The Writings of Samuel Adams Volume III Part 34

It is therefore our earnest Request that you would afford Coll Stuart every possible advice & a.s.sistance in the Prosecution of this Business, and furnish him with such Money as he may have need of for the purpose in which Case your Draft on the President of the Congress will be duly honord.

We are with the most cordial Esteem Sir your most obedient & very humble Servants

TO WALTER STEWART.

[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; a portion is printed in W. V. Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, vol. ii., pp. 450, 451.]

BALTIMORE Decr 30 1776

SIR

We are a Committee of Congress1 authorizd and directed to appoint some suitable Person to apply to Mr Livingston Owner of a Furnace in the State of New York, and to Governor Trumbull who has the Direction of the Furnace in the State of Connecticutt also to the Council of the State of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, to procure such Cannon and Ordnance Stores, as General Schuyler has represented to be immediately necessary for the use of the Army in the Northern Department.

We know of no one in whom we can more chearfully confide, for the Performance of this important Business than your self; and therefore we request you to undertake it, as Major General Gates has a.s.sured us, that it is not inconsistent with the General Service, or the Duty of that Station which you hold under his immediate Command.

You have herewith a List of the Ordnance and Ordnance Stores that are wanted; and you will be pleasd to make your first Application to Mr Livingston for such of the Cannon and Stores as he can furnish. You will then apply to Governor Trumbull, to be furnishd by him with the Remainder, to be sent to General Schuyler as early as possible this Winter.

For the Ordnance Stores we depend chiefly upon the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay; and desire you to make Application to the Council of that State; although we would by no means restrain you in Endeavors to procure them in New York Connecticutt or elsewhere.

We doubt not but you will provide these Necessaries with all possible Dispatch, and at reasonable Rates; and we desire you to give Notice to General Schuyler and to us of the Success you may meet with in your several Applications.

We would inform you that Congress has contracted for Cannon to be cast in this State at the Rate of Thirty Six pounds ten s.h.i.+llings p Ton. And the highest price that has been given in Pennsylvania is Forty Pounds. We desire and expect you will purchase them at the lowest Rate you can. The Proof of the Cannon must be according to the Woolwich Practice.

_________________________________________________________________ 1The members of the committee were Adams, Lee, Harrison, Whipple and Hayward.

TO JAMES WARREN.

[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

BALTIMORE Decr 31. 1776

MY DEAR SIR/

I am determind to omit no Opportunity of writing to you, although I of late very seldom receive a Favor from you. Your second Letter I receivd a few days ago inclosing Copies of Papers from Spain. I am much obligd to you for them. Our Affairs in Europe look well, and additional Measures are taking here to establish them in that Part of the World on a solid Foundation. I a.s.sure you Business has been done since we came to this Place more to my Safisfaction than any or every thing done before, excepting the Declaration of Independence which should have been made immediately after the 19th of April 75. OUR MINISTERS ABROAD are directed to a.s.sure FOREIGN COURTS that notwithstanding the artful & insidious Representations of the Emissaries of the British Court to the Contrary, the Congress and People of America are determind to maintain their Independence at all Events. This was done before the late Success in the Jerseys, of which you will have doubtless had Intelligence before this Letter reaches you. I now think that Britain will soon make a most contemptible Figure in America & Europe--but we must still make our utmost Exertions.

Pray let the Levies required of our State be raisd with all possible Expedition. By this Conveyance you will have a Resolution giving large Powers to General Was.h.i.+ngton for a limited Season. It became in my opinion necessary. The Hint I gave you some time ago, I still think very important. General Gates arrivd here yesterday. I have conversd with him upon it. He told me he had conceivd the Idea before and wishes the Measure may [be] tryed. It requires Secrecy and Dispatch. Lt Coll Steward will set off tomorrow with Directions to proceed as far as Boston to purchase Ordnance & other Stores if they cannot be procurd elsewhere. He is General Gates Aid de Camp & is very clev[er.] I wish you would take Notice of him.

But I am now called off. Adieu my Friend,

Regina Azucena [email protected]

TO ARTHUR LEE.

[R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 225, 226; a draft is in the Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

BALTIMORE IN MARYLAND, Jan., 2d, 1777.

MY DEAR SIR,--It has been altogether from a regard to your safety that I have restrained myself from continuing on my part that correspondence which you was obliging enough to indulge for several years. I know very well that your avowal of and warm attachment to the cause of justice and truth, have rendered you exceedingly obnoxious to the malice of the British king and his ministers; and that a letter written by a zealous a.s.serter of that cause addressed to you while you was in their power, would have brought upon you the resentment of that most cruel and vindictive court. But I cannot omit this opportunity of writing to you after so long a silence, to a.s.sure you that I am most heartily engaged according to my small ability, in supporting the rights of America and of mankind.

