While he remained at Cambridge, he
received numerous letters on the subject. The two following are
selected:--
FROM DR. JAMES COGSWELL.
Camp in Roxbury, 9th September, 1775.
I am extremely sorry to hear that you are determined on the new
expedition to Quebec. I am sorry on my own account, as I promised
myself much satisfaction and pleasure in your company: but I am not
altogether selfish; I am right-justified sorry on yours. The
expedition in which you are engaged is a very arduous one; and those
who are engaged in it must unavoidably undergo great hardships. Your
constitution (if I am not much mistaken) is very delicate, and not
formed for the fatigues of the camp. The expedition, I am sensible, is
a glorious one, and nothing but a persuasion of my inability to endure
the hardships of it would have deterred me from engaging in it. If
this excuse was sufficient for me, I am persuaded it is for you, and
ought to influence you to abandon all thoughts of undertaking it. I
have no friend so dear to me (and I love my friends) but that I am
willing to sacrifice for the good of the grand--the important cause,
in which we are engaged; but, to think of a friend's sacrificing
himself, without any valuable end being answered by it, is painful
beyond expression. _You will die; I know you will die in the
undertaking; it is impossible for you to endure the fatigue._ I am so
exercised about your going, that I should come and see you if I had
not got the Scriptural excuse,--a wife, and cannot come.
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