I have lately written a small Tract upon the origin, progress & happy termination of the Tripolitan war.    This performance contains a sketch of the Religion, Policy & Manners of Barbary, as accurate as I could frame; but nevertheless, deficient & unsatisfactory.

This circumstance has generated a wish, which I indulge, perhaps, beyond all hope.    It is to personally visit these countries, & collect materials for a publication upon the above subject, more faithful & minute than any which have hitherto issued from the press—

Do I offend, Sir, against decorum & etiquette, in asking of you a small diplomatic employment in Algiers or Tripoli, by means of which I may be enabled to attain the object of my speculations?

Will the President’s health & leisure afford me room to hope for a line or two, in answer to my request?—

In the meantime, Dear Sir, I salute you with all the love & respect due you from a citizen of a country, so blest by your labors as is this!—