existed when some particular cash commission for purchases has been received from abroad. I know not how it is on the other rivers, & therefore say nothing as to them.

This is the first letter I have written to Philadelphia since my arrival at home, & yours the only ones I have received.

TO JAMES MADISON.

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO, Feb. 15, 1794.

DEAR SIR,-We are here in a state of great quiet, having no public news to agitate us. I have never seen a Philadelphia paper since I left that place, nor learnt anything of later date except some successes of the French the account of which seemed to have come by our vessel from Havre. It was said yesterday at our court that Genet was to be recalled: however nobody could tell how the information came. We have been told that mr. Smith's speech & your's also on your propositions have got into Davis's papers, but none of them have reached us. I could not have supposed, when at Philadelphia, that so little of what was passing there could be known even at Kentucky, as is the case here. Judging from this of the rest of the Union, it is evident to me that the people are not in a condition either to approve or disapprove of their government, nor consequently influence it.

TO JAMES MONROE.

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO Mar. 11, 1794.

DEAR SIR,-The small pox at Richmond has cut off the communication by post to or through that place. I should have thought it duty to have

removed his office a little way out of town, that the communication might not have been interrupted, instead of that it is said the inhabitants of the country are to be prosecuted because they thought it better to refuse a passage to his postriders than take the smallpox from them. Straggling travellers who have ventured into Richmd now and then leave a newspaper with Col: Bell. Two days ago we got that with the debates on the postponement of mr. Madison's propositions. I have never received a letter from Philadelphia since I left it except a line or two once from E. R. There is much enquiry for the printed correspondence with Hammond, of which no copy had come to Richmond some days ago. We have heard of one at Staunton.

Our winter was mild till the middle of January, but since the 22 of that month (when my observations begun) it has been 23. mornings out of 49. below the freezing point, and once as low as 14° It has also been very wet. Once a snow of 6. I. which lay 5. days, and lately a snow of 4. I. which laid on the plains 4. days. There have been very few ploughing days since the middle of January, so that the farmers were never backwarder in their preparations. Wheat we are told is from 5/6 to 6/ at Richmond, but whether cash can be got for it I have not heard. At Milton

it is 4/6 payable in goods only at from 50. to 100. per cent above the Philadelphia prices, which renders the wheat worth in fact half a dollar. I do not believe that 1000 bushels of wheat could be sold at Milton & V Charlottesville for 1/ a bushel cash. Such is the present scarcity of cash here, & the general wretched situation of commerce in this country. We are told that the market for wheat at Richmond will cease on the departure of the French fleet.

*

TO JAMES MADISON.

MAD. MSS.

MONTICELLO, Apr. 3, 1794.

DEAR SIR,-Our post having ceased to ride ever since the inoculation began in Richmond, till now, I received three days ago, & all together, your friendly favors of March the 2d. 9. 12. 14. and Colo. Monroe's of Mar. the 3. & 16. I have been particularly gratified by the receipt of the papers containing yours & Smith's discussion of your regulating propositions. These debates had not been seen here but in a very short & mutilated form. I am at no loss to ascribe Smith's speech to it's true father. Every tittle of it is Hamilton's except the introduction. There is scarcely anything there which I have not heard from him in our various private tho' official discussions. The very turn of the arguments is the same, and others will see as well as myself that the style is Hamilton's. The sophistry is too fine, too ingenious, even to have been comprehended by Smith, much less devised by him. His reply shews he did not

understand his first speech, as its general inferiority proves it's legitimacy, as evidently as it does the bastardy of the original. You know we had understood that Hamilton had prepared a counter report, & that some of his humble servants in the Senate were to move a reference to him in order to produce it. But I suppose they thought it would have a better effect if fired off in the H. of Representatives. I find the Report, however, so fully justified, that the anxieties with which I left it are perfectly quieted. In this quarter, all espouse your propositions with ardor, & without a dissenting voice. The rumor of a declaration of war has given an opportunity of seeing, that the people here, tho' attentive to the loss of value of their produce in such an event, yet find in it a gratification of some other passions, & particularly of their ancient hatred to Gr. Britain. Still, I hope it will not come to that: but that the proposition will be carried, and justice be done ourselves in a peaceable way. As to the guarantee of the French islands, whatever doubts may be entertained of the moment at which we ought to interpose, yet I have no doubt but that we ought to interpose at a proper time, and declare both to England & France that these islands are to rest with France, and that we will make a common cause with the latter for that object. As to the naval armament, the land armament, & the Marine fortifications which are in question with you, I have no doubt they will all be carried. Not that the monocrats & paper men in Congress want war; but they want armies & debts and tho'

we may hope that the sound part of Congress is now so augmented as to insure a majority in cases of general interest merely, yet I have always observed that in questions of expense, where members may hope either for offices or jobs for themselves or their friends, some few will be debauched, & that is sufficient to turn the decision where a majority is, at most, but small. I have never seen a Philadelphia paper since I left it, till those you enclosed me; and I feel myself so thoroughly weaned from the interest I took in the proceedings there, while there, that I have never had a wish to see one, and believe that I never shall take another newspaper of any sort. } I find my mind totally absorbed in my rural occupations. *

TO JAMES MONROE.

MON. MSS.

MONTICELLO Apr. 24. 94.

I wrote to Mr. Madison on the 3 inst. Since that I have received his of Mar. 24. 26. 31. & Apr. 14. and yours of Mar. 26. 31 & Apr. 2. which had been accumulating in the post office of Richmond. The spirit of war has grown much stronger in this part of the country, as I can judge of myself, and in other parts along the mountains from N. E. to S. W. as I have had opportunities of learning by enquiry. Some few very quiet people, not suffering themselves to be inflamed as others are by the kicks & cuffs Gt. Britain has been giving us, express a wish to remain in peace. But the mass of thinking men seem to be of opinion that we have borne as much as to invite eternal insults in