Since the Library of Congress, where Mr. Jefferson had deposited the manuscript of a constitution I had composed, has been destroyed, I have the honor of sending you six printed copies of it, and I am asking you to be so kind as to have three of them put in that same place and to accept the other three as a token of my esteem.

I have read, Sir, in a message you addressed to Congress on 4 November 1812, that the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut had refused to supply the militia detachments that had been requested from them for the defense of your seacoast; but I do not yet see that this prime example of the innumerable disadvantages of the federative system has in general enlightened your fellow citizens sufficiently to cause them to give it up.

This gives me much real pain, because mankind is greatly interested in the perpetuation of your republic, and it cannot survive without the unity and indivisibility exemplified in my constitution.

While waiting for your republic to emerge from the darkness of federalism, I would like, at the least, for my constitution to be translated and printed in Spanish. If it could be sent to Mexico and the other colonies of Spain, and even be reprinted in French and sent also to Saint Domingue, it would be absolutely decisive in stopping the torrents of blood being shed in these regions and in bringing their revolutions to an immediate conclusion.

Indeed, one could not commit a greater act of humanity, and at the same time it would be the most lucrative speculation for your country’s booksellers.

In any case, Sir, I submit these views to supplement the plan you have probably formed regarding events that are of such great interest to the United States, inasmuch as they obviously provide the opportunity to expel monarchy successively from all parts of America.