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October 1996 corrector Catherine Tousignant, Electronic Text Center
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Philadelphia Jan. 11. 1798.
Dear Madam
Your favor of July 6 was to have found me here: but I had departed before
it reached this. it followed me home, & of necessity the enquiries after our friend Madame
de Corny were obliged to await mrs Monroe's arrival at her own house. this was delayed
longer than was expected; so that by the time I could make the enquiries, I was looking
again to my return to Philadelphia . this must apologize for the delay which has taken
place. Mrs. Monroe tells me that Made de Corny was at one time in extreme distress,
her revenue being in rents & those paid in assignats worth nothing. since their abolition
however she recieves her rents in cash & is now entirely at her ease. she lives in hired
lodgings, furnished by herself, and every thing about her as nice as you know she always had.
she visited mrs Monroe familiarly and freely in a family way, but would never dine when
she had company, nor remain if company came. she speaks seriously sometimes of a
purpose to come to America; but she surely mistakes a wish for a purpose. you & I know
her constitution too well, her horror of the sea to believe she could pass or attempt the At-
-lantic. Mrs. Monroe could not give me her address, so as to enable me to write to her.
in all events it is a great consolation that her situation is easy.
We have here a Mr. Niemcewitz, a Polish gentleman, who was with us at Paris while
Mrs. Cosway was here, & who was of her society in London the last summer. he mentions the
loss of her daughter, the gloom into which that & other circumstances have thrown her,
that it has taken the hue of religion, that she is solely devoted to religious exercises,
& the superintendance of a school she has instituted for Catholic children. but that she
still speaks of her friends here with tenderness & desire. our letters have been rare.
but they have let me see that her gaiety was gone, & her mind entirely placed on a world to come.
I have recieved from my young friend Catharine a letter which gratifies me much,
as it proves that our friendly impressions have not grown out of her memory. I am
indebted to her too, for an acquaintance with your son, whose connections suffice to raise
the strongest preprossessions in his favor. be so good as to present my respects to mr Church.
I hope he will find the state of society different in New York from what it is in this place. party
animosities here have raised a wall of separation between those who differ in political senti-
-ments. they must love misery indeed, who would [illeg.], at the sight of an honest man feel the
torment of hatred & aversion rather than the benign spasms of benevolence and esteem.
accept assurances of the unalterable attachment of my dear Madam, your sincere and
affectionate friend & servant
Th: Jefferson
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