I recd your letter & now, she much hurried, sit down to acknowledge it.

     As a Specimen of their best edition of the Bible from American Stereotype plates, and as a small token of their respect, the managers of the American Bible Society request you to accept the Copy which accompanies this communication.

     I enclose you the Copy of my letter to Mr Lee & his answer recieved yesterday, for your information in settling with Alexander. You will see what were my propositions, which, as I understand Mr Lee, are accepted. As you are not much acquainted with business of this kind, I think it will be best for you to meet Mr Alexander in Alexandria, if your health will permit, and get Mr Hewett, the lawyer I employed to sue Alexander, to draw the necessary writings.

     I en[c]lose two letters for your perusal and advice[.] the one from Diggs, the matter referd to, I have not the smallest recollection of, and am fully persuaded it is only a trick, upon a supposition that rather than such a matter should be brought into court the Executors will relinquish the claim, the Wheat charged to him & which he says was an exchange of seed and, delivered to Hyland Crow an overseer of the Genls must be false, Hyland Crow lived with the Genl in the year 1796 and left him in the fall of the same, at this time Mr P

     It has been my intention for some days past to dine at Woodlawn, provided the weather should be such as to render it not imprudent to turn out with a bad cold on me— Instead of being allowed this gratification, I have been confined to the house for at least a fortnight, and now the time has just come when I must take my departure for Washington— You & my friend Mrs L. must therefore take the will & the wish for the deed.

     In the Ejectment of the exrs of Genl Washington vs: Homertree & in the suit of the same against the same for cent, Judgements were confessed at May Court Cast with a stay of execution in each case untill the first of December— Since the first of december, I have written twice to the clerk of the Superior Court of Fairfax to issue executions— Which I exect he has done & that they are now in the hands of the Sheriff— If the executions have not been issued, the court will do so on your or Major Lewis’s application for them— You

     I have postponed answering your favor of the 18th Ulto until this time hoping that a more favorable change in the weather & the removal of a Cold which I have had for some time would have permitted me without imprudence to go into an outhouse where my papers are kept and to select those you want. In both of these respects I have been disappointed, and as I must leave home in a day or two for Washington, it will be out of my power to collect the letters & forward them as you request until after my return.

     After my return from Philaa I recd your favour of the 9th Octr and soon afterwards as it was in my power, I consulted with Majr Lewis upon the proposition it contained— The delay which has taken place in returning you an answer has not proceeded from an indisposition in us to grant to you & Mr Alexander the indulgence asked for, but from the difficulty of arranging the business in such a way as to render the estate we represent & ourselves individually perfectly secure— That we [s]hould proceed with circumspection in a matte

     I have endeavoured to read and to understand Mr Diggs facetious letter but I must acknowledge that I very indistinctly comprehend it. Mr Stones, I do, and I clearly agree with him that we ought to refer the suit, and I would advise you to write to him to that effect, and to have the reference made a rule of Court. We can have no objection to either of the gentlemen he mentions, or to any other man of character in Alexandria.

     Your Communication my friend I with great pleasure received a few days ago a private Convayance offers Me an Oppertunity of makeing you my thanks for it, and of sending you a few Yellow beet sead, it is a new species in our gardens and they are very delicate.

     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 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.

     I recd a few days ago your favor of the 28 Augt and in answer thereto, I beg to assure that it will give me pleasure to furnish you with the letters you request, or such of them as can be found; for the papers sent to the Chief Justice, and which are still at Richmond, have been very extensively mutilated by rats and otherwise injured by damp as he not long since informed me.

     I purchased 10 barrels of Corn the other day, out of which I will supply the free Negroes with the quantity you mention, that is a bushel per month to each. I shall have to purchase more to last Bushrod & myself to the end of the year & will at the same time lay in for the free people. I presume they carry it themselves to the mill— if they cant do this, I must send it for them. Affectly yrs

     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.

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.”

     I reced your letter of the 9th inst. a few days since informing me you had placed in the Bank of Alexa. for our benefit $2318..56 which is very acceptable at this time as it is very difficult to collect money in our country one third of the above amt you may inform Mr Herbert I have paid for the Estate—one third to Bushd and one third to myself.

     I recd a few days ago your favor of the 13th and have only to express to you the entire Satisfaction it has afforded me. The postponement until the middle of September can be of no material consequence, if no time is lost afterwards, which from your assurances will not, I am persuaded, take place. Mr Peters can, in the mean time, proceed with his volumes.

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 have stated the accounts of the purchasing legatees, as far as the papers in my possession will permit. I am satisfied that they are very imperfect & in some instances perhaps erroneous, but I hope your papers will enable you to supply omissions & to correct mistakes. In going over them, I wish you to compare them with the Commissioners former account, from which my statement differs in some instances beyond my capacity to explain.

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.

Your power of Attorney to represent you at the late meeting of the D.S. Land Compy of Suffolk arrived in time, and I now enclose you, draughts on the treasury of the Company, who lives in Norfolk which I hope will arrive safe and give satisfaction.

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.

     In consequence of the death of Mr Henderson, it becomes my duty, to affirm you, of the period of annual Meeting, of the Dismal Swamp Land Company, which is fixed on the 15th present Month. Should you not be enabled personally to attend, you will be so good as appoint an agent, or attorney whose power must be presented to the board, and should you desire it, I will cheerfully represent you in the meeting.