he 30th of January, with a postscript
of February the 5th. Having set out the last day of that month to try
the waters of Aix, and been journeying since, till the 10th instant, I
have been unable to continue my correspondence with you. In the
meantime, I have received your several favors of February the 16th,
March the 18th and 19th, and April the 23d. The last arrived here about
the 25th of May, while those of March the 18th and 19th, though written
five weeks earlier, arrived three weeks later. I mention this to show
you how uncertain is the conveyance through England.

[3] Much of this letter is in cypher, but the notes annexed to it
have enabled the Editor to decipher and publish it.

The idea of separating the executive business of the confederacy from
Congress, as the judiciary is already, in some degree, is just and
necessary. I had frequently pressed on the members individually, while
in Congress, the doing this by a resolution of Congress for appointing
an executive committee, to act during the sessions of Congress, as the
committee of the States was to act during their vacations. But the
referring to this committee all executive business, as it should
present itself, would require a more persevering self-denial than I
suppose Congress to possess. It will be much better to make that
separation by a federal act. The negative, proposed to be given them on
all the acts of the several legislatures, is now, for the first time,
suggested to my mind. _Prima facie_, I do not like it. It fails in an
essential character; that the hole and the patch should be
commensurate. But this proposes to mend a small hole by covering the
whole garment. Not more than one out of one hundred State acts concern
the confederacy. This proposition, then, in order to give them one
degree of power, which they ought to have, gives them ninety-nine more,
which they ought not to have, upon a presumption that they will not
exercise the ninety-nine. But upon every act, there will be a
preliminary question, Does this act concern the confederacy? And was
there ever a proposition so plain, as to pass Congress without a
debate? Their decisions are almost always wise; they are like pure
metal. But you know of how much dross this is the result. Would not an
appeal from the State judicature to a federal court, in all cases where
the act of Confederation controlled the question, be as effectual a
remedy, and exactly commensurate to the defec