A BUNDLE OF OLD LETTERS.

To struggle painfully for years, spending all of life’s energies for others, and then to be forgotten by those for whom all was hazarded and consumed, is a lot demanding the most unselfish aims.  Yet this befell many a suffering patriot in our Revolutionary struggle.  The names of those who were the leaders in battle and in council, men whose position in the field or whose words in Congress gave them a country’s immortality, have remained bright in our memory.  But others there were who cheerfully surrendered eminence in their private walks and happiness in social life to endure the hardships of a protracted contest till life was spent, and who, from the very nature of the services they rendered, have remained in obscurity.  They would not themselves repine at this; for they gave their strength, not for their country’s applause, but their country’s good.  They sought, not our remembrance, but our freedom.

In many an old garret, or treasured up in some old man’s safest nook, are worn-out, faded letters, telling of struggles and hopes in that long contest, that would make their writers’ names bright on the nation’s record, were not the number of those who rendered that our golden age so countless.  Pious is the task of tracing the services of some revered ancestor, who gave whatever he had to give, when his country called, but whose name is not now remembered.  Those days are fast becoming to our younger race almost mythical, so that every living word from the actors in them is of use in vivifying scenes that else would seem dim fable.

From a somewhat bulky bundle of yellow, tattered letters, long cherished with fond and filial care, a few are selected to interest the readers of the “Atlantic,” who, it is supposed, will first be glad to know a little about their writer.

Dr. Isaac Foster was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 28th of August, 1740.  His father, in early life a sea-captain, making frequent voyages between Boston and Europe, was for many years a prominent citizen of Charlestown, participating largely in the measures that preceded and led to the Revolution.  At the age of eighteen, Dr. Foster graduated at Harvard, in the class of 1758.  He then studied medicine under Dr. Lloyd of Boston, and afterwards completed his studies in England.  He married, as his first wife, Martha, daughter of Thaddeus Mason of Cambridge, and at her death, some years later, Mary, daughter of Richard Russell of Charlestown.  In his profession he achieved a considerable reputation, acquired a large practice, and numbered among his pupils Doctors Bartlett, Welch, and Eustis.

But while he was working his way to position and influence, more exciting themes began to attract his attention.  With the earliest signs of coming conflict he took a determined stand on the Colonial side.  In the town-meetings of the day he seems to have been prominent, and his name appears on most of the important committees appointed by the town in reference to public affairs.  Thus, when, as early as November, 1772, the Committee of Correspondence in Boston called upon the other towns “to stand firm as one man,” his name is found upon a committee appointed to answer this letter and prepare instructions to the representative of the town in the General Court.[A]