Note 5 — IX
Reading edition
In an admirable letter written in pioneer times to Bolling Stith, in Kentucky, by his Virginian mother, she says: "I hear you have become a notorious rattle and never open your mouth without an oath." To correct this vicious tendency she recommends the example of the "great and good General Washington." Excellent advice. The General's oaths were not so frequent as Bolling's. They were louder, deeper, "heartier."
The English traveler, Fordham, says that the Virginians of that day were "addicted to oaths."