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The Adams Papers

ROBERT J. TAYLOR, EDITOR IN CHIEF
SERIES III
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE AND OTHER PAPERS OF THE ADAMS STATESMEN
Papers of John Adams
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Papers of John Adams

ROBERT J. TAYLOR, EDITOR
GREGG L. LINT, ASSISTANT EDITOR
CELESTE WALKER, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Volume 3 • May 1775 – January 1776
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, AND LONDON, ENGLAND
1979
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Copyright © 1979 by the Massachusetts Historical Society • All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America
Funds for editing The Adams Papers were originally furnished by Time, Inc., on behalf of Life, to the Massachusetts Historical Society, under whose supervision the editorial work is being done. Further funds were provided by a grant from the Ford Foundation to the National Archives Trust Fund Board in support of this and four other major documentary publications. In common with these and many other enterprises like them, The Adams Papers has continued to benefit from the guidance and cooperation of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, chaired by the Archivist of the United States, which now also provides this enterprise with its major financial support.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (Revised)
Adams, John, Pres. U. S., 1735–1826.
Papers of John Adams.
(The Adams papers : Series III, General correspondence and other papers of the Adams statesmen)
Vols.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. United States—Politics and government—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775 —Sources. 2. Massachusetts—Politics and government—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775—Sources. 3. United States—Politics and government—Revolution, 1775–1783—Sources. 4. United States—Politics and government—1783–1809—Sources. 5. Presidents—United States—Correspondence. 6. Adams, John, Pres. U. S., 1735–1826. I. Taylor, Robert Joseph, 1917– II. Title. III. Series.
E302.A26 1977 973.‘4’08 77–4707
ISBN 0-674-65441-2 (v. 1–2)
ISBN 0-674-65442-0 (v. 3–4)
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This edition of The Adams Papers
is sponsored by the massachusetts historical society
to which the adams manuscript trust
by a deed of gift dated 4 April 1956
gave ultimate custody of the personal and public papers
written, accumulated, and preserved over a span of three centuries
by the Adams family of Massachusetts
illustration
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The Adams Papers

ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD

  • Thomas Boylston Adams
  • James Barr Ames
  • Mark Carroll
  • F. Murray Forbes
  • Stephen T. Riley
  • Arthur J. Rosenthal
  • George K. Whitney

EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

  • Bernard Bailyn
  • Julian Parks Boyd
  • Paul Herman Buck
  • L. H. Butterfield
  • David Herbert Donald
  • Marc Friedlaender
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • Leonard Woods Labaree
  • Robert Earle Moody
  • Ernest Samuels
  • Vernon Dale Tate
The acorn and oakleaf device on the preceding page is redrawn from a seal cut for John Quincy Adams after 1830. The motto is from Caecilius Statius as quoted by Cicero in the First Tusculan Disputation: Serit arbores quae alteri seculo prosint (“He plants trees for the benefit of later generations”).
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  • Descriptive List of Illustrations ix
  • Introduction xv
    • 1. John Adams in the Congress xv.
    • 2. Notes on Editorial Method xxi.
  • Acknowledgments xxiii
  • Guide to Editorial Apparatus xxiv
    • 1. Textual Devices xxiv.
    • 2. Adams Family Code Names xxiv.
    • 3. Descriptive Symbols xxv.
    • 4. Location Symbols xxvi.
    • 5. Other Abbreviations and Conventional Terms xxvii.
    • 6. Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited xxviii.
  • Papers of John Adams, May 1775–January 1776 1

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Descriptive List of Illustrations

 

A N.W. View of the State House in Philadelphia, Taken in 1778, by James Trenchard, after Charles Willson Peale 35

Published in the Columbian Magazine for July 1787 to illustrate a brief account of the State House, where the Federal Convention was then sitting. This building earlier housed the Second Continental Congress. In 1781 the wooden steeple rising above the brick tower was removed because it was badly decayed. Trenchard did his engraving from a detail in Peale's portrait of M. Conrad Alexandre Gérard, first French minister to the United States (Edward M. Riley, “The Independence Hall Group,” Amer. Philos. Soc., Trans. , 43 [1953]: pt. 1, 23–24).
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
 

An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown, June 17th 1775, by Bernard Romans 36

Romans' inscription on his battle scene continues: “In which an advanced party of about 700 Provincials stood an Attack made by 11 Regiments and a Train of Artillery and after an Engagement of two hours Retreated to their Main body at Cambridge Leaving Eleven Hundred of the enemy Killed and Wounded upon the field.” This may be the earliest published picture of the battle, a version of it being advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 Sept. 1775. Despite Romans' claim, the relative positions of Charlestown, Boston, and Breed's Hill are inexact.
Romans, born in the Netherlands, was an engineer, surveyor, cartographer, naturalist, and author, who had worked for some years in Georgia and Florida. In the 1770's he moved to the north, settling in Connecticut. He supervised construction of fortifications for the army in several places (P. Lee Phillips, Notes on the Life and Work of Bernard Romans, Publication of the Florida State Historical Society, 2 (1924):83–85; DAB ).
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
 

Josiah Quincy (1710–1784), by John Singleton Copley, about 1767 75

Distant relative of Abigail Adams, old friend of John, and father of “the patriot” Josiah Quincy Jr., Col. Josiah Quincy was a Braintree citizen with trading interests in Boston. He was much concerned about the control of Boston Harbor while the British occupied the town. He sent Adams long letters detailing the means by which the {p. R10} harbor could be blocked up, ideas that Adams passed on to others. But action was delayed and Quincy's schemes came to naught.
Courtesy of the Dietrich Brothers Americana Corporation (Photograph by Will Brown).
 

