On my return from Norfolk a few days since I found your letter of the 15th. in which you enquire whether I have definitively declined the appointment of a Judge of &c. & whether the P. so understands it. In my conversation with the P. I certainly meant to be understood by him that I did decline taking the office. I am not certain that I told him absolutely & in terms that I would not accept it & I recollect that on my leaving him at the time of our last conversation, he observed to me in substance, that if I should change my views on the subject I must let him know it. I took this remark however as an expression of good feeling towards me, and not from any doubt in his mind as to my determination. Mr Adams mentioned to me yesterday that the President on his enquiry whether I had given a definitive answer said I had not. This I presume grew out of the circumstance I have alluded to, he leaving it to my farther consideration with the liberty of taking it should I be inclined so to do.