TO ANDREW ELTON WELLS.1
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON July 25 1774
MY DEAR BROTHER
I beg you to believe me when I tell you that incessant publick Business has prevented my writing to you as often as my own Inclination would lead me to do it. I assure you I feel an exquisite Pleasure in an epistolary Chat with a private Friend, and I never contemplate a little Circle but I place you and your Spouse as two, or I had rather say, ONE.—But consider my Brother, or to use a dearer Apellation my Friend, consider our Native Town is in Disgrace. She is suffering the Insolence of Power. But she prides herself in being calld to suffer for the Cause of American Freedom and rises superior to her proud oppressors, she suffers with Dignity; and while we are enduring the hard Conflict, it is a Consolation to us that thousands of little Americans who cannot at present distinguish between the Right hand & the left, will reap the happy Fruits of it; and among these I bear particularly in my mind my young Cousins of your Family.
Four Regiments are encampd upon our Common, while the Harbour is blockd up by Ships of War. Nothing is sufferd to be waterborn in the Harbour excepting the Wood and Provisions brot in to keep us from actually perishing. By such Oppressions the British Administration hope to suppress the Spirit of Liberty in this place; but being encouragd by the generous Supplys that are daily Sent to us the Inhabitants are determind to hold out and appeal to the Justice of the Colonies & of the World—trusting in God that these things shall be overruled for the Establishment of Liberty Virtue & Happiness in America—Your Sister is in tollerable Health and together with my Son & Daughter send their affectionate respects to your self Mrs Wells & your family—I am sincerely
Yours,
_________________________________________________________________ 1Cf., Vol. II., page 337. [back]