Part 53

The other letter, dated at the “Head Waters of Buffalo,” the thirteenth of July, is as follows.

“My dearest H,

“I need not say how much I feel for you, on account of the disagreeable situation in which you last wrote. The only advice, I believe, which I thought it necessary to give you, at leaving you, was to keep up your spirits and endeavour to bear the fatigues of the office. What will you say, or what will you think, when I tell you, I believe it scarcely possible for any thing to contribute so much to reconcile me to your absence, as the aversion I have to the plagues of that same office.

“You have heard the reports concerning the Indians. We are still ignorant of the true state of matters; but, from every information we can get, it seems very improbable that we shall cross the Ohio this summer: on this side of the river, we do not apprehend the least danger.

“On Saturday last, we suddenly emerged from the gloomy, uncultivated desert, into a habitable country; and encamped with joy in an open field where we could once more see the heavens around us,—a sight we had not been blest with, for five weeks past. Wheat, rye, and Indian-corn, growing, afforded a very pleasing sight; even the barking of dogs and crowing of cocks were agreeable. The next day being Sunday, several of the neighbours, their wives and daughters, paid us a visit; and amongst them, at least one spruce young lady, bred at the metropolis, Fort-Pitt. But would you believe it? such is my unreasonable and incurable aversion to company, that their visits soon became irksome. They hindered me from enjoying a lonely walk, or some passage in Milton,—or, perhaps, a loll on my bed. Nay, even our fellow-commissioners, the Virginians, I mean; I sometimes wish their wine was better, and flowed more plentifully: not that I might enjoy it with them; but that I might enjoy myself the more, alone.

“Whether you will believe me or not, I do not know; but my health is really much better. As I told you in my last, my old complaint is the only one I have; and this is, and has been for several weeks, infinitely more supportable, than I have known it for months together. I do not, indeed, flatter myself with a cure; it is, in all probability, fixed for life: but an alleviation of the pain I have usually felt, is to me of much importance.

“We have, for three weeks past, had a much greater proportion of dry weather; and in this country, when it does not rain, the sky is always fair, of a beautiful blue, and the air serene. There has been nothing like a storm, nor scarce a puff of wind, since we came here. Though thunder, lightning, and rain, are so very frequent, they are never attended with high winds, nor scarcely a perceptible motion of the air. For a month past, we had a very decent woman to cook for us, but some little family broils obliged us to pack her home again. Our boys have, however, learnt from her to bake good bread, and to cook much better than they did. I mention this, because you will be pleased with any thing that can contribute to my comfort.

“I expect several opportunities of writing, before we reach the Ohio, none of which shall be neglected. I must lay down the pen, to retire to rest after the fatigues of the day. Wishing you a very good night, I conclude, &c. your ever affectionate

“DAVID RITTENHOUSE.

“MRS. RITTENHOUSE.”

“P. S. Having mentioned the fatigues of the day, I must assure you that I find my strength fully equal to them: As to walking up the hills, I never pretend to it, having always a horse to ride—Col. P. is every thing I could wish; I mean, so far as is necessary to me.”

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Footnote 225:

Now the flourishing borough of Pittsburgh, situated at the confluence of the rivers Allegany and Monongahela, which form, by their junction, the commencement of the great river Ohio.

This place, which is distant about thirty-five miles, eastward, from the western boundary-line of Pennsylvania, was the site of a fort, formerly erected by the French, which they called Fort Du Quesne; but on its reduction by the English, it was named by them Fort-Pitt; and by this name the place is still recognized by many people.

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This arduous business of determining the territorial limits of several great states, which commenced before the American revolution, was not terminated until some years afterward. And on every occasion of that kind, where Mr. Rittenhouse’s situation, in respect to health and official duties, admitted of his being employed, his talents placed his services in requisition.

