| | Description: | "To Colonel George Washington,
"The Lodge, August 6th, 1775: "Patrick Coutts, Robert Gilchrist, John Cross, John Gray,
James Miller, William Fox, Gideon Johnston, Alex Rose, Andrew
Crawford, John Crawford, John Miller, Collin Riddick, and
Thomas Landrum and John Douglass visiting brethren. "Two preachers from Kentucky, Hudgins and Warden by
name, of the Society called Baptists, are preaching about here.
They are extremely warm in their sermons, denouncing wickedness
in very strong terms. Their preaching is having considerable
effect on the people. Four of my negroes have applied to me
for notes to go to the meetings and relate their experiences and
be baptized, provided the Church will receive them. I should
be pleased if this attention to religion among them should be
well grounded in a proper faith in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ, and not be from over-persuasion, hurrying them, without
proper consideration, into the arms of the earthly Church, relying
on membership therein for salvation. This fear and doubt of
mine arises from the short time many of them spend in meditation
before beoming Church-members. I am afraid that when the
enthusiasm of the moment passes they, not being grounded, will
fall back slowly or violently into the old habits thereby bringing
dishonour upon religion." "It was a grief to me to learn that you had made up your mind
not to return to us. I shall miss you from your place in my
class, and, as I had hoped, in my list of graduates. But I do not
doubt that you have acted wisely: and your education is already
ample for you to make of yourself whatever you wish to become.
If, as you propose, you go into the Church, your excellent English
style, accurate and simple, will be your best outfit: and your
knowledge of Greek, and, as I believe, of Latin, will enable you
to carry on your professional studies to any extent, and to become
a distinct force in giving to our somewhat narrow and
degraded forms of religion a wider, truer and nobler development.
One man now who is capable of dealing with the sacred texts of
Christianity and with the early records of the primitive Church,
as an accurate and scholarly interpreter of what they mean, is
worth an hundred who in their blind ignorance go on narrowing
and degrading the faith into erroneous perversions. * * * "To the Inhabitants of Frincess Anne and Norfolk Counties: "Under the Regal Government I was a Whig in principle,
considering it as designed for the good of society, and not for the
aggrandizement of its officers, and influenced in my legislative
and judicial character by that principle, when the dispute with
Britain began, a redress of grievances, and not a revolution of
Government, was my wish; in this I was firm but temperate, and
whilst I was endeavoring to raise the timid to a general united
opposition by stating to the uninformed the real merits of the
dispute, I opposed and endeavored to moderate the violent and
fiery, who were plunging us into rash measures, and had the
happiness to find a majority of all the public bodies confirming
my sentiments, which, I believe, was the corner-stone of our
success. Although I so long, and to so high a degree, experienced
the favour of my county, I had always some enemies; few indeed,
and I had the consolation to believe that their enmity was unprovoked,
as I was ever unable to guess the cause, unless it was
my refusing to go lengths with them as their partisan. I cannot note your passing from the high office of Adjutant-General
of the State of Virginia, without feelings of the deepest
regret. In one capacity or another, I have looked to you for
military administration and guidance for upwards of twenty years.
I gained my first ideas and ideals of military thoroughness and
efficiency from you as inspector general when in the old days
you inspected my company with eyes that seemed to search out
every defect, but always with the spirit of kindliness and helpfulness. |
