that you dined with some of my Friends at Cambridge about a fortnight ago I should have suspected that you had changed your Place of Abode at Dedham and that therefore my Letters had not reached you, or I should have been very anxious lest by some bodily Indisposition you were renderd unable to write to me. It is painful to me to be absent from you. As your Letters would in some Measure afford me Reliefe, I beg you would omit no Opportunity of writing. Your Backwardness leads me to apprehend there has something happend which would be disagreable to me to hear. If any ill Accident has befallen my Son or any other person dear to me, I would chuse to hear it. Our Boston Friends are some of them confined in a Garrison, others dispersd I know not where. Pray, my dear, let me know as much about them as you can. I make no Doubt but it will be a pleasure to you to hear that I am in good Health and Spirits. I wish I could consistently inform you what is doing here. I can however tell you that Matters go on, though slower than one could wish, yet agreable to my Mind. My Love to all Friends. I earnestly recommend you and them to the Protection and Blessing of Heaven. The Bearer is waiting for this Letter, I must therefore conclude with a.s.suring you that I am with the greatest Sincerity, my dear Betsy,
Your affectionate husband and Friend
June 17
We have had Occasion to detain the Bearer which gives me the Pleasure of acknowledging your very acceptable and obliging Letter of the 6th Instant. I am rejoycd to hear that you are recoverd from a late Indisposition of Body. I pray G.o.d to confirm your Health. I wonder that you have receivd but one Letter from me since I left Worcester. I wrote to you at Hartford and New York and I do not know how often since I came into this City.
It is a great Satisfaction to me to be a.s.sured from you that your Mother & Family are out of Boston, and also my boy Job. I commend him for his Contrivance in getting out. Tell him from me to be a good Boy. I wish to hear that my Son and honest Surry were releasd from their Confinement in that Town. I am much pleasd my dear with the good Sense and publick Spirit you discoverd in your Answer to Majr Kains Message--your Concern for my comfortable Subsistence here is very kind and obliging to me--when I am in Want of Money I will write to you.
Your,
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
[J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, vol. i., pp. 90, 91.]
PHILADELPHIA, June 22, 1775.
MY DEAR SIR,
Our patriotic general Was.h.i.+ngton will deliver this letter to you.
The Ma.s.sachusetts delegates have jointly given to him a list of the names of certain gentlemen, in whom he may place the greatest confidence. Among these you are one. Major-general Lee and
Your affectionate friend,
TO JAMES WARREN.
[MS., Collection of John Boyd Thacher, Esq.]
PHILD, June 22, 1775.
MY DEAR SIR,
Our patriotic General Was.h.i.+ngton will deliver this Letter to you.
The Ma.s.sachusetts Delegates have jointly given to him a List of the Names of certain Gentlemen, in whom he may place the greatest Confidence. Among these you are one. We have a.s.surd him that he may rely upon such others as you may recommend to him. Excuse my writing to you so short a letter and believe me to be
Your affectionate friend,
Major General Lee and Major Mifflin accompany the General. A Triumvirate you will be pleased With. Cannot our friend Joseph Greenleaf be employd to his own & his Countrys Benefit?
TO MRS. ADAMS.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
PHILADA, June 28 1775
MY DEAR BETSY,
Yesterday I receivd Letters from some of our Friends at the Camp informing me of the Engagement between the American Troops and the Rebel Army, in Charlestown. I cannot but be greatly rejoycd at the tryed Valor of our Countrymen, who by all Accounts behavd with an Intrepidity becoming those who fought for their Liberties against the mercenary Soldiers of a Tyrant. It is painful to me to reflect upon the Terror I must suppose you were under on hearing the Noise of War so near you. Favor me, my dear, with an Account of your Apprehensions at that time, under your own hand.
I pray G.o.d to cover the heads of our Countrymen in every day of Battle, and ever to protect you from Injury in these distracted Times. The Death of our truly amiable and worthy Friend Dr Warren is greatly afflicting. The Language of Friends.h.i.+p is, how shall we resign him! But it is our Duty to submit to the Dispensations of Heaven, "Whose Ways are ever gracious, ever just." He fell in the glorious Struggle for the publick Liberty.
Mr Pitts and Dr Church inform me that my dear Son has at length escapd from the Prison of Boston. I have inclosd a Letter to him, which I desire you would seal and deliver to him, or send it to him if he is not with you. Remember me to my dear Hannah and Sister Polly and to all Friends. Let me know where good old Surry is.
Gage has made me respectable by naming me first among those who are to receive no favor from him. I thoroughly despise him and his Proclamation. It is the Subject of Ridicule here, as you may see by the inclosd which I have taken from this days paper. I am in good health and Spirits. Pray my dear let me have your Letters more frequently--by every opportunity. The Clock is now striking twelve. I therefore wish you a good Night.
Yours most affectionately,
TO MRS. ADAMS.1
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
PHILADELPHIA July 30 1775
MY DEAR BETSY
As I have no doubt but the Congress will adjourn in a few days, perhaps tomorrow, I do not expect to have another opportunity of writing to you before I set off for New England. The arduous Business that has been before the Congress and the close Application of the Members, added to the Necessity and Importance of their visiting their several Colonies & attending their respective Conventions, have inducd them to make a Recess during the sultry Month of August. My Stay with you must be short, for I suppose the Congress will meet again early in September. I have long ago learnd to deny my self many of the sweetest Gratifications in Life for the Sake of my Country. This I may venture to say to you, though it might be thought Vanity in me to say it to others. I hear that my Const.i.tuents have given me the Choice of a Seat in either House of our new a.s.sembly--that is, that Boston have chosen me again one of their Members, and the House have chosen me one of the Council--you know better than I do, whether there be a foundation for the Report. My Const.i.tuents do as they please, and so they ought. I never intrigud for their Suffrages,and I never will. I am intimately conscious that I have servd them as well as I could, and I believe they think so themselves. I heartily wish I could serve them better--but the Testimony of my own Conscience and their Approbation, makes me feel my self superior to the Threats of a Tyrant, either at St Jamess or in the Garrison of Boston.
I have receivd a Letter from my Friend Mr Dexter dated the 18 Instant. Present my due Regards to him. He informd me that you had been at his house a few Evenings before and was well, and that you deliverd a Letter to a young Gentleman present, to carry to Cambridge for Conveyance to me. I am greatly mortified in not having receivd it by the Express that brought me his Letter.
Mr Adams2 of Roxbury also wrote me that he had often met with you and was surprised at your Steadiness & Calmness under Tryal. I am always pleasd to hear you well spoken of, because I know it is doing you Justice.
I pray G.o.d that at my Return I may find you and the rest of my dear Friends in good health. The Treatment which those who are still in Boston meet with fills me with Grief and Indignation.
What Punishment is due to General Gage for his Perfidy!
Pay my proper Respects to your Mother & Family, Mr & Mrs Henshaw, my Son & Daughter, Sister Polly &c. Tell Job and Surry that I do not forget them. I conclude, my dear, with the warmest Affection