We beg leave to refer to our last respects of 8 dec̃:, since whch. time we continue without your agreable favors, we are now paying the intrest due on the 4 PC. Obt: and request Your Sending us the Coupons of yours & to dispose of Said amount; it is highly agreable to us to see the American Credit on a respectable footing, in consequence the 5 PC: Obt: are advanced at 99 1/2 PC: and the 4 PC: Sell at a premium of 2 PC: on acct. of the Lotery, the management we kept in it, we flatter ourselves will assure us the satisfaction of the United States & your personal knowledge in how much the influence of our Credit has contributed to it will assure us your benevolence. We think it our duty to inform you as our Friend abt: the letter we write with Msr. V Staphorst to the Treasurer Hamilton Esqr. of the applications made to the Court of france to transfer to Speculaters the debt of Congress paye. 1 Part in money Part in france Stocks to great advantage of the undertakers, who made application to borrow on said American debt here, on terms very advantageous to money Lenders, whch. they Could easily pay out of the profit that 229 Should result to them from this operation, whch. measure the Houses considered highly detrimental to the Credit of the United States, as the obligt. of their Loans should necessary decline, whenever people could obtain much higher intrest of Obt: funded on a debt of the Same United States & those Speculators Possessed of such a considerable debt became in Some measure Masters of the Credit here whch. they had no reason to maintain & obliged to Satisfy their engagemts. Should be in the necessity to get money on Said debt at any condition & by those advantages make it absolutely impossible for the United States to borrow here at a reasonable Condition at the Simple intrest of 5 PCt. after all our endeavours to put a Stop to it in Paris, & by the knowledge Of the desire of Congress to Pay if not of the Principal the arrears of intrest at least to france, the houses considered the best measure to make it almost impossible to the Speculators to agree, to make the obtaining of money if not impossible, highly difficult to them, in order to maintain the Credit of the United States & keep the faculty to borrow for them, the houses took on themselves to open a Loan under approbation of the United States for 3 Mills of f at 5 PC. in full Confidence, that our motives Should be Considered in the true light & be highly approved, the more as we get it on the terms of the first Loan, and Sacrifis a great Profit offered to us by the speculators either to be partners or commissioners whch. we thought our duty to decline.

some Members however may blame the Liberty we have taken, but we flatter ourselves of the equitable Judgment of the States, that our motives will be done Justice and considered as it is truely, a determination for the intrest of the United states, there we regretted infinitely your & Mr. Jefferson’s absence to be able to Consult the Ministers in a Matter of Such delicacy.

In case of any remarks on our conduct We hope you’ll be so kind to be a favourable interpreetor of the Sincerity of our Sentiments there nothing than a Sense of our duty & attachmt. to the intrest of the United States could bring us to the dermination & make us decline a considerable profit to maintain their Credit & the faculty, to borrow on advantageous terms in full reliance on your friendship we hope to hear from you, well assured that we’ll always retain a proper Sense of Your benevolence

We request our Sincere Compliments to your Lady & remain with great esteem / sir Your most Obedient servants

I cannot give up my dear Latin and Greek although Fortune has never permitted me to enjoy so much of them as I wished.— I dont love you the less however for your Indifference or even Opposition to them. Pray do you carry your Theory so far as to wish to exclude French Italian, Spanish and Tudesque?— I begun to fear that your multiplied phisical and other Engagements had made You forget me— But am much obliged to you for introducing Mr Andrew Brown, to whom I wish success.—1 I congratulate You, on the Prospect of a new Constitution for Pensilvania.—2 Poor France I fear will bleed, for too exactly copying your old one.

When I See Such miserable Crudities approved by Such Men as Rochefaucault & Condorcet I am disposed to think very humbly of human Understanding. Experience is lost on poor Mankind! O how I pitty them without being able to help them.

Write me when you can

Yours &c