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Sabbath[underlined] Eve[underlined. 9 [ink blot] [illegible word] All gone to bed. I am alone in my old chair. Your uncle Lucius and uncle Artemis[underlined] have called this evening & we have had discourse on a variety of subjects--on trade, politics, tomorrow's election, +c, +c. And now I will [illegible word] to rest[?]. Good[underlined] night[underlined]! Z. Long
Monday Morning, 13th Sept. My correspondence with you is a sort of diary according to my custom. Tell John Addison to write. John Davis is driving[?] the cows[?]. He is now ambitious as a scholar, & pushes ahead. Washington is utterly absorbed in matters pertaining to the election. His [illegible word] Enterprise seems to be of secondary importance. Tell John Addison, he must advise Wash, to give up his trade as a politician[underlined], while he is engaged in the mercantile[underlined] & lumber[underlined] trade[underlined]--as the two trades seldom work profitably[underlined] together. If Wash. don't guard against it, he will become a political monomaniac[underlined]. What sense, or reason, can there be in a man's spending his time, & strength, & money in marshaling[?] one of the parties in the present election? Ensign of a letter squad of [illegible], after the fashion of Jesse Drew, & Isaiah Rumpilly[?]!! It is a mean business. Let a man go to the polls, & vote, & preserve his dignity. George is crying as loud as he can scream which brings me to a full stop in my paragraph on the Election. So [illegible word] it be--I must go water the pony, & do many little things. I mean to do all my penmanship with this same [illegible word] quill as an example of economy that you can't find in Boston. Boys need lessons in economy[underlined].
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