for the said Shoes into the hands of the Committee, for publick purposes. The said Josias Lanham and John Lindsay declare their concern for the part they have acted in violation of the Association, and promise their paying due regard thereto for the future; and also declare their willingness to destroy the said Shoes; which were accordingly burnt by the said Lanham and Lindsay, in the presence of the Committee.

Ordered, That a copy of these proceedings be sent to be published in the Maryland Gazette.

True copy, signed by order of the Committee:

THOMAS CLAGETT, Clerk.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER RECEIVED IN LONDON FROM AN OFFICER ON BOARD HIS MAJESTY’S SLOOP SWAN, STATIONED AT RHODE-ISLAND, DATED AUGUST 14, 1775.

Two gentlemen crossing a ferry at Rhode-Island in their way from Philadelphia to the eastward, were stopped by Captain Ayscough, who found several letters in their possession, which were transmitted to Admiral Graves; but I found an opportunity of copying two of them, and herewith send the copies to you, that you may see the real intentions of those miscreants who have misled His Majesty’s subjects in North America to commit themselves in acts of open rebellion; and that you may be no longer deceived by the artful publications of those traitors, or give credit to their professions of wishing for accommodation. There is undoubted proof that both these letters are from Mr. John Adams, a lawyer of Boston, and one of the Delegates in the Continental Congress.

Philadelphia, July 24, 1775.

MY DEAR: It is now almost three months since I left you, in every part of which my anxiety about you and the children, as well as our country, has been extreme.

The business I have had upon my mind has been as great and important as can be intrusted to one man, and the difficulty and intricacy of it is prodigious. When fifty or sixty men have a constitution to form for a great empire, at the same time that they have a country of fifteen hundred miles extent to fortify; millions to arm and train; a naval power to an extensive commerce to regulate; numerous tribes of Indians to negotiate with; a standing army of twenty-seven thousand men to raise, pay, victual, and officer; I really shall pity those fifty and sixty men.

I must see you ere long. Rice has wrote me a very good letter, so has Thatcher, for which I thank them both. Love to the children.

J. A.

P. S. I wish I had given you a complete history, from the beginning to the end of the journey, of the behaviour of my compatriots. No mortal tale could equal it. I will tell you in future, but you shall keep it a secret—the fidgets, the whims, the caprice, the vanity, the superstition, the irritability of some of us is ——

Mrs. Abigail Adams, Brain-tree; to the care of Colonel Warrn; favoured by Mr. Hitchborne.

Philadelphia, July 24, 1775.

SIR: In confidence I am determined to write freely to you this time. A certain* great fortune and piddling genius, whose fame has been trumpeted so loudly, has given a silly cast to our whole doings. We are between hawk and buzzard. We ought to have had in our hands a month ago the whole legislative, executive, and judicial power of the whole Continent, and have completely modelled a Constitution; to have raised a naval power; opened all our ports wide; to have arrested every friend to Government on the Continent, and held them us hostages for the poor victims in Boston; and then opened the door as wide as possible for peace and reconciliation. After this they might have petitioned, and negotiated, and addressed, &c., if they would. Is all this extravagant? Is it wild? Is it not the soundest policy?

One piece of news: Seven thousand weight of powder arrived here last night. We shall send along some as soon as we can; but you must be patient and frugal.

We are lost in the extensivepess of our field of business. We have Continental Treasury to establish; a Paymaster to choose; and a Committee of Correspondence, or Safety, or Accounts, or something, I know not what, that has confounded us all day.

Shall I hail you Speaker of the House, or Counsellor, or what? What kind of an election had you? What sort of magistrates do you intend to make? Will your new legislative and executive, feel bold or irresolute? Will your judicial hang and whip, and fine and imprison, without scruple? I want to see our distressful country once more; yet I dread the sight of devastation.

You observe in your letter the oddity of a great man. He is a queer creature; but you must love his dogs if you love him, and forgive a thousand whims, for the sake of the soldier and the scholar. Yours.

To the Honourable James Warren, Esq., Watertown, favoured by Mr. Hichborne.

NOTE.—This letter was anonymous, but wrote in the same hand with that addressed to Abigail Adams.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM GENERAL GAGE TO THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH, DATED BOSTON, AUGUST 26, 1775.

The designs of the leaders of the rebellion are plain, and every day confirms the truth of what was asserted years ago by intelligent people, that a plan was laid in this Province, and adjusted with some of the same stamp in others, for a total independence; whilst they amused people in England, called the friends of America, as well as many in this Country, with feigned professions of affection and attachment to the Parent State, and pretended to be aggrieved and discontented only on account of taxation; that they have designedly irritated Government by every insult, whilst they artfully poisoned the minds of the people, and ripened them for insurrection. They would still deceive and lull the Mother Country into a belief that nothing is meant against the Nation, and that their quarrel is only with the Ministers. But it is hoped that the Nation will see through this falsehood and deceit. It matters not who hold the helm of the state; the stroke is levelled at the British Nation, on whose ruins they hope to build their so much vaunted American Empire, and to rise, like the Phoenix, out of the ashes of the Mother Country.

TO MR. PURDIE.

Wilhamsburgh, Virginia, November 10, 1775.

SIR: The Tories lay great stress on certain intercepted letters from a Delegate, as containing a full proof that the Congress are aiming at independence; but let any impartial person read their Resolves and Petitions, and judge whether they had any such views, and whether if they had at the time of writing such letters, it was not on a supposition that their humble Petition would be rejected, and that there was no alternative left but slavery or indipendence. If We entertain a wish to be unconnected with Great Britain, it is because we have been cruelly and inhumanly treated by her. Could any nation be more completely dependant on another, and retain even shadow of freedom, than America was, and still consents to be on Great Britain? Was Britain satisfied with in the year 1763? She was. Does America ask for any immunities she did not then enjoy? She does not. Even Lord North himself must answer these questions in the same manner. What, then, is the new claim that they charge us with demanding, and for which they are endeavouring to butcher our people, and lay waste our coasts? The truth is, the Ministry and Parliament have made a new demand necessary, by new oppressions, by repeated and aggravated insults, and by unheard of cruelties. It is high time to look to ourselves, to take care of our extended coasts, “to form a connexion with some other Power,” since Great Britain insultingly, wantonly, and cruelly, has spurned us from her, “and to think of laying the foundation of a great Empire.” This is what the Delegate said he had in contemplation, and this is what the British Ministry have made necessary; and this it must be the duty of the Congress to do, if the King refuses to hear their Petition, and to redress our grievances. We still love our fellow-subjects in Britain; we still wish to be connected with them. Although our King has hitherto refused us relief, and suffers us to be in-humanly treated, we have not, and wish not to withdraw

* We can assure the publick that these letters are not copied from the originals—Mass. Spy.

*