By what chemical process M. Camus supposed that an extract of
truth could be obtained from such a farrago of falsehood, I must leave
to the chemists and moralists of the age to divine.

On the subject of the history of the American Revolution you ask who
shall write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it?
Nobody; except merely its external facts; all its councils, designs, and
discussions having been conducted by Congress with closed doors, and no
member, as far as I know, having even made notes of them. These, which
are the life and soul of history, must for ever be unknown. Botta, as
you observe, has put his own speculations and reasonings into the mouths
of persons whom he names, but who, you and I know, never made such
speeches. In this he has followed the example of the ancients, who made
their great men deliver long speeches, all of them in the same style,
and in that of the author himself. The work is nevertheless a good one,
more judicious, more chaste, more classical, and more true, than the
party diatribe of Marshall. Its greatest fault is in having taken too
much from him. I possessed the work, and often recurred to considerable
portions of it, although I never read it through. But a very judicious
and well informed neighbor of mine went through it with great attention,
and spoke very highly of it. I have said that no member of the old
Congress, as far as I knew, made notes of the discussions. I did not
knew of the speeches you mention of Dickinson and Witherspoon But on
the questions of Independence, and on the two articles of Confederation
respecting taxes and voting, I took minutes of the heads of the
arguments. On the first, I threw all into one mass, without ascribing
to the speakers their respective arguments; pretty much in the manner of
Hume's summary digests of the reasonings in parliament for and against
a measure. On the last, I stated the heads of arguments used by each
speaker. But the whole of my notes on the question of Independence does
not occupy more than five pages, such as of this letter: and on the
other questions, two such sheets. They have never been communicated to
any one. Do you know that there exists in manuscript the ablest work
of this kind ever yet executed, of the debates of the constitutional
convention of Philadelphia in 1788? The whole of every thing said and
done there was taken down by Mr. Madison, with a labor and exactness
beyond comprehension.

I p