Warren, James (1726-1808) to Elbridge Gerry
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03962 Author/Creator: Warren, James (1726-1808) Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 24 March 1777 Pagination: 3 p. : docket ; 23 x 18.5 cm. Order a Copy
Warren indicates that he has recently written "a long letter to Mr. Adams" that communicated all consequential information, so this letter is written out of friendship rather than to provide intelligence. Comments on the arrival of a French officer, who did not receive a proper welcome because of he arrived on a Sunday. Notes "Impatience for the Arrival of the ships from France destined to" Boston. Discusses concern over matters in the House regarding the army and the embargo, lamenting the venal spirit that he views as destroying patriotism during the American Revolution. Comments: "I envy the Indians their simplicity and the savages their barbarism" because they lack the commercial spirit he describes as attendant to civilization.
Warren was a Massachusetts legislator, Revolutionary organizer, paymaster general of Continental Army, member of Navy Board, and husband of historian and author Mercy Otis Warren.
Gerry was then a member of the Continental Congress.
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