[Address: Samuel Hodgdon Esquire / Philadelphia] [Docket: John Mackey / [undecipherable] 1799] [Stamp: Received from State Dep't. Nov. 24, 1893. B.P.O. 401310.] Harpers ferry April 3. 1799— Dear Sir To you, who have made it the rule of your conduct, it is not necessary to mention that Vo-lantary acts of benevolence if not a duty in themselves are of excellence superior to duty, and ever have been deservully esteemed the fairest ornaments of the hu-man character. It will therefore be sufficient to make a request to have regarded by you, and to point out the means to have it complied with. M^r Perkin, from that solicitude peculiar to all parents, which too as a father you must feel in an exquisite degree, is desirous of ensuring the future independence & happiness of his Son John by placing him under the instructions & direction of some able Merchant & good Citizen. This pursuit appears to afford the best scope for a diligent man to become useful to society and respectable in himself. your enlarged acquaintance with gentlemen in that de-partment, and your wanted readiness to be a friend have afforded the best prospect of seeing him advantageously placed— I therefore beg leave to solicit your favorable attention to him. He is a good young Man, being as far as I know, free from vice and meanness, and only wants instruction & employment to be virtuous & useful, for which end an uncommon pliability of disposition has fitted him. If m^r Brindley be [strikethrough: not] on the road already be pleased to use use all practicable means to urge him forward— much is to be done this year but the time for doing it is sensibly diminished; and little can be attempted before M^r Brindleys arrival— I am, Dear Sir, with my respects for the Ladies, your most obed. Serv.^t John Mackey Samuel Hodgdon Esq^r