1John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 July 1775 (Adams Papers)
I have received your very agreable Favours of June 22d. and 25th. They contain more particulars than any Letters I had before received from any Body. It is not at all surprizing to me that the wanton, cruel, and infamous Conflagration of Charlestown, the Place of your Fathers Nativity, should afflict him. Let him know that I sincerely condole with him, on that melancholly Event. It is a Method...
2To John Adams from Jonathan Williams Austin, 7 July 1775 (Adams Papers)
I received yours of the 20th June, and am very much obliged to you, for your Kindness in mentioning my Name to General Washington. I have since waited on his Excellency and find him answer the high Character we conceived of him. General Lee has treated me with great politeness. We are very much pleased with the continental Congress having adopted and organized the Army. There never was greater...
3To John Adams from James Warren, 7 July 1775 (Adams Papers)
I am much Obliged to you for your favours by the Sage, Brave, and Amiable General Washington, by Major Mifflin, and by the Express, which came to hand the Night before last. I am much pleased with General Washington. He fully Answers the Character you have given of him. Major Mifflin I have not yet found out, tho’ I am told he was once in the Room while I was at the Generals. I shall take...
4From Benjamin Franklin to [Joseph Priestley], 7 July 1775: extract (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in Benjamin Vaughan, ed., Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces . . . Written by Benj. Franklin . . . (London, 1779), pp. 552–4. The Congress met at a time when all minds were so exasperated by the perfidy of General Gage, and his attack on the country people, that propositions of attempting an accommodation were not much relished; and it has been with difficulty...
5From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Shipley, 7 July 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library I received with great Pleasure my dear Friends very kind Letter of April 19, as it informed me of his Welfare, and that of the amiable Family in Jermyn Street. I am much obliged by the Information of what pass’d in Parliament after my departure; in return I will endeavor to give you a short Sketch of the State of Affairs here. I found at my arrival all America...
6General Orders, 7 July 1775 (Washington Papers)
It is with inexpressible Concern that the General upon his first Arrival in the army, should find an Officer sentenced by a General Court Martial to be cashier’d for Cowardice—A Crime of all others, the most infamous in a Soldier, the most injurious to an Army, and the last to be forgiven; inasmuch as it may, and often does happen, that the Cowardice of a single Officer may prove the...