uary, I mentioned the above conversation to
my brother. I likewise mentioned it to the Hon. John Adams,
Esq., with whom I then lived in intimacy, a day or two after
his return from Boston to Congress. I did not mention it with
a view of injuring Mr. Reed, for I still respected him,
especially as I then believed that the victory at Trenton had
restored the tone of his mind, and dissipated his fears, but
to show Mr. Adams an instance of a man possessing and
exercising military spirit and activity, and yet deficient in
political fortitude. To which I well remember Mr. Adams
replied in the following words: "The powers of the human mind
are combined together in an infinite variety of ways."

BENJAMIN RUSH.

_Philadelphia, March 3, 1783._

I went with Congress to Baltimore, in 1776. On the arrival of
my brother there, a few weeks afterwards, I called to see him.
To the best of my recollection, Mr. Clerk and Dr. Witherspoon,
delegates from New Jersey, were in the room with him. The two
former, after some time withdrew, and my brother then
mentioned the conversation as related by him above. He
informed me, also, of some _other_ conversation that passed
between Mr. Reed and him, which is not necessary at present to
repeat.

JACOB RUSH.

_Philadelphia, March 3, 1783._

Joseph Ellis, a Colonel of Militia, in the county of
Gloucester, and State of New Jersey, doth hereby certify, that
upon the retreat of a body of militia from before Count Donop,
in the neighborhood of Mount Holly, in Burlington county, in
the month of December, 1776, he met with Charles Pettit, Esq.,
_then Secretary of the said State_, that a conversation ensued
between them respecting the situation of the public dispute at
that period; that Mr. Pettit, in said conversation,
representing that our affairs were desperate, Col. Ellis
endeavoured to dissuade him from such an opinion, when Mr.
Pettit replied, "What hurts me more than all is, my
brother-in-law, General Reed, has, (or I believe he has,)
given up the contest." That a good deal more passed between
Mr. Pettit and Col. Ellis, during the said cnnversation[TN], but
omitted here, as being thought unnecessary.