s were also at work, which Livingston, in
his zeal for political honours, possibly did not observe. New England
Federalists, attracted by the fertile valleys of the Hudson and the
Mohawk, had filled the western district, and were now holding it
faithful to the party of Jay and Hamilton. Just at this time, too,
Federalists were bound to be strengthened by the insulting treatment
of American envoys sent to France to restore friendly intercourse
between the two republics. President Adams' message, based upon their
correspondence, asserted that nothing could be accomplished "on terms
compatible with the safety, honour, and essential interests of the
United States," and advised that immediate steps be taken for the
national defence. What the President had withheld for prudential
reasons, the public did not know; but it knew that the Cabinet
favoured an immediate declaration of war, and that the friends of the
Administration in Congress were preparing for such an event. This of
itself should have taken Livingston out of the gubernatorial contest;
for if war were declared before the April election, the result would
assuredly be as disastrous to him as the publication of Jay's treaty
in April, 1795, would have been hurtful to the Federalists. But
Chancellor Livingston, following the belief of his party that France
did not intend to go to war with America, accepted what he had been
seeking for months, and entered the campaign with high hopes.

Jay had intended retiring from public life at the close of his first
term as governor.[83] For a quarter of a century he had been looking
forward to a release from the cares of office, and to the quiet of his
country home in Westchester; but "the indignities which France was at
that time heaping upon his country," says William Jay, his son and
biographer, "and the probability that they would soon lead to war,
forbade him to consult his personal gratification."[84] On the 6th of
March, therefore, he accepted renomination on a ticket with Stephen
Van Rensselaer for lieutenant-governor.

[Footnote 83: William Jay, _Life of John Jay_, Vol. 1, p. 400.]

[Footnote 84: _Ibid._]

It is significant that the anti-Federalists failed to nominate a
lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Livingston. Stephen Van
Rensselaer was a Federalist of the old school, a brother-in-law of
Hamilton, and a vigorous supporter of his party. It is difficult to
accept the theory that none of his opponents wanted the