Your note came to me last evening. If we adjourn on the 17th, as I now hope we shall, we shall try to get up the river to the landing on Friday evening of the next week. I had feared, when I wrote to you, that our stay in the city might not be within my control, but a letter from Mr. Butler induces the hope that I shall not be pestered by any of the <illegible> which I had apprehended there. In that case, I think we can discharge ourselves more willingly on Friday, than at a later day. We shall not transport our load of baggage to your House, in any event. If we do not find a friend, by whom we can send it to our quarters in Albany, by the boat, we shall leave it at the landing, and return there to take it ourselves. We shall pack it for safety, for either of these contingencies, so that you need make no provision for its transportation. We anticipate a laugh about it, in the course of our visit, but, at all hazards, we feel confident of a return of the trunks, if a modern plunderer should get possession of them. We have been very modest, even for us, during this session, so that, while the bulk and weight of our baggage will not be materially diminished, its attraction to speculators of this class, if carefully examined, will be too light to render a deposit very dangerous, anywhere 

I will write you from New York, to let you know with certainty when we will be at the landing, so that you may wait for a further notice, before you send for us in any direction, but I hope that we may be able to be with you on Friday evening the 21st. 

I cannot say but a word more. I thank you most sincerely for your letter to the New York committee. It appears to me to be what it should have been, and it has satisfied all your true friends here, and set all your pretended ones to praising you. I thank you also for speaking of my sacrifices as "apparent." If I had not looked upon them as such, I dare not say they would have been made, for I beg you to believe and feel that I have not, at any time, intended to make, and do not feel that I have ever made, a sacrifice of feeling or principle, or even of personal benefit, to serve or benefit you as a personal friend. There is therefore no indebtedness on your part, as I keep the account. I have appeared to be in great demand, during our present session of Congress, and <illegible> upon the <illegible> and able to form opinions from personal observation, I am able to say to you that I have never seen a time when my real friends were less desirous for my promotion. If I could have been foolish, or faithless, enough to have permitted my apparent friends to take possession of me, I might have been a candidate for offices of fearful elevation, and that with loud evidences of availability; but whether or not I should have received any one of the proffers, I know not. In these times I might have done so, but by merit I should not. Hence my apparent modesty has been mere selfishness, and my sacrifices have been no more than apparent. This is the way I feel, and this enables me to answer a remark of your note, that I cannot entertain any other feeling than contempt for those who are offended at me for declining the nomination. The feeling I have indulged has not been elevated to any thing like that standard. It has beent that of the richest amusement. To see the exhibition of real spite, because I have declined to be made a tool in the hands of those, who have been wantonly and deliberately trifling with our principles, and the dearest interests of our country, and abusing my best friends, does not deserve even contempt. It rather excites that feeling of pity, which we cannot withhold, where we see malignity swamped in its own folly.

I have, however, no time to write a letter. I hope to see you on the day I have named, and in the mean time I am,