I wrote a line the day after the receipt of your letter, to inform you of its safe arrival. It did not rain that afternoon, as I then anticipated, & I went to Georgetown. Mr Nicholls, however, was out; nor could the gentleman in his store tell me where he could be found. The next day it rained heavily; & the day after, I was laid up. The indisposition although severe was very transient, & I went to Georgetown yesterday afternoon, when I was more successful. Mr N. opened the letter, found the money safe, & told me that, as it would require a little time, he would postpone the Settlement till tuesday, when he would call on me at the Dept.

I am very happy to hear that your scruples as to appearing on the subject of Nullification have been overcome, as it seems that even in So. Ca. the thing has not yet got so far as to be beyond recovery. I wrote a piece for the Intelligencer a week or two since, pointing out the error as to Mr J.’s connexion with the Kentucky resolutions of ’99. He has postponed it on acct. of the news from France & other matters. Do you yet receive Walsh’s paper? If you do, you must I think have been struck with the tone of the remarks introductory to the French news. The more I have looked at them, the more have they outraged my feelings; and I have accordingly endeavored to draw down upon them the genera[l] censure which I think they deserve. (I’m since told that there is an extreme intimacy between W. & de Menon, whom you probably know & who is a Polignac en petit.) This piece als[o] is postponed. Our best affections for Mrs Madison & yourself