Gen’ll Marshal expects to sail tomorrow Several Days sooner than I expected, and the weather has been so very Hot, that I have not had resolution to touch my pen for several days past. you recollect what the Month of July is in this place, and how severely I feel, and suffer from the Heat.

I wrote to you about a fortnight since by the British Packet, Captain Cathcart, but I am so hamperd that I cannot write you with the freedom I wish.1 I shall therefore send you some publick papers and some Pamphlets and leave you to make your own comments.2 you will see that an whole Host are rising up in formal array against your Country and that too surely your Prophesys become History.

Mr W smith of south Carolina is appointed to Portugal, in your Room and will sail in the next week.3 your & my old Friend mr Gerry accepts his appointment, and will sail in a few days. amongst the papers inclosed you will find Some of your Friend and old school mate Bene Baches virtuous Auroras in one of which you will find remarks upon your mission to Berlin. a French production, all the writers in that paper are said to be foreigners, many of them fugitives from the Halter in their own Country, incendaries who kindle Flames where ever they go, and who for the peace of Mankind, might be very readily consignd to the Element they delight in, with their kindred Spirits4 you will find in Gen’ll Marshal a sensible upright honest Man you may be of great service both to mr Gerry and him by a free communication with them. by a pamphlet in which you will find a plot disclosed, you will see what Americans are capable of, but to your mortification, I am sure, too many instances occur within your daily observation.

you will be pleased to learn that amidst this War of parties and Nations the chief Majestrate preserves his spirits and his fortitude unshaken, and that he sustains the burden of his office with patience and magninimity, that the people are alive to the injuries they sustain, but patiently wait the issue of the Mission Extraordinary— but from which, viewing the state of publick affairs, in all their various connections and concequences, I can form but faint hopes—

I heard from your sister last week. she is at East Chester, and has been ever since last winter the col has been gone up with his Brothers to their new Lands for some time. I can say, She is a truly deserving woman whose lot is cast, not with the most fortunate of her sex—

Your Brother is doing well in N york— Louissa who is by desires me to present her Love to you. I hope mr Murry is arrived long e’er this— my Letters have been lost. I have written you 4 different times of which Letters we have no acknowledgment—5

I am my dear son / with every sentiment of Maternal affection your Mother

I am honored by your letter of the 8th, & am much obliged to you for the kind interest you have manifested in my concerns; & for the communications contained in the letter & documents.1

Whatever may have been the reasons which induced some of the senators to vote against me, if they were influenced by a due regard 205 to the publick welfare, & their opinions in this instance were even erroneous, they did no more than their duty; & I shall honor them, for their independent conduct: but you know, madam, & the first friend of yourself & of this country knows, that interest, prejudice, envy, & even pique, have often great effect on great men; & much more, on those who are not blessed with remarkable powers of discrimination. I dissented to the Constitution, it is true, and seven states were dissatisfied with it, for the reasons which influenced me. I was then a representative of this State; saw, or thot I saw a disposition in many of the Convention to have an indifinite Constitution; brot forward, with several others, motions to make it explicit; & saw every motion, to this effect, negatived; & under such circumstances, I could not, consistently with a sense of duty to my country, assent to the constitution, as it stood, & have therefore been abused ever since. admitting I was in an error, had I voted for it under such impressions, I should have sunk in my own esteem & have not risen again: but conscious of the rectitude of my intentions, I have never repented, a moment, of my vote on that occasion, & have since seen the constitution amended, as I wished, & the illiberality of those retaliated, who denied me the right of deliberating freely, & of exercising my judgment, when my country demanded it.2 but is there not, madam, an intimate difference, between voting on a bill for a constitution, & negotiating in behalf & under the instructions of a supreme executive? Can any candid mind, judging of my whole political conduct, & even of that part of it, liberally, draw from it such inferences as some gentlemen of the Senate have on this occasion? perhaps it may, but I flatter myself it will hereafter discover its error. I am happy however, to find, that these gentlemen who have manifested such an unfavorable opinion of me, are not of that description, who will “abuse the government, or calumniate its officers”:3 such characters I dislike, whether for or against me.

I regret exceedingly the impossibility of my paying my respects to the President, & yourself Madam, before my embarkation for Europe; but have taken a passage in the ship Union of Boston for Rotterdam, which is not yet provided with a captain, & the owner, Capt Fellows, supposes she will sail in ten days from this date.4

My dear Mrs Gerry has shewn great fortitude, in urging my acceptance: her distress, at the first notice of my appointment, rendered it impossible for me to accept without her solicitation. having this, & the promise of her sister to come from New york & reside 206 with her in my absence, my mind is eased in some degree of a heavy burthen.5 may God grant to her & my petits, in my absence, comfort & happiness.6

If the President or you, my dear madam, have any particular commands in Europe, I shall depend on the honor of executing them, & remain with the highest sentiments of esteem & respect, in which Mrs Gerry requests to join, your most / obedt & very / huml sert