I have not written you a line since I received yours; from the Yellow Springs, for some time I knew not where you were, and began at last to feel, not a little anxious untill I was releived by your Brothers informing me that he had Received a Letter from you, dated at Philadelphia.1 there again I thought you had too Soon return’d, as the Weather of Sep’br and chiefly since october came in, has been intensely Hot, and the fever which has been in Boston, tho chiefly confind to one Street, has been uncommonly fatal—2 Scarcly one seiz’d has recoverd— In Quincy we have been more healthy than for several years past. we had upon the Farms Six weeks ago a Malignant Dysentery but it was confined to a few families, all of which with one exception, recoverd.— I now despair of seeing you here as the Season is so far advanced. I hope you have derived some benifit from your excursion through the Summer: we have past an agreable one here; your Brothers Society, and that of his family have added much to our enjoyment. he usually comes out on Saturdays, and returns on mondays. his family sometime pass the week with us. George is a lovely Boy, chatters like a Magpye it would have given me sincere pleasure to have had a visit from you, but journeying is expensive; and you are the best judge whether You could afford it— Judge Cranch jun’r and family have been upon a visit to their Friends ever since June. they leave us this week, as well as mrs Johnson. they will go to Nyork by water and from thence by land, so that you 229 may possibly see them in Philadelphia, unless they should take a vessel at Newyork for Washingtown— what a scene is opened there? have Americans any feeling left? can they Submit to the Government of Duane Cheetham Wood, Lyon, Jones,3 and Callender.? fellows who ought to have been long ago exalted— is there any American Blood in Pensilvana? or can You only make a bluster and do nothing.? We are indeed a degraded people, unworthy of the blessings we have enjoyed, and thrown away: You see by the papers that they are bringing your Brothers Name foremost upon the federal list, and there is no saying them nay, tho he has opposed it.4 I am averse to it, as you know but what can you say against the solicitation of Friends. the urgency and what they term pressing necessity of the case You sir are the only man we can bring forward to unite the Federal votes &c &c here I am, sacrifice me for the public, as you have done those who have gone before me. I have only one hope that they will even fail to carry him, for I cannot see any prospect of producing any good— true there is yet a Year to run and the present Administration may not have a Hydra Head—but the Labour of a Hercules will not restore to this people what they will lose in the short period of four years. I see no chance for quiet no hopes for Social Harmony. the bitterness of Party thirsts for more than the cooling Stream— the Spirit of Party, is blind and deaf, but not dumb.

Where we are to land I know not— how mean does Dallas appear with his prostituted name to the address, prostituted it must have been now, or when he united with the Bar in his petition to arresst the repeal of the Judiciary—5 I am ready to ask is there any Principle? any honour any thing like what I call virtue in a Jacobin? The Rogues have fallen out, but will honest Men obtain their Rights? What a Scene does Callender unfold, if still a Lyar. he has the art of wearing the plain unvarnishd tale of truth when writing against the former administrations. he call’d not upon his adversaries to deny his assertions— he dared not challenge them to the contest. he skulked in the dark, and Scatterd his poison only amongst those whom he knew it would opperate upon— I have not a worse, nor so bad an opinion of him, as of his base low mean employer; out upon him, let him be accursed amongst Men and his name a reproach— I have removed every vestage of him out of sight—

You will be weary of my reproaches I have done— I pray you to present my Regards to all the good people of my acquaintance and be assured of the / affection of your / Mother

Mr: Walter who had been in the City several days, while I was absent, called at my dwelling & left your favor of the 5th: instt: yesterday. I am sorry, that he proceeded to Washington without my seeing him, but he promises me this pleasure on his return.

I have now returned to my old haunts for the season, and though we cannot yet boast of perfect health in the City, there is reason to believe, that no epidemic lurks among us. People will believe, in spite of sense & reason, that our fevers are imported, and whatever creed may be the true one, flight from our Cities, during the Autumnal months, seems to be the best chance for longevity.

I have examined and compared with the original, the facetious imitation, enclosed in your letter. It would make a good figure in the Recorder, where I have some thoughts of letting it make its first appearance. Dennie is absent, and the Port Folio comes out so irregularly, that the ode, or rather the subject of it, might grow stale ere it came out. If I conclude to send it to Richmond, I will take a copy of it and retain the original.1 It signifies nothing to disclose and 231 ridicule the scandalous characters of the sect now in power. Their infamy only assimilates them to those by whom they are promoted, and I verily believe, that the present favorites of the people of this Country, are their most legitimate & fittest representatives. I hope you are not suffering yourself to be a candidate for such company; but the newspapers say, that such is the fact. I cannot undertake to judge of your motives, but unless they are more cogent, than such as present themselves to my mind, as inducements to the acceptance of a preferment of this nature, I must think, that you are a convert to the sentiment of Dr Jarvis, respecting the love of popularity.2

I know it is the fashion in Boston to nominate persons for office in the newspapers without asking their leave, and it is not customary for those designated, publicly to decline. The knowledge of these facts induces me to think, that you reserve to yourself the privilege of declining, at a fit season, whatever honors the populace may, in their abundant generosity, confer upon you, without your solicitation. I am thus pointed on this subject, because I have undertaken to pledge myself to several people here, that you will not go to Congress, and I am so firmly persuaded in my own mind, that you have no wish to go, that even should my expectations fail, I shall not attribute to choice any determination you may make to the contrary.

Our State, City & general elections have gone in favor of the Irish interest. Duane was one of the judges of the Election, to decide upon the qualifications of voters. Between four & five hundred Irish were naturalized only three days before the election, in this City alone, and their votes turned every election in favor of the Jacobins.3 The Delaware Election was carried in the same way, by the same means, and though a few native Democrats see and pretend to lament this foreign influence not a man of the party would dispense with its aid.4 We are such weathercock politicians in this state, that we shall never have a clear sky again until a breeze springs up from some other point of the Compass. If the same rabble were suffered to vote in New England as under the Constitution of Pennsylvania, I should soon expect to see an end to steady habits there.

I beg pardon for writing a political letter to you. One would think from my display of zeal, that I was making my fortune by an adherence to federalism; when the contrary of this is in fact the case.

I have already subscribed for Bradford’s meditated edition of Burke, and shall thank you to relieve me from my subscription by taking the work yourself. It is not certain that it will go on. The life of Washington is likely to prove the death of Bradford’s project.5

I never obtain a sight of a Boston newspaper unless it be the Palladium, which I do not like. Those numbers you speak of, I must see, and therefore you may as well send them to me. If I had received them in season, I would have made them republished. Bronson & Chauncey will do me a personal favor, if requested.6 You have doubtless read A J Dallas’s fulmination in the Aurora, just preparatory to the triumph of lunacy here, and I should like to know what you thought of it. Your Yankee Jacobins are timorous animals in comparison with ours.

With best love and affectionate remembrance to all friends / I am, dear Brother / Yours