if
we do not have them now, I have so much confidence in my countrymen, as
to be satisfied that we shall have them as soon as the degeneracy of our
government shall render them necessary.

I have no certain news of Paul Jones. I understand only, in a general
way, that some persecution on the part of his officers occasioned his
being called to Petersburg, and that though protected against them
by the Empress, he is not yet restored to his station. Silas Deane
is coming over to finish his days in America, not having one sous to
subsist on, elsewhere. He is a wretched monument of the consequences of
a departure from right. I will, before my departure, write Colonel Lee
fully the measures I pursued to procure success in his business, and
which as yet offer little hope; and I shall leave it in the hands of
Mr. Short to be pursued, if any prospect opens on him. I propose to sail
from Havre as soon after the first of October as I can get a vessel;
and shall consequently leave this place a week earlier than that. As my
daughters will be with me, and their baggage somewhat more than that of
mere voyageures, I shall endeavor, if possible, to obtain a passage for
Virginia directly. Probably I shall be there by the last of November. If
my immediate attendance at New York should be requisite for any purpose,
I will leave them with a relation near Richmond, and proceed immediately
to New York. But as I do not foresee any pressing purpose for that
journey immediately on my arrival, and as it will be a great saving of
time, to finish at once in Virginia, so as to have no occasion to return
there after having once gone on to the northward, I expect to proceed to
my own house directly. Staying there two months (which I believe will be
necessary), and allowing for the time I am on the road, I may expect to
be at New York in February, and to embark from thence or some eastern
port. You ask me if I would accept any appointment on that side of the
water? You know the circumstances which led me from retirement, step by
step, and from one nomination to another, up to the present. My object
is a return to the same retirement. Whenever, therefore, I quit
the present, it will not be to engage in any other office, and most
especially any one which would require a constant residence from home.
The books I have collected for you will go off for Havre in three or
four days, with my baggage. From that port, I shall try to send them by
a direct occasio