To M. Van Buren, Albany.

MONTPELLIER, Mar. 27, 1820.

SIR,—I have just received your communication of the 15th, in which my consent is requested to the publication of my correspondence in 1814 with the Vice President of the United States, then Governor of New York, on the subject of his proposed nomination for the Department of State. There being nothing in that correspondence which I could possibly wish to be regarded as under a seal of secrecy, I cannot hesitate in complying with the request.

As most delicate to the Vice President, as well as becoming to myself, under existing circumstances, I forbear to add for publication any further expression of the high sense which I have always entertained of his exertions and services during the period of the late war, and which were so generally applauded throughout the Nation.

The transcripts are returned, with the interlined correction from the papers in my possession of a few immaterial errata, the effect, probably, of the copying pen. I am not able to lay my hand on the first letter from me of September 28, 1814; but I cannot doubt the sufficient exactness of the copy now returned.