[Cover/address panel: [undecipherable] / [undecipherable] Philadelphia] [Received / [undecipherable] / Nov. 24 [undecipherable] / E.P.O. 401810] [undecipherable notation upper right] (141) Alexandria Aug^t 21. 1800 My Dear [undecipherable] I arrived here [undecipherable] after a [undecipherable: tedious] [undecipherable] & [being?] all night on the road on Friday [undecipherable] [having?] the [undecipherable] to [undecipherable] that [undecipherable] Cap^t. [undecipherable]. The next morning I went to the [undecipherable: jail] & had a conversation with [undecipherable] [about] the business [undecipherable] [&] the first communication was fully understood [&] before any [undecipherable] [it] is unnecessary to relate it as it has been already detailed [undecipherable] — Sufficient to [say] that it is a [undecipherable] [them] of business — I had a conversation with him respecting my [undecipherable: property] but at [the] time could obtain no direct [answer] [undecipherable] how it had been [undecipherable] out of [undecipherable] — [I] got to converse with him [thro'] [undecipherable] in [the] [undecipherable] of his [undecipherable: prison] — I told him I should [call] on him again after I had [seen] the Mayor & [gained] permission to confer with him alone in the [place] of his confinement — But on waiting [undecipherable] the Mayor [found] [that] in the [undecipherable] of the same day he was to [be put in] Irons — [Orders] given that no [person] [undecipherable] admitted to converse with him unless [undecipherable] was present — This [Order] I am led to conclude from information I [have] received [as] [issued] from [the] [undecipherable] [that] [the] [undecipherable: defendant] has [money] [undecipherable] when [undecipherable] [in] some property [so] [situated] that by his information [it] might [undecipherable] off on my promise to drop [undecipherable] my [undecipherable] prosecution against him — Or that [he] might [come] forward & [so] secure me on these terms for him — But [he] from very [undecipherable] that it should be [undecipherable] as they are afraid this will not [meet] [undecipherable] his deserts if I should drop [it] [undecipherable] took out in the first place if any [thing] to make myself good from the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] as [undecipherable] as I know nothing — [the] [undecipherable] on Monday Inform'd me he had [written] to you & requested you to write to M^r [undecipherable] — I wait for your [answer] [undecipherable] letter — & the ones requisite before [I proceed] [undecipherable] that [undecipherable] as the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] present that I may get his [Wife's] letter to [undecipherable] his Security — on my promising not to [undecipherable] against [him] — [undecipherable] to be the courses on which [they] [say] [undecipherable] is not here & consequently [undecipherable] [which] he could give on the occasion [undecipherable] to M^r [undecipherable] & stated the [business] [undecipherable] to receive his answer this Evening — I [shall] [endeavor] to obtain permission thro' the [Chief] Judge [the] District to get [a] private conference [undecipherable] [Merchants] of [these] facts I know of nothing better than to have immediate recourse to his father in law & friends — My Love to Mama & all the Family — Sincerely yours &c. Benjamin Hodgson [Jun.] [undecipherable] m. [undecipherable: Hargelow?] Esq.