On this day 250 years ago, from Princeton, New Jersey, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail. He promised to give her the details of the Massachusetts delegation’s journey from Boston to Princeton when he returned home but succinctly stated that “The Spirit of the People wherever we have been seems to be very favourable. They universally consider our Cause as their own, and express the firmest Resolution, to abide the Determination of the Congress.”
Also on this day 250 years ago, John Adams recorded in his diary that he heard Dr. John Witherspoon preach “all Day” and they “spent the Evening with” Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant gossiping about the other delegations heading to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Witherspoon was born in Scotland but was then President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and a leader of the Patriots in New Jersey. He would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation and become the convening Moderator of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Sergeant was a member of the Sons of Liberty and was the clerk of the meeting in New Brunswick in August that had elected New Jersey’s delegates to the First Continental Congress. He would go on to serve as a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress from New Jersey and then the Attorney General of Pennsylvania. Sergeant’s home in Princeton was burned to the ground by the British during the Revolutionary War.
Sources:
On This Day In The Revolution 