7888. SHORT (William), Attachment to.—
I see with extreme concern that you
have received an impression that my attachment
to you has become lessened, and that you
have drawn this inference from circumstances
taking place while you were in Washington.
What these circumstances could be is to me
incomprehensible, but one thing I certainly
know, that they have been misconstrued. That
this change could not be previous to my retirement
from the government in 1794, your appointments
to France, to Holland, to Spain are
proofs. And if, during my present place in
the government, I have not met your desires,
the public motives which have been frankly
declared have given the real grounds. You
think them not founded in fact; but if the testimony
we receive is of different complexions,
neither should wonder at the difference of conclusion
drawn by the other, and I do trust that
you will become sensible that there is no necessity,
at least, for supposing a change in
affections, which are the same now as they
have ever been. Certainly I shall not, on my
part, permit a difference of view on a single
subject to efface the recollections and attachments
of a whole life.—
To William Short.
Ford ed., ix, 70.
(W.
1807)
