Since the rect of your favor of the 17th inst. I have had every moment of my time so intensely employed in attending to a cause of peculiar interest & perplexity that I could not withdraw my mind from it with sufficient freedom to devote it usefully to other business. This must be my apology for my long silence.

The difficulty you mention of progressing with your work whilst the papers continue at Mount Vernon presented itself to my mind at the time when your first proposition was made, & it was that which mainly operated with me to decline that offer.

It pressed upon me at the time when our final arrangements were made at Washington; but as you did not appear to be struck by it, I concluded that I had magnified the difficulty beyond its reality, and that you understood better than I possibly could your own plans & how to execute them.

Your letter now satisfies me that I was not mistaken at first in this matter, & I may add, in a few words, that your reasoning upon the subject is irresistible. What course then can I pursue but to accede to your proposition for removing the papers to Boston? I am satisfied that this must be done, or that the work will be imperfectly executed, which for its own sake, for yours and for ours, I should be grieved should happen. Unless then the Chief Justice should object, or, more properly, urge reasons to satisfy me that the papers ought not to be removed, I shall consent to the measure as you propose it, relying, as I confidently do upon your fidelity & care in preserving them, in returning them in safety, & holding them in the mean time as a sacred deposit open to your inspection only, or those specially entrusted by yourself, so as to avoid the possibility of the loss of any of them. To convey them to Boston by land will be troublesome & expensive to you, & therefore I will consent to their being sent in a safe vessel if you should prefer it. Of this however when we meet. I shall write to the C. Justice immediately. 

It is at present uncertain when my official duties here will permit me to turn my face homewards. I hope however to get away within a fortnight. With the most friendly wishes I am Dear Sir very respectfully & sincerely yrs