actions of this
regeneration, because I was in circumstances peculiarly favorable for
a knowledge of the truth. Possessing the confidence and intimacy of the
leading Patriots, and more than all, of the Marquis Fayette, their head
and Atlas, who had no secrets from me, I learned with correctness the
views and proceedings of that party; while my intercourse with the
diplomatic missionaries of Europe at Paris, all of them with the
court, and eager in prying into its councils and proceedings, gave me
a knowledge of these also. My information was always, and immediately
committed to writing, in letters to Mr. Jay, and often to my friends,
and a recurrence to these letters now insures me against errors of
memory. These opportunities of information ceased at this period, with
my retirement from this interesting scene of action. I had been more
than a year soliciting leave to go home, with a view to place my
daughters in the society and care of their friends, and to return for a
short time to my station at Paris. But the metamorphosis through which
our government was then passing from its chrysalid to its organic form,
suspended its action in a great degree; and it was not till the last
of August that I received the permission I had asked. And here I cannot
leave this great and good country, without expressing my sense of
its pre-eminence of character among the nations of the earth. A more
benevolent people I have never known, nor greater warmth and devotedness
in their select friendships. Their kindness and accommodation to
strangers is unparalleled, and the hospitality of Paris is beyond any
thing I had conceived to be practicable in a large city. Their eminence,
too, in science, the communicative dispositions of their scientific men,
the politeness of the general manners, the ease and vivacity of their
conversation, give a charm to their society, to be found nowhere else.
In a comparison of this with other countries, we have the proof of
primacy, which was given to Themistocles after the battle of Salamis.
Every general voted to himself the first reward of valor, and the second
to Themistocles. So, ask the traveled inhabitant of any nation, In what
country on earth would you rather live?--Certainly, in my own, where are
all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections
and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France.

On the 26th of September, I left Paris for Havre, where I was de