Date: June 2,1775
[John Adams, at Philadelphia, to Abigail Adams]
My Dear
I had Yesterday the Pleasure of two Letters from you, by Dr. Church. We had been so long without any Intelligence from our Country, that the Sight of the Dr. gave us great joy. I have received no Letters from England, untill the Dr. brought me one from Mr. Dilly.
Mr. Henly goes, tomorrow, to the Camp at Cambridge. I am not so ill, as I was when I left you, tho not well. Bass has recover’d of the Small Pox.
Our Debates and Deliberations are tedious, from Nine to four, five, and once near Six. Our Determinations very slow — I hope sure. The Congress will support Us, but in their own Way. Not precisely in that Way which I could wish, but in a better Way than We could well expect, considering what an heterogeneous Body it is.
The Prospect of Crops in all the southern Colonies never was exceeded. What will become of immense Quantities of Provisions, when the Non Exportation takes Place I cant conceive. Surely We shant starve.
Poor Bostonians! My Heart Bleeds for them, day and Night. — God preserve and bless them.
Was you frightened, when the sheep Stealers got a drubbing at Grape Island? — Did Father Smith prayed for our Scough Crew, I doubt not, but how did my dear Friend Dr. Tufts sustain the shock? — My Duty and Love to them and all others who justly claim them.
My Dear Nabby, and Johnny and Charley and Tommy are never out of my Thoughts. — God bless, preserve and prosper them. —
You need not send me any Money; What I shall want will be supplied me here, by my Colleagues to be repaid after our Return.
Dr. Warren writes me, about my Brother. My Love to both my Brothers, my Duty to my Mother and your Uncle Quincy. Tell him I hope, our Company continue their Exercises. He would burst to see whole Companies of armed Quakers in this City, in Uniforms, going thro the Manual [of Arms] and Maneuvres like regular Troops.
Source: Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 June 1775. Adams Family Papers [electronic edition http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/ last accessed August 16, 2016]: Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society. The image is a late 19th c. speculative engraving of Dr. Benjamin Church. No true contemporary likeness of him is known.
Commentary: During the early months of the Siege of Boston Joseph Warren kept the Massachusetts delegation, at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, informed as best he could. All the delegates were his personal friends. Here John Adams relates some details back to Abigail Adams back at their Braintree home. “Our Company” apparently is a contingent of Patriot militia in Braintree, Massachusetts, in which John Adams’ brother participated. Adams and presumably his colleagues showed great interest in skirmishing with British foraging parties around Boston, such as the action against the “sheep Stealers” at Grape Island.
By early June, Dr. Benjamin Church was in Philadelphia, dispatched by Joseph Warren in mid-May, on an urgent mission to implore the Continental Congress to get on with the business of legitimizing Revolutionary provincial government in Massachusetts and to establish the Continental Army. Church’s nefarious activities during this trip, and his attempts to communicate them to British General Thomas Gage, eventually led to Church’s exposure as a spy.
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