Adams Family Correspondence, volume 1

John Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 June 1775 JA AA

1775-06-02

John Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 June 1775 Adams, John Adams, Abigail
John Adams to Abigail Adams
My Dear Phyladelphia June 2. 1775

I had Yesterday the Pleasure of two Letters from you, by Dr. Church.1 We had been so long without any Intelligence from our Country, that the Sight of the Dr. gave us great Joy. I have received no Letters from England, untill the Dr. brought me one from Mr. Dilly.2

Mr. Henly goes, tomorrow, to the Camp at Cambridge. I am not so ill, as I was when I left you, tho not well. Bass has recover'd of the Small Pox.

Our Debates and Deliberations are tedious, from Nine to four, five, 209and once near Six. Our Determinations very slow—I hope sure. The Congress will support Us, but in their own Way. Not precisely in that Way which I could wish, but in a better Way than We could well expect, considering what an heterogeneous Body it is.

The Prospect of Crops in all the southern Colonies never was exceeded. What will become of immense Quantities of Provisions, when the Non Exportation takes Place I cant conceive. Surely We shant starve.

Poor Bostonians! My Heart Bleeds for them, day and Night. God preserve and bless them.

Was you frightened, when the sheep Stealers got a drubbing at Grape Island? Father Smith prayed for our Scough Crew, I doubt not, but how did my dear Friend Dr. Tufts sustain the shock? My Duty and Love to them and all others who justly claim them.

My Dear Nabby, and Johnny and Charley and Tommy are never out of my Thoughts. God bless, preserve and prosper them.

You need not send me any Money; What I shall want will be supplied me here, by my Colleagues to be repaid after our Return.

Dr. Warren writes me, about my Brother.3 My Love to both my Brothers, my Duty to my Mother and your Uncle Quincy. Tell him I hope, our Company continue their Exercises. He would burst to see whole Companies of armed Quakers in this City, in Uniforms, going thro the Manual and Maneuvres like regular Troops.

J.A.

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “C No 6.”

1.

One of 7 May and another unidentified. Dr. Benjamin Church, a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, was ordered by that body on 16 May to repair to Philadelphia with an “application” requesting advice on “the taking up and exercising the powers of civil government” and the adoption by the Continental Congress of the troops gathered around Boston (Mass. Provincial Congress, Jours. , p. 229–231). For JA's account of what resulted in Philadelphia, see his Diary and Autobiography , 3:351–353.

2.

A letter from Edward Dilly to JA, 3 May, is in Adams Papers, but if correctly dated it could hardly have traveled from London to Watertown, Mass., and on to Philadelphia so rapidly.

3.

Joseph Warren to JA, 20 May (Adams Papers); see AA to Joseph Warren, 13 May, above.

Abigail Adams to Eunice Paine, 3 June 1775 AA Paine, Eunice

1775-06-03

Abigail Adams to Eunice Paine, 3 June 1775 Adams, Abigail Paine, Eunice
Abigail Adams to Eunice Paine
Dear Silvia Braintree June 3 1775

So good an opportunity offering, tho I had not wrote before I have detaind the Bearer, just to thank you for your obliging favour, and ask you how you do? I know how much you have sufferd for your Friends, and pitty your distance from them. As news like the Snow Ball, 210allways gathers according to the distance it passes, we were not so much allarmd here as one would have immagined; but at Weymouth they were greatly distress'd for a while. Last Saturday Night we felt all the powers of Sympathy—the continued roar of the cannon predicted many slain upon both Sides.

But thanks be to that Being who hath heitherto coverd the Heads of our Breathren in the Day of Blood and Slaughter, not one man fallen upon our Side, hundreds upon theirs as tis credibly said.1

We must Expect continual allarms, and prepair ourselves for them—if they are affraid our people Will be taking advantages from that circumstance. An intercepted letter from Gage says he has not 36 hundred men in the Town of Boston.—I wait with much impatience to hear from the Congress. Not one word since I heard from New York. Adieu. I will write soon again. Pray remember me to all inquiring Friends, and write me every opportunity. Mrs. Cranch is very sick with the rash. Yours most affectionately,

Portia

RC (MH); addressed: “To Miss Eunice Paine Taunton.”

1.

These were actions in Boston Harbor on 26–27 May. Provincial troops raided Noddle's Island (now East Boston) and nearby Hog (now Breed's) Island, burned British hay stores, drove off and killed a quantity of livestock there, and later blew up a grounded British naval schooner, Diana, in Chelsea Creek. See French, First Year , p. 190–193, 736–737.