Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution Part 56

Mr. Colman goes off for Boston to-morrow. I have seized a moment to congratulate you on the great and glorious success of our arms at the northward and in Delaware River. The forts at Province Island and Redbank have been defended with a magnanimity which will give our country a reputation in Europe. Colonel Greene repulsed the enemy from Redbank and took Count Donop and his aid prisoners. Colonel Smith repulsed a bold attack upon Fort Mifflin, and our galleys disabled two men-of-war, a sixty-four and a twenty gun s.h.i.+p, in such a manner that the enemy blew them up. This comes confirmed this evening, in letters from General Was.h.i.+ngton, inclosing original letters from officers in the forts.

Congress will appoint a thanksgiving; and one cause of it ought to be that the glory of turning the tide of arms is not immediately due to the Commander-in-chief nor to southern troops. If it had been, idolatry and adulation would have been unbounded; so excessive as to endanger our liberties, for what I know. Now, we can allow a certain citizen to be wise, virtuous, and good, without thinking him a deity or a savior.

223. JOHN ADAMS.

Yorktown, 28 October, 1777.

We have been three days soaking and poaching in the heaviest rain that has been known for several years, and what adds to the gloom is the uncertainty in which we remain to this moment concerning the fate of Gates and Burgoyne. We are out of patience. It is impossible to bear this suspense with any temper.

I am in comfortable lodgings, which is a felicity that has fallen to the lot of a very few of our members. Yet the house where I am is so thronged that I cannot enjoy such accommodations as I wish. I cannot have a room as I used, and therefore cannot find opportunities to write as I once did.

The people of this country are chiefly Germans, who have schools in their own language, as well as prayers, psalms, and sermons, so that mult.i.tudes are born, grow up, and die here, without ever learning the English. In politics they are a breed of mongrels or neutrals, and benumbed with a general torpor. If the people in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Jersey had the feelings and the spirit of some people that I know, Howe would be soon ensnared in a trap more fatal than that in which, as it is said, Burgoyne was taken. Howe is completely in our power, and if he is not totally ruined it will be entirely owing to the awkwardness and indolence of this country. Fighting, however, begins to become fas.h.i.+onable. Colonel Greene has exhibited a glorious example in the defense of Red Bank. But this must be done by a New England man at the head of two New England regiments, Rhode Islanders. Colonel Smith, however, is a Marylander from Baltimore. He has shown another example of magnanimity which gives me the most agreeable hopes. Commodore Hazelwood, too, has behaved in a manner that exceeds all praise. This spirit will be caught by other officers, for bravery is epidemical and contagious as the plague. This army suffers much for want of blankets and shoes.

I celebrated the 25th of this month in my own mind and heart much more than I shall the 30th,[184] because I think the first a more fortunate day than the last. My duty to your father and my mother, to uncles and aunts. Love to brothers and sisters; but above all, present all the affection that words can express to our dear babes.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 184: The one his wedding day, the other his birthday.]

224. ABIGAIL ADAMS.

16 November, 1777.

In a letter which came to me to-night you chide yourself for neglecting to write so frequently as you had done. 'T is true a very long s.p.a.ce of near a fortnight pa.s.sed without hearing one word from you. I cannot help feeling anxious when such a s.p.a.ce elapses without receiving a line, but I have no reason to complain. You have, considering your avocations, been more attentive than I had reason to expect.

"Heaven sure taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banished lover or some captive maid."

I have been more fearful than formerly of writing by the post, as I have never received a letter from you by that conveyance since you left Philadelphia. Mr. Colman brought me yours of 25 and 26 October. You have before this time received from me one of the same date, since which I have not written. I have been too much mortified with a late expedition to write you any particulars concerning it. Indeed, it was from the beginning a subject of burlesque, owing, I believe, to the small opinion most people had of the heroic talents of the commanders. It was called a secret expedition to Newport. A fortnight before the troops marched, there were by all accounts as fine a set collected as any spirited commander could have wished for, and 't is said for twenty days the island might have been successfully (to all appearance) attacked. The public are very angry, as well they may be, and demand an inquiry. I know you will be mortified, because it has been a favorite object with you, but if you want your arms crowned with victory, you should not appoint what General Gates calls dreaming Deacons to conduct them.

