Closer to the moment, Abigail Adams wrote to her friend Mercy Otis Warren, “I am apt to think that our later misfortunes have called out the hidden excellencies of our commander-in-chief.” "Affliction is the good man’s shining time," she wrote, quoting a favorite line from the English poet Edward Young.

III.10 A. [In line with the statement, Upon whoever has the possibility of taking up the study of Torah and does not do so, the Holy One, blessed be he, brings ugly and troubling suffering,] said Raba, and some say, R. HISDA, “If a person sees that sufferings afflict him, let him examine his deeds.