University of Virginia Library

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

The last mail brought me your favour of Jany I,
inclosing an unsealed one for Mr. A. & submitting to
my discretion the eligibility of delivering it. In
exercising this delicate trust I have felt no small
anxiety, arising by no means however from an apprehension
that a free exercise of it could be in collision
with your real purpose, but from a want of
confidence in myself, & the importance of a wrong
judgment in the case. After the best consideration I
have been able to bestow, I have been led to suspend
the delivery of the letter, till you should have an
opportunity of deciding on the sufficiency or insufficiency

of the following reasons. 1. It is certain
that Mr. Adams, on his coming to this place, expressed
to different persons a respectful cordiality
towards you, & manifested a sensibility to the candid
manner in which your friends had in general conducted
the opposition to him. And it is equally
known that your sentiments towards him personally
have found their way to him in the most conciliating
form. This being the state of things between you,
it deserves to be considered whether the idea of
bettering it is not outweighed by the possibility of
changing it for the worse. 2. There is perhaps a
general air on the letter which betrays the difficulty
of your situation in writing it, and it is uncertain
what the impression might be resulting from this
appearance. 3. It is certain that Mr. A. is fully
apprized of the trick aimed at by his Pseudo friends
of N. Y. and there may be danger of his suspecting
in mementos on that subject, a wish to make his resentment
an instrument for revenging that [of]
others. A hint of this kind was some time ago
dropped by a judicious & sound man who lives
under the same roof, with a wish that even the Newspapers
might be silent on that point. 4. May not
what is said, of "the sublime delights of riding in
the storm, &c." be misconstrued into a reflection on
those who have no distaste to the helm at the present
crisis? You know the temper of Mr. A. better than
I do: but I have always conceived it to be rather a
ticklish one. 5. The tenderness due to the zealous
& active promoters of your election, makes it doubtful
whether their anxieties & exertions ought to be
depreciated by anything implying the unreasonableness
of them. I know that some individuals who
have deeply committed themselves, & probably incurred
the political enmity at least of the P. elect,
are already sore on this head. 6. Considering the
probability that Mr. A.'s course of administration
may force an opposition to it from the Republican
quarter, & the general uncertainty of the posture
which our affairs may take, there may be real embarrassments
from giving written possession to him,
of the degree of compliment & confidence which
your personal delicacy & friendship have suggested,

I have ventured to make these observations because
I am sure you will equally appreciate the
motive & the matter of them; and because I do not
view them as inconsistent with the duty & policy of
cultivating Mr. Adam's favorable dispositions, and
giving a fair start to his Executive career. As you
have, no doubt retained a copy of the letter I do not
send it back as you request. It occurs however
that if the subject should not be changed in your
view of it, by the reasons which influence mine, &
the delivery of the letter be accordingly judged expedient,
it may not be amiss to alter the date of it;
either by writing the whole over again, or authorizing
me to correct that part of it.

The special communication is still unmade. It is
I am told to be extremely voluminous. I hope,
under the sanction of the P.'s reply to our address,
that it will be calculated rather to heal than irritate

the wounded friendship of the two Countries. Yet,
I cannot look around at the men who counsel him, or
look back at the snares into which he has hitherto
been Drawn without great apprehensions on this
subject. Nothing from France subsequent to the
arrival of Pinkney. The negociations for peace you
will see, are suspended. The accession of Spain to
the war enforces the probability that its calamities
are not likely yet to be terminated. The late News
from the Rhine & from Italy are on the whole favorable
to the French. The last battle was on the 27th
Ocr in the Hunspruck, and ended in a victory on
their side. The House of Reps. are on direct taxes,
which seem to be so much nauseated & feared by
those who have created both the necessity & odium
of them, that the project will miscarry. Hamilton,
you will recollect assured the farmers that all the
purposes of the Govt could be answered without resorting
to lands Houses or stock on farms. This deceptive
statement with other devices of his administration,
is rising up in judgment agst. him, and will
very probably soon blast the prospects which his
ambition & intrigues have contemplated. It is certain
that he has lost ground in N. Y. of late; & his
treachery to Adams, will open the eyes of N. England.