that we are indebted for the preservation of this point
of ralliance, to that opposition of which so injurious an idea is so
artfully insinuated and excited in this history.

Much of this relation is notorious to the world; and many intimate
proofs of it will be found in these notes. From the moment where they
end, of my retiring from the administration, the federalists * got
unchecked hold of General Washington. His memory was already sensibly
impaired by age, the firm tone of mind for which he had been remarkable,
was beginning to relax, its energy was abated, a listlessness of labor,
a desire for tranquillity had crept on him, and a willingness to let
others act, and even think for him. Like the rest of mankind, he
was disgusted with atrocities of the French revolution, and was not
sufficiently aware of the difference between the rabble who were used as
instruments of their perpetration, and the steady and rational character
of the American people, in which he had not sufficient confidence. The
opposition too of the republicans to the British treaty, and the zealous
support of the federalists in that unpopular but favorite measure of
theirs, had made him all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I
disapproved of that treaty, and copiously nourished with falsehoods by
a malignant neighbor of mine, who ambitioned to be his correspondent, he
had become alienated from myself personally, as from the republican body
generally of his fellow-citizens; and he wrote the letters to Mr. Adams
and Mr. Carroll, over which, in devotion to his imperishable fame, we
must for ever weep as monuments of mortal decay.

Th: Jefferson. February 4th, 1818.

* See conversation with General Washington, of October 1,1792,

****

August the 13th, 1791. Notes of a conversation between Alexander
Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Th: Jefferson mentioned to him a letter
received from John Adams, disavowing Publicola, and denying that he ever
entertained a wish to bring this country under an hereditary executive,
or introduce an hereditary branch of legislature, &c. See his
letter. Alexander Hamilton condemning Mr. Adams's writings, and
most particularly Davila, as having a tendency to weaken the present
government, declared in substance as follows: 'I own it is my own
opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that the
present government is not that which will answer the ends of society, by
giving stability and protection to