told me he had conceivd the Idea before and wishes the Measure may [be] tryed. It requires Secrecy and Dispatch. Lt Coll Steward will set off tomorrow with Directions to proceed as far as Boston to purchase Ordnance & other Stores if they cannot be procurd elsewhere. He is General Gates Aid de Camp & is very clev[er.] I wish you would take Notice of him. But I am now called off. Adieu my Friend, Regina Azucena razucena@gis.net TO ARTHUR LEE. [R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 225, 226; a draft is in the Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.] BALTIMORE IN MARYLAND, Jan., 2d, 1777. MY DEAR SIR,--It has been altogether from a regard to your safety that I have restrained myself from continuing on my part that correspondence which you was obliging enough to indulge for several years. I know very well that your avowal of and warm attachment to the cause of justice and truth, have rendered you exceedingly obnoxious to the malice of the British king and his ministers; and that a letter written by a zealous asserter of that cause addressed to you while you was in their power, would have brought upon you the resentment of that most cruel and vindictive court. But I cannot omit this opportunity of writing to you after so long a silence, to assure you that I am most heartily engaged according to my small ability, in supporting the rights of America and of mankind. In my last letter to you near two years ago, I ventured to give you my opinion that if the British troops then in Boston, should attempt to march out in an hostile manner, it would most surely effect a total and perpetual separation of the two countries. This they did in a very short time; and the great event has since taken place, sooner indeed than I expected it would, though not so soon, in my opinion, as in justice it might, and in sound policy, it ought. But there is a timidity in our nature which prevents our taking a decisive part in the critical time, and very few have fortitude enough to tell a tyrant they are determined to be free. Our delay has been dangerous to us, yet it has been attended with great advantage. It has afforded to the world a proof, that oppressed and insulted as we were, we are very willing to give Britain an opportunity of seeing herself, and of correcting her own errors. We are now struggling in the sharp conflict; confiding that righteous heaven will not look with an indifferent eye upon a cause so manifestly just, and so interesting to mankind. You are now called to act in a still more enlarged sphere. Go on, my friend, to exert yourself in the cause of liberty and virtue. You have already the applause of virtuous men, and may be assured of the smiles of heaven. Your brother, Mr. R. H. Lee, will give you a particular account of our affairs in America; nothing therefore remains for me to add, but that I am your very affectionate friend, TO JAMES WARREN. [MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.] BALTIMORE Jany 8th 1777 MY DEAR SIR