I have the satisfaction to inform you that I have at last receiv’d from the Secretary of the Treasury the money which Congress granted me for my expences for a private Secretary while at the Court of St: Petersbourg: and can now refund you the whole expence you have been put to on John’s account while with me there, as well as upon his return to Holland— In pursuance of your letter of the 4th: of Nov: 1784 (about a year after my return to America) in which you say “I shou’d be obliged to you if you will write me what I am in debt to you on account of my Son, and draw upon me for it, whatever it is, unless you can persuade Congress to allow it you, They ought to allow you for a Clerk, and if they do, this expence may be saved me, and I am very little able or willing to bear it. Yet if it is not allowed you, I ought to bear it and will bear it, and still be obliged to you for your kind parental care of my boy” &c— In pursuance of the foregoing letter, and agreeing in opinion with you that Congress ought to allow me for a private Secretary, I drew upon you for the Cash only which I had advanced him at St: Petersbourg, and on his 22 return to Holland: Informing you in my letter of the 14th. of June which enclosed a copy of my draft of the same date in favour of Jer: Allen for £357:16:9 sterlg: that “whatever Congress shou’d allow me for a private Secretary, to the amount of my Account of monies advanced your Son, I shou’d hold to your use”— In compliance with this proposition I am now ready to repay you that sum.1

I had flattered myself that I shou’d have succeeded in obtaining a more liberal allowance from Congress than that of mere expences, for John’s benefit. With this view I had inserted an article in my account first exhibited to the Treasury department; for a private Secretary for the whole time; but I was told Congress had not made any provision for private Secretaries, and that I cou’d be allowed only for my particular expences, and must state an account accordingly: Which I did, but added besides an article for his services during the time John was with me, still hoping something wou’d be allowed under that head. The Treasury objected to passing the account and said an application must be made to Congress as there were no resolutions authorising the Treasury to pass such an account. Failing in both these attempts, I had recourse to a particular application to Congress, desiring that the account might accompany it. They granted only the amount of the expences charged. Nor have they ever allowed me my own travelling expences. I have stated this matter so particularly to satisfy you that I did every thing in my power to obtain something for John personally. Indeed, I believe, I shou’d have succeeded in part, had not his expences in returning to Holland run up so very high (all which were charged in the account & have been allowed) owing I presume to the great delays he meet with in Sweden & Denmark thrõ the severity of the season.

I will now state the agreement we made in Holland, as it lays in my mind, if it shou’d not exactly comport with your own understanding of it, that you will let me know it— As I must have gone with my servant only, if John had not accompanied me; which was thõt by us improper if not unsafe, and that Congress wou’d certainly be willing to allow me any extra expence for a companion who might take possession of my public papers shou’d any accident happen to me on so long a rout: And as we both supposed from the literary fame of the Empress, that her capital abounded with good Academies, in which John might pursue his studies under my care, to equal advantage as in Leyden. And you being desirous he shou’d improve so favourable an opportunity of travelling into Countries which he might otherwise never see, was so obliging us to intimate that if I wou’d take 23 the charge of him, he shou’d go with me. To which I most heartily agreed. And also that you shou’d be put to no expence of his journey even thõ Congress shou’d not allow me my travelling expences, or any thing for a private Secretary: but the expence of his instruction, cloathing, board & what pocket money I might think proper to allow him were to be reimbursed by you if I did not obtain a grant from Congress for a private Secretary, which I was to endeavour to do to save you from any expence. I am happy to have succeeded so far; thõ I have all along been troubled that I was under the necessity of drawing upon you (being engaged in building on my return home) by which means you have laid so long out of the money.

Mrs: Dana joins me in regards to your good Lady and yourself whose company we hear we are to be favoured with before long & for the summer.

I am dear Sir with the greatest respect / your much obliged friend & humble Servant

The Secy of the Treasury is so able and has done So well that I have Scarcely permitted myself to think very closely whether he could or could not have done better. I may venture however to Say to you, that I have always been of your Opinion, that a System a little bolder would have been more Safe: and that it would have been better to have begun at once with a Small direct Tax, a pretty liberal Stamp Tax, and an Excise, as well as an impost on Merchandize and Tonnage.

