Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
The dispatch in sending Mr. Gray insisted on by the Congress does not permit my writing any news to you and really there are not any very late special occurences here of much importance. Indeed the whole Scene and constant course of our affairs is infinitely important.
There seem to be on both sides the Greatest assiduity and continual exertions that each Party may be ready for battle. I must Judge from appearances that it will be long before some accident (as the Gentry in Boston affect to speak) like the Lexington Battle will take place. Perhaps more importt. We have some prospect of getting our army settled before long but every affair is amazing retarded and done to inexpressible disadvange for want of Civil Goverment and the efforts of this Colony must soon be determined unless your Congress either give us a Plan of Civil Government or Countenance our adopting one according to our best discretion. The address now made to your Honrs. by our Congress on that head is not so importunate as the Subject requires.
Nothing will be done offensively by our army this Season unless the American Congress can put us in some way to obtain Gunpowder or Heaven rain it down upon us. I trust we may with the best husbandry defend ourselves with our own Stock and what Connecticut may possibly afford us. We have appointed two Generals to our army and no More. Those already appointed are Col. Ward1 first and Col. Thomas2 his second. We purpose the appointing Two Majr Generals this Week. On whom the choice will fall I can only Guess.3
My Poor Sentiments on the affair of Getting into a State of Civil Government were expressd. in a letter to Mr. Jno. Adams from Northampton. I have not yet seen reason to alter my opinion.4 Our Want of Powder evidently mortifies our army, who if we had good funds of that article would have spirit enough to enterprize any thing.
Most earnestly Wishing you health and happiness I am Your Most assured Friend and humble Sert.
Artemas Ward (1727–1800), a native of Shrewsbury, Mass., was a year ahead of RTP at Harvard (Class of 1748). Active in both county and provincial affairs, Ward rose to the rank of colonel during the French and Indian War. He took command of the forces besieging Boston in April 1775, and the following month was formally commissioned general and commander in chief of Massachusetts troops. Washington’s appointment as commander of the Continental Army reduced Ward to second-in-command with the rank of major general. He offered to resign after the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776 but remained in command until the main army moved to New York and Gen. William Heath relieved him in March 1777. Ward later served in both the Continental and Federal congresses (
Sibley’s Harvard Graduates
, 12:326–348).
John Thomas (1724–1776) was commissioned as a regimental second surgeon in 1746 and served with the Massachusetts troops at Annapolis Royal. Upon returning to his native Marshfield, he continued as a physician until he was appointed as company commander and assistant surgeon during the suppression of the Acadian population in Nova Scotia in 1754. He continued in military service until the end of the French and Indian War in 1760, and then again returned to Massachusetts, this time to farming. At the outbreak of the Revolution, Thomas was appointed as second general to the Massachusetts militia. On Mar. 6, 1776, he was commissioned as major general in the Continental Army and ordered to take command of the troops in Canada. Forced into a retreat in the face of a major smallpox outbreak among his troops and the arrival of British warships, Thomas fell back with his troops but died of the smallpox infection on June 2 before reaching the American border (Edward Pierce Hamilton, “General John Thomas,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 84[1972]:44–52).
Col. John Whetcomb was chosen first major general on June 13. Dr. Joseph Warren was chosen second major general the following day.
John Whetcomb (c. 1712–1785) of Bolton, Mass., served in the provincial army during the Crown Point Expedition in which RTP also participated. There, Whetcomb succeeded Samuel Willard as colonel of the regiment following Willard’s death on Oct. 27, 1755. At the beginning of the Revolution, Whetcomb was a brigadier general in the Massachusetts militia. His appointment as first major general in 1775, noted here, continued until the creation of the Continental Army. In 1776 he was appointed as a brigadier general in the Continental Army but declined on grounds of age and health (Henry S. Nourse, “A Forgotten Patriot,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, new series, 7[1891]:94–106).
Joseph Warren (1741–1775) graduated from Harvard in 1759, apprenticed under Dr. James Lloyd, and quickly established himself as a prominent physician in Boston. Active in freemasonry and in politics, Warren became a leader of the Whig cause, was orator at two of the Boston Massacre commemorations (1772, 1775), and drafted the Suffolk Resolves (1774), which proposed restoring the province’s status under the first charter. When hostilities broke out, Warren ostensibly remained a civilian but was often with the army. On June 14, 1775, he finally accepted a commission as second major general, but only three days later while rallying troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill Warren was killed and quickly became the first popular hero of the Revolution (
Sibley’s Harvard Graduates
, 14:510–527).
In this letter, Hawley presents an early consideration of a break with Great Britain through military means. He begins by stating that “We must fight, if we can’t otherwise rid outselves of British taxation, all revenues, and the constitution or form of government enacted by the British parliament.” Hawley continued his bellicose theme in the letter while recognizing that there was “not heat enough yet for battle” nor “military skill enought,” and so “daily increase” on these fronts was necessary for the cause. He promoted a “certain clear plan, for a constant, adequate and lasting supply of arms and military stores” as a primary goal of Congress. The letter appears in the Papers of John Adams, 2:135–137, under the date of [August? 1774].