1To John Jay from John Adams, 15 December 1785 (Jay Papers)
Joseph Brant, has lately arrived with Lt Governor Hamilton from Quebec, and the Indian has been presented to the King, at a Fryday Levee, I suppose as a Colonel in the British service.—This confirms and increases the Reports of a general Confederation of the Indian Nations against the......confederacy. After travelling to Paris he returned to Quebec in June 1786. Henry Hamilton (c. 1734–96)...
2From John Adams to John Thomas, 7 March 1776 (Adams Papers)
...led the successful assault on Dorchester Heights, was chosen on 6 March to replace Gen. Lee, the original choice to command in Canada. Lee had been appointed on 1 March to command the southern forces. Thomas arrived at Quebec on 1 May, found a hopeless situation, and almost immediately ordered a retreat, in the course of which he died of smallpox and was buried near Fort Chambly (
3From John Adams to John Jay, 30 August 1785 (Adams Papers)
...private opinion, in the meantime, it is their fixed design to keep Possession of the Posts upon the Frontier. Sir John Johnson is certainly going out.— and it is given out that fifteen hundred Men are going to Quebec: and Materials Ingineers & Workmen for large Fortifications in Nova Scotia.
4From John Adams to John Jay, 29 July 1785 (Adams Papers)
...the 1760s and practiced law in Baltimore, but returned to England at the outbreak of the Revolution. Smith may have been William Smith, former chief justice of New York, who in Sept. 1785 was appointed chief justice of Quebec (
5From John Adams to John Jay, 19 April 1787 (Adams Papers)
...American goods to the West Indies, but this act restricted the carrying trade to British made and owned ships. The new act, passed in 1787, prohibited imports from any American territory into Quebec. On 18 April, Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, also strove to answer the demands of frontiersman Ethan Allen and others by permitting imports of food, livestock, and naval stores from...
6From John Adams to John Jay, 25 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
Quebec &c. His Lordship would not even affirm or deny, what M the Bill was unnecessary.— Quebec could supply Newfoundland—if not England could. & the Trade of G. B. & her Colonies should not be delivered over to a foreign Power. That the Avarage Prices of bread and Flour in G. Britain had...
7From John Adams to John Jay, 15 December 1785 (Adams Papers)
Joseph Brant, has lately arrived with Lt Governor Hamilton from Quebec, and the Indian has been presented to the King, at a Fryday Levee, I Suppose as a Colonel in the British service.—The Mohawk chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), who visited England in 1775–1776, sailed from Quebec on 6 Nov. 1785 with the recalled lieutenant governor of Quebec, Henry Hamilton. Arriving in London by 7 Dec., he...
8From John Adams to James Warren, 21 May 1775 (Adams Papers)
is probably including Quebec and some of the West Indian colonies, like Jamaica, in his count. Americans were particularly hopeful that Quebec could be brought to support their cause.
...on 3 Dec., John Adams sent the substance of London newspaper reports regarding the captures, on 9 Aug. and 12 July respectively, of large portions of the British convoys bound to the East and West Indies and to Quebec.
10From John Adams to the Abbés Chalut and Arnoux, 8 July 1786 (Adams Papers)
Trumbull was traveling to Paris, where he would reside with Thomas Jefferson, to have his paintings “The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack of Quebec” and “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill” engraved (
11John Adams to Abigail Adams, 8 March 1776 (Adams Papers)
...made a Major General and ordered to Canada. The general Expectation here is that the boldest Efforts of our Enemies will be made at Virginia and S. Carolina.—I believe no such Thing. Boston, N. York and Quebec will be their Object.
12John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 March 1780 (Adams Papers)
...refused the Exchange of Prisoners. Thus ill natured are they. The Refugees, according to him are in bad Plight, not having received their Pensions these 18 Months, which are detained on some Pretence of waiting for Funds from Quebec. Yet they console themselves with the Thought that America cannot hold out another six Months. Thus
13From John Adams to James Warren, 25 October 1775 (Adams Papers)
was a captain in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, and at this time was probably on his way to Quebec, where he was captured in December during the siege (
14From John Adams to Edmund Jenings, 6 December 1780 (Adams Papers)
How many Troops will England be able to Send out in all? To the Islands, the Continent, Quebec, &c.? And by what Time will they be ready?
