my leave for the present.(1)

1 The self-assertion of this and other letters about this
time was really self-defence, the invective against him, and
the calumnies, being such as can hardly be credited by those
not familiar with the publications of that time.--_Editor._

Thomas Paine.

Federal City, Lovett's Hotel, Dec. 3, 1802.

LETTER V.(1)

1 The National Intelligencer, Feb., 1803. In the Tarions
collections of these Letters there appears at this point a
correspondence between Paine and Samuel Adams of Boston, but
as it relates to religious matters I reserve it for the
fourth volume.--_Editor._.

It is always the interest of a far greater part of the nation to have
a thing right than to have it wrong; and therefore, in a country whose
government is founded on the system of election and representation, the
fate of every party is decided by its principles.

As this system is the only form and principle of government by which
liberty can be preserved, and the only one that can embrace all the
varieties of a great extent of country, it necessarily follows, that to
have the representation real, the election must be real; and that where
the election is a fiction, the representation is a fiction also. _Like
will always produce like_.

A great deal has been said and written concerning the conduct of Mr.
Burr, during the late contest, in the federal legislature, whether Mr.
Jefferson or Mr. Burr should be declared President of the United States.
Mr. Burr has been accused of intriguing to obtain the Presidency.
Whether this charge be substantiated or not makes little or no part of
the purport of this letter. There is a point of much higher importance
to attend to than any thing that relates to the individual Mr. Burr: for
the great point is not whether Mr. Burr has intrigued, but whether the
legislature has intrigued with _him_.

Mr. Ogden, a relation of one of the senators of New Jersey of the same
name, and of the party assuming the style of Federalists, has written
a letter published in the New York papers, signed with his name, the
purport of which is to exculpate Mr. Burr from the charges brought
against him. In this letter he says:

"When about to return from Washington, two or three _members of
Congress_ of the federal party spoke to me of _their views_, as to the
election of a president, desiring me to converse with Colonel Burr on
the subject, and to ascert