Princeton, New Jersey, 28 August, 1774.
I received your kind letter at New York, and it is not easy for you to
imagine the pleasure it has given me. I have not found a single
opportunity to write since I left Boston, excepting by the post, and I
don't choose to write by that conveyance, for fear of foul play. But as
we are now within forty-two miles of Philadelphia, I hope there to find
some private hand by which I can convey this.
The particulars of our journey I must reserve, to be communicated after
my return. It would take a volume to describe the whole. It has been
upon the whole an agreeable jaunt. We have had opportunities to see the
world and to form acquaintances with the most eminent and famous men in
the several colonies we have passed through. We have been treated with
unbounded civility, complaisance, and respect. We yesterday visited
Nassau Hall College, and were politely treated by the scholars, tutors,
professors, and president, whom we are this day to hear preach.
To-morrow we reach the theatre of action. God Almighty grant us wisdom
and virtue sufficient for the high trust that is devolved upon us. The
spirit of the people, wherever we have been, seems to be very
favorable. They universally consider our cause as their own, and express
the firmest resolution to abide by the determination of the Congress.
I am anxious for our perplexed, distressed province; hope they will be
directed into the right path. Let me entreat you, my dear, to make
yourself as easy and quiet as possible. Resignation to the will of
Heaven is our only resource in such dangerous times. Prudence and
caution should be our guides. I have the strongest hopes that we shall
yet see a clearer sky and better times.
Remember my tender love to little Abby; tell her she must write me a
letter and inclose it in the next you send. I am charmed with your
amusement with our little Johnny. Tell him I am glad to hear he is so
good a boy as to read to his mamma for her entertainment, and to keep
himself out of the company of rude children. Tell him I hope to hear a
good account of his accidence and nomenclature when I return. Remember
me to all inquiring friends, particularly to uncle Quincy,[37] your papa
and family, and Dr. Tufts and family. Mr. Thaxter,[38] I hope, is a good
companion in your solitude. Tell him, if he devotes his soul and body to
his books, I hope, notwithstanding the darkness of these days, he will
not find them unprofitable sacrifices in future. I have received three
very obliging letters from Tudor, Trumbull, and Hill.[39] They have
cheered us in our wanderings and done us much service.
Your account of the rain refreshed me. I hope our husbandry is
prudently and industriously managed. Frugality must be our support. Our
expenses in this journey will be very great. Our only [recompense
will[40]] be the consolatory reflection that we toil, spend our time,
and [encounter] dangers for the public good--happy indeed if we do any
good.
The education of our children is never out of my mind. Train them to
virtue. Habituate them to industry, activity, and spirit. Make them
consider every vice as shameful and unmanly. Fire them with ambition to
be useful. Make them disdain to be destitute of any useful or ornamental
knowledge or accomplishment. Fix their ambition upon great and solid
objects, and their contempt upon little, frivolous, and useless ones. It
is time, my dear, for you to begin to teach them French. Every decency,
grace, and honesty should be inculcated upon them.
I have kept a few minutes by way of journal, which shall be your
entertainment when I come home; but we have had so many persons and so
various characters to converse with, and so many objects to view, that I
have not been able to be so particular as I could wish. I am, with the
tenderest affection and concern,