[dateline] Philadelphia July 8. 1777 Tuesday
Yours of June 23d. have received. I believe there is no Danger of an Invasion your
Way, but the Designs of the Enemy are uncertain and their Motions a little misterious.
Before this Letter is sealed, which will not be till Sunday next, I hope I shall be
able to inform you better.
I rejoice at your fine Season, and <still more> at my Brother Cranches Attention to Husbandry. Am very glad he bought the Farm, and
that he likes it so well.
I pant for domestic Life, and rural Felicity like his.
I am better than I have been. But I dread the Heats, which are coming on.
This Day compleats Six Months since I left you. I am wasted and exhausted in Mind
and Body, with incessant Application to Business, but if I can possibly endure it,
will hold out the Year. It is nonsense to dance backwards and forwards. After this
Year I shall take my Leave.
Our Affairs are in a fine prosperous Train, and if they continue so, I can leave this
Station with Honour.
Next Month compleats Three Years, that I have been devoted to
{ 277 } the Servitude of Liberty. A slavery it has been to me, whatever the World may think
of it.
To a Man, whose Attachments to his Family, are as strong as mine, Absence alone from
such a Wife and such Children, would be a great sacrifice. But in Addition to this
Seperation, what have I not done? What have I not suffered? What have I not hazarded?—These
are Questions that I may ask you, but I will ask such Questions of none else. Let
the Cymballs of Popularity tinckle still. Let the Butterflies of Fame glitter with
their Wings. I shall envy neither their Musick nor their Colours.
The Loss of Property affects me little. All other hard Things I despize, but the Loss
of your Company and that of my dear Babes for so long a Time, I consider as a Loss
of so much solid Happiness.
The tender social Feelings of my Heart, which have distressed me beyond all Utterance,
in my most busy, active scaenes, as well as in the numerous Hours of melancholly solitude,
are known only to God and my own soul.
How often have I seen my dearest Friend a Widow and her Charming Prattlers Orphans,
exposed to all the Insolence of unfeeling impious Tyrants! Yet, I can appeal to my
final Judge, the horrid Vision has never for one Moment shaken the Resolution of my
Heart.