Browsing: Diary of John Adams, Volume 2

1. This record of JA's expenses for his service in the Continental Congress during 1777 is in the back pages of one of his letterbooks (Lb/JA/3; Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 91), and is printed here because it is much more complete than an account for the same year, begun on a loose sheet inserted in D/JA/22B but broken off after a few entries. Even the present version is incomplete, extending only to mid-September though JA attended Congress two months longer. The explanation is in a letter from JA to Speaker James Warren, 15 Jan. 1778 (NN: Emmet Coll.). This letter enclosed a summary account of JA's claim against Massachusetts for 1777 and apologized for its want of fullness and lack of supporting vouchers. But, as the writer explained, owing to the sudden departure of Congress from Philadelphia when Howe's army was approaching the city from the Chesapeake, “I was obliged to leave a small Trunk of my Baggage together with my Account Book and all my Receipts behind me, in the Care of a Reverend Gentleman in the City.” See Diary entries of 15, 19 Sept., below.

On 15 Nov. 1776 JA had been elected to serve another year in Congress, together with his colleagues Hancock, Samuel Adams, Paine, and Gerry, and two additional members, James Lovell and Francis Dana (Mass., House Jour. , 1776–1777, p. 157). This enlargement of the delegation partly answered JA's pleas of the preceding summer, and a resolution voted by the General Court on 4 Feb. 1777 (laid before Congress on 12 March) went further by declaring that “any two or more of said Delegates, representing this State in Congress, being the major part present, be and hereby are vested with all the powers with which any three ... were vested” previously (enclosure in John Avery to JA, 17 Feb., Adams Papers; full text in JCC , 7:169–170).

2. On 12 Dec. 1776 Congress had adjourned at Philadelphia as Howe's army drove Washington's army through New Jersey to the Delaware, and on 20 Dec. it convened in Baltimore ( JCC , 6:1027– 1028). So that when JA set out with James Lovell on 9 Jan. 1777, they took a circuitous, backcountry route. Upon leaving Hartford they crossed the hills of western Connecticut and reached the Hudson at Fishkill “After a March like that of Hannibal over the Alps.” At Fishkill they found they had to travel north in order to cross the ice-choked Hudson, which they did at Poughkeepsie. Traversing Orange co., N.Y., and Sussex co., N.J., they reached Easton at the Forks of the Delaware by 24 January. A day or two later JA had his first view of the Moravian community at Bethlehem, Penna., and he and Lovell arrived at Baltimore on 1 February. JA described the journey in letters to AA dated 9, 13, 14, [17 or 18], 19, 20, 24 Jan.; 2, 7 Feb. 1777 (Adams Papers; printed in JA-AA, Familiar Letters , p. 233–242).

3. In the fragmentary account in D/JA/22B this entry (the last in that fragment) reads: “Cash paid David Rusk for my Board and my servants, and for Stabling for my Horses 37 dollars.” This indicates that JA lodged with Rusk before going to Mrs. Ross's; see Diary entry of 6 Feb., below.

4. A receipt for this purchase from the Purviances is in Adams Papers under this date.

5. This was an advance partial payment to JA for his service in Congress during 1777, authorized by a vote of the House on 4 Jan. (Mass., House Jour. , 1776–1777, p. 213).

6. A ford a few miles south of the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary, near present Conowingo. It is shown on a remarkable MS map of the country between the Chesapeake and Philadelphia {p. 257} enclosed in a letter from James Lovell to AA, 29 Aug. (Adams Papers), and is described in The Revolutionary Journal of Baron Ludwig von Closen, 1780–1783, ed. Evelyn M. Acomb, Chapel Hill, 1958, p. 125. Evidently the crossings below this point were ice-bound.

7. JA probably left Baltimore on 2 March and arrived in Philadelphia by the 5th, the day to which Congress had, at its last sitting in Baltimore (27 Feb.), adjourned, though a quorum of members did not assemble until 12 March ( JCC , 7:168–169). JA lodged at Mrs. Yard's in Second Street until 14 March, but on that day moved to Capt. Robert Duncan's on the south side of Walnut Street between Second and Third, because he got cheaper terms there; his fellow boarders included William Whipple of New Hampshire and Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut (JA to AA, 14, 16 March, Adams Papers). Here he stayed until 12 Sept.; see Diary, 15 Sept., below.

8. This is a credit item in favor of Massachusetts. John Gibson was auditor general and Michael Hillegas was treasurer of the United States. In his summary account submitted to the General Court, JA's total expenses, together with pay at 24s. a day for 322 days, came to £792 18s. 8d., from which he deducted £450 (£150 advance pay and £300 from the Continental Treasury as here listed), so that the balance due him amounted to £342 18s. 8d. (enclosure in JA to Speaker Warren, 15 Jan. 1778, NN:Emmet Coll.). Payment to him in this amount was authorized by a resolve of 27 Jan. 1778 (Resolves of 1777–1778, ch. 685; Mass., Province Laws , 20:261).