My dear and venerable Doctor, I could not learn of the happy event which gives a constitution to your country without it eliciting the sweetest feeling the human heart knows, that of seeing the happiness of a part of the world guaranteed by reason's progress and the success of the enlightened. The role you and the illustrious Washington play in this event increases the pleasure of seeing virtue happy and rewarded by the most worthy of successes. If no human endeavor bears the stamp of perfection, if there are still things to improve on in the constitution you are adopting, the same luminaries who organized it will perfect it one day and you taste at least what is most necessary for your survival, which is having one. As for me, I take great pleasure in the sight of old age contented with the extra dose of glory and happiness that the firmament owed to your fine career.

Accept my congratulations, my dear and venerable Doctor. You know the heart that offers them to you and how it is full of veneration and affection for you. I have been assured that your health is good. Your country's happiness will prolong your already wonderful life which will be as unusual in its length as it has been unusually filled with talents and virtues. Permit me to squeeze next to my heart with a religious affection the man of my century who seems to me to deserve more than anybody else the respect of the human race and to repeat to you what I told you at my little feast at Sannois: