I recd many months ago your esteemed favor of the 10 June 1817 together with the portfolio for both of which I beg you to accept my grateful thanks.¹ I cannot with truth, and therefore I shall not attempt altogether to excuse the protracted acknowledgment of these favors; but I can assure you with perfect sincerity that it has not proceeded from insensibi[li]ity to your kindness which has made a warm & lasting impression upon my heart. Altho’ I might certainly have found time long ago to have addressed you, yet my frequent and lengthened absences from home occasioned by my professional employments, & the many other engagements of a private nature which demanded my attention, led me to postpone from week to week an act of which duty no less than inclination required the performance.

     The exalted character which you have had the goodness to attribute to Genl Washington cannot fail to gratify a relative who venerates his memory, and who knows how well he merited all that you have said him. He was contemplative without the appearance of abstraction—reserved, without being austere, & taciturn, apparently from a desire to hear the Sentiments of others rather than to express his own. These traits accompanied by a native dignity of character by which he was remarkably distinguished, forbid every thing like familiarity even from his nearest relations, to whom he was nevertheless, always kind & affectionate. I never witnessed an act of levity committed in his presence by any person, nor did I ever hear opinions sported before him which were offensive to morality, religion or good manners. Altho he seldom spoke a great deal, yet his observations when he delivered them, were obviously the result of deep reflection, & were always marked with consummate wisdom. I have nevertheless known him frequently [to] indulge in free conversation, and relate anecdotes highly amusing, sometimes even sportive, but always suited to the chastest ear.

     During the two or three last years of his life he indulged me in many conversations of a familiar & confidential nature; and altho I never could divest myself, at those times, of a kind of diffidence which was, in a degree, painful, yet there was no person whose society afforded me so high a gratification. In this I was not singular.

     Genl W. as I have understood, was naturally high tempered; but no person unacquainted with that fact would have suspected it, so entirely had he subdued every unruly passion. He could get through more business in the course of a year than any man I ever knew. He made it a rule to answer promptly all letters which were addressed to him, and his table was generally covered with those recieved from many distinguished characters of other Countries as well as his own. He was fondly attached to rural employments, & had extensive plantations to manage—yet all was conducted with the greatest skill. During the eight years that he resided at Philadelphia, & held the helm of Government under our present constitution, he directed most of the agricultural operations upon his Mount Vernon & other estates; but he had a perfect knowledge of his domestic Concerns by means of reports made with great minuteness, & forwarded to him weekly by his Manager.² He never appeared to be hurried, but conducted all his business, both of a public & of a private nature, in such a manner that duties seemingly incompatible with each other were harmoniously executed, and Just at the time when it was proper they should be. All this was effected by an unvarying System which regulated his whole life, & by retiring early to bed & leaving it at the dawn of day.

     He was very temperate in his diet, & altho blessed with an uniformly good appetite, he could eat with relish any thing that was placed before him.

     These rough and unconnected statements are not intended to give the character of Genl W., but as answers to some questions in your letter respecting which you have expressed a wish to receive information.

     You ask me, kind Sir, for a Specimen of my Uncle’s hand writing— I send you a letter from him to myself, (being the first which came to hand) which will give you some idea of his epistolary Style. It was an answer to one which I had written him announcing my appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, which I feared he might disapprove of, as it disappointed an anxious wish he entertained that I should become a Candidate for a Seat in Congress, at a Critical period of our political affairs.³ I also send you a short letter from Genl Hamilton to Genl W.—also the Copy of a note written by Lord Erskine in a blank leaf of his "view of the Causes & Consequences of the present war with France."⁴ I send you also the Copy of an elegant eulogium written by a gentleman of Philadelphia on the back on an excellent likeness of the General cut from a common Liverpool mug.

     I thank you very sincerely for your kind offer to send me any book of antiquity or relick which I might desire.⁵ Nothing of the sort occurs to me at present; should it hereafter I will freely apply to you. With Sentiments of respect I am Dear Sir Yr faithful & ob. Servt