ir,

I have received several letters from you which have not been
acknowledged. By the post I dare not, and one or two confidential
opportunities have passed me by surprise. I have regretted it the less,
because I know you could be more safely and fully informed by others.
Mr. Tyler, the bearer of this, will give you a great deal more
information personally than can be done by letter. Four days of
balloting have produced not a single change of a vote. Yet it is
confidently believed by most that to-morrow there is to be a coalition.
I know of no foundation for this belief. However, as Mr. Tyler waits
the event of it, he will communicate it to you. If they could have been
permitted to pass a law for putting the government into the hands of an
officer, they would certainly have prevented an election. But we thought
it best to declare openly and firmly, one and all, that the day such an
act passed, the middle States would arm, and that no such usurpation,
even for a single day, should be submitted to. This first shook them;
and they were completely alarmed at the resource for which we declared,
to wit, a convention to re-organize the government, and to amend it.
The very word convention gives them the horrors, as in the present
democratical spirit of America, they fear they should lose some of the
favorite morsels of the constitution. Many attempts have been made
to obtain terms and promises from me. I have declared to them
unequivocally, that I would not receive the government on capitulation,
that I would not go into it with my hands tied. Should they yield
the election, I have reason to expect in the outset the greatest
difficulties as to nominations. The late incumbents running away from
their offices and leaving them vacant, will prevent my filling them
without the _previous_ advice of Senate. How this difficulty is to be
got over I know not. Accept for Mrs. Monroe and yourself my affectionate
salutations. Adieu.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CCLXXII.--TO JAMES MADISON, February 18,1801

TO JAMES MADISON.

Washington, February 18,1801.

Dear Sir,

Notwithstanding the suspected infidelity of the post, I must hazard
this communication. The minority of the House of Representatives,
after seeing the impossibility of electing Burr, the certainty that a
legislative usurpation would be resisted by arms, and a recourse to a
convention to re-organize and amend the government, held a consultation
on this dilemma, whe