[42] Mr. James Marshall.
[43] In the same letter Mr. Jefferson had stated his total abstraction from party questions.
[44] See note [No. XIV.] at the end of the volume.
[45] See Monroe's View.
[46] At his own request, Mr. Pinckney had been recalled; and Mr. King, a gentleman whose talents have been universally acknowledged, and whose services will be long recollected with approbation, had succeeded him.
[47] The constitutional power of congress to appropriate money to objects of the description here recommended was denied by the opposition.
[48] Some objection has been made to the accuracy of this speech, as reported in the Daily Advertiser. The author has therefore deemed it proper to make some extracts from the Aurora, the leading paper of that party, of which Mr. Giles was a conspicuous member.
Mr. Giles, after stating that "the want of wisdom and firmness" in the administration, "had conducted the affairs of the nation to a crisis which threatens greater calamities than any that has before occurred,"—remarks as follows:—"Another sentiment in the report he could not agree to. He did not regret the President's retiring from office. He hoped he would retire, and enjoy the happiness that awaited him in retirement. He believed it would more conduce to that happiness that he should retire than if he should remain in office. He believed the government of the United States, founded on the broad basis of the people, that they were competent to their own government, and the remaining of no man in office was necessary to the success of that government. The people would truly be in a calamitous situation, if one man were essential to the existence of the government. He was convinced that the United States produces a thousand citizens capable of filling the presidential chair, and he would trust to the discernment of the people for a proper choice. Though the voice of all America should declare the President's retiring as a calamity, he could not join in the declaration, because he did not conceive it a misfortune. He hoped the President would be happy in his retirement, and he hoped he would retire." He reverted again to that part of the report which declared the administration to have been wise and firm in its measures. "He had always disapproved," he repeated, "of the measures of that administration with respect to foreign relations, and many members of the house had also; he was therefore surprised that gentlemen should now come forward and wish him, in one breath, to disavow all his former opinions, without being previously convinced of having been in an error. For his own part, he conceived there was more cause than ever for adhering to his old opinion. The course of events had pointed out their propriety; and, if he was not much mistaken, a crisis was at hand which would confirm them. He wished, that while gentlemen were willing to compliment the President, they would have some respect for the feelings of others."—Aurora, December 15th, 1796.
[49] Dunlap and Claypole's Daily Advertiser, December 16th, 1796.