Philadelphia, 18 September, 1774.
In your last you inquire tenderly after my health, and how we found the
people upon our journey, and how we were treated.
I have enjoyed as good health as usual, and much more than I know how to
account for, when I consider the extreme heat of the weather and the
incessant feasting I have endured ever since I left Boston.
The people in Connecticut, New York, the Jerseys, and Pennsylvania we
have found extremely well principled and very well inclined, although
some persons in New York and Philadelphia wanted a little animation.
Their zeal however, has increased wonderfully since we began our
journey.
When the horrid news was brought here of the bombardment of Boston,
which made us completely miserable for two days, we saw proofs both of
the sympathy and the resolution of the continent.
War! war! war! was the cry, and it was pronounced in a tone which would
have done honor to the oratory of a Briton or a Roman.
If it had proved true, you would have heard the thunder of an American
Congress.
I have not time nor language to express the hospitality and civility,
the studied and expensive respect, with which we have been treated in
every step of our progress. If Camden, Chatham, Richmond, and St. Asaph
had travelled through the country, they could not have been entertained
with greater demonstrations of respect than Cushing, Paine, and the
brace of Adamses have been.
The particulars will amuse you when we return.
I confess, the kindness, the affection, the applause, which have been
given to me, and especially to our province, have many a time filled my
bosom and streamed from my eyes.
My best respects to Colonel Warren and his lady when you write to them.
I wish to write to them. Adieu.