AN ADAMS MARRIAGE BLOCKS THE NATION'S BUSINESS

Poor, uncouth rail-splitter! But a greater shock was to come. The whole Adams family was plunged into nothing less than consternation when it found out, soon after Lincoln's inauguration, that Charles Francis Adams the elder had been appointed minister to Great Britain. Thus the son records the shock:

"My mother at once fell into tears and deep agitation; foreseeing all sorts of evil consequences, and absolutely refusing to be comforted; while my father looked dismayed. The younger members of the household were astonished and confounded.' Such was my diary record. It is droll to look back on; very characteristic and Bostonese. My father and mother had lived there steadily for nearly thirty years. They had grown into a rut, and begun to entertain a species of religious cult on that head. My mother, in some respects remarkably calculated for social life, took a constitutional and sincere pleasure in the forecast of evil. She delighted in the dark side of anticipation; she did not really think so; but liked to think, and say, she thought so. She indulged in the luxury of woe! So now, I remember well how she nursed herself into a passing belief that somehow she was very much to be compassioned, and something not far removed from disgrace had fallen upon us and upon her; and when she went out people would look at her, and say, 'Poor woman,' etc., etc. It seemed to give her quite a new view of the matter, when presently every one she met, instead of avoiding a painful subject or commiserating her, offered her congratulations or expressions of envy. So she cheered up amazingly. As to my father, he had then lived so long in the atmosphere of Boston, that I really think the great opportunity of his life when suddenly thrust upon him caused a sincere feeling of consternation. He really felt that he was being called on to make a great personal and political sacrifice."

And here is a very strange and serious matter. The elder Adams was nominated to the English mission on the eighteenth of March. It was a time of terrible crisis in the affairs of the United States, abroad as well as at home. Steamers were flying to Europe; but Mr. Adams did not reach his post in London until May 13. Why was that? Because his son John Quincy was to be married on April 29, and the father waited for this marriage. Family first-the nation afterward. In the meantime the Confederate commissioners arrived in London, and achieved the recognition of Confederate belligerency before Adams arrived. This is the honest story which the autobiography tells, and it does more credit to the candor of the son than it does to the patriotism of the father:

"One day, I think it was during the third year of the Civil War, when I chanced to be in Washington, Seward, then Secretary of State,

remarked to me in his offhand but consequential way: "The greatest misfortune that ever happened to the United States was that the marriage of your brother occurred on the 29th of April, 1861.' We had been talking of the rebel rams, and the attitude of Great Britain towards this country, then very uncertain and menacing. I knew what he meant. At the time my father was appointed to the English mission—a month before Sumter-my brother John was about to be married. The date was fixed for April 29. My father wanted to be present; and, when, immediately after his confirmation, he went on to Washington, he intimated that he would defer his sailing until the first of May, if no exigency was thought to exist requiring an earlier departure. Seward assented, whether reluctantly or against his better judgment, I do not know; but at that time he was still dwelling in his 'Southern Unionist' dreamland, and apparently had no realizing sense of the extremely critical state of affairs, in Europe as well as at home.

"He quite a time afterwards prepared in a leisurely way the memorable instructions which he characteristically read to W. H. Russell of the Times, on the evening of April 8, The crisis of Sumter came on five days after that reading, and then followed the brief isolation of Washington. Those instructions, thus communicated in advance to the correspondent of a London newspaper, did not accordingly reach my father until April 27, and he sailed four days afterwards. Every stage of our action was thus marked by extreme deliberation; and the Confederate commissioners took full advantage of the fact. There can, I think, be no question that my brother John's marriage on the twenty-ninth of April, 1861, led to grave international complications. It is creditable to neither Seward nor my father that the latter was allowed to dawdle away weeks of precious time because of such a trifle. It was as much as if a general had permitted some social engagement to keep him away from his headquarters on the eve of a great battle; and, in his absence, the enemy secured possession of some coigne of great vantage." GEORGE H. SARGENT

WARNER, N. H.

MASSACHUSETTS AT VALLEY FORGE

V

WASHINGTON AND COLONEL SHEPARD DESCRIBE THE ARMY'S CONDITION

T

HE following is an extract from a letter from General Washington, dated Morristown, April 10, 1777, addressed to Major General William Heath of Massachusetts:

Let me have the names of the several Colonels commanding the fifteen regiments from the State of Massachusetts.

Mention them in their order of seniority, and whether the regiments are numbered from the rank of the officers commanding them, or not. Also inform me which regiments come this way and which go to Ticonderoga.

If it does not break in upon any disposition already made I would have Glover and Paterson come forward with the eight regiments to Peekskill.

Authority: Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. iv., fifth series, 1878. Letters from Washington to Heath.

In the Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. x., fifth series, Trumbull papers, vol. ii., Trumbull and Washington letters, page 207-8, is a letter from Washington to Governor Trumbull, at Hartford. Circular, headquarters near Passaic, dated October 18, 1780, from which the following is an extract:

How did our cause totter at the close of 1776, when, with a little more than two thousand men, we were driven before the enemy through the Jerseys, and obliged to take post on the other side of the Delaware, to make a show of covering Philadelphia-while in reality nothing was more easy to them, with a little enterprise and industry, than to make their passage good to that city and dissipate the remaining force which still kept alive our expiring opposition! What hindered them from dispersing our little Army, and giving a fatal blow to our affairs during all the subsequent winter, instead of remaining in a state of torpid inactivity and permitting us to hover about their quarters, when we had scarcely troops sufficient to mount the ordinary Guards? After having lost two battles, and Philadelphia in the following campaign, for want of those numbers and that degree of discipline which we might have acquired by a permanent force in the first instance, in what a cruel and perilous situation did we again find ourselves in the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge within a day's march of the enemy, with a little more than a third of their strength, unable to defend our position, or retreat from it for want of the means of transportation?

