I have recd. fellow Citizens your letter inviting me to the Democratic festival to be given on the 4th of July. I beg that the Company may be assured of my due respect for so kind a mark of their attention. But the gratification, I might feel in being present on an occasion cherishg. the Constitutional doctrines, maintained by Virginia, in 1798-9, as an authentic view of the relations between the Govt. of the Union, and the Governments of the States is denied to me, by the debility and indisposition, under which I continue to labour.

For the friendly & flattering terms in which the Committee have conveyed the invitation, they will please to accept my sincere acknowledgments; and for the requested toast, I beg leave to offer the memory of "the Author of the Declaration of Independence, author of the Virga. bill, establishing Religious freedom in Virginia, and Father of her University."