Augst 2d. 1779
Dear Sir
I have this day recd. more Packets from france than what I have before mentioned to you.1 I send some & keep others. One Packet was sealed & gone to Mr Laurens’s before I thought of the mode of making a + to let you see what I have by me. My aim is that you should have a compleat Set. SA2 another or at least the reading of one and I myself another for a Stand-by. Give me therefore all yr. Spare ones, demand of me what you want and do this with as little risque as possible on the Road. As you have a List of all the Vouchers sent by
A.L.3 in Confirmation of his Letter of Defence you need not copy or strive to spare any thing therein a duplicate being with me, but you can send me a List of what Letters & Papers relate to particular Points either of Accusation against him, or rather Innuendo, or of Frauds in D.4 or others. I will do the Like.
Of the Letters lately arrived I have two of these directed to RHL or FLL or JL,5 one of these cover[in]g Resig. - also Jan 6 to RHL - Amico Berkenhout to AL with the Answr. Sep 5, 77 - AL to Vergennes, Apr. 24, 78. Doctr. P.6 cannot come over as he tells AL in a Letter of Jany. 18, 1779 Copy of which we have.
I inclose you a Boston Paper in wsh. the Piece referred to yours is inserted.7 I forwarded it I think some time ago but it is ill translated or the Printer has blundered.
A great Spirit is showing itself in Mass. respectg. the Money. Genl. Warren & Mr SA tell me that both Seaport & Country Conventioners were unanimous to the Number of 170, or more. I presume Mr. J Adams has with him every Thing necessary to serve Arthur & confound his Slanderers. I momentarily expect Mr. A.
Excuse to my Haste on this Post day what a more proper Time shall give you from yr. affect. humb Servt,
JL
Lee Family PapersUniversity of Virginia Archives
1 See Lovell to Richard Henry Lee, July 31, 1779.
2 That is, Samuel Adams.
3 Arthur Lee.
4 Silas Deane.
5 That is, Richard Henry Lee or Francis Lightfoot Lee or James Lovell.
6 Doubtless Dr. Richard Price, whom Arthur Lee had urged to emigrate to America. Louis W. Potts, Arthur Lee: A Virtuous Revolutionary (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), p. 83.
7 The precise "Boston Paper" could not be determined.
8 That is, Benjamin Franklin. For further information on his long-delayed July 22, 1778, letter mentioned below, see Lovell to Richard Henry Lee, July 31, note 7; and Lovell to Benjamin Franklin, August 6, 1779.