PARIS, September 10, 1787.
SIR,--I am honored with your favor of the 5th instant, and will forward
the letter to Mr. Jay by the packet-boat which sails the 25th of this
month. I am sorry for the situation in which Mr. Grand's refusal to
make further advances has placed you. I know its pain, because I
participate of it. The aspect of your affairs has also been
discouraging. Perhaps the war kindled between Russia and Turkey may
engage your friends, of necessity in measures they wished to avoid, and
may ultimately relieve you. Our Federal Convention is likely to sit
till October; there is a general disposition through the States to
adopt what they shall propose, and we may be assured their propositions
will be wise, as a more able assembly never sat in America. Happily for
us, that when we find our constitutions defective and insufficient to
secure the happiness of our people, we can assemble with all the
coolness of philosophers, and set it to rights, while every other
nation on earth must have recourse to arms to amend or to restore their
constitutions. The sale of our western lands begins this month. I hope
from this measure a very speedy reduction of our national debt. It can
only be applied to pay off the principal, being irrevocably made a
sinking fund for that purpose. I have the honor to be, with much esteem
and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.