I learn from Richmond, that
those who think with us there are in a state of perfect dismay, not
knowing what to do, or what to propose. Mr. Gordon, our representative,
particularly, has written to me in very desponding terms, not disposed
to yield, indeed, but pressing for opinions and advice on the subject.
I have no doubt you are pressed in the same way, and I hope you have
devised and recommended something to them. If you have, stop here and
read no more, but consider all that follows as _non avenue_. I shall
be better satisfied to adopt implicitly any thing which you may have
advised, than any thing occurring to myself. For I have long ceased
to think on subjects of this kind, and pay little attention to public
proceedings. But if you have done nothing in it, then I risk for your
consideration what has occurred to me, and is expressed in the enclosed
paper. Bailey's propositions, which came to hand since I wrote the
paper, and which I suppose to have come from the President himself, show
a little hesitation in the purposes of his party; and in that state of
mind, a bolt shot critically may decide the contest, by its effect on
the less bold. The olive-branch held out to them at this moment may be
accepted, and the constitution thus saved at a moderate sacrifice. I say
nothing of the paper, which will explain itself. The following heads of
consideration, or some of them, may weigh in its favor.
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