[Page 1]

Monticello Nov. 13. 18.

The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event
of which your letter of Oct. 20. had given me ominous foreboding.
tried myself, in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of
connection which can rive the human heart, I know well and feel
what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have
yet to endure. The same trials have taught me that, for ills to
immeasurable, time and silence are the only medecines. I will not
therefore, by useless condolances, open afresh the sluices of your grief
nor, altho' mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word
more, where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both
that the term is not very distant at which we are to deposit, in the
same cerement, our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in
essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved & lost
and whom we shall still love and never lose again. God bless you
and support you under your heavy affliction.

[Page 2]

[Endorsement]

[Address]

[Endorsement]