I write to acknowledge your Letter of the twenty fourth of September—1 Being uncertain where you are, and consequently what Course this Letter may take, and thro what Hands it will pass, I shall not ^say^ so much as I other wise might. I will direct to the Care of Doctor Franklin.

Your Attachment to America, when removed from it, is the old Story of Travellers; but when it comes from one in whose Feelings we feel an Interest, decies repetita placebit.2 Of your Health you speak despondingly, yet you say your Spirits are good. Believe me my Friend, good Spirits will both make and preserve good Health. I mean to extend the Observation generally but not universally. Whatever Lott betides us, I wish you at least one happy year, & I hope that Heaven will do you the Justice to grant a long Succession of them. Make my good Wishes acceptable to Mrs Jay, and present me tenderly to your Children—

I was lately in New York, & have the Pleasure to tell you that all your Friends were well. Things there are now in that kind of Ferment which was rationally to have been expected; and I think the superior Advantages of our Constitution will now appear, in the Repressing of those turbulent Spirits who wish for Confusion; because that in the regular order of Things they can only fill a subordinate Sphere

This Country has never yet been known to Europe, and God knows whether it ever will be so. To England, it is less known than to any other Part of Europe; because they constantly view it thro a Medium either of Prejudice or of Faction. True it is that the general Government wants Energy, and equally true it is that this Want will eventually be supplied. A national Spirit is the natural Result of national Existence, and altho some of the present Generation may feel colonial Oppositions of Opinion, that Generation will die away, and give Place to a Race of Americans. On this Occasion, as on others, Great Britain is our best Friend, and by seizing the critical Moment when we were about to divide, ^she has^ shewn clearly the dreadful Consequences of Division. You will find that the States are coming into Resolutions on the Subject of Commerce, which, if they had been proposed by Congress on the plain Reason of the Thing, would have been rejected with Resentment and perhaps Contempt—3

With Respect to our Taste for Luxury, do not greive about it. Luxury is not so bad a Thing as it is often supposed to be; and if it were, still we must follow the Course of Things, and turn to Advantage what exists since we have not the Power either to annihilate or create. The very Defenition of Luxury is as difficult as the Suppression of it, and if I were to declare my serious Opinion, it is that there is a lesser Proportion of Whores and Rogues in Coaches than out of them. If I am mistaken, I shall say, with the poor roman Catholic, it is a pleasing Error, for my intimate Acquaintance lies among those who ride in Coaches.

Do not condemn us till you see us. Do not ask the british to take off their foolish Restrictions. Let them alone and they will be obliged to do it of themselves. While the present Regulation exists it does us more of political Good, than it can possibly do of commercial Evil4— Adieu believe me always yours