On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail:

It makes me happy to hear that the Spirit of Inocculation prevails so generally. I could wish it, more universal. The small Pox has done Us more harm than British Armies, Canadians, Indians, Negroes, Hannoverians, Hessians, and all the rest. We must conquer this formidable Enemy without Hesitation or delay.

John Adams was not maligning Canadians, Indians, Negroes, and Germans in his letter, but reflecting that the British had supplemented the British Army with men under arms from each group to fight the Americans.

Source: “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0038. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, p. 63.]

On this day 250 years ago at his Mt. Pleasant plantation then in Cumberland County and now in Powhatan County, Virginia, William Fleming wrote to Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia where Jefferson was attending the Continental Congress. Fleming reported that

The spirits of our people are, and for some time have been, higher than at any period since the commencement of hostilities; and they are not a little elevated by our late successes at Charles Town, and Gwinn’s Island. How a severe reverse of fortune might affect them, I cannot pretend to determine; but those who are much elated with a little success, are generally most dejected in misfortune: however, since the Rubicon is passed, I believe there are few among us, even of the lower class, who have an idea of giving up the cause, happen what will.

William Fleming represented Cumberland County in the Virginia Convention, and he would continue to serve in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress during the War, and as Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court after the War.

Sources: “William Fleming to Thomas Jefferson, 27 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0194. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, 1760–1776, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 474–476.]; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fleming_(judge)