1From Benjamin Franklin to ———, 10 February 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Henry E. Huntington Library In Compliance with your Request I this Morning applied to a Virginia Merchant for Information, Whether the Courts of Virginia are now shut? and if so, from what Causes? particularly whether from any Resolutions of the People there to avoid Payment of their English Debts, as you told me had been insinuated by a Person in Administration. Inclos’d I send you the...
2[Benjamin Franklin?] to ——, 8 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 15, 1756. I arrived here last Night. We met a Number of Waggons on the Road, moving off with the Effects of the People of Lehi Township. All the Women and Children are sent off out of that Township; and many of them have taken Refuge here; all in great Confusion. The Substance of the Action at Gnadenhutten, as we have received it from...
3From Benjamin Franklin to ——, [1760?] (Franklin Papers)
Draft (fragment): Library of Congress This fragment in Franklin’s hand is written on what appears to be the top segment of a page of letter paper; a caret in the margin of the first line seems to indicate that it was intended, according to his usual method, as an insertion in the body of what he had drafted on the opposite page. Neither the addressee nor the date is known. The wording suggests...
4From Benjamin Franklin to ———, [13 December 1757] (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Library of Congress; also copy: Yale University Library; and French translation: The Rosenbach Foundation Both the date and the addressee of this letter have been subjects of much difference of opinion. Each of the three surviving manuscript versions bears a different date line. That on the draft, in Franklin’s hand, has been heavily scratched out, probably long after the letter was...
5Lewis Ourry to ———, 26 December 1756 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society By visiting the Quarters of the Men belonging to the first Battallion of the Royal American Regiment with the Mayor, Sheriff, and other Magistrates I found that — — 94 Men laid on Straw And that — — 73 had nothing to lay on and not Sufficient quantity of Covering, the Houses on which they are quarter’d not being capable of containing near the number...
6From Benjamin Franklin to ——, 25 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission We got to Hays’s the same Evening we left you and reviewed Craig’s Company by the Way. Much of the next morning was spent in exchanging the bad Arms for good, Wayne’s Company having joined us. We reachd however that night to Uplinger’s, where we got into good Quarters. Saturday morning we began to march towards Gnadenhutten and proceeded near...
7[Benjamin Franklin?] to ———, 26 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 29, 1756. Wednesday we were hinder’d almost all Day by Rain. Thursday most of the Stockades were set up. Friday all inclosed to the Gate, and Part of the Platform round the Inside made. Saturday the Platform was finished, and two Swivels mounted. Sunday had a Thanksgiving Sermon, hoisted the British Flag, fired three Vollies, and the...
8From Benjamin Franklin to ———, [February 1746?]. (Franklin Papers)
Draft (fragment): American Philosophical Society has been blown off that Coast. Our Governor thinks they contain the Commissions for the Officers, and Orders to draw for the Pay of the Troops &c. and therefore directs me to forward them per Express to N. York, that they may overtake the Post. In haste I am &c. [ On back ] { One Month at £45 per Ann. is 3. 15. 0 Hire of Horse 2 Trips at 25 s....
9From Benjamin Franklin to ——, 8 April 1760 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society I received your Favour of the 31st of last Month, the answering of which I delayed and [I] should be glad to accompany you from London, in your next Return to Derbyshire; but doubt it will not be in my Power. I am sorry I cannot be certain as to the time of my going into Derbyshire. For on the very day you purpose coming to Town, viz. the 18th of this...
10Thomas Lloyd to ———, 30 [31?] January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: American Philosophical Society I now sit down to give you an Account of Part of the Operations of our Campaign. It will hardly be more difficult for you to understand it than for me in our present Situation to transmit it to you. We marched on Wednesday Jan. 15 from Bethlehem for Gnadenhutten beyond the Mountains in Order to erect a Fort there with Seven Waggons and a Cart escorted by...
