December 31

"Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

John Adams, 2nd President, 1797-1801-From a letter to his wife, Abigail, April 26, 1777.This letter was written four months after Washington's troops had crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Eve and defeated Hessian troops in a surprise attack. There was not much fighting during the rest of the winter. Britain had started attacking again, attempting to destroy supplies in Connecticut. There was much difficulty in getting troops to re-enlist to continue the struggle for independence. Adams was in Philadelphia with the continental Congress and constantly exchanged letters with his wife, who was staying on their farm in Massachusetts. "... I have been lately more remiss, than usual in Writing to you. There has been a great Dearth of News...I am wearied out, with Expectations that the Massachusetts Troops would have arrived, e'er now, at Head Quarters. -- Do our People intend to leave the Continent in the Lurch? Do they mean to submit? or what Fatality attends them? With the noblest Prize in View, that ever Mortals contended for, and with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms, The People of the Massachusetts Bay, are dead. Does our State intend to send only half, or a third of their Quota? Do they wish to see another, crippled, disastrous and disgracefull Campaign for Want of an Army? -- I am more sick and more ashamed of my own Countrymen, than ever I was before. The Spleen, the Vapours, the Dismals, the Horrors, seem to have seized our whole State. More Wrath than Terror, has seized me. I am very mad. The gloomy Cowardice of the Times, is intollerable in N. England...Is it not intollerable, that the opening Spring, which I should enjoy with my Wife and Children upon my little Farm, should pass away, and laugh at me, for labouring, Day after Day, and Month after Month, in a Conclave, Where neither Taste, nor Fancy, nor Reason, nor Passion, nor Appetite can be gratified? Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.