I received last night from Alexandria, your favor of the 11th inst. and I beg you to accept my best thanks for your generous offer of the columns of the Federal Republican for the purpose of refuting certain illiberal remarks, which have appeared in other journals of the day, respecting a sale of negroes which it was my good fortune to effect during the last month.

     I had heard that this transaction had been noticed in a Leesburg paper, but in such a manner as to prove that the wound intended to be inflicted, was meant, not for me personally, but for the Colonization Society, through the president of that institution. Niles' Weekly Register of the 1st int. which was sent to me by a friend on Saturday last, is the only paper which I have seen which contains even an implied censure of my conduct; and had the statement there made, corresponded with the truth, it would have passed by me unnoticed. It is for the sole purpose of correcting the misrepresentations which appear in that paper, that I am induced to avail myself of your offer; but before I do so, I take the liberty, on my own behalf, an on that of my southern fellow citizens, to enter a solemn protest against the propriety of any person questioning our right, legal or moral, to dispose of property which is secured to us by sanctions equally valid with those by which we hold every other species of property; and I have also to request that no expressions which I may inadvertently use, may be so construed, as to imply a justification of myself or others, whether members of the Colonization Society or not, for exercising this right. I acknowledge, at the same time, that if, in the exercise of it, I have disregarded the dictates of humanity, or unnecessarily given pain to those who were affected by it, my conduct is justly open to public reprehension.

     I take no exception, individually, to the statement of the Leesburg paper. The simple fact that a sale was made of fifty-four negroes, to two gentlemen of Louisiana, is true. The covert attack upon the Colonization Society, the tendency and object of which, it would not be difficult, ought not, in this way, to have been made; but as this part of the subject may possibly be noticed by some member of that society, who has more time and better talents than myself to discuss it, I shall pass on to the additional statement to be found in Niles' Register, above alluded to.

     How correct it was, in the person who made that statement, to visit Mount Vernon in my absence, and there to hold conversations with my negroes, upon the delicate topics which obviously caused his visit, or was the consequence of it, I submit to his own sense the propriety and to the public judgment to decide. But I surely have a right to complain, that he not only gave credit himself to the assertions of such informers, but that he should publish them to the world as facts, without first applying to me to admit, deny, or explain them. If he had rode one mile, to the house of my nearest neighbor, who is acquainted with every circumstance attending this transaction, he would have received such information as could not, I think, have failed to satisfy him of the falsity of the reports to which he had listened. With these observations, upon the conduct of this person, I proceed to notice his statement, the manifest object of which is, not to deny, as it would seem, my legal right to dispose of this species of property, although he, as well as the editor of the Register, plainly question a moral right in me, to exercise it, but to attach to my conduct the charge of inhumanity in the mode of doing it. The charge is "that husbands had been torn from their wives and children, and that many relations were left behind."

     If the writer of the above letter meant to insinuate that I had voluntarily separated husbands from their wives and children, he has been misled by false information. In making out a list of those negroes which, as it will presently appear, I was under the necessity of parting with, I took care so to arrange it, as to avoid the separation of families. There were three or four women in the number, whose husbands were the property of other persons: I immediately opened a negociations with the owners of two of them, for their purchase, which I should have accomplished, if the husbands had not themselves interposed and prevented it, by expressing their unwillingness to be sold. Similar overtures were made, as I understand, by those who purchased from me, to the owners of the other husbands, which failed of success from the same cause.

     The charge, that parents were torn from their children, if it be meant that I might have prevented such separations, and failed to do so, is equally without foundation. It is well known to those friends, to whom a reference will hereafter be made, what sacrifices I submitted to, in order to keep the families entire, and to relieve the members of them from every regret which their change of situation might otherwise have occasioned. I parted with a few negroes, the sons of some of those who were sold, whose services I knew not how to dispense with, at prices greatly below what I would have taken for them from others, and I would cheerfully have given one third of those prices to retain them, if my feelings could have permitted me to do so. Five young women, the daughters of some that were sold, belonged to other persons, to two of whom offers were made, but without effect of prices exceeding those which I had obtained. Two out of the five were purchased, and I undertook, without authority and upon my own responsibility, to sell one of them, the property of a distant nephew, but in whose affection for me, I trusted for an apology.

     It is, after all, an extraordinary circumstance, that, while emigration to this country of parents, who have voluntarily separated themselves from their children, and of children who have left behind them their parents, never to re-visit their narrative homes, pass daily before our eyes, without observation, so much sensibility should be felt, when similar occurrences take place in relation to this particular class of people. I may be permitted to add, that I have never heard a sigh or a complaint, from the parents of the two most valuable servants I have ever owned, that their sons had abandoned them, and my service, and sought new habitations in the northern states, where they now are.

