Adams Papers
Documents filtered by: Period="Revolutionary War"
sorted by: editorial placement
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0005-0003-0009

1775. Septr. 21. Thursday.
[from the Diary of John Adams]

1775. Septr. 21. Thursday.

The famous Partisan Major Rogers came to our Lodgings to make Us a Visit.1 He has been in Prison—discharged by some insolvent or bankrupt Act. He thinks We shall have hot Work, next Spring. He told me an old half Pay Officer, such as himself, would sell well next Spring. And when he went away, he said to S.A. and me, if you want me, next Spring for any Service, you know where I am, send for me. I am to be sold.—He says the Scotch Men at home, say d——n that Adams and Cushing. We must have their Heads, &c. Bernard used to d——n that Adams—every dip of his Pen stung like an horned Snake, &c. Paxton made his Will in favour of Ld. Townsend, and by that Maneuvre got himself made a Commissioner. There was a great deal of Beauty in that Stroke of Policy. We must laugh at such sublime Strokes of Politicks, &c. &c. &c.

In the Evening Mr. Jona. Dickinson Sergeant of Prince Town, made a Visit to the Sec.2 and me. He says he is no Idolater of his Name Sake. That he was disappointed when he first saw him. Fame had given him an exalted Idea: but he came to N. Jersey upon a particular Cause, and made such a flimsy, effeminate, Piece of Work of it, that he sunk at once in his Opinion.

Serjeant is sorry to find a falling off in this City—not a third of the Battalion Men muster, who mustered at first.

D. he says sinks here in the public opinion. That many Gentlemen chime in with a spirited Publication in the Paper of Wednesday, which blames the conduct of several Gentlemen of Fortune, D., Cad., R., and J. Allen &c.3

1On the advent and intentions of Rogers in Philadelphia, see references in Burnett, ed., Letters of Members description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, Washington, 1921–1936; 8 vols. description ends , 1:201, note, and the notice of Rogers in DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; 20 vols. plus index and supplements. description ends .

2Samuel Adams had been elected secretary of state by the new Massachusetts government in August (Wells, Samuel Adams description begins William V. Wells, The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, Boston, 1865; 3 vols. description ends , 2:321).

3Probably John Dickinson,  Cadwalader, Samuel Rhoads, and James Allen. The “Publication in the Paper of Wednesday” appeared in the Pennsylvania Journal, 20 Sept., and was a long unsigned account and defense of a demonstration, 6 Sept., by a group of “Associators” who wished to punish a tory lawyer, Isaac Hunt, and a violently tory physician, the younger John Kearsley. Certain “men of fortune” interfered with these proceedings, and, according to Christopher Marshall, Mayor Samuel Rhoads ordered out troops to disperse the crowd (Extracts from the Diary of Christopher Marshall, ... 1774–1781, ed. William Duane, Albany, 1877, p. 41–42).

Index Entries