abolition of the slave trade. You know
that nobody wishes more ardently to see an abolition, not only of the
trade, but of the condition of slavery; and certainly, nobody will be
more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object. But the
influence and information of the friends to this proposition in France
will be far above the need of my association. I am here as a public
servant, and those whom I serve, having never yet been able to give
their voice against the practice, it is decent for me to avoid too
public a demonstration of my wishes to see it abolished. Without
serving the cause here, it might render me less able to serve it beyond
the water. I trust you will be sensible of the prudence of those
motives, therefore, which govern my conduct on this occasion, and be
assured of my wishes for the success of your undertaking, and the
sentiments of esteem and respect, with which I have the honor to be,
Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO MR. DUMAS.

PARIS, Feb. 12, 1788.

SIR,--I have duly received your favor of the 5th inst. enclosing that
for Mr. Jay. The packet was gone, as I presume, but I have another
occasion of forwarding it securely. Your attentions to the Leyden
gazette are, in my opinion, very useful. The paper is much read and
respected. It is the only one I know in Europe which merits respect.
Your publications in it will tend to re-establish that credit which the
solidity of our affairs deserve. With respect to the sale of lands, we
know that two sales of five millions and two millions of acres have
been made. Another was begun for four millions, which, in the course of
the negotiation, may have been reduced to three millions, as you
mention. I have not heard that this sale is absolutely concluded, but
there is reason to presume it. Stating these sales at two-thirds of a
dollar the acre, and allowing for 3 or 400,000 acres sold at public
sale, and a very high price, we may say they have absorbed seven
millions of dollars of the domestic federal debt. The States, by
taxation and otherwise, have absorbed eleven millions more: so that
debt stands now at about ten millions of dollars, and will probably be
all absorbed in the course of the next year. There will remain then our
foreign debt, between ten and twelve millions, including interest. The
sale of lands will then go on for the payment of this. But, as this
payment must be in cash, not in public effects, the lands must be sold