Artemas Ward (1727–1800), by Raphaelle Peale, 1795 80

Second in command under Washington after the Battle of Bunker Hill, Ward was soon the focus of much discontent. Adams' friends wrote about his incompetence and wondered how the Massachusetts delegation could have supported his candidacy as first major general. Within less than a year he was complaining of bad health and seeking to retire. Despite all the complaints and invidious comparisons with generals like John Thomas, Ward stayed on; Washington had no replacement for him, and Adams was pleased to see him made commander of the Eastern Department. He was relieved in March 1777.
Courtesy of Harvard University.
 

John Dickinson (1732–1808), Engraving by Bénoit Louis Prévost, after a Drawing by Pierre Eugène Du Simitière, 1781 91

Although Adams and Dickinson had worked closely together in the First Continental Congress, the latter's moderation and insistence upon taking every step toward reconciliation alienated Adams and others who supported vigorous measures of opposition to Great Britain. An open breach between the two men was caused by Adams' reference to Dickinson (although unnamed) as a “piddling Genius” in his letter to James Warren of 24 July 1775 (below), which was intercepted by the British.
In 1779 Du Simitière sent from Philadelphia to France a set of fifteen profile drawings done from life, which he wanted engraved to sell as a set. Fourteen of the drawings were of Americans whom Du Simitière considered “eminent”; the fifteenth was of Conrad Alexandre Gérard, who carried the drawings with him on his return and was to arrange for their engraving. Apparently only fourteen engravings were made, each likeness being numbered. Dickinson's was No. 11. Some of the engraved sets were captured by the British on their way to America and were pirated by two British publishers, William Richardson and R. Wilkinson. These unauthorized engravings are readily identifiable, for the publishers did not hesitate to have their names inscribed (Edna Donnell, “Portraits of Eminent Americans after Drawings by Du Simitière,” Antiques, 24:17–21 [July 1933]). For Du Simitière see DAB .
Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Print Department.
 

Broadside on the Battle of Bunker Hill, 26 June 1775 95

Printed by John Haine and written from the British point of view, this account underestimates the number of British losses. Gage reported the number of officers and men killed as 249. The estimate of Americans killed is reasonably accurate, but American strength {p. R11} in the battle was about 1,000, not three times the British strength of 2,000. This broadside is almost certainly that called by James Warren a “pompous account” and a “lying paper” (to JA, 7 July, below).
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
 

John Thomas (1724–1776), by Benjamin Blyth, 1775 120

Thomas was universally regarded as one of the ablest of the early American generals. During the siege of Boston he commanded the troops at Roxbury, and his efficiency and spirit were often compared to General Ward's to the detriment of the latter. On Washington's orders Thomas commanded the troops that fortified Dorchester Heights. Just before his fortifications compelled the British to evacuate Boston, the General was ordered to take charge of the discouraging siege of Quebec, but the situation there was past saving. Thomas died of smallpox after leading a retreat ( DAB ). Letters between Thomas and Adams are formal and correct. That Adams respected his judgment is obvious. He counted on the General to keep him informed regarding Canada.
Benjamin Blyth was a Salem limner who did pastel portraits of a number of important Americans, including young John Adams and his wife. For the Thomas portrait, Blyth presented a bill for £6 3s, which is signed and dated 15 February 1777 and is now in the Massachusetts Historical Society (Henry Wilder Foote, “Benjamin Blyth, of Salem: Eighteenth-Century Artist,” MHS, Procs., 71 [1953–1957]:64–107).
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
 

Titlepage for Rules for the Regulation of the Navy, 1775 146

Using two British sources, Adams as a member of the Naval Committee drafted the rules for the Continental Navy. Meant as a handbook, this now extremely rare pamphlet does not include all the regulations that the congress passed in 1775; moreover, it was rushed into print before the congress had made an important change in wording. See John Adams' Service in the Congress, 13 September – 9 December 1775, No. VIII, notes 2 and 10 (below).
Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
 

A Plan of the Town and Harbour of Boston, by J. De Costa, 1775 165

Done from an actual survey and dedicated to Richard Whitworth, M.P., this map was completed almost a month and a half after the Battle of Bunker Hill; yet it takes no notice of that event. Besides the islands in the harbor, which are placed with more than usual accuracy, the mapmaker shows the position of troops under the command of Generals Thomas and Putnam. Nothing is known of De Costa (Emerson D. Fite and Archibald Freeman, A Book of Old Maps, Cambridge, 1926, p. 255). The plan has been cropped here.
Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library.
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A Real American Rifle Man, 1776 240

For a short time riflemen were deemed by Adams the men of the hour, and he was pleased to notify his friends that ten companies from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia would go north to aid in the siege of Boston. The great accuracy of their weapon, compared to the more commonly used musket, promised devastation among the outposts of the British. But soon Adams was receiving from correspondents tales of disorderliness, refusal to obey orders, and even the arrest of some of the riflemen. Their arrogance and the praise at first heaped upon them angered New Englanders.
This print is reproduced from Walker's Hibernian Magazine, April 1776. It is a largely fanciful creation, designed, as were supposed portraits of American generals and statesmen, to appeal to a market eager for knowledge about the revolutionaries. The decoration on the soldier's cap is a skull and crossbones with the words “or Liberty” under it. A glaring error is that the rifle is fitted with a bayonet, a weapon used with the musket. Because the rifleman's lack of a bayonet put him at a severe disadvantage in mass attack, his role became that of flanker, who picked off such advancing enemies as he could before those armed with muskets fired their volleys and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Moreover, unless the rifleman depicted is grossly above normal height, the length of his weapon falls well short of the five feet or more typical of the American rifle (Warren Moore, Weapons of the American Revolution and Accoutrements, N.Y., 1967, p. 59–60).
Courtesy of the New York Public Library.
 

