hv_sansomj_letters_1796_015

New Stockbridge, about 200 miles north of Philad.a but by the way of New York and Albany near 400 6th. Mo. 14th. 1796My dear Friends, Dearer, and dearer, as if by the rule of contraries, the farther I go from you. We left Albany on the day of my last letter, glad to turn our backs upon it, tho' it is evidently rising into wealth and consequence, being likely to become the Seat of Government in a few years, and the center of the Western Trade, which has al-ready raised the value of property to a comparison with the excess of Philadelphia and New York. Its Burghers value themselves as the most ancient Corporation in the United States: but you will think it an empty one when I add that it has only the precedence of a single day. Traversed 14 tedious miles of sandy road, through a Forest of Hemlock, and lodged at Schenectady, a considerable town on the banks of the Mohawk, which is here about as large as Schuilkill, but preserves a gentle current, through a long tract of Country, by being dammed