I have given you a great deal of trouble to very little purpose, & am now about to add to it, perhaps to as little. Our friend Mr Bronson has made a curious piece of work of the essays he was requested to publish. He has cut out the middle of the first number to be inserted into the middle of the second; & to show his perfect impartiality, has cut out the middle of the second number to be inserted in the first. He has thrown these disrupted parts together without the least regard to their fitness & made a curious mixture—a sort of Olla podrida, which, however good the ingredients may be, when compounded as he has compounded them, are rather nauseous to the intellectual palate.

It is understood that this subject is not to drop. A very serious effort is undoubtedly making to have it taken up in the next legislature. It is said that some other essays written by a very great man are now preparing & will soon appear. On this account I am desirous that the answer to Amphyction¹ should appear in its true shape & will be obliged to you to have it republished in the Alexandria paper. I will give the instructions which I will thank you to copy & furnish with the papers I now send containing those essays marked— to the editor.

Without any remark on the errors committed in the original publication— state it as taken from the union. Omit the letter to the editors & begin where the essay No. 1 begins. Continue to the mark in the third column of the first page of No. 1 (paper of apl 28) to the words "would seem to be," inclusive, in about the 13th line of that column. Then proceed with what is misplaced in the second number (paper May 1st) at the mark in the first column in the 6th paragraph with the words "a meer historical fact" &c. & continue to the mark in the third column & end of the 10th paragraph at the words "states legislatures" inclusive. Then return to the paper of Apl 28 to the mark in the second column of the second page beginning the fifth paragraph & proceed with the words "This fact is stated in the opinion" &c to the end of the essay. These pieces form the first number.

The second number begins properly in the paper of the first of May. Continue it to the mark in the sixth paragraph of the first column to the words "goes, is between," inclusive. Then return to the first number to the mark in the 3d column of the first page the second paragraph & proceed with the words "the fair sens<mutilated> the words used in the constitution" &c & continue <mutilated> word "administer" at the end of the 4th parag<raph> in the second column of the second page. Then go to the mark in the 3d column of the second number & begin at that mark with the words. "I have confined" &c which commence the 4th paragraph of that column. Continue to the end. These disjointed parts form the second number.²

These directions are formed from the country paper. Your