The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 9 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 9 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
being the first time he had met his cabinet, on expressing ideas of this
kind, he had been at once diverted from them, and returned to his former
party views.
* * * * *
July, 1797. Murray is rewarded for his services by an appointment to
Amsterdam; W. Smith of Charleston, to Lisbon.
* * * * *
August the 24th. About the time of the British treaty, Hamilton and
Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, dined together, and Hamilton drank freely.
Conversing on the treaty, Talleyrand says, "mais vraiment Monsieur
Hamilton, ce n'est pas _bien honnete_, after making the Senate ratify
the treaty, to advise the President to reject it." "The treaty," says
Hamilton, "is an execrable one, and Jay was an old woman for making it;
but the whole credit of saving us from it must be given to the President."
After circumstances had led to a conclusion that the President also must
ratify it, he said to the same Talleyrand, "though the treaty is a most
execrable one, yet when once we have come to a determination on it, we
must carry it through thick and thin, right or wrong." Talleyrand told
this to Volney, who told it to me.
There is a letter now appearing in the papers, from Pickering to Monroe,
dated July the 24th, 1797, which I am satisfied is written by Hamilton.
He was in Philadelphia at that date.
* * * * *
December the 26th, 1797. Langdon tells me, that at the second election
of President and Vice-President of the United States, when there was a
considerable vote given to Clinton in opposition to Mr. Adams, he took
occasion to remark it in conversation in the Senate chamber with Mr.
Adams, who, gritting his teeth, said, "damn 'em, damn 'em, damn 'em, you
see that an elective government will not do." He also tells me that Mr.
Adams, in a late conversation, said, "republicanism must be disgraced,
Sir." The Chevalier Yruho called on him at Braintree, and conversing on
French affairs, and Yruho expressing his belief of their stability, in
opposition to Mr. Adams, the latter lifting up and shaking his finger
at him, said, "I'll tell you what, the French republic will not last
three months." This I had from Yruho.
Harper, lately in a large company, was saying that the best thing the
friends of the French could do, was to pray for the restoration of
their monarch. "Then," says a bystander, "the best thing we could do,
I suppose, would be to pray for the establishment of a monarch in the
United States." "Our people," says Harper, "are not yet ripe for it, but
it is the best thing we can come to, and we shall come to it." Something
like this was said in presence of Findlay. He now denies it in the public
papers, though it can be proved by several members.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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