Philadelphia, 11 July, 1776.
You seem to be situated in the place of greatest tranquillity and
security of any upon the continent. I may be mistaken in this
particular, and an armament may have invaded your neighborhood, before
now. But we have no intelligence of any such design, and all that we now
know of the motions, plans, operations, and designs of the enemy
indicates the contrary. It is but just that you should have a little
rest, and take a little breath.
I wish I knew whether your brother and mine have enlisted in the army,
and what spirit is manifested by our militia for marching to New York
and Crown Point. The militia of Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
the lower counties are marching with much alacrity, and a laudable zeal
to take care of Howe and his army at Staten Island. The army in New York
is in high spirits, and seems determined to give the enemy a serious
reception. The unprincipled and unfeeling and unnatural inhabitants of
Staten Island are cordially receiving the enemy, and, deserters say,
have engaged to take arms. They are an ignorant, cowardly pack of
scoundrels. Their numbers are small, and their spirit less.
It is some time since I received any letter from you. The Plymouth one
was the last. You must write me every week, by the post, if it is but a
few lines. It gives me many spirits. I design to write to the General
Court requesting a dismission, or at least a furlough. I think to
propose that they choose four more members, or at least three more, that
so we may attend here in rotation. Two or three or four may be at home
at a time, and the Colony properly represented notwithstanding. Indeed,
while the Congress were employed in political regulations, forming the
sentiments of the people of the Colonies into some consistent system,
extinguishing the remainders of authority under the crown, and gradually
erecting and strengthening governments under the authority of the
people, turning their thoughts upon the principles of polity and the
forms of government, framing constitutions for the Colonies separately,
and a limited and a defined Confederacy for the United Colonies, and in
some other measures, which I do not choose to mention particularly, but
which are now determined, or near the point of determination,[147] I
flattered myself that I might have been of some little use here. But
now, these matters will be soon completed, and very little business will
be to be done here but what will be either military or commercial;
branches of knowledge and business for which hundreds of others in our
province are much better qualified than I am. I shall therefore request
my masters to relieve me.
I am not a little concerned about my health, which seems to have been
providentially preserved to me, much beyond my expectations. But I begin
to feel the disagreeable effects of unremitting attention to business
for so long a time, and a want of exercise, and the bracing quality of
my native air; so that I have the utmost reason to fear an irreparable
injury to my constitution, if I do not obtain a little relaxation. The
fatigues of war are much less destructive to health than the painful,
laborious attention to debates and to writing, which drinks up the
spirits and consumes the strength.