Dear Sir,—All the votes have now come in, except of Vermont and Kentucky, and there is no doubt that the result is a perfect parity between the two republican characters. The federalists appear determined to prevent an election, and to pass a bill giving the government to Mr. Jay, appointed Chief Justice, or to Marshall as Secretary of State. Yet I am rather of opinion that Maryland and Jersey will give the seven republican majorities. The French treaty will be violently opposed by the federalists; the giving up the vessels is the article they cannot swallow. They have got their judiciary bill forwarded to commitment. I dread this above all the measures meditated, because appointments in the nature of freehold render it difficult to undo what is done. We expect a report for a territorial government which is to pay little respect to the rights of man.
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Cordial and affectionate salutations. Adieu.
TO TENCHE COXE, ESQ.
December 31, 1800.
I shall neither frank nor subscribe my letter, because I do not choose to commit myself to the fidelity of the post-office. For the same reason, I have avoided putting pen to paper through the whole summer, except on mere business, because I knew it was a prying season. I received from time to time papers under your superscription, which showed that our friends were not inattentive to the great operation which was agitating the nation. You are by this time apprised of the embarrassment produced by the equality of votes between the two republican candidates. The contrivance in the Constitution for marking the votes works badly, because it does not enounce precisely the true expression of the public will. We do not see what is to be the issue of the present difficulty. The federalists, among whom those of the republican section are not the strongest, propose to prevent an election in Congress, and to transfer the government by an act to the C. J. (Jay) or Secretary of State, or to let it devolve on the President pro tem. of the Senate, till next December, which gives them another year's predominance, and the chances of future events. The republicans propose to press forward to an election. If they fail in this, a concert between the two higher candidates may prevent the dissolution of the government and danger of anarchy, by an operation, bungling indeed and imperfect, but better than letting the Legislature take the nomination of the Executive entirely from the people. Excuse the infrequency of my acknowledgments of your kind attentions. The danger of interruption makes it prudent for me not to indulge my personal wishes in that way. I pray you to accept assurances of my great esteem.
TO DR. WILLIAMSON.
Washington, January 10, 1801.
Dear Sir,—I should sooner have acknowledged your favor of December 8th, but for a growing and pressing correspondence which I can scarcely manage. I was particularly happy to receive the diary of Quebec, as about the same time I happened to receive one from the Natchez, so as to be able to make a comparison of them. The result was a wonder that any human being should remain in a cold country who could find room in a warm one,—should prefer 32º to 55º. Harry Hill has told me that the temperature of Madeira is generally from 55º to 65º, its extreme about 50º and 70º. If I ever change my climate for health, it should be for that Island. I do not know that the coincidence has ever been remarked between the new moon and the greater degrees of cold, or the full moon and the lesser degrees; or that the reflected beams of the moon attemper the weather at all. On the contrary, I think I have understood that the most powerful concave mirror presented to the moon, and throwing its focus on the bulb of a thermometer, does not in the least effect it. I suppose the opinion to be universal that the turkey is a native of America. Nobody, as far as I know, has ever contradicted it but Daines Barrington; and the arguments he produces are such as none but a head, entangled and kinked as his is, would ever have urged. Before the discovery of America, no such bird is mentioned in a single author, all those quoted by Barrington, by description referring to the crane, hen, pheasant or peacock; but the book of every traveller, who came to America soon after its discovery, is full of accounts of the turkey and its abundance; and immediately after that discovery we find the turkey served up at the feasts of Europe, as their most extraordinary rarity. Mr. William Strickland, the eldest son of St. George Strickland, of York, in England, told me the anecdote. Some ancestor of his commanded a vessel in the navigations of Cabot. Having occasion to consult the Herald's office concerning his family, he found a petition from that ancestor to the crown, stating that Cabot's circumstances being slender, he had been rewarded by the bounties he needed from the crown; that as to himself, he asked nothing in that way, but that as a consideration for his services in the same way, he might be permitted to assume for the crest of his family arms, the turkey, an American bird; and Mr. Strickland observed that their crest is actually a turkey. You ask whether we may be quoted. In the first place, I now state the thing from memory, and may be inexact in some small circumstances. Mr. Strickland too, stated it to me in a conversation, and not considering it of importance, might be inexact too. We should both dislike to be questioned before the public for any little inaccuracy of style or recollection. I think if you were to say that the Herald's office may be referred to in proof of the fact, it would be authority sufficient, without naming us. I have at home a note of Mr. Strickland's information, which I then committed to paper. My situation does not allow me to refresh my memory from this. I shall be glad to see your book make its appearance; and I am sure it will be well received by the Philosophical part of the world, for I still dare to use the word philosophy, notwithstanding the war waged against it by bigotry and despotism. Health, respect and friendly salutations.