At the request of my mother I have purchased for her in this place a few articles, and knowing the uncertainty of their being safely convey’d in the mail, I have taken the liberty, (for which I hope you will pardon me) to send them to Washington by Colo. Benbeck, with a request that you will let your servant carry them to Monticello, to which place I imagine you will shortly go. Uninteresting as it may be to you Sir, I cannot avoid presenting to your acceptance my respectful thanks for the commission with which you have lately honored me, and be assured, that however thaughtless I may have been heretofore, it shall be my constant studdy so long as I continue in the U.S. service, to do that which will be most to my interest, and the interest of those by whom I have been promoted.

I am Sir respectfully yr obt. Servt.