June 19, 1791
Sir:
I have been duly honored with your letter of the 13th inst., from Mount Vernon; and, according to your desire have informed Mr. Wolcott of your intention to appoint him Comptroller. This appointment gives me particular pleasure, as I am confident it will be a great and real improvement in the state of the Treasury Department. There can no material inconvenience attend the postponing a decision concerning the future Auditor till your arrival in this city.
I am very happy to learn that the circumstances of your journey have been in all respects so favorable. It has certainly been a particularly fortunate one, and I doubt not it will have been of real utility.
There is nothing which can be said to be new here worth communicating, except generally that all my accounts from Europe, both private and official, concur in proving that the impressions now entertained of our government and its affairs (I may say) throughout that quarter of the globe, are of a nature the most flattering and pleasing.
(Source: http://oll.libertyfund.org/)
Philadelphia, June 10, 1791
My dear Sir,—
I embrace the occasion of inclosing some letters, to thank you and Mrs. Adams for the comfortable accommodation of your house at Bush Hill. While the inhabitants of this city are panting for breath, like a hunted hare, we experience in the hall at Bush Hill a delightful and animated breeze.
The paragraphs in the Connecticut and New York papers, relative to your journey, indicate envy and blackness of heart. Who the author of these articles is, I know not, and it is quite immaterial. But eminence must be taxed.
Perhaps the “political heresies,” mentioned in the preface to the American edition of Paine’s pamphlet, as coming from a more respectable quarter, may occasion some uneasiness. But the author has assured me, that the note he wrote to the printer never was intended for publication, but as a sort of apology for having detained the book, which was a borrowed one, longer than the impatience of the printer would admit.
But, if the idea was aimed at your doctrines, it ought not to create a moment’s pain. Conscious, as you are, of the invariable pursuit of the public happiness, regulated by the sober standard of reason, it is not the desultory ebullition of this or that man’s mind, that can divert you from your object. For while human nature shall continue its course according to its primary principles, there will be a difference of judgment upon the same objects, even among good men.
The President is expected to arrive here about the 23d or 25th instant, but there is no information from him since the 16th of May. He has been perfectly received according to the abilities of the places through which he has passed.
The Indian campaign must go forward. We have marched and shall march by the latter end of this month two thousand eight hundred men. This force will be adequate, with the addition of the troops already on the frontiers.
I am, &c.
H. Knox.
(Source: http://oll.libertyfund.org/)
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