It is a sabbath evening; but I take up my pen to address you on a holy theme. I fear, I may be too late; or rather, that had I written before, it would have been alike fruitless; but my object is good, and, in such a cause, I shall have some pride, even tho' I fail. It is rumoured, around the court at Washington, that our effort to obtain from you, the sacred ashes of your deceased relatives, is but to quicken a similar application from the Congress of the United States. This ensinuation is as dishonorable to us, as it is fal<mutilated> itself. Our State is returning to the path, from which democracy led it astray. It seeks to repair its injustice to the living Hero, by honouring his remains, Allow us to be just, I entreat you. They talk, at Washington, of a monument to your uncle's memory, which shall cost 10.000 $. We shall scorn to erect one, which will cost less than, ten times that sum. The Senate compute the cost at 200.000 dollars. Ten thousand volunteers will receive from you, the remains of our departed father, and attend them to this city. They will continue to repose, as they have hitherto done, in the bosom of his native state. Should the seat of Government be ever removed from Richmond, they will follow the Capitol, and a richer people, will honor them, in some after age, with a yet grander monument. We are in heart and soul, devoted to this object. It is not the effusion of party zeal, but the spontaneous heart of a nations gratitude. 

I thank the Senate, for amending the resolutions which passed the House of Delegates. The General Assembly will not permit death to separate those, who were, so tenderly united, in life. If Congress ever had a claim upon you, they have forfeited it. What assurance have you that the Union will endure fifty years, or that, should it outlive our expectations, the seat of its government will not be removed beyond the Allegany. Will you allow the tomb of Washington to be the property of Maryland. You, also, are a native of Virginia, you will not, my dear Sir, permit her to be robbed of her richest treasure; to her tears of repentance, you will not return a cold refusal, which may seem to dishonor her motives. Above all, do not believe, that we stoop to the meanness of professing generous feelings that we may urge a reluctant congress to the same mummery. 

We have appropriated forty thousand dollars to enclosing, turfing, and planting the public square. That enclosure will be of iron, on a stone foundation. Within it, will be the tomb of Washington; an obelisk of Virginia marble, of the height of two hundred feet. Around its base will be executed in tables of Italian marble inserted <mutilated> body of the column, representations from the designs of the best artists in Europe, of all the principal events of the life of our Hero. The character of our State will be exalted by this monument. It will give a new impulse to her genius. The very fancy of it has, already, produced a number of useful and highly liberal public measures. We have appropriated more than a million to education; a yet larger sum, to internal improvements. And we have fixed our peace revenue, at nearly double its former amount. You will blast all these infant schemes, and throw us back, if you reject our earnest intreaties. Mr Wirt starts in the morning I write this to go by him. I hope our friend General Marshall is prepared to second our efforts. Remember me to him. With great esteem, your friend & Servt.