I have the honor of returning to you, my illustrious doctor, the letter from my father-in-law and the draft of a response that I have made for better or worse, as I am far from making it sound the way I wanted and the way the liberator of the United States would do it himself, but I am nevertheless sending it to you as it is. If I weren't a non-initiate, I would have asked myself to dinner with the delegation of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters whom you are hosting today, according to what I have heard from M. de Lalande who agreed to deliver this letter. Adieu my illustrious Doctor. You know how I am passionately attached to you for life

I received, Monsieur, the letter that you were so kind as to write me about the peace, and I am very touched by all the flattering things that you said in it. I cannot hope to respond to it as I would like. I beg you therefore to please supplement my expressions; as your language is so difficult that a foreigner, especially when he is as old as I, must give up on the pleasure and satisfaction of expressing himself in French according to his deepest feelings. I can tell you, however, that I flatter myself to understand French well enough to perfectly distinguish your compliments from the great number of those which this great event has brought me. There is an honest and truthful style that belongs only to former French military men, which I have had the occasion to observe several times. I join my wishes to yours with great pleasure, Monsieur, for the prosperity and eternal union of our two nations. As for my country, she will never forget that without the help of a powerful and generous king and the efforts of his brave troops, she would never have been freed so rapidly from Great Britain's tyrannical grip. This is a truth which she will be pleased to spread throughout the most remote forests in America, from generation to generation, to the final posterity.

I have the honor of being, etc.