Yesterday my February Stated Court was opened. To that day I had adjourned the Circuit Court. Copies of the draft of the Decree in Le blanc's or White's Case had been delivered to each party. I found a reluctance on the Side of one party to do anything. It seems the whole of the Seven Comy to view appraise & value the property, & report the practicability of specifically dividing it, had signed the report; but only 6 had viewed it together.

     It rejoices me to hear that you are recovering from your late serious illness.

     Allow me to state that Gerrit Smith Esqr., a Gentleman of the State of New York, has recently sent us a donation of $100 & offered to increase it to $1000 to be paid, one hundred annually, for ten years, in case one hundred other individuals will consent to subscribe cash the same amount. Our Board think it exceedingly important that something should be done to further the project of Mr. Smith, at our Annual Meeting, & have authorized me to submit the subject to the charitable consideration of several distinguished Gentlemen.

     I hope you will not think me disrespectful, or unmindfull of your late communication in regard to the claim against me on the part of the Estate of Genl Washington— I can assure you it has been a source of considerable pain to me, as well as to the Executors— I calculated upon drafts on a certain Philip P.

your Letter of the 28th Ulto I have now before me & but for Mr Swans absence from the City would have been answered in due time.

A few days after the receipt of a Letter from you on the same subject Mr Lewis came to my house & when he paid Mrs Custis, he told me there would be a Balance coming to Mrs Peter— when I received your Letter I was not a little surprised to find I was a debtor.

     I enclose herewith a packet for you, which I have received from our excellent friend General La Fayette– I hope it will reach you Safe; and I remain very respectfully your friend and Servt

     Your seed barley has been received today and we shall commence sowing it tomorrow; and if the weather should be favorable can get it in the ground in five days. The Rye is all up & looks as well as could be expected. There will be forty or fifty barrels of corn to shuck tomorrow night. I fear you will not make more than one hundred and fifty barrels and therefore advised in one of my late letters that you should buy twenty or thirty barrels at $2 pr barrel to be delivered at your farm to be paid for after your return.

     I am about to ask you to aid me, in getting information of some gentleman, of approved character & qualifications, for the following purposes–

Agreably to Your kind Request I Return the Original Letters which You Have Been pleased to Intrust to me. this first Invoice by the Cadmus Captain Allyn, Under Cover to the president, Contains only the letters Re<mutilated>e to the Virginia Campaign, 1781, the others which are Not Yet Copied shall be forwarded by the Other packet.

I received the day before yesterday at my brothers your letter of the 7th and am much concerned to hear that your health has not been so good as I had been led to hope it was from what I had heard concerning it on your leaving Philadelphia. As your chills have left you we may however indulge the expectation that the Dyspepsy which has persecuted you will follow them or at least be greatly moderated.

Since my last to you I have received your two favors of May 31 and June 14th. I could find no papers whatever relating to Mr David M. Randolph's case. I wrote to him on the subject immediately.

Enclosed you have a copy of three of Genl Washington's letters to Genl Andrew Lewis, according to your request; they are all I can find, but they do not seem to meet your views. 

     Your favor by Mr Allison has been received and its contents shall be strictly obser[ve]d. I can not say precisely at what time Jane & myself will be up but I am extremely anxious to get from this part of the country, and Doct. Mason thinks my health requires an immediate change of situation, & advises me to drink the waters of Painter's sulphur Spring near Winchester. I am becoming more debilitated daily. I fear I shall not be able to take my family to my brother's.

On behalf of my mother Mrs Hamilton I have the pleasu<re> to inform you that I yesterday delivered to Mr Sparks the letters written by my father to Genl Washington which my mother received from you. I am desired further to say that the delay which has occured in complying with your request is to be attributed to any other cause than an indisposition on her part to return the papers or the slightest diminution of rispect for you. With my best wishes for your health & happiness I remain Sir Yr obt Svt

Since I left Mount Vernon, it has forcibly occurred to me, that it will be best to have all the letters received by General Washington sent to Boston. Those remaining are comparatively unimportant, but I shall occasionally wish to refer to them, and the inconvenience of not having them at hand will be much greater than the trouble of shipping them. You will observe that they are all contained in the case next to the outer door, and are tied up with brown paper over the ends of the parcels and lettered.

Your favor of the 29th ultimo has reached me, and I need not say that I am gratified with your consent to have the papers removed, on the conditions stated in my last letter. I have, also, received an answer from Chief Justice Marshall, which accords so entirely with yours that I consider the arrangement as now settled.

On my return from Fauquier a few days past I received the copy of a letter addressed to you by Mr Sparks respecting the removal of the papers of General Washington to Boston. As a decision on that proposition rests exclusively with yourself my first intention was not to intrude any opinion of mine upon you.

4 vols. of Letters, Orders, and Instructions, from the Year 1754 to 1757.

3 vols. of Letters, Invoices, &c., from 1752 to 1774.

43 vols. of Revolutionary papers, as follows:

Your kind favor of the 9th instant has been received, and I am much gratified with the expressions of confidence with which you honor me.

By a letter just received from the Chief Justice, I find that he has had in his possession the copies you mentioned of General Washington's letters during the French war, which he has sent to Alexandria. My doubts on this subject are thus cleared up. 

He informs me, moreover, that he has sent a volume of letters for the year 1787, which he had retained by accident. The third volume of Orders does not yet come to light.

Having been here two weeks, very diligently employed in taking a general survey of the papers, I am happy to inform you, that my expectations in regard to their extent and value are fully realized. As yet I have been able to give them only a cursory examination, preparatory to a more particular inspection of their several parts.

     When at Washington I was unable to say, with certainty, what Since my return I can state in the most positive terms in relation to the mode of publishing the decisions of the Supreme Court, which I propose to adopt, in the Event of my being appointed to Succeed Mr Wheaton.

I observe by the papers received this day from Washington that Mr Wheaton has been appointed Charge du affairs to Denmark, a situation he will no doubt accept, and thus a vacancy will take place in the Supreme Court, and I beg leave to ask your kind <illegible> of my wishes to become his successor— That have already received your sanction, and I have also the Express assurance of the Chief Justice, Judge Story and Judge Duval that I shall have the appointment in the Event of Mr Wheaton's relinquishing it— Altho now my dear sir to <illegible> y

I write merely to remind you, that I shall be prepared to visit Mount Vernon in the first week of March, and propose to spend about three months in close application of examining the papers.

It will be proper I presume, that some written instruments should exist between us, and I hope you will have it prepared when I call on you in passing through Washington.

     Will you be good engh to inform me Whether you expect to be able to attend our Circuit at the next Term— We shall have a busy term, and the circumstances under which you left Phia., has made me very anxious to know from yourself how you are — not so much on account of the Court, as from the great interest I feel in your health, and indeed in all that concerns you — I pray God, that so great an evil as the loss of your Services on the Bench is yet at a distance — When a few of you old fashioned, but real Patriots, who could not be re