expectation of the arrival of the Continental money, as also of our plates and paper for the new emission. We admire much at your silence on that head, and can account for it no otherwise than by taking it for granted that your attention is engaged on subjects of more importance.

We have heretofore requested you would let us know the pay of officers and seamen engaged in the Continental Navy, and must again remind you of sending it to us, that we may settle the pay in our Province.

We can spare fifty pieces of the heaviest duck, and most unfit for tents; the rest you will be pleased to forward to us by the stages. All is quiet here at present. Nothing new, only that the man-of-war, in her passage down, plundered Sharp’s Island, and carried off some stock, and had taken a small vessel belonging to Colonel Tayloe. A flying report, by Charles Landsdale, this day, that they were lately seen at the mouth of Potomack.

Your information with regard to Mr. Temple falls much short of the great expectations raised by the publick papers, and by private letters heretofore received. Be pleased to send us the earliest intelligence which way Lord Howe steers his course from Boston, that, if he comes this way, we may be prepared to receive him.

We are, &c.

To the Deputies for Maryland in Congress.

P. S. If the lead be not already sent off, please order four tons to Chestertown, for the use of the Eastern-Shore.

JOHN JAY TO COLONEL McDOUGALL.

Philadelphia, March 23, 1776.

DEAR COLONEL: When the Clerk of the Congress gave me the printed papers which I enclosed you, he told me they contained the Navy establishment. Whatever deficiencies there may be in them as to that matter, will, I hope, be supplied by the extract now enclosed.

As to Continental colours, the Congress have made no order as yet concerning them; and I believe the Captains of their armed vessels have, in that particular, been directed by their own fancies and inclinations. I remember to have seen a flag designed for one of them, on which was extremely well painted a large rattlesnake, rearing his crest and shaking his rattles, with this motto: “Don‘t tread on me”; but whether this device was generally adopted by the fleet, I am not able to say; I rather think it was not.

I am by no means without my apprehensions of danger from that licentiousness which, in your situation, is not uncommon. Nothing will contribute more to its suppression than a vigorous exertion of the powers vested in your Convention and Committee of Safety—at least till more regular forms can be introduced. The tenderness shown to some wild people, on account of their supposed attachment to the cause, has been of disservice. Their eccentrick behaviour, by passing unreproved, has gained countenance, and has lessened your authority, and diminished that dignity so essential and necessary to give weight and respect to your ordinances. Some of your own people are daily instigated, if not employed, to calumniate and abuse the whole Province, and misrepresent all their actions and intentions. One, in particular, has had the impudence to intimate to certain persons that your battalions, last campaign, were not half full, and that Schaick’s Regiment had more officers than privates. Others report that you have all along supplied the men-of-war with whatever they pleased to have, and through them, our enemies in Boston. By tales like these they pay their court to people who have more ostensible consequence than real honesty, and more cunning than wisdom.

I am happy to find that our intermeddling in the affair of the Test is agreeable to you. For God’s sake resist all such attempts for the future.

Your own discernment has pointed out to you the principle of Lord Stirling’s advancement. Had the age of a Colonel’s commission been a proper rule, it would have determined in favour of some Colonel at Cambridge, many of whose commissions are prior in date to any in New-York. The spirit you betray on this occasion becomes a soldier.

The enclosed copy of a resolve of Congress will, I hope, settle all doubts relative to rank, which may arise from your new commission. The consequence you drew from that circumstance was more ingenious than solid; for I can assure you that the Congress were not disposed to do anything wrong or uncivil; and I can also add, that your not having joined your regiment last summer has been explained to their satisfaction, as far as I am able to judge. With respect to this, however, as well as some other matters, I shall defer particulars till we meet. In a word, with some men in these as in other other times, a man must either be their tool and be despised, or act a firm disinterested part and be abused. The latter has, in one or two matters, been your fate, as well as that of many other good men. Adieu.

To Colonel McDougall.

JOHN ADAMS TO GENERAL GATES.

Philadelphia, March 23, 1776.

SIR: I had the pleasure, a few days ago, of your favour of the 8th instant, for which I esteem myself under great obligations to you. We rejoice here at the prospect there is of your driving the enemy from Boston. If you should succeed in this, I hope effectual measures will be taken to fortify the harbour, that the Navy may never enter it again. I think the Narrows may be so obstructed that large ships may not be able to pass; and the channel between Long-Island and the Main may be commanded, by batteries on each of those Islands, in such a manner that Boston may be safe from men-of-war. I hope my countrymen will hesitate at no expense to attain this end, if, in order to accomplish it, they should be obliged to remove the rocky mountains of my town of Braintree into the harbour.

But I cannot yet clearly satisfy myself that they will leave Boston. It will be a greater disgrace to the British arms than to be taken prisoners in the town in a body. If they should abandon the persons and property of their dear friends, the Tories, in Boston, will any other Tories, in any other part of the Continent, ever trust to their protection? It will be considered as such impotence or such infidelity, that I am inclined to think few professors of Toryism would ever afterwards be found anywhere.

I agree with you that in politicks the middle way is none at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves by groping after this middle way. We have hitherto conducted half a war; acted upon the line of defence, &c., &c. But you will see by tomorrow’s paper that, for the future, we are likely to wage three-quarters of a war. The Continental ships-of-war, and Provincial ships-of-war, and letters of marque and privateers, are permitted to cruise on British property, wherever found on the ocean. This is not Independency, you know; nothing; like it.

If a post or two more should bring you unlimited latitude of trade to all nations, and a polite invitation to all nations to trade with you, take care that you do not call it or think it Independency. No such matter. Independency is a hobgoblin of such frightful mien that it would throw a delicate person into fits to look it in the face.

I know not whether you have seen the act of Parliament called the Restraining Act. or Prohibitory Act, or Piratical Act; or Plundering Act, or Act of Independency-for by all these titles is it called. I think the most apposite is the Act of Independency; for King, Lords, and Commons, have united in sundering this country from that, I think, forever. It is a complete dismemberment of the British Empire. It throws thirteen Colonies out of the Royal protection, levels all distinctions, and makes us independent in spite of our supplications and entreaties.

It may be fortunate that the Act of Independency should come from the British Parliament rather than the American Congress; but it is very odd that Americans should hesitate at accepting such a gift from them. However, my dear friend Gates, all our misfortunes arise from a single source-the reluctance of the Southern Colonies to Republican Government. The success of this war depends on a skilful steerage of the political vessel. The difficulty lies in forming particular Constitutions for particular Colonies, and a Continental Constitution for the whole. Each Colony should establish its own Government, and then a league should be formed between them all. This can be done only on popular principles and axioms, which are so abhorrent to the inclinations of the Barons of the South, and the