I have this day learned that a letter¹ from me to Governor Henry of Virginia which was sent by him to Genl Washington with the General's Answer to it,² are to be printed in the history of his life. It is foreign to my wishes to hint at³ present at the State of the⁴ public mind towards General Washington towards the Close of the year 1777, & which events subsequent to that year, altered in his favor. I shall mention one passage only in his letter to Mr Henry⁵ in which there is an evident mistake.

I take the liberty to introduce to you Mr Wm E. Horner of Virginia who is attending for the second winter, I believe, the medical believer in Phila. He is a young gentleman of respectable connections, good talents and most amiable in his disposition & deportment.

     I am very respectfully Dr Sir yr mo. ob. Serv.

I yesterday recd a very discouraging letter from Mrs Washington from which I beg leave to trouble you with the following extracts. She says that the pain in her side encreases, and has for several days past been accompanied by a dull pain (as heretofore felt) in the shoulder; occasionally in the wrist and other Joints. She is certain she has night fevers– Wants appetite & sleeps badly. She has for some days discontinued the steel & bark being afraid, & very Justly she thinks, that those medicines have done injury to her side.

Mrs Washington’s mouth having got much better, we commenced the application of the mercurial ointment about ten nights ago. After using it for two nights, she became apprehensive that it had affected her mouth, and of course it was thought best to discontinue the operation untill these symptoms should disappear. At this period, the experiment was extremely flattering to our hopes. To use Mrs W’s expression, the ointment, with the gentle friction used in rubbing it on, acted upon the pain in the side like a charm.

Whilst I was in Richmond, Mrs Washington commenced the taking of the mercurial pills, and having most unfortunately persevered too long, even after the soreness in the mouth had taken place, a kind of salivation was brought on, & though not attended by a spilling, her tongue & mouth have been for 8 or 10 days so much swollen, that she has been unable to take any kind of nourishment not in a liquid form. Her mouth is now somewhat better, but I am greatly alarmed by the return of the pain in the side which had almost ceased.

I recd a letter from Mrs Washington last night which has rendered me very unhappy. She appears to be much alarmed at her present state of health, and has described the symptoms very minutely to be submitted to you. She says she recollects you asked her if she was ever sensible of a pain in her right arm or shoulder, & seemed to think her answer in the negative a fortunate circumstance. But she now feels that pain and had done so for ten days, and with it a considerable increase of the pain in her side which never leaves her for a moment.

Accept my dear sir, my thanks for your pamphlet containing a short notice of the life of the late Judge Peters, which I have read with great interest and feeling.

During a period of more than 26 yea<rs> that we were associated in Judicial labours, the harmony of our intercourse was never, to the best of my recollection, interrupted by one unkind expression or sentiment. <I> felt for him whilst living the most sincere friendship & re<sp>ect, the memory of which I can never cease to cherish. Believe me to be respectfully my dear sir yr mo. ob. servt

I beg your pardon for being so troublesome to you with my letters.

You have indeed misapprenhed me in supposing I intended publickly to defend myself agt the charges contained in genl Washingtons letter to govr Henry. Far from it. I had determined to submit to them in silence. To my family & friends only I intended to justify¹ myself.² Even this would have been painful, to me, for in doing so I shd not only have done violence to my present feelings, but to the habitual respect³ I have uniformly done to his illustrious character.

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