I think I owe it to the confidence established between us to communicate to you privately the Copy of a Dispatch which I send by this packet to Mr. Hammond. You will certainly understand that what he is expressly restrained from stating ministerially in America, is not meant to be so stated to you by me. But you will recollect that I have frequently conversed with you upon these points, & I am sure you will feel with me how Important they are to the great Object which we have been labouring to establish. If the Channels of communication are tainted by passion & prejudice, what passes thro’ them will necessarily imbibe a portion of the same spirit, & after having successfully conciliated great Interests & important differences we shall see our work overthrown by the influence of personal animosities & individual contest.

If the stile of Mr. Hammond has ever partaken of the same irritation which shows itself in all the letters he has lately received from the State Department1 in America I think I can safely answer for his readily & chearfully adopting a language better suited to what is now I trust the situation of our two Countries— When I say this to you I do it in the confident hope that a similar resolution will be adopted by your Government, & it will then certainly be very immaterial to us whether Sentiments of friendship are conveyed to us in friendly language thro’ the channel of Mr Randolph or of any other person.

You will best judge of the use to be made of this letter, and to you I leave it with perfect confidence, Feeling that when Mr. Hammond is directed to converse on this subject with persons disposed to promote a good understanding between the two Countries such a communication ought naturally to begin with you who have (as I hope) so much contributed to that object by the Treaty which we have so recently signed. I am &ca.