William Howe (1729–1814) 283

Howe arrived in America in May 1775, senior among the general officers sent to aid Gen. Thomas Gage, and commanded the British forces ordered against Charlestown. When Gage left Boston on 10 October 1775, Howe took his place as commander of all British troops except those under Sir Guy Carleton in Canada. It was Howe who ordered evacuation of Boston in March 1776. With his older brother, Admiral Richard, Viscount Howe, he led the peace commission through which Great Britain hoped to gain the submission of the colonists by offering pardons. Americans found the attached conditions unacceptable ( DNB ). This picture is reproduced from An Impartial History of the War in America between Great Britain and Her Colonies from Its Commencement to the End of the Year 1779, London, 1780.
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
 

Broadside on British Depredations, 18 November 1775 359

Even before the congress acted to name a committee to collect authenticated information on the damage inflicted by British troops and ships, Adams saw the propaganda value such statistics would have, for he wrote James Warren on 12 October, urging the collection of such data “to facilitate Reprizals.” After Adams, George {p. R13} Wythe, and Silas Deane had been named to a committee on 18 October to gather information, Adams wrote Warren again that “This will be an usefull Work for the Information of all the colonies of what has passed in Some—for the Information of our Friends in England—and in all Europe, and all Posterity. Besides it may pave the Way to obtain Retribution and Compensation, but this had better not be talked of at present” (19 Oct., 1st letter, below). Adams kept up a constant pressure by writing to many of his friends on this subject. The broadside was Massachusetts' response to the action of the congress.
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
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Introduction

