"I have written to a friend in Congs intimating in a covert manner the necessity of deciding & notifying the intentions of Congs with regard to their foreign Ministers after May next, and have dropped a hint on the communications of Dumas.
"Congress have taken some measures for disposing of the public land, and have actually sold a considerable tract. Another bargain I learn is on foot for a further sale.
"Nothing can exceed the universal anxiety for the event of the meeting here. Reports and conjectures abound concerning the nature of the plan which is to be proposed. The public however is certainly in the dark with regard to it. The Convention is equally in the dark as to the reception wch may be given to it on its publication. All the prepossessions are on the right side, but it may well be expected that certain characters will wage war against any reform whatever. My own idea is that the public mind will now or in a very little time receive anything that promises stability to the public Councils & security to private rights, and that no regard ought to be had to local prejudices or temporary considerations. If the present moment be lost, it is hard to say what may be our fate.
"Our information from Virginia is far from being agreeable. In many parts of the Country the drought has been extremely injurious to the Corn. I fear, tho' I have no certain information, that Orange & Albemarle share in the distress. The people also are said to be generally discontented. A paper emission is again a topic among them, so is an instalment of all debts in some places and the making property a tender in others. The taxes are another source of discontent. The weight of them is complained of, and the abuses in collecting them still more so. In several Counties the prisons & Court Houses & Clerks' offices have been wilfully burnt. In Green Briar the course of Justice has been mutinously stopped, and associations entered into agst the payment of taxes. No other County has yet followed the example. The approaching meeting of the Assembly will probably allay the discontents on one side by measures which will excite them on another.
"Mr. Wythe has never returned to us. His lady whose illness carried him away, died some time after he got home. The other deaths, in Virga are Col. A. Cary and a few days ago, Mrs. Harrison, wife of Benjn Harrison, Junr, & sister of J. F. Mercer. Wishing you all happiness.
"I remain, Dear sir, Yrs affectly.
"Give my best wishes to Mazzei. I have recd his letter & book and will write by the next packet to him. Dorhman is still in Va Congs have done nothing for him in his affair. I am not sure that 9 Sts have been assembled of late. At present, it is doubtful whether there are seven."–Mad. MSS.
The Legislature may determine the time of choosing the Electors, and of their giving their votes; and the manner of certifying and transmitting their votes–But the election shall be on the same day through-out the U. States."
Adjourned.