Adams Papers
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To John Adams from James Warren, 27 April 1777

From James Warren

Boston April 27th. 1777

My dear Sir

Since I wrote you by the post on last Thursday,1 Nothing very material has taken place here. Two Frigates have for some time been Infecting our Coasts. A species of Insult that has ever Gauled me, and more especially since we had Ships sufficient either to take or drive them off, lying in our harbours for months sufficient to build and Equip A large fleet. The Ships now on the Coast have taken several Vessels mostly small ones. One of them they gave their prisoners and sent them on Shore with A Message and Challenge to Manly, and McNeil and all the Armed Vessels in this harbour, this has roused the Indignation of the Officers and Tarrs, United their wishes with Ours, and given us An Opportunity which many of us thought should not be Neglected. We accordingly Appointed A Committee to Confer with your Captain and Agents, and to treat and Contract with the owners and Commanders of private Vessels, to go to Sea and meet the Challengers.2 We have by lending Money to Manly and Mcneil satisfied them. We have contracted for 2 or 3, 20 Gun Ships and 6 or 7 smaller ones to be ready to sail on the first day of May and to Continue with, and be under the Command of Manly for 25 days, we Insureing the Owners against loss and damages, giveing the Men A Months pay, and puting them on your Establishment in Case they loose Life or Limbs. With these a Number of Others will go, and Agree to Continue under the Commodores Command for the same time for the sake of geting out.3 If we don’t meet the Ships we shall get the Continental Ships, and the privateers to Sea, instead of detaining them here by an Embargo against all good policy. It will be therefore A great point gained. I hope Congress will Approve the measure, and refund the Expences.

I have been several times, in Company with the Colonel4 who came into Portsmouth in the Ship lately Arrived there, and am much pleased with him. He is sensible and polite, has A fine Appearance, and every Air and manner of A Soldier. He is An Irishman brought up in France from his Youth, and Talks pretty good English. He is Modest but if I have any Skill in Physiognomy will fight. He says he is determine to deserve any thing you give him, will not serve under the Baron de Bore5 who Arrived in the first Ship, had rather be A Drummer under An American Officer.

I hope the Court will rise this week and give me A little respite, and time to Study Tull6 but after all our Study, I don’t know but Mrs. Adams Native Genius will Excel us all in Husbandry. She was much Engaged when I came along, and the Farm at Braintree Appeared to be Under Excellent Management. I tryed to persuade her to make A Visit to her Friend Mrs. Warren but she can’t leave Home this Busy Season.

I could wish the Agents you may send here to purchase Cloathing or other necessaries for the Army may be Instructed not to violate our Laws, Assume too great A Superiority, or Interfere with our Board of War, who are really Agents for you without Commissions or pay, and do Business for you in the best manner. This wish is suggested to me by An Altercation now subsisting between some of them and the Board, who shall purchase the Cargo of the Frenchman lately Arrived here. Tho the Board of War had Engaged what they chose to take and have Offered the Agents every Article they may want, such things may give the French an Ill Opinion of us. My regards to all Friends, I am as Usual Yours &c.

I thank you for your two letters of the 6th. of April which came safe to hand. I am glad to hear you have it in Contemplation to put your Naval Affairs on A better footing. I have not the least difficulty in supposeing that they would have made A very different figure in Other hands. The selfishness and Incapacity you mention are well placed, and have Injured them much.

Livingston and Turnbul7 two Young Gentlemen are Employed here by your secret Committee to purchase Cloathing &c. They Inform me they are going to return soon, and Expect there will be a new Appointment in their room. Would it not be better to Appoint some person here. Mr. Otis8 on the Committee of Cloathing, last fall procured and sent forward great quantities of Cloathing for the Army. If Agreable to you I could wish you would mention him to that Committee. He has by his Conduct on that Committee and the services he did the Army deserved the Appointment.

I Intended this for A short Letter but I always fill the paper when I write to you. I want to see some Resentment shewn to the Portuguees. It wont perhaps do to declare War against them or to make Captures of their Ships for they do only what they cant help, but An Interdiction of Commerce with them made in the stile of the high and Mighty states of America might as Carmichal9 hints have An happy Effect.

RC (Adams Papers); docketed: “Warren April 27. 1777.”

1. Warren’s letter was dated 23 April, a Wednesday.

2. The committee, appointed 25 April, included Warren, Tristram Dalton, William Cooper, and Capt. Jonathan Gardner from the House, and Thomas Cushing, Moses Gill, and Benjamin Austin from the Council (Mass., Province Laws description begins The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1869–1922; 21 vols. description ends , 19:908).

3. See resolves passed 26 April (same, 19:912–914).

4. Thomas Conway, a thirty-year veteran in the forces of France, was appointed a brigadier general by the congress on 13 May. He had been recommended by Silas Deane (JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 7:349; Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols. description ends , 2:202). Conway is associated with the misnamed Conway Cabal of a later period.

5. Chevalier de Prudhomme de Borré, who arrived in the Mercury and whom the congress appointed a brigadier general on 11 April, his rank to be effective from 1 Dec. 1776. Like many others, he was recommended by Silas Deane (Pennsylvania Gazette, 9 April; JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 7:256).

6. Jethro Tull, English agricultural reformer and author of The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry: or an Essay on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation, London, 1731 (DNB description begins Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1900; 63 vols. plus supplements. description ends ).

7. Abraham Livingston and William Turnbull were appointed at the end of 1776 (JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 7:220).

8. Samuel Allyne Otis, brother of James and of Mercy Otis Warren, was a member of the House of Representatives. He was named Massachusetts agent of the clothier general, James Mease, in Sept. 1777 (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates description begins John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873-. description ends , 14:471–480).

9. William Carmichael, secretary to Silas Deane, wrote on his own from Amsterdam to the Committee of Secret Correspondence on 2 Nov. 1776 (Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols. description ends , 2:184–190). How Warren learned of Carmichael’s remarks about Portugal or whether he had access to the entire letter is not known to the editors. JA’s letter to AA which quoted and paraphrased some of Carmichael’s letter without mentioning his name did not include the passage on Portugal (to AA, 3 April, Adams Family Correspondence description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963-. description ends , 2:197–199).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    To John Adams from James Warren, 27 April 1777
    Author
    Warren, James
    Recipient
    Adams, John
    Date
    27 April 1777

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To John Adams from James Warren, 27 April 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-05-02-0097. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 5, August 1776 – March 1778, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006, pp. 164–167.]

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