Docno: PJA03d001

John Adams in the Congress

During the months covered by these volumes, John Adams spent very little time in Braintree, for he was attending the sessions of the Second Continental Congress. When he did enjoy a respite from his labors in Philadelphia, he spent much of his time in Watertown as a member of the Massachusetts Council, or upper branch of the legislature, which also exercised executive powers in the absence of a royal governor. Away from home in Pennsylvania, Adams was eager for news of Boston and the province. Men like James Warren, Joseph Ward, and William Tudor were his eyes and ears in Massachusetts. He wanted to know about former law clerks, about the performance of generals, about the operations of the Massachusetts government, and about dozens of other matters. His thirst for information was unquenchable. But he also had things to tell concerning which he wanted advice. Although his constant complaint was that he was borne down by ever-expanding responsibilities—I have a minute when I need an hour, he protested—he managed to keep a surprising volume of correspondence flourishing. In a single day he sometimes wrote a half-dozen letters full of detail, none of them merely repetitive. If one considers that he had also begun to keep a letterbook, his labors command even more respect. He wrote to friends, political associates, generals and lesser officers, aspiring young lawyers, and colleagues absent from Philadelphia, soaking up information from everyone and pleading for more. Some sought him out first, perhaps to complain or beg, often to find that they had initiated a correspondence.
Beginning with the Battle of Bunker Hill, military affairs became a source of never-ending concern, partly because of his committee responsibilities, but probably even more because of his temperament. Adams was duty-ridden. If he was to be effective in the congress, he had to know who in the field was handling his allotted tasks and who was being overwhelmed by them. Thus he wanted to know about the tactics at Bunker Hill and the casualties on each side. Volume 3 contains five or six accounts of that bloody battle, with conflicting estimates of the killed and wounded. In addition, the two volumes include {p. R16} assessments of General Artemas Ward, who was responsible for Boston's defense after its evacuation, and of other officers like Richard Gridley, Henry Knox, David Wooster, Philip Schuyler, and men less well known to history. Adams was much concerned about the defense of his beloved Massachusetts and pleased when he could tell correspondents that expert riflemen were being sent northward to support the troops. Before long he was receiving reports of the obstreperousness of the riflemen, their refusal to obey orders, and the disruption they were causing. Adams took an interest not only in tactical and strategic matters but in the education of officers, compiling a list of authorities that should be read and that he felt should be added to Harvard's library. When officers were considered for promotion, his constant query was, How well were they educated? What were their erudition, presence, and family background? Were they men of reflection? After the British evacuated Boston, Adams wrote letter after letter urging proper measures for the security of the harbor and relaying plans for defense sent to him by Josiah Quincy Sr. The news that British naval vessels lingered on to prey upon American shipping wounded his pride. Correspondents kept him well informed of the bungling that preceded the warships' ultimate removal.
In this period one of the major issues had to do with soldiers' pay. In the opinion of southern officers and delegates to the congress, New England did not make a sufficient distinction between the pay of officers and men. Several of Adams' correspondents attributed to the essentially aristocratic temper of southern life the desire of southerners to reduce soldiers' pay. The letters are dotted with revealing comments on the distinctions between New England “equality” and southern emphasis on class distinctions. Adams shared the convictions of his correspondents, even to the point of believing that his ideas on government would never find acceptance among the southern colonies because his principles were too “popular” for them, although not popular enough for New England. He was, however, anxious to prevent such differences from becoming divisive. He felt that nothing could be done about soldiers' pay if raising it and reducing that of officers would jeopardize cooperation among the colonies. And when northern jealousy of alleged favoritism in promotions for southern officers flared up, he sought to mollify the aggrieved.
Adams' wish not to confront issues that would hinder united effort probably accounts for his apparent lack of interest in the slavery question. He received two anonymous letters urging abolition, one carefully reasoned and suggesting that freed blacks be established on land in {p. R17} Canada, the other semi-literate but compelling in its simplicities. He also preserved an anti-slavery letter addressed to his colleague Thomas Cushing and a proposal sent to himself by Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant which would have let slaves win their freedom by serving in the army. Apart from telling Sergeant that South Carolina would vehemently oppose such a measure, Adams confined himself to asking generals how many blacks there were among New England troops. His concern arose from charges that northern forces had too many blacks and old men. Abigail's condemnation of slavery as inconsistent with the cause of liberty drew no recorded response from him. Indeed, Adams seems not to have seen the Revolutionary crisis as a time for social change. He and John Winthrop agreed that institutional alterations in 1776 would be like making repairs on a burning house.
What Adams wanted was the establishment of independent governments for each of the colonies. These could be a long step toward the independence that many of the members of the congress were so reluctant to accept.1 The kind of interim government, based on the charter, that Massachusetts had settled for, Adams saw as a politically acceptable rather than satisfactory arrangement. Thus he welcomed from James Warren, John Winthrop, Joseph Palmer, and others who had firsthand knowledge any information about the workings of the province government. Adams helped to settle the quarrel between the House and the Council over the right of the lower branch to participate in the choice of field officers, a constitutional issue that threatened the very functioning of a wartime government. He supported the claims of the House.
Once the congress had finally resolved to urge the formation of new governments, and Adams had written a stirring preamble to the resolve, he was eager for Massachusetts to proceed to elections for a governor. But he was dismayed when talk of a new constitution led some correspondents and newspaper writers to suggest extending the right to vote, reconstituting the legislature, and creating more probate courts and offices for the registering of deeds. To one of these would-be reformers, Adams explained at length why a property qualification for the franchise should be continued with encouragement for more widespread propertyholding and why women should not have the vote.2 A leveling spirit and changes proposed by ignorant amateurs could only do harm to the cause that still had to be fought for.
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It is well known that, at the request of several colleagues, Adams sketched out a form of government that might be used as a model by colonies emerging into states. Actually he wrote four versions, only one being printed in his own day, of what came to be called Thoughts on Government.3 He kept pretty much to forms familiar to him, recognizing that regional differences would have to be taken into account by those drafting state constitutions. In this as in other matters, one could go no further than the people were ready to follow. Notwithstanding Adams' belief, widely shared by political thinkers of the time, that man had a great propensity for evil behavior, a kind of optimism characterizes his outline of government. He asserts that if the right form is established, one that separates the functions of government and allows the legislature, the executive, and the courts to check and balance each other, republicanism and the virtue upon which it must depend can be preserved and encouraged. Such optimism is not surprising, for when Adams wrote, he was devoting much of his energy to promoting independent governments. The congressional resolve on the subject came a month and a half after he composed Thoughts on Government.
When Adams wrote in private to Mercy Otis Warren, however, he sounded a different note.4 His earlier optimism gave way to pessimism about the future of republicanism in America. He assailed the “Spirit of Commerce” as a grave threat to domestic relations and a promoter of turbulence in government. Having penetrated even New England, this spirit was “incompatible with that purity of Heart, and Greatness of soul which is necessary for an happy Republic.” The immediate occasion for these thoughts may have been the opening of trade on 6 April, a measure long debated in the congress.
Adams' fears were not new, only newly aroused. In the fall of 1775 he had exchanged ideas with several correspondents on the wisdom of opening up trade. The discussion was conducted by both sides largely in strategic terms. Despite the obvious risks, would opening up trade help the American cause and strike a blow at Britain? Even though this was the determining question, Adams was obviously attracted by the stratagem of a complete embargo. He was convinced that self-sufficiency was possible if the people would give up luxuries and switch from export products like indigo and tobacco to those like flax and wool that could be consumed entirely in the domestic production of clothing and cloth. He equated trade with acquired tastes in {p. R19} dress, furniture, architecture, and the like. The sacrifice of luxuries would be giving up “Trifles in a contest of Liberty.”5 Although Adams recognized the economic impact on many that would result from cutting off all trade, he saw the problem largely in moral terms: “the Question is whether our People have Virtue enough to be mere Husbandmen, Mechaniks and Soldiers? That they have not Virtue enough to bear it always, I take for granted. How long then will their Virtue last? Till next Spring?”6 The italicized phrase is significant. Adams was not writing about the virtue of only a temporary sacrifice; for him, contentment with simple ways and work, the eschewing of all luxuries made possible by trade, was a key to virtue. The baleful influence of the “Spirit of Commerce” was a theme taken up by later generations of Adamses, some of whom were punished by their failure adequately to meet its demands.
However much Adams delighted in explicating the abstract principles underlying free governments, and however often he saluted the logic of events that was sweeping the colonies toward independence, he remained a consummate politician with a lively sense of the possible and a willingness to use his influence. To those who wrote from Massachusetts in the spring of 1776 asking impatiently why independence was not being declared, he acknowledged that “vast majorities” saw the need for the decisive step, but “patience, patience” was needed—and instructions from each of the colonies. Later he told Warren that “we cannot march faster than our Constituents will follow us.”7 He tried to placate not only the impatient but those angered by the release of the traitor Benjamin Church on parole. He had ideas about political strategy also. When it came time to think of choosing a governor for Massachusetts (Adams thought the decision was imminent), he cautioned against factionalism. He wanted his friends, who were among the leading politicians in the province, to caucus and to reach a consensus on the man who should have the job so that public disagreements would be avoided.
Adams did not hesitate to use his position to advance the career of others. With some justice, he would have described his recommendations to Washington and other commanders for preferment of friends and acquaintances and their sons and of former law clerks as ways of advancing the common cause. He knew a good man when he saw one, and the country needed good men. Given the situation that America {p. R20} faced, Adams' use of influence can be seen as a service. An army was being built out of men unknown for the most part beyond their own communities. Commanders needed help in selecting officers, and delegates in the congress like Adams could provide information about candidates from their own areas. That is why Adams actively sought recommendations for preferment from correspondents he trusted, and why he was so impatient with the Massachusetts government for naming men to high rank without bothering to tell its delegation in the congress what qualifications the appointees had. Adams was not just a servant of a cause; he formed warm attachments, and, humanly enough, he wanted advancement of those for whom he felt affection and respect. It is to his credit that he was circumspect; he often replied that it would not be fitting for him to act through the congress, that he should not interfere with the chain of command. Moreover, he stood to gain nothing personally from the recommendations that he made. Adams was not unique, of course, in pressing consideration of the merits of men he knew something about, and he received at least as many requests for preferment as he made himself. One instance of his exercise of influence tells something about not only his attitudes but also the assumptions of his day. When it was learned that the elder son of former Governor Ward of Rhode Island had enlisted and his younger brother had obtained a commission, Adams successfully urged rectification of this unseemly situation. Charles Ward promptly became an ensign.
Besides his political acumen, Adams showed a capacity for and skill in committee work that placed him on several of the most important committees in this period. Besides serving as the president of the Board of War and Ordnance, he was directly responsible for producing two reports which were accepted by the congress with little alteration and whose influence was long lasting. As a member of the Naval Committee in the fall of 1775 he drafted rules for regulating the Continental Navy.8 Although the body of rules was largely a compilation from British regulations, Adams kept in mind the character and needs of Americans, adapting and rejecting with care, so that his work has remained the basis for the governance of the United States Navy down into our own time. He was also a member of the committee charged with drawing up a declaration of independence, but he contributed almost nothing to its language; rather, his energies were devoted to securing the passage of the resolution of indepen• {p. R21} dence on 1–2 July.9 Colleagues testified afterward that his efforts were critically important. Soon after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Adams produced a draft of a plan of treaties for the committee assigned that responsibility. The plan laid down the principles that with few exceptions would guide American diplomatists up to World War II.10 Adams strongly favored treaties of commerce in preference to military alliances.
The picture of Adams that emerges in these two volumes is of a man punishing himself with committee work, yet somehow thriving on the demands made upon or readily assumed by him, despite his complaints of exhaustion and bad health and of the disgust he felt with some of his colleagues. It was an exciting, lively world Adams dwelt in, with its ups and downs of boredom and discouragement, achievement and triumph. He yearned for home and family, agonizing over his helplessness when friends wrote of Abigail's or the children's illnesses; yet he stuck it out month after month. When the Battle of Long Island loomed, he wrote to Warren: “I thought it would not be well to leave my Station here.... It will be necessary to have Some Persons here, who will not be Seized with an Ague fit, upon the Occasion.”11 He knew that he was at the center of great events. Vanity, however humble its guise, duty, and a sense of history kept him at his tasks.

