Washington Dec. 25th 1820

My dearest friend,

I was much disappointed in not receiving any letters from home yesterday, which is the day in which your letters arrive. I am willing to impute it to the failure of the past, and not to any other course - believing if you were unable to write, that Samuel or Mary would inform me of the situation of the family. You know that I am always in the habit of viewing every uncertainty in the most favorable point of view.

My health remains good, and so is that of most of the members of Congress; yet there are some sick, which is the case every winter. When it is considered that most of the members are rather on the down hill of life, and many of them [DELETED: "rather" by author] infirm, it is not surprising that some of them should, and their course at Washington, but it is more so that the number should be so small. We have buried two of our members already, they had both been out of health for a long time, and came here in that condition. This bring Christmas, congress do not attend to business to day. Christmas is a great day here, where the inhabitants are mostly Roman Catholic - The stores are all shut, the churches are filled with devotees, either true or feigned, and the streets with negroes all in full [GAP: 4 letters missing due to illegible content] . The weather has been very fickle, continually changing, from cold to moderate, & vie versa, - raining one day and freezing hard the next, and so on - very little snow this month, & none at present. I infinitely prefer a Vermont winter, where the weather is steady, to such borken, muddy and unhealthy weather as prevails for three or four months at this place - end note:Mrs Eunice Crafts

My love to Samuel & Mary, and accept the assurance of the constant affection of your humble [UNCLEAR: "servant" due to illegible content]

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