I am to acknowledge the Receipt of your Favor of the 12th & 28th of Feby. The Letter you mention in the former came to hand, but I am apt to think it will have no Effect at all. There was an omission in the Navy Boards not having Notice officially of the inclosd Resolution of Congress, but I hope the Delay has not been attended with any material Inconvenience. I do sincerely hope the General Assembly will appoint another Person to take my place here. I wrote a Letter to them last December, requesting that I might be relievd by one of my absent Colleagues or some other Gentleman, & permitted to return to my Family in the Spring. I find my Health declining, and the Air of this Country is unfriendly to it. I am therefore steadfastly determind to get my self excusd in April or May at farthest. In doing this, I shall immediately make Room for an abler Man. Such may easily be found, and, I hope, prevaild upon to come. I shall also gratify those whose Hearts are bent upon my Removal, and shall save them Abundance of Pains in making their Interest to effect it. These Men agree with me, if in Nothing else, in wishing most cordially for my Retirement from publick Business. Perhaps they would chuse to have me recalled with Disgrace. I hope this is not in their Power; though I think I could bear even that with becoming Fortitude, for I am conscious that I do not deserve to be disgracd by my Country, and can be happy in the Reflections of my own Mind. The Arts they make use of are contemptible. Last year, as you observe, I was an Enemy to General Washington. This was said, to render me odious to the People. The Man who fabricated the Charge did not believe it himself. When he endeavord to make others believe it, he attempted to injure me by imposing upon them. His own Heart must therefore reproach him with complicated Acts of Injustice, and if he has any Feeling he must despise himself. If I indulgd the Spirit of Revenge, could I wish for more? NOW, you tell me, their Art is, to prejudice the People against the Lees, and propagate that I am a Friend to them. HOW trifling is this? Am I accountable to the People for my opinions of Men? If I have found from long & intimate Acquaintance with those Gentlemen, that they are, and have been from the Beginning of this Contest, among the most able & zealous Defenders of the Rights of America and Mankind, shall I not be their Friend? I will avow my Friendship to them in the Face of the World. As an Inhabitant of Massachusetts Bay, I should think my self ungrateful, not to esteem Arthur Lee most highly, for his voluntary Services to that State, in Times of her greatest Necessity, to the Injury of his private Interest, and at the Risque of his Life. Adieu my Friend. March 24--79