Notes on Editorial Method

To the description of the editorial method set forth in the Papers of John Adams, 1:xxxi–xxxv, some additions need to be made. As promised there, we have begun to be more rigorous in our selection of documents. For the period covered in Volumes 3 and 4 (May 1775–28 Aug. 1776), we have omitted thirty-seven, all but two being letters. Most of those not printed repeat what is said in the letters included, or they are routine—letters of transmittal, thank-you notes, and the like. More than half of the documents not printed are referred to or, occasionally, quoted from, with their location indicated. The number of such omissions is certain to grow as the volume of materials increases.
Earlier volumes of The Adams Papers sought to make a distinction between endorsements and docketings on correspondence. The former were said normally to be written by the addressee “at or near the time {p. R22} of receipt”; the latter usually by other than the addressee at a later time, often for purposes of filing.12 The editors had so much difficulty trying to maintain this distinction that they abandoned it in favor of the single term “docketed.” It proved impossible in many instances to state with certainty whether on letters received John Adams noted the writer's name and the date at the time of receipt or weeks or months later. Only after long lapses of time, when his handwriting had changed, could a distinction be made. For addressees outside the Adams family, the task was in most instances virtually impossible. When the lapse of time is obvious, however, or when the handwriting is clearly not that of the addressee, such facts are noted.
One or two other routine procedures can be usefully mentioned. Cross references omit mention of the year in dates if it is the same as the document being annotated. The location of letters mentioned as received or sent is not given if the writer furnishes an exact date (“yours of the 6th ultimo”) and if such letters are included in these volumes. If the writer refers merely to “my last letter” or “your recent letter,” such references are clarified in a note. Documents dated on the same day are arranged as follows: letters by John Adams, alphabetically by recipient, followed by official communications that he wrote or contributed to; letters to Adams, alphabetically by sender, followed by communications addressed to him (and others) in his official capacity. After these categories come third-party letters and official documents (credentials to the congress, and so on).
By checking standard reference works, the editors have made a reasonable effort to identify the quotations that occasionally embellish the letters of Adams and his correspondents, although a number remain unidentified. All but the most obvious Latin phrases have been translated in the notes, with or without the source being named. In these two volumes there is only one document in French, but in subsequent volumes there will be many more. To satisfy both scholars and general readers, we have decided to follow each document that is in a foreign language with a translation, so labeled and set in smaller type.
 
1. The precise time of JA's firm commitment to independence is hard to pinpoint. See JA to James Warren, 6 June [i.e. July] 1775, first letter, note 6, and Robert J. Taylor, “John Adams: Legalist as Revolutionist,” MHS, Procs. , 89 [1977]:67–71.
 
2. To James Sullivan, 26 May 1776.
 
5. To James Warren, 20 Oct. 1775, first letter.
 
6. To James Warren, 19 Oct. 1775, third letter; italics supplied.
 
7. To James Warren, 22 April 1776; to Mercy Otis Warren, 16 April 1776; to James Warren, 18 May 1776.
 
8. JA's Service in the Congress, 13 Sept. – 9 Dec. 1775, No. VIII.
 
9. JA's Copy of the Declaration of Independence, [ante 28 June 1776].
 
10. Plan of Treaties, 12 June – 17 Sept. 1776.
 
11. To James Warren, 17 Aug. 1776.
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Acknowledgments

Docno: PJA03d002
Most of those mentioned in the Acknowledgments in Volume 1 of the Papers of John Adams have continued to extend courtesies and offer help and advice, but a few persons need particular recognition here. Professor John W. Zarker of Tufts University kindly checked our translations of Latin tags in these volumes, and Paul H. Smith of the Library of Congress suggested a revised date for an Adams letter. Stephen Kalkus, Director of the Navy Department Library, lent for use in our office a rare compilation of the regulations of the British Navy. Two experts on the bibliography of military manuals and other works for the eighteenth century gave us important guidance in evaluating Adams' knowledge of such books—Alan C. Aimone, Military History Librarian at the United States Military Academy, and Robert K. Wright Jr., historian, Organizational History Branch, Department of the Army. Marc Friedlaender, adjunct editor of the Adams Papers, read the entire manuscript carefully and critically, offering numerous suggestions for improvement. Elizabeth Breuer and Katherine Oppermann, editorial assistants, worked diligently at verifying notes, typing, and helping with proofreading and indexing.
{p. R24}

