I this day received yours of the 29th of September and the 1st of
October. Amidst all your afflictions, I am rejoiced to find that you all
along preserve so proper and so happy a temper; that you are sensible
"the consolations of religion are the only sure comforters." It is the
constitution under which we are born, that if we live long ourselves, we
must bury our parents and all our elder relations, and many of those who
are younger. I have lost a parent, a child, and a brother, and each of
them left a lasting impression on my mind. But you and I have many more
relations and very good friends to follow to the house appointed for all
flesh, or else we must be followed by them. I bewail, more than I can
express, the loss of your excellent mother. I mourn the loss of so much
purity, and unaffected piety and virtue, to the world. I know of no
better character left in it. I grieve for you, and your brother and
sisters. I grieve for your father, whose age will need the succor of so
excellent a companion. But I grieve for nobody more than my children.
Her most amiable and discreet example, as well as her kind skill and
care, I have ever relied upon, in my own mind, for the education of
these little swarms. Not that I have not a proper esteem for the
capacity and disposition of the mother, but I know that the efforts of
the grandmother are of great importance, when they second those of the
parent. And I am sure that my children are the better for the forming
hand of their grandmother. It gives me great joy to learn that ours are
well. Let us be thankful for this, and many other blessings yet granted
us. Pray, my dear, cherish in their minds the remembrance of their
grandmamma, and remind them of her precepts and example. God Almighty
grant to you and to every branch of the family all the support that you
want.
You and I, my dear, have reason, if ever mortals had, to be thoughtful;
to look forward beyond the transitory scene. Whatever is preparing for
us, let us be prepared to receive. It is time for us to subdue our
passions of every kind. The prospect before us is an ocean of
uncertainties, in which no pleasing objects appear. We have few hopes,
excepting that of preserving our honor and our consciences untainted,
and a free Constitution to our country. Let me be sure of these, and,
amidst all my weaknesses, I cannot be overcome. With these, I can be
happy in extreme poverty, in humble insignificance, may I hope and
believe, in death. Without them, I should be miserable with a crown upon
my head, millions in my coffers, and a gaping, idolizing multitude at my
feet.
My heart is too full of grief for you and our friends, to whom I wish
you to present my regards, to say anything of news or politics. Yet the
affair of the Surgeon-general is so strange and important an event that
I cannot close this gloomy letter without adding a sigh for this
imprudent, unfortunate man. I know not whether the evidence will support
the word treachery, but what may we not expect after treachery to
himself, his wife and children?