Monto. Aug. 27. 25
Your affectte ltr, my dear Ellen of the 1st inst. came to hand in due time.
the assurances of your love, so warmlyfeelingly expressed, were truly soothing to my
soul, and none were never met with warmer sympathies. we did not know until
you left us what a void it would be experiencedfoundmake in our family. imagination
had not been able to illy sketched to us it's full measure to us. and at this moment
every thing around serves but to remind us of our past happiness. our only consolationed
is by the addition it has made to yours. happiness. of this we are secured in theabundantly assured by
1st degree by the most excellent character and mostand amiable character to where which we have
committed your future well being, and by the kindness with which you have been received
by the worthy family into which you are now engrafted. we have no fears but that their
affections will grow with their growing knolege of you, and the assiduous [devotion?] cultivation
of these is now become the first objectin importance to you. I have no doubt too
that you will find thatalso the state of society there is more congenial with your
mind than the rustic scenes you have left. altho' these do not want [altogether?] their points
of endearment. nay, one single circumstance changed, and their scale would
hardly be the lightest. one fatal blotch stain deforms what nature had bestowed on us
of her fairest gifts.
I am glad you took the delightful trip tour which you describe
in your letter. it is exactly that one which mr Madison and myself took pursued in May
and June 1791. setting out from Phila we took the following course our course was to. N.York. up the Hudson
to Albany, Troy, Saratoga, Ft. Edwd., Ft. George, Lake George, Ticonderoga, Crown point,
penetrated into L. Champlain, retd. the same way to Saratoga, thence crossed [?] the mountains to Bennington
Northampton down Connecticut river to it's mouth, crossed the sound into Long island and along it's
northern margin to Brooklyn recrossed through the sound to N.Y. & returned. but from Saratoga till we got back to Northampton
was then mostly desert, but so now it is what 34 y. of free & good govn't have made it. it shews
how soon the labor of man would make a paradise of the whole earth, were it not for
misgovnt and a diversion of all it's his energies from their proper [course?] object the happiness
of man to the selfish [views?] interests of kings, nobles & priests.
Our Univty. goes on well, we have past the limit of 100. students some time since. it [?] as yet it has been
a perfect model of order and good behavior andTheour Professors too continue to be that we would wish them.
Mr Gilmer accepts the Law-chair and all is well. my own health is what it was when you
left me; I have not been out of the house since except to take the turn of the Roundabout twice,
nor have I any definite prospect when it will be otherwise. I shall not venture into the region
of small news with of which your other correspdts of the family are so much better informed
I am expecting to hear from mr Coolidge respecting the clock for our Rotunda. assure
him of my warmest affections and respect and pray him to give to your-self ten thousand
kisses for me, and they will still fall short of the measure of my love to you. if
his parents and family can set any store by the esteem & respect of a stranger
mine is are devoted to them.
having never yet required the exercise of a single act
of authority. we studiously avoid too much govt. We treat them as men & gentlemen
under the guidance mainly of their own discretion
they so consider themselves and make it their
pride to acquire that character for their insti
in short we are as quiet on that head as the ex-
perience of 6. mo. only can make it