falls and rugged banks, they are answered, by observing, that it is reduced to a maxim, that whenever there is water enough to float a batteau, there may be navigation for a batteau.  Canals and locks may be necessary, and they are expensive; but I hardly know what expense would be too great for the object in question.  Probably, negotiation with the Indians, perhaps even settlement, must precede the execution of the Cayahoga canal.  The States of Maryland and Virginia should make a common object of it.  The navigation, again, between Elizabeth River and the Sound is of vast importance, and in my opinion, it is much better that these should be done at public than private expense.

Though we have not heard of the actual opening of the new Congress, and consequently, have not official information of your election as President of the United States, yet, as there never could be a doubt entertained of it, permit me to express here my felicitations, not to yourself, but to my country.  Nobody who has tried both public and private life, can doubt but that you were much happier on the banks of the Potomac than you will be at New York.  But there was nobody so well qualified as yourself, to put our new machine into a regular course of action; nobody, the authority of whose name could have so effectually crushed opposition at home, and produced respect abroad.  I am sensible of the immensity of the sacrifice on your part.  Your measure of fame was full to the brim; and therefore, you have nothing to gain.  But there are cases wherein it is a duty to risk all against nothing, and I believe this was exactly the case.  We may presume, too, according to every rule of probability, that after doing a great deal of good, you will be found to have lost nothing but private repose.

In a letter to Mr. Jay, of the 19th of November, I asked a leave of absence to carry my children back to their own country, and to settle various matters of a private nature, which were left unsettled, because I had no idea of being absent so long.  I expected that letter would have been received in time to be decided on by the government then existing.  I know now that it would arrive when there was no Congress, and consequently, that if must have awaited your arrival at New York.  I hope you found the request not an unreasonable one.  I am excessively anxious to receive the permission without delay, that I may be able to get back before the winter sets in.  Nothing can be so dreadful to me, as to be shivering at sea for two or three months, in a winter passage.  Besides, there has never been a moment at which the presence of a minister here could be so well dispensed with, from certainty of no war this summer, and that the government will be so totally absorbed in domestic arrangements, as to attend to nothing exterior.  Mr. Jay will, of course, communicate to you some ciphered letters lately written, and one of this date.  My public letter to him contains all the interesting