With very affectionate compliments to Mrs. Washington, I have the honor
to be, with great and sincere esteem and respect, Dear Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXCVII.--TO M. DE LA FAYETTE, June 19, 1796
TO M. DE LA FAYETTE.
Monticello, June 19, 1796.
Dear Sir,
The inquiries of Congress were the first intimation which reached my
retirement of your being in this country, and from M. Volney, now
with me, I first learned where you are. I avail myself of the earliest
moments of this information, to express to you the satisfaction with
which I learn that you are in the land of safety, where you will meet in
every person the friend of your worthy father and family. Among these I
beg leave to mingle my own assurances of sincere attachment to him, and
my desire to prove it by every service I can render you. I know, indeed,
that you are already under too good a patronage to need any other, and
that my distance and retirement render my affections unavailing to you.
They exist, nevertheless, in all their purity and warmth towards your
father and every one embraced by his love; and no one has wished with
more anxiety to see him once more in the bosom of a nation, who, knowing
his works and his worth, desire to make him and his family for ever
their own.
Pages:
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576