They judge of the text by the dictates of common sense and common morality. So the printers can never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union of opinion. They would be no longer useful, and would have to go to the plough. In the first moments of quietude which have succeeded the election, they seem to have aroused their lying faculties beyond their ordinary state, to re-agitate the public mind. What appointments to office have they detailed which had never been thought of, merely to found a text for their calumniating commentaries. However, the steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor; and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady conduct, will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our country. Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we shall be able I hope to do a great deal of good to the cause of freedom and harmony. I shall be happy to hear from you often, to know your own sentiments and those of others on the course of things, and to concur with you in efforts for the common good. Your letters through the post will not come safely. Present my best respects to Mrs. Gerry, and accept yourself assurances of my constant esteem and high consideration.

TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES

WASHINGTON, March 31, 1801. DEAR SIR,-I was already almost in the act of mounting my horse for a short excursion home, when your favor of the 14th was put into my hands. I stop barely to acknowledge it, and to thank you for your kind congratulations, and still more for your interesting observations on the course of things. I am sensible how far I should fall short of effecting all the reformation which reason would suggest, and experience approve, were I free to do whatever I thought best; but when we reflect how difficult it is to move or inflect the great machine of society, how impossible

to advance the notions of a whole people suddenly to ideal right, we see the wisdom of Solon's remark, that no more good must be attempted than the nation can bear, and that all will be chiefly to reform the waste of public money, and thus drive away the vultures who prey upon it, and improve some little on old routines. Some new fences for securing constitutional rights may, with the aid of a good legislature, perhaps be attainable. I am going home for three weeks, to make some final arrangements there for my removal hither. Mr. Madison and Mr. Gallatin will be here by the last of the month. Dearborne and Lincoln remain here; and General Smith entered yesterday on the naval department, but only pro tempore, and to give me time to look for what cannot be obtained-a prominent officer, equal and willing to undertake the duties. Accept assurances of my constant and affectionate respect.

TO A. STUART, ESQ.

MONTICELLO, April 8, 1801.

DEAR SIR,-I arrived here on the 4th, and expect to stay a fortnight, in order to make some arrangements preparatory to my final removal to Washington. You know that the last Congress established a Western judiciary district in Virginia, comprehending chiefly the Western counties. Mr. Adams, who continued filling all the offices till nine o'clock of the night, at twelve of which he was to go out of office himself, took care to appoint for this district also. The judge, of course, stands till the law shall be repealed, which we trust will be at the next Congress. But as to all others, I made it immediately known that I should consider them as nullities, and appoint others, as I think I have a preferable right to name agents for my own administration, at least to the vacancies falling after it was known that Mr. Adams was not naming for himself. Consequently, we want an attorney and marshal for the Western district. I have thought of Mr.

Coalter, but I am told he has a clerkship incompatible with it by our laws. I thought also of Hugh Holmes; but I fear he is so far off, he would not attend the court, which is to be in Rockbridge, I believe. This is the extent of my personal knowledge. Pray recommend one to me, as also a marshal; and let them be the most respectable and unexceptionable possible, and especially let them be republicans. The only shield for our republican citizens against the federalism of the courts is to have the attorneys and marshals republicans. There is nothing I am so anxious about as good nominations, conscious that the merit as well as reputation of an administration depends as much on that as on its measures.

Accept assurances of my constant esteem and high consideration and respect.

TO HUGH WHITE, ESQ.

WASHINGTON, May 2, 1801.

SIR, The satisfaction which, in the name of the foreigners residing in Beaver County, you are pleased to express in my appointment to the Presidency of the United States, the expectations you form of the character of my administration, and your kind wishes for my happiness, demand my sincere thanks. Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular. To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse. If the unexample state of the world has in any instance occasioned among us temporary departures from the system of equal rule, the restoration of tranquillity will doubtless produce reconsideration; and your own knowledge of the liberal conduct heretofore observed towards strangers settling among us will

warrant the belief that what is right will be done. Accept a reciprocation of wishes for your present and future welfare, and assurances of my high consideration and respect.

TO GIDEON GRANGER.

WASHINGTON, May 3, 1801.

DEAR SIR,-I wrote you on the 29th of March. Yours of the 25th of that month, with the address it covered, had not reached this place on the 1st of April, when I set out on a short visit to my residence in Virginia, where some arrangements were necessary previous to my settlement here. In fact, your letter came to me at Monticello only the 24th of April, two days before my departure from thence. This, I hope, will sufficiently apologize for the delay of the answer, which those unapprised of these circumstances will have thought extraordinary.

A new subject of congratulation has arisen. I mean the regeneration of Rhode Island. I hope it is the beginning of that resurrection of the genuine spirit of New England which rises for life eternal. According to natural order, Vermont will emerge next, because least, after Rhode Island, under the yoke of hierocracy. I have never dreamed that all opposition was to cease. The clergy, who have missed their union with the State, the Anglomen, who have missed their union with England, and the political adventurers, who have lost the chance of swindling and plunder in the waste of public money, will never cease to bawl, on the breaking up of their sanctuary. But among the people, the schism is healed, and with tender treatment the wound will not re-open. Their quondam leaders have been astounded with the suddenness of the desertion; and their silence and appearance of acquiescence have proceeded not from a thought of joining us, but the uncertainty what ground to take. The very first acts of the administration, the nominations, have accordingly furnished something to yelp on; and all our subsequent acts will furnish

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them fresh matter, because there is nothing against which human ingenuity will not be able to find something to say.

Accept assurances of my sincere attachment and high respec

TO NATHANIEL MACON.

WASHINGTON, May 14, 1801. DEAR SIR,-Your favors of April the 20th and 23d had been received, and the commission made out for Mr, Potts, before I received the letter of the 1st instant. I have still thought it better to forward the commission, in the hope that reconsideration, or the influence of yourself and friends, might induce an acceptance of it. Should it be otherwise, you must recommend some other good person, as I had rather be guided by your opinion than that of the person you refer me to. Perhaps Mr. Potts may be willing to stop the gap till you meet and repeal the law. If he does not, let me receive a recommendation from you as quickly as possible. And in all cases, when an office becomes vacant in your State, as the distance would occasion a great delay were you to wait to be regularly consulted, I shall be much obliged to you to recommend the best characters. There is nothing I am so anxious about as making the best possible appointments, and no case in which the best men are more liable to mislead us, by yielding to the solicitations of applicants. For this reason your own spontaneous recommendation would be desirable. Now to answer your particulars, seriatim,—

Levees are done away.

The first communication to the next Congress will be, like all subsequent ones, by message, to which no answer will be expected.

The diplomatic establishment in Europe will be reduced to three ministers.

The compensations to collectors depend on you, and not on