I have receiv’d a Number of Letters from you, which gave me great Pleasure, tho’ I have not regularly answered. When you shall consider the Situation of a Man who had been many Years absent from home, the Multiplicity of private Affairs he must consequently have to settle, the public Business of a great Government to be attended to, and this under the frequent Teasing of a painful Disease, you will probably make some charitable Allowances for his Delay in writing to his Friends, and not charge it all as the Effect of Forgetfulness and want of Affection.

I now have all your Letters of the last Year before me, and shall go thro’ them in order. That of March 25. announced a M. de la Valete, Nephew of the late Madame de la Frété, as intending a Voyage hither; but he has not yet appear’d in these parts. If he arrives while I live, he will find every Attention and Civility in my Power to show him.

I thank you for the Trouble you have taken in selling my Forte Piano, and dividing the Money as I desired.

The Lodge of the Nine Sisters have done me too much Honour in proposing the Prize you mention.

As to the little History I promis’d you, my Purpose still continues of compleating it, and I hoped to do it this Summer, having built an Addition to my House, in which I have plac’d my Library, and where I can write without being disturb’d by the Noise of the Children. But the General Assembly having lately desired my Assistance in a great Convention to be held here in May next, for Amending the Federal Constitution, I begin to doubt whether I can make any Progress in it, till that Business is over.

Yours of the 23d of May did not arrive here till the 5th of October, and this is not the only Instance of the long time Letters are delayed in your Sea Ports. It is true that we had, as you mention, two Parties in this State, one for preserving the Constitution as it is, and the other for adding an Upper House as a Check to the Assembly. But having try’d it Seven Years, the strongest Party was for continuing it, and since my Arrival no Obstruction has happen’d to Public Business such as you had been informed of, by the Seceding of one Party from the Assembly. Having served one Year as President of Council, I had not Resolution enough to refuse serving another, and was again chosen in November last, without a single dissenting Voice but my own. By our Laws one cannot serve more than three Years, but I think I shall decline the third.

I am quite of your Opinion that our Independance is not quite compleat till we have discharg’d our public Debt. This State is not behindhand in its Proportion, and those who are in Arrear, are actually employ’d in contriving Means to discharge their respective Ballances, but they are not all equally diligent in the Business, nor equally successful, the whole will however be paid, I am persuaded, in a few Years.

The English have not yet deliver’d up the Ports on our Frontier, agreable to Treaty; the Pretence is, that our Merchants have not paid their Debts. I was a little provok’d when I first heard this, and I wrote some Remarks upon it which I send you: they have been written near a Year, but I have not yet publish’d them, being unwilling to encourage any of our People who may be able to pay, in their neglect of that Duty. The Paper therefore is only for your Amusement and that of our excellent Friend the Duke de Rochefoucauld.

You blame me for writing three Pamphlets and neglecting to write the little History. You should consider they were written at Sea and of my own Head: the other could not so well be written there, for want of the Documents that could only be had here.

As to my Malady concerning which you so kindly enquire, I have never had the least Doubt of its being the Stone; I am sensible that it is grown heavier; but on the whole it does not give me more Pain than when at Passy; and except when Standing, Walking, or making Water, I am very little incommoded by it. Sitting, or lying in Bed I am generally quite easy, God be thanked, and as I live temperately, drink no Wine, and use daily the Exercise of the Dumb Bell, I flatter myself that the Stone is kept from augmenting so much as it might otherwise do, and that I may still continue to find it tolerable. People who live long, who will drink of the Cup of Life to the very Bottom, must expect to meet with some of the usual Dregs; and when I reflect on the Number of terrible Maladies human Nature is subject to, I think myself favour’d in having to my share only the Stone and Gout.

In yours of Augt. 21, you mention your having written the 21st and 29th of June, which Letters were in a Pacquet with one from the Duke de Rochefoucauld, two from M. et Madame Brillon, etc. I have not been so happy as to receive those Letters. They never came to hand.

You were right in conjecturing that I wrote the Remarks on the Thoughts concerning executive Justice. I have no Copy of those Remarks at hand, and forget how the saying was introduc’d that it is better 1000 guilty Persons should escape than one Innocent suffer. Your Criticisms thereon appear to be just, and I imagine you may have misapprehended my Intention in mentioning it. I always thought with you, that the prejudice in Europe which supposes a Family dishonoured by the Punishment of one of its Members, was very absurd; it being on the contrary my Opinion that a Rogue hang’d out of a Family does it more honour than ten that live in it.

What you mention of our Paper Money, if you mean that of this State, Pensilvania, is not well understood. It was made before my Arrival, and not being a legal Tender, can do no Injustice to anybody, nor does any one here complain of it, tho’ many are justly averse to an Increase of the Quantity at this Time, there being a great deal of real Money in the Country, and our Bank in good Credit. I have myself purchased Ten Actions in it, which at least shows my good Opinion of it.

Besides the Addition to my House mentioned above, I have been building two new Houses on my Front next the Street. They are of Brick, and each of them 24 feet wide by 45 deep and three Stories high. The Affairs in dealing with so many Workmen and Furnishers of Materials, such as Bricklayers, Carpenters, Stonecutters, Plaisterers, Painters, Glaziers, Limeburners, Timber Merchants, Coppersmiths, Carters, Labourers, etc. etc. have added not a little to the fatiguing Business I have gone through in the last Year, as mentioned above; and strengthen in some degree my Apology for being so bad a Correspondent.

Mr. Brabançon has requested me to send him some Seeds, in time to plant this Spring. But his Letter came to hand too late. They will be got the ensuing Autumn, and sent so as to be ready for Planting next Year.

Temple and Benjamin will write to you. This Letter goes by Mr. Paine, one of our principal Writers at the Revolution, being the Author of Common Sense, a Pamphlet that had prodigious Effects. He does not speak French, or I should recommend him to your Civilities as I do to those of our Friend the good Duke.

The last Letter I have had the Pleasure of receiving from you, is that of November 19. 1786.

I cannot give you a better Idea of my present Happiness in my Family, than in telling you, that my Daughter has all the Virtues of a certain good Lady that you allow me to love; the same tender Affections and Attentions, Ingenuity, Industry, Economy, etc. etc. etc. Embrace that good Dame for me very warmly and the amiable Daughter. My best Wishes attend the whole Family whom I shall never cease to love while I am