PARIS, December 18, 1786.
DEAR SIR,--Your letters of August the 19th and October the 12th, have
come duly to hand. My last to you was of the 11th of August. Soon after
that date I got my right wrist dislocated, which has, till now,
deprived me of the use of that hand; and even now, I can use it but
slowly, and with pain. The revisal of the Congressional intelligence
contained in your letters, makes me regret the loss of it on your
departure. I feel, too, the want of a person there, to whose discretion
I can trust confidential communications, and on whose friendship I can
rely against the unjust designs of malevolence. I have no reason to
suppose I have enemies in Congress; yet it is too possible to be
without that fear. Some symptoms make me suspect, that my proceedings
to redress the abusive administration of tobacco by the Farmers General
have indisposed towards me a powerful person in Philadelphia, who was
profiting from that abuse. An expression in the enclosed letter of M.
de Calonnes, would seem to imply, that I had asked the abolition of Mr.
Morris's contract. I never did. On the contrary, I always observed to
them, that it would be unjust to annul that contract. I was led to
this, by principles both of justice and interest. Of interest, because
that contract would keep up the price of tobacco here, to thirty-four,
thirty-six, and thirty-eight livres, from which it will fall when it
shall no longer have that support. However, I have done what was right,
and I will not so far wound my privilege of doing that, without regard
to any man's interest, as to enter into any explanations of this
paragraph with him. Yet I esteem him highly, and suppose that hitherto
he had esteemed me. You will see by Calonne's letter, that we are doing
what we can, to get the trade of the United States put on a good
footing. I am now about setting out on a journey to the south of
France, one object of which is to try the mineral waters there, for the
restoration of my hand; but another is, to visit all the seaports where
we have trade, and to hunt up all the inconveniences under which it
labors, in order to get them rectified. I shall visit, and carefully
examine too, the canal of Languedoc. On my return, which will be early
in the spring, I shall send you several livraisons of the
"Encyclopédie," and the plan of your house. I wish to heaven, you may
continue in the disposition to fix it in Albemarle. Short will
establish himself there, and perhaps Madison may be tempted to do so.
This will be society enough, and it will be the great sweetener of our
lives. Without society, and a society to our taste, men are never
contented. The one here supposed, we can regulate to our minds, and we
may extend our regulations to the sumptuary department, so as to set a
good example to a country which needs it, and to preserve our own
happiness clear of embarrassment. You wish not to engage in the
drudgery of the bar. You have two asylums from that. Either to accept a
seat in the Council, or in the judiciary department. The latter,
however, would require a little previous drudgery at the bar, to
qualify you to discharge your duty with satisfaction to yourself.
Neither of these would be inconsistent with a continued residence in
Albemarle. It is but twelve hours' drive in a sulky from
Charlottesville to Richmond, keeping a fresh horse always at the
halfway, which would be a small annual expense. I am in hopes that Mrs.
M. will have in her domestic cares, occupation and pleasure, sufficient
to fill her time, and insure her against the _tedium vitæ_; that she
will find, that the distractions of a town, and the waste of life under
these, can bear no comparison with the tranquil happiness of domestic
life. If her own experience has not yet taught her this truth, she has
in its favor the testimony of one who has gone through the various
scenes of business, of bustle, of office, of rambling, and of quiet
retirement, and who can assure her, that the latter is the only point
upon which the mind can settle at rest. Though not clear of
inquietudes, because no earthly situation is so, they are fewer in
number, and mixed with more objects of contentment than in any other
mode of life. But I must not philosophise too much with her, lest I
give her too serious apprehensions of a friendship I shall impose on
her. I am with very great esteem, dear Sir, your sincere friend and
servant.