I Yesterday recd the Letter inclosed from my Son and in the Evening the President told me he had Letters from him.1 You will perceive the Prudence of reserving to yourself the hint in his Letter to me, as every Thing of the Kind will be eagerly Seized and easily exaggerated.

The Treaties are all ratified by the Senate and Yesterday Mr Elsworths Nomination was consented to as Chief Justice, by which We loose the clearest head and most dilligent hand We had. It will give a Stability to the Government however, to place a Man of his Courage Constancy fortitude and Capacity in that situation. The Nomination of Mr Chase had given Occasion to uncharitable Reflections and Mr Wilsons ardent Speculations had given offence to some, and his too frequent affectation of Popularity to others.2 Though Elsworth has the Stiffness of Connecticutt: though His Air and Gait are not elegant; though He cannot enter a Room nor retire from it with the Ease and Grace of a Courtier: Yet his Understanding is as sound, his Information as good and his heart as Steady as any Man can boast.

The Newspapers inclosed in my sons Letter were no later than the date of it and contain nothing but what has been already detailed in our own Newspapers.

The Honours done to the President on his Birth Day have been very magnificent. at Boston and Cambridge very striking. Here it was all Dance and Glare. I Suppose the Remembrance of the V. P. on those occasions considering that for the most part they forget him is with a View to the Reelection approaching. Last Night a Gentleman at a Dinner interrogated another who is of an opposite Party to him, to know who they intended to propose or set up for V. P. instead of Clinton. The Answer was I dont know but I believe Mr Langdon.3

There is very little indeed nothing said in my Hearing concerning an illustrious Resignation. Nobody Speaks to me and I Speak to nobody of it. As it is easier to enter a Room with Ease, Confidence & Propriety than it is to go out of it and as it is easier to stand before 206 an Ennemy in your front than in your Rear, as it is easier to attack a fortress than it is to lie still and be attacked, Resignation, Retreat & Retirement will be found more difficult than Acceptance. To hold an office a Year with a full and known Resolution to resign, to adhere without wavering to that Resolution and then retire with Grace and Applause is the most difficult Part to act which he has ever under taken. A few Months will shew Us the fermentation that this Idea will Occasion and the Addresses which will be made to his Passions to change his Mind. It will be Amusing to observe these Things. Idolatry is as growing a Thing as ambition or Avarice. And the Prophanations which have lately been offered to the Shrine have increased the Devotion of the Worshippers.

Priestley preached last sunday a sermon on the Religious Rites of the Gentiles in which he exposed their Nakedness like an European to the Blushes and Mortification of American hearers of both sexes.4

I am my Dearest &c

I have made the necessary Inquiry concerning Seeds And have found the Price so extravagant that I have concluded it imprudent to purchase any for Captn Beal, Dr Welsh Mr Dexter Dr Tufts or 207 myself. And I desire you to purchase or request Dr Tufts to purchase for me one hundred and twenty Pounds of Clover Seed. The Second Crop of Clover, from which alone they thresh the Seeds in Pensilvania, fell short the last Season in Such a manner, that there is little at Market and none under a Price so exorbitant that it would be folly to purchase it—from 20 to 24 dollars a Bushell of about 60 pound Weight. The Traders have written to New England, and a great deal of trash will be imported here from thence: but We may as well purchase at home, as purchase our own seeds here and send them home.

My Health has been better this Winter than in any one since I had the Fever and Ague. This Happiness I attribute to the free Use of my Horse, the last Summer. But I begin to feel the Want of Exercise, and to fear that the Spring will incommode me. A dreary Prospect of three months more to be wasted here, in doing little or nothing, vexes me sore, but what cannot be cur’d must be endur’d.

I Sometimes think that I am labouring in vain and Spending my Life for nought, in a fruitless Endeavour to preserve a Union that being detested on both Sides cannot long last. But I shall persevere, as long as I can to do all I can to preserve a Compact which is useful and might be more so, if the Pride of Aristocracy, and its Malice against all Superiority did not Stand in its own Light as it always did and always will. Bodies of Gentlemen Act with as little Union and as little Wisdom as Bodies of Ladies or Bodies of Simplemen or Bodies of Mob. The Spark, whether it be in the flint or the Steel, never comes out but by Collision. indeed a Spark is a drop or Particle of melted, red hot iron. The Spark is in the Iron then but it can be Striken out only by the blows of the flynt. Let the Wisdom then be in the Gentlemen if you will—it will never fly out—it will never give light till it be Smitten by the flint, or the Mass. But why do I write Pedantical Lectures to you? because I have nothing else to say.

So farewell