Your private Letter of the twenty fifth of July is very friendly and obliging as usual. give yourself no concern about my Apprehensions of your Want of Attention. I know too well your constant and assidous Application to the Duties of your public offices, as well as to the just concerns of your private friends, ever to suspect you of failing in either.— I Shudder when I think of your next Volume of my Dispatches. I Shall appear before Posterity, in a very negligent Dress and disordered Air. in Truth I write too much to write well, and have never time to correct any Thing.— Your Plan however of recording all the Dispatches of the foreign Ministers is indispensible. Future Negotiations will often make it necessary to look back to the past, besides the Importance of publick History.— The true Idea of the Negotiation with Holland, particularly will never be formed, without attending to three Sorts of Measures. those taken with the Stat-holder and his Party, those taken with the Aristocratical People in the Regencys, and those taken with the popular Party. if any one of these had been omitted, that Unanimity could never have been effected, without which the United States could not have been acknowledged nor their Minister admitted. By obtaining from Congress A Letter of Credence to the Prince of Orange, a Measure that the Patriots did not like, his Party was sofftened.2 and By the inclosed Letters to Mr Calkoen3 two very important Burgomasters of Amsterdam, his intimate Friends, and many others of the Aristocraticks were kept Steady. I had not time to transmit Copies of those Letters to Congress in the Season of them. But they ought to be put upon the Files, or Records of Congress. I do myself the Honour to transmit you a Copy for yourself and another for Congress.

Whether it would be in my Power to do most service in Europe or at home, or any at all in either situation, I know not.— My determination to go home was founded in a fixed opinion that neither the Honour of Congress nor my own, nor the Interest of either could be promoted, by the Residence of a Minister here, without a British Minister at Congress. and in that opinion I am still clear.

if my poor Book does any good, I am happy. another Volume will reach you before this Letter.— in the calm Retreat at Pens Hill, I may have Leisure to write another, but if I should venture to throw 163 together any Thoughts or Materials on the great Subject of our Confederation, I should not dare to do it, in such haste, as the two Volumes already printed have been done.— The Convention at Philadelphia is composed of Heroes, Sages and Demigods, to be sure who want no Assistance from me, in forming the best possible Plan, but they may have Occasion for Underlabourers to make it accepted by the People, or at least to make the People unanimous in it and contented with it. one of these Under workmen, in a cool Retreat, it shall be my Ambition to become. With invariable Esteem / and Affection, I am, dear sir, your most / obedient Servant and real friend

The Accounts from Holland and France are very discouraging: So much so that it would be imprudent to enter into a detail of Evils that are inevitable. The Republick of Holland is in the Utmost danger of being extinct: and if the old Forms are hereafter preserved, the Prince will be So much Master, in Reality that the Friends of Liberty must be very unhappy, and live in continual disgrace and danger.1 The English are arming, with all the Affectation of Spirit and Firmness, and France neither moves nor negotiates with the least appearance of Fortitude or Understanding. To do them the former Justice, they have had the Prudence to Send both to Versailles and the Hague, Men of Sense and Buisiness.2 England will rise in Consideration and Power, and France will Fall, in the Eyes of all Europe. This will make the former overbearing, and her People insolent, and France will soon, in my poor opinion at least, be obliged to 164 go to to War, or sink very low. The United States of America instead of being more courted by the English as they would probably be in case of a War, will rather be more neglected, perhaps treated cavalierly.— it is easy to See, however, that the Peace cannot long continue between the two European Nations. The Philosophical Vissions of Perpetual Peace, and the Religious Reveris of a near approach of the Millenium, in which all Nations are to turn the Weapons of War into Implements of Husbandry will in a few Years be dissipated. The Armaments now making in England, will dissarrange Mr Pitts boasted Plans of Æconomy: and in short, there is every Appearance that the Peace of Europe will be for years but an armed Truce.3 The Surplus of Revenue so ostentatiously displayed to the Public, is but an Artful Deception. Oh Fortunate Americans, if you did but know your own Felicity! instead of trampling on the Laws the Rights the generous Plans of Power delivered down from your remote Forefathers, you should cherish and fortify, those noble Institutions, with filial and religious Reverence.— instead of envying the Rights of others, every American Citizen has cause to rejoice in his own. instead of violating the security of Property, it should be considered as Sacred as the Commandment “thou shalt not Steal.” instead of trampling on private honour and public Justice, every one who attempts it should be considered as an impious Parricide, who seeks to destroy his own Liberty and that of all his Neighbours. what would have become of American Liberty if there had not been more Faith, Honour and Justice in the Minds of their common Citizens, than are found in the common People in Europe? Do We see in the Austrian Netherlands, in the United Netherlands, or even in the Parliaments in France, that Confidence in one another, and in the Common People, which enabled the People of the United States to go through a Revolution? Where is the Difference? it is a Want of Honesty. and if the Common People in America loose their Integrity, they will soon set up Tyrants of their own, or court a foreign one. Laws alone, and those political Institutions which are the Guardians of them, and a Sacred Administration of Justice, can preserve Honour Virtue, and Integrity in the Minds of the People.

With great Respect, I have the Honour to be / sir your most obedient and most / humble servant