Diary of John Adams, volume 2

1776. January 24. Wednesday.<a xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" href="#DJA02d270n1" class="note" id="DJA02d270n1a">1</a> JA

1776-01-24

1776. January 24. Wednesday. Adams, John

1776. January 24. Wednesday.1

Began my Journey to Phildelphia, dined at Colonel Mifflins at 227Cambridge with G. Washington, and Gates and their Ladies, and half a Dozen Sachems and Warriours of the french Cocknowaga Tribe, with their Wives and Children. Williams is one, who was captivated in his Infancy, and adopted. There is a Mixture of White Blood french or English in most of them. Louis, their Principal, speaks English and french as well as Indian. It was a Savage feast, carnivorous Animals devouring their Pray. Yet they were wondrous polite. The General introduced me to them as one of the Grand Council Fire at Philadelphia, upon which they made me many Bows, and a cordial Reception.2

First entry in D/JA/25 since 30 Oct. 1775. The following entries, through 29 Jan., are from the same booklet.

On 15 Dec. 1775 the General Court elected the two Adamses, Hancock, and Paine to another year's term as delegates to the Continental Congress, but replaced Thomas Cushing with Elbridge Gerry—an action that disturbed conservatives both in Massachusetts and in Congress. See Mass., House Jour , 1775–1776, 3d sess., p. 44; Samuel Adams to James Warren, 8 March 1776, Warren-Adams Letters , 1:211–212. But JA was pleased by it and had the company of Gerry on the road to Philadelphia, where the two arrived on 8 Feb. and took their seats in Congress next day (JA to AA, 11 Feb. 1776, Adams Papers; see also JCC , 4:122).

On the Caughnawagas, who had come to offer their services to the Americans, see Washington to Philip Schuyler, 27 Jan. 1776 ( Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, 4:280–281).

1776. Jany. 25. Thursday. JA

1776-01-25

1776. Jany. 25. Thursday. Adams, John

1776. Jany. 25. Thursday.

About 10 Mr. Gerry called me, and we rode to Framingham, where We dined. Coll. Buckminster after Dinner shewed us, the Train of Artillery brought down from Ticonderoga, by Coll. Knox.1 It consists of Iron—9 Eighteen Pounders, 10 Twelves, 6. six, four nine Pounders, Three 13. Inch Mortars, Two Ten Inch Mortars, one Eight Inch, and one six and an half. Howitz,2 one Eight Inch and an half and one Eight.

Brass Cannon. Eight Three Pounders, one four Pounder, 2 six Pounders, one Eighteen Pounder, and one 24 Pounder. One eight Inch and an half Mortar, one Seven Inch and an half Dto. and five Cohorns.

After Dinner, rode to Maynards, and supped there very agreably.

The documents relative to Knox's transportation of the great train of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to the American camp outside Boston are printed by Alexander C. Flick in N.Y. State Hist. Assoc., Quart. Jour. , 9:119–135 (April 1928). They include Knox's own inventory of the guns, with which JA's list closely corresponds and which has been helpful in interpreting JA's confusing punctuation in this passage.

A singular or plural form according to OED . Knox's list has the more conventional term “Howitzers.”

1776 Jany 26. Fryday. JA

1776-01-26

1776 Jany 26. Fryday. Adams, John

1776 Jany 26. Fryday.

Stopped at Sternes's Stearns's in Worcester, and dined with Mr. 228Lincoln at Mr. Jonathan Williams's.1 In Putnams Office where I formerly trimm'd the Midnight Lamp, Mr. Williams keeps Laws Works and Jacob Behmens, with whose Mistical Reveries he is much captivated.2

This Jonathan Williams (d. 1780), Harvard 1772, had been a law clerk in JA's office. He was a cousin of the better-known Jonathan Williams (1750–1815), Benjamin Franklin's great-nephew, who a little later crossed JA's path when serving as American agent at Nantes and who became first superintendent of the military academy at West Point; see DAB . On JA's law clerk see “Suffolk Bar Book,” MHS, Procs. , 1st ser., 19 (1881–1882):151; Harvard Quinquennial Cat.; John Thaxter to JA, 7 Aug. 1780, Adams Papers.

William Law, author of A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, 1728, and other religious works, was an English disciple of the German mystic Jakob Boehme or Behmen; see DNB under Law.