Dear Sir,
I have to thank you for your favor of July the 6th, from Philadelphia.
I did not immediately acknowledge it, because I knew you would have come
away. The X. Y. Z. fever has considerably abated through the country, as
I am informed, and the alien and sedition laws are working hard. I fancy
that some of the State legislatures will take strong ground on this
occasion. For my own part, I consider those laws as merely an experiment
on the American mind, to see how far it will bear an avowed violation of
the constitution. If this goes down, we shall immediately see attempted
another act of Congress, declaring that the President shall continue in
office during life, reserving to another occasion the transfer of the
succession to his heirs, and the establishment of the Senate for life.
At least, this may be the aim of the Oliverians, while Monk and the
Cavaliers (who are perhaps the strongest) may be playing their game
for the restoration of his Most Gracious Majesty George the Third.
That these things are in contemplation, I have no doubt; nor can I be
confident of their failure, after the dupery of which our countrymen
have shown themselves susceptible.
You promised to endeavor to send me some tenants. I am waiting for them,
having broken up two excellent farms with twelve fields in them of forty
acres each, some of which I have sowed with small grain.
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