11[Benjamin Franklin?] to ——, 25 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 1, 1756. Governor Morris and the commissioners appointed in the £60,000 money act worked diligently to organize more effective measures against the continuing Indian attacks. By December 4 they had decided to rely chiefly upon a fort to be erected at Shamokin (at the forks of the Susquehanna; now Sunbury) from which ranging parties would be...
12[Benjamin Franklin?] to ——, 6 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 8, 1756. Jacob Levan, Esq; was sent by us to hear the Particulars of the Affair at Gnadenhutten, and fearing to go alone, sent Fifty-six Men over the Mountains on Saturday Evening, and on Sunday followed them with seventeen more. As soon as they got to the Top of the Hill, they saw all the white People running up, and the Indians running on...
13From Benjamin Franklin to ——, [11 April 1767] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from extract in The Pennsylvania Chronicle , June 1–8, 1767. We have been very busy about the Paper Money Affair. The Merchants are to wait on Lord Clare with their Opinion in Favour of it in a Day or two. After receiving Dr. F’s Remarks on the Report of the Board of Trade, they have drawn up a new Representation on the Subject, which they have signed, and Dr. F’s Paper...
14From Benjamin Franklin to ——, 3 April 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (draft): American Philosophical Society Yesterday we tapp’d the Porter, and found it excellent. To prevent its being wasted, we have bottled it off, having a safer Place for Bottles, and imagining that in our slow Draught it might not keep so fresh. So we are enabled Herewith to return the Cask. How bountiful a Gratuity for half a Sheet of Paper! I can only say, that ’tis pity you are not...
15[Benjamin Franklin?] to ——, 20 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 29, 1756. We have been here since Sunday Afternoon: That Day we had only Time to get up some Shelter from the Weather and the Enemy. Yesterday all Day it rained, with so thick a Fog, that we could not see round us, so as either to chuse a Place for a Fort, or find Materials to build it. In the Night it cleared up, and this Morning we...
16From Benjamin Franklin to ———, 28 November 1768 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in part in The Gentleman’s Magazine , XLIX (supplement, 1779), pp. 647–8; printed in full in William Temple Franklin, ed., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. (quarto edition, 3 vols., London, 1817–18), II , 169–70. I received your obliging favour of the 12th instant. Your sentiments of the importance of the present dispute between Great-Britain...
17From Benjamin Franklin to the Académie Royale des Sciences, 16 November 1772 (Franklin Papers)
Photograph of ALS : Académie des sciences, Paris A Place among your foreign Members is justly esteemed, by all Europe, the greatest Honour a Man can arrive at in the Republick of Letters: It was therefore with equal Surprize and Satisfaction that I learnt you had condescended to confer that Honour upon me. Be pleased to accept my grateful Acknowledgements, and believe me with the greatest...
18From George Washington to Robert Adam, 13 January 1774 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Robert Adam, c.13 Jan. 1774. On c.13 Jan. 1774 Adam wrote to GW : “I am favoured with yours.” GW’s missing letter of c.13 Jan. was in answer to a letter from Adam dated 12 January .
19From George Washington to Robert Adam, 22 November 1771 (Washington Papers)
In case of your going to England I should be obliged to you for using your Endeavours to purchase for me the Rights of Captns Robt Stobo & Jacob Vanbraam, to part of the 200,000 Acres of Land claimd by the Officers and Soldiers under Governor Dinwiddies Proclamation of the 19th of Feby 1754 which, by a late determination of the Governor and Council will be, if got at all, Nine thousd Acres to...
20William Tudor to Abigail Adams, 3 September 1774 (Adams Papers)
You may depend on my giving your Letter to Capt. Marston who sets out for Philadelphia on Monday. A safer Hand it could not go by. Pray let your Fears subside about Tumults—there have been none. There was an Assembly of 4000 Patriots at Cambridge yesterday—where the utmost Regularity was observ’d, and after finishing their Business they all repair’d to their homes in Quiet. They procur’d a...
21John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 September 1774 (Adams Papers)
I have written but once to you since I left you. This is to be imputed to a Variety of Causes, which I cannot explain for Want of Time. It would fill Volumes to give you an exact Idea of the whole Tour. My Time is to totally filled from the Moment I get out of Bed, untill I return to it. Visits, Ceremonies, Company, Business, News Papers, Pamphlets &c. &c. &c. The Congress will, to all present...
22Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Adams, 25 July 1773 (Adams Papers)
I shall pass over in silence the Complementary introduction to your Letter, not because these Expressions of Esteem are frequently words of Course without any other design but to Convey an Idea of politeness as the Characteristick of the person the most Lavish therein. But in you I Consider anything of the kind as the Natural result of a Friendly heart dispose’d to think well of all those who...
23John Adams to Abigail Smith, 17 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
Yours of April 15th. this moment received. I thank You for it—and for your offer of Milk, but We have Milk in vast Abundance, and every Thing else that we want except Company. You cant imagine how finely my Brother and I live. We have, as much Bread and as much new pure Milk, as much Pudding, and Rice, and indeed as much of every Thing of the farinaceous Kind as We please—and the Medicine We...
24John Adams to Abigail Smith, 26 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
Many have been the particular Reasons against my Writing for several days past, but one general Reason has prevailed with me more than any other Thing, and that was, an Absolute Fear to send a Paper from this House, so much infected as it is, to any Person lyable to take the Distemper but especially to you. I am infected myself, and every Room in the House, has infected People in it, so that...
25John Adams to Abigail Adams, 18 September 1774 (Adams Papers)
I received your very agreable Letter, by Mr. Marston, and have received two others, which gave me much Pleasure. I have wrote several Letters, but whether they have reached you I know not. There is so much Rascallity in the Management of Letters, now come in Fashion, that I am determined to write nothing of Consequence, not even to the Friend of my Bosom, but by Conveyances which I can be sure...
26John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 February 1774 (Adams Papers)
I was very glad to receive a Line from you, by Mr. French, tho the Account you give me of the Danger of my dear Mother gives me great Concern. I fear she will not long survive her beloved Aunt who was buryed Yesterday. Let me intreat you to be very carefull of your own Health which is very tender. Dont pretend to Watch. I had rather be at any Expence for Watchers than that you should attempt...
27John Adams to Abigail Smith, 4 May 1764 (Adams Papers)
Returned from a Ramble in Town which began at 10 in the Morning. Dined with my Friend S. Adams and Wm. Checkley, and visited &c.—so that this is the first Moment of my Knowledge of my Letters or the Dr. being in Town. Once I have ridden to Dorchester Meeting House in a Chaise with Myra, another Day, round the Town, and over the Neck in a Chaise with Myra, and Yesterday I rode on Horse back...
28Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Adams, 19 January 1774 (Adams Papers)
I sincerely Congratulate my much Esteemed friend on the Restoration of the invaluable Blessing of Health: without which (if I may so Express it) Life is but a painful Blank. May it be long: very long before she again knows an interuption. But by the stile and spirit of yours of the 5th December one would judge you was quite as much affected by the shocks of the political as the Natural...
29John Adams to Abigail Smith, 7 May 1764 (Adams Papers)
I promised you, Sometime agone, a Catalogue of your Faults, Imperfections, Defects, or whatever you please to call them. I feel at present, pretty much at Leisure, and in a very suitable Frame of Mind to perform my Promise. But I must caution you, before I proceed to recollect yourself, and instead of being vexed or fretted or thrown into a Passion, to resolve upon a Reformation—for this is my...
30John Adams to Abigail Adams, 20 September 1774 (Adams Papers)
I am very well yet:—write to me as often as you can, and send your Letters to the Office in Boston or to Mr. Cranches, whence they will be sent by the first Conveyance. I am anxious to know how you can live without Government. But the Experiment must be tryed. The Evils will not be found so dreadfull as you a ppreh end them. Frugality, my Dear, Frugality, OEconomy, Parcimony must be our...
31John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 October 1774 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for all your kind favours. I wish I could write to you, much oftener than I do. I wish I could write to you, a Dozen Letters every day. But the Business before me, is so arduous and takes up my Time so entirely, that I cannot write often. I had the Characters and Tempers, the Principles and Views of fifty Gentlemen total Strangers to me to study, and the Trade, Policy, and whole...
