1543. CONGRESS, Leadership in.—
I
wish sincerely you were back in the Senate;
and that you would take the necessary measures
to get yourself there. Perhaps, as a
preliminary, you should go to our [Virginia]
Legislature. * * * A majority of the
Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard
are too dexterous for them, and have very
much influenced their proceedings. Tracy
has been of nearly every committee during
the session, and for the most part the chairman,
and of course drawer of the reports.
Seven federalists voting always in phalanx,
and joined by some discontented republicans,
some oblique ones, some capricious, have so
often made a majority, as to produce very
serious embarrassment to the public operations;
and very much do I dread the submitting
to them, at the next session, any treaty
which can be made with either England or
Spain, when I consider that five joining the
federalists, can defeat a friendly settlement
of our affairs.—
To Wilson C. Nicholas. Washington ed. v, 4.
Ford ed., viii, 435.
(W.
April. 1806)
