The Chief Justice informs me that you are to draw the opinion in the Case of Bell & Wilkins &c. I stated to him that a night's reflection had induced me to change my opinion as to the Kentucky decisions, being now of opinion that they go further than I at first supposed they did. Were this more doubtful than I now think it is, the view which Mr Justice Trimble takes of the doctrine, as seated and understood by the Supreme Court of his own State, is, as it ought to be, conclusive with me. I should be very sorry if the settled construction of a Statute of one State should be unsettled by the S. Court of the U.S.— you may therefore consider me as uniting with Messr Tremble Duvall & yourself on that point. On every other, I remain as firm as a rock.

I shall not be at Court today, being afraid of the weather— affectly yrs