University of Virginia Library

TO JAMES MONROE.

Dear Sir,—I have duly recd yours of [April 11.][139] I considered
the advertisement of your estate in Loudon as an
omen that your friends in Virginia were to lose you. It is
impossible to gainsay the motives to which you yielded in
making N. Y. your residence, tho' I fear you will find its
climate unsuited to your period of life and the state of your
health. I just observe and with much pleasure, that the sum
voted by Congress, however short of just calculations, escapes

the loppings to which it was exposed from the accounting process
at Washington, and that you are so far relieved from the
vexations involved in it. The result will I hope spare you at
least the sacrifice of an untimely sale of your valuable property;
and I would fain flatter myself, that with an encouraging improvement
of your health you might be brought to reconsider
the arrangement which fixes you elsewhere. The effect of this
in closing the prospect of our ever meeting again afflicts me
deeply, certainly not less so, than it can you. The pain I feel at
the idea, associated as it is with a recollection of the long, close,
and uninterrupted friendship which united us, amounts to a
pang which I cannot well express, and which makes me
seek for an alleviation in the possibility that you may be
brought back to us in the wonted degree of intercourse.
This is a happiness my feelings covet, notwithstanding the
short period I could expect to enjoy it; being now, tho'
in comfortable health, a decad beyond the canonical three
score & ten, an epoch which you have but just passed. As you
propose to make a visit to Loudon previous to the notified
sale, if the state of your health permit; why not, with the
like permission, extend the trip to this quarter. The journey,
at a rate of your own choice, might co-operate in the reestablishment
of your health, whilst it would be a peculiar
gratification to your friends, and perhaps enable you to
join your colleagues at the University, once more at least.
It is much to be desired that you should continue as long as possible
a member of the Board, and I hope you will not send in
your resignation in case you find your cough and weakness
giving way to the influence of the season, & the innate strength
of your Constitution. I will not despair of your being able to
keep up your connexion with Virginia by retaining Oak hill and
making it not less than an occasional residence. Whatever
may be the turn of things, be assured of the unchangeable
interest felt by Mrs. M. as well as myself, in your welfare, and
in that of all who are dearest to you.

In explanation of my microscopic writing, I must remark

that the older I grow the more my stiffening fingers make
smaller letters, as my feet take shorter steps; the progress
in both cases being at the same time more fatiguing as well as
more slow.