I continued to furnish them from time to time, as
regularly as I received them. But as to any other direction or
indication of my wish, how his press should be conducted, what sort
of intelligence he should give, what essays encourage, I can protest,
in the presence of Heaven, that I never did by myself or any other,
directly or indirectly, write, dictate, or procure any one sentiment
or sentence to be inserted _in his or any other gazette_, to which my
name was not affixed, or that of my office."

While Jefferson avowed his desire for harmony in the cabinet, he felt
the lash of Hamilton too keenly to accept reconciliation with him. He
avowed his intention to retire from his office at the close of the
president's term; and intimating an intention to make an appeal to the
country over his own signature, he said: "To a thorough disregard of the
honors and emoluments of office I join as great a value for the esteem
of my countrymen; and conscious of having merited it by an integrity
which can not be reproached, and by an enthusiastic devotion to their
rights and liberty, I will not suffer my retirement to be clouded by the
slanders of a man whose history, from the moment at which history can
stoop to notice him, is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of
the country which has not only received and given him bread, but heaped
its honors on his head."[39]

The spirit of Jefferson's letter afforded Washington no hope for
reconciliation between the secretaries. The contrast between his and
Hamilton's was remarkable. Hamilton held affectionate, courteous,
forbearing, and patriotic language toward the president; Jefferson's
exhibited much of the opposite qualities; and his implacable hatred of
the man whom he had scourged into active retaliation is very marked. It
gave Washington great pain, for he had the highest esteem for the
contestants.

At that time there were grave reasons why officers of the cabinet
should for the moment forget personal difficulties, and come as a unit
to the aid of the president. There were signs of disorder, and violence,
and serious insurrection in the land. The excise law enacted in 1791,
and modified and made less offensive during the last session of
Congress, was yet vehemently opposed in some parts of the country. In
western Pennsylvania, in particular, hostility to it had become the
sentiment of an organized party, and combinations were formed to prevent
the execution of it. A public m