or it.

In 1789 and 1790, I had a great number of olive plants, of the best
kind, sent from Marseilles to Charleston, for South Carolina and
Georgia. They were planted, and are flourishing; and, though not yet
multiplied, they will be the germ of that cultivation in those States.

In 1790, I got a cask of heavy upland rice, from the river Denbigh, in
Africa, about lat. 9 deg. 30' North, which I sent to Charleston, in hopes
it might supersede the culture of the wet rice, which renders South
Carolina and Georgia so pestilential through the summer. It was divided,
and a part sent to Georgia. I know not whether it has been attended to
in South Carolina; but it has spread in the upper parts of Georgia, so
as to have become almost general, and is highly prized. Perhaps it may
answer in Tennessee and Kentucky. The greatest service which can
be rendered any country is, to add an useful plant to its culture;
especially a bread grain; next in value to bread is oil.

Whether the Act for the more general diffusion of knowledge will ever
be carried into complete effect, I know not. It was received, by the
legislature, with great enthusiasm at first; and a small effort was made
in 1796, by the act to establish public schools, to carry a part of it
into effect, viz. that for the establishment of free English schools;
but the option given to the courts has defeated the intention of the
Act.*

* It appears, from a blank space at the bottom of this
paper, that a continuation had been intended. Indeed, from
the loose manner in which the above notes are written, it
may be inferred that they were originally intended as
memoranda only, to be used in some more permanent form.

[NOTE H.]

Sir,

New York, October 13, 1789.

In the selection of characters to fill the important offices of
Government in the United States, I was naturally led to contemplate the
talents and dispositions which I knew you to possess and entertain for
the service of your country; and without being able to consult your
inclination, or to derive any knowledge of your intentions from your
letters, either to myself or to any other of your friends, I was
determined, as well by motives of private regard, as a conviction of
public propriety, to nominate you for the Department of State, which,
under its present organization, involves many of the most interesting
objects of the Executive authority.

But grateful as your acceptance of