Jan. 6, 1776
Watertown, Massachusetts
Responding to a request from Gen. George Washington, John Adams sent a letter weighing in on Gen. Charles Lee’s ambitious plan for New York’s defense. Lee proposed preempting a British attack by sending Connecticut volunteers, reinforced by whatever men could be persuaded to take up arms in New York and New Jersey, to Long Island to suppress, and if necessary, drive out the Loyalist Tories entrenched there.
Adams regretted having to reply in haste, but the moment allowed no leisure: Reports warned that a British force under Gen. Henry Clinton was preparing to depart Boston for Long Island.
“From John Adams
Dr sir
As your Excellency has asked my Opinion of General Lees Plan, as explain’d in his Letter of the fifth instant, I think it my Duty to give it, although I am obliged to do it in more Haste than I could wish.
I Suppose the only Questions which arise upon that Letter are whether the Plan is practicable; whether it is expedient; and whether it lies properly within your Excellencys Authority, without further Directions from Congress.
Of the Practicability of it, I am very ill qualified to judge; But were I to hazard a conjecture, it would be that the Enterprise would not be attended with much Difficulty. The Connecticutt People who are very ready upon such Occasion in Conjunction with the Friends of Liberty in New York I Should think might easily accomplish the Work.
That it is expedient, and even necessary to be done, by Some Authority or other, I believe will not be doubted by any Friend of the American Cause, who considers the vast Importance of that City, Province, and the North River which is in it, in the Progress of this War, as it is the Nexus of the Northern and Southern Colonies, as a Kind of Key to the whole Continent, as it is a Passage to Canada to the Great Lakes and to all the Indians Nations. No Effort to secure it ought to be omitted.”
Washington took Adams’s advice and ordered Lee to depart at once. However, perilous winter weather and Lee’s health — he was suffering from gout — slowed his progress, and he did not reach New York until Feb. 4.
In the end, the delay worked to the Patriots’ advantage. It gave Congress time to dispatch a committee to New York, lending political legitimacy to the Patriot cause and easing local anxieties as British warships lingered in the harbor.
Adams, a man of many words, eventually concluded his approval:
“Upon the whole sir, my opinion is that General Lee’s is a very usefull Proposal, and will answer many good Ends. I am, with great Respect, your Excellencys most obedient humble servant
John Adams”
That same day, the Virginia Gazette published a detailed account of the destruction of Norfolk, advancing the Patriot version of events and placing responsibility for the town’s burning squarely on the British bombardment.
It would later emerge that Patriot forces played a substantial role in the port town’s destruction. Yet blaming the devastation on the British proved politically useful, helping to rally wavering colonists behind the cause of independence.
The night before New Hampshire established its own government, the break with Britain was already underway. Months before the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776, New Hampshire became the first colony to draft its own governing charter, acting independently of British authority.