A question has been raised, upon Section 17, Article 4th and Section 26 Article 3rd of our State Constitution, (which I extract herein), whether a member of either Branch of the General Assembly, after the meeting of the Legislature next after his election and during the period for which he may have been elected, is eligible to the Senate of the United States. It has appeared to me that, those provisions of the State Constitution, related, exclusively, to Offices or places under the Government of the State and could not, by any fair construction, be extended to Offices or places appertaining to the Federal Government. The true sense of the Constitution, however, in this particular, must depend upon construction and I beleive has not yet been practically Settled. As I may be called, as a member of the Legislature, to give a construction to the 26th Section of the 3rd Article, I should be much pleased to obtain the opinions of Men, versed in our Constitutions, on the question whether a member of the Legislature would not, under the Constitution of the United States and a fair construction of our own be eligible as a member of the Senate of the United States. Beleiving that the opinion of Mr Jefferson would have great weight upon a constitutional question of this kind and perhaps fix the proper construction to be placed upon our own Constitution, in this respect, I take the liberty of requesting of you to procure his opinion for me upon this point. I do not think that illustrious Man will withhold his opinion, upon a matter of this kind, of mere constitutional construction, involving no party feeling, and upon which it is so necessary for those to be well informed, who are called upon to give a practical construction to our State and Federal Constitutions—