I had the satisfaction, on the eve of our departure for the Springs, to receive your kind letter of 2nd Aug. Having just returned home, I avail myself of the earliest moment to express to you the great pleasure I derived from the intimation it contained of your purpose to point to the errors of Mutius & others in their views of a political career, which had conferred so many inestimable & enduring benefits on the country, & over which such sedulous efforts are now made to cast the shades of party jealousy & suspicion. The more I have reflected on the subject, & the more, (especially), I have seen & heard of the party-tactics of the leaders now labouring to agitate the South, the more I have been convinced that every fit occasion should be embraced of setting the consistent tenor of your political opinions in the proper light before the people; & particularly of vindicating your course in the General convention from the misrepresentations & perversions, intended to impair the weight of your present opinions, as republican authority, by raising doubts of your republican orthodoxy in that earlier scene of your patriotic labours. Such a vindication, guided by the authentic lights of your own personal knowledge of, & connection with, the subject, could not fail to be effectual in arresting the progress of mischievo[us] delusions.

It has given us great satisfaction, since our return to the neighbourhood, to learn that you[r] health has continued to improve, & that Mrs. Madiso[n’s] is perfectly good, as usual. In the still cherished hope (as soon as we may be liberated from some engagements wh[ich] will detain us at home for a few weeks to come), of pay[ing] our respects to her & yourself at Montpelier, I beg leave, with our joint & cordial salutations, to renew the homage of the profound & affectionate respect with which I am your’s &c.