e whole works
(except the horse-wheel) into a single frame, moveable from one field
to another on the two axles of a wagon. It will be ready in time for the
harvest which is coming on, which will give it a full trial. Our
wheat and rye are generally fine, and the prices talked of bid fair to
indemnify us for the poor crops of the two last years.

I take the liberty of putting under your cover a letter to the son of
the Marquis de la Fayette, not exactly knowing where to direct to him.

With very affectionate compliments to Mrs. Washington, I have the honor
to be, with great and sincere esteem and respect, Dear Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXCVII.--TO M. DE LA FAYETTE, June 19, 1796

TO M. DE LA FAYETTE.

Monticello, June 19, 1796.

Dear Sir,

The inquiries of Congress were the first intimation which reached my
retirement of your being in this country, and from M. Volney, now
with me, I first learned where you are. I avail myself of the earliest
moments of this information, to express to you the satisfaction with
which I learn that you are in the land of safety, where you will meet in
every person the friend of your worthy father and family. Among these I
beg leave to mingle my own assurances of sincere attachment to him, and
my desire to prove it by every service I can render you. I know, indeed,
that you are already under too good a patronage to need any other, and
that my distance and retirement render my affections unavailing to you.
They exist, nevertheless, in all their purity and warmth towards your
father and every one embraced by his love; and no one has wished with
more anxiety to see him once more in the bosom of a nation, who, knowing
his works and his worth, desire to make him and his family for ever
their own. You were, perhaps, too young to remember me personally when
in Paris. But I pray you to remember, that should any occasion offer
wherein I can be useful to you, there is no one on whose friendship and
zeal you may more confidently count. You will, some day perhaps, take a
tour through these States. Should any thing in this part of them attract
your curiosity, it would be a circumstance of great gratification to me
to receive you here, and to assure you in person of those sentiments of
esteem, and attachment with which I am, Dear Sir, your friend and humble
servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXCVIII.--TO JONATHAN WILLIAMS, July 3,1796