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has not the power to heal. These are hard wages for the services of all the active and healthy years of one's life. I had retired after five and twenty years of constant occupation in public affairs, and total abandonment of my own. I retired much poorer than when I entered the public service, and desired nothing but rest and oblivion. My name, however, was again brought forward, without concert or expectation on my part; (on my salvation I declare it.) I do not as yet know the result, as a matter of fact; for in my retired canton we have nothing later from Philadelphia than of the second week of this month. Yet I have never one moment doubted the result. I knew it was impossible Mr. Adams should lose a vote north of the Delaware, and that the free and moral agency of the south would furnish him an abundant supplement. On principles of public respect I should not have refused; but I protest before my God, that I shall, from the bottom of my heart, rejoice at escaping. I know well that no man will ever bring out of that office the reputation which carries him into it. The honey-moon would be as short in that case as in any other, and its moments of ecstacy would be ransomed by years of torment and hatred. I shall highly value, indeed, the share which I may have had in the late vote, as an evidence of the share I hold in the esteem of my countrymen. But in this point of view, a few votes more or less, will be little sensible, and in every other, the minor will be preferred by me to the major I have no ambition to govern men; no passion which would lead me to delight to ride in a storm. Flumina amo, sylvasque, inglorious. My attachment to my home has enabled me to make the calculation with rigor, perhaps with partiality, to the issue which keeps me there. The newspapers will permit me to plant my corn, pease, &c. in hills or drills as I please, (and my oranges, by the bye when you send them,) while our eastern friend will be struggling with the storm which is gathering over us; perhaps be shipwrecked in it. This is certainly not a moment to covet the helm."

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To J. SULLIVAN." The idea that I would accept the office of President, but not that of Vice-President of the United States, had not its origin with me. I never thought of questioning the free exercise of the right of my fellow citizens, to marshal those whom they call into their service according to their fitness, nor ever presumed that they were not the best judges of that. Had I indulged a wish in what manner they should dispose of me, it would precisely have coincided with what they have done. Neither the splendor, nor the power, nor the difficulties, nor the fame, or defamation, as may hap pen, attached to the first magistracy, have any attractions for me. The helm of a free government is always arduous, and never was ours more so, than at a moment when two friendly people are like to be committed in war by the ill temper of their administrations. I am so much attached to my domestic situation, that I would not have

wished to leave it at all. However, if I am to be called from it, the shortest absences and most tranquil station suit me best. I value highly, indeed, the part my fellow citizens gave me in their late vote, as an evidence of their esteem, and I am happy in the information you are so kind as to give, that many in the eastern quarter entertain the same sentiment.

"Where a constitution, like ours, wears a mixed aspect of monarchy and republicanism, its citizens will naturally divide into two classes of sentiment, according as their tone of body or mind, their habits, connections, and callings, induce them to wish to strengthen either the monarchical or the republican features of the constitution. Some will consider it as an elective monarchy, which had better be made hereditary, and therefore endeavor to lead towards that all the forms and principles of its administration. Others will view it as an energetic republic, turning in all its points on the pivot of free and frequent elections. The great body of our native citizens are unquestionably of the republican sentiment. Foreign education, and foreign connections of interest, have produced some exceptions in every part of the Union, north and south; and perhaps other circumstances in your quarter, better known to you, may have thrown into the scale of exceptions a greater number of the rich. Still there, I believe, and here, I am sure, the great mass is republican. Nor do any of the forms in which the public disposition has been pronounced in the last half dozen years, evince the contrary. All of them, when traced to their true source, have only been evidences of the preponderant popularity of a particular great character. That influence once withdrawn, and our countrymen left to the operation of their own unbiased good sense, I have no doubt we shall see a pretty rapid return of general harmony, and our citizens moving in phalanx in the paths of regular liberty, order, and a sacrosanct adherence to the constitution. Thus I think it will be, if war with France can be avoided. But if that untoward event comes athwart us in our present point of deviation, no body, I believe, can foresee into what port it will drive us."

CHAPTER XII

The new administration, under John Adams, commenced on the 4th of March, 1797. In the composition of his cabinet, the President was swayed by the Hamiltonian counsellors who surrounded him, and who had made him all their own. The selection of characters was of course purely anti-republican, at the head of whom was Timothy Pickering; and the measures of the whole administration partook thoroughly of the same political hue.

