We have had Occasion to detain the Bearer which gives me the Pleasure of acknowledging your very acceptable and obliging Letter of the 6th Instant. I am rejoycd to hear that you are recoverd from a late Indisposition of Body. I pray God to confirm your Health. I wonder that you have receivd but one Letter from me since I left Worcester. I wrote to you at Hartford and New York and I do not know how often since I came into this City.
It is a great Satisfaction to me to be assured from you that your Mother & Family are out of Boston, and also my boy Job. I commend him for his Contrivance in getting out. Tell him from me to be a good Boy. I wish to hear that my Son and honest Surry were releasd from their Confinement in that Town. I am much pleasd my dear with the good Sense and publick Spirit you discoverd in your Answer to Majr Kains Message—your Concern for my comfortable Subsistence here is very kind and obliging to me—when I am in Want of Money I will write to you.
Your,
TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
[J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, vol. i., pp. 90, 91.]
PHILADELPHIA, June 22, 1775.
MY DEAR SIR,
Our patriotic general Washington will deliver this letter to you. The Massachusetts delegates have jointly given to him a list of the names of certain gentlemen, in whom he may place the greatest confidence. Among these you are one. Major-general Lee and major Mifflin accompany the general. They are a triumvirate which will please the circle of our friends. Mifflin is aid-de-camp to the general. I regret his leaving this city; but have the satisfaction of believing that he will add great spirit to our army. Time will not admit of my adding at present more than that I am
Your affectionate friend,