I returned to this Country a few days since, from an Excursion which was protracted to a much greater length than I at first intended or foresaw:— It will I am sure, give you pleasure to know that there is every probability of my being tolerably rewarded for the trouble I have had.

On my Arrival here, I had the pleasure to find, among many Letters from my friends, your several favors of the 10th. Novr. 13th. Jany. 12th. May and 18th. June, for which I beg you to accept my thanks;— You must at the same time receive my Apology for a sort of Petulance, which I fear escaped me in one of my Letters to you written at Rochefort.—1 I had (until then) received no Line from you after your Arrival in America, and few from any of my friends.— I was ignorant how many of your and their favors waited my arrival here;— and I sometimes felt keenly the mortyfying fear of being forgotten.

Dr. Edwards will deliver you this, He will also communicate to you the State of a discussion which was pending when He left Paris, between the Government of France, and our Minister there:— I Trust that the Treaty will have the same fate on this Side of the Ocean as it has had on your’s, and derive Advocates and Friends from every new Discussion.— So far as I learn, Mr. Monroe has conducted the Argument so properly as to have almost driven his Opponent from the Field, and I have real hope that Honor will derive to his Country and himself, from this Source;— It is not an easy thing however for a Man to act the part of Advocate for Measures to which He is personally adverse.2

You will know that I have most unexpectedly become once more an Agent in this Business of the Treaty, having been by the Concurrence of Choice and Destiny named the 5th. Commissioner under the 7th. Article:—3 I could hardly have been called to a Situation more unlooked for than this;— I feel its Delicacy and Importance, and the imperfect preparation for its Duties which I derive from the general Nature of my pursuits for many Years past.— But the general Principles of Justice and Equity I hope are sufficiently established in my Mind, to prevent the Danger of any gross Errors: and, the Law of Nations so far as relates to this Subject, is neither so Voluminous or Intricate, but that the degree of Attention which I have sometimes given to other subjects, applied to this, will, I trust render me Sufficiently master of it.— It will however be almost impossible so to Conduct as not to offend alternately, some of both Parties; and I must trust to the Candour of the dispassionate to do me Justice in believing, that if I should be thought to Err, my Errors will, at worst be those of Judgement only, from which the best and the Wisest can claim no Exemption.

I am happy to learn that so great, and to you so pleasing a Change has taken place in the Opinions of the People of your State— it is natural.— public Opinion is generally correct, so far as Information is just; and to produce this change, nothing further was necessary, than that you should be better and more universally known. I beg you will present my best respects to Mrs. Jay, to whom as well as to yourself I most heartily wish all Happiness, Being most truly, Dear Sir Your friend & Servant,