I take the liberty of sending you a Poem I have ventured to publish, in the hope that it may afford you a few moment’s amusement.

I likewise send the first number of the National D[e]mocrat, and frankly assure you, that if convenient I should like to have your opinion, to be published, as to the general correctness of the principles I have laid down; whether these were not the principles we mutually1 contended for in ’98; & whether it be not worth an effort to preserve them?

You will see, that our Canal Policy has triumphed, which I feel assured will be grateful to your feelings as a uniform friend, which I sincerely believe you have been, to the internal improvement of our common country. The celebration of its triumph was one of the grandest & proudest spectacles, of which the mind can form an idea: And though later men claim the merit & glory; yet those who, like yourself, laid the foundation of that Independence, without which this Canal would not have been, are likewise entitled to a moiety of the gratitude that is due for so great a national blessing.

Wishing you most sincerely every blessing that can rationally be expected, to smooth & cheer the remainder of your remarkable life—