2456. ELECTIONS (Presidential, 1796), Result of.—[continued].
The event of the election
has never been a matter of doubt in my mind.
I knew that the Eastern States were disciplined
in the schools of their town meetings
to sacrifice differences of opinion to the great
object of operating in phalanx, and that the
more free and moral agency practiced in the
other States would always make up the supplement
of their weight. Indeed the vote
comes much nearer to an equality than I had
expected.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. iv, 154.
Ford ed., vii, 98.
(M.
Jan. 1797)
