I am, Sir, your friend and very humble servant,
JAMES LOVELL.
P. S. August 16th.—It appears to me not amiss to enclose to you a report of a committee on the 10th, as it stands negatived on the journals of Congress. J. L.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
St Ildefonso, September 20th, 1781.
Sir,
Your Excellency's favor of the 5th of July last, with the papers therewith enclosed, were delivered to me on the 29th ult. by Major Franks, whom the procrastination of the Minister still obliges me to detain.
The new commissions, with which Congress have honored me, argue a degree of confidence, which demands my warmest acknowledgments, and which, so far as it may be founded on an opinion of my zeal and integrity, they may be assured will not prove misplaced.
At the commencement of the present troubles, I determined to devote myself, during the continuance of them, to the service of my country, in any station in which she might think it proper to place me. This resolution, for the first time, now embarrasses me. I know it to be my duty, as a public servant, to be guided by my own judgment only in matters referred to my discretion, and in other cases faithfully to execute my instructions, without questioning the policy of them. But there is one among those which accompanies these commissions, which occasions sensations I never before experienced, and induced me to wish that my name had been omitted.
So far as personal pride and reluctance to humiliation may render their appointment contra-agreeable, I view it as a very unimportant circumstance, and should Congress, on any occasion, think it for the public good to place me in a station inferior and subordinate to the one I now hold, they will find me ready to descend from the one, and cheerfully undertake the duties of the other. My ambition will always be more gratified in being useful than conspicuous; for, in my opinion, the solid dignity of a man depends less on the height or extent of the sphere allotted to him, than on the manner in which he may fulfil the duties of it.