RC (NjP: Rush Family Papers); at foot of text: “Thos Jefferson Esqr:”; endorsed by TJ as received 16 June and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Thomas Sumter, Jr., to Rush, Paris, 25 Mch. 1803; he sends a copy of a treatise by a French chemist on “the means of disinfecting bad air”; he also states his opinion that war may help restore Britain’s commerce and influence; war will also weaken the naval strength of France, Spain, and Holland, which they need to strike at Britain but which can only be strengthened during peace; the central issue in the previous conflict, he observes, was “between the principles of Republicanism & Monarchy,” a question that “interested all the powers of Europe”; the new war will not be on that basis and other countries may stay out of the fray to let Britain and France, which are becoming like Carthage and Rome, “both exhaust their power”; however, “Ambition & folly have so much more to do with these matters, between Nations, than wisdom or justice, that it is possible the conflagration may again become general”; Sumter will soon go to London “to embark for Charleston” (RC in same).