I have just reccd. your letter of the 12th. inst: and with it a copy of the first Vol: of the Debates &c of the State Conventions which decided on the Constitution of the U. States. The Vol appears a favorable specimin of the manner in which the work is to be exicuted.

The proceedings of those Assemblies however defective they may be in some respects, & inaccurate in others being highly interesting in a political as well as Historical veiw, a rescue of them from the increasing difficulty of procuring copies, & the possibility of their disappearance altogether, is among the cares which may reasonably be expected from the existing generation by those which are to follow. The obvious provision in the case is that of multiplying copies in individual hands, and in public depositories: and I wish you may find due encouragement in a task which will provide the means for both these safeguards.

I send you a copy as you request of what was published, and is in my possesion, of the Debates in the Pennsylvania Convention. These being on one side only, it may be proper to search for the cotemporary publications on the other. I send also the proceedings of the first of the two N. Carolina conventions, If those of the second were ever published no copy of them has come into my hands. With friendly respect