improbable that it would have been obtained by the federal party, if Alexander Hamilton had not written a pamphlet to prove Mr. Adams's unfitness for the office. But while General Hamilton wished to defeat Mr. Adams's election, he was desirous of promoting General Pinckney's: if so, his object was only half attained. It is said that his course was dictated by resentment, in consequence of Mr. Adams having resisted the wishes of his cabinet to give the second appointment in the provisional army to Hamilton.

In the month of December, when the issue of the election was ascertained, Mr. Jefferson, not anticipating that equality of votes between Colonel Burr and himself which would carry the election to the House of Representatives, began to look about for the formation of his cabinet, and having concurred with the general voice of the nation in selecting Mr. Madison for the department of state, and Mr. Gallatin for the treasury, he wrote to Mr. Robert R. Livingston, to offer him the place of secretary of the navy. He spoke of the importance of having persons of talent, integrity, and who were known to the people, in the administration, now that the government was to be restored to its truc republican principles, instead of continuing what the French had termed it, a monarchie masque.

Congress met in Washington, the new seat of government, on the 17th of November, and then ascertained that all differences had been settled with France. By a recent revolution of the political wheel, the executive power of that country had lately passed into new hands, and was chiefly directed by him whose will governed the destinies of France for fifteen years afterwards-the most extraordinary man of his age, whether we regard the fitness of his talents and energy of purpose to the country and circumstances in which

seven states, the federalists of six. Those of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina were divided between them.

he was placed, the singular success which rewarded them, or that total reverse of fortune which left him nothing but his matchless fame. When Napoleon Bonaparte first appeared above the horizon, in the stormy night of the revolution, it was as the friendly star which lights the tempest-tost mariner to safety. While this new luminary rapidly ascended and increased in brightness, the admiring world was in doubt whether it betokened good or evil; but when it had culminated to the zenith, it appeared a baleful meteor, casting a disastrous twilight on the surrounding gloom, and portending despotism to France and subjugation to the rest of Europe, until, descending yet more rapidly than it rose, it left a long track of glory in the heavens, which the world, now relieved from its fears, has not yet ceased to regard with wonder, curiosity, and delight.

On the 15th of December, when a precise return of the votes had not been received, Mr. Jefferson wrote to Colonel Burr, and informed him of the reports in circulation that he had received a smaller number of votes than himself in some of the states, yet still enough to put him before Mr. Adams. He at the same time expressed his regret that he should lose the benefit of Colonel Burr's talents in the cabinet. The language used on this occasion has been thought inconsistent with a remark made in his diary, that Colonel Burr's conduct had, very soon after their acquaintance, "inspired him with distrust." * The passage in this letter runs thus ::- "I feel most sensibly the loss we sustain of your aid in our new administration. It leaves a chasm in my arrangements, which cannot be adequately filled up. I had endeavoured to compose an administration whose talents, integrity, names, and dispositions, should at once inspire unbounded confidence in the public mind, and insure a perfect harmony

* Jeff. Corr., Vol. IV. p. 520.

in the conduct of the public business. I lose you from the list, and am not sure of all the others. Should the gentlemen who possess the public confidence decline taking a part in their affairs, and force us to take people unknown to the people, the evil genius of this country [meaning Hamilton] may realize his avowal, that he will beat down the administration." But surely it is not at all extraordinary that this favourable testimony of Colonel Burr's qualifications, founded quite as much on his popularity as on his talents and integrity, should be at variance with Mr. Jefferson's opinion at a previous or a subsequent period; or that when in 1801 Burr had excited suspicions of his good faith, and in 1806 and 1807 had proved himself undeserving, Mr. Jefferson should have returned to his first unfavourable impressions.

As soon as it was ascertained that between Jefferson and Burr the votes were equal, the federalists began to devise means of turning it to their account, either by defeating the election altogether, as some of the more violent and unprincipled of the party wished, or to effect the election of Burr, partly for the sake of disappointing the wishes of their political rivals, and partly because they considered that, both from his character and his gratitude to them for the unlooked-for and unmerited favour, he would probably be more pliant to their wishes. Mr. Jefferson discloses these schemes in a letter to Mr. Madison of the 19th of December. "This state of things," he remarked, "has produced great dismay and gloom on the republican gentlemen here, and exultation in the federalists, who openly declare they will prevent an election, and will name a president of the Senate pro tem., by what they say would only be a stretch of the constitution." He added, that as soon as the state of the election was perfectly ascertained, he should aim at a candid understanding with Mr. Adams, and that he did not expect that either his feelings or his views would be opposed to it.

A week afterwards he wrote to Mr. Madison, "The federalists appear determined to prevent an election, and to pass a bill giving the government to Mr. Jay, reappointed chief justice, or to Marshall as secretary of state. The French treaty will be violently opposed by the federalists; the giving up the vessels [captured from the French] 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." Yet the next Congress did not hesitate to remove the difficulty by repealing the law.

While the public was anxiously looking at the course which Congress would pursue, every scheme was put in requisition which could in any way influence the decision; and among others an attempt to excite jealousy between the two republican candidates. It seems, by what Mr. Jefferson wrote to Colonel Burr on the 1st of February, that a letter had been exhibited in New York, or was said to have been exhibited, from Mr. Jefferson to Judge Breckenridge of Pennsylvania, in which the writer was said to have spoken injuriously of Colonel Burr. He declares it to be utterly false, and that he never wrote but one letter to that gentleman, which is the one before referred to, and of which he sends a copy, that he may see that it is free from such imputation.

Governor McKean of Pennsylvania had written to him in December to consult him about the best remedy for the interference of the officers of the federal government in the elections, and in his reply on the 2nd of February, Mr. Jefferson expresses a principle, which he afterwards acted on, that "interferences with elections, whether of the state or general government, by officers of the latter, should be deemed causes of removal; because the constitutional re

medy by the elective principle becomes nothing, if it may be smothered by the enormous patronage of the general government."

On the 2nd of February, though he considered that a strong party in the House of Representatives would prevent an election if they could, he thought they would not be able to effect it, as there were eight votes certain in his favour, and if any one of six individuals of known moderation, joining the republican party, would give him another vote, he would of course have a majority.

Some days afterwards one of the six alluded to declared that he would change the vote he had intended to give, and make the ninth state for Mr. Jefferson, but on the 7th he altered his mind, and when the ballot came on, on the 11th, there were eight votes for Mr. Jefferson and six for Colonel Burr; and so they continued, without a single change in the number or description of the votes, during the thirty-six ballots which were given, and which occupied six days.

The House of Representatives now presented a singular scene the sole business of the House being confined to the process of balloting, and the result always showing an adherence by every member to his first purpose-some of the members conducting themselves in one way and some in another, according to their various characters and tempers; a portion of the republican party, gloomy, suspicious, and resentful, auguring the worst consequences, and preparing their minds for the most desperate results: others, more sanguine, looking forward to a happy termination of the contest, which they laboured to bring about by the arts of blandishment and conciliation. A few, quietly and steadily doing their duty, determined neither to frustrate the wishes of the people, by changing their votes, nor to submit to any unconstitutional expedient which a majority of both Houses might