York Janry [i.e. February] 5th. 1778.
Dear Sir.
Your favors of the 15th & 23d of January came yesterday to hand.1 I am exceedingly pleased with the proceedings of your General Assembly. I hold them out in all my letters to the eastward as a fine example.
I shall send you the oath of Allegiance which passed in Congress yesterday as soon as it comes from the Press.2 It is our Business to
Reproduction of
Oath of Allegiance, February 3, 1778 take measures with all continental officers whatever. The states will take care of their particular citizens. Maryland besides excluding nonjurors from offices &c makes them liable to a treble tax; which I think falls well in with your idea of making it as inconvenient as possible for such vermin to exist among us.
I ought to have informed you that Mr. J.A. has accepted, and that I constantly forward to him letters & papers for F - - & - - .3 Mr. Iz - - also accepts for Tu - - , and speaks of the probability of obtaining a Loan in I - y. I have therefore obtained a Resolve (similar to that passed on Decr. 3d) for 1,000,000 stg. upon an interest to accumulate (if it can be obtained) during the war, afterwards to be paid off annually.4 You must have heard from your Brother of the great disappointment we met with about our dispatches from France. I have no doubt the robbery was committed on the other side of the water, and by a person near the Commissioners; as besides the main packet, one for you was changed which was under a cover among Gazetts, while a very considerable for the President of Congress, another for me and another for Barnabas Deane and a 4th for R Morris were untouched. But then, all these were upon private concerns, tho their Directions were more tempting than yours could have been. I have the satisfaction of remarking to you that my Letter from Doctr Franklin as well as Genl. Roberdeau's, and all for other Gentlemen from the Doctor or other friends were written with an air of ease & pleasantry which I should not expect to find if the public packet had been quite the reverse.
It is well reported that Howe is paying the Quakers of Chester Co. &c for Horses and other Articles, upon slight vouchers; but I cannot find whether this is in consequence of a remonstrance from them or of news from England or whether it is a stroke of good Policy to make them well affected towards his Usurpation.
I am in hopes that we shall get our army both cloathed and fed by the good care of the several states and our own afterwisdom in regard to certain systematic attachments. I think we grow more & more practical daily, I wish we had not waited for the teachings of woeful Experience.
I have not recd. Letters from Boston for a long time. Our good Friends Adams were well the 7th of Janry. I am glad they are in the way to advise Heath in his present difficult task with Burgoyne. I wish you had been present in our debates upon that Subject, I think you must have approved the step of detaining him upon the grounds which appeared for such a procedure.
I am affectionately your humb. Servt.
James Lovell
Receiver's copy, Lee Family Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
1 Lee's January 15 letter to Lovell is in Lee, Letters (Ballagh), 1:378 - 80.
2 On February 3 Congress passed resolutions requiring all civil and military officers to take an oath of allegiance. See JCC, 10:114 - 18.
3 Doubtless Franklin and Arthur Lee.
4 Ralph Izard, commissioner at the court of Tuscany, had just been authorized to borrow one million pounds sterling. JCC, 10:120.
5 See also Committee of Congress to Washington, and Henry Laurens to William Paterson, February 7, 1778.
6 Lovell had been appointed to this committee on January 20. JCC, 10:66. See also John Hancock to Arthur St. Clair and Philip Schuyler, August 5, 1777, note.