Whenever you
shall return, you will be sensible in a greater, of what I was in a
smaller degree, of the change in this nation from what it was when we
both left it in 1784. We return like foreigners, and, like them, require
a considerable residence here to become Americanized.
The state of political opinion continues to return steadily towards
republicanism. To judge from the opposition papers, a stranger would
suppose that a considerable check to it had been produced by certain
removals of public officers. But this is not the case. All offices
were in the hands of the federalists. The injustice of having totally
excluded republicans was acknowledged by every man. To have removed one
half, and to have placed republicans in their stead, would have been
rigorously just, when it was known that these composed a very great
majority of the nation. Yet such was their moderation in most of the
States that they did not desire it. In these, therefore, no removals
took place but for malversation. In the middle States the contention had
been higher, spirits were more sharpened and less accommodating. It was
necessary in these to practise a different treatment, and to make a few
changes to tranquillize the injured party. A few have been made there,
a very few still remain to be made.
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