A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Washington, March 4, 1802.
You have supposed it to be from malice that I have not written you of the adjournment and of my intentions. The truth is, that I know little more of those matters than you do, and I have chosen rather to postpone it en badinant than to write you crude conjectures; yet I can do but little more at present.
I left New-York with a determination not to return till I should have seen you and Charleston, and I arranged my business for an absence of six months. I had hoped that the session of Congress would close by the 15th of March or the 1st of April. On my arrival here every one said so, and I had like to have written it to you; but appearances did not seem to justify the expectation of a short session. The business is hardly commenced, and I see no prospect of an adjournment until some time in May. This is a great embarrassment; and your project of remaining on the coast is another. I could, with pleasure, have passed the summer with you in the mountains; but the heat and dissipation of Sullivan's Island is not so inviting. All this, however, is nothing to the purpose of your inquiry. To come to the point. I still propose to go South the instant I can disengage myself from this place; which may be a very few days before the close of the session. I shall be at least twenty days on the road. I entreat you, however, not to excite any expectation on the subject of my visit; not even to mention my intentions, until we shall see how far it may be in my power to execute them. The judiciary bill being out of the way, I am in hopes we shall engage zealously in the despatch of business. Of this matter I shall write further when I shall receive answers from you to my late letters. They may hasten or retard my movements a little, but not much. Adieu.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Washington, March 8, 1802.
From an accurate attention to the dates of your letters, I discover that you write on Sunday only; that if, by accident or mental indisposition, to which people in warm climates are liable, the business should be put off for that day, it lays over to the next Sunday, and so to a third or fourth, according to exigences, active or passive. Your letter, dated the 22d, but, in fact, written on Sunday the 21st, was received by the mail preceding the last, which brought nothing. This letter is a confirmation of my theory of provocations, which I have lately enlarged and more accurately defined, deducing it from philosophical principles, and adapting it to different climates. When this volume shall be ready for publication, I propose to add, in an appendix, by way of illustration, a series of our letters.
What you say of Huger shall receive due attention. Which Maria did your husband go for, the biped or the quadruped? It is impossible to determine from any thing in your letter. On the subject of busts you are more whimsical than even your father; just now you had something in view; but, on the 22d of February, "worse than any part of the United States." I have no time to give you now an explanation of your ice phenomenon, but will talk with T.I. and W.E. on the subject. Your last was sealed on the writing, a vulgarism which I again condemn. Adieu.