Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
Your freindly Epistle of the 14th ulto. I have lately recd. & it is now before me; I am much obliged to you for the Care of my purse. I wish our endeavours to recover it had succeeded, for the scituation of our public affairs, makes Cash very scarce, as well as much wanted; respecting any suspicion that the Goldfinders have got it; perhaps an enquiry of their circumstances since the affair might be serviceable, at least so far as to know if it were worth while to try again.
I cannot concieve on what principle it is that the Torys should tryumph in the late Conduct of Portsmouth & other places securing their Guns & Ammunition; no freind of Government can rejoyce in any thing that disturbs Government much less in what they call Acts of Rebellion and their tryumph must Spring from a malicious diabolical desire, that the Vengeance of G. Britain may be reaked on the American Colonies. We are very much obliged to you for every hint you Give of any danger of dividing the Colonys; our freinds from one End of the Continent to the other may depend upon it that in this Colony no Step is taken of any Importance witht. considering how it will be approved off by the Other Colonys, & our earnest desire to do 35nothing that might give uneasiness, has prevented some steps being taken which perhaps might have been salutary. With regard to the perticular matter of moving the Guns &c., any person who attends to the Current of affairs must know the reason of it was the forbidding Arms & Ammunition being imported, & the Conduct of Administration wearing so hostile an Appearance as to loudly call upon the natural inherent principle of self preservation; those who hold the Doctrines of passive obedience & non resistance will fault their Conduct, whilst others who view these transactions as connected with the rights of mankind & Englishmen, will have more liberal apprehensions from them; but our Enemys omit no opportunitys to asperse the Whiggs; & even the Whiggs who are at a distance from the scene of action dont sufficiently consider the difficult scituation of the Freinds, who in the centre of action are continually impressed, & in danger of being shackled & rendered unable to struggle by patience & remissness, or of giving offence & causing Divisions by any Enterprize which might save them; they who wish well to our common cause will consider all Circumstances before they form a judgment, & they who are unfreindly will stick at nothing to reproach us.
The report you mention of Mr. Adams & Mr. Cushing, is much such a kind of a story, as one industriously reported here vizt. that the (learned, the sincere, the deliberate, the judicious) Farmer of Pennsylvania2 had back’d about & gone over to the Tory Cause. My Friend, you must have observed that ever since the Congress rose, the great father of lies has been fully employ’d in misrepresenting every thing, & making some pompous lies clearly out of nothing. The story you mention is one of this sort. No such motion was made or thought of, as I know of, much less did Mr. Cushing ever in his life use such language, & as for the dissolution of the congress, it was done upon the same principle the Grand Congress was dissolved, Vizt. to give the Inhabitants opportunity of sending other men if they pleased, after they had done every thing which they then thought proper to do & a new one has just sat. I hope the freinds of our Common Cause will not grow cool much less forsake it, upon any supposition that we are rash in our measures, if in our Extremitys we Should not conduct as cool Reason would dictate, we are to be pityed, but I dont know that the Cause is the worse i:e has GBritain a right to make us Slaves because when we endeavour to hinder it we do not do it with the most discretion. Pray remember me to yr. good Wife 36& to all my freinds at Philada. of whom I recollect too many to be enumerated; hoping yr. best Welfare & the redress of all Greivances I am yr. obliged & hble. Servt.
The draft in the RTP Papers, MHS, dates this Feb. 26. It is endorsed: “To Stephen Collins, Phila. in Ans to his of 14th ult. 26 Feby. 1775 about union &c. to be quoted”; “Answer to a letter from S. Collins of Philadelphia of Jany.—in which he expressed a hope the several Colonies would act harmoniously in all their measures & stating a report in circulation, that the principal men in Massts. were divided in opinion as to the steps necessary to be taken—some being for raising men immediately & attacking the British troops in Boston—& others as warmly opposed to it—.”
John Dickinson (1732–1808) began the practice of law in Philadelphia in 1757. From the 1760s onwards he was actively promoting conciliation with Britain, both as an elected official and as a publicist writing as the “Pennsylvania Farmer.” Dickinson served in the Continental Congress representing both Pennsylvania (1774–1776) and Delaware (1779). He also served both states as president (Delaware in 1781 and Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1785). After that he returned to Delaware which sent him as a delegate to the federal convention in 1787 (
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By Our Colln. I send along this congratulation on the success of your Labours. Your Countrys Approbation was a suffecient reward I dont doubt for your fatigues and the additional Eulogium of Chatham will Crown you as a Laurel. I hope Ere long you will have the High seasond pleasure of seeing your Country Free.1
I imagine you will not tarry long at this session at Concord unless you are prevented going to the Southard.2 I Shoud be glad if you cou’d take Germantown in your way home. Mrs. Palmer has many things I Shoud be glad you had in your Garden & she will generously Contribute towards adorning it. I fear your publick Bussiness wont admit of your taking much care of that sort this spring but I hope you can Put Seth in a way to do considerable with Mrs. Paines oversight.
William Pitt the Elder, earl of Chatham, presented a strong speech at the House of Lords on Jan. 20 promoting the reconciliation of the colonies with the mother country. As a first step, Chatham proposed the withdrawal of troops from Boston insisting that civil rather than military means were the only proper solution to the situation, assuring the Lords that “America means only to have safety in property; and personal liberty.” The speech appears in R. C. Simmons and P. D. G. Thomas, eds., Proceedings and Debates of the British Parliaments Respecting North America, 1754–1783 (Millwood and White Plains, N.Y., 1982–1987), 5:268–287.
RTP rode to Concord on Mar. 22 to attend the adjourned meeting of the Provincial Congress. While there, he noted in his diary on Apr. 2 that “News arrived to night at Concord via Marblehead, that the Parliament are determined to enforce the acts.” The next day a coded entry noted that the Congress was “Considering about raising Army.” RTP left Concord on Apr. 8, one week before the Congress adjourned on Apr. 15.
Seth Burns was a servant in the family, frequently mentioned in connection with farming duties by Sally Cobb Paine in her correspondence during RTP’s absence. RTP noted in his diary for Apr. 13, 1772: “Elijah Tisdale went away this morning & Seth Burns came to live with me for 12 Months at £16.” He stayed with the family for seven years and left the household on Dec. 22, 1779.
During RTP’s months at home, his diary records many notes on livestock and on planting crops. On Mar. 7: “Spring comes on fast, the Grass Started & Birds Singing” and within a few days he “planted pease, sowed Lettuce &c.” Long-term planning for his gardens was also underway, and on Apr. 21 he “planted black Heart Cherry Trees from Deacon Luscombes Garden.”