Annapolis, December 16th, 1783.
Dear Sir.
I am particularly happy to hear by your brother, that you have almost recovered from the indisposition, with which you have been lately afflicted: an event I must consider fortunate to the state and your family, for I flatter myself, when perfectly restored, you will not withdraw yourself from the public service. It must be hoped that those measures, which have hitherto, will not always, prevail; as to establish in our public councils, a greater regard for public faith, and in private life, for morality, your exertions joined with those of some worthy men, must certainly be more successful. I am called on a theatre to which I am a perfect stranger.1 There are before us some questions of the utmost consequence that can arise in the councils of any nation: the peace establishment; the regulation of our commerce, and the ar rangement of our foreign appointments; whether we are to have regular or standing troops to protect our frontiers, or leave them unguarded; whether we will expose ourselves to the inconveniences, which may perhaps be the loss of the country westward, from the impossibility of preventing the adventurers from settling where they please: the intrusion of the settlers on the European powers, who border on us, a cause of discontent and perhaps of war, as with us a constant state of warfare with the savage tribes, to the ingrafting a principle in our constitution which may in its consequences, as it ever hath done with other powers, terminate in the loss of our liberty. How we are to counteract the narrow and illiberal system of commercial policy in the European powers, and what connexion we are to have with them, are also questions of the first import. If your health will permit, I shall be particularly happy to have your opinion upon these several subjects.2 It is my desire to hear from you as frequently as possible, and upon those subjects before us, which I shall be happy to make known to you. I am, with the utmost respect and esteem,
Your sincere friend and servant,
James Monroe
MS not found; reprinted from Richard H. Lee, Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee , 2 vols. (Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1825), 2:221 - 22.
1 Monroe, who had been elected a delegate in June, was present when Congress first mustered a quorum in Annapolis on December 13. See JCC, 25:798 - 99, 810.
2 For Lee's January 5th reply, see Lee, Letters (Ballagh), 2:286 - 90.