22 John Adams
Philadelphia, 20 September, 1774.
I am very well yet. Write to me as often as you can, and send your letters to the office in Boston, or to Mr. Cranch’s, whence they will be sent by the first conveyance.
I am anxious to know how you can live without Government. But the experiment must be tried. The evils will not be found so dreadful as you apprehend them. Frugality, my dear, frugality, economy, parsimony, must be our refuge. I hope the ladies are every day diminishing their ornaments, and the gentlemen, too. Let us eat potatoes and drink water; let us wear canvas, and undressed sheepskins, rather than submit to the unrighteous and ignominious domination that is prepared for us.
Tell Brackett I shall make him leave off drinking rum. We can’t let him fight yet. My love to my dear ones.
Adieu.