Your last favor of the 24th July should not have been so long without a reply had I not supposed that your attention must be so employed by the great national business as to leave You no leisure for a Correspondence with me— Indeed had the Occasion been pressing I might have taken advantage of your very obliging offer, to propose Questions to you; but as another time would do as well for me I thought it decent to wait till the adjournment of Congress might render it more agreeable to you—

The kind reception which my first Vol of the History of NHamp̃ has met with & the earnest solicitation of my numerous friends have prevailed with me to attempt another Volume,1 which I should have begun sooner had my situation & Circumstances permitted— I am now engaged in it—& when I come to speak of the late times that we have passed through I shall very probably have some Questions to ask you.— One occurs to me now— The seizure of the Fort & Stores in NH in Decr 1774 was in consequence of a Prohibition of exporting Ammunition from Great Brittain—& I have a Copy of a private Letter from a Gentn: in Office on the other side of the Question wch says “Positive proof was had from Holland that military stores to the amount of £400,000 sterlg were actually ordered & purchased from North America & were shipped to various Ports among the Islands & on the Continent. This caused an alarm, Col Lee of Marblehead it is said actually received a proportion & dispersed them.2 He has reimbursed himself by the £800 voted to pay their minute Men, which was raised on Credit. This is truly the secret history of all the business.”

If this is fact I think you must have known it & I should be glad you would (if it be proper) give me some acco of the Transaction or if this should lead to any other Information I would wish to have it. You observe that “many false facts are imposed on Historians & the world”— I am fully sensible there is great danger here—& therefore will endeavor to guard against it—& how can I do this better than by 162 enquiring as far as possible into both sides of a controversy—& of those persons who were in the secrets of both parties?

Another of your observations strikes me very forcibly “some of the most important Characters are but imperfectly known, & many empty Characters displayed in great Pomp—all this I am sure will happen in our history”— The reason that I take such particular notice of this—is that I have been for some years preparing for a biographical History of America I.e a Collection of the Lives of the eminent Characters which have appeared on our Stage—ab initio—a specimen of what this work will be I have given in the Lives of Govr Winthrop, Sir Ferd Gorges—Capt John Smith & Friend Wm Penn which have been published in the Columbian Magazine—3 I am daily making Collections for the prosecution of this Work but the completion of the NH histy must be made before I can go about this in earnest— When I do I shall probably give you some further Trouble with my Questions— Bernard & Hutchinson must make a part of the Group— With respect to the latter I wish to know how he passed his last days in England— I think they must have been extreemly dark & dismal.

I can give you one piece of Information which I doubt not will be agreeable. The Clergy in this Town have agreed to preach on the subject of “paying tribute & custom to whom tribute & custom are due” as a Gospel duty—& particularly necessary at this Time when our new Government is just put in motion—& is administred in such a manner as to be “a terror to evil doers & a praise to them that do well”—4 Some of us have already spoken on the subject & (excepting that it was not a very agreeable Entertainment to the Ladies, as being rather out of their sphere) I have the pleasure to find that our discourses are approved by the judicious— I am just setting out on a Journey as far as Portsmo & shall as opportunity presents recommend this subject to my Brethren in the maritime towns—

Adieu my dear Sir May Heaven preserve you for a long time an Ornament & blessing to your Country—& when assaulted by the invenomed darts of Malice

I am with great respect Sir / yr much obliged & most / hble servt

Your favor of August 10th was duly received and immediately communicated with several other letters on the same subject to the President. His determination which will be made on the best principles and from the purest motives, as well as the most universal information, for he receives letters and makes enquiries from all quarters, we shall soon know. Altho’ it is most probable to me that Mr Lowell will be the judge, yet if it should be otherwise, I apprehend your fears of an appointment to the place of C Justice of the State are not founded— Mr Hancock is not of a character strong enough to venture on such a nomination, and his Council would not consent to the appointment, if he did. It would have an happy effect if all the judges of the national supreme Court, would be taken from the chief Justices of the several states. The superiority of the national government would in this way be decidedly acknowledged. All the judges of the states would look up to the national bench as their ultimate object.— As there is great danger of collisions between the national and state judiciaries, if the state judges are men possesed of larger portions of the people’s confidence than the national judges, the latter will become unpopular. This however is a subject which cannot be very accurately asscertained. It is easy to determine who a C Justice is, but not so easy to say who has most of the public confidence. The morals of the nation and perfection of the constitution; The national character, public credit, private confidence, public liberty, private property: every thing that is sacred, prescious or dear, depends so much upon these judges, that the President will choose I presume with caution. In Massachusetts 164 happily there are several among whom he cannot make a wrong choice. The majority of the Senators and representatives from that state have recommended Lowell.

Your “Ideas of revenue and commerce” I should be glad to receive, as well as any other information relative to the affairs of this nation, whose wellfare is near my heart, Tho’ it is not probable it will ever be in my power to do it much service. My own opinions of what is necessary to be done, to secure the liberty, and promote the prosperity of this Country if not singular, have too small a number of supporters to be of much use: May heaven grant that tradgedies and calamities may not in time convince Americans, when it is too late, that they have missed the tide in the affairs of men. Democratical powers equally with Aristocratical powers pushed to extremeties, necessarily produce a feudal system; this Country has already been very near the brink: within a short space of seeing hostile armies commanded by factious leaders, encamped on every great mountain and defended by a Barons castle. And if more pains and care than any disposition for has yet appeared are not taken to limit and adjust our national government, to raise it decidedly above the state government, and to prevent collisions of sovereignties, we may yet be not so far removed from a scene of feudal anarchy as we imagine. Thus you see I begin to be a croaker. Tho’ the character is not natural to me.