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HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER X.

RETROSPECT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

INAUG

URATION OF THE NEW PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESI-
DENT. RELATIONS WITH FRANCE. CALLED SESSION OF
THE FIFTH CONGRESS. EXTRAORDINARY MISSION TO
FRANCE.

WHILE the result of the presidential election still re- CHAPTER

X.

mained in doubt, Jefferson had written to Madison to express his desire, should he and Adams have an equal vote, 1796. that Adams might be preferred as president. "He has Dec. 15. always been my senior, from the commencement of our public life, and the expression of the public will being equal, this circumstance ought to give him the preference." This haste to provide for a double contingency, an equal vote in the electoral colleges, and an equal vote in the House of Representatives, without which Jefferson's declination in favor of Adams could not come into play, might seem a little premature. The offer was also perfectly safe, since there was not the least danger that Jefferson's political friends would incline to indulge him in this amiable weakness. Yet there is reason to believe that on this occasion, for once at least, Jefferson was sincere. "I am really anxious," the letter adds, "to see the speech"-meaning Washington's speech at the opening of the session of Congress. "It must exhibit a very different picture of our foreign affairs from

X.

CHAPTER that presented in the adieu"-Washington's Farewell Address" or it will little correspond with my views of 1796. them. I think they never wore so gloomy an aspect since the year 1783. Let those come to the helm who thing they can steer clear of difficulties. I have no confidence in myself for the undertaking."

Dec. 27.

In a letter to Edward Rutledge, written some ten days after, and when the result of the election was better known, he denies, "on his salvation," the having had any thing to do with his having been voted for as president; at the same time dexterously hinting that Rutledge himself, had he chosen to take part in public affairs, might have been the candidate. He then protests "before his God" his joy at not being chosen. "I have no ambition," he adds, "to govern men, no passion which would lead me to delight to ride in a storm. The newspapers will permit me to plant my corn, pease, &c., in hills or drills, as I please (and my oranges, by-the-by, when you send them), while our Eastern friend will be struggling with the storm which is gathering over us, perhaps be shipwrecked in it. This is certainly not a moment to covet the helm."

Had Jefferson been chosen president, he could not but have found himself in a most embarrassing situation; one even more perplexing than that of which, in his intercourse as Secretary of State with Genet, he had already had a bitter experience. To have satisfied the expectations of the ultra French faction in the United States, and of the French government itself, which had taken so affectionate an interest in his election, consistently with his own honor and that of his country, would have been difficult indeed. Here was a crisis, especially considering Jefferson's peculiar situation in reference to it, which might well make a bolder man

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