Your Thoughts of devoting “some Portion of your Leisure to recollections of Mr Dexter,” have tenderly affected me.

Without any private correspondence, and very little personal Intercourse; his; Father was an invariable and disinterested Friend whome I highly esteemed for more than fifty years.—But what shall I say of the Son? Shall I compare him with Chief Justice Dana or Chief Justice Parsons or Chief <[. . .]> Justice Sewall or Chief Justice Parker or the late amiable Mr Ames or Mr Otis or Mr Quincy? No I might write a Volume of such Comparisons, but who would ever be the wiser or the better for it!

This much I will say, in the forty one years in which I have known all the general Character who have figured on our American Theatre— I have never known his Equal in Genius, or his Superior in Independence of Mind. None, who ever made so deep an impression wherever he went; none who excited so much terror and rancour among foreign Libellers. None more injured by Calumny; none, to <whome> whose Virtues and Talents new England has been apparently so insensible, He has never employed Puffers; nor have Puffers employed themselves for him.

You acknowledge yourself a Stranger:” but you must be a Stranger no longer, if you wish any father Information from me.

I should be glad to see you in Quincy, wishing you Success in your virtuous Investigations—