y
are defeated in a favorite measure, the worst motives for the conduct of
their opponents, who, viewing matters through another medium, may and do
retort in their turn; by which means jealousies and distrusts are spread
most impolitically far and wide, and will, it is to be feared, have a
most unhappy tendency to injure our public affairs, which, if wisely
managed, might make us, as we are now by Europeans thought to be, the
happiest people upon earth."

The session just closed had been a season of great labor for the
president. The cares of state had been many and important, and the
affairs of France had occupied much of his attention. Some days his
application to public business was so continuous, from early morning
until evening, that he omitted his usual exercise in the open air. He
managed, however, to make a tour of four days, in his carriage, upon
Long Island. He travelled eastward as far as Huntington, making (as
appears by his diary) careful observations of the country and its
resources. He proceeded from Brooklyn, through Flatbush and New Utrecht,
to Gravesend, on the extreme western point of the island, and then
eastward to Jamaica by the middle road. From Jamaica he journeyed to
South Hempstead, and then to Hart's tavern in Brookhaven, from which
place he struck across toward the north shore of the island by Coram to
Setauket. On the third day of his journey (April the twenty-third) he
went through Smithstown to Huntington, where he dined; and then turning
westward, he drove to Oyster bay and lodged. Early the following morning
he passed through Mosquito cove, and breakfasted at Hendrick
Onderdonk's, at the head of a bay, the site of the present village of
Roslyn, or Hempstead harbor. He dined at Flushing, reached Brooklyn
ferry before sunset, and home at twilight.

Incessant application to business made severe inroads upon the health of
the president, and on the tenth of May he was seized with a severe
illness, which reduced him to the verge of dissolution. He was confined
to his chamber for several weeks, and it was not until the twenty-fourth
of June that he was able to resume his diary. His chief difficulty was
inflammation of the lungs, and he suffered from general debility until
the close of the session of Congress in August. Then, accompanied by
Jefferson, he made a voyage to Newport, Rhode Island, especially for the
benefit of his health, and incidentally to have personal intercourse
with the lead