oned me the deepest regret.... If it has been
supposed that I have ever intrigued among the members of the legislature
to defeat the plans of the secretary of the treasury, it is contrary to
all truth.... That I have utterly, in my private conversations,
disapproved of the system of the secretary of the treasury I acknowledge
and avow; and this was not merely a speculative difference. His system
flowed from principles adverse to liberty, and was calculated to
undermine and demolish the republic by creating an influence of his
department over the members of the legislature. I saw this influence
actually produced, and its first fruits to be the establishment of the
great outlines of his project, by the votes of the very persons who,
having swallowed his bait, were laying themselves out to profit by his
plans; and that, had these persons withdrawn, as those interested in a
question ever should, the vote of the disinterested majority was clearly
the reverse of what they made it. These were no longer the votes, then,
of the representatives of the people, but of deserters from the rights
and interests of the people."

Mr. Jefferson then proceeded to justify his opinions and conduct, and to
defend himself against Hamilton's charges in Fenno's paper, which were:
first, that he (Jefferson) had written letters from Europe to his
friends in America to oppose the constitution while it was depending;
second, with a desire not to pay the public debt; third, with setting up
a paper to decry and slander the government. Jefferson pronounced all
these charges false. He declared that no man approved of more of the
constitution than himself--vastly more than Hamilton did; and that he
was ever anxious to pay the public debt. "This," he said, "makes exactly
the difference between Colonel Hamilton's views and my own. I would wish
the debt paid to-morrow; he wishes it never to be paid, but always to be
a thing wherewith to corrupt and manage the legislature."

Mr. Jefferson acknowledged that he favored the establishment of
Freneau's newspaper for reasons already alluded to,[38] because he
thought juster views of European affairs might be obtained through
publications from the _Leyden Gazette_ than any other foreign source.

"On the establishment of his paper," said Mr. Jefferson, "I furnished
him with the _Leyden Gazettes_, with an expression of my wish that he
would always translate and publish the material intelligence they
contained; and