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Alice Lee Shippen to Elizabeth Welles Adams, 17 June 1781

Alice Lee Shippen to Elizabeth Welles Adams

Philadelphia 17. June [1781]





1The writer, Alice (Lee) Shippen (1736–1817), wife of Dr. William Shippen Jr. (1736–1808) of Philadelphia, was the sister of four Lee brother of Virginia (Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, William, and Arthur), all of whom made their mark on Revolutionary history and appear with more or less prominence in The Adams Papers. The Lees’ political ties were especially close with Samuel Adams, and only slightly less so with JA; there is a witty saying without a known author to the effect that the American Revolution was the result of a temporary alliance between the Adamses and the Lees.


3See Benjamin Franklin to Pres. Samuel Huntington, 12 March 1781, in Franklin’s Writings, ed. Smyth description begins The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Albert Henry Smyth, New York and London, 1905–1907; 10 vols. description ends , 8:220–223. It hardly needs to be added that Mrs. Shippen’s summary at second hand of Franklin’s letter offering his resignation and recommending his grandson, William Temple Franklin, to the further favor of Congress, is not unprejudiced. Congress’ reply to Franklin, declining his offer, 19 June, is in JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 20:675–676.

4The reference is to Franklin’s role in the dispute in the summer of 1780 between JA and Vergennes and its aftereffects now current in Congress, whereby, through La Luzerne’s influence, JA’s powers to negotiate treaties of peace and commerce with Great Britain were revoked. Mrs. Shippen’s term “the french Minister” is ambiguous; it could mean either Vergennes or La Luzerne. See editorial note in vol. 3:390–395, above; Lovell to AA, 26 June, 13 July10 Aug.; AA to Lovell, 14 July; all below.

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