He had been at home but a few weeks, after being engaged in running the Western boundary of Pennsylvania, before he was elected by Congress, together with the Rev. Dr. Ewing, and Thomas Hutchins, Esq. afterwards Geographer of the United States, a commissioner “for running a line of jurisdiction between the states of Massachusetts and New-York, conformably to the laws of the said states.” This appointment was made on the 2d day of December, 1785. It was not, however, until the year 1787, that the legislature of New-York ceded to the state of Massachusetts all the lands within their jurisdiction, Westward of a meridian to be drawn from a point in the Northern boundary of Pennsylvania, eighty-two miles West from the river Delaware; excepting one mile along the Eastern side of the Niagara river; and also ten townships between the Chenengo and Owegy rivers; reserving the jurisdiction to the state of New-York: a cession which was made to satisfy a claim of Massachusetts, founded upon their original charter.

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Footnote 226:

By an agreement, entered into, on the 18th of May, 1773, between commissioners appointed by the legislatures of New-York and Massachusetts, respectively, for the settlement of a partition-line of jurisdiction between those (then) provinces, on the eastern part of New-York, and from the southern to the northern boundaries of Massachusetts, (then called Massachusett’s Bay;) in compliance with the king’s recommendations, which had been previously signified to sir Henry Moore, and Francis Barnard, Esq. the then governors of those provinces. The commissioners, on the part of New-York, were John Watts, Robert R. Livingston, and William Nicoll, Esq’rs. and on that of Massachusetts, William Brattle, Joseph Hawley, and John Hancock, Esq’rs. These gentlemen met, in pursuance of their appointment, at Hartford in the (then) province of Connecticut, where, after divers conferences, they concluded on the following line, as the one which should, at all times thereafter, be the line of jurisdiction between Massachusetts and New-York, wheresoever the latter, on its eastern boundary, should adjoin on the former: that is to say, beginning at a place fixed upon by the two governments of New-York and Connecticut, about the year 1731, for the north-western corner of a tract of land commonly called the Oblong, or Equivalent Land; and running from that corner, north, 21° 10′ 30″ east (as the needle then pointed,) to the northern line of Massachusetts. This agreement was ratified by the governors of Massachusetts and New-York, on the same day; and commissioners were accordingly appointed by both provinces, before the revolution, to run the line thus defined. It was, in part, then effected; but those commissioners not having been able to proceed, by reason of an eventual disagreement between them, this line was finally run out, surveyed, ascertained and marked, by the commissioners appointed by congress, whom the two governments concerned had empowered to make such appointment.

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This line was accordingly run, in the year 1787, by the commissioners so appointed for the purpose:—And “this last business, which was executed with his usual precision and integrity”—says Dr. Rush, speaking of Mr. Rittenhouse,—“ was his farewell peace-offering to the union and happiness of his country.”

It was not until the year 1786, that the American Philosophical Society were enabled to publish a second volume of their Transactions: it then made its appearance. Into that volume is introduced a letter to the Society, in the original Latin, (accompanied with an English translation,) from the celebrated C. Mayer, the Elector Palatine’s Astronomer at Manheim, dated so long before as the 24th of April, 1778. The receipt of that letter had been acknowledged by Mr. Rittenhouse, according to a special order of the Society, so early as the 20th of August, 1779; and the answer, it is presumable, was duly transmitted to Mr. Mayer. Yet, although there was a lapse of seven years, from the date of Mr. Rittenhouse’s letter to the time of Mr. Mayer’s communication being printed in the Society’s Transactions, the former was, by some unaccountable circumstance, omitted and unnoticed! Nor will the reader’s surprise on this occasion be diminished, when he learns, that a member of the Society, having obtained from Mr. Rittenhouse a copy of his letter, had it read at their stated meeting on the 16th of March, 1792,—twelve years and a half after its date; that it was, thereupon, “referred to the committee of selection and publication:” and, notwithstanding, by some other fatality, that letter remained unpublished until now; being twenty-one years afterwards!

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Footnote 227:

In the beginning of the same year, Mr. Rittenhouse was elected one of the twelve Counsellors of the American Philosophical Society; an office in that institution, created by the incorporating act of the 15th of March, 1780.