2502. ELECTIONS (Presidential, 1816), Good Feeling in.—
I have been charmed to
see that a Presidential election now produces
scarcely any agitation. On Mr. Madison's election
there was little, on Monroe's all but none.
In Mr. Adams's time and mine, parties were so
nearly balanced as to make the struggle fearful
for our peace. But since the decided ascendency
of the republican body, federalism has
looked on with silent but unresisting anguish.
In the middle, southern and western States, it is
as low as it ever can be; for nature has made
some men monarchists and tories by their constitution,
and some, of course, there always
will be.—
To Albert Gallatin. Washington ed. vii, 80.
Ford ed., x, 92.
(M.
1817)
