Your favor of the 25th inst., recd today, induces me to do immediately what I had mentally arranged to do after my return from Trenton—answer your interesting letter of the 4th July. But first allow me to excuse myself from the censure to which I am apparently obnoxious for having postponed the performance of this duty to this late day. I took that letter out of the office in Alexa.

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 have to acknowledge the rect of your letter of the 6th of Augt which having had to trail after me from Alexa. to this part of the state did not reach me till long after its date.

I have to acknowledge the rect of your letter of the 6th of Augt which, having had to travel after me from Alexandria to this part of the state did not reach me 'till long after its date.

I send you this letter for your information: I recd it this morning. Affecly Yrs

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.

In the midst of my preparations for my Journey to the mountains, on my way to Phila., I set down to inform you that I, this morning, sent up the demijohn of wine, properly Cased, to A. C. Cazenove & Co. Alexandria, to be forwarded by them to Mr Cazenove of Boston for you, from whom you will hear after its arrival.

I duly recd your favor of the 4th from Phila. and within a few days thereafter, I had the balance of the papers packed in a box, and sent to Alexandria, where they arrived Just in time to be put on board to the schooner Alexandria as she was leaving the wharf. I shall not feel entirely at ease until I hear of the safe arrival of both parcels, which be so good as to announce to me as soon as the event is known. 

Since the date of my last letter to you I have been led to a more critical examination of the question which arises in the case of the Post master general vs Reeder viz if the plea offers no legal bar to the action what Judgment is to be rendered? than I had before taken, and the difficulties which attend it, instead of being cleared away, have thickened upon me, so that I feel more at a loss than I ever was in my life upon any other question to come to a satisfactory conclusion.

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.

Under the act of the 5th of June 1794, for punishment of certain crimes, the ship "Union,"¹ which had been fitted as a privateer in James river, was arrested by due process of law, in consequence of special orders of President Washington to Henry Lee Governor of Virginia, the conduct of Mr David M. Randolph, Marshal of that district, was on that occasion approved of by Genl Washington, as signified by him in a letter to Governor Lee about the month of July or Augt 1794, and his thanks to the marshal were communicated to him accordingly by the Governor.

     I return you many thanks for your letter of the 12th, which was forwarded to me from Philadelphia since I left that place. You have stated precisely that part of the opinion in the case of the U.S. vs. Nicoll which I had forgotten & was anxious to see. It fully sanctions the opinion which I had prepared in the post office case, viz that the giving of a new bond with new sureties by the deputies, in consequence of a requisition of the P. M. G.

I have at length returned home, after an absence of between 4 & 5 months, and I employ the first moments of leisure in reporting to you & brother Story the most interesting cases which came before me for Judgt during my late circuit. I shall say nothing of the Atlantic ins. Co. of N. Y. and the U. S.² which employed us very closely for 9 days, as the case will go to the Supreme Court.

As you pass through New York, you will please call upon Mrs Hamilton & recieve from her the original letters from Genl Hamilton to Genl Washington, which I sent her some years ago to have copied. This letter will be considered as an authority for their delivery to you. With great esteem I am very respectfully dear Sir yr mo. ob. servt

As Mr Sparks will probably leave this in a few days for Boston, I have determined, altho but half settled at home after an absence of 4 or 5 months, to prepare my letter to you that it may be ready for him to take on. The tea cause employed so great a part of the court at Phila. that few others could be tried before the Session came to a close.

your favor of the 7th is this moment recd, and in two hours from this, I expect to be on my road to Mt Vernon— Avoiding any unxpected impediments, I hope to be at Mt V. at dinner on Wednesday the 16th.

In great haste I have only time to add that I am Dr Sir very sincerely & respectfully yrs

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.

I recd yesterday a letter from the Chief Justice prior to his rect of mine, and written in consequence of the one which you had addressed to him. He observes, that he thinks it impossible for you to execute the work you contemplate upon the plan proposed without the facility of frequent recurrence to the papers. I am pleased to find that we so entirely concur in opinion on that subject without previous consultation. You are therefore at liberty to prepare for packing up the books & papers, and to proceed to the completion of the work as soon as you please.

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:

Since the rect of your favor of the 17th inst. I have had every moment of my time so intensely employed in attending to a cause of peculiar interest & perplexity that I could not withdraw my mind from it with sufficient freedom to devote it usefully to other business. This must be my apology for my long silence.

The difficulty you mention of progressing with your work whilst the papers continue at Mount Vernon presented itself to my mind at the time when your first proposition was made, & it was that which mainly operated with me to decline that offer.

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.