Front: Noah Webster letter to Emily Ellsworth, 1840 April 29

New Haven April 29. 1840

Dear Emily.

I was much fatigued with my expedition
to Hartford, & with the exercises of the day. My hoarseness
has nearly left me; but my sore leg almost confines
me. This & my hoarseness gave me pain when in the
desk, & my performance was not satisfactory to myself.
After I returned, I was taken with the crik in my
back, & thus I have been afflicted.

Your mother has a very bad cold & is hardly able
to sit up & work. William has a hoarse cold, but is
able to run about & help us. Indeed, I could not
have executed my dictionary without him.

I was as well accommodated at your house as
I could desire, & if I neglected to thank you, I do it now.
But I shall never again appear in the character I
did in Hartford. My principles were learned in early
life, in the school of Washington; I profess to be a
consistent disciple of the great & good man who
once governed the country; & all the events which
have matured the last 40 years confirm my
opinions, & verify my predictions. Jefferson's princi-
ples have so corrupted the public mind, & tainted
the opinions of the Whigs, so called, that four fifths of
them are about as wrong, in general principles, as
their opposers. They indeed abhor the last & present admin-
istration, but they seem not to know, or certainly do not
admit that these bad administrations are the direct
consequences of the popular errors which they themselves
have embraced from Jeffersons authority, & from