APPENDIX, No. 1. LETTERS FROM HENRY LAURENS TO MARTHA LAURENS. Philadelphia, August 18, 1771. My dearest Patsy, remember my precepts, be dutiful, kind, and good to your aunt; learn to prevent all her wishes and commands; you can do so if you please. God has blessed you with sufficient abilities. Let all your reading, your study, and your practice tend to make you a wise and a virtuous woman, rather than a fine lady; the former character always comprehends the latter; but the modern fine lady, according to common acceptation, is too often found to be deficient both in wisdom and virtue. Strive then, my dearest girl, to be virtuous, dutiful, affable, courteous, modest; and be assured that you will become a fine lady. Set God before your eyes, my dear child; pray to him; place whole confidence in him; and strive to do his will; so shall you never be dismayed. your FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. MY DEAR PATSY, Westminster, May 18, 1774. I HAVE recollected your request for a pair of globes; therefore I have wrote to Mr. Grubb to ship a pair of the best eighteen inch, with caps and a book of directions, and to add a case of neat instruments, and one dozen Middleton's best pencils, marked M. L. directed to your uncle, who will deliver them to you. When you are measuring the surface of this world, remember you are to act a part on it; and think on a plumb pudding,* and other domestic duties. FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. Charleston, S. C. Feb. 29, 1776. MY DEAR DAUGHTER, WHEN I look around me, and behold increasing preparations for civil war; every man * The pleasantry about the plumb pudding, had its effect. Miss Laurens made a pudding before she began to make use of her globes, and profited by the hint, that the knowledge of housewifery was as much a part of female education as a knowledge of geography. EDITOR. seeming bent and determined to carry those preparations into execution to the last extremity; when, therefore, I consider our estates in this country, as being on the very precipice of bankruptcy, how can I forbear lamenting, what will become of my dear sister, what will become of my dear Patsy and Polly in case of my brother's death? Not only tears, but irresistible groans, accompany this afflicting inquiry; after a moment's pain, I console myself by this reply" God will take care of them; that God who led your ancestors through a cruel persecution, and through a wilderness, a hundred years ago, and you through ten thousand dangers, will not forsake your sister nor your children. Your brother will do well, and be made the guardian of your fatherless children after you are slaughtered." My dear child, I could fill pages with accounts of causes for lamentation; but alas, what good fruit would such accounts produce? I will not grieve your young yeart by a recital of afflictions which are the portion of age, and which I ought to bear alone. Nevertheless, it is my duty to warn you again, as I did in my last letter, to prepare yourself for a reverse of fortune, prepare for the trial of earning your daily bread by daily labour. This, whether it be matter of affliction, whether it be a subject for grief or not, will according to present appearances be your portion. My love for you constrains me to give you timely notice. I have done so with Me thinks, I hear you reply, "but, my dear papa, why will you make a sacrifice of your fortune, and hazard the happiness of your children; labour day and night to earn poverty for yourself and them? I answer briefly, "It is the will of God that it should be so, and he gives me resolution to concur in and to submit to his will." Now, act your part well, my dear, love God, and all things will work together for your good. I would proceed, and advise you how to act, but you are in an excellent school. You learn your duty every day from sensible and pious friends. Follow their counsel and you will be happy. What money I now have in England, is devoted to the service of your uncle, aunt, your brothers, yourself, and sister. I do not know that I shall ever be able to add one penny to that small stock. It will be wisdom, it will be piety, and a proof of gratitude in your elder brother and you, to consume as little as possible, in order that there may be more for the service of your dear uncle and aunt, and for the little ones who cannot help themselves would please me, it would rejoice me, to hear, that you had cheerfully entered upon your new scene of life; that you earned as much every It day by your needle, as would pay your daily expenses. It is melancholy to see the abuse of many good houses in this town, which are now made barracks for the country militia, who strip the paper hangings, chop wood upon parlour floors, and do a thousand such improper acts; but, alas! they are still good enough for burning. We are assured, that if the king's ships and troops cannot easily conquer the town, they will burn it; and we know, if they do conquer it, there are men here determined to put the torch with their own hands, and to leave them no shelter, nor any cover, for those who would join them. 1 FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. Charleston, S. C. March 14, 1776. MY DEAR CHILD, THE men of war at Georgia, have swept Mr. Arthur Middleton's plantation upon Savannah river, of about sixty-five negroes. Wright's Savannah is within three or four miles of it; probably some solitary escaping man may come within two or three days, to inform me of like mischiefs done there, and at Altamaha, by those |