15To John Jay from John Adams, December 1785 (Jay Papers)
...—They think that if we should raise an Army & take those Posts, as we have a right to do, it would not oblige them to go to War with us—but if we should march an Army to Quebec and take it, and another to Nova-Scotia & take that, it would be no great Harm to them—if we should fit out Privateers against their Trade, they could easily send a Line of Frigates along our...
16From John Adams to James Warren, 7 June 1775 (Adams Papers)
...., 1891, p. 312–319). James Price was a Montreal merchant sent by the other English merchants of that city to tell the Continental Congress about the conditions existing in Quebec. The substance of his report, derived from correspondence rather than from the report itself, which has not been found, was that although the French peasants would probably not act against the colonies, the...
17From John Adams to James Warren, 18 February 1776 (Adams Papers)
The Unanimous Voice of the Continent is Canada must be ours Quebec must be taken....must leave the Event. If We fail now, I shall be easy because I know of nothing more or better that We can do. I did not feel so well Satisfied, after the News of the Failure at Quebec.
18From John Adams to Samuel Cooper?, 9 June 1776 (Adams Papers)
I did not expect that our Army would have raised the Siege of Quebec, So soon, much less So unskillfully and So timorously. I cannot forbear, these Epithets. But raising a siege in open day, and in the Face of an Enemy, was a Step, that nothing could justify,......this have been kept out of the Camp before Quebec, as well as out of the Camps at Cambridge and Roxbury? Provisions enough for the...
19From John Adams to Jedidiah Morse, 9 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
...make. It is important that posterity should know the very first symptoms and circumstances of misunderstanding between Great Britain & the Colonies. These will be found to have originated from the first news in England of the conquest of Quebec in 1759. Immediately after the news reached the Court of St James’ of the surrender of Quebec, a jealousy of the Colonies sprung up and a resolution...
20From John Adams to Edward Biddle?, 12 December 1774 (Adams Papers)
The Letter to Quebec, Shall be faithfully and Speedily forwarded. Our Provincial Congress, and the Committee of Correspondence in Boston, have had under Consideration, various Planns, for opening a Communication, with Several Parts of that Province. the letter to Quebec for distribution (
21From John Adams to the Comte de Vergennes, 13 July 1780 (Adams Papers)
There are perhaps fifteen thousand Inhabitants of the City. These, together with the Army and Navy, are fed and supplied with provisions and stores and fuel, and their Cattle and Horses with forage brought by Sea from Quebec, Hallifax, Ireland, and the West India Islands, except the small Quantity which they draw from Long Island and Staten Island....&c., from Quebec, Hallifax, Pensacola,...
22From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 24 June 1822 (Adams Papers)
of Quebec and Halifax and London Liverpool or Dublin...Virginia and Carolina, had as clear a right to fish on the Coast and cure their fish on the lands of Labrador as had the inhabitants of Quebec and Halifax and London, Liverpool, or Dublin. This right they never surrendered, but on the contrary peremptorily insisted on an explicit acknowledgement of it in the treaty of 1783. As to the...
23From John Adams to James Warren, 16 June 1776 (Adams Papers)
Deschambault is located 45 miles southwest of Quebec. The Sorel River, now the Richelieu, flows into the St. Lawrence River approximately 120 miles southwest of Quebec. On 25 May the congress resolved that Deschambault and the mouth of the Sorel be fortified, “to prevent the enemy’s passing to the upper country” (
24From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 31 July 1809 (Adams Papers)
...been from the 22d of
August to the 3d of September, in travelling from London to Amsterdam, where it makes a very great sensation
indeed. We had at the same time news of the capture
of most of the Quebec fleet by an American frigate and
two brigantines....time of an American frigate and two privateer brigs taking most of the Quebec fleet. You will see General Washington’s and General Green’s...
