At length I have got sufficiently released from more urgent business to enable me to perform my promise to forward you a report of the cases which came before me on my late Circuit. I think I sent you from Phila. printed statements of1 Pennock & Sellers vs. Dialogue & Courcier vs. Ritter— These will therefore be omitted from this letter.
I returned home the day before yesterday after an absence of about four months. It was my intention not to address you until I could get time to forward you my report of the decisions made on my late Circuit, many of which are highly interesting.
I was much disappointed at not finding, on my return to Alexa., a letter from you in answer to the one which I wrote you from Phila. Without knowing what are the boundaries of Yorkshire, as ascertained by the survey & the agreements with Hooe & Mitchel (if they have been concluded, as I trust they have) I cannot forward to you our deed to Hooe, which waits for nothing but a diagram of the land according to the boundaries by which it is to be granted.
Your letter would have been sooner answered if I had not known that you had Courts to attend which would detain you for some time from home.
At the time I recd your letter of the 7th July, I was engaged in completing some business which would not admit of delay, & as I wished to examine with attention, & a reference to books, the decisions you had given, I determined to postpone my answer until this could be done. In the mean time, our domestic misfortunes occurred, which compelled me to take my family to the mountains, where I remained until it was necessary to commence my circuit duty.
Your favor of the 14 Sept. reached Alexa. after I had left home. A copy of it has lately been forwarded to me, at this place, by a friend who I authorised to open my letters during my absence, and I beg leave now to thank you for the communication which it conveys.
I owe you an apology for not having returned an earlier answer to your letter of the 20th June. The truth is, that at the time I recd it, and another from brother Thompson, I was engaged in a piece of business which required dispatch, & which induced me to postpone my answers to a period when it would be more in my power to reflect upon the decisions which you & he had made & to examine cases. But before that period had arrived our domestic misfortunes commenced.
Since the date of my last letter to you, my family has been visited by an infliction of divine Providence, which, 'tho to us seemingly severe, was, no doubt, designed for beneficent purposes. In the course of about 12 hours, my cherished & beloved niece has been bereaved of an affectionate husband & two children.
I commenced the cleaning out the ditch in my large meadow today, but desisted upon riding to the meadow finding that all the hands would be required to take care of the hay. This I hope to accomplish this week, & on monday next. I shall set in with all hands & continue as it till the work is thoroughly done. I return you many thanks for your kind offer to do the ditch which is connected with your meadow, but hope it will be in my power to manage it with my own hands.
I intended this morning to give you an early call & take my breakfast at Woodlawn, partly with a view to talk with you on the subject of the Dismal Swamp Share, but the heat was so oppressive, that I put on my roundabout intending to stop at my meadow, & then recollecting that you had company I declined fulfilling my first intention on that account.
I commenced the cleaning out the ditch in my large meadow today, but desisted upon riding to the meadow finding that all the hands would be required to take care of the hay. This I hope to accomplish this week, & on monday next I shall sit in with all hands & continue at it till the work is thoroughly done. I return you many thanks for your kind offer to do the ditch which is connected with your meadow, but hope it will be in my power to manage it with my own hands.
Mr Chs Ratcliffe was appointed last Autumn by Mr Turner & myself our attorney to Collect the rents due upon the Yorkshire farm, Wigwam and another smaller tract. Whether he has done so or not it is impossible for either of us to say, as he most pertinaciously declines answering any letter which either of us has written him on the Subject.
The harvest having prevented me from sending to Alexandria for some days past, is the apology I have to offer for not having returned you an earlier answer to your letter of the 2d inst.
Below is the copy of the letter which I wrote you in feby & which, when I saw you in Phila. I promised to send you. I am Dear Sir very sincerely & respectfully yrs
I thank you my dear Sir, for your letter of the 5th, recd today, and for your kind attention to my requests— I shall be much pleased to re[c]ieve the portrait & to pay Mr Kings bill for the frame, package &c.
I now sit down to report to you the few decisions made during my last circuit. The Court at Phila. continued only two or three weeks in consequence of the sickness of Mr Binny who was concerned in almost all the arguable causes. The only Cases decided which may be considered as containing important principles are the two following.
I embrace the first moment of relief from more urgent business to perform my promise to report to you the substance of the decisions made during my last circuit which may be worthy of your notice.
After an absence of three months, I returned home the day before yesterday, and now avail myself of the first leisure moment to request an answer to the letter I wrote you just previous to my departure respecting the yorkshire farm land. This is to Mr Turner and myself a very interesting Subject, as Mr Hooe declines making any payments until a survey is made and the number of acres ascertained. In short every thing respecting our contract with him is, & must continue unsettled and confused 'till that is done.
If you will have a Copy of your reports folded up & directed to Mr Edmund J. Lee Alexa. & sent to Mr Robert Adams he will forward it by the first packet— I think a few copies would sell in Alexa. & Washington.
The trunk with my note books is left with Mrs Wharfe for you. Believe me very sincerely yrs
I have lately recd a letter from Mr Wm Garrard Junr dated at Opelousas in Louisiana, in which he expresses a wish to obtain an appointment to a second Lieutenancy in the Marine Corps of the U.S. and requests the benefit of any influence which I may have in furthering his wishes. He desires particularly that I would write to you on the subject. This is an awkward undertaking as the young gentleman is a total Stranger to me.
Is your dinner hour the usual one, 5? very sincerely yrs
Mr Justice Washington presents his very sincere thanks to Mr Livingston for his “system of penal laws for the state of Louisiana” which he anticipates great satisfaction, and, he hopes, improvement, in perusing.
I recd last night a letter from Mr S. G. Goodrich of Hartford enclosing one from you dated the 5th inst. He requests me to give to you our views as to a disposal of the Copy right of the life of Washington, naming the price for it in case we are willing to sell & also the price per Copy for the exclusive privilege of publish<ing> the work, it being stipulated that 3000 copies at least shall <be> printed in two years.
I recd some time since from the Chief Justice the Copies of the letters of Genl Washington, but too late in the Season to forward them to Phila. by water on account of the danger to be apprehended from the freezing of the rivers— I purpose taking them on with me in March, and it will be proper that we should, in the mean time, agree upon the terms of their publication.
It affords me much pleasure, my dear William, to comply with your request to give you letters of introduction to Judges Brook & Dade. I should send you one also to Judge Coalter but I am inclined to think that he resides very remote from the other gentlemen, & that there is a Judge much nearer to them altho I cannot for my life recollect his name. You can call upon the gentlemen to whom I have written on your way to visit us.