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the arduous struggle to secure the liberties of his country, without any inducement[?] either of honour or profit to himself or his family. Why this business is thus delayed appears very extraordinary to me:—after all, such an appointment in a distant country to an amiable son, is a very inadequate compensation for the fatigues and sufferings of an excellent father. You will excuse this freedom communicating the domestic feelings of one who subscribes respectfully your friend M Warren mwp1 1. Francis Dana (1743–1811), who accepted the appointment as a Supreme Court justice in April. 2. After serving as a delegate to Congress from 1783–85, Elbridge Gerry was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the period 1785–86. 80 to james warren jr. [In 1784 mow’s middle son Charles was debilitated by tuberculosis. After a failed visit to Haiti in that year to recuperate, he took the risk of sailing to Cadiz, Spain, in 1785 to meet his brother Winslow in Portugal. Meanwhile, ww, having failed once again in Europe to secure any feasible position as a diplomat or merchant, was returning to the United States at the same time that Charles was en route to Europe. Becoming seriously ill on board, Charles was put off in Sanlucar de Barrameda, on the southwest coast of Spain. This next letter was written in response to the news of his death on November 30, 1785. By this time, Charles’s oldest brother, James, had moved from Milton to Hingham, between Boston and Plymouth.] Milton [January] 178[6]1 My dear Son, The tidings which justly wound your heart assailed my ears the day before yesterday. I was at Boston and could not return that day to my own house[,] the proper asylum of grief. There I shall pay the tribute of a tear to the memory of a most amiable youth, so long as time is lent to one who 204  to james warren jr., january 1786 has been long taught to look into the grave for many, many of her associates . But I think I can say without a murmur—I desire to adore the hand that hath smitten us;—us alone it is, for I trust the dear youth was made perfect through sufferings. He died as he lived with the calm, uniform dignity of virtue about him—he met the cold messenger of death with intrepidity and faith, nor expressed a wish for protracted life. You remember an expression of his own, in the trials of the last year—“that he had long stood on the brink of eternity and viewed life as a bursting bubble”; and shall we wish him to return from the society of the blessed—from the rank he holds with the spirits of just men made perfect to gratify our ardent fondness for the conversation of so discreet, so judicious a friend?—No—he has done his work—he has entered before us and perhaps may have the favoured task assigned him to bid welcome to the eternal abodes those he so tenderly loved while in this probationary state. Perhaps it was necessary he should step before us to heighten our gratitude, our hope, our exertions which are too apt to flag while in the zenith of earthly felicity. I will not say we have lost a rich treasure; it is only safely deposited till we are prepared for higher fruition. He grew worse immediately after he wrote a few lines on his passage from Boston: was exceedingly ill, when arrived at Cadiz, and though a stranger, amidst aliens in manners, language, and religion, his amiable deportment made him many friends. He had every accommodation, and relinquished the idea of going to Lisbon, before he received his brother’s letters; and prepared himself for death in that place without once shrinking at the approach of the king of terrors. The event took place on the evening of the thirtieth of November. The servant who went with him closed his eyes without another attendant. This lad he ordered to the very last to read to him select passages of scripture, which he pointed out; particularly the first chapter to the Hebrews, and first of Romans; “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,” &c. Thus he has been made another witness of the truth and consolations of that religion, which many miserable beings affect to despise. He has done more for the honour of religion and for the improvement...

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