That I had constantly kept my eye on my own home,
and could no longer refrain from returning to it. As to himself, his
presence was important; that he was the only man in the United States
who possessed the confidence of the whole; that government was founded
in opinion and confidence, and that the longer he remained, the stronger
would become the habits of the people in submitting to the government,
and in thinking it a thing to be maintained; that there was no other
person, who would be thought any thing more than the head of a party. He
then expressed his concern at the difference which he found to subsist
between the Secretary of the Treasury and myself, of which he said he
had not been aware. He knew, indeed, that there was a marked difference
in our political sentiments, but he had never suspected it had gone so
far in producing a personal difference, and he wished he could be the
mediator to put an end to it. That he thought it important to preserve
the check of my opinions in the administration, in order to keep things
in their proper channel, and prevent them from going too far. That as
to the idea of transforming this government into a monarchy, he did
not believe there were ten men in the United States whose opinions were
worth attention, who entertained such a thought. I told him there were
many more than he imagined. I recalled to his memory a dispute at
his own table, a little before we left Philadelphia, between General
Schuyler on one side and Pinckney and myself on the other, wherein the
former maintained the position, that hereditary descent was as likely to
produce good magistrates as election.
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