University of Virginia Library

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

My Dear Sir.,—At the date of my letter in April
I expected to have had the pleasure by this time of
being with you in Virginia. My disappointment has
proceeded from several dilatory circumstances on
which I had not calculated. My journey to Virga.
tho' still somewhat contingent in point of time cannot
now be very long postponed. I need not I trust
renew my assurance that it will not finally stop on this
side of Monticello.

The reserve of our foreign Ministers still leaves us
the sport of misinformations concerning the def:
Treaty. We all thought a little time ago that it had
certainly arrived at N. York. This opinion however
has become extinct, and we are thrown back on the
newspaper evidence which as usual is full of contradictions.
The probability seems to be that the delay
arises from discussions with the Dutch. Mr. Dana
has been sorely disappointed in the event of his
announcing himself to the Court of Russia. His
written communications obtain verbal answers only &
these hold up the Mediation to which the Empress,
with the Emperor of G[erman]y have been invited as
a bar to any overt transaction with the U. S. and
even suggest the necessity of new powers from the
latter of a date subsequent to the acknowledgment of
their Sovereignty by G. B. Having not seen the
letters from Mr. Dana myself, I give this idea of them
at second hand, remarking at the same time that it
has been taken from such passages only as were not
in Cypher; the latter being not yet translated.
Congs. remain at Princeton utterly undecided both as
to their ultimate seat and their intermediate residence.
Very little business of moment has been yet done
at the new Metropolis, except a ratification of the
Treaty with Sweden. In particular nothing has been
done as to a foreign establishment. With regard to
an internal peace establishment, though it has been
treated with less inattention, it has undergone little
discussion. The Commander-in-Chief has been invited
to Princeton with a view to obtain his advice

and sanction to the military branches of it, and is
every day expected there. The Budget of Congs. is
likely to have the fate of many of their other propositions
to the States. Delaware is the only one
among those which have bestowed a consideration on
it that has acceded in toto. Several Legislatures have
adjourned without giving even that mark of their
condescension. In the Southern States a jealousy of
Congressional usurpations is likely to be the bane of
the system: in the Eastern an aversion to the half-pay
provided for by it. New Jersey & Maryland have
adopted the impost, the other funds recommended
being passed for one year only by one of these States,
and postponed by the other. Pa. has hitherto been
friendly to liberal and fœderal ideas and will continue
so, unless the late jar with Congs. sd give a wrong
bias of which there is some danger. Massts. has in the
election of Delegates for the ensuing year stigmatized
the concurrence of those now in place, in the provision
for half-pay, by substituting a new representation;
and has sent a Memorial to Congs. which I am told is
pregnant with the most penurious ideas not only on
that subject but on several others which concern the
national honor & dignity. This picture of our affairs
is not a flattering one; but we have been witnesses of
so many cases in which evils & errors have been the
parents of their own remedy, that we cannot but view
it with consolations of hope. Remind Miss Patsy of
my affection for her & be assured that I am Dr. Sir