32John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 May 1774 (Adams Papers)
I am extreamly afflicted with the Relation your Father gave me, of the Return of your Disorder. I fear you have taken some Cold; We have had a most pernicious Air, a great Part of this Spring. I am sure I have Reason to remember it—my Cold is the most obstinate and threatning one, I ever had in my Life: However, I am unwearied in my Endeavours to subdue it, and have the Pleasure to think I...
33John Adams to Abigail Smith, 4 October 1762 (Adams Papers)
By the same Token that the Bearer hereof satt up with you last night I hereby order you to give him, as many Kisses, and as many Hours of your Company after 9 O’Clock as he shall please to Demand and charge them to my Account: This Order, or Requisition call it which you will is in Consideration of a similar order Upon Aurelia for the like favour, and I presume I have good Right to draw upon...
34John Adams to Abigail Adams, 25 September 1774 (Adams Papers)
I would not loose the Opportunity of writing to you—tho I must be short. Tedious, indeed is our Business.—Slow, as Snails. I have not been used to such Ways. We sit only before Dinner. We dine at four O Clock. We are crowded with a Levee in the Evening. Fifty Gentlemen meeting together, all Strangers, are not acquainted with Each others Language, Ideas, Views, Designs. They are therefore...
35John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 June 1774 (Adams Papers)
I had a tollerable Journey hither, but my Horse trotted too hard. I miss my own Mare—however I must make the best of it. I send with this an whole Packett of Letters, which are upon a Subject of great Importance, and therefore must intreat the earliest Conveyance of them. There is but little Business here, and whether there will be more at York or Falmouth is uncertain, but I must take the...
36John Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 June 1774 (Adams Papers)
I have nothing to do here, but to take the Air, enquire for News, talk Politicks and write Letters. This Town has the best Air I ever breathed. It is very level and there are no Mountains or Hills to obstruct the free Course of the Air, upon any Point of Compass for 8 or 10 Miles. It lies upon the Sea on the south And has a River running through it. The Weather has been inexpressibly fine all...
37John Adams to Abigail Smith, 14 February 1763 (Adams Papers)
Accidents are often more Friendly to us, than our own Prudence.—I intended to have been at Weymouth Yesterday, but a storm prevented.—Cruel, Yet perhaps blessed storm!—Cruel for detaining me from so much friendly, social Company, and perhaps blessed to you, or me or both, for keeping me at my Distance. For every experimental Phylosopher knows, that the steel and the Magnet or the Glass and...
38Enclosure: Poem on the Boston Tea Party, 27 February 1774 (Adams Papers)
Wrote at the Request of A Gentleman who described the Late Glorious Event of sacrificeing several Cargos of tea to the publick Welfare, as a squable among the Celestials of the sea Arising from a scarcity of Nectar and Ambrosia The content of all or some notes that appeared on this page in the printed volume has been moved to the end of the preceding document RC ( Adams Papers ); addressed:...
39John Adams to Abigail Adams, 29 June 1774 (Adams Papers)
This is the second day of the Term at York: very little Business--very hot weather. My Refreshment is a flight to B raintree to my Corn fields and Grass Plotts, my Gardens and Meadows. My Fancy runs about you perpetually. It is continually with you and in the Neighbourhood of you—frequently takes a Walk with you, and your little prattling, Nabby, Johnny, Charly, and Tommy. We walk all together...
40John Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 July 1774 (Adams Papers)
I am so idle, that I have not an easy Moment, without my Pen in my Hand. My Time might have been improved to some Purpose, in mowing Grass, raking Hay, or hoeing Corn, weeding Carrotts, picking or shelling Peas. Much better should I have been employed in schooling my Children, in teaching them to write, cypher, Latin, French, English and Greek. I sometimes think I must come to this—to be the...