25From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 21 August 1810 (Adams Papers)
...the British armies in New-York and Charleston prisoners. Without this, in all probability before another revolution of the seasons, every part of the United States will be evacuated, the British forces sent to Quebec, Halifax and the West India islands, where it will cost France and Spain, more time, blood and treasure, to dispose of them, than it will this campaign to capture them in New-...
26From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 11 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
..., having received certain Intelligence, of the Sailing of two North Country built Briggs, of no force, from England, on the 11th. of August last, loaded with Arms, powder, and other Stores for Quebec, without convoy, which it being of importance to intercept, desire, that he apply to The Council of Massachusetts Bay, for the two armed Vessells, in their Service, and dispatch the Same, with...
27From John Adams to James Warren, 8 October 1775 (Adams Papers)
That is, the Quebec Act, which left the peasants as oppressed as they had been under the French government.
28From John Adams to James Warren, 18 May 1776 (Adams Papers)
What shall We Say of this Scandalous Flight from Quebec? It seems to be fated that New England Officers, should not Support a Character. Wooster is the object now of Contempt, and Detestation,
29From John Adams to Joseph Warren, 21 June 1775 (Adams Papers)
of Lake Champlain, and, in 1775, the newly appointed lieutenant governor of Ticonderoga and Crown Point and inspector of lands for Quebec with authorization to raise a regiment. By the time he arrived in America however, Ticonderoga had been taken. Skene’s mission represented to the northern colonies a threatening move by the ministry, resulting in his arrest when he...
30From John Adams to Stephen Higginson, 4 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
Our Rum has great Prejudices against its admittance to Newfoundland Quebec or Nova scotia: because we derive our Mollasses from the French West Indies, and thereby promote their Grouth and prosperity: And the Admission of Our Ships is looked upon as certain ruin to them. Our Fishery then should...
31John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776 (Adams Papers)
We might before this Hour, have formed Alliances with foreign States.—We should have mastered Quebec and been in Possession of Canada. . . . You will perhaps wonder, how such a Declaration would have influenced our Affairs, in Canada, but if I could write with Freedom I could easily convince you, that...
32John Adams to Cotton Tufts, 26 May 1786 (Adams Papers)
...of the Treaty on the Part of Britain. Nay I would carry it so far, that if the Posts were not immediately evacuated I would not go and Attack them but declare War directly and march one Army to Quebec and another to Nova Scotia.
33From John Adams to James Warren, 13 October 1775 (Adams Papers)
be put into continental service immediately I pray. We begin to feel a little of a Seafaring Inclination here. The Powder at Quebec, will place us all upon the Top of the House.
34From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 29 November 1812 (Adams Papers)
...Colonel James Otis, the Sire of all the Otis’s, you have ever Seen or heard, told me, that in 1758 in company with many Members of our Provincial Legislature, when the conversation turned upon the Expedition against Quebec, John Choate of Ipswitch a Colonel of Militia and Member of the
35From John Adams to James Warren, 23 July 1775 (Adams Papers)
...the only major general in the service of a colony who was not raised to his full rank in the Continental Army, did not leave the army, but his quarrels with Generals Schuyler in New York and Arnold in Quebec raised questions about his fitness for command (
36From John Adams to Joseph Palmer, 12 April 1776 (Adams Papers)
Where will the Cloud burst next? Are they gone to Hallifax? Will they divide their Force? Can they do that with safety? Will they attempt Quebec? or will they come to N. York? or will they come to Philadelphia or go farther south, to Virginia, or one of the Carolinas? which I sometimes Suspect is more probable than any other Supposition, will...
37From John Adams to Francis Dana, 2 September 1780 (Adams Papers)
...Recipt for Sixty Louis D’ors. The News of the Captures off St. Vincents is confirmed in Abundance from London, and We have News at Same Time of an American Frigate and two Privateer Brigs taking most of the Quebec Fleet.
38From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 25 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
...England rush on the thick bosses of the neutral confederation, reinforced by this republic and the King of Prussia? How many troops will she be able to send out? to the islands? the continent? Quebec, &c.? and by what time will they be ready? If France and Spain should keep their combined fleets in the channel, next year will not the English merchant fleets be in danger? If they should...