This day has brought me a masterly review of Burke, and I have been so well pleased with it as to use a freedom with it, which I hope you will excuse. I think almost exactly with you of the French Revolution. Absolute Monarchy appears to me to be dead, without a possibility of a resurrection in France. A Counter Revolution is impracticable. Yet their present Constitution cannot be durable. A Convention or a civil War, or both, must make some more judicious Provision, for repressing human Passions than has yet been adopted. 24 They must descend more deeply into the Abysses of the human heart and consider the Origin, Progress and Tendency of the Passions, and erect more permanent Barriers against them.

They will find the Judgment of Socrates, as infallible as an oracle, when he Says to Clinias the Cretan and Magillus the Lacedemonian. Veree, enim, O Viri optimi, Reipublicæ participes estis; quæ autem modo nominatæ Sunt, Aristocratia, Democratia et Monarchia, non Respublicæ, Sed Urbium habitationes quædam Sunt, in quibus pars una Servit alteri dominanti. Platos Laws. Lib. 3. and in his 8th— Book Nulla Certe potestas hujus modi, Respublica est, Sed Seditiones omnes Appellari rectissime possunt. Nulla enim volentibus volens, Sed volens nolentibus Semper Vi aliqua dominatur.1 Human Passions domineer in each of the three Simple Governments. to enquire which of them is the best is only to enquire, which will produce most mischief, the Passions of one Man the Passions of the Majority of a Senate or the Passions of a Majority of the Multitude. to enquire whether a mixed Government is better than a Simple one, is to ask whether the Passions are as wise as just and as moderate as the Laws. If these opinions are unerring oracles as I really believe them, a melancholly Consequence must be drawn from them, vizt that there has Scarcely ever been a Government upon Earth, but what was a sedition. Some have been less gross than others however.

I thank you sir for your friendly Communications respecting myself. It was News to me. I have Said little concerning myself, and am determined to Say still less. To You however I will be so free in Confidence as to say, that as it has appeared to be the desire both of North and south to annihilate me and my office, I have acquiesced, not indeed without some little Wonder at the Policy at least of the North.— If as you think, my Spirit, is not agreable to Some Gentlemen, I Shall not however humiliate much less debase that Spirit, in complaisance to those Gentlemen. If as you say my Morals are not agreable, I am at a Loss to know whether those morals are too good or too bad. If they are too good I shall not make them worse, in Complaisance to those Gentlemen. Heaven knows I wish them better as much as any of them. If as you Suppose my manners are not agreable, I am at a Loss to guess in what particular. Manners comprehend Curtesy, Civility, Hospitality and graceful Attitudes Gestures and Motions. In point of Civility I have not been wanting: in Hospitality I have gone beyond not only all the Means that their Generosity has furnished, but beyond all the Income of my private fortune. instead therefore of reforming in this particular in their 25 Sense I am determined to alter according to my own sense and live more within my income. As to Elegance of Behaviour, without making any vain pretensions in this respect, I may boldly affirm that there is no southern Gentleman has right to reproach me, except the President, and he I know has no disposition to do it.

That there is or will be a Rival, I doubt not. There is a French Intrigue at Work, to this Purpose as deep as it is wicked. My Country men with all their Sagacity and with all their Vigilance, are not enough acquainted with the World, nor with the History of their own Revolution, to be upon their Guard against political Inventions, concealed with infinite Art purposed urged with unwearied dilligence, multiplied and varied with fruitful Ingenuity, and pursued with long perseverance. Panegyricks upon Panegyricks come from Europe upon some Characters in order to lessen others; Politicks are carried on instead of Philosophy in learned and scientific Accademies Newspapers from Georgia to New Hampshire and Magazines &c are cooked & dressed. The Populace are made the Dupes of their own feelings, Aristocrats are bloated with their own pride. To me these Things are familiar. I have been a suffering Witness and have a good Memory. But my Misfortune is that no Man knows them all but myself. But I will own to you, all that ever I have suffered, has never made so deep an Impression on me as to see New England duped more than all the rest: and made the blind Instrument of punishing the only Friends she ever had, for their Friendship to her.— I Shall go on however as long as independent Spirit and Principles will support me. but the first moment these fail me, will be considered as a Revelation of the Will of Heaven to retire.

yours