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His lax lounging manners have made him popular with the bulk of the people of Richmond, & a profound hypocrisy with many thinking men of our country. But having come forth in the plenitude of his English principles the latter will see that it is high time to make him known. His doctrine that the whole commercial part of the treaty (& he might have added the whole unconstitutional part of it) rests in the power of the H. of R. is certainly the true doctrine; & as the articles which stipulate what requires the consent of the three branches of the legislature, must be referred to the H. of R. for their concurrence, so they, being free agents, may approve or reject them, either by a vote declaring that, or by refusing to pass acts. I should think the former mode the most safe & honorable. The people in this part of the country continue very firmly disposed against the treaty. I imagine the 50. negative votes comprehend the whole force of the Alexandrian party & the bigots & passive obedience men of the whole state who have got themselves into the legislature. I observe an expression in Randolph's printed secret intimating that the Presi dent, tho' an honest man himself, may be circumvented by snares & artifices, & is in fact surrounded by men who wish to clothe the Executive with more than constitutional powers. This when public, will make great impression. It is not only a truth, but a truth levelled to every capacity & will justify to themselves the most zealous votaries, for ceasing to repose the unlimited confidence they have done in the measures which have been pursued. Communicate the enclosed

paper, if you please, to Mr. Giles. Our autumn is fine. The weather mild & intermixed with moderate rains at proper intervals. No ice yet, & not much. frost. Adieu.

TO EDWARD RUTLEDGE.1

MONTICELLO Nov 30. 95.

MY DEAR SIR,-I received your favor of Oct. 12 by your son, who has been kind enough to visit me here, and from whose visit I have received all that pleasure which I do from whatever comes from you, and especially from a subject so deservedly dear to you. He found me in a retirement I doat on, living like an Antediluvian patriarch among my children & grand children, and tilling my soil. As he had lately come from Philadelphia, Boston &c he was able to give me a great deal of information of what is passing in the world & I pestered him with questions pretty much as our friends Lynch, Nelson &c will us when we step across the Styx, for they will wish to hear what has been passing above ground since they left us. You hope I have not abandoned entirely the service of our country. After a five & twenty years continual employment in it, I trust it will be thought I have fulfilled my tour, like a punctual soldier, and may claim my discharge. But I am glad of the sentiment from you my friend, because it gives a hope you will practice what you preach, and come forward in aid of the public vessel. I will not

1 From the original in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

admit your old excuse, that you are in public service tho' at home. The campaigns which are fought in a man's own house are not to be counted. The present situation of the President, unable to get the offices filled, really calls with uncommon obligation on those whom nature has fitted for them. I join with you in thinking the treaty an execrable thing. But both negotiators must have understood that as there were articles in it which could not be carried into execution without the aid of the legislatures on both sides, that therefore it must be referred to them, and that these legislatures being free agents would not give it their support if they disapproved of it. I trust the popular branch of our legislature will disapprove of it, and thus rid us of this infamous act, which is really nothing more than a treaty of alliance between England & the Anglomen of this country against the legislature & people of the United States. I told your son I had long had it in contemplation to write to you for half a dozen sour orange trees, of a proper size for small boxes, as they abound with you.

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only trouble they would give would be the putting them into boxes long enough before sending them for them to take root, & when rooted to put them into some vessel coming direct to Richmond to the care of mr Daniel Hylton there. Your son is kind enough to undertake the commission. With constant & unchanged affections I am my dear friend.

TO WILLIAM BRANCH GILES.1

MONTICELLO Dec. 31. 95.

DEAR SIR,-Your favors of Dec. 15. & 20. came to hand by the last post. I am well pleased with the manner in which your house has testified their sense of the treaty. While their refusal to pass the original clause of the reported answer proved their condemnation of it, the contrivance to let it disappear silently respected appearances in favor of the President, who errs as other men do, but errs with integrity. Randolph seems to have hit upon the true theory of our constitution, that when a treaty is made, involving matters confided by the constitution to the three branches of the legislature conjointly, the representatives are as free as the President & Senate were to consider whether the national interest requires or forbids their giving the forms & force of law to the articles over which they have a power.—I thank you much for the pamphlet his narrative is so straight & plain, that even those who did not know him will acquit him of the charge of bribery; those who knew him had done it from the first. Tho' he mistakes his own political character in the aggregate, yet he gives it to you in the detail. Thus he supposes himself a man of no party (page 97,) that his opinions not containing any systematic adherence to party, fall sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other. (pa. 58.) Yet he gives you these facts, which shew that they fall generally on both sides, & are complete inconsistencies-1. He never gave an opinion in the

1 From a copy courteously furnished by Dr. J. S. H. Fogg, of Boston.

Cabinet against the rights of the people (pa. 97.) yet he advised the denunciation of the popular societies. (67.) 2. He would not neglect the overtures of a commercial treaty with France (79) yet he always opposed it while atty-general, and never seems to have proposed it while Secretary of State. 3. He concurs in resorting to the militia to quell the pretended insurrection in the west (81.) and proposes an augmentation from 12.500 to 15.000 to march against men at their ploughs, (pa. 80.) yet on the 5th of Aug. he is against their marching (83. 101.) and on the 25th of Aug. he is for it. (84.) 4. He concurs in the measure of a mission extraordinary to London (as inferred from pa. 58.) but objects to the men, to wit Hamilton & Jay (58.) 5. He was against granting commercial powers to Mr. Jay (58.) yet he besieged the doors of the Senate to procure their advice to ratify.-6. He advises the President to a ratification on the merits of the treaty (-7.) but to a suspension till the provision order is repealed. (98.) The fact is that he has generally given his principles to the one party & his practice to the other; the oyster to one, the shell to the other. Unfortunately the shell was generally the lot of his friends the French and republicans, & the oyster of their antagonists. Had he been firm to the principles he professes in the year 1793. the President would have been kept from a habitual concert with the British & Antirepublican party, but at that time I do not know which R. feared most, a British fleet, or French disorganisers. Whether his conduct is to be

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