
          My Dear Sir,

I have this moment, near midnight
received your pacquet & thanking you
very warmly en passant for it I hasten
to tell you that looking first at the
end of your letter I was surprised to
find the document on coals which
reached you contained no plants. They
were very carefully put between uncut
leaves, & most of them were in brown
paper envelopes. Did you first open
the Document yourself or could it have
been opened previously? They were
enclosed in the Report on Coals as Col.
Benton thought it would be agreeable
to you to look over it. I will write
to you again soon & in the meantime
remain very truly yours,
J.C. Frémont

Thursday night March 13th
        