University of Virginia Library

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

I fell in two days ago with French Strother, who
was returning circuitously from Richmond. He had
seen W. C. Nicholas on his way, & spoke of him as
among the decided friends of the French cause. In
general I discovered that his testimony and conviction
corroborated the fact that the people of this
country, where you cannot trace the causes of particular
exceptions, are unanimous & explicit in their
sympathy with the Revolution. He was in Richmond
during the session of the Court of the U. S.,
and heard the opinions of the Judges on the subject
of the British debts. Jay's he says was that the depreciated
paymts into the Treasury discharged the

debtor, but leaves the State liable to the creditor.
It would be a hard tax on those who have suffered
themselves by the depreciation to bear such a burden.
It would be severely felt by those who put
money into the Treasury on loan & have received
certificates by the scale, & those again further reduced
by the modifications of the assumption. I
asked S. who told me he was under the same roof
with Jay & a good deal in his society, what language
he held on French topics. He never opened his lips,
was the answer. In Fredg. on his way to Richmond,
he was less reserved. I understood that in a conversation
there with Mr. Page who was full of zeal
on the side of France, his enmity broke out in a very
decided tone. . . .

My imagination has hunted thro' this whole state
without being able to find a single character fitted
for the mission to N. O.[75] Young Marshal seems to
possess some of the qualifications, but there would
be objections of several sorts to him. In general
the men of understanding in this country are either
preoccupied or too little acquainted with the world
in the sense necessary for such functions. As a
mercantile mask would be politic, the difficulty
of providing a man here is the greater. . . .