     That the writer of the letter may have observed dejection in the countenances of some of the negroes, with whom he conversed at Mount Vernon, on account of a separation from their former companions, is possible, because it was natural. But it is well known to those who were witnesses of the separation, that those who were sold, carried with them no feelings of despondency or regret. In answer to a short address which I made to them, the elders admitted the necessity which compelled me to part with them, and confiding in the assurances made to them by the respectable gentlemen to whom they were sold, as to the treatment they might expect, they expressed their belief that their situation would be improved, and cheerfully consented to go with them. Their behaviour during the two days that they remained in Alexandria, indicated a continuance of these feelings, and almost unlimited licence allowed them by their new masters, proved how confidently they trusted in the sincerity of their declarations.

     I pass by the insinuation, that, because general Washington thought proper to emancipate his slaves, his nephew ought to do likewise, with the single observation, that I do not admit the right of any person to decide for me on this point. I am the last man in the world who would attempt to depreciate that, or any other act of this most revered relative. He was influenced n that, as on all other occasions, by that moral rectitude which invariably governed him through life. He believed the measure to be right, and this was always decisive with him.

     The rule which I have prescribed to myself, to confine this letter, as far as it is possible, to a mere statement of facts, forbit my entering into the reasons which influence my conduct on this particular subject. It is possible that they may have misled my judgment; but I am conscious of the purity of my motives, and I trust that those at least who know me, will in this respect do me justice.

     It is somewhat mortifying to me, that it never occurred to the visitor at Mount Vernon, who seems to have taken so great an interest in my concerns, to inquire of my manager, or of some one of my neighbors, what were the motives which had induced me to make this sale? Had he done so, he would have been informed that the prominent ones were the following.

     1. That I had struggled for about twenty years to pay the expenses of my farm, and to afford a comfortable support to those who cultivated it, from the produce of their labor. In this way to have balanced that account, would have satisfied me. But I always had to draw upon my other resources for hose objects, and I would state, upon my best judgment, that the produce of the farm has, in general, fallen short of its support from 500 to $1000 annually. To the best of my recollection I have, during the above period, (two years excepted,) had to buy corn for the negroes, for which I have, sometimes paid five, six, and seven dollars the barrel. Last year I commenced the purchase of this article for ninety negroes in the month of May, and so continued to the end of it.

     2d. The insubordination of my negroes, and their total disregard of all authority, rendered them worse than useless to me. Southern gentlemen understand, and well know how to appreciate the force of this motive, and I therefore forbear to enlarge upon it.

     But if it should be asked, as it well may be, why this temper was more observable at Mount Vernon, than upon other plantations in the neighborhood, I answer, that, that place has at times been visited by some unworthy persons, who have condescended to hold some conversations with my negroes, and to impress upon their minds the belief, that, as the nephew of general Washington, or as president of the colonization society, or for other reasons, I could not hold them in bondage, and particularly that they would be free at my death. That such conversations have passed, I have evidence entirely satisfactory to myself; and that such impressions had been made upon the minds of the negroes, was imparted to me by a friend, who had no reason to doubt the fact. In consequence of information so truly alarming, I called the negroes together in March last, and, after stating to them what I had heard, and that they had been deceived by those who had neither their or my good in view, I assured them most solemnly, that I had no intention to give freedom to any of them, and that nothing but a voluntary act of mind could make them so. That the disappointment caused by this declaration should lead to the consequences which followed, and which will be mentioned under the next head, was to be expected.

     5. The last motive which I deem it necessary to assign was, that I had good reason for anticipating the escape of all the laboring men of any value, to the northern states, so soon as I should leave home. During my last circuit, and soon after my return, three of them eloped without the pretence of a cause—one of them, a valuable cook, is at this time a fugitive in one of the northern states; the other two were retaken on their way to Pennsylvania—but I had to pay about $250 on these accounts.

     I conclude by stating, that the sale of the fifty-four negroes was made to Mr. Sprigg and Mr. Williams, two gentlemen on the Red River, who meant to place them on their own estates, and to keep them together. From such purchasers, I was induced to take $2500 less than the price which I had at first fixed upon.

     If there be any person who thinks it worth his while to ask for further explanations, in respect to the above statement, I refer him to Mr. Noble Herbert, Mr. Maurice Herbert, and Mr. B.F. Herbert, of Alexandria; Mr. Bushrod Washington, near Mount Vernon, and to my manager, Mr. Seal.

     I am &c. very respectfully, your very obedient servant,