39From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 29 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
...years and the nation became hot enough to demand Canada I would not have invaded it till we had a decided supremacy of Naval power upon all the Lakes, and waters from Michillimacinac to Montreal, if not to Quebec, nor then till I had an army of 35 or 40 thousand Men. With such an army in four divisions, a small one in Michillimacinac, a larger at Kennebec river, a larger at Detroit, and the...
40John Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 June 1776 (Adams Papers)
...in Canada, are enough to melt an Heart of Stone. The Small Pox is ten times more terrible than Britons, Canadians and Indians together. This was the Cause of our precipitate Retreat from Quebec, this the Cause of our Disgraces at the Cedars.—I dont mean that this was all. There has been Want, approaching to Famine, as well as Pestilence. And these Discouragements seem to have so disheartened...
41From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 12 July 1809 (Adams Papers)
...are exceptionable. There are no American colonies at war with Great Britain. The power at war is the United States of America. No American colonies have any representative in Europe, unless Nova Scotia or Quebec may have an agent in London. The word colony implies a metropolis, a mother country, a superior political governor, ideas which the United States of America have long since...
42From John Adams to Skelton Jones, 11 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
Cape Breton and Quebec I then rejoiced that I was an Englishman and gloried in the Name of Breton, But alass how Short was my tryumph in British Wisdom, and Justice, In February 1761 I heard the argument in the Council Chamber...
43From John Adams to C. W. F. Dumas, 5 September 1780 (Adams Papers)
America would rejoice at your News, as well as at the Sight of the Messenger: but by a Letter from London of the 29th, it Seems that her own Cruisers have done a Similar favour to the Quebec Fleet.
44From John Adams to Thomas Digges, 14 March 1780 (Adams Papers)
...maintain an Army at N.Y. cutt off as they are from all Communication with the Country and Supplying not only the Army and Navy, but the Inhabitants with Provisions and necessaries of all sorts, by sea from Ireland Quebec, Hallifax and the West India Islands, so long the American Privateers will have fine Sport.
45From John Adams to James Lovell, 16 March 1780 (Adams Papers)
...for the banished, altho little Attention is paid to them now. I learned Yesterday that they have received no Payment of their Pensions these 18 Months. The Delay is coloured with a Pretense of Waiting for Some funds for Quebec, which have been Stopped by the Interruption of that Trade. They are Still bitter, as I am told, and are firmly persuaded that America cannot hold out Six months longer.
...-Indias: four or five thousand regulars from Old Spain have actually repossessed his Spanish Majesty of Orleans in the Mississipi. And we all know that a strong squadron from Brest with Troops have a chance of a passage to Quebec, while a Fleet if ready may be beating out of the English Channell. Forewarn’d, Forearm’d! The French and Spaniards never will forget nor forgive the severe
47John Adams to Abigail Adams, 11 February 1776 (Adams Papers)
was mistaken about the date. The ceremonies in honor of Gen. Richard Montgomery, who was killed in the American assault on Quebec on the last day of 1775, were not held until Monday, 19 Feb., when Rev. William Smith, provost of the College of Philadelphia, delivered an oration in the “Dutch Calvinist” (i.e. German Reformed)...
48From John Adams to Boston Patriot, 3 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
...from America, from all quarters, have had a good effect in Europe. The capture of fifty five ships at once by the combined fleet of France and Spain, with the capture of Don Barcelo and the Quebec fleet, have cast down the English cause to such a degree as to put them upon the compassionate list, even with some who detest their tyranny. You will not mistake this for a promise or a...
49From John Adams to William Churchill Houston, 17 September 1780 (Adams Papers)
and that of the Quebec Fleet, have cast down the English Cause to such a degree, as to put them upon the compassionate List, even with some who detest their Tyranny.
50From John Adams to Joseph Bradley Varnum, 9 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
...it & shewed it to be just & proved it to be necessary? Why was there such an obstinate & persevering an opposition in congress, of almost half its members in 1776 &c to our expedition into Canada, Quebec & all, had infallibly been