On the present occasion, the President will be
on the spot, so that what is now to be done respects myself alone: and
considering that the season of notification will always present one
difficulty, that the distance in the present case adds a second, not
inconsiderable, and which may in future happen to be sometimes much more
considerable, I hope the Senate will adopt that method of notification,
which will always be least troublesome and most certain. The channel
of the post is certainly the least troublesome, is the most rapid, and,
considering also that it may be sent by duplicates and triplicates,
is unquestionably the most certain. Indorsed to the postmaster at
Charlottesville, with an order to send it by express, no hazard
can endanger the notification. Apprehending, that should there be
a difference of opinion on this subject in the senate, my ideas of
self-respect might be supposed by some to require something more formal
and inconvenient, I beg leave to avail myself of your friendship to
declare, if a different proposition should make it necessary, that I
consider the channel of the post-office as the most eligible in every
respect, and that it is to me the most desirable; which I take the
liberty of expressing, not with a view of encroaching on the respect
due to that discretion which the Senate have a right to exercise on the
occasion, but to render them the more free in the exercise of it, by
taking off whatsoever weight the supposition of a contrary desire in me
might have on the mind of any member.
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