I want to know whether you live in any harmony with ——, and how you settled matters. I think he seems in better humor.[129]
I think I do not admire the speech from the rostrum.[129] 'T is a heavy, inelegant, verbose performance, and did not strike my fancy at all. I am very saucy, I suppose you will say. 'T is a liberty I take with you. Indulgence is apt to spoil one. Adieu.
P. S. Pray convey me a little paper. I have but enough for one letter more.
Monday Morning.
A fine, quiet night. No alarms—no cannon. The more I think of our enemies quitting Boston, the more amazed I am that they should leave such a harbor, such fortifications, such intrenchments, and that we should be in peaceable possession of a town which we expected would cost us a river of blood, without one drop shed. Surely it is the Lord's doings, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Every foot of ground which they obtain now they must fight for, and may they purchase it at a Bunker Hill price.
FOOTNOTES:
[128] This letter has not been preserved.
[129] It is difficult to understand these allusions. Probably the first refers to R. T. Paine, who bore no good-will to Mr. Adams; the second, to a funeral oration on the death of General Montgomery, just delivered before the Congress by Dr. Smith, Provost of the college at Philadelphia.