bt. I really did not attend to it in the
moment of writing, and when it occurred to me, I revised my memorandum
book from the time of our being in Philadelphia together, and stated our
account from the beginning, lest I should forget or mistake any part of
it. I enclose you this statement. You will always be so good as to let
me know, from time to time, your advances for me. Correct with freedom
all my proceedings for you, as, in what I do, I have no other desire
than that of doing exactly what will be most pleasing to you.

I received this summer a letter from Messrs. Buchanan and Hay, as
Directors of the public buildings desiring I would have drawn for them
plans of sundry buildings, and, in the first place, of a capital. They
fixed; for their receiving this plan, a day which Was within about
six weeks of that on which their letter came to my hand. I engaged
an architect of capital abilities in this business. Much time was
requisite, after the external form was agreed on, to make the internal
distribution convenient for the three branches of government. This time
was much lengthened by my avocations to other objects, which I had no
right to neglect. The plan however Was settled. The gentlemen had
sent me one which they had thought of. The one agreed on here is more
convenient, more beautiful, gives more room, and will not cost more than
two thirds of what that would. We took for our model what is called the
_Maison Quarree_ (Nismes), one of the most beautiful, if not the most
beautiful and precious morsel of architecture left us by antiquity. It
was built by Caius and Lucius Caesar, and repaired by Louis XIV., and
has the suffrage of all the judges of architecture who have seen it, as
yielding to no one of the beautiful monuments of Greece, Rome, Palmyra,
and Balbec, which late travellers have communicated to us. It is very
simple, but it is noble beyond expression, and would have done honor
to our country, as presenting to travellers a specimen of taste in our
infancy, promising much for our maturer age. I have been much mortified
with information, which I received two days ago from Virginia, that the
first brick of the Capitol would be laid within a few days. But surely,
the delay of this piece of a summer would have been repaired by
the savings in the plan preparing here, were we to value its other
superiorities as nothing. But how is a taste in this beautiful art to
be formed in our countrymen, unless we avail ours