He meant to continue writing and bring forward his mechanical projects. None the less did the "federalist" press use Paine's infidelity to belabor the President, and the author had to write defensive letters from the moment of his arrival. On October 29th, before Paine had landed, the _National Intelligencer_ had printed (from a Lancaster, Pa., journal) a vigorous letter, signed "A Republican," showing that the denunciations of Paine were not religious, but political, as John Adams was also unorthodox. The "federalists" must often have wished that they had taken this warning, for Paine's pen was keener than ever, and the opposition had no writer to meet him. His eight "Letters to the Citizens of the United States" were scathing, eloquent, untrammelled by partisanship, and made a profound impression on the country,--for even the opposition press had to publish them as part of the news of the day.* * They were published in the National Intelligencer of November 15th, 22d. 29th, December 6th, January 25th, and February 2d, 1803. Of the others one appeared in the Aurora (Philadelphia), dated from Bordentown, N. J., March 12th, and the last in the Trenton True American % dated April 21st. On Christmas Day Paine wrote the President a suggestion for the purchase of Louisiana. The French, to whom Louisiana had been ceded by Spain, closed New Orleans (November 26th) against foreign ships (including American), and prohibited deposits there by way of the Mississippi. This caused much excitement, and the "federalists" showed eagerness to push the administration into a belligerent attitude toward France. Paines "common sense" again came to the front, and he sent Jefferson the following paper: "OF LOUISIANA. "Spain has ceded Louisiana to france, and france has excluded the Americans from N. Orleans and the navigation of the Mississippi; the people of the Western Territory have complained of it to their Government, and the governt. is of consequence involved and interested in the affair The question then is--What is the best step to be taken? "The one is to begin by memorial and remonstrance against an infraction of a right. The other is by accommodation, still keeping the right in view, but not making it a groundwork. "Suppose then the Government begin by making a proposal to france to repurchase the cession, made to her by Spain, of Louisiana, provided it be with the consent of the people of Louisiana or a majority thereof. "By beginning on this ground any thing can be said without carrying the appearance of a threat,--the growing power of the western territory can be stated as matter of information, and also the impossibility of restraining them from seizing upon New Orleans, and the equal impossibility of france to prevent it.