 | Letters of Mrs. Adams, |  |
TO JOHN ADAMS.
The joyful news of the surrender of General Burgoyne
and all his army, to our victorious troops,
prompted me to take a ride this afternoon with my
daughter to town, to join, to-morrow, with my friends
who hath so remarkably delivered our enemies into
our hands. And, hearing that an express is to go off
to-morrow morning, I have retired to write you a few
lines. I have received no letters from you since you
left Philadelphia[1] by the post, and but one by any
private hand.
Burgoyne is expected in by the middle of the
week. I have read many articles of capitulation,
but none which ever before contained so generous
terms. Many people find fault with them, but perhaps
do not consider sufficiently the circumstances
of General Gates, who, by delaying and exacting
more, might have lost all. This must be said of
him, that he has followed the golden rule, and done
as he would wish himself, in like circumstances, to
be dealt with. Must not the vaporing Burgoyne,
who, it is said, possesses great sensibility, be humbled
to the dust? He may now write the Blockade of
Saratoga. I have heard it proposed, that he should
take up his quarters in the Old South, but believe
he will not be permitted to come to this town.
Heaven grant us success at the southward. That
saying of Poor Richard often occurs to my mind,
'God helps them who help themselves;" but, if men
turn their backs and run from an enemy, they cannot
surely expect to conquer him.
This day, dearest of friends, completes thirteen
years since we were solemnly united in wedlock.
I have, patiently as I could, endured it, with
the belief that you were serving your country, and
rendering your fellow creatures essential benefits.
May future generations rise up and call you blessed,
and the present behave worthy of the blessings you
are laboring to secure to them, and I shall have less
reason to regret the deprivation of my own particular
felicity.
| Letters of Mrs. Adams, | |