TO THOMAS PAINE.

Washington, June 5, 1805.

Dear Sir,

Your letters, Nos. 1, 2, 3, the last of them dated April the 20th, were
received April the 26th. I congratulate you on your retirement to
your farm, and still more that it is of a character so worthy of your
attention. I much doubt whether the open room on your second story will
answer your expectations. There will be a few days in the year in which
it will be delightful, but not many. Nothing but trees, or Venetian
blinds, can protect it from the sun. The semi-cylindrical roof you
propose will have advantages. You know it has been practised on the
cloth market at Paris. De Lorme, the inventor, shows many forms of roofs
in his book, to which it is applicable. I have used it at home for a
dome, being one hundred and twenty degrees of an oblong octagon, and in
the capitol we unite two quadrants of a sphere by a semi-cylinder: all
framed in De Lorme's manner. How has your planing machine answered? Has
it been tried and persevered in by any workman?

France has become so jealous of our conduct as to St. Domingo (which in
truth is only the conduct of our merchants), that the offer to become
a mediator would only confirm her suspicions. Bonaparte, however,
expressed satisfaction at the paragraph in my message to Congress on the
subject of that commerce. With respect to the German redemptioners,
you know I can do nothing, unless authorized by law. It would be made a
question in Congress, whether any of the enumerated objects to which
the constitution authorizes the money of the Union to be applied, would