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SIR: I embrace the first leisure moment since my return home to enclose to you a copy of a letter from Mr. Forsyth, the original of which was handed to me on my passage from WASHINGTON to Norfolk, on board the steamboat, and also a copy of my answer.
You will learn, by a perusal of Mr. Forsyth's letter, that it refers to the correspondence between us, and that it places the subject of that correspondence in a light in some respects different from what I had previously regarded it. I had supposed, from the complexion of your letters to me, that the copy of Mr. Crawford's letter to Mr. Forsyth had been placed by the latter in your hands, without any previous act or agency on your part; but, by Mr. Forsyth's letter to me, I am informed that such is not the fact. It seems that he acted as your agent in the affair. He states that you applied to him to be informed of what took place in the cabinet of Mr. Monroe on the subject of the Seminole campaign; and I infer, as the information could be obtained only from some one of the members of the cabinet, and as Mr. Forsyth was not one, and, as far as I am informed, not particularly intimate with any of its members, except Mr. Crawford, that the object of your request was to obtain the information through Mr. Forsyth from Mr. Crawford, and that, consequently, in writing to him, and in placing the copy of his letter in your hand, he can be regarded in no other light but that of your agent
Under this new aspect of this affair, I conceive that I have the right to claim of you to be put in possession of all the additional information, which I might fairly have demanded of Mr. Forsyth, had the correspondence been originally between him and myself, on the supposition on which I acted previously to the receipt of his letter. He avows himself ready, if desired by me, to furnish me with the additional information; but a sense of propriety would not permit me to make the request of him. Considered as your agent in this affair, it is not for me to make the request of information of him. What additional information I conceive myself to be entitled to, my letter -to you of the 29th May will sufficiently indicate. A part of the information, it seems from Mr. Forsyth's letter, is already in your possession, and there can be no doubt but the whole would be furnished at your request.
I make this application solely from the desire of obtaining the means of enabling me to unravel this mysterious affair. Facts and circumstances, light of themselves, may, when viewed in connexion, afford important light as to the origin and object of what I firmly believe to be a base political intrigue, got up by those who regard your reputation and the public interest much less than their own personal advancement.
I must remark, in conclusion, that the letter of Mr. Forsyth affords to my mind conclusive proof that the intimations to my prejudice, to which you refer in your letter of the 30th ultimo, and which you seem to think made no impression on jour mind, have not been without their intended effect. On no other supposition can I explain the fact, that, without giving me any intimation of the step, you should apply for information, as to my course in the cabinet, to one whom you knew to be hostile to me as Mr. Crawford is, and who could not, as you know, make the disclosure consistently with the principles of honor and fidelity, when my previous correspondence with you ought o have satisfied you that I was prepared to give you, frankly and fully, any information which you might desire, in relation to my course on the occasion.