Mr. Jefferson arrived at the seat of government on the 2d of March. Though there was no necessity for his attendance, he had determined to come on, from a principle of respect to the public, and the new President, He had taken the precaution, however, to manifest his disapprobation of the mimicry of royal forms and ceremonies, which was established at the first inauguration, by declining all participation in the homage of the occasion. Soon as he was certified by the public papers, of the event of the election, he addressed a letter to Mr. Tazewell, Senator of Virginia, expressing his particular desire to dispense with the useless formality of notification by a special messenger. At the first election of President and Vice President, gentlemen of considerable distinction were deputed to notify the parties chosen; and it was made an office of much dignity. But this expensive formality was as unnecessary as it was repugnant to the genius of our government; and he was anxious that the precedent should not be drawn into example. He therefore authorized Mr. Tazewell to request the Senate, if not incompatible with their views of propriety, to discontinue the practice in relation to himself, and to adopt the channel of the post, as the least troublesome, the most rapid, and, by the use of duplicates and triplicates, always capable of being rendered the most certain. He addressed another letter, at the same time, to Mr. Madison, requesting him to discountenance in his behalf, all parade of reception, induction, &c. 'I hope, said he, I shall be made a part of no ceremony whatever. I shall escape into the city as covertly as possible. If Governor Mifflin should show any symptoms of ceremony, pray contrive to parry them.'

There was another point, involving an important constitutional principle, on which Mr. Jefferson improved the occasion of his election to introduce a salutary reformation in the practice of the government. During the previous administration, the Vice President was made a member of the cabinet, and occasionally participated in the executive consultations, equally with the members of the cabinet proper. But this practice he regarded as an unwarrantable combination of legislative with executive powers, which the constitution had wisely separated. He availed himself, therefore, of the first opening from a friendly quarter, to announce his determination to consider the office of Vice-President as legitimately confined to legislative functions, and to sustain no part whatever in the executive consultations. In a letter to Mr. Madison, dated Monticello, January 22, 1797, he says: "My letters inform me that Mr. Adams speaks of me with great friendship, and with satisfaction in the prospect of administering the government in concurrence with me. I am glad of the first information, because, though I saw that our ancient friendship was affected by a little leaven, produced partly by his constitution, partly by the contrivance of others, yet I never felt a dimunition of confidence in his integrity, and retained a solid affection for him. His principles of government I knew to be changed, but conscientiously changed. As to my participation in the administration, if by that he meant the executive cabinet, both duty and inclination will shut that door to me. I cannot have a wish to see the scenes of 1793 revived as to myself, and to descend daily into the arena, like a gladiator, to suffer martyrdom in every conflict. As to duty, the constitution will know me only as the meinber of a legislative body; and its principle is, that of a separation of legislative, executive, and judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, yet it is clearly the spirit of the constitution, and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend to free government."

In the first moments of the enthusiasm of the inauguration, Mr. Adams forgot party sentiments, and indicated a disposition to harmonize with the republican body of his fellow citizens. He called on Mr. Jefferson the 3d of March, and expressed great pleasure at finding him alone, as he wished a free conversation with him. He entered immediately on an explanation of the situation of our affairs with France, and the danger of a rupture with that nation;

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that he was impressed with the necessity of an immediate mission to the Directory; that it would have been the first wish of his heart to have got Mr. Jefferson to go there, but that he supposed it was now out of the question. That he had determined on sending an einbassy, which, by its dignity, should satisfy France, and, by its selection from the three great divisions of the continent, should satisfy all parts of the United States; in short, that he determined to join Gerry and Madison to Pinckney, and he wished Mr. Jefferson to consult Madison in his behalf. He did so, but Mr. Madison declined, as was expected. Two days afterwards, on being informed by Mr. Jefferson of the result of his negotiation, Mr. Adams observed, that on consultation with his cabinet, some objections to that nomination had been raised, which he had not contemplated; and was going on with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, when they were suddenly interrupted. After that, he never said a word to Mr. Jefferson on the subject, or ever consulted him as to any measures of the administration. On the first meeting with his cabinet, it appears, he had fallen completely into the hands of the monarchical party, and never afterwards recovered himself from their thraldom.*

It is not our province to write the history of an administration, which is emphatically denominated the reign of terror.' The scorching and overwhelming portraiture recorded by Mr. Jefferson, and bequeathed by him to his country, is sufficient to convey a general idea of that reckless and overbearing oligarchy, and of that inflexible opposition to it, by those firm spirits to whom the world is indebted for the preservation of republicanism at its last gasp.'

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"Their usurpations and violations of the constitution at that period, and their majority in both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided, and so daring, that after combating their aggressions, inch by inch, without being able in the least to check their career, the republican leaders thought it would be best for them to give up their useless efforts there, go home, get into their respective legislatures, embody whatever of resistance they could be formed into, and if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last ditch. All, therefore, retired, leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of Representatives, and myself in the Senate, where I then presided as Vice-President. Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the brow-beatings

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