These brief extracts, from the correspondence of Dunbar, show that he made a practical application of the scientific principles which he had learned in his native country. No comments are needed to show that he was a man of thought as well as of action. Dunbar continued his business relations with Mr. Ross until the partnership was dissolved by the death of the latter in 1800. The interest of the heirs of the deceased was then bought by Mr. Dunbar for about $20,000.[34] The remaining years of his life were devoted almost exclusively to scientific investigations, which he frequently characterized as his "favorite amusements." He seemed to be indifferent to political preferment, and though out of deference to the wishes of his people, he sometimes permitted an interruption of his scientific work in order to perform the duties of the offices which were more than once thrust upon him, such labors were not congenial to him. After the adjournment of the Territorial Legislature in 1803 of which he was a member, he wrote to President Jefferson expressing his delight upon being able to return to his scientific work.[35] No greater injustice could be done Mr. Dunbar than to infer that his political indifference was due to lack of patriotism. His strong attachment to the home of his adoption is shown in the following extract from a letter to President Jefferson, written January 7, 1803:--"By a letter____from my much esteemed friend, Mrs. Trist,____she says that you had informed her it was my intention to remove shortly from this country; I beg leave to remove this impression. Since the country has been united to the American federation, I have never ceased to consider it as my own country which I hope never to be under the necessity of abandoning."[36] In another letter, written to the same great statesman six months later, Dunbar calls attention to the "renewed activity and immigration of the French to the Mississippi Valley," and expresses a fear of the consequences to follow therefrom. "It is desirable," he adds, "to preserve the whole of the Valley of the Mississippi for the spread of the people of the United States; who might in the progress of a century, plant the fine western valley of the Mississippi with many millions of inhabitants, speaking the same language with ourselves. It ought not to be objected that this object is too remote to merit contemplation of the present moment."[37] He then gives a discussion of the political methods of the French and Spaniards; also his ideas of the reason why the Spaniards had stopped the right of deposit at New Orleans, with circumstances to confirm the same.