2465. ELECTIONS (Presidential, 1800), Balloting in House—[continued].
This is the fourth day of
the ballot, and nothing done; nor do I see
any reason to suppose the six and a half States
here will be less firm, as they call it, than your
thirteen Senators; if so, and the Government
should expire on the 3d of March, by the loss
of its head, there is no regular provision for
reorganizing it, nor any authority but in the
people themselves. They may authorize a con
vention to reorganize and even amend the machine.
There are ten individuals in the House
of Representatives, any one of whom, changing
his vote, could save us this troublesome operation.—
To Dr. B. S. Barton. Washington ed. iv, 353.
Ford ed., vii, 490.
(W.
Feb. 1801)
