closed Resolution of General Assembly. The representation there directed of the present State, quantity and condition of the public Arms would be unnecessary to you who know already more than I do, nor can anybody be more sensible than yourself of the reasons which urge the detention of the new Levies till other effectual force can be assembled. I shall therefore in compliance with resolution only add my desire that you will be pleased to retain all those Arms within the State for its particular defence.

Two days before the Receipt of your letter of the 28th I had dispatched one to you inclosing eight Impress Warrants, to provide horses from the Counties contiguous to the enemy's line of march. The Assembly used this undefined Expression in order to give you a latitude to Impress, knowing that a precise circumscription might defeat their intention altogether. This therefore anticipated your desire expressed in that letter of extending your power 50 miles around. It also takes in your second request in the Letter of the 20th to authorize Colo White to impress on the South side of James River. The Counties through which the Enemy marched or bordered on them are within the extent of the Impress warrants sent you, one of which being given to Colo White will authorize him to impress in Amelia, Powhatan, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Prince Edward, Brunswic and the other Counties there abounding in good horses. I will immediately direct the County Superintendants to collect all accoutrements for horses belonging to the Public in their Counties and

to send them to such place as Col White shall appoint & in the mean time to Your camp.

The prisoners of war in the State are most of them in the hands of Colo Holmes, Continental Commissary of prisoners at Winchester. There are a few at Staunton. Your orders to either place will be effectual.

TO MAJOR-GENERAL MARQUIS LA FAYETTE.' J. MSS. MONTICELLO Aug 4, 1781. SIR,-I am much obliged by the trouble you took in forwarding to me the lre of his Excy the pr of Congr. It found me in Bedford 100 miles Southwd of this where I was confined till within these few days by an unfortunate fall from my horse. This has occasioned the delay of the answer which I now take the liberty of enclosing to you as the confidential channel of conveyance pointed out by the President. I thank you also for your kind sentiments & friendly offers on the occasion, which that I cannot avail myself of has given me more mortification than almost any occurrence of my life. I lose an opportuity the only one I ever had, and perhaps ever shall have of combining public service with private gratification; Of seeing countries whose improvements in science, in arts, & in civilization it has been my fortune to admire at a distance but never to see and at the same time of lending further aid to a cause which has been handed on from it's first organization to its present stage by every effort of which my poor faculties were

1 Jefferson resigned his office of Governor June 1, 1781. On June 15th he was appointed by the Continental Congress one of four commissioners to negotiate a peace in Europe, but he declined the appointment.

capable. These however have not been such as to give satisfaction to some of my countrymen & it has become necessary for me to remain in the state till a later period in the present year, than is consistent with an acceptance of what has been offered me. Declining higher objects therefore my only one must be to show that suggestion and fact are different things & that public misfortunes may be produced as well by public poverty and private disobedience to the laws as by the misconduct of public servants. The independance of private life under the protection of republican laws will I hope yield me that happiness from which no slave is so remote as the minister of a commonwealth. From motives of private esteem as well as public gratitude I shall pray it to be your lot in every line of life as no one can with more truth subscribe himself with the highest regard & respect Sir your mo obedient & mo hble servt.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

MONTICELLO Sep 16, 1781.

DEAR SIR,—I have recd your letter of the 7th inst. That mentioned to have been sent by the preceding post has not come to hand nor two others which Mrs. Randolph informs me you wrote before you left Virginia nor indeed any other should you have been so kind as to have written any other.

When I received the first letter from the President of Congress inclosing their resolution, & mentioning the necessity of an expeditious departure, my determination to attend at the next session of assembly

VOL. III.-4

offered a ready & insuperable obstacle to my acceptance of that appointment & left me under no necessity of deliberating with myself whether that objection being removed, any other considerations might prevent my undertaking it. I find there are many and must therefore decline it altogether. Were it possible for me to determine again to enter into public business there is no appointment whatever which would have been so agreeable to me. But I have taken my final leave of everything of that nature. I have retired to my farm, my family & books from which I think nothing will evermore separate me. A desire to leave public office with a reputation not more blotted than it has deserved will oblige me to emerge at the next session of our assembly & perhaps to accept of a seat in it, but as I go with a single object, I shall withdraw when that shall be accomplished.

I should have thought that N. Carolina rescued from the hands of Britain, Georgia & almost the whole of S. Carolina recovered, would have been sufficiently humiliating to induce them to treat with us. If this will not do I hope the stroke is now hanging over them which will satisfy them that their views of Southern conquest are likely to be as visionary as those of Northern. I think it impossible Ld Cornwallis should escape. Mrs. Randolph will be able to give you all the news on the subject as soon as you shall be able to release her from others. am with much esteem Dr Sir your friend & servt.

I

P. S. Pray let me know whether you will want Collé another year. Mrs. Randolph supposes not, but could not positively determine me.

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

J. MSS. MONTICELLO Oct 28, 1781.

SIR, I hope it will not be unacceptable to your Excy to receive the congratulations of a private individual on your return to your native country & above all things on the important success which has attended it.1 Great as this has been however it can scarcely add to the affection with which we have looked up to you, and if in the minds of any the motives of gratitude to our good allies were not sufficiently apparent, the part they have borne in this action must amply evince them. Notwithstanding the state of perpetual decrepitude to which I am unfortunately reduced, I should certainly have done myself the honour of paying my respects to you personally. But that I apprehend these visits which are meant by us as marks of our attachment to you must interfere with the regulations of a camp and be particularly inconvenient to one whose time is too precious to be wasted in ceremony.

I beg you to believe me among the sincerest of those who subscribe themselves your Excy's mo ob, & mo hble servt.

TO MAJOR-GENERAL HORATIO GATES.

J. MSS.

RICHMOND Dec 14, 1781.

DEAR SIR, I have received your friendly letters of Aug 2. & Nov 15. and some of the gentlemen to whom you wished them to be communicated, not being here, I have taken the liberty of handing them to some

1 The capitulation of Cornwallis.