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LETTER CCXXXIX.--TO SAMUEL SMITH, August 22, 1798

TO SAMUEL SMITH.

Monticello, August 22, 1798.

Dear Sir,

Your favor of August the 4th came to hand by our last post, together
with the 'extract of a letter from a gentleman of Philadelphia, dated
July the 10th,' cut from a newspaper, stating some facts which respect
me. I shall notice these facts. The writer says, that 'the day after the
last despatches were communicated to Congress, Bache, Leib, &c, and a
Dr. Reynolds, were closeted with me.' If the receipt of visits in my
public room, the door continuing free to every one who should call
at the same time, may be called closeting, then it is true that I was
closeted with every person who visited me; in no other sense is it true
as to any person. I sometimes received visits from Mr. Bache and Dr.
Leib. I received them always with pleasure, because they are men of
abilities, and of principles the most friendly to liberty and our
present form of government. Mr. Bache has another claim on my respect,
as being the grandson of Dr. Franklin, the greatest man and ornament
of the age and country in which he lived. Whether I was visited by Mr.
Bache or Dr. Leib the day after the communication referred to, I do not
remember. I know that all my motions at Philadelphia, here, and every
where, are watched and recorded. Some of these spies, therefore, may
remember, better than I do, the dates of these visits. If they say these
two gentlemen visited me the day after the communication, as their trade
proves their accuracy, I shall not contradict them, though I affirm
that I do not recollect it. However, as to Dr. Reynolds, I can be
more particular, because I never saw him but once, which was on an
introductory visit he was so kind as to pay me. This, I well remember,
was before the communication alluded to, and that during the short
conversation I had with him, not one word was said on the subject of any
of the communications. Not that I should not have spoken freely on
their subject to Dr. Reynolds, as I should also have done to the
letter-writer, or to any other person who should have introduced the
subject. I know my own principles to be pure, and therefore am not
ashamed of them. On the contrary, I wish them known, and therefore
willingly express them to every one. They are the same I have acted on
from the year 1775 to this day, and are the same, I am sure, with
those of the great body of the American people. I