To Thomas Jefferson from Francis Walker Gilmer, 28 November 1824

Dr Blaettermann will arrive in the Trident, bound from London, to new York; & I wonder he is not in.

The other professors will arrive in the Liverpool Packet of the 16th octr. at new York also, & that too, must be here in a few days.

My health is still so low, & my future strength so precarious, after such a continued & dreadful shock, that I could not with propriety give a positive acceptance even now, of the offer made me. I shall never hold a sinecure, & if I should be too feeble for the laborious duties of the office, it would be wrong for me to take the salary. I will if my health permit, give a positive answer in a fortnight. meanwhile, I have been inquiring here, for a more fit person, should I be obliged to decline the proposal.

I have little hope of leaving new York in a fortnight; if indeed my malady in its mortal symptoms, is eradicated. My only comfort has been, that so far, my lungs remain sound.

I still write with inconvenience, in my wrapper and arm chair: I am close-housed, & rigidly starved.

Dr Parr did not write to you from age & infirmity, he said he should, & sent by me many things too flattering to be communicated.

The large packet from Majr Cartwright, on examination, seems to contain trinkets, which I fear to trust to the mail, & therefore I have detained them.