Yesterday on my return from the upper country I found your letter of the 8th. of April & immediately deposited with the clerk of the district court the copy of the title of your reports.

I have received your letter respecting the wine & beg you to take no farther trouble about it than to request Mr Cazenove, if the wine comes by Alexandria, to send both pipes to me, & to direct the bills to be both presented to me.

On the same day that I wrote to you a few hours after sending my letter to the post office I received yours marked the 26th of May. I must apologize if I can for having so long omitted to answer it.

I have not yet heard whether your session in Philadelphia is over & you have returned to Mount Vernon. I had supposed from your last letter that your tour would be a short one; but not having heard of its being over, I doubt whether you may not be still engaged in Philadelphia.

I received your letter this morning & immediately went to the chancery office & examined the papers in the case of Davenport v Thompson. The case is misstated in the report. The bill was filed by J.D. senr & J.D. jr & states that a certain D.D. mortgaged a tract of land to W. Thompson & discharged the whole amount of the mortgage money. That he afterwards conveyed the land with other tracts to Lewis & Ross to pay debts due to them respectively.

I had the pleasure this morning of recieving your favour of the 20th. I am heartily rejoiced at hearing of any proposition to print a 2d. Edition of the Life of Washington as it is one of the most desirable objects I have in this life to publish a corrected edition of that work.

I thank you for the opinion you have been so good as to give me in the case on which I consulted you. I have from the first thought it doubtful but shall decide it in conformity with your opinion.

I have not heard from you since you set out for Philadelphia, but I hope your health has not at any rate been injured by your attention on your circuit duties.

I reached this place yesterday after a very fatiguing journey, & found all our brethren well, & all of them joining me in sincere regrets for your indisposition. However unwilling we may be to lose your aid, we all think that it would be madness to encounter the hazard of joining us, unless your health should be entirely restored. We hope, however, that you are improving, & will continue to improve, so that you may, after the earth & Atmosphere shall become dry, favor us with a short visit.

I thank you for the kind solicitude expressed in your letter of the 3d.

I had imprudently mounted a young horse who started & threw me as I was riding him to my farm. I was much hurt but no bone was broken & I shall be able to attend the court at Raleigh to which place I shall set out the day after tomorrow.

While at Mount Vernon I delivered you the affidavit of T. Marshall stating that he never received the certificate which you were so obliging as to obtain for him & I now enclose you mine that I have lost it. I have no doubt that they will be sufficient to obtain the renewal of the certificate; but I believe that some bond must be executed before it can issue. I do not know how this is to be filled up & suppose it must contain a description of the certificate which I cannot make.

I have received your letter requesting to know whether I had formed an opinion on the case which was remanded to the circuit court of Pennsylvania. I regret that I had not formed one. It would give me pleasure to communicate it to you.

I received this morning yours of the 26th. The cases which will come before you in Philadelphia, if the indictments are drawn on the last act of Congress must depend, if the accused are guilty, on the very point I have adjourned to the supreme court, because that question whether, in any case whatever, a communication can take place under that act. In the trial at Richmond the evidence was perfectly clear & the case was unequivocally a case of piracy according to the laws of every civilized nation.

You will receive with this some printed reports which are all that I can get on the subject of your enquiries. I learn that the affairs of the society, so far as respects the country, are in a very deranged state; but I have no personal knowledge from which I can speak. The fact however is generally beleived, & is supposed to be notorious. I have heard that applications on account of losses have been made without success, but I know of no particular case.

I expected these numbers would have concluded my answer to Hampden¹ but I must write two others which will follow in a few days. If the publication has not commended I would rather wish the signature to be changed to “A Constitutionalist.”

The storm which has been for some time threatening the Judges has at length burst on their heads & a most furious hurricane it is. The author is spoken of with as much confidence as if his name was subscribed to his essays. It is worth your while to read them. They are in the Enquirer under the signature of Hampden.

I received a few days past your letter inquiring whether the defence of the opinion had been correctly republished in the Alexandria paper. I went to the coffee house for the purpose of reading it best. the papers had been mislaid & I was disappointed. I cannot therefore say whether they have appeared in an inteligible shape or not & therefore am not desirous that any farther effort should be made to get them before the public.

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.

I left this place the day after I wrote to you & did not return till to day. I cannot account for the inaccuracy you state otherwise than by supposing that I read the latter part of the sentence under an impression that instead of the word "deny" in the former part some affirmative word had been used & the correction was made in a hurry without taking time to examine the whole sentence. Undoubtedly the alteration you mention ought to be made. I hope you have made it. If not I wish Mr Bronson to publish the correction.

I have a knephew a son of Major Taylor who is at school in Kentucky under the direction of my brother Doctor Marshall. He has written to me for some books which I cannot procure here, & which if I had them could not without much difficulty be conveyed from this place. I take the liberty to ask the favor of you to purchase them for me in Philadelphia & leave them with the bookseller packed up to be delivered to the order of Doctor Marshall.

I have this instant received yours of the 24th.

I had the pleasure of receiving on my return from the upper country your letter dated in August. I had not seen Brown¹ & had formed an opinion of the civil admiralty jurisdiction from the character of a case of piracy not from precedent A pirate being an enemy of the human race & at war with the civilized world I had considered a libel for the condemnation of his vessel as partaking rather of the character of a prize cause than of one belonging to the civil admiralty side of the court. But I bow to precedent.

On receiving your letter I made the necessary inquiries respecting the lands for which taxes have not been paid. The money can no longer be received in the auditors office but must be paid in the county to the sheriff. If not paid before August they will then be sold. The sooner payment is made the better as the arrears accumulate very fast they carry an interest of ten percent & I am not sure that it is not compounded.

As peace will I hope restore commerce to the United States I have again turned my attention to the profession for which I originally intended my son James. He is now at Cambridge, but I should remove him without hesitation the instant it becomes proper to place him in a counting house. He was fifteen in february last & has made as great a proficiency in his studies as is usual with boys of that age.

As the time for our session approaches I become anxious to know what our situation will be. Can you inform me what provision is made for us? Where and in what kind of a room are we to sit?