Delegates to Congress . Letters of delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 25, March 1788-July 1789, With Supplement
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Paine Wingate to To: Timothy Pickering


Dear Sir,
New York Mar 29. 1788

   Mr. Hodgdon who is now in this City informs me that he can frequently transmit letters to you from Philadelphia, and by him I improve this opportunity of writing to you. The distance of your situation from New Hampshire & the difficulty of an intercourse between us has prevented my giving and I suppose of receiving any direct intelligence from you for a long time. But this seperation has not obliterated my remembrance of or lessened my affection for you. It is with particular satisfaction that I sometimes hear of your welfare by our friends at Salem. This pleasure I had in the beginning of Feb. when your brother told me that he had received a letter from you dated the 1st of Janry at which time you was Setting out for your new settlement. Mr. Hodgdon tells me that you have since been down & returned again very lately & that the last intelligence was that your family were all well & that your situation was very agreeable. I rejoyce in every circumstance that contributes to your domestic happiness & extensive usefulness in life, but could wish that you had believed those two objects obtainable somewhere within the circle of your family connections & former friends. Your brother(1) was remarkably well when I was there in Feb. I think he appears to enjoy as good health & spirits as I have known him have for several years. All the other branches of the family were well. Your son came with me from Salem to Boston in a sleigh for the sake of a ride & to see the Bridges &c and returned again the same day with a lad who brot me on. Master Jno. is sensible & after some acquaintance is sufficiently sociable, tho' with strangers rather reserved. He has those qualities which I think will render him, with the advantages of education that he will enjoy, both amiable & useful & in whom a parent will have great satisfaction. Your other children I have not seen, but I dare say they afford you the pleasing hopes of a fond father. I have receivd a letter from my family dated Mar. 17 when they were all well. Polly is married, & I hope & believe to a worthy & agreeable husband. She will live about one mile from me. Sally is a woman grown. George & Jno are two good boys, & Betsey my youngest is about 5 years old who I suppose will finish our complement of children. My wife(2) enjoys uninterrupted health & changes with succession of years as little as almost any body. I shall write to her by the post to day & let her know that I have heard of you by Mr. Hodjdon which will make a letter very welcome to her on your account if not on mine. I have been in New York since Feb. 10 & find my situation as agreeable as I could expect considering that I am very domestic & habituated to an active life. I have nothing very important to


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communicate to you. The subject which engages the general attention at this time is the New Constitution. What will be the fate of it is yet uncertain, but those who are well wishers to their country & best know the situation we are in, are the most sensible of the necessity of its adoption, and great pains are taken to obtain the end. On the other hand there are powerful opposers to it, who avail themselves of some popular objections & they are too successful with the less knowing part of the country. In New Hampshire when the Convention met, there was a majority prejudiced against the plan. They were chiefly from the interior parte of the state & many of the delegates were instructed to vote against it. The most distinguished Characters were in favor of it & after debating it for sometime there were a few converts made, who did not think themselves at liberty to go against their instructions and therefore obtained an adjournment. There is I think a probabity that it will finally be adopted in New Hampshire, altho considerable danger that it will not. New York is very doubtful but it is not despaired of. Virginia & North Carolina are much in the same situation. Maryland & South Carolina are supposed to be foederal. Those two states will decide before the others & if they should agree to adopt there will be but one of the dubtful ones necessary to make up the nine. The important decision upon the subject cannot be known before the last of July, & at any rate I do not see that the new constitution can be got to go as early as Dec. next. Nothing but the hope of a new can I fear keep the old Constitution from dissolution long -- Sed nunquam de Re publica desperandum. The news papers are so filled with lyes that no dependance can be put on any account you receive in them respecting the Constitution. I hope I shall soon have the pleasure of hearing from you by letter, which direct to me in Congress at New York. If you have any letters which you wish at any time to forward to Salem or to any friends Eastward if you will put them under cover to me, I will take the care of them & send them without hazard or expence to the place of destination. If Congress should not adjourn which yet is uncertain, it is likely that I shall remain in this place until Oct. next. I am dear Sir with sentiments of particular esteem & affection your friend & brother,

   Paine Wingate

   N.B. I desire my love to Mrs. Pickering.


Note:

   RC (MHi: Pickering Papers).



1 Pickering's brother John, although a man of some local prominence and a Salem representative in the Massachusetts General Court, is not to be confused with John Pickering (1738-1805) of Portsmouth, N.H., the first federal judge impeached and removed from office in 1804. Cf. Gerard H. Clarfield, Timothy Pickering and the American Revolution (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980), p. 13; and DAB.



2 Wingate had been married to Pickering's sister Eunice since 1765.



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