1790] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 32 1 



which follows is a pleasing illustration of Dr. Smith's courtly- 

 manners, and is a tribute to his son Charles' good conduct, of which 

 that son may have well been proud : 



Dr. Smith to Jasper Yeates. 



riiiLADELPHiA, September 3, 1790. 



My Dear Sir : On my return from Lancaster to Philadelphia my son 

 Charles informed his mother and me that, having been successful in his 

 addresses to your amiable daughter, and farther happy in obtaining 

 yours and Mrs. Yeates's consent to their being united in wedlock at 

 some convenient time, which he hoped might not be very remote, it 

 was his wish that his mother and myself might assure you of our appro- 

 bation, as we now readily do, and also of our desire to contribute all in our 

 power to render the young couple permanently happy. I wish that 

 Charles could have so far overcome his bashfulness as to have communi- 

 cated himself to me on the Saturday evening after I was in company with 

 you. I should certainly, in that case, have waited on you according to 

 your invitation to breakfast on Sunday morning, when a few moments 

 conversation on this business would have been better between us than any- 

 thing by way of letter; and it may seem disrespectful to your family that 

 on a supposition of my being acquainted with the matter, I should leave 

 Lancaster without waiting upon you to express the sense I have, not only 

 of your former partiality to my son, and the advice and protection with 

 which you favored him from his first appearance at the Ba?; but espe- 

 cially this last instance of your favor to him ; a greater than which you 

 have it not in your power to give. And I trust that such is his sensi- 

 bility, and such will be his gratitude and returns of duty to you as well as 

 of tender affection for your daughter, that you will never have cause to re- 

 pent of your good offices and predilection for him. As for myself, I 

 can only add that he is justly a favorite son, and has never in his life, by 

 any part of his conduct, given me cause of pain, but always of much 

 pleasure, and in no part of it more than on tlie present occasion of his 

 attachment to a young lady of such amiable manners and good educa- 

 tion, who is willing and happily qualified to accommodate herself to his 

 situation either in a village or a city, a farm-house or a mansion, as 

 future circumstances may require. I have done what my present situa- 

 tion will allow to add to his independence. If nothing adverse happens, 

 he will have something further to expect upon the death of his mother 

 and myself. 



I have enclosed the Cincinnati sermon which you wished to see, and 

 as a token of my affection, have inscribed it with your daughter's name. 



I am with great regard and esteem. 



Your most obedient humble servant, Williaji Smith. 



To Jasper Yeates, Esq., Lancaster. 

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