I confirmed him in the fact of the great discontents to
the south; that they were grounded on seeing that their judgments
and interests were sacrificed to those of the eastern States on every
occasion, and their belief that it was the effect of a corrupt squadron
of voters in Congress, at the command of the Treasury; and they see that
if the votes of those members who had any interest distinct from,
and contrary to the general interest of their constituents, had been
withdrawn, as in decency and honesty they should have been, the laws
would have been the reverse of what they are on all the great questions.
I instanced the new Assumption carried in the House of Representatives
by the Speaker's vote. On this subject he made no reply. He explained
his remaining in office to have been the effect of strong solicitations
after he returned here; declaring that he had never mentioned his
purpose of going out but to the Heads of departments and Mr. Madison; he
expressed the extreme wretchedness of his existence while in office,
and went lengthily into the late attacks on him for levees, &c.
and explained to me how he had been led into them by the persons he
consulted at New York; and that if he could but know what the sense of
the public was, he would most cheerfully conform to it.
February the 16th, 1793. E. Randolph tells J. Madison and myself, a
curious fact which he had from Lear. When the President went to New
York, he resisted for three weeks the efforts to introduce levees.
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