The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

The conduct of the United States with respect to their governments may be illustrated by the following story: An old man arrived, after a long and dangerous voyage, upon the coast of America, with a family consisting of a wife, a few choice old servants, and thirteen sons. As soon as they landed, they joined and built a large and commodious dwelling-house, where they lived in safety for several years. The sons, however, grew weary of the company of their parents, and each of them built a cabin for himself, at a distance from the family mansion-house. They had not lived long in this way, before they began to suffer many difficulties and wants—one of them had his implements of husbandry stolen from him—another lost a crop, from not having strength enough on his farm to erect a fence in time—a third had all his sheep devoured in one night by the wolves—a fourth narrowly escaped being scalped by a party of drunken Indians—a fifth caught a cold and fever, from the roof of his cabin having been blown away in the night by a thunder-gust—a sixth had his whole stock washed away by a great flood—and each of the rest met with some one or more of the disasters that have been mentioned. At last twelve of them met by agreement upon a plain, and agreed to petition their father to be admitted again under his protection. The venerable old man opened his doors to them, and they again became members of his family. They first joined in repairing and fortifying the old mansion-house. They moreover, added two more rooms to it, for the separate use of the old man and his wife, in order thereby to preserve their dignity and authority. From this time the whole family became respectable, happy, and prosperous, nor did they separate from each other till the death of both their parents, when the accession of new settlers, and the cultivated state of the country, made it safe and prudent for them to set up for themselves. The thirteenth son, who refused to accompany his brothers to his father's house, after living a miserable life for three years by himself in the woods, was found hanging by his garter to the limb of a tree near his cabin.