Newington-Green, January 18th, 1779. Dear Sir, Your most kind and excellent letter, together with the letter conveying the resolution of Congress, has made the deepest impression on my mind. I entreat you to accept yourself, and to deliver to Doctor Franklin and Mr Adams, my best acknowledgments. Though I cannot hesitate about the reply addressed to the honorable Commissioners, and through them to Congress, which accompanies this letter, yet so flattering a testimony of the regard of an assembly, which I consider as the most respectable and important in the world, cannot but give me the highest pleasure, and I shall always reckon it among the first honors of my life. There is an indolence growing upon me as I grow older, which will probably prevent me forever from undertaking any public employment. When I am in my study and among my books, and have nothing to encumber me, I am happy; but so weak are my spirits, that the smallest hurry and even the consciousness of having anything to do which _must_ be done, will sometimes distress and overpower me. What I have written on the subject of finances has been chiefly an amusement, which I have pursued at my leisure, with some _hope_ indeed, but very little _expectation_ of its being useful. Nothing can be more melancholy than to see so many great European States depressed and crippled by having debts, which have been the growth of ages, and which in the end must ruin them, but which a small appropriation, faithfully applied, might have always kept within the bounds of safety. This is particularly true of this country. Here our debts must soon produce a shocking catastrophe. The new world will, I hope, take warning, and profit by the follies, corruptions, and miseries of the old. My pamphlets on the principles of Government and the American war, were extorted from me by my judgment and my feelings. They have brought upon me a great deal of abuse; but abundant amends have been made me by the approbation of many of the best men here and abroad, and particularly by that vote of Congress, to which I suppose they may have contributed. When you write to any of the members of that assembly, be so good as to represent me as a zealous friend to liberty, who is anxiously attentive to the great struggle in which they are engaged, and who wishes earnestly, for the sake of the world, that British America may preserve its liberty, set an example of moderation and magnanimity, and establish such forms of government, as may render it an _asylum_ for the virtuous and oppressed in other countries.