Guide to Editorial Apparatus

In the first three sections (1–3) of the six sections of this Guide are listed, respectively, the arbitrary devices used for clarifying the text, the code names for designating prominent members of the Adams family, and the symbols describing the various kinds of MS originals used or referred to, that are employed throughout The Adams Papers in all its series and parts. In the final three sections (4–6) are listed, respectively, only those symbols designating institutions holding original materials, the various abbreviations and conventional terms, and the short titles of books and other works, that occur in volumes 3 and 4 of the Papers of John Adams. The editors propose to maintain this pattern for the Guide to Editorial Apparatus in each of the smaller units, published at intervals, of all the series and parts of the edition that are so extensive as to continue through many volumes. On the other hand, in short and specialized series and/or parts of the edition, the Guide to Editorial Apparatus will be given more summary form tailored to its immediate purpose.

Textual Devices

The following devices will be used throughout The Adams Papers to clarify the presentation of the text.
[. . .], [. . . .]   One or two words missing and not conjecturable.  
[. . .], [. . . .]   More than two words missing and not conjecturable; subjoined footnote estimates amount of missing matter.  
[ ]   Number or part of a number missing or illegible. Amount of blank space inside brackets approximates the number of missing or illegible digits.  
[roman]   Editorial insertion or conjectural reading for missing or illegible matter. A question mark is inserted before the closing bracket if the conjectural reading is seriously doubtful.  
<italic>   Matter canceled in the manuscript but restored in our text.  

Adams Family Code Names

  First Generation  
JA   John Adams (1735–1826)  
AA   Abigail Smith (1744–1818), m. JA 1764  
{p. R25}
  Second Generation  
AA2   Abigail Adams (1765–1813), daughter of JA and AA, m. WSS 1786  
WSS   William Stephens Smith (1755–1816), brother of Mrs. CA  
JQA   John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), son of JA and AA  
LCA   Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775–1852), m. JQA 1797  
CA   Charles Adams (1770–1800), son of JA and AA  
Mrs. CA   Sarah Smith (1769–1828), sister of WSS, m. CA 1795  
TBA   Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832), son of JA and AA  
Mrs. TBA   Ann Harrod (1774–1846), m. TBA 1805  
  Third Generation  
GWA   George Washington Adams (1801–1829), son of JQA and LCA  
JA2   John Adams (1803–1834), son of JQA and LCA  
Mrs. JA2   Mary Catherine Hellen (1807–1870), m. JA2 1828  
CFA   Charles Francis Adams (1807–1886), son of JQA and LCA  
ABA   Abigail Brown Brooks (1808–1889), m. CFA 1829  
ECA   Elizabeth Coombs Adams (1808–1903), daughter of TBA and Mrs. TBA  
  Fourth Generation  
LCA2   Louisa Catherine Adams (1831–1870), daughter of CFA and ABA, m. Charles Kuhn 1854  
JQA2   John Quincy Adams (1833–1894), son of CFA and ABA  
CFA2   Charles Francis Adams (1835–1915), son of CFA and ABA  
HA   Henry Adams (1838–1918), son of CFA and ABA  
MHA   Marian Hooper (1842–1885), m. HA 1872  
MA   Mary Adams (1845–1928), daughter of CFA and ABA, m. Henry Parker Quincy 1877  
BA   Brooks Adams (1848–1927), son of CFA and ABA  
  Fifth Generation  
CFA3   Charles Francis Adams (1866–1954), son of JQA2  
HA2   Henry Adams (1875–1951), son of CFA2  
JA3   John Adams (1875–1964), son of CFA2  

Descriptive Symbols

The following symbols will be employed throughout The Adams Papers to describe or identify in brief form the various kinds of manuscript originals.
D   Diary (Used only to designate a diary written by a member of the Adams family and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: D/JA/23, i.e. the twenty-third fascicle or volume of John Adams' manuscript Diary.)  
Dft   draft  
Dupl   duplicate  
FC   file copy (Ordinarily a copy of a letter retained by a correspondent other than an Adams, for example Jefferson's press copies {p. R26} and polygraph copies, since all three of the Adams statesmen systematically entered copies of their outgoing letters in letterbooks.)  
Lb   Letterbook (Used only to designate Adams letterbooks and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: Lb/JQA/29, i.e. the twenty-ninth volume of John Quincy Adams' Letterbooks.)  
LbC   letterbook copy (Letterbook copies are normally unsigned, but any such copy is assumed to be in the hand of the person responsible for the text unless it is otherwise described.)  
M   Miscellany (Used only to designate materials in the section of the Adams Papers known as the “Miscellany” and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: M/CFA/32, i.e. the thirty-second volume of the Charles Francis Adams Miscellany—a ledger volume mainly containing transcripts made by CFA in 1833 of selections from the family papers.)  
MS, MSS   manuscript, manuscripts  
RC   recipient's copy (A recipient's copy is assumed to be in the hand of the signer unless it is otherwise described.)  
Tr   transcript (A copy, handwritten or typewritten, made substantially later than the original or than other copies—such as duplicates, file copies, letterbook copies—that were made contemporaneously.)  
Tripl   triplicate  

