University of Virginia Library

TO JAMES MONROE.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of the Ist. of Feby. did not
come to hand till a day or two ago, having travelled
on to Richmond, remained there during the absence
of Mr. Jones & on his return, been sent to me by way
of Fredg. Before I left Richmond I wrote you
that the Assembly had adjourned and requested
that your subsequent letters might be addressed
to Orange, and if I do not forget to care of Mr
Maury at Frederickbg. This letter ought to have
reached you before the date of yours. I hope it has
since got to hand. I also forwarded from Richmond
to your care a letter for Mr Jefferson which I hope
has not miscarried. It contained a rehersal of our
last legislative politics & proceedings, which I find by
his letters to me are a material object of his curiosity.
I shall be glad to know by your next whether you
have ever recd. it, that in case of miscarriage I may
endeavor to supply the loss.

I do not wonder at the paragraph which you have
copied from Mr. Jay's letter to Congress. His feelings
are such as every one must possess who is worthy
of the station which he holds. If the Office of foreign
Affairs be a proper one & properly filled, a reference
of all foreign despatches to it in the first instance, is
so Obvious a course, that any other disposition of
them by Congress seems to condemn their own establishment,
to affront the Minister in office, and to
put on him a label of caution agst. that respect & confidence
of the Ministers of foreign powers, which are

essential to his usefulness. I have always conceived
the several ministerial departments of Congress, to
be provisions for aiding their Counsels as well as executing
their resolutions, & that consequently whilst
they retain the right of rejecting the advice which
may come from either of them, they ought not to renounce
the opportunity of makeg. use of it. The foreign
department is I am sensible, in several respects
the most difficult to be regulated, but I cannot think
the question arising on Mr. Jay's letter is to be numbered
among the difficulties. The practice of Congress
during the administration of his predecessor was
never fixed, & frequently improper, and I always
suspected that his indifference to the place resulted
in part at least from the mortifications to which this
unsteadiness subjected him.

You will not be disappointed at the barrenness
which is hence to mark the correspondence on my
part. In the recess of the Legislature, few occurrences
happen which can be interesting, and in my retired
situation, few even of these fall within my knowledge.
The situation of Mr. Jones will probably make his
correspondence a more productive one. He has probably
already mentioned to you the advances which
Kentucky was said to be making towards an independent
Govt. It is certain that a Convention has
been held, which might have been set on foot with an
eye to such an event; but I learn from an intelligent
person lately from that district, that its deliberations
turned altogether on the pressure of certain acts of
the General Assembly, & terminated in a vote of

application for redress. He supposes however that the
late extension of the tax on patents will give a successful
handle to those who wish to accelerate a separation.
This tax as it stood before was in the first
class of their grievances.

You will I expect receive this from the hands of
Mr. Burnley, a young gentleman of my neighborhood,
who has passed with reputation through Mr. Wythe's
School & has since taken out his forensic diploma.
Your civilities to him will be well placed & will confer
an obligation on me. If Col. Grayson has recovered
from the gout which I hear arrested him in
the moment of his intended departure, and is with
you, be so kind as to make my best respects to him.