Thanksgiving Thanks

On April 26, 1777, a sick and depressed John Adams, spending months away from home working in a convention to build a country, wrote to his wife Abigail in a letter that concluded as follows:

Is it not intolerable, that the opening Spring, which I should enjoy with my Wife and Children upon my little Farm, should pass away, and laugh at me, for laboring, Day after Day, and Month after Month, in a Conclave, Where neither Taste, nor Fancy, nor Reason, nor Passion, nor Appetite can be gratified?

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.

Thank you, John and Abigail Adams.

(Hat tip:  Scott Johnson).