anifested in almost every part of the union. Some of
the state legislatures directed it to be inserted at large in their
journals; and nearly all of them passed resolutions expressing their
respect for the person of the President, their high sense of his
exalted services, and the emotions with which they contemplated his
retirement from office. Although the leaders of party might rejoice at
this event it produced solemn and anxious reflections in the great
body even of those who belonged to the opposition.

The person in whom alone the voice of the people could be united
having declined a re-election, the two great parties in America
brought forward their respective chiefs; and every possible effort was
made by each, to obtain the victory. Mr. John Adams and Mr. Thomas
Pinckney, the late minister at London, were supported as President and
Vice President by the federalists: the whole force of the opposite
party was exerted in favour of Mr. Jefferson.

Motives of vast influence were added, on this occasion, to those which
usually impel men in a struggle to retain or acquire power. The
continuance or the change not only of those principles on which the
internal affairs of the United States had been administered, but of
the conduct which had been observed towards foreign nations, was
believed to depend on the choice of a chief magistrate. By one party,
the system pursued by the existing administration with regard to the
belligerent powers, had been uniformly approved; by the other, it had
been as uniformly condemned. In the contests therefore which preceded
the choice of electors, the justice of the complaints which were made
on the part of the French republic were minutely discussed, and the
consequences which were to be apprehended from her resentment, or from
yielding to her pretensions, were reciprocally urged as considerations
entitled to great weight in the ensuing election.

[Sidenote: The minister of France endeavors to influence the
approaching election.]

In such a struggle, it was not to be expected that foreign powers
could feel absolutely unconcerned. In November, while the parties were
so balanced that neither scale could be perceived to preponderate, Mr.
Adet addressed a letter to the secretary of state, in which he
recapitulated the numerous complaints which had been urged by himself
and his predecessors, against the government of the United States; and
reproached that government, in terms of great asper