Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
superior to us; and the proofs of what I advance, are, that they live without care,
sleep without inquietude, take life as it comes, bearing all its asperities with
unparalleled patience, and die without any kind of apprehension for what they
have done, or for what they expect to meet with hereafter. What system of
philosophy can give us so many necessary qualications for happiness? They most
certainly are much more closely connected with nature than we are; they are her
immediate children, the inhabitants of the woods are her undeled o-spring:
those of the plains are her degenerated breed, far, very far removed from her
primitive laws, from her original design. It is therefore resolved on. I will either
die in the attempt or succeed; better perish all together in one fatal hour, than to
suer what we daily endure. I do not expect to enjoy in the village of———an
uninterrupted happiness; it cannot be our lot, let us live where we will; I am not
founding my future prosperity on golden dreams. Place mankind where you will,
they must always have adverse circumstances to struggle with; from nature,
accidents, constitution; from seasons, from that great combination of mischances
which perpetually lead us to new diseases, to poverty, etc. Who knows but I may
meet in this new situation, some accident from whence may spring up new sources
of unexpected prosperity? Who can be presumptuous enough to predict all the
good? Who can foresee all the evils, which strew the paths of our lives? But after
all, I cannot but recollect what sacrice I am going to make, what amputation I am
going to suer, what transition I am going to experience. Pardon my repetitions,
my wild, my triing reections, they proceed from the agitations of my mind, and
the fulness of my heart; the action of thus retracing them seems to lighten the
burden, and to exhilarate my spirits; this is besides the last letter you will receive
from me; I would fain tell you all, though I hardly know how. Oh! in the hours, in
the moments of my greatest anguish, could I intuitively represent to you that
variety of thought which crowds on my mind, you would have reason to be
surprised, and to doubt of their possibility. Shall we ever meet again? If we should,
where will it be? On the wild shores of——. If it be my doom to end my days there,
I will greatly improve them; and perhaps make room for a few more families, who
will choose to retire from the fury of a storm, the agitated billows of which will yet
roar for many years on our extended shores. Perhaps I may repossess my house,
if it be not burnt down; but how will my improvements look? why, half defaced,
bearing the strong marks of abandonment, and of the ravages of war. However, at
present I give everything over for lost; I will bid a long farewell to what I leave
behind. If ever I repossess it, I shall receive it as a gift, as a reward for my conduct
and fortitude. Do not imagine, however, that I am a stoic—by no means: I must,
on the contrary, confess to you, that I feel the keenest regret, at abandoning an
house which I have in some measure reared with my own hands. Yes, perhaps I
may never revisit those elds which I have cleared, those trees which I have
planted, those meadows which, in my youth, were a hideous wilderness, now
converted by my industry into rich pastures and pleasant lawns. If in Europe it is
praise-worthy to be attached to paternal inheritances, how much more natural,
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