I am quite certain that ^it^ needs not my assurance ^to satisfy you^ that my seeming inattention to your letter has arisen from unavoidable causes. The truth is I been upon the go all summer & I hope not unprofitably employed. Let me put your mind at rest upon the subject of the election. Our State will give Jackson between 25 & 32 votes as certainly as the election comes. Consider them given & hold me responsible for your disappointment. I will do all I said can for our friend Randolph. Mr Jefferson wrote me a long & most able letter in <illegible> 24 about the letter to Mazzei. Has Mr R. got a copy of it. My disappointment in not having the pleasure of seeing you & Mrs Rives <were it not for> this summer has been great. Stevenson & Archer have been here but I did not see either of them being at the west all the time they were in the State. If I have the good fortune to get back to Washington next winter I promise myself the pleasure of some arrangement that will bring us more together. But that is far from certain. Our good people have certain notions in their heads with respect to myself which I greatly fear I will not be able (witch as according to Gale I may be) to drive out of their heads. But whether absent or present rest assured there are no two persons in whose welfare I take deeper interest than my excellent friend Mrs Rives & yourself. Let me hear from you &