your affectionate,





TO ARTHUR LEE.

[MS., Lenox Library; a draft is in the Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox
Library.]

PHILADELPHIA Octob 26 -78

MY DEAR SIR

Your several Letters dated as in the Margin,1 with the Inclosures came
to my Hand. And although I have not hitherto acknowledgd to you the
Receipt of them, I assure you I have been and am still improving the
Intelligence you have given me, to the best of my Power, for the
Advantage of this Country. From our former Correspondence you have
known my Sentiments. I have not alterd them in a single Point, either
with Regard to the great Cause we are engagd in or to you who have been
an early, vigilant & active Supporter of it. While you honor me with
your confidential Letters, I feel and will freely express to you my
Obligation. To have answerd them severally would have led me to
Subjects of great Delicacy, and the Miscarriage of my Letters might
have provd detrimental to our important Affairs. It was needless for me
to run this Risque for the sake of writing; for I presume you have been
made fully acquainted with the State of our publick Affairs by the