[Docketing on address leaf, upside down: Boston March 7. 1790 / Capt. Jn. Lillis / requesting to be interested for a / place of [undecipherable]] [anſwered] Boston 6^th March 1790 Dear Sir, It has been my intention of Writing you Since my return from France; which was in September last. but business & other avocations has prevented. tho' I have heard from you M^r Knox & family, particularly, by General Jackson & my friend Major Shaw. You as well as my other friends must have almost thought me a Runaway from the time I was absent; being twelve Months to a day, but by being in pursuit of property, agreeably to the fashion of the World. I thought it best after Sending my Vessels each a Voyage to the West Indies from Georgia, to make another with them to France, this occasioned my long absence. As we all feel interested in each other's circumstances & Success in business I will only inform you I did not make the Voyages the not So much property as I really expected according to my portions & the business I transacted. But on the whole, I cannot Say, notwithstanding Some great losses I have Sustained in Navigation, my circumstances are as eligible as my brother Officers in general in this quarter. Several of my friends have urged me to write you on the Subject of the Office of excise; your opinion on which, I will thank you for, in addition to many other favors already received without Solicitation. Provided Congress assume the State debts, they will of course have a Continental Excise, in which case Officers will be appointed in each County for the purpose of collecting it. As these appointments originate principally in the President; whether it would be ill timed for me to write him a line on the Subject, and whether it would have any weight towards accomplishing it, — in addition to what you may be pleased to interest yourself in my behalf; provided you had no particular friend whom you [undecipherable] to interest for — I know it would be a delicate matter for the President to appoint many Officers of the late Army to Offices under the new Government, as it would discover a partiality in him. tho' I am persuaded it is his wish to See them in good circumstances & happy. But an appointment in this instance could not be considered in that light, because from the great number of Officers in the Massachusetts line there has not been a Single appointment to any Office under the new Government. General Lincoln excepted. I hope my proposition may meet with your approbation, if not, that you will excuse me for intruding So much on your time, which I am persuaded must be greatly occupied in the business of our rising Empire. M^rs Lillis joins me in tendering her perfect respect & friendship to you & M^rs Knox & family. I am dear Sir with greatest esteem & respect your very obedient John Lillis