After living uninteruptedly in your family, for almost three years, and uniformly receiving, both from you and my Aunt, all the affection and tenderness of the most indulgent parents, I should do injustice to all the honorable feelings [of a gr]ateful heart, were I to omit this opportunity and leave you, Sir, without [ex]pressing to you 44 my warmest acknowledgments, for the innumerable favors I have received from your goodness, the happiness I have enjoyed in your family, for the indulgence with which you have always pardoned my errors and the advantages, I flatter myself to have derived, from the wisdom of your councils. These circumstances have made a forcible impression on my mind—they are entwined with the fibres of my heart—with the threads of my existence, which neither time nor absence nor the vicissitudes of life will ever obliterate, while I have pulse to beat or soul to feel.

The principles, I have imbibed under your fostering hand, have added fresh vigor to my pursuits after knowledge. While you, Sir, shielded by conscious integrity, are returned to the peaceful fields of Quincy, and enjoy “the souls calm sunshine,”1 permit me to request a continuance of your parental council and favorable regard, while it shall be my study and delight, to deserve so rich and invaluable a blessing.

That you, my dear Sir and my much loved Aun[t may] long continue to live together in social love and domestic peace, till at some far distant period you are translated from jarring elements and a warring world, to realms of uninterrupted peace and ceaseless joy, is the ardent prayer of one who has the honor to subscribe himself / with affectionate attachment and respectful esteem / your grateful nephew & obedient humble servant

I enclose for your perusal two of the latest letters received by me, from my Brother; although the last contains a conditional injunction, against the communication of it, to you, I am sure it will gratify your feelings, to discover the spirit, which dictated so much solicitude, on your account.1 That he should have felt all the anxiety, which he describes, both as it concerned the public & yourself, was very natural, but it is to me a source of pride & comfort, that the rod of power, has passed from your hands, without a murmur, & I confidently believe, without a pang. The conduct, which Plutarch 45 ascribes to Demosthenes, & which he makes a theme of commendation, has been practised by you, from early life; “he made it his business to do that, which he thought most profitable for the Commonwealth;” and (say’s Plutarch) “I think, that he who would be accounted a man of fortitude & fit for Government, should attend always to the common good and neglect his own private calamities & affairs, when they come into competition with the public.” “You shall arrive at the Summit of glory,” said the Delphic Oracle to Cicero, “by making your own genius & not the opinion of the people, the guide of your life.”2 It were vain to expect, devotion like this, in our general intercourse with the world, but that examples of it have existed, the annals of our own times, will, one day or other, testify to posterity.

I beg the favor, that these letters may be seasonably returned to me, & with best love & duty to my mother & all friends, I am Dear Sir / Your Son