Duane did not acknowledge the receipt of his copy until July 17 when he wrote from Philadelphia: “I should have answered your obliging letter the 20 ^th April, had my mind not been kept in agitation by the pressure which I began to feel heavily in consequence of my opposition to the U.S. Bank, and which although I have in effect surmounted, has left me like a man after a severe disease, with an unusual degree of debility. I had read your admirable work on the batture before I was favored with the copy from yourself--and I have heard it repeatedly spoken of in terms very grateful to my own feelings and honorable to yours. I think you have extinguished that unfortunate man, or he has caused himself to extinguished . . . [ sic -- Ed. ]”

Elbridge Gerry acknowledged the receipt of his copy on May 1: “I thank you for the pamphlet this day received, respecting the intrusion of Edward Livingston; & for your polite & friendly manner of transmitting it. The publick is much indebted to you on this, & on numerous other occasions, for performances; to which few are equal, & still fewer have a disposition . . .”

To Benjamin Rush, Jefferson wrote: “ I do not know if you may have noticed in the Newspapers of a year or two ago that Edward Livingston had brought a suit against me for a transaction of the Executive while I was in the administration. the dismission of it has been the occasion of publishing the inclosed pamphlet, which is sent to you, not to be read, for there is nothing enticing for you in it, but as a tribute of respect & friendship. you have moreover a son whose familiarity with the subject may render a glance of it amusing to him.

" The sending a copy of this to m( ^~ r) Adams, as well as the answering some enquiries of his last letter, furnishes occasion for my writing to him a third time. as you have taken a pleasure in watering the tree of conciliation which your friendship for us both planted, I inclose to you my letter to him unsealed for perusal, that you may see how we come on. when read, be pleased to stick a wafer in it and recommit it to the post office. I salute you with constant attachment and respect. ”

Rush replied on April 26: “Your favor of the 20 ^th instant came safe to hand, but not accompanied with the pamphflet you have mentioned in it. I have read your letter to Mr Adams with pleasure, & shall put it into the post office tomorrow agreeably to your Wishes . . .”

On January 21 of this year (1812) Jefferson wrote to Rush: “ As it is thro’ your kind interposition that two old friends are brought together, you have a right to know how the first approaches are made. I send you, therefore a copy of mr Adams’s letter to me & of my answer. To avoid the subject of his family, on which I could say nothing, I have written him a rambling, gossiping epistle which gave openings for the expression of sincere feelings & may furnish him ground of reciprocation, if he merely waited for the first declaration; for so I would construe the reserve of his letter. in the course of the spring I can have a good occasion of writing to him again, on sending him a law case of Livingston against myself, which having been dismissed out of court, for want of jurisdiction, remains unexplained to the world. this explanation I shall print for my own justification; and a copy may not be unamusing to one who is himself a profound lawyer . . . ”

On April 20 Jefferson duly sent to John Adams his copy, and wrote (first submitting the letter to Rush): “ I have it now in my power to send you a piece of homespun in return for that I recieved from you. not of the fine texture or delicate character of yours, or to drop our metaphor, not filled as that was with that display of imagination which constitutes excellence in Belles lettres, but a mere sober, dry and formal piece of Logic. ornari res ipsa negat. yet you may have enough left of your old taste for law reading to cast an eye over some of the questions it discusses. at any rate accept it as the offering of esteem and friendship . . . ”

Adams replied on May 1: “Yesterday, I received from the Post Office, under and envellope [ sic -- Ed. ] inscribed with your hand, but without any letter, a very learned and ingenious ”