“This offer to you is an indication of a disposition in Mr. Madison to relieve himself of the burden [of certain persons and measures]; and if you suffer yourself to lose the benefit of this disposition, another will gain it to your inestimable injury. Suppose this other should be a competitor for the Presidency, will it not be a decisive advantage over you? General Armstrong is probably taking measures for this object.... One consideration of great weight is that the public think you an honest man. If this opinion is true, the acceptance seems to be a duty toward relieving it from the suspicion that there are too many avaricious or ambitious intriguers of apparent influence in the government. I suppose the President and Gallatin (whom I know) to be wholly guided by what they think to be the public good; and should you happen to concur with them, it will abate much of the jealousy (though I hope it will never be smothered) with which Executive designs are viewed; and to moderate it, under the perilous situation of the country, is in my view desirable.” The country reached a perilous pass when John Taylor of Caroline made plans to strengthen the Executive; but he could not have calculated on Monroe’s readiness to follow this course so far as it ended in leading him. Taylor’s advice threw Monroe into the full current of Executive influence. Alliance with Madison and Gallatin, rupture with France, antagonism to the Smiths and Clintons, jealousy of Armstrong, and defiance of Duane were sound policy, and united honesty with self-interest; but their success depended on elements that Taylor could not measure. That Monroe shared these views, that they were in fact the common stock of his personal party, might be seen not only in his previous letters, but even more in his reply to Senator Brent,[289] written March 18.