I recd your letter of the 2d— My nephews imprudent purchases at the sale of his father's estate cannot, I presume, have frustrated your purpose of his encumbering Laurel Grove from the mortgage, further than the amount to which those purchases extended, and to that amount I am willing that the land should continue liable, until it can be ascertained, on whose side is the balance of account. All I ask, or can expect is, that you will pay the balance of the mortgage, leaving this sum, for the present, for me to pay out of the Trust property. If you can make such an arrangement with Mr Barnet, I can at once sell Laurel Grove upon such terms as will enable me to relieve my nephew from the ruin which must otherwise befall him. You will much oblige me by stating what was the amount of the purchases made by Bushrod. I am Sir respectfully yr mo. ob. Servt