[Previous page]...n. After going through these I told him that I had for
some time suspended speaking with him on the subject of my going out
of office because I had understood that the bill for intercourse with
foreign nations was likely to be rejected by the Senate in which case
the remaining business of the department would be too inconsiderable
to make it worth while to keep it up. But that the bill being now
passed I was freed from the considerations of propriety which had
embarrassed me. That &c. (nearly in the words of a letter to Mr. T.
M. Randolph of a few days ago) and that I should be willing, if he
had taken no arrangemts. to the contrary to continue somewhat longer,
how long I could not say, perhaps till summer, perhaps autumn. He
said so far from taking arrangements on the subject, he had never
mentioned to any mortal the design of retiring which I had expressed
to him, till yesterday having heard that I had given up my house &
that it was rented by another, thereupon he mentd. it to Mr. E.
Randolph & asked him, as he knew my retirement had been talked of,
whether he had heard any persons suggested in conversations to
succeed me. He expressed his satisfn at my change of purpose, & his
apprehensions that my retirement would be a new source of uneasiness
to the public. He said Govr. Lee had that day informed of the genl.
discontent prevailing in Virga of which he never had had any
conception, much less sound informn: That it appeared to him very
alarming. He proceeded to express his earnest wish that Hamilton &
myself could coalesce in the measures of the govmt, and urged here
the general reasons for it which he had done to me on two former
conversns. He said he had proposed the same thing to Ham. who
expresd his readiness, and he thought our coalition would secure the
general acquiescence of the public. I told him my concurrence was of
much less importce than he seemed to imagine; that I kept myself
aloof from all cabal & correspondence on the subject of the govmt &
saw & spoke with as few as I could. That as to a coalition with Mr.
Hamilton, if by that was meant that either was to sacrifice his
general system to the other, it was impossible. We had both no doubt
formed our conclusions after the most mature consideration and
principles conscientiously adopted could not be given up on either
side. My wish was to see both houses of Congr. cleansed of all
persons interested in the bank or public stocks; & that a pure
legislature being given us, I should always be ready to acquiesce
under their determns even if contrary to my own opns, for that I
subscribe to the principle that the will of the majority honestly
expressed should give law. I confirmed him in the fact of the great
discontents to the South, that they were grounded on seeing that
their judgmts & interests were sacrificed to those of the Eastern
states on every occn. & their belief that it was the effect of a
corrupt squadron of voters in Congress at the command of the
Treasury, & they see that if the votes of those members who had an
interest distinct from & contrary to the general interest of their
constts had been withdrawn, as in decency & honesty they should have
been, the laws would have been the reverse of what they are in all
the great questions. I instanced the new assumption carried in the
H. of Repr. by the Speaker's votes. On this subject he made no
reply. He explained his remaing. in office to have been the effect
of strong solicitations after he returned here declaring that he had
never mentd. his purpose of going out but to the heads of depnts &
Mr. Madison; he expressed the extreme wretchedness of his existence
while in office, and went lengthily into the late attacks on him for
levees &c -- and explained to me how he had been led into them by the
persons he consulted at New York, and that if he could but know what
the sense of the public was, he would most cheerfully conform to it.
Aug 6. 1793. The President calls on me at my house in the
country, and introduces my letter of July 31. announcing that I
should resign at the close of the next month. He again expressed his
repentance at not having resigned himself, and how much it was
increased by seeing that he was to be deserted by those on whose aid
he had counted: that he did not know where he should look to find
characters to fill up the offices, that mere talents did not suffice
for the departmt of state, but it required a person conversant in
foreign affairs, perhaps acquainted with foreign courts, that without
this the best talents would be awkward & at a loss. He told me that
Colo. Hamilton had 3. or 4. weeks ago written to him, informg him
that private as well as public reasons had brought him to the
determination to retire, & that he should do it towards the close of
the next session. He said he had often before intimated dispositions
to resign, but never as decisively before: that he supposed he had
fixed on the latter part of next session to give an opportunity to
Congress to examine into his conduct; that our going out at times so
different increased his difficulty, for if he had both places to fill
at one he might consult both the particular talents & geographical
situation of our successors. He expressed great apprehensions at the
fermentation which seemed to be working in the mind of the public,
that many descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes
appeared to be uniting, what it would end in he knew not, a new
Congress was to assemble, more numerous, perhaps of a different
spirit; the first expressions of their sentiments would be important:
if I would only stay to the end of that it would relieve him
considerably.
