30 John Adams
Hartford, 2 May, 1775.
Our hearts are bleeding for the poor people of Boston. What will or can be done for them I can’t conceive. God preserve them.
I take this opportunity to write, by our committee who were sent to this colony,67 just to let you know that I am comfortable, and shall proceed this afternoon. Pray write to me, and get all my friends to write, and let me be informed of everything that occurs. Send your letters to Colonel Palmer or Dr. Warren, who will convey them. They will reach me sooner or later. This colony is raising six thousand men. Rhode Island, fifteen hundred. New York has shut up their port, seized the custom house, arms, ammunition, etc., called a Provincial Congress, and entered into an association to stand by whatever shall be ordered by the Continental and their Provincial Congress. Dr. Cooper68 fled on board a man of war, and the Tories are humbled in the dust.
Tell my brothers I have bought some military books, and intend to buy more, so that I shall come back qualified to make them complete officers. Write me whether either of them intends to take a command in the army. I won’t advise them, but leave them to their own inclinations and discretion. But, if they should incline, they should apply to Colonel Palmer and Dr. Warren soon.
Footnotes
67 This committee had been sent to Connecticut under an alarm of a separate negotiation, which is explained by Dr. Gordon, Vol. II., p. 19.
68 Dr. Myles Cooper, an Englishman, graduated at Oxford, and sent out by Archbishop Seeker to be president of King’s College. He was an old school High Church and State man, and proved one of the most active opponents of the Revolutionary movement. The rumor here mentioned was not true at this time. But eight days later the Dr. narrowly escaped rough treatment by a mob, from whom he fled, and found his way on board the Kingfisher, which took him to England. He died at Edinburgh in 1785.