Philadelphia, 18 February.
I sent you from New York a pamphlet intituled "Common Sense," written in
vindication of doctrines which there is reason to expect that the
further encroachments of tyranny and depredations of oppression will
soon make the common faith; unless the cunning ministry, by proposing
negotiations and terms of reconciliation, should divert the present
current from its channel.
Reconciliation if practicable, and peace if attainable, you very well
know, would be as agreeable to my inclinations, and as advantageous to
my interest, as to any man's. But I see no prospect, no probability, no
possibility. And I cannot but despise the understanding which sincerely
expects an honorable peace, for its credulity, and detest the
hypocritical heart which pretends to expect it, when in truth it does
not. The newspapers here are full of free speculations, the tendency of
which you will easily discover. The writers reason from topics which
have been long in contemplation and fully understood by the people at
large in New England, but have been attended to in the southern colonies
only by gentlemen of free spirits and liberal minds, who are very few. I
shall endeavor to inclose to you as many of the papers and pamphlets as
I can, as long as I stay here. Some will go by this conveyance.
Dr. Franklin, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, in
Maryland, are chosen a committee to go into Canada. The characters of
the two first you know. The last is not a member of Congress, but a
gentleman of independent fortune, perhaps the largest in America, a
hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand pounds sterling; educated in
some university in France, though a native of America, of great
abilities and learning, complete master of the French language, and a
professor of the Roman Catholic religion, yet a warm, a firm, a zealous
supporter of the rights of America, in whose cause he has hazarded his
all. Mr. John Carroll, of Maryland, a Roman Catholic priest and a
Jesuit, is to go with the committee, the priests in Canada having
refused baptism and absolution to our friends there. General Lee is to
command in that country, whose address, experience, and abilities, added
to his fluency in the French language, will give him great advantages.
The events of war are uncertain. We cannot insure success, but we can
deserve it. I am happy in this provision for that important department,
because I think it the best that could be made in our circumstances.
Your prudence will direct you to communicate the circumstances of the
priest, the Jesuit, and the Romish religion, only to such persons as can
judge of the measure upon large and generous principles, and will not
indiscreetly divulge it. The step was necessary, for the anathemas of
the Church are very terrible to our friends in Canada.
I wish I understood French as well as you. I would have gone to Canada,
if I had. I feel the want of education every day, particularly of that
language. I pray, my dear, that you would not suffer your sons or your
daughter ever to feel a similar pain. It is in your power to teach them
French, and I every day see more and more that it will become a
necessary accomplishment of an American gentleman or lady. Pray write me
in your next the name of the author of your thin French grammar, which
gives you the pronunciation of the French words in English letters, that
is, which shows you how the same sounds would be signified by English
vowels and consonants.
Write me as often as you can. Tell me all the news. Desire the children
to write to me, and believe me to be theirs and yours.