market, they are worth to private builders no more than their materials, which are known by experience to be worth no more than the cost of pulling down and removing them. Their situation then is

To pay which 1,235,000, they depend on 3,000,000 of debts due to them, the amount of which shows they are of long standing, a part desperate, a part not commandable. In this situation it does not seem safe to deposit public money with them, and the effect would only be to enable them to nourish their disease by continuing their excessive discounts, the checking of which is the only means of saving themselves from bankruptcy. The getting them to pay the Dutch debt, is but a deposit in another tho' a safer form. If we can with propriety recommend indulgence to their only hope, and on such a theatre for such a cause we must suppress all smaller passions and local considerations. The leaders of federalism say that man can not be trusted with his own government. We must do no act which shall replace them in the direction of the experiment. We must not by any departure from principle, disgust the mass of our fellow citizens who have confided to us this interesting cause. If, since the date of the acquittal, Col. McLane has done any new act inconsistent with his duty as an officer, or as an agent of the administration, this would be legitimate ground for new inquiry, into which I should consider myself as free to enter. A particular fact of this kind is charged in the addresses, but only that he is disagreeable to the citizens of the place. This would be among the proper considerations on the appointment of an office, and ought, before appointment to have weight. But after many years possession of an office, and an exact discharge of its duties, a discharge for this reason would not be approved by those beyond the pale of his unpopularity.

Our opponents are so disposed to make a malignant use of whatever comes from me, to torture every word into meanings never meant in order to [illegible] their own passions and principles, that I must ask the favor of you to communicate verbally the sentiments of this letter to those who forwarded their addresses through you, not permitting the letter or any copy to go out of your hands. I pray you to accept assurances of my high consideration and respect."

the bank of the U S, it would be attended with the least danger to us of any of the measures suggested, but it is in fact asking that bank to lend to the one of Pennsylvania, that they may be enabled to continue lending to others. The monopoly of a single bank is certainly an evil. The multiplication of them was intended to cure it; but it multiplied an influence of the same character with the first, and compleated the supplanting the precious metals by a paper circulation. Between such parties the less we meddle the better.

TO DOCTOR JOSEPH PRIESTLEY.

J. MSS.

Washington, June 19, 1802. DEAR SIR,-Your favor of the 12th has been duly received, and with that pleasure which the approbation of the good & the wise must ever give. The sentiments it expresses are far beyond my merits or pretensions; they are precious testimonies to me however, that my sincere desire to do what is right & just is viewed with candor. That it should be handed to the world under the authority of your name is securing it's credit with posterity. In the great work which has been effected in America, no individual has a right to take any great share to himself. Our people in a body are wise, because they are under the unrestrained and unperverted operation of their own understandings. Those whom they have assigned to the direction of their affairs, have stood with a pretty even front. If any one of them was withdrawn, many others entirely equal, have been ready to fill his place with as good abilities. A nation, composed of such materials, and free in all it's members from distressing wants, furnishes hopeful implements for the interesting experiment of self-government; and we feel

that we are acting under obligations not confined to the limits of our own society. It is impossible not to be sensible that we are acting for all mankind; that circumstances denied to others, but indulged to us, have imposed on us the duty of proving what is the degree of freedom and self-government in which a society may venture to leave it's indiviual members. One passage, in the paper you enclosed to me, must be corrected. It is the following, "and all say it was yourself more than any other individual, that planned & established it," i. e. the Constitution. I was in Europe when the Constitution was planned, & established, & never saw it until after it was established. On receiving it I wrote strongly to Mr. Madison, urging the want of provision for the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, trial by jury, habeas corpus, the substitution of militia for a standing army, and an express reservation to the States of all rights not specifically granted to the Union. He accordingly moved in the first session of Congress for these amendments, which were agreed to & ratified by the States as they now stand. This is all the hand I had in what related to the Constitution. Our predecessors made it doubtful how far even these were of any value; for the very law which endangered your personal safety, as well as that which restrained the freedom of the press, were gross violations of them. However, it is still certain that tho' written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally

& recall the people; they fix too for the people the principles of their political creed. We shall all absent ourselves from this place during the sickly season; say from about the 22d of July to the last of September. Should your curiosity lead you hither either before or after that interval, I shall be very happy to receive you, and shall claim you as my guest. I wish the advantages of a mild over a winter climate had been tried for you before you were located where you are. I have ever considered this as a public as well as personal misfortune. The choice. you made of our country for your asylum was honorable to it; and I lament that for the sake of your happiness and health it's most benign climates were not selected. Certainly it is a truth that climate is one of the sources of the greatest sensual enjoyment. I received in due time the letter of Apr 10 referred to in your last, with the pamphlet it enclosed, which I read with the pleasure I do everything from you. Accept assurances of my highest veneration and respect.

DEAR SIR,-Your's of the 19th was received last night. That of May 14. had arrived while I was on a short trip to Monticello from whence I returned on the 30th ult. Commissioners of bankruptcy made up from yours and some other recommendations were appointed on the 14th inst. And no doubt were received a few days after the date of your last.

Nicholas Gilman, John Goddard, Henry S. Langdon and John McClintock were named. The three last were in your recommendation. Although we have not yet got a majority into the fold of republicanism in your state, yet one long pull more will affect it. We can hardly doubt that one twelve month more will give an executive and legislature in that state whose opinions may harmonize with their sister states. Unless it be true as is sometimes said that N. H. is but a satellite of Massachusetts. In this last state the public sentiment seems to be under some influence additional to that of the clergy and lawyers. I suspect there must be a leven of state pride at seeing itself deserted by the public opinion, and that their late popular song of "Rule New England" betrays one principle of their present variance from the union. But I am in hopes they will in time discover that the shortest road to rule is to join the majority. Adieu and accept assurances of my sincere affection & respect.

TO THE U. S. MINISTER TO GREAT BRITAIN.

(RUFUS KING.)

J. MSS.

WASHINGTON, July 13, 1802.

DEAR SIR,-The course of things in the neighbouring islands of the West Indies appears to have given a considerable impulse to the minds of the slaves in different parts of the U. S. A great disposition to insurgency has manifested itself among them, which, in one instance, in the state of Virginia, broke out into actual insurrection. This was easily suppressed: but many of those concerned, (between 20. and 30. I believe) fell victims to the law. So extensive an execution could not but excite sensibility in the