Boston, 29 August, 1776.
I have spent the three days past almost entirely with you. The weather
has been stormy. I have had little company, and I have amused myself in
my closet, reading over the letters I have received from you since I
have been here.
I have possession of my aunt's chamber, in which, you know, is a very
convenient, pretty closet, with a window which looks into her flower
garden. In this closet are a number of bookshelves, which are but poorly
furnished. However I have a pretty little desk or cabinet here, where I
write all my letters and keep my papers, unmolested by any one. I do not
covet my neighbor's goods, but I should like to be the owner of such
conveniences. I always had a fancy for a closet with a window, which I
could more particularly call my own.
I feel anxious for a post day, and am full as solicitous for two letters
a week, and as uneasy if I do not get them, as I used to be when I got
but one in a month or five weeks. Thus do I presume upon indulgence, and
this is human nature. It brings to my mind a sentiment of one of your
correspondents, to wit, that "man is the only animal who is hungry with
his belly full."
Last evening Dr. Cooper came in and brought me your favor, from the
post-office, of August 16, and Colonel Whipple arrived yesterday morning
and delivered to me the two bundles you sent and a letter of the 12th of
August. They have already afforded me much amusement, and I expect much
more from them.
I am sorry to find from your last, as well as from some others of your
letters, that you feel so dissatisfied with the office to which you are
chosen. Though in your acceptance of it I know you were actuated by the
purest motives, and I know of no person here so well qualified to
discharge the important duties of it, yet I will not urge you to it. In
accepting of it you must be excluded from all other employments. There
never will be a salary adequate to the importance of the office or to
support you and your family from penury. If you possessed a fortune I
would urge you to it, in spite of all the fleers and gibes of minds
which themselves are incapable of acting a disinterested part, and have
no conception that others can. I have never heard any one speak about
it, nor did I know that such insinuations had been thrown out.
Pure and disinterested virtue must ever be its own reward. Mankind are
too selfish and too depraved to discern the pure gold from the baser
metal.
I wish for peace and tranquillity. All my desire and all my ambition is
to be esteemed and loved by my partner, to join with him in the
education and instruction of our little ones, to sit under our own vines
in peace, liberty, and safety.