uct while he was in the administration,
abundant proofs would occur to him, that truth and right decisions
were the sole objects of my pursuit; that there were as many
instances, within his own knowledge, of my having decided
_against_, as in _favor_, of the opinions of the persons evidently
alluded to; and, moreover, that I was no believer in the
infallibility of the politics or measures of any man living. In
short, that I was no party man myself, and the first wish of my
heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them."

This portion of Washington's letter must have been felt by Mr. Jefferson
as a severe rebuke of his real insincerity, in throwing out precisely
such insinuations as Washington here alludes to. Washington continued:--

"To this I may say, and very truly, that, until within the last
year or two, I had no conception that parties would, or even could,
go the length I have been witness to; nor did I really believe,
until lately, that it was within the bounds of probability, hardly
within those of possibility, that, while I was using my utmost
exertions to establish a national character of our own,
independent, as far as our obligations and justice would permit, of
every nation of the earth, and wished, by steering a steady course,
to preserve this country from the horrors of a desolating war, I
should be accused of being the enemy of one nation, and subject to
the influence of another; and, to prove it, that every act of my
administration would be tortured, and the grossest and most
insidious misrepresentations of these be made, by giving one side
only of a subject, and that, too, in such exaggerated and indecent
terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notorious
defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket. But enough of this, I
have already gone further in the expression of my feelings than I
intended."[102]

When Congress had disposed of the treaty by voting appropriations for
the purpose of executing it, nothing remained to complete the business
but the appointment of the several officers to carry out its provisions.
These were immediately made. David Howell, of Rhode Island, was made
commissioner for ascertaining the true river St. Croix; Messrs.
Fitzsimons and Innes (the latter soon succeeded by Mr. Sitgreaves) were
appointed commissioners on the subject of British