I expressed to him my excessive repugnance to public life, the
particular uneasiness of my situation in this place where the laws of
society oblige me always to move exactly in the circle which I know
to bear me peculiar hatred, that is to say the wealthy aristocrats,
the merchants connected closely with England, the new created paper
fortunes; that thus surrounded, my words were caught, multiplied,
misconstrued, & even fabricated & spread abroad to my injury, that he
saw also that there was such an opposition of views between myself &
another part of the admn as to render it peculiarly unpleasing, and
to destroy the necessary harmony. Without knowg the views of what is
called the Republican party here, or havg any communication with
them, I could undertake to assure him from my intimacy with that
party in the late Congress, that there was not a view in the
Republican party as spread over the U S. which went to the frame of
the government, that I believed the next Congress would attempt
nothing material but to render their own body independant, that that
party were firm in their dispositions to support the government: that
the manoeuvres of Mr. Genet might produce some little embarrassment,
but that he would be abandoned by the Republicans the moment they
knew the nature of his conduct, and on the whole no crisis existed
which threatened anything.
He said he believed the views of the Republican party were
perfectly pure, but when men put a machine into motion it is
impossible for them to stop it exactly where they would chuse or to
say where it will stop. That the constn we have is an excellent one
if we can keep it where it is, that it was indeed supposed there was
a party disposed to change it into a monarchical form, but that he
could conscientiously declare there was not a man in the U S. who
would set his face more decidedly against it than himself. Here I
interrupted him by saying "no rational man in the U S. suspects you
of any other disposn, but there does not pass a week in which we
cannot prove declns dropping from the monarchical party that our
governmt is good for nothing, it is a milk & water thing which cannot
support itself, we must knock it down & set up something of more
energy." -- He said if that was the case he thought it a proof of
their insanity, for that the republican spirit of the Union was so
manifest and so solid that it was astonishg how any one could expect
to move them.
He returned to the difficulty of naming my successor, he said
Mr. Madison would be his first choice, but that he had always
expressed to him such a decision against public office that he could
not expect he would undertake it. Mr. Jay would prefer his present
office. He sd that Mr. Jay had a great opinion of the talents of Mr.
King, that there was also Mr. Smith of S. Carola: E. Rutledge &c. but
he observed that name whom he would some objections would be made,
some would be called speculators, some one thing, some another, and
he asked me to mention any characters occurrg to me. I asked him if
Govr. Johnson of Maryld. had occurred to him? He said he had, that
he was a man of great good sense, an honest man, & he believed clear
of speculations, but this says he is an instance of what I was
observing, with all these qualifications Govr. Johnson, from a want
of familiarity with foreign affairs, would be in them like a fish out
of water, everything would be new to him, & he awkward in everything.
I confessed to him that I had considered Johnson rather as fit for
the Treasury department. Yes, says he, for that he would be the
fittest appointment that could be made; he is a man acquainted with
figures, & having as good a knowledge of the resources of this
country as any man. I asked him if Chancr. Livingston had occurred
to him? He said yes, but he was from N. York, & to appoint him while
Hamilton was in & before it should be known he was going out, would
excite a newspaper conflagration, as the ultimate arrangement would
not be known. He said McLurg had occurred to him as a man of first
rate abilities, but it is said that he is a speculator. He asked me
what sort of a man Wolcott was. I told him I knew nothing of him
myself; I had heard him characterized as a cunning man. I asked him
whether some person could not take my office par interim, till he
should make an apptment? as Mr. Randolph for instance. Yes, says he,
but there you would raise the expectation of keeping it, and I do not
know that he is fit for it nor what is thought of Mr. Randolph. I
avoided noticing the last observation, & he put the question to me
directly. I then told him that I went into society so little as to
be unable to answer it: I knew that the embarrassments in his private
affairs had obliged him to use expedts which had injured him with the
merchts & shop-keepers & affected his character of independance; that
these embarrassments were serious, & not likely to cease soon. He
said if I would only stay in till the end of another quarter (the
last of Dec.) it would get us through the difficulties of this year,
and he was satisfied that the affairs of Europe would be settled with
this campaign; for that either France would be overwhelmed by it, or
the confederacy would give up the contest. By that time too Congress
will have manifested it's character & view. I told him that I had
set my private affairs in motion in a line which had powerfully
called for my presence the last spring, & that they had suffered
immensely from my not going home; that I had now calculated them to
my return in the fall, and to fail in going then would be the loss of
another year, & prejudicial beyond measure. I asked him whether he
could not name Govr. Johnson to my office, under an express
arrangement that at the close of the session he should take that of
the treasury. He said that men never chose to descend: that being
once in a higher department he would not like to go into a lower one
(* 2). And he concluded by desiring that I would take 2. or 3. days
to consider whether I could not stay in till the end of another
quarter, for that like a man going to the gallows, he was willing to
put it off as long as he could: but if I persisted, he must then look
about him & make up his mind to do the best ...
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