Philadelphia, 31 March, 1777.
I know not the time when I have omitted to write you so long. I have
received but three letters from you since we parted, and these were
short ones. Do you write by the post? If you do, there must be some
legerdemain. The post comes now constantly, once a week, and brings me
newspapers, but no letters. I have ventured to write by the post, but
whether my letters are received or not, I don't know. If you distrust
the post, the Speaker or your uncle Smith will find frequent
opportunities of conveying letters.
I never was more desirous of hearing from home, and never before heard
so seldom. We have reports here not very favorable to the town of
Boston. It is said that dissipation prevails, and that Toryism abounds
and is openly avowed at the coffee-houses. I hope the reports are false.
Apostasies in Boston are more abominable than in any other place.
Toryism finds worse quarter here. A poor fellow detected here as a spy,
employed, as he confesses, by Lord Howe and Mr. Galloway, to procure
pilots for Delaware River and for other purposes, was this day at noon
executed on the gallows, in the presence of an immense crowd of
spectators. His name was James Molesworth. He has been Mayor's Clerk to
three or four Mayors.
I believe you will think my letters very trifling; indeed, they are. I
write in trammels. Accidents have thrown so many letters into the hands
of the enemy, and they take such a malicious pleasure in exposing them,
that I choose they should have nothing but trifles from me to expose.
For this reason I never write anything of consequence from Europe, from
Philadelphia, from camp, or anywhere else. If I could write freely, I
would lay open to you the whole system of politics and war, and would
delineate all the characters in either drama, as minutely, although I
could not do it so elegantly, as Tully did in his letters to Atticus.
We have letters, however, from France by a vessel in at Portsmouth.[166]
Of her important cargo you have heard. There is news of very great
importance in the letters, but I am not at liberty. The news, however,
is very agreeable.