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 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.

     I have Just returned from Phila. when your favor of the 28th Sept. was put into my hands.

     from the politeness that you made me when at your house at Mount Vernon, and the friendship that subsisted betwen your Uncle President Washington and my Hamilton I feel persuaded, had he out lived General Hamilton, he would have Aided me by Communications and papers in his possesion, that would be of great service to me, and from the above impression, I presume to make a request from you, that you, would let me, have such letters and papers, as will be of great valieu to me, you haveing long since had that Estimable work Compleated in rel

I have at length succeeded in collecting together your letters to Genl Washington and some copies of his to you, which it affords me great pleasure to have accomplished & still greater to forward them to you. I shall apply to the Secretary of State to afford them a Conveyance to you by the first vessel which shall be charged with dispatches from our Government to France.

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.

I Have not for a long time Had the pleasure to Hear from you But Hope the Restoration of peace Between the U.S. and G.B. will afford opportunities for a Correspondance I So much Value— the Consequences of the late changes in france with Respect to our British interloude are not yet known— they Cannot at Any Rate Hinder, under proper precautions, the precious Invite You Have been pleased to promise.

I received on my return from North Carolina your favor inclosing a check on the bank of Virga for $500 being my share of the third instalment from Mr Wayne.

     I Have not Had, this long while, a letter from you, But my inquiries after you Have kept up a kind of Communication— the departure of a frigate affords me a More direct opportunity to advise you, and to Request an Answer By the dispatches which, no doubt, will Be Sent Early in the Spring— Every particular Respecting yourself and our friends will be very welcome.

     I had the pleasure to recieve your letters by Mr Deleport and Mr Parish, and whilst I feel flattered by these proofs of your recollection, I have to thank you for introductions to two gentlemen who seem so well to deserve what you say of them. The former having favoured me with a visit, I had an opportunity of presenting him to Mrs Washington. The latter I saw in Philadelphia in May, and recieved from him a promise of his Company at Mount Vernon whenever he should go to the banks of the Potomack.

I am much obliged to your polite & friendly letter which I have just now received. I answer it thus promptly, to request the favor of you immediately to write to Mr Wayne to suppress the letter alluded to govr Henry, or at least the two paragraphs in it which I am accused of having acted on insinsere & inconsistent part towards the general. I mentioned the Reasons formerly, why it cannot be correct.¹ 

In the letters lately addressed to you I have forgotten to mention a circumstance which deserves some attention. In the old books from which I extracted the facts composing the first volume I found our bay spilt thus—Chessapeake. Without any examination of the orthography I believe I have gone on to spell it in the same manner.

I have just received your letter inclosing your notes on the parts of the life which you have read. I am sorry they are not more ample—but I hasten to advert to the circumstance mentioned by Mr Wayne which is of real importance. I had designed barely to hint at Braddocks defeat in the first volume & to detail the circumstances minutely in the second & thought I had done so, but on looking into what I believe is the 12th chapter I find I have been much more particular than I thought myself or woud wish to be.

The day after I wrote to you I was informed that a Mr Davidson of this place was setting out for Philadelphia & woud take charge of a box to you.¹ I thought it most advisable to send it tho I had not had it in my power to examine the second copy, or to correct the first. There is a part about which I wish you to be particularly attentive, as, on reading it over I had designed to change it, but the opportunity of sending it was so sudden that I have omitted to make the corrections I intended.

So idle were the gentlemen I had employed in my copying business during my absence, that with my utmost exertions I coud not get the books in readiness in time to send them to you before your departure from Alexandria. Every thing is now prepared, & I watch the stage continually for some person who will take them to Philadelphia. I am extremely anxious that you shoud give the volume an attentive reading & make all those corrections which I am sure will suggest themselves to you.

     I recd a day or two ago yr favr of the 23d. Being much hurried at present, & expecting to write you a long letter as soon as I hear from Mr Marshall, I mean at present only to assure you that we have every disposition to gratify all your reasonable wishes & will do so. The moment I recieve Mr Marshalls' letter, I shall send you on every thing necessary to enable you to commence your Operations.

Sometime time ago you published a letter from Gen. Washington to a friend of his, written during the Indian War. you introduced the letter by observing that it was copied from the “original” & that if the compiler¹ of the Hist. desired would be furnished with it on application. I sent the printed letter to Judge Washington & he has this day wrote to me as follows, viz

Extract

["]Mount Vernon Nov. 24, 1803

     Capt. Laycock carries a number of trunks & boxes of papers to the Chief Justice, and as he will be absent from Richmond when they arrive I must beg the favor of you to have them lodged in some place of Safety in Mr Marshall's house or if this cannot be done in your own if not too inconvenient. They are the papers which relate to the life of Genl Washington & I therefore feel extremely anxious for their safe keeping.

"... I cannot help thinking that Genl. Marshall may be induced to undertake the writing of the history, and I write to him by this post...I am extremely anxious to see this work commenced & finished as well upon your account as my own...as pecuniary considerations are less operative with me than many others I cannot be otherwise than very nice in selecting a proper person to be the author..."