On January 25, 1778, from Camp at Valley Forge, Pa., Colonel William Shepard, Fourth Massachusetts Regiment of the line, wrote to Captain David Mosley, Westfield, as follows, the letter being found

in vol., 174, series 2, Massachusetts Council Papers, 1777-78, manuscript archives:

Sir: As you belong to the General Assembly and to the Committee of the town, I think myself in duty bound to let you know the true state of our Troops belonging to the Massachusetts Bay.

Notwithstanding all the promises we had made us by the State at the time we entered into the Service, that we should be amply supplied with clothing and all other of the necessities of life,-all at reasonable and stated prices. But, alas! how are we disappointed. I do assure you that the officers and soldiers are suffering everything but death and imprisonment, and some are even suffering that, and altogether through the neglected and carelessness of the State.

By the conduct of the State, I am led to believe that they have forgot that they have any Troops in Service, or, in other words, they despise them.

The State has not supported the Troops with one single article for more than three months past.

I do assure you, Sir, that there is at least four hundred men in the Brigade which I belong to that have not a shoe nor a stocking to put on, and, more than that number have not half a shirt apiece, and many officers that have not a second shirt to put on in this situation in this cold season of the year we are oblidged to do our duty.

To see men almost naked going into the snow and frost to defend the rights of those very men that are contriving every way to distress the poor soldiers now in service by putting their specie at such an exorbitant price and undervaluing the currency,-now passing,-the soldier's wages are stated at a certain price which is out of there power to alter, and they cannot take any advantage by trafficking or trading.

The soldier last Spring, when he engaged in the Service, he could purchase a pair of shoes for eight shillings that now he is oblidged to give eight dollars for, and other species have risen in like proportion.

You must need think this is very distressing to the Officer and Soldier that have families at home who depend on there wages for there support.

Give me leave to tell you that it is out of my power to save one farthing to support my family, and am obliged to live very sparingly in order to support myself, and I will leave it to you to judge what you think a Soldier can lay up of his pay.

The people at home are destroying the Army by their conduct much faster than Howe and all his Army can possibly do by fighting us. By this means, many of the best of our officers are leaving the Army dayly, which, if not prevented, will reuen the army soon.

Sir, I do assure you that the life and strength of an Army is in the Officer. If they are good, the Army in general will be good. If they are bad, the Army will be like them.

Perhaps you may find fault with Officers and Soldiers and say they have not done there duty. Doubtless some have neglected there duty, but, as God is my judge, I will appeal to Heaven that I have ever done all that lay in my power to save my bleeding country, and have impressed it on my Officers and Soldiers to do the same, and I must say that to there honour, I never saw many of them flinted for anything.

I will challenge all the Officers of the Army, or my friends at home, if any of them ever saw me shrink from hardships, or neglect my duty, for fear of the enemy.

I have fought and bled to save my bleeding country, but, alas! how are wee requited for all our services.

We are neglected and distressed, and, what is worse, wee are impeached and told that it was our own chusing, and nobody desired them to enter the Service.

This, my friend is exceeding mortifying to me, as well as to many others.

I do assure you Sir, that I have seen the Soldier turned out to do there duty in such a poor condition that, notwithstanding all the hard heartedness I am naturally possessed of, I could not refrain from tears. It would melt the heart of a Savage to see the situation wee are in.

The State of Connecticut has supplied there Troops with every article of Cloathing compleatly and with all the necessarys of life at a reasonable price, and the regiments of the States are patterning after them.

I am sure we are able to defend ourselves against all the powers of Europe with a grate deal of loss did we conduct with common prudence, but, alas! after all our great fateague and bloodshed, to see my Country reuning themselves by there own folley, it greives me to the very soul.

God bless you! I wish you helth and happiness. Believe me, Slr, I am with esteem, your sincer friend and most obedient Hmbl. Serv't.

(Signed)

W. SHEPARD

To the Editor:

COLONEL THOMAS MARSHALL

The sketch of Colonel Thomas Marshall in the MAGAZINE of January, 1915, while containing interesting items, does not fully give the life history of a noted Bostonian.

References to him as "Colonel Thomas Marshall of Virginia" and the statement that "his father was a Revolutionary patriot of Philadelphia" are misleading and incorrect.

Thomas Marshall was born in Boston July 21, 1719. His parents, Christopher Marshall and Elizabeth Wheeler, were of Boston families of the seventeenth century. His father, Captain Christopher, was a military man, a fourth sergeant of the "Ancients" in 1727 and a captain of the Third Company of the Third Massachusetts Regiment at the first siege of Louisburg, in 1745. He died the following year leaving a widow who lived on Pudding lane (Devonshire street); she was a sufferer in the great fire of 1760, when her household goods, to the value of £29, were destroyed. The grandfather of Colonel Thomas was Thomas Marshall, the cooper, who dwelt on Mackerel lane (Kilby street). He was not prominent in military affairs as was his brother, Samuel Marshall, the cooper, who was third sergeant and ensign in the "Ancients."

Thomas the cooper died in 1719, but his estate was not divided till the death of his son, Captain Christopher, in 1746.