I return¹ under cover with this the 2d parcel of my letters to Gl W. which you were so obliging as to send me. I am sensible of the delay in fulfilling my promise; but it is of late only that I could conveniently have the desired Copies taken, and I ventured to suppose that the certainty of the return of the originals was the only² circumstance to wch any attention wd be given.

     In fulfilment of my promise I return the letters to General Washington which you were so obliging as to forward to me. I should have done it sooner but that I had hoped to return at the same time the letters expected from Richmond. Will you permit me to recall your attention to the latter portion (which I believe will comprize the letters I could most wish to obtain) that the Chief Justice may not lose the opportunity of a recess for looking them up.

     I recd in due time your favor of Sepr 14 and have delayed acknowledging it, till you should have returned from your autumnal Circuit. Presuming this to have taken place. I now offer my thanks for your ready assent to my request of August & particularly for your politeness in referring to myself the mode of attaining its object. The one which will probably give you the least trouble; will be to have the papers in question Deposited with Mr R. Catto, under an address to me & to be forwarded by some safe hand.

     In looking over my papers with a view to a better arrangement of them, I find that in the correspondence with General Washington copies of much of it, must have been lost, or were not retained. I flatter myself that I do not take too great a liberty in requesting that I may be enabled to ascertain & fill up the chasm from the originals understood to be in your hands as far as they were thought worth preserving by your Uncle.

     J. Madison presents his respects to Judge Washington and takes the liberty of sending him the inclosed papers left in his hands by <2m> Lewis the son of Mr F. Lewis, who did not live to apply for them. Should any other destination be proper, the Judge will be so obliging as to give it to the papers.

J. Madison presents his respects to Judge Washington, and encloses the memorandum of Mr Taylor, with such additions as will give all the information necessary on the law stated by Judge Washington.