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1. A footnote to the Letterbook draft reads, “foe Winslow the Elder,” i.e., Edward Winslow Sr. (1714–83 or 84) of Plymouth, a powerful Tory who eventually left the town for New York, then moved with other loyalist refugees to Halifax, where he died. 2. In May 1778 jw had been unseated as Speaker of the Massachusetts House through the machinations of John Hancock, with whom jw remained at odds for the remainder of Hancock’s political life. 3. She may refer to Isaiah Thomas (1749–1831), the publisher of Massachusetts Spy and a fellow Whig. 4. From Nathaniel Cotton, “The Fire-Side,” A Collection of Poems, ed. Robert Dodsley (London: J. Hughs, 1763), 4:254). The full passage reads, “While Conscience, like a faithful friend, Shall thro’ the gloomy vale attend, And cheer our dying breath; Shall, when all other comforts cease, Like a kind angel whisper peace, And smooth the bed of death.” 5. In February 1778, ja sailed for France on the Boston, a Continental Navy frigate captained by Samuel Tucker, for Bordeaux, France, to help secure the terms for the new Franco-American alliance. See afc 2: 389. 41 to john adams Plymouth December 16th 1778 I cannot but think I must have been a sufferer by the many captures of American navigation, for as I take you to be a gentleman of the strictest veracity, I must suppose that the watery damsels who attend the ouzy beard of the grey-headed Neptune are much more fortunate than the woodland dames of America. Otherwise notwithstanding the busy and important scenes in which you are engaged a folio from the Court of France would ’eer this have reached Braintree, and one small octavo at least have found its way to Plymouth. But if by thus frequently letting down1 the most weighty secrets of state, as well as the communications of the friendly heart, the dark councels of the Deities below do not gain an influence suf- ficient to embarrass your negotiations, we can more easily forgive the peculation of the Neriads,2 as we may suppose the females beneath have some 104  to john adams, december 1778 curiosity, as well as those who walk upon the surface of a world where knowledge is circumscribed within such narrow limits that the sex are too often forbid to taste the golden fruit. But perhaps you may have forgotten amidst the multiplicity of avocation and the magnitude of objects, that you are under engagements to make observations for the use of more than one lady on the western side of the Atlantic. But that lady has furnished me with a written obligation signed by yourself—that the first safe conveyance some communication and remarks should be forwarded to Mrs Warren. I have still a further demand upon you—I claim it as my right, doubtless you will accede to the validity of the claim, when you recollect that six years ago, by the Plymouth fire side, where many political plans originated , and were discussed and digested you observed in a moment of despondency that it was your opinion that dispute between Great Britain and America would not be settled, until your sons, and my sons, were able to visit and negotiate with the different European Courts. A lady replied, though perhaps not from prescience, but from presentiment or presumption, that you must do it yourselves:—that the work must be done immediately, and that she expected from you in the intervals of business,—a pleasing narration of the different customs, manners, genius, taste and policy of nations, with whom we were yet little acquainted. You a[ssen]ted a compliance, if the prediction took place. You have been absent near one year and nothing of the kind has arrived. You must remember Sir, that when we are descending a precipice, the velocity is much more rapid than when we mount, though hope points to the summit, and expectation spreads her wing to accelerate the motion. Thus time in advance is beheld with rapture by youth, while age looks back with regret on the past;—and if you postpone your communications by the year I cannot expect to receive many;—for if no premature stroke precipitates the moment, this inconsiderable globe cannot often revolve round the centre of the system, before I hope to tread the starry pavement, and look down with pity, on the regalia of Princes, the pomp of Royalty, the empires of a day, and even...

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