“Statesmen, I am aware, deem it necessary that sentiments of liberality, and even justice, should yield to considerations of policy; but what policy can require the absence of my father at present?  Even had he contemplated the project for which he stands arraigned, evidently to pursue it any further would now be impossible.  There is not left one pretext of alarm even to calumny; for bereft of fortune, of popular favor, and almost of friends, what could he accomplish?  And whatever may be the apprehensions or the clamors of the ignorant and the interested, surely the timid, illiberal system which would sacrifice a man to a remote and unreasonable possibility that he might infringe some law founded on an unjust, unwarrantable suspicion that he would desire it, cannot be approved by Mr. Madison, and must be unnecessary to a President so loved, so honored.  Why, then, is my father banished from a country for which he has encountered wounds and dangers and fatigue for years?  Why is he driven from his friends, from an only child, to pass an unlimited time in exile, and that, too, at an age when others are reaping the harvest of past toils, or ought at least to be providing seriously for the comfort of ensuing years?  I do not seek to soften you by this recapitulation.  I only wish to remind you of all the injuries which are inflicted on one of the first characters the United States ever produced.

“Perhaps it may be well to assure you there is no truth in a report lately circulated, that my father intends returning immediately.  He never will return to conceal himself in a country on which he has conferred distinction.

“To whatever fate Mr. Madison may doom this application, I trust it will be treated with delicacy.  Of this I am the more desirous as Mr. Alston is ignorant of the step I have taken in writing to you, which, perhaps, nothing could excuse but the warmth of filial affection.  If it be an error, attribute it to the indiscreet zeal of a daughter whose soul sinks at the gloomy prospect of a long and indefinite separation from a father almost adored, and who can leave unattempted nothing which offers the slightest hope of procuring him redress.  What, indeed, would I not risk once more to see him, to hang upon him, to place my child on his knee, and again spend my days in the happy occupation of endeavoring to anticipate all his wishes.

“Let me entreat, my dear Madam, that you will have the consideration and goodness to answer me as speedily as possible; my heart is sore with doubt and patient waiting for something definitive.  No apologies are made for giving you this trouble, which I am sure you will not deem irksome to take for a daughter, an affectionate daughter, thus situated.  Inclose your letter for me to A.J.  Frederic Prevost, Esq., near New Rochelle, New York.

     “That every happiness may attend you,