4651. LIBELS, Jefferson and.—[further continued] .
It is hardly necessary
for me to declare to you, on everything
sacred, that the part they assigned to me was
entirely a calumny. Logan called on me four
or five days before his departure, and asked
and received a certificate (in my private
capacity) of his citizenship and circumstances
of life, merely as a protection, should he be
molested in the present turbulent state of
Europe. I have given such to an hundred
others, and they have been much more frequently
asked and obtained by tories than
whigs. I did not write a scrip of a pen by
him to any person. From long acquaintance
he knew my wishes for peace, and my political
sentiments generally, but he received no particular
declaration of them nor one word of
authority to speak in my name, or anybody's
name on that or any other subject. It was an
enterprise founded in the enthusiasm of his
own character. He went on his own ground,
and made his own way. His object was
virtuous, and the effect meritorious.—
To Edmund Pendleton. Washington ed. iv, 276.
Ford ed., vii, 338.
(Pa.,
1799)
