Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 February 1777

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Baltimore Feby: 7, 1777

I am at last after a great deal of Difficulty, settled in comfortable Quarters, but at an infinite Expence . . . . The Price I pay for my Board is more moderate than any other Gentlemen give, excepting my Colleagues, who are all in the same Quarters, and at the same Rates except Mr. H [Hancock] who keeps an House by himself.

The Prices of Things here, are much more intollerable than at Boston.

The Attempt of New England to regulate Prices, is extreamly popular in Congress, and who will recommend an Imitation of it to the other States: for my own Part I expect only a partial and a temporary Relief from it. And I fear that after a Time the Evils will break out with greater Violence. The Water will flow with greater Rapidity for having been dammed up for a Time. The only radical Cure will be to stop the Emission of more Paper, and to draw in some that is already out, and devise Means effectually to support the Credit of the Rest.

To this End We must begin forthwith to tax the People, as largely as the distressed Circumstances of the Country will bear. We must raise the Interest from four to six Per Cent. We must if possible borrow Silver and Gold from abroad. We must, above all Things, endeavour this Winter, to gain farther Advantages of the Enemy, that our Power may be in somewhat higher Reputation than it is, or rather than it has been.

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Cite web page as: Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 February 1777 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/

Original manuscript: Adams, John. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 February 1777. 2 pages. Original manuscript from the Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Source of transcription: Butterfield, L.H., ed. Adams Family Correspondence. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963.