A letter written by him in October, 1783, before he had completed his twenty-third year, shows the maturity of his intellect, and his analytic habit of thought.

An extract gives the nature of the reasons which finally determined him to make his home in America:-- "This is what by degrees greatly influenced my judgment.

After my arrival in this country I was early convinced, upon a comparison of American governments with that of Geneva, that the latter is founded on false principles; that the judicial power, in civil as well as criminal cases, the executive power wholly, and two thirds of the legislative power being lodged in two bodies which are almost self-made, and the members of which are chosen for life,--it is hardly possible but that this formidable aristocracy should, sooner or later, destroy the equilibrium which it was supposed could be maintained at Geneva." The period from the peace of 1783 to the adoption of the federal Constitution in 1787 was one of political excitement.

The utter failure of the old Confederation to serve the purposes of national defense and safety for which it was framed had been painfully felt during the war.
Independence had been achieved under it rather than by it, the patriotic action of some of the States supplying the deficiencies of others less able or less willing.

By the radical inefficiency of the Confederation the war had been protracted, its success repeatedly imperiled, and, at its close, the results gained by it were constantly menaced.