e enterprises of the combined powers, and a bulwark to others. T.J.

LETTER CXXIX.--TO DABNEY CARR, January 19, 1816

TO DABNEY CARR.

Monticello, January 19, 1816.

Dear Sir,

At the date of your letter of December the 1st, I was in Bedford, and
since my return, so many letters, accumulated during my absence, having
been pressing for answers, that this is the first moment I have been
able to attend to the subject of yours. While Mr. Girardin was in
this neighborhood writing his continuation of Burke's History, I had
suggested to him a proper notice of the establishment of the committee
of correspondence here in 1773, and of Mr. Carr, your father, who
introduced it. He has doubtless done this, and his work is now in the
press. My books, journals of the times, &c. being all gone, I have
nothing now but an impaired memory to resort to for the more particular
statement you wish. But I give it with the more confidence, as I find
that I remember old things better than new. The transaction took place
in the session of Assembly of March 1773. Patrick Henry, Richard Henry
Lee, Frank Lee, your father, and myself, met by agreement, one evening,
about the close of the session, at the Raleigh Tavern, to consult on
the measures which the circumstances of the times seemed to call for.
We agreed, in result, that concert in the operations of the several
Colonies was indispensable; and that to produce this, some channel of
correspondence between them must be opened: that, therefore, we would
propose to our House the appointment of a committee of correspondence,
which should be authorized and instructed to write to the Speakers of
the House of Representatives of the several Colonies, recommending the
appointment of similar committees on their part, who, by a communication
of sentiment on the transactions threatening us all, might promote
a harmony of action salutary to all. This was the substance, not
pretending to remember words. We proposed the resolution, and your
father was agreed on to make the motion. He did it the next day, March
the 12th, with great ability, reconciling all to it, not only by
the reasonings, but by the temper and moderation with which it was
developed. It was adopted by a very general vote. Peyton Randolph, some
of us who proposed it, and who else I do not remember, were appointed
of the committee. We immediately despatched letters by expresses, to
the Speakers of all the other Assemblies. I remember