came there again until December, 1778.  Of course, he had no part in the discussions or decision of that question.  The instructions to their Delegates by the convention of New York, then sitting, to sign the Declaration, were presented to Congress on the 15th of July only, and on that day the journals show the absence of Mr. Jay, by a letter received from him, as they had done as early as the 29th of May, by another letter.  And I think he had been omitted by the convention on a new election of Delegates, when they changed their instructions.  Of this last fact, however, having no evidence but an ancient impression, I shall not affirm it.  But whether so or not, no agency of accident appears in the case.  This error of fact, however, whether yours or mine, is of little consequence to the public.  But truth being as cheap as error, it is as well to rectify it for our own satisfaction.

I have had a fever of about three weeks, during the last and preceding month, from which I am entirely recovered except as to strength.

Ever affectionately yours.

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CLXXV.—­TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823

TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, October 12, 1823.

Dear Sir,

I do not write with the ease which your letter of September the 18th supposes.  Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious.  But while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the recollection of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out of every thing.  I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid of our heavy hours until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all at once.  Against this tedium vita, however, I am fortunately mounted on a hobby, which, indeed, I should have better managed some thirty or forty years ago; but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an octogenary rider.  This is the establishment of a University, on a scale more comprehensive, and in a country more healthy and central than our old William and Mary, which these obstacles have long kept in a state of languor and inefficiency.  But the tardiness with which such works proceed, may render it doubtful whether I shall live to see it go into action.

Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new affections.  I had for some time observed, in the public papers, dark hints and mysterious innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by that friend or his representative.  And now it is said to be actually published.  It has not yet reached us, but extracts have been given, and