I thank you for your favour of the 16th recd this day It is a great pleasure to me to find that none of the Gentn of Congress in the years 1779 & 80 remember any such thing as Dr K has asserted. Our present Govr who was then a delegate says the same— I shall ask Mr Gerry when I see him—& shall wait with as much patience as the nature of the subject will admit for your further communications.

Since I wrote to you on this subject I have been again wounded by an unmerited reflection on our Country from the pen of the late Secy of War; & have tho’t it my duty by the advice of 2 or 3 judicious friends, publickly to detect his mistake. In the Centinel of this date you may see my address signed with my initials. It is certainly well intended & I hope will be well received. I mean to be a fair antagonist & therefore beg you to deliver him the enclosed (if he should be at Phila) after you have read & sealed it.1

I thank you for the memoir on weights & measures—one Copy shall be delivered to the Secy of the Academy. It is not improbable that some of our dablers in the Apocalype may set down the new standard of weights & measures as “the mark of the beast” if “no man is to buy or sell” but by that standard. But how they will contrive a decimal division of 666 I know not.

I should not think it strange if the French in their rage for decimals should make a reform in the Zodiac as well as in the Calendar & reduce the signs to ten, corresponding to their ten months.2 in that case the Lion must be rejected as an emblem of monarchy— The ram & the bull will be deemed aristocrates—& possibly the Goat unless he should serve as an emblem of Liberty— The scales will probably be retained for their equality, & the twins & fishes for the sake of Fraternity. The virgin I suppose will be united with the Waterer to make her prolific & the motley figure of the Archer may with some propriety be called Marat3 or represent the Jacobins

Will you be so good as to tell me whether the President when he sent a proclamation for Thanksgiving to one Governor expected that it would be reinforced by his authority & that of the Council? We have now 2 proclamations handed to us to be read in public—one is distributed by the Marshal of the district—the other having the order of Govr & Council at the top by the Sheriff! the latter is printed by Adams & Larkin at the Expense (I suppose) of the state!4

I am, Dear Sir, with great Esteem & respect / Your obliged friend & hble servt

I was honoured with your most obliging Favor of the 6th. Decemr.—1 Please to accept of my unfeigned Thanks for your Application to the Commissioners from the Court of Spain, Don Joseph de Viar and Don Joseph de Jaudenes for Permission for the Ship Ascention to proceed to the Havanna with empty Casks & Hoops—

It is with the utmost Regret that I perceive, by their polite Answer to our Memorial, that it was inconsistent with their Authority to grant Licences for the Purposes of our Prayer; and only authorized to give Permission for Provisions when the City was in Want thereof; but they, being well informed that the King’s Magazines and the Market were plentifully supplied, shou’d suspend granting Permissions until the Beginning of February, at which Time we should have the Preference upon Application therefor in Writing.—

I am, unhappily, largely interested in the Debts due in the Havanna of near 24,000 Dollars, and have no Prospect of realizing the Money without getting a Vessel admitted: It therefore becomes necessary to make fresh Application, agreeable to the Commissioners Letter of the 9th Decemr.—for that Purpose we have sent forward to Philadelphia the Bearer Captn. Saml. Chase, Master of the Ship, who will deliver you the Letter referr’d to, and beg with Solicitude your friendly Interest in obtaining our Request, on which our Property principally depends—and as it appears that no Permissions can be granted but for Vessels carrying Provisions and the Season of the Year renders it almost impossible to proceed to Delaware or New-York, the Owners 365 will at their own Expence and Risque freight five or six Hundred Barrels of Flour from New-York to Newport and ship on Board the Ascention for the Havanna on Account of the King, at the most moderate Freight; or otherwise, will purchase, and deliver at the Havanna, to the Government, said Flour, they paying for the same, at the Havanna, only the first Cost, and what Freight may be thought reasonable; or no Freight, if it may be the means of granting our Memorial.— We flatter ourselves that upon one or the other of those Proposals, through the means of your Influence, we shall obtain the Permission.— It gives us Pain, to be so troublesome, but the Exigency of the Case requires our Exertions.

With every Consideration of the firmest Attachment of Respect & Gratitude— / I am / Your most obedient / and most humble Servant