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