Location Symbols

BM   The British Museum, London  
CSmH   Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery  
CtHi   Connecticut Historical Society  
DLC   Library of Congress  
DSI   Smithsonian Institution  
ICHi   Chicago Historical Society  
M-Ar   Massachusetts Archives  
MB   Boston Public Library  
MHi   Massachusetts Historical Society  
MeHi   Maine Historical Society  
MiU-C   William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan  
NHi   New-York Historical Society  
NHpR   Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park  
NN   New York Public Library  
NNPM   Pierpont Morgan Library  
Nc-Ar   North Carolina State Archives  
NjP   Princeton University Library  
OClWHi   Western Reserve Historical Society  
PHC   Haverford College Library  
PHi   Historical Society of Pennsylvania  
PPAmP   American Philosophical Society  
PPRF   Rosenbach Foundation, Philadelphia  
P.R.O.   Public Record Office, London  
TxDaHi   Dallas Historical Society  
{p. R27}

Other Abbreviations and Conventional Terms


  • Adams Papers
  • Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (see below). The location of materials in the Letterbooks and the Miscellany is given more fully, and often, if the original would be hard to locate, by the microfilm reel number.

  • Adams Papers, Adams Office Files
  • The portion of the Adams manuscripts given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Thomas Boylston Adams in 1973 and retained in the editorial office of the Adams Papers.

  • Adams Papers Editorial Files
  • Other materials in the Adams Papers editorial office, Massachusetts Historical Society. These include photoduplicated documents (normally cited by the location of the originals), photographs, correspondence, and bibliographical and other aids compiled and accumulated by the editorial staff.

  • Adams Papers, Fourth Generation
  • Adams manuscripts dating 1890 or later originally part of the Trust collection together with Adams manuscripts acquired from other sources, administered by the Massachusetts Historical Society on the same footing with its other manuscript collections.

  • Adams Papers, Microfilms
  • The corpus of the Adams Papers, 1639–1889, as published on microfilm by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1954–1959, in 608 reels. Cited in the present work, when necessary, by reel number. Available in research libraries throughout the United States and in a few libraries in Europe and Canada.

  • The Adams Papers
  • The present edition in letterpress, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. References between volumes of any given unit will take this form: vol. 3:171. Since there will be no overall volume numbering for the edition, references from one series, or unit of a series, to another will be by title, volume, and page; for example, JQA, Papers, 4:205. (For the same reason, references by scholars citing this edition should not be to The Adams Papers as a whole but to the particular series or subseries concerned; for example, John Adams, Diary and Autobiography, 3:145; Adams Family Correspondence, 6:167.)

  • PCC
  • Papers of the Continental Congress. Originals in the National Archives: Record Group 360. Microfilm edition in 204 reels. Usually cited in the present work from the microfilms, but according to the original series and volume numbering devised in the State Department in the early 19th century; for example, PCC, No. 93, III, i.e. the third volume of series 93.

  • Thwing Catalogue, MHi
  • Annie Haven Thwing, comp., Inhabitants and Estates of the Town of Boston, 1630–1800; typed card catalogue, with supplementary bound typescripts, in the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited


  • AAS, Procs.
  • American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings.

  • Samuel Adams, Writings
  • The Writings of Samuel Adams, ed. Harry Alonzo Cushing, New York and London, 1904–1908; 4 vols.

  • T. R. Adams, American Independence
  • Thomas R. Adams, American Independence: The Growth of an Idea. A Bibliographical Study of the American Political Pamphlets Printed Between 1764 and 1776 …, Providence, R.I., 1965.

  • Adams Family Correspondence
  • Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963–.

  • AHR
  • American Historical Review.

  • Alden, General Charles Lee
  • John Richard Alden, General Charles Lee: Traitor or Patriot?, Baton Rouge, La., 1951.

  • Allen, Mass. Privateers
  • Gardner Weld Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, vol. 77), Boston, 1927.

  • Amer. Philos. Soc., Memoirs, Procs., Trans.
  • American Philosophical Society, Memoirs, Proceedings, and Transactions.

  • Appletons' Cyclo. Amer. Biog.
  • James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds., Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, New York, 1887–1889; 6 vols.

  • Austin, Gerry
  • James T. Austin, The Life of Elbridge Gerry. With Contemporary Letters, Boston, 1828–1829; 2 vols. [Vol. 1:] To the Close of the American Revolution; [vol. 2:] From the Close of the American Revolution.

  • Biog. Dir. Cong.
  • Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774–1949, Washington, 1950.

  • Black, Law Dictionary
  • Henry Campbell Black, A Law Dictionary Containing Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence Ancient and Modern, 2d edn., St. Paul, Minn., 1910.

  • Bostonian Society, Pubns.
  • Bostonian Society, Publications.

  • Boston Record Commissioners, Reports
  • City of Boston, Record Commissioners, Reports, Boston, 1876–1909; 39 vols.

  • Braintree Town Records
  • Samuel A. Bates, ed., Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640 to 1793, Randolph, Mass., 1886.

  • Burnett, ed., Letters of Members
  • Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, Washington, 1921–1936; 8 vols.

  • Catalogue of JA's Library
  • Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.

  • Clark, Washington's Navy
  • William Bell Clark, George Washington's Navy, Baton Rouge, La., 1960.

  • Conn. Colonial Records
  • J. Hammond Trumbull and Charles J. Hoadly, eds., The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Hartford, 1850–1890; 15 vols.

  • Conn. Hist. Soc., Colls.
  • Connecticut Historical Society, Collections.

  • DAB
  • Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; 20 vols. plus index and supplements.

  • Deane Papers
  • Papers of Silas Deane, 1774–1790, in New-York Historical Society, Collections, Publication Fund Series, vols. 19–23, New York, 1887–1891; 5 vols.

