He has seen and minutely examined the
report. This report is to me a vast _desideratum_, for reasons political
and philosophical. I cannot help suspecting the Spanish squadrons to
be gone to South America, and that some disturbances have been excited
there by the British. The court of Madrid may suppose we would not see
this with an unwilling eye. This may be true as to the uninformed part
of our people: but those who look into futurity farther than the present
moment or age, and who combine well what is, with what is to be, must
see that our interests, well understood, and our wishes are, that Spain
shall (not for ever, but) very long retain her possessions in that
quarter; and that her views and ours must, in a good degree, and for a
long time, concur. It is said in our gazettes, that the Spaniards have
sunk one of our boats on the Mississippi, and that our people retaliated
on one of theirs. But my letters, not mentioning this fact, have made
me hope it is not true, in which hope your letter confirms me. There are
now one hundred thousand inhabitants in Kentucky. They have accepted the
offer of independence, on the terms proposed by Virginia, and they have
decided that their independent government shall begin on the first day
of the next year.
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