“ been judiciary also, had not the Confederation required them for certain purposes to appoint a judiciary. it has accordingly been the decision of our courts that the Confederation is a part of the law of the land, & superior in authority to the ordinary laws, because it cannot be altered by the legislature of any one state. I doubt whether they are at all a diplomatic assembly. on the first news of this work, there were proposals to translate it. fearing it might be murdered in that operation, I endeavored to secure a good translator. this is done, & I lend him my copy to translate from. it will be immediately announced to prevent others attempting it . . . ”

Adams replied to this in a letter dated from London March 1: “. . . The approbation you express in general of my poor volume, is a vast consolation to me. it is an hazardous enterprise, and will be an unpopular work in America for a long time.--When I am dead, it may be regretted that such advice was not taken in the season of it.--But as I have made it early in life and all along a Rule to conceal nothing from the People which appeared to me material for their Happiness and Prosperity, however unpopular it might be at the time or with particular Parties, I am determined not now to begin to flatter popular Prejudices and Party Passions however they may be countenanced by great authorities.

"The opinion you object to “p. 362.” that Congress is not a legislative “but a diplomatic assembly” I should wish to have considered as a Problem, rather for Consideration, than as an opinion: and as a Problem too, relative to the Confederation as it now stands, rather than to any other Plan that may be in Contemplation of the states.--It is a most difficult Topick, and no Man at a distance can judge of it, so well as those in America. if the Book should be translated into french, I wish you would insert this, in a Note. You have laid me under great obligation, by taking the trouble to secure a good Translator.--if the Thing is worth translating at all, it will not surely have to loose any Thing by the Translation.--But will not the Government proscribe it?--if I should get well home, and spend a few years in Retirement, I shall pursue this subject, somewhat further: but I hope never to be left, again, to publish so hasty a Production as this . . .”

With regard to the translation into French, Jefferson wrote to Stockdale on February 27: “ . . . Be so good as to send by the next Diligence a copy of m( ^~ r) Adams’s book on the American constitution printed by Dilly, in boards, it being for a bookseller here . . .”

Stockdale wrote on August 3 to say that he had sent a copy by the “Dilligence” the day before, price 5/-.

On August 25 Adams sent to Jefferson a copy of the second volume: “. . . I will endeavour to send you a Copy, with this Letter of the Second Volume of the Defence &c. if Frouillé the Bookseller has a Mind to translate it he may, but it may not strike others as it does Americans. Three Editions of the first volume have been printed in America.--The Second volume contains three long Courses of Experiments in Political Philosophy. every Tryal, was intended and contrived to determined the Question whether Mr Turgots System would do. The Result you may read. it has cost me a good deal of Trouble and Expence to Search into Italian Rubbish and Ruins. But enough of pure Gold and Marble has been found to reward the Pains.--I shall be suspected of writing Romances to expose Mr Turgots Theory. But I assure you, it is all genuine History. The vast Subject of Confederations remains: but I have neither head heart, hands, Eyes, Books or Time, to engage in it. besides it ought not to be such an hasty Performance as the two volumes already ventured before the Public . . .”

On September 28 Jefferson wrote: “ I received your favour by Mr. Cutting, and thank you sincerely for the copy of your book. the departure of a packet boat, which always gives me full emploiment for sometime before, has only permitted me to look into it a little. I judge of it from the first volume which I thought formed to do a great deal of good . . . the ”