General Burgoyne and his troops arrived last week in Cambridge. All seems to be quietness at present. From the southward we get no very authentic accounts. To-day Howe and his whole army are captives!

To-morrow they have got possession of our forts and weighed the chevaux de frise.

18 November.

No news at all. Our mountebank story of captivating Howe and his army is come to nothing. The southern troops must have some a.s.sistance from the northern before anything very brilliant will take place. Providence overrules things for the best, and will work out our salvation for us in the wisest and best manner, provided we perform our duty.

Now, my dear friend, shall I ask you when you will return, a question I have not asked for these ten months? Knowing your determination when you left me, I have summoned patience and endeavored to submit to my destiny. By the time this reaches you eleven months will be elapsed, and you, I hope, preparing for your journey. It will be a tedious one, I fear, in the depth of winter, but let the thought of the cordial reception you will be a.s.sured of meeting warm the cold wintry blasts and make your return joyful. Adieu.

Yours.

225. JOHN ADAMS.

Portsmouth (N. H.), 15 December, 1777.

I arrived here last evening, in good health. This morning General Whipple[185] made me a visit at the tavern, Tilton's, and insisted upon my taking a bed at his house, in so very affectionate and urgent a manner that I believe I shall go.

The cause comes on to-morrow before my old friend Dr. Joshua Brackett, as Judge of Admiralty. How it will go, I know not. The captors are a numerous company, and are said to be very tenacious, and have many connections; so that we have prejudice and influence to fear. Justice, policy, and law are, I am sure, on our side.[186]

I have had many opportunities, in the course of this journey, to observe how deeply rooted our righteous cause is in the minds of the people; and could write you many anecdotes in proof of it. But I will reserve them for private conversation.

On second thoughts, why should I? One evening, as I sat in one room, I overheard a company of the common sort of people in another, conversing upon serious subjects. One of them, whom I afterwards found upon inquiry to be a reputable, religious man, was more eloquent than the rest. He was upon the danger of despising and neglecting serious things, and said "whatever person or people made light of them would soon find themselves terribly mistaken." At length I heard these words: "It appears to me the eternal Son of G.o.d is operating powerfully against the British nation for their treating lightly serious things."

One morning I asked my landlady what I had to pay? "Nothing," she said, "I was welcome, and she hoped I would always make her house my home. And she should be happy to entertain all those gentlemen who had been raised up by Providence to be the saviors of their country." This was flattering enough to my vain heart. But it made a greater impression on me as a proof how deeply this cause had sunk into the minds and hearts of the people.

In short, everything I see and hear indicates the same thing.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 185: This gentleman had been in Congress, but was now in command of a portion of the New Hamps.h.i.+re troops and had just returned from the victorious campaign against General Burgoyne.]

[Footnote 186: Mr. Adams had been engaged as an advocate in this admiralty cause.]

226. JOHN ADAMS.

Uncle Quincy's,[187] half after 11 o'clock, 13 February, 1778.

Dearest of Friends,--I had not been twenty minutes in this house before I had the happiness to see Captain Tucker and a mids.h.i.+pman coming for me. We shall be soon on board, and may G.o.d prosper our voyage in every stage of it as much as at the beginning, and send to you, my dear children, and all my friends, the choicest of blessings! So wishes and prays, with an ardor that neither absence nor any other event can abate, yours.

JOHN ADAMS.

P. S. Johnny[188] sends his duty to his mamma and his love to his sister and brothers. He behaves like a man.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 187: At Mount Wollaston, a place in Braintree, lying on the bay, from which the writer, commissioned by Congress to go to France, took his departure on his first voyage, in the frigate _Boston_, Captain Samuel Tucker.]

[Footnote 188: John Quincy Adams, ten years old, who accompanied his father.]

227. ABIGAIL ADAMS.