Watertown Augt. 7. 1775 Dear Sir,

I Recd. yours of the 22d July,1 & am much obliged to you for it. I do assure you I am so far from haveing forgot you, that I have often wondered why among your other Friends I have never been obliged in this way before, & more especially as I requested it. This, when I recollected the long standing of our Acquaintance I have considered as forbiding me to write to you, & has been the occasion I have not done it. I am very sorry that you have not had more perfect as well as more frequent accounts of the situation of things here, and of the several Events that have taken place since you left us. I am sensible we are to be Blamed for some degree of negligence, but the Multiplicity of Business on our hands, & the Confusion & hurry of our affairs must in some measure Excuse us. Great Indeed & numerous have been the overturns here since you left us. Imagination could hardly paint the Calamities & sufferings of some, the hurry & perplexity of others & the patient perseverance & determination of all, a few Excepted 82whose Wickedness yet remaineth. I begin now to feel Extreemly happy. We have a very fine army in good health & Spirits, well supplied, & well conducted, & to crown the whole there seems to prevail an Entire harmony among officers & soldiers, & a perfect Confidence in their Generals. This with the arrival of many Gentn. from the Southern Goverments as volunteers in the army & of the fine Companies of rifle men daily comeing in has afforded a pleasing prospect, but all has been damaged by the want of a certain article till the News from Philadelphia this day has relieved us from racking anxiety & distress. I hope soon the roaring of Cannon which has lately been so disagreable will be Music. Our Civil matters are going on as fast, & as well as can be Expected. We have yet passed no act. We have a Bill gone through our House to be Engrossed which Hawley calls a roller. It is designed to vacate all the offices Civil & military, & clear the stage for the Council to bring on again who they please. I cant easily Conceive your policy in referring the appointment of officers of such Consequence to the Genl. as you mention. Your own Colony will be loosers, but that may not be the worst of it. Every Check should be regarded & these appointments might be of Consequence in that way. The Frye we had chose a Major General was Coll. Joseph Frye of Pigwacket.2 It really renewed his youth & vigour, but he is now going Home. I wish I was able to give you any News, but a dead Calm prevails here at present. No Events have taken place lately in the military way. The General has been obliged to restrain the ardour of the Rifle men purely from principles of frugality. They picked of several of their officers the begining of last week, & I presume will now soon do it again. It is said that the Eastern People have taken 7 of their Vessels sent down to get wood & provisions, & one other Tender at Machias. I believe these accounts are true & hope for a Confirmation this day. Two Men of War arrived on Sunday full of Men, it is said from England. Hitchburn was taken at Newport by a Man of War & very Imprudently reserved his Letters to fall into their hands. They have sent him round to Boston, & Boast of haveing made mighty discoveries from the Letters. Two were I am told to the General, & one to me from one of my good Friends Mr. J. or S: Adams. I hope there was nothing Important in the Letters, but can hardly suppose it. You will please to make my perticular regards to those two Gentn. & Inform them of this Unlucky Circumstance.3 My regards to our other Friends. I am with wishes for your Happiness Your Friend & Humbe. Servt.

Jas: Warren 83

All that come out of Boston seem to agree that they are dismantleing the Castle. What the Policy of it is I cant devise, unless they are determine to withdraw & leave the Town & indeed there are some other Circumstances that seem to corroborate that Supposition but Nothing certain can be depended on.4

Augt. 8th.

This is an unexpected opportunity. I have Just heard of it. Please to let my Friend Mr. J: Adams know I should not have failed writeing to him if I had known it in Season. I shall not loose another.

RC ; addressed: “To The Honbl. Robt. Treat Paine Esqr. Member of the Congress att Philadelphia. per Mr Brown”; endorsed.

1.

Not located.

2.

Joseph Frye (1712–1794) was commissioned a colonel by Massachusetts in 1756 and raised a regiment that was among those which surrendered to the French at Fort William Henry in 1757. He then commanded a fort in Nova Scotia from 1759 to 1760, after which the Massachusetts legislature granted him a township in Maine known as Pequawket. The Provincial Congress appointed Frye a major general on June 21, 1775, and commander of the forces at Falmouth, Cumberland County. After much haggling, the Continental Congress commissioned Frye a brigadier general in the Continental Army on Jan. 10, 1776, but claiming ill health Frye soon resigned his post. As General Washington reported the situation: “Genl Frye, that Wonderful Man, has made a most Wonderful hand of it—His appointment took place the 11th of Jany—he desired ten days ago, that his resignation might take place the 11th of April—He has drawn Three hundred and Seventy five Dollars— never done one days duty—scarce been three times out of his House, discovered that he was too old, and too infirm for a moving Camp—but remembers that he has been young, active, and very capable of doing what is now out of his power to accomplish; & therefore has left Congress to find out another Man capable of making, if possible, a more brilliant figure than he has done” (George Washington to Joseph Reed, Apr. 1, 1776, in The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, 4:10).

3.

Benjamin Hichborn of Boston was carrying letters from Philadelphia when he was captured by the British at Conanicut Ferry near Newport, R.I. Two of the letters, from John Adams to his wife Abigail and to James Warren, subsequently appeared in the Massachusetts Gazette and later by the English papers. For a discussion of this incident, see Adams Family Correspondence , 1:256–257n.

4.

General Washington also heard rumors of the destruction of Castle William in Boston Harbor and of General Gage bringing the guns into town, but as he reported to John Hancock “upon a very particular Inquiry, accounts are so various that I cannot ascertain the Truth of it” (Washington to Hancock, Aug. 4–5, 1775, in The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, 1:229). In fact, the British destroyed the Castle, but not until their evacuation of the town in March 1776.