31From John Adams to Samuel Adams, 28 July 1778 (Adams Papers)
The Sovereign of Britain and his Council have determined to instruct their Commissioners to offer you Independance, provided you will disconnect yourselves from France. The Question arises how came the King and Council, by Authority to offer this? It is certain that they have it not. In the next Place, is the Treaty of Alliance between Us and France, now binding Upon Us? I think there is not...
32From John Adams to Samuel Adams, 21 May 1778 (Adams Papers)
Passy, 21 May 1778. printed : JA, Diary and Autobiography Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. , 4:106–108 . Adams commented on, among other things, the probability of a European war, the movements of the French and British fleets, and the possibility of wider European support for the Revolution. He then discussed the large amounts...
33From Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Adams, 2 March 1778 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New York Public Library By this Conveyance the Treaties we have concluded here go over to Congress. I flatter myself they will meet with Approbation. If there should be any Particulars which the Congress would wish to be chang’d or added, there is at present an exceeding good Disposition in this Court to oblige; and no Proposition tolerably reasonable will meet with Difficulty. But the...
34From John Adams to Samuel Adams, 18 August 1776 (Adams Papers)
I had the Pleasure of a line from you, at Princetown, and Yesterdays Post brought me another from New York. I thank you for this Attention, and for the encouraging Account you give of the State of our Affairs at New York and Ti. The last is agreable to the Official Letters We have from General Gates who has at last Sent Us a general Return of the Army and Navy upon a more distinct, accurate...
35Elbridge Gerry to Samuel and John Adams, 3 August 1776 (Adams Papers)
Since I wrote You from New York, I have spent most of my Time in endeavouring to get Information of the true State of Things in the eastern Colonies. With Respect to the Levies for New York and the northern Department they are nearly compleated. I have wrote to the president giving an Account of them and proposing an order of Congress for reinforcing the Army at New York with one of the...
36Elbridge Gerry to Samuel and John Adams, 21 – 22 July 1776 (Adams Papers)
I have been fully employed since Thursday Noon in obtaining some Knowledge of the State of the Army and conferring with the different Corps of Officers from the General to the Field officers, and have the pleasure to inform You that they appear to be in high Spirits for Action and agree in Sentiments that the Men’s as firm and determined as they wish them to be, having in View since the...
37The General Court to the Massachusetts Delegates, 6 June 1776 (Adams Papers)
At the same time that we think Ourselves obliged to acknowledge the vigilance and care of our Delegates to the defence of our Colony, and the attention of the Congress to an impartial defence of every part of the united Colonies, in the late provision made for the Massachusetts Bay, their Resolve for adding three more Battalions to those left for the defence of it; we conceive it necessary to...
38The General Court to the Massachusetts Delegates, 9 – 10 May 1776 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed you have an Account of Powder supplyed the Army lately before Boston, by this Colony. We have not been able to procure the proper Vouchers for the delivery of the whole of it to the Army, but as it was delivered on the day of the Battle at Bunker Hill and at other times of Alarm and Confusion, we trust that neglect will be excused. The Account is not supposed to contain the whole of...
39From George Washington to Samuel Adams, 22 March 1776 (Washington Papers)
Amidst a multiplicity of Business smaller matters are apt to be overlook’d—this I conceive to be the case with respect to the proposition of a Colo. Baillie, for opening a Road from Connecticut River to Montreal, and which I laid before Congress for their direction some Months ago—The matter again occurs upon a Second application, from Mr Weatherspoon (the bearer, at, as I understand, the...
40Enclosure: Resolution Appointing Massachusetts Delegates to the Continental Congress, 18 January 1776 (Adams Papers)
Whereas John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, and Elbridge Gerry Esqrs. have been chosen by joint Ballot of the two houses of Assembly to represent the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in New England in the American Congress untill the first day of January A.D. 1777— Resolved that they or any one or more of them are hereby fully impowered, with the delegates from the other...
41The General Court to the Massachusetts Delegates, 5 December 1775 (Adams Papers)
We are informed by his Excellency General Washington, that it is his opinion, the paying our Troops, by the Lunar Month, will throw the rest of the Army into disorder, as the Continental Congress have resolved, that it is the Kalender Month they mean to pay by; and that the difference between the two, must be consider’d as a Colonial, and not a Continental Charge. We are sensible, it is...
42Credentials of the Massachusetts Delegates to the Continental Congress, 11 November 1775 (Adams Papers)
Watertown, 11 November 1775. (Misc. Papers of the Continental Congress, Reel No. 8). Although the credentials as passed by the house bear the date 10 November, the Journal of the House of Representatives Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts [1715- ], Boston, reprinted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1919- . (For the years for which reprints are not yet available,...
43The Speaker of the House of Representatives to the Massachusetts delegates, 25 July 1775 (Adams Papers)
Watertown, 25 July 1775. FC ( M-Ar : Mass. House of Representatives Records, 57:263). As speaker, James Warren notified JA and the other members of the delegation of their election to the Council and expressed the wish that they would take their seats on the Council as soon as their duties in the congress permitted. Their election to the Council had taken place on 21 July. JA took his seat on...
44Elbridge Gerry to the Massachusetts Delegates, 20 June 1775 (Adams Papers)
I Received the Letters, with which you were pleased to favor me per Mr. Fessenden on Saturday last being the 18th Instant, at a Critical Time for the Army posted at Cambridge. The Evening preceeding Orders were Issued in Consequence of a Consultation between the General Officers and Committee of Safety to take possession of Dorchester Hill and Bunkers hill in Charlestown which I must confess...
Virginia, 16 December 1774. LbC ( MHi :Donations to Sufferers by the Boston Port Bill, p. 66); addressed: “To Sam & Jno. Adams Esqrs at Boston”; signed: “John Tabb, of Amelia Ro Bolling, Jno. Bannister Dinwiddie.” This letter was addressed to the two Adamses because the writers knew of no particular committee to which the donation could be sent. The donation was described as “a small...
46Arthur Lee to Samuel Adams, 10 June 1771: extract (Franklin Papers)
Extract: reprinted from Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee ... (2 vols., Boston, 1829), I , 216–18. When Franklin was elected agent for the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the autumn of 1770, it was over the opposition of a faction led by James Otis and Samuel Adams. Their candidate was Arthur Lee, and they succeeded in having him named as alternate, to serve if Franklin were...
47Draft Instructions of Boston to its Representatives in the General Court, 8 May 1769 (Adams Papers)
You have, once more received, the highest Testimony of the Confidence and Affection of your Constituents, which the Constitution has impowered them to exhibit; the Trust of representing them in the great and general Court or Assembly of this Province. This important Trust is committed to you, at a time when your Country demands the Exertion of all your Wisdom Fortitude and Virtue; and...
After the repeal of the late American Stamp Act, we were happy in the pleasing prospect of a restoration of that tranquility and unanimity among ourselves, and that harmony and affection between our parent country and us, which had generally subsisted before that detestable Act. But with the utmost grief and concern, we find that we flatter’d ourselves too soon, and that the root of bitterness...