Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
r6. 1794
I condole with you, under the mournful News of the Barons Palsy.1 I have long wondered that a Military Character so habituated to exercise should have neglected it so imprudently for so many Years. This Country is loosing in rapid Succession the Characters
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who were forward and active in the Revolution. Mr Handcock, Mr sherman Mr Alsop, Mr Witherspoon, Mr Clark Mr Lee, Mr Gillon, and now the Baron, will in a few months lessen the Catalogue of Old Hands.2 There is however, a young Generation rising who promise to fill their places, with equal Decency Reputation and Utility. May you, my son be one among the many whose Appearance upon the stage, may comfort the hearts and quiet the fears for their Country of the elder Characters as they Advance off. and among the rest of your affectionate / Father
RC (MHi:Seymour Coll.); internal address: “Charles Adams Esqr.”
Baron von Steuben died on 28 Nov. (
DAB
).
Roger Sherman, the longtime Connecticut politician, passed away on 23 July 1793. John Alsop, a former New York representative, died on 22 Nov. 1794. Rev. John Witherspoon, the former president of Princeton and a New Jersey representative, for whom see JA, Papers
, 3:390, died on 15 Nov., while Richard Henry Lee of Virginia passed away on 19 June. All served with JA in the Continental Congress, and all but Alsop were signers of the Declaration of Independence (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
)