I am just returned from the journey mentioned in mine of May 15. and find here yours of May 26. I see that you do not despair of your country. but I confess I foresee no definite term to the despotism now reestablished there, and the less as the nation seems to have voluntarily assumed the yoke, and to have made, of an usurper, a legitimate despot. what can we hope from a mind without moral principle, and without that sound wisdom which acts morally, by mere calculation, on the common observation that honesty is the best policy. but come yourself & Correa, & let us talk this over together. we wish alike, but are not equally sanguine in our prospects. and come soon, as your letter gives me to hope; and the more pressingly as within about eight weeks I am to commence an absence of two months from home. you are not unapprised by experience what you are to suffer from the mauvaise cuisinerie of our country. mr Correa had promised me a long visit for this summer. his undertaking a course of lectures in Philadelphia had made me fear it would be retarded by that. but the more a man is master of his subject, the more briefly and densely he is able to present it to others. we shall have other subjects too to grieve over. the desperate ignorance of our country in political economy, and it’s limited views of science. but come both of you, and we will settle the affairs of both hemispheres, if not as they shall be, yet as they ought to be. I salute you, and him through you, with sincere affection & respect.

Th: Jefferson