I have this Moment recd a Line from Mrs. Warren1 and will in close her Letter to Mrs. Maccaulay,2 by the first Opportunity. Be pleased to make my Compliments to Mrs. Warren.

Yesterday I recd a Letter from Anapolis in Maryland from my Friend Mr. Chase, inclosing the Resolutions of their provincial Convention consisting of Eighty Members representing all their Counties.3 I wish I could inclose it to you, but it must be printed here.4 They unanimously approve, the Proceedings of the Continental Congress, and determine to carry them punctually into Execution—chose the same Delegates with two new ones for the next Congress. Vote to kill no Lambs—to raise Flax, Cotten and Hemp—and unanimously vote a Militia to be established, through the whole Province by the People themselves, who are to choose their own officers. And all Persons between 16 and 50 are to be imbodied. Unanimously vote to raise 10,000£ to be laid out by the County Committees in Arms and Ammunition, to be kept and disposed of by the Committees, as they shall think proper. Unanimously vote that Contributions for Boston be continued as long as wanted, and resolve unanimously “that if the late Acts of Parliament, relative to the Massachusetts Bay, shall be attempted to be carried into Execution by Force in that Colony, or if the assumed Power of Parliament to tax the Colonies Shall be attempted to be carried into Execution by Force, in that or any other Colony that in Such Case, this Province will Support Such Colony to the Utmost of their Power.

They Recommend Simular Resolutions to all the other colonies and vote Circular Letters to be sent them.

You will soon see the whole I hope—there is a charming Spirit in the whole, as well as in Chase's Letter. He says “he thinks we may never have a more favourable Crisis to determine the Point, I mean the Colonies will probably never be so cordially united, and their Spirits in a higher Tone than at present.”

He says that recent Advices leave us little Room to hope. We must therefore trust to the goodness of our Cause, our own Virtue and Fortitude. He says “he has no doubt that Sentiments equally generous and wise prevail in our Colony, who have hitherto exhibited an 209Example of Wisdom, Patience and Fortitude to the disgrace of the present, and the Admiration of the future Generation.”

We have no great News. The old rotten Rascalls are again chiefly chosen. I have Seen the List,—very few new Members.5

If you see Drapers Papers and Mills and Hicks's6—you will observe that The Arch Enemy,7 is at work again in his infernal Council at Boston.

I never think of the Junto there, immured as they are, without recollecting, the infernal Spirits in Milton after they had recovered from their first astonishment arising from their fall from the Battlements of Heaven to the Sulphurous Lake—not subdued tho confounded—plotting a fresh assault upon the Skies. “What tho the Field be lost? All is not lost; th' unconquerable Will and Study of Revenge, immortal Hate and Courage never to submit or yield &c. Of this be sure, to do ought good never will be our Task, but ever to do ill our Sole Delight.”8—&c. Is not this rather too frolick some and triumphant for the Times, which are dull enough—and as bad as they can be. I doubt whether War, Carnage and Havock would make us more unhappy than this cruel state of Suspense we suffer in the Contemplation of them in Prospect, in Haste

I remember, that Bishop Burnet in a Letter he once wrote to Lady Rachell Russell the virtuous Daughter of the great Southampton, and unfortunate Wife of Lord Russell who died a Martyr to English 210Liberties, Says “Madam I never attempt to write to you but my Pen conscious of its Inferiority falls out of my Hand.” The polite Prelate did not write to that excellent Lady in so bold a figure with half the sincerity, that I could apply it to myself when writing to Mrs. Warren.

I will however Strive to grasp, my Pen hard enough, to write one Line in Answer to her kind Billet Deer 30.2

Mr. Adams assures Mrs. Warren, that nothing would have given him greater Pleasure than a Visit to Plymouth at the late anniversary, but it was out of his Power. He thanks Mr. and Mrs. Warren however, most heartily for their very kind and repeated Invitations. He shall think himself happy if he can find an opportunity, before the Month of May to make a Visit to his Friends at Plymouth, but it has been his Misfortune to have been so often and so long absent from home, for these twelve Months past, that he really thinks his Duty to his family oblige him, to leave it as little as possible.

Mrs. Warren is pleased to mention Mr. Adams's needfull Application to public, and his close Attention to private Business.” His private Business, Madam, has been totally annihilated, These twelve months past and more, by the inauspicious Course of public Affairs, and he has no kind of Prospect of its ever, coming into Existence again. He has therefore, learnt the important Lesson of Resignation to what he cannot alter, and should be very happy the remainder of his Days, to get his Bread by his Labour and Attention to a Farm. He thinks he could shine as an industrious Farmer, but he is too old to make a Figure in Arms the Profession to which We must for the future perhaps be obliged for our Safety and our Liberty as much as formerly we were to that of the Law. If the Standards should be erected, and A Camp formed, however, ten to one but he flies to it, but whether it will be for shelter, or as a volunteer, Time alone must discover.

He thanks Mrs. Warren most kindly for her friendly Wishes for his Peace, Health, and Prosperity, and especially, when she wishes that he may return Laden with the Applauses of his Country, but most of all where she wishes he may return with a self approving Mind. Of the last he is Sure, if plain, direct, Simple and sincere Intentions to do what the Cause of Truth Justice, Liberty and Humanity, according to his Conceptions require of him, at whatever Hazard it may be can insure it. And as long as he shall act upon these Principles, he does not doubt of enjoying that sweetest Music to an honest Ear the Approbation of his Country, for this is seldom refused 211to Integrity of Heart, how inconsiderable soever the Abilities, that direct it. I am Madam, with more Esteem than I have Power in words to expend, your Friend and Sert