He said, if
that was the case, he thought it a proof of their insanity, for that the
republican spirit of the Union was so manifest and so solid, that it was
astonishing how any one could expect to move it.
He returned to the difficulty of naming my successor; he said Mr.
Madison would be his first choice, but that he had always expressed to
him such a decision against public office, that he could not expect he
would undertake it. Mr. Jay would prefer his present office. He said
that Mr. Jay had a great opinion of the talents of Mr. King; that there
was also Mr. Smith of South Carolina, and E. Rutledge: but he observed,
that, name whom he would, some objections would be made, some would be
called speculators, some one thing, some another; and he asked me to
mention any characters occurring to me. I asked him if Governor Johnson
of Maryland had occurred to him. He said he had; that he was a man
of great good sense, an honest man, and, he believed, clear of
speculations: but this, says he, is an instance of what I was observing;
with all these qualifications, Governor Johnson, from a want of
familiarity with foreign affairs, would be in them like a fish out of
water; every thing would be new to him, and he awkward in every thing.
I confessed to him that I had considered Johnson rather as fit for the
Treasury department. 'Yes,' says he, 'for that he would be the fittest
appointment that could be made; he is a man acquainted with figures, and
having as good a knowledge of the resources of this country as any man.
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