Congress have recd from the President all the Negotiations with France and England as well as those with the Indians. On Monday We expect those with Spain and all the Intelligence recd respecting the Algerines. The whole forming a System of Information which Shews our dear Country to be in a critical Situation. So critical that the most sanguine are constrained to pauze and consider.

The Truce between the Regency of Algiers and the Court of Portugal will be imputed by a Party to the Influence of England, and No Other Party that I know of can contradict them. The Event has been daily expected, for Years, as it has been known that Portugal has been all along Suing for Peace, without offering Money enough to Satiate the Avidity of the hungry Barbarians. The Disposition to emigration in England Scotland and Ireland will be checked, and our growing Navigation will be impeded so much by these Corsairs, that the British Government will be Suspected to be highly delighted with it.

Congress must take a cool Survey of our Situation and do nothing from Passion.

I have read two Numbers of Columbus. The Compass of Observation, maturity of Reflection and Elegance of Style Suggested to me Conjectures that the Statute of Limitations might not be the only Apology for my short Letter. It is a Mortification to reflect, that a few Ironies, a merry Satirical Story, or a little humour will make more Impression than all these grave Reasonings, polished Eloquence and refined oratory. The President however, with the Unanimous concurrence of The Four Officers of State, has formed the Same Judgment with Columbus, and I hear no Members of Congress who profess to differ from them.

How does your Democratical Society proceed in Boston? There ought to be another Society instituted according to my Principles, 470under the Title of the Aristocratical Society: and a third under that of The Monarchical Society and no Resolution ought to have Validity, untill it has been considered & approved by all three.

These Democratical Proceedings have brought upon Us, the Jealousy of the Combined Powers, and of all the French who do not concur with the Jacobin Clubbs, and these will soon be, if they are not at present the Majority of the Nation. Our People would do well to consider, to what Precipice they are running. When Junius Said The opinions of the People were always right and their Sentiments never wrong, I wonder what World he lived in.1 Is not a Mahometan Religion, the opinion of a People as well as the Christian and have not the Sentiments of the People of England for Example been furious against Monarchy in one year and for it in another. Such Popular Adulation is to me most contemptible, Although it is so pernicious that it ought to excite more Indignation than Contempt.

For myself, my Race is almost run. You have a long Career before you, and I am happy to observe that you have not accommodated your opinions nor Sentiments to the momentary Fashions of the present times, but have Searched for Principles which will be more durable. I am affectionately

I thank you for your kind letter of the tenth of this month.1

Mr. G. may well be shocked at the Message. It is a thunderbolt. I cannot but feel something like an apology for him, as he was led into some of his enterprises by the imprudence of our fellow-citizens. The extravagant court paid to him by a party, was enough to turn a weak head. The enthusiasm and delirium of that party has involved us, and will involve us, in more serious difficulties than a quarrel with a Minister. There is too much reason to fear that the intemperance of that party has brought upon us an Algerine war, and may compromise us with all the maritime powers of Europe.

It is a very difficult thing for a man to go into a foreign country, and among a strange people, and there act a prompt and sudden part upon a public political theatre, as I have severely felt in France, Holland, and England; and if he does not keep his considering cap always on his head, some party or some individual will be very likely to seduce him into snares and difficulties. This has been remarkably Mr. G.'s unhappy case. Opposition to the laws, and endeavours to set the people against the government, are too gross faults to be attempted with impunity in any country.

The scandalous libel on the President, in a New-York paper, is a proof to me, that foreign politics have had too much secret influence in America; indeed, I have known enough of it for fifteen years to dread it; but this desperate effort of corrupt factions, is more than I expected to see so soon.2

Present my love to my two dear boys. You have a great charge upon you, my dear child, in the education of these promising children. As they have not had the regular advantages of public schools, your task in teaching them literature must be the more severe. A thirst for knowledge early excited, will be one of the best preservatives against that dissipation and those irregularities which produce the ruin of so many young men; at the same time that it will prompt them to acquire those accomplishments which are the only solid and useful ones, whether they are destined to any of the liberal professions, to the gallant career of soldiers, or to the useful employments of merchandise and agriculture.

Your mamma complains that she has not received a letter from you in a long time. Remember me to Colonel Smith.

Your affectionate,