Adams Family Correspondence, volume 3

Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Adams, 14 July 1779 Warren, Mercy Otis AA

1779-07-14

Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Adams, 14 July 1779 Warren, Mercy Otis Adams, Abigail

Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Adams

Boston Wensday 14 July 1779 1

My Friends anxity I Wonder not at. Wish I could say anything that would Give that Relief her agitated mind requires. Yet have no doubt her best Friend will soon be in a more Eligiable situation. Mr. Lovel writes Mr. Warren that the Motions of Congress tend towards an appointment to him Honorable, and thinks it will soon take place.2 No body seems to have an Expectation of his Return at present.

The movements of our Enemies I will say Nothing about yet pity Greatly pity the Distresses of our Friends And the Weary Lids are kept 210Waking with the apprehension of Dangers approaching nearer our own Borders.

I expect to see you in a few days, perhaps Next Teusday. Yet it may not be till Wensday or Thursday. But whenever it is You will be assured of seeing one Friend when Called upon by your Humble Servant,

M Warren

RC (Adams Papers).

In a letter dated from Plymouth, 29 July 1779, Mrs. Warren told JA that “On my way from Boston I lodged a week since at the foot of Pens Hill” ( Warren-Adams Letters , 2:114). The present letter, written (as its final paragraph states) a week before that visit and dated at Boston on“Wensday,” must therefore have written on Wednesday, 14 July 1779.

“Our worthy Friend John Adams must think I neglect him in his very odd Situation. We are ripening towards Measures which must induce an immediate and definite consequential Disposition of him, and I have no doubt of an honorable one” (Lovell to Warren, 15 June, Warren-Adams Letters , 2:108).

Abigail Adams to James Lovell, 15 July 1779 AA Lovell, James

1779-07-15

Abigail Adams to James Lovell, 15 July 1779 Adams, Abigail Lovell, James

Abigail Adams to James Lovell

Braintree, ca. 15 July 1779 1

I wrote to Mr. S A—— the same day I received your Letter,2 but not a syllable of information have I yet collected from him. No Alliance yet arrived—it will afford me some releif to be scribling to somebody who will hear me, who will attend to me and answer my Queries, and tho Mr. Lovell has heretofore wrote rather problematically with regard to the situation of my absent Friend I beg of him to be explicit in answering my Questions and the first is whether the conduct of Mr. A. has been impeached either directly or Indirectly? Whether he was included in the publick censure of congress upon the dissensions amongst their commisioners, a censure which if I may presume to say it was as indiscreet as it was unjust.3 Why when Mr. Lee and Mr. Izard received new commissons Mr. Adams was not recalled? Was he ever requested to tarry in France or any notice of any kind taken of him after his commision was vacated? The Motions of congress tend towards an appointment of Mr. A——, and I make no doubt of an honorable one, says Mr. Lovell in a Letter to General Warren4—but where you do not mention. You observe that you are not surprised at the report of his return, nor am I if he has had the reason which I think he has for it. Whenever you favour me with a reply, I request a full and free indulgance of your pen upon the subject. If I have sufferd heretofore in some sacrifice of personal happiness believe me Sir I feel not less keenly the reward of it. But I say this only to you or a 211perticuliar Friend. To every other inquirer my Lips shall keep silence. The safe return of the Alliance may possibly dispell the cloud which at present hangs heavy on 5 the Heart and mind of

Portia

Dft (Adams Papers); at head of text in CFA's hand:“1779.” Just possibly the MS is a fragment, beginning as it does at the top of a page without salutation or paragraph indention and the text seeming to begin in medias res.

In all probability this letter was written within a day or two of AA's receipt of Mrs. Warren's letter to her of [14] July, preceding; see note 4 below.

Lovell's letter must be that of 5 June, above, but no letter from AA to Samuel Adams in late June or early July 1779 has been found.

Congress' much-debated resolve of 20 April on the Deane-Lee dispute: “That suspicions and animosities have arisen among the late and present commissioners, . . . highly prejudicial to the honor and interest of these United States” ( JCC , 13:487). JA's name was not among those finally included in the resolve. See below, JA to AA, 13 Nov., note 3.

Lovell to Warren, 15 June ( Warren-Adams Letters , 2:108), the substance of which respecting JA's status was transmitted to AA, in almost the same words as those used here, in Mrs. Warren's letter to AA, preceding; see note 2 there.

MS torn. The word may be “over.”