I have been prevented by press of company & farming duties from sooner acknowledging the receipt of your letter, which I read with the greatest interest, & now write with my Servant waiting to reach the mail before it passes. Your letter, & two very interesting ones yesterday recd. from Mr Wright, give me a fuller, & I doubt not a more accurate view of things at Washington than I would have if I were on the spot myself.

I would not hesitate to give you the best speculations I would form of the probable results of the stand taken by Mr Tyler, agreeably to your suggestion, if I would say any thing in which I would myself confide. But that is not the case. My difficulty springs from a want of confidence in the springs of action on the part of the two gentlemen, one of whom actually, & the other to appearance, stand at the head of the movement. An infinite deal of good might be done if they were wise & honest enough to forget themselves, and act for the Country, & the cause of sound politics. in this Country. If, for instance, Mr Tyler had given, or was yet to give an absolute unqualifed decision agt. a national Bank in any form, the only really wise course, I sincerely believe that the country would for many many years be relieved from the cruel efforts of agitation upon the point. Or if that is not not practicable, if he would go, root & Branch, agt. the distribution Bill as one of the most pernicious, nay almost treasonable assaults upon the principles of the Govmt that has ever been attempted under the present constitution, he would render the Country a great service, & lend his name to posterity with respect. But if he, & his understood principal adviser limit their vision ^as I fear without desiring to do them injustice^ to the efforts of particular movements upon their immediate personal & particular interests ^as, without desiring to do him injustice I greatly fear <I> <may> <illegible>^ it <requires> ^<illegible> & it will require^ no ghost to tell us ^no one can guess what the future will bring that^ the result to the country cannot be useful.

I have been disappointed in not finding Mr Hunter as open, active and efficient in the present crisis as I would have expected. It appears to me to be one peculiarly adapted to his position & tenets. As things strike me at this distance, Mr Gilmer has appeared to be more <decided> in the expression of correct opinions, and to go more for the advancement of sound principles, uninfluenced by passion or selfishness, than most others occupying his position. But in this I may be mistaken, as I am quite a stranger to him, & the appearances reflected by the newspapers are frequently extremly deceptive.

You have been fortunate in your Colleagues so far as it relates to your personal & official intercourse.

Write me frequently, and believe to me