Vermont chose a Republican governor and a legislature Republican in both branches. In Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey the Administration recovered more than the ground lost by the embargo. In Maryland the feud between Samuel Smith and his opponents was ended by a Republican majority so large that nothing could prevent Smith’s return to the Senate, although every one knew that he would carry on a system of personal opposition, if he dared, and that a moderate Federalist would be less dangerous to the Administration. In the general return of deserters to the ranks, the party would not be too strict in its punishments; and the President set the example by clemency to the worst offender, except John Randolph, of all the trusted lieutenants in the party service. He held out a hand to Monroe. Madison’s reasons for winning Monroe were strong. The more he had to do with Robert Smith, the more intolerable became the incubus of Smith’s incompetence. He had been obliged to take the negotiations with Erskine and Jackson wholly on his own shoulders. The papers drafted by Smith were, as Madison declared,[123] brought from the Department of State in a condition “almost always so crude and inadequate that I was, in the more important cases, generally obliged to write them anew myself, under the disadvantage sometimes of retaining through delicacy some mixture of his draft.” Smith had not even the virtue of dullness. He could not be silent, but talked openly, and criticised freely the measures of Government, especially those of commercial restriction. Complicated with this incessant annoyance was Gallatin’s feud. The combination of the Smiths with Giles, Leib, and Duane’s “Aurora” against Gallatin had its counterpart in the Clintonian faction which made Madison its target; and whenever these two forces acted together, they made, with the Federalists, a majority of the Senate. Gallatin saw the necessity of breaking down this combination of intrigue which had already done incalculable harm by forcing Robert Smith into the State Department. He foresaw the effects of its influence in weakening the Treasury in order to expel himself. On a visit to Monticello in August he spoke plainly to Jefferson and Madison, and pointed out the probability that he should be forced to resign. Jefferson reflected six weeks on this communication, and then wrote entreating him to stand firm.[124] November 8, the day of the rupture with Jackson, Gallatin answered Jefferson’s appeal in a long and outspoken letter evidently meant for communication to Madison:--