Delegates to Congress . Letters of delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 11, October 1 1778-January 31 1779
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Joseph Reed to To: John Armstrong


Dear Sir
Philad. Oct. 5, 1778

   Acknowledgements of Friendship tho late are never unseasonable. I therefore set down to thank you for your Favour which I received in August last. Your Partiality as well as that of many others has form'd Views & Expectations for me which a Sense of my own Incapacity & a Knowledge of the Envy & Anxiety attending Offices of an elevated Kind would have totally forbid. My own Wishes were for private Life but I have been induced to give them up from a very full Conviction that our whole Strength & Union is necessary to oppose the Designs of those who are equally Enemies to us & the Happiness of America as founded on its Liberty & Independance. I have therefore given myself up to the publick at least for a Time, & I


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most earnestly hope that the same Motives which have influenced me will have their due Effect upon your Mind & lead you forward. The Designs of a Tory, Proprietary Quaker Party are too obvious; & if not crushed in the Bud will produce a plentiful Crop of Mixing & Dissension thro this State. The Limits of a Letter are too narrow to say all that I could upon this Subject. I hope in the first place that you will not decline your Support & Assistance at this critical Period if you should be called on-& in the next that you will take as early an Oppy. as possible to see us in this City where there are many Things worth your Knowledge which Time & Prudence will not allow me to trust to Paper.

   After fighting the open Enemies of our Country, I have now devoted my poor Talents to its Service in pleading its Cause against those Wretches who have secretly been endeavring to ruin it.(1) I have only Time to sum up my best Wishes for your Health & Happiness & assure you that I am with a very sincere Regard, Dear Sir, Your Affect. & Obed. Hbble. Serv. Jos. Reed


Note: RC (PHi: Dreer Collection.) Addressed: "Major Gen. Armstrong, Carlisle."

1 For Reed's appointment as assistant to the Pennsylvania Attorney General, fol the purpose of prosecuting "those Wretches who have secretly been endeavoring to ruin [our country]," see Reed to George Bryan, September 2, 1778, note.