In my last letter to you near two years ago, I ventured to give you my opinion that if the British troops then in Boston, should attempt to march out in an hostile manner, it would most surely effect a total and perpetual separation of the two countries.

This they did in a very short time; and the great event has since taken place, sooner indeed than I expected it would, though not so soon, in my opinion, as in justice it might, and in sound policy, it ought. But there is a timidity in our nature which prevents our taking a decisive part in the critical time, and very few have fort.i.tude enough to tell a tyrant they are determined to be free. Our delay has been dangerous to us, yet it has been attended with great advantage. It has afforded to the world a proof, that oppressed and insulted as we were, we are very willing to give Britain an opportunity of seeing herself, and of correcting her own errors. We are now struggling in the sharp conflict; confiding that righteous heaven will not look with an indifferent eye upon a cause so manifestly just, and so interesting to mankind.

You are now called to act in a still more enlarged sphere. Go on, my friend, to exert yourself in the cause of liberty and virtue.

You have already the applause of virtuous men, and may be a.s.sured of the smiles of heaven.

Your brother, Mr. R. H. Lee, will give you a particular account of our affairs in America; nothing therefore remains for me to add, but that I am your very affectionate friend,

TO JAMES WARREN.

[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

BALTIMORE Jany 8th 1777

MY DEAR SIR

I have several times referrd you to a Hint which I gave you not long ago, and which I have not thought prudent to repeat lest by an Accident my Letters should be intercepted. I have still the same opinion of the Importance of the Affair, but having spent this Evening with General Gates and conversd with him upon that and other Matters, we have concluded upon a more sure Way of effecting it than the Way I proposd to you. I wish therefore if you have already communicated it to any one of our Friends, that you would injoyn them to close Secrecy, and that it may be even forgot till the Event of it shall be known to the World.

I am much pleasd to find that the New England Troops have so great a Share in the Honor of the late Action in the Jerseys.

General Gates speaks very highly of the Militia you sent him last Fall. He applauds greatly their Zeal for the Cause and particularly their Readiness to tarry in the Service after the Expiration of the Term of their Inlistments in November, and tells me he gave them an honorable Discharge. I have not the Pleasure of knowing General Bricket but he mentions him to me as a worthy & good officer.

We have further good Accounts from our Army which are credited although they are not yet authenticated. I verily believe that the Incursions of the Enemy into the Jerseys will be in the Event much to our Advantage, and that this Campaign will end gloriously on our side; I never will be sanguine in my Expectation for I know the Events of War are uncertain, but there seems to be an enterprizing Spirit in our Army which I have long wishd to see and without which we may not expect to do great Things. The same enterprizing Spirit also takes place here. We have done things which I would not have flatterd my self with the least hope of doing a Month ago. This Express will carry to the Council a Resolution which I presume will of course be communicated to you.

In my next I will give you a very particular & good reason why it is not communicated TO YOU in this Letter. We understand that by the Enemies Treatment of General Lee there appears to be a Design to consider him as a deserter & take away his Life.

Congress have directed General Was.h.i.+ngton to acquaint Howe that if this is his Intention five of the Hessian field officers now in our hands together with Lt Coll Campbell shall be detained & sacrificd as an Atonement for his Blood should the Matter be carried to that Extremity; and this Resolution will most undoubtedly in my opinion be executed in full tale.

Adieu,

TO JOHN ADAMS.

[John Adams, Works, vol. ix., pp. 448-450.]

BALTIMORE, 9 January, 1777.

I have every day for a month past been anxiously expecting the pleasure of seeing you here, but now begin to suspect you do not intend to give us your a.s.sistance in person. I shall therefore do all that lies in my power to engage your epistolary aid. You will by every opportunity receive my letters, and, I dare say, you will be so civil as to answer at least some of them.

I have given our friend Warren, in one of my letters to him, the best reason I could for the sudden removal of Congress to this place. Possibly he may have communicated it to you. I confess it was not agreeable to my mind; but I have since altered my opinion, because we have done more important business in three weeks than we had done, and I believe should have done, at Philadelphia, in six months. As you are a member of Congress, you have a right to know all that has been done; but I dare not commit it to paper at a time when the safe carriage of letters is become so precarious. One thing I am very solicitous to inform you, because I know it will give you great satisfaction. If you recollect our conversation at New Haven, I fancy you will understand me when I tell you, that to ONE PLACE we have added four, and increased the number of persons from THREE to six. I hate this dark, mysterious manner of writing, but necessity requires it.

You have heard of the captivity of General Lee. Congress have directed General Was.h.i.+ngton to offer six Hessian field-officers in exchange for him. It is suspected that the enemy choose to consider him as a deserter, bring him to trial in a court- martial, and take his life. a.s.surances are ordered to be given to General Howe, that five of those officers, together with Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, will be detained, and all of them receive the same measure that shall be meted to him. This resolution will most certainly be executed.