By this mail, I send you 30 copies of an essay on a subject of vast importance to your state, & to the southern states generally.1 I request you will circulate them as widely as possible. Some errors may probably be found2 my estimate—but will not, I am persuaded, affect the general result.

I likewise send a few other articles, of which I request your acceptance.

I retired from business nearly four years since—& have during that period devoted three fourths, perhaps more of my time, to the promotion of the public good—as I had done probably half of my time previously.

The political world presents a dreary prospect. We have a melancholy state of things. We are likely to be torn in pieces by factions, as violent as some of those of the old world. Your obt. hble. servt