Philadelphia, 17 May, 1777.
I never fail to inclose to you the newspapers, which contain the most
intelligence that comes to my knowledge. I am obliged to slacken my
attention to business a little, and ride and walk for the sake of my
health, which is but infirm. Oh, that I could wander upon Penn's hill
and in the meadows and mountains in its neighborhood, free from care!
But this is a felicity too great for me.
Mr. Gorham and Mr. Russell are here with a petition from Charlestown. It
grieves me that they are to return without success. I feel, most
exquisitely, for the unhappy people of that town. Their agents have done
everything in their power or in the power of men to do, and the
Massachusetts delegates have seconded their efforts to the utmost of
their power, but all in vain. The distress of the States, arising from
the quantity of money abroad, and the monstrous demands that would be
made from Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and elsewhere, if a precedent
should be once set, has determined the Congress, almost with tears in
their eyes, to withstand this application at present. Every man
expressed the utmost tenderness and humanity upon the occasion; but at
the same time every man, except the Massachusetts delegates, expressed
his full conviction of the ill policy of granting anything at present.