I enclose
for your perusal a poem on the alien-bill, written by Mr. Marshall. I
do this, as well for your amusement, as to get you to take care of
this copy for me till I return; for it will be lost by lending it, if
I retain it here, as the publication was suppressed after the sale of
a few copies, of which I was fortunate enough to get one. Your locks
hinges, &c. shall be immediately attended to.
My respectful salutations and friendship to Mrs. Madison, to the family,
and to yourself. Adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
P. S. The President, it is said, has refused an Exequatur to the Consul
General of France, Dupont. T. J.
LETTER CCXXXVI.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, June 1, 1798
THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN TAYLOR.
Philadelphia, June 1, 1798.
*****
Mr. New showed me your letter on the subject of the patent, which gave
me an opportunity of observing what you said as to the effect, with you,
of public proceedings, and that it was not unwise now to estimate the
separate mass of Virginia and North Carolina, with a view to their
separate existence. It is true that we are completely under the saddle
of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and that they ride us very hard,
cruelly insulting our feelings, as well as exhausting our strength and
subsistence. Their natural friends, the three other eastern States,
join them from a sort of family pride, and they have the art to divide
certain other parts of the Union so as to make use of them to govern the
whole.
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