CONTENTS.

Extracts from Letters written by John Adams. (Con

cluded,)

XXV.-Extracts from the Journal of the Rev. Henry M.

Muhlenberg, D.D., for 1776 and 1777. Translated by Hiester H. Muhlenberg, M.D., of Reading, Pa., XXVI.-Extracts from Letters written by Thomas Jefferson, XXVII. The History of Mooreland from its first Purchase and Settlement to the present time. By William J. Buck,

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187

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PHILADELPHIA:

JOHN PENINGTON, NO. 10 S. FIFTH STREET.

1852.

MERRIHEW & THOMPSON, Printers.

In 1760 and 1761 was the first appearance of the design of Great Britain to deprive us of our liberties by asserting the sovereign authority of Parliament over us, I took a decided part against her, and have persevered for fifty-five years in opposing and resisting to the utmost of my power, every instance of her injustice and arbitrary power towards us.

I have good reasons to believe that Dr. Rush has kept among his manuscripts a sketch of me. If that amiable family will permit, you have my consent to see and use it, though I know not a word of it."

His letter dated 17th Jan. 1816, says: "To do justice to the life and character of this great man [Samuel Adams, his cousin,] would require more volumes than Dr. Kippis has bestowed on Captain Cook, or than Chief Justice Marshall has consecrated to President Washington.

"The fine arts have struggled with difficulties in all countries, and you will find similar difficulties in our beloved United States. Taste is the rarest thing in the world except judgment and virtue."

His letter dated 5th Jan. 1817, says: "I am sorry to see in our American Reviewers an affectation of imitating European Reviewers. They generally discover an unnatural appetite for sour plumbs; more sagacity in discovering little faults than great merits."

His letter dated July 23, 1818, says: "You advise me to write my own life upon a very extensive plan. But you must give me a lease of another life of eighty-two years before I can undertake it. When I read the lives of Doctor Benjamin Franklin and Governor Patrick Henry, my own appears, upon retrospection, a dark, dreary, unfruitful waste. I should be ashamed to read it though witten by a Franklin or a Wirt."

"Of the interpositions of Providence in our favor, have had abundant experience, and such as would be believed upon my authority, if I should relate them."

"There is one point in which you and I are at opposite angles; instead of inflaming prejudice against England, it was necessary to destroy ignorant, bigoted attachment of the people to Great Britain; and th has never yet been half done."

"It would be silly in me to write upon the progress of luxury, for the histories of all ages and countries are uniform, that luxury grows with population, wealth and prosperity."

His letter dated 21st August, 1818, says: "You say that you had believed that during the war of the Revolution many acts of the British had been exaggerated.' This may have happened, but I know not in what instances. On the contrary, I know that one half of their cruelties and brutalities has not been told, or if told, has not been believed."

"If you suppose that the British were influenced by any motives of conciliation,' you have been greatly deceived. They never manifested any such motives through the whole history of the country, for two hundred years. They have felt a most sovereign contempt for us' as Puritans, Dissenters, Schismatics, Convicts, Redemptioners, as Irish,

Scotch, Germans, Dutch and Swedes, more than a century before they had a color or pretext to call us rebels."

"If the public sentiment or prejudices has not allowed such sentiments to have been mine,' I have only to say that the public has never known me, my character or sentiments, which have been overwhelmed by floods and whirlwinds of temptations, misrepresentations, abuses, lies and slanders, chiefly from the pens of vagabond foreigners.

"I pray you not to misunderstand me. I acknowledge with humble gratitude to God that he has granted me a happy life through all my trials. My greatest grief is that I have not done more for my country and my fellow-men."

His letter dated 31st August, 1818, says: "My life can never be written, even by myself; for it would take me as much time to write it as it has to live it."

His letter dated 21st April, 1822, says: "Portraits or busts of men or women taken in old age, which, as Ossian says and says truly, is dark and unlovely, are always disagreeable; much more so are those taken after death or in articulo mortis. The portraits of Dr. Franklin, taken when he was eighty-four, were no more like him in middle life, or even when he was seventy years old, than they resemble those of Voltaire. I delight to see the images of my friends taken when they are in the full enjoyment of all the energies of their minds and bodies. The picture of Dr. Rush which you sent me is a melancholy object to my sight. I see nothing of that erect figure, that free air and steady gait, that intelligent and expressive countenance which delighted me in my friend. It is, however, a memento mori, and that is always a useful moral lesson. But we have so many intimations tending to the same ends, that I am not melancholy enough to contemplate too many of them. I am more delighted, and I think more instructed, by looking at the bright side of human nature and human life, than at the dark."

XXV.-Extracts from the Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg's Journals of 1776 and 1777, relating to Military events about that period. Translated by HEISTER H. MUHLENBERG, M. D., of Reading, Pa.

Sunday, July 21, 1776. At three o'clock in the afternoon I proceeded homewards towards Providence under a burning sun. On the way I met a company of men from Reading, numbering about one hundred strong, on their march to Jersey; mostly native born youths, who have recently enlisted, and with others are to form an army of observation in the province of Jersey. The company encamped for the night in Providence, partly in the woods, but principally in two

taverns.

Two letters from Philadelphia were left with my wife to-day, one from Henry Muhlenberg, Jr., dated 19th July, the other from the Rev. Christian Streil, notifying me that he intended accepting a service as military chaplain in Virginia, and desiring me to send a minister of our Synod to take his congregations.

I can no longer bear riding on horseback, in particular mounting and dismounting without assistance; it creates cramp of the limbs and swelling of the feet.

Tuesday, July 23, 1776. In the evening there arrived a company of riflemen from Reading, on their march to Jersey; mostly native born youths, who understand bush fighting after the manner of the Indians.

Wednesday, July 24. Wrote a letter to my mother-in-law, the widow Weiser in Reading, also to Dr. Otto. Paid Provincial tax to Mr. Hamilton, 7s. 6d., also to Martin Brooks' negro, 7s. 6d. for articles brought in his wagon from town on last Saturday.

Sunday, July 28. Eighth Sunday after Trinity. On my return in the evening from the Piketown congregation, across French Creek, where I preached, I found a company of militia from Cumberland Township, Berks County, marching past with drums and fife, intending to lie for the night in the village of Providence, and to-morrow to proceed on their march to Jersey. Nearly all young men, native born, and who understand bush fighting, and imitate the Indian war-cry. It is a semitone and sounds well, but not like a human cry; it is somewhat like the war-cry of the Turks. It would sound much better, however, if their war-cry was our German hymn, "A strong castle is the Lord our God," &c.

To-day there is a report afloat that the Indians of Shamoken had committed hostilities on our Province of Pennsylvania. Perhaps it is incorrect, for many rumors are floating about, but if the Indians should break out, the district of Tulpehocken would be very much exposed to their attacks.

Wednesday, July 31, 1776. Paid Mr. Potts' wagoner for a barrel of flour, 17s. 6d. Wrote two letters; A, an answer to Francis Swaine's