Some in the colonies could hardly hide their indignation. “The subject is disgusting to me,” Samuel Adams said. “I will dismiss it.” But John Adams insisted on an investigation. “For God’s sake,” he wrote Sullivan, “explain to me the causes.” To Abigail he wrote, “Our misfortunes in Canada are enough to melt a heart of stone.… The smallpox has done us more harm than British armies, Canadians, Indians, Negroes, Hanoverians, Hessians, and all the rest.” His long list of supplemental reasons included “our inability to procure hard money,” indifferent generalship, and clumsy, fickle support from
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