I recd by the last mail your letter of the 19th instant. It was preceded some Days by the volumes containing: "The Published Collections of the N. Y. Historical Society to which it refers. Be so obliging Sir as to tender to the Society my grateful acknowledgements for so valuable a testimony of its regard. I sincerely wish the Society every success in its laudable undertaking and that its example may be followed throughout our union. Such institutions will afford the best aids in preserving the materials otherwise but too perishable from which the history of our country must be formed: a History which if well executed will be superior to the most distinguished in the authenticity of its facts & inferior to none in the lessons which it is the province of history to convey to posterity I thank you sir for the friendly sentiments which your letter expressed & beg you to accept with assurances of my esteem my respectful salutations