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To George Washington from Joshua Lathrop, 2 March 1797

III
From Joshua Lathrop

Connecticut Norwich.
March 2 1797

Hond & most esteemed Sir

At a time when you are receiving addresses from all the united States of America, and from many of the considerable corporations in Sd States. I fear it will be too much intruding upon your time & Patience to receive a line from a Person perhaps unknown to you, though you are well known to him. I never had the Pleasure of Seeing you or being in your Company but once which was in the year 1776 when you with 7 other Officers of the Army were returning from Boston to N. York and dined & Spent the afternoon at Colo. Leffingwells in Norwich.1 But as I always esteemed you whilst the cheif Commander of our American Army & Since whilst presiding as our cheif Magistrate and as you are now retiring from your publick Station I felt anxious of expressing my most Sincear wishes for the continuance of your most precious Life and that you might enjoy the happiness of retirement as free from alloy, as can be expected in this world. where perhaps no Station is entirely free from trouble.

I could have wished for my own Sake, and for the good of my Country if it had been consistant with your happiness; that you would have continued to hold the reigns of Goverment a little longer, but considering your advanced age and the great Shair of trouble, & anxiety that you must have had. I must think that you have acted entirely right in declining again to be Eligable. I have never personally Served my Country either in the feild, or Cabinet but after finishing my Education in 1743 I entered into Buisness in the mercantile line in which I continued with tolerable Success untill the year 1783 When I thought it best to retire from the hurry & fatigue of Merchandize, & Spend the Evining of Life in retirement, or rather to Busy my Self in my Garden, & overseeing a little farming In which way perhaps I have been as happy as most men. for though I am not very rich, yet I have enough. enought to do something in Serving my Country in the Support of Religion & good Goverment. Something to give the Poor & werewith to entertain my friend. I am now in my 74th year enjoying good health, able to walk and ride & enjoy my friends to which Age & much greater I pray God your valuable life may be preserved. That you may live to See your place well filled with Successor, or Successors after your own heart. a Terror to Evil Doers & a praise to them who do well. & that you may See these united States florishing, & in prosperity equal to your most Sanguine expectations and that your last days may be Peace & quietness and your Eternity most happy. shall be the Prayer of Sr your most Obt & Hume Servant

Joshua Lathrop

ALS, DLC:GW. No reply to Lathrop from GW has been found.

Joshua Lathrop (1723–1807) of Norwich, Conn., graduated from Yale in 1743. Soon after, he received medical instruction and worked as an apothecary in a drug business, which he operated with his brother, Daniel. Joshua continued to run the successful business for a period after Daniel’s death in 1782. During the last several years of his life, Lathrop served as a deacon in a Congregational church in Norwich. A death notice, printed in the Connecticut Gazette (New London) for 4 Nov. 1807, characterized Lathrop as tolerant and “forgiving to his enemies,” and described him as “an exemplary christian” and benefactor of the poor.

1Following the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776, GW traveled from Cambridge, Mass., to New York, accompanied by two aides and Adj. Gen. Horatio Gates. During his journey, which lasted from 4 to 13 April 1776, GW stopped in Providence as well as in Norwich, New London, and Lyme, Connecticut. GW reached Norwich by 8 April, the day he met Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., “by appointment at Jedediah Huntington’s, where they dine together” (Baker, Itinerary of General Washington description begins William S. Baker. Itinerary of General Washington from June 15, 1775, to December 23, 1783. Philadelphia, 1892. description ends , 36). While in Norwich, GW evidently lodged at the home of Jabez Huntington, the father of Col. Jedediah Huntington, and made a payment at “Lothrops” (Expenses of Journey to New York, 4–13 April 1776, and the source note to that document, in Papers, Revolutionary War Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series. 25 vols. to date. Charlottesville, Va., 1985–. description ends 4:40–42).

Christopher Leffingwell had served during the Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Norwich light infantry brigade.

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