I am informd that the General Assembly have been pleased to appoint me one of their Delegates in Congress for the year 1779. This repeated Mark of Confidence in me is indeed flattering. The Duties of the Department are arduous and pressing. I will never decline the Service of our Country; but my Health requires Relaxation, and at this Period of my Life my Inclination would lead me to wish to be employd in a more limitted Sphere. I will nevertheless continue to act in Congress to the utmost of my Ability in Pursuance of the Powers and Instructions with which I am honord, in hopes, that as the Month of April will complete another full Year of my Residence here, I shall then be relievd by one of my absent Colleagues or some other Gentleman, and permitted to return to my Family. I am with every Sentiment of Duty & Regard to the General Assembly, Sir Your Honors most obedient & very humble servant, 1 President of the Council of Massachusetts. TO MRS. ADAMS. [MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; a portion of the text is in W. V. Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, vol. iii., pp. 57, 58.] PHILADELPHIA Decr 13 1778 MY DEAR BETSY, Captn. Johnson will deliver you this Letter, which incloses a Publication in the last Tuesdays Paper. You will easily guess which of the Massachusetts Delegates it is intended for. The Design of it is to represent Mr Temple as a British Emissary and that Delegate as listening to his Proposals of Accommodation with Great Britain, and thus to beget a Suspicion of him in the Mind of the Minister of France, with whom he has the Honor of being on friendly Terms. That Delegate has been so used to the low Arts of Tories in his own Country, as to have learnd long ago to treat them, wherever he sees them, with ineffable Contempt. He does not think it worth his while to satisfy the Curiosity of the Writer, but he can assure his Friends, that he had never called on Mr T but once and that was to show him the way to Mr President Laurens' House, to whom he had Letters to deliver, one of which was from the Council of Massachusets Bay. As a Delegate from that State, he could do no less than show such a Piece of Civility to Mr T, and he is determind, notwithstanding the apparently friendly Hint, to treat him as he thinks proper. Indeed he has been told by a real Friend, that there are Persons in Pay to watch his Words and Actions. He thankd his Friend, and told him that such kind of Intimations were not new to him. It might be well or ill grounded, & he was perfectly indifferent about it. He had a private Conversation a few Days ago with Monsieur --------, in which the Subject of the Hint beforementiond was brought up. That Personage was pleasd to say, that he well knew the Character of the Delegate before his Arrival in America, and that there was no Reason to doubt of his Attachment to the joynt Interest of France & America-- that he had sufficient Proofs of it to prevent any ill