  • Dexter, Yale Graduates
  • Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, with Annals of the College History, New York, 1885–1912; 6 vols.

  • Dict. of Americanisms
  • Mitford M. Mathews, ed., A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles, Chicago, 1951.

  • DNB
  • Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1900; 63 vols. plus supplements.

  • Early Amer. Atlas
  • Lester J. Cappon and others, Atlas of Early American History, Princeton, 1976.

  • Evans
  • Charles Evans and others, comps., American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, 1903–1959; 14 vols.

  • Evans Supplement
  • Roger P. Bristol, Supplement to Charles Evans' American Bibliography, Charlottesville, Va., 1970.

  • Force, Archives
  • [Peter Force, ed.,] American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs, Washington, 1837–1853; 9 vols.

  • Franklin, Papers
  • The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, William B. Willcox (from vol. 15), and others, New Haven, 1959–.

  • Freeman, Washington
  • Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, New York, 1948–1952; 6 vols. Vol. 7, by John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth, New York, 1957.

  • French, First Year
  • Allen French, The First Year of the American Revolution, Boston, 1934.

  • Frothingham, Siege of Boston
  • Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 6th edn., Boston, 1903.

  • Gage, Corr.
  • The Correspondence of General Thomas Gage with the Secretaries of State, 1763–1775, ed. Clarence E. Carter, New Haven, 1931–1933; 2 vols.

  • Gipson, Empire before the Revolution
  • Lawrence Henry Gipson, The British Empire before the American Revolution, Caldwell, Idaho and New York, 1936–1970; 15 vols.

  • Heitman, Register Continental Army
  • Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, new edn., Washington, 1914.

  • Hist. Soc. Penna., Memoirs
  • Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Memoirs.

  • Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
  • J. C. F. Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, 1852–1866; 46 vols.

  • JA, Diary and Autobiography
  • Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols.

  • JA, Legal Papers
  • Legal Papers of John Adams, ed. L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel, Cambridge, 1965; 3 vols.

  • JA, Papers
  • Papers of John Adams, ed. Robert J. Taylor and others, Cambridge, 1977–.

  • JA, Works
  • The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols.

  • JCC
  • Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols.

  • Jefferson, Papers
  • The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd and others, Princeton, 1950–.

  • Johnston, Campaign around New York and Brooklyn
  • Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn (Long Island Historical Society, Memoirs, vol. 3), Brooklyn, 1878, repr. N.Y., 1971.

  • Madison, Papers
  • The Papers of James Madison, ed. by William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, Robert A. Rutland (from vol. 8), and others, Chicago, 1962–

  • Mass., House Jour.
  • Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts [1715– ], Boston, reprinted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1919– . (For the years for which reprints are not yet available, the original printings are cited, by year and session.)

  • Mass., Province Laws
  • The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1869–1922; 21 vols.

  • Mass. Provincial Congress, Jours.
  • William Lincoln, ed., The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775, and of the Committee of Safety, Boston, 1838.

  • Mass. Soldiers and Sailors
  • Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Boston, 1896–1908; 17 vols.

  • Mayo, Winthrop Family
  • Lawrence Shaw Mayo, The Winthrop Family in America, Boston, 1948.

  • Md. Hist. Mag.
  • Maryland Historical Magazine.

  • MHS, Colls., Procs.
  • Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections and Proceedings.

  • Miller, ed., Treaties
  • Hunter Miller, ed., Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, Washington, 1931–1948; 8 vols.

  • Naval Docs. Amer. Rev.
  • William Bell Clark, William James Morgan (from vol. 5), and others, eds., Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Washington, 1964–

  • NEHGR
  • New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

  • NEQ
  • New England Quarterly.

  • N.H. Hist. Soc., Colls.
  • New Hampshire Historical Society, Collections.

  • NYHS, Colls.
  • New-York Historical Society, Collections.

  • OED
  • The Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, 1933; 12 vols. and supplement.

  • Parliamentary Hist.
  • The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, London: Hansard, 1806–1820; 36 vols.

  • Paullin, Navy of Amer. Rev.
  • Charles Oscar Paullin, The Navy of the American Revolution: Its Administration, its Policy, and its Achievements, Cleveland, 1906.

  • Penna. Archives
  • Pennsylvania Archives. Selected and Arranged from Original Documents in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852–1935; 119 vols. in 123.

  • Penna. Colonial Records
  • Pennsylvania Colonial Records, 1683–1790, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1851–1853; 16 vols.

  • PMHB
  • Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.

  • Josiah Quincy, Josiah Quincy, Jr.
  • Josiah Quincy, Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Junior, of Massachusetts: 1744–1775, 2d edn., ed. Eliza Susan Quincy, Boston, 1874.

  • Sabine, Loyalists
  • Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, with an Historical Essay, Boston, 1864; 2 vols.

  • S.C. Hist. Soc., Colls.
  • South Carolina Historical Society, Collections.

  • Shurtleff, Description of Boston
  • Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, 3d. edn., Boston, 1890.

  • Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates
  • John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– .

  • Stark, Loyalists of Mass.
  • James H. Stark, The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution, Boston, 1910.

  • Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions
  • Francis N. Thorpe, ed., The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America, Washington, 1909; 7 vols.

  • VMHB
  • Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.

  • Warren-Adams Letters
  • Warren-Adams Letters: Being Chiefly a Correspondence among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, vols. 72–73), Boston, 1917–1925; 2 vols.

  • Washington, Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick
  • The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, Washington, 1931–1944; 39 vols.

  • Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.
  • Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols.

  • WMQ
  • William and Mary Quarterly.

  • Wroth and others, eds., Province in Rebellion
  • L. Kinvin Wroth, George H. Nash III, and Joel Meyerson, eds., Province in Rebellion, Cambridge, 1975.
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volume 3

Papers

May 1775 – January 1776

{p. R36}
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007.
http://www.masshist.org/ff/