t? A British creditor, for
example, sues for his debt in Virginia; the defendant pleads an act of
the State, excluding him from their courts; the plaintiff urges the
Confederation, and the treaty made under that, as controlling the State
law; the judges are weak enough to decide according to the views of
their legislature. An appeal to a federal court sets all to rights. It
will be said, that this court may encroach on the jurisdiction of the
State courts. It may. But there will be a power, to wit, Congress, to
watch and restrain them. But place the same authority in Congress
itself, and there will be no power above them, to perform the same
office. They will restrain within due bounds, a jurisdiction exercised
by others, much more rigorously than if exercised by themselves.

I am uneasy at seeing that the sale of our western lands is not yet
commenced. That valuable fund for the immediate extinction of our debt
will, I fear, be suffered to slip through our fingers. Every delay
exposes it to events which no human foresight can guard against. When
we consider the temper of the people of that country, derived from the
circumstances which surround them, we must suppose their separation
possible, at every moment. If they can be retained till their
governments become settled and wise, they will remain with us always,
and be a precious part of our strength and our virtue. But this affair
of the Mississippi, by showing that Congress is capable of hesitating
on a question, which proposes a clear sacrifice of the western, to the
maritime States, will with difficulty be obliterated. The proposition
of my going to Madrid, to try to recover there the ground which has
been lost at New York, by the concession of the vote of seven States, I
should think desperate. With respect to myself, weighing the pleasure
of the journey and bare possibility of success, in one scale, and the
strong probability of failure and the public disappointment directed on
me, in the other, the latter preponderates. Add to this, that jealousy
might be excited in the breast of a person, who could find occasions of
making me uneasy.

The late changes in the ministry here excite considerable hopes. I
think we gain in them all. I am particularly happy at the re-entry of
Malesherbes into the Council, His knowledge and integrity render his
value inappreciable, and the greater to me, because, while he had no
views of office, we had established together the most unr