41John Adams to Abigail Smith, 20 April 1763 (Adams Papers)
Love sweetens Life, and Life sometimes destroys Love. Beauty is desirable and Deformity detestible; Therefore Beauty is not Deformity nor Deformity, Beauty. Hope springs eternal in the human Breast, I hope to be happyer next Fall than I am at present, and this Hope makes me happyer now than I should be without it.—I am at Braintree but I wish I was at Weymouth! What strange Revolutions take...
42John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1774 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Quincy and I came this Morning from York, before Breakfast, 15 Miles, in order to hear my learned Friend Hemmenway. Mr. Quincy brought me a Letter from Williams, in which he lets me know that you and the Family were well. This is very refreshing News. We went to Meeting at Wells and had the Pleasure of hearing My Friend, upon “Be not Partaker’s in other Mens Sins: Keep...
43John Adams to Abigail Smith, 15 August 1763 (Adams Papers)
The Disappointment you mention was not intended, but quite accidental. A Gentleman, for whom I had much Esteem, Mr. Daniel Leonard of Norton, was so good as to offer to keep the sabbath with me at Braintree—a favour that would have been very agreable if it had not detained me from the most agreable of all Company, to me, in this world, and a favour that will I know be sufficient with you to...
44Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams, 15 January 1767 (Adams Papers)
Your kind letter I receiv’d to day and am greatly rejoiced to hear you are all so well. I was very uneasy at not hearing from you, indeed my dear Sister the Winter never seem’d so tedious to me in the World. I daily count the days between this and the time I may probably see you. I could never feel so comfortable as I at present do, if I thought I should spend another Winter here. Indeed my...
45John Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 July 1774 (Adams Papers)
Mobs are the trite Topick of Declamation and Invective, among all the ministerial People, far and near. They are grown universally learned in the Nature, Tendency and Consequences of them, and very eloquent and pathetic in descanting upon them. They are Sources of all kinds of Evils, Vices, and Crimes, they say. They give Rise to Prophaneness, Intemperance, Thefts, Robberies, Murders, and...
46Elizabeth Palmer to Abigail Adams, 16 July 1774 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment finished Copying The manuscript you was kind enough to Lend me, and must write a line, to beg your excuse for not Sooner returning it. I could not Steal the time to Copy it before, and was Loath to Lose it. I think it is a very Pretty thing; tho, (if you can excuse my Seeming arrogance, in Presuming to Criticise,) there are Some expressions in it, that Seem not quite...
47John Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 July 1769 (Adams Papers)
We have lived thro the Heat, and Toil, and Confusion of this Week. We have tried three of the Kennebeck Proprietors Actions and have been fortunate enough to obtain them all. Mr. Bowdoins great Case with Lord Edgcumbe, and Dr. Gardiners great Cause with William Tyng the sherriff of this County particularly. There are about 60 or 70 Actions now remaining on the Dockett, and When we shall get...
48John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 July 1774 (Adams Papers)
Have you seen a List of the Addressers of the late Governor? There is one abroad, with the Character, Profession or Occupation of each Person against his Name. I have never seen it but Judge Brown says, against the Name of Andrew Fanuil Phillips, is “Nothing,” and that Andrew when he first heard of it said, “Better be nothing with one Side, than every Thing with the other.”—This was witty and...
49John Adams to Abigail Smith, 11 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
This is the last Opportunity I shall have to write you from Braintree for some Weeks. You may expect to hear from me, as soon after my Arrival at Boston as possible. Have had a peaceable, pleasant Day upon the whole. My Brother and I have the Wishes, the good Wishes of all the good People who come to the House. They admire our Fortitude, and wish us well thro, even some, who would heartily...
50Isaac Smith Jr. to Abigail Adams, 21 February 1771 (Adams Papers)
Your kindness to me in a former absence, requires some acknowledgment in this. I write to you, therefore, with the view of repaying an obligation, not of giving you any entertainment. After a short, tho’ not a very comfortable passage over the Atlantic, I landed at Dover, a town remarkable for nothing but extortion, except the Castle, which was originally founded by Julius Caesar, and...