The copy of your "Memoir of De Witt Clinton" which I owe to your politeness, found me under the influence of an oppressive indisposition, from which I apprehend a slow recovery. In this feeble state of my health, at my advanced Age, and with arrears of pressing claims on my attention, it is uncertain at least when I shall be able to give the memoir such a perusal as would be agreeable to me. In the mean time, the pledges heretofore given from your pen, justify me, in tendering my thanks in advance for the opportunity for it, afforded me; and in my confide[nt] anticipation, that the work will prove a monument alike honorable, to its object and its author.

Permit me Sir, on this occasion to express the particular esteem, I have long been led to entertain for the Endowments, intellectual & ornamental, which distinguish your character; and to join in the public tribute which the use you have made of them, must always command