“ 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 . . . ”

Jefferson’s copies of his own and Adams’s letter are in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress. For Livingston’s “law case”, see no. 3501.

On February 3, Adams wrote to Jefferson: “. . . The Material of the Samples of American Manufacture which I sent you, was not Wool nor Cotton nor Silk nor Flax nor Hemp nor Iron nor Wood. They were spun from the Brain of John Quincy Adams and consist in two Volumes of his Lectures on Rhetorick and oratory, delivered when he was Professor of that Science in our University of Cambridge. A Relation of mine, a first Cousin of my ever honoured, beloved and revered Mother Nicholas Boylston, a rich Merchant of Boston, bequeathed by his Will a Donation for establishing a Professorship, and John Quincy Adams having in his Veins so much of the Blood of the Founder, was most earnestly solicited to become the first Professor. The volumes I sent you are the Fruit of his Labour during the short time he held that office. But it ought to be remembered that he attended his Duty as a Senator of the United States during the same Period. It is, with some Anxiety submitted to your Judgment.

"Your account of the flourishing state of Manufactures in Families in your Part of the Country is highly delightful to me. I wish the Spirit may Spread and prevail through the Union. Within my Memory We were much in the same Way in New England: but in later Times we have run a gadding abroad too much to seek for Eatables, Drinkables and wearables . . .”

Meanwhile Jefferson had received the books and wrote immediately to Adams on January 23: “ The messenger who carried my letter of yesterday to the Post office brought me thence, on his return, the two pieces of homespun which had been separated by the way from your letter of Jan. 1. a little more sagacity of conjecture in me, as to their appellation, would have saved you the trouble of reading a long dissertation on the state of real homespun in our quarter. the fact stated however will not be unacceptable to you: and the less when it is considered as a specimen only of the general state of our whole country and of it’s advance towards an independance of foreign supplies for the necessary manufactures.

" Some extracts from these volumes which I had seen in the public papers had prepared me to recieve them with favorable expectations. these have not been disappointed; for I have already penetrated so far into them as to see that they are a mine of learning & taste, and a proof that the author of the inimitable reviews of Ames & Pickering excels in more than one character of writing. the thanks therefore which I had rendered by anticipation only in my letter, I reiterate in this Postscript on a knolege of their high merit, & avail myself of the occasion it furnishes of repeating the assurances of my sincere friendship & respect. ”

To this Adams replied on February 10: “I have received with great pleasure your favour of the 23 of January. I suspected that the Sample was left at the Post office and that you would soon have it. I regret the shabby Condition in which you found it: but it was the only Copy I had and I thought it scarcely worth while to wait till I could get a Sett properly bound . . ””

John Quincy Adams, 1767-1848, the eldest son of John and Abigail Adams, became the sixth President of the United States.