24 John Adams
Philadelphia, 25 September, 1774.
I would not lose the opportunity of writing to you, though I must be short. Tedious indeed is our business—slow as snails. I have not been used to such ways. We sit only before dinner. We dine at four o’clock. We are crowded with a levee in the evening.
Fifty gentlemen meeting together, all strangers, are not acquainted with each other’s language, ideas, views, designs. They are, therefore, jealous of each other—fearful, timid, skittish.