n where I
live, we know little of what is passing. Our last information from
Philadelphia is of the 16th instant. At that date, the issue of the
late election seems not to have been known as a matter of fact. With me,
however, its issue was never doubted. I knew the impossibility of your
losing a single vote north of the Delaware; and even if you should lose
that of Pennsylvania in the mass, you would get enough south of it to
make your election sure. I never for a single moment expected any other
issue, and though I shall not be believed, yet it is not the less true,
that I never wished any other. My neighbors, as my compurgators, could
aver this fact, as seeing my occupations and my attachment to them. It
is possible, indeed, that even you may be cheated of your succession
by a trick worthy the subtlety of your arch friend of New York, who has
been able to make of your real friends tools for defeating their and
your just wishes. Probably, however, he will be disappointed as to
you; and my inclinations put me out of his reach. I leave to others the
sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep
and a warmer birth below it, encircled with the society of my neighbors,
friends, and fellow-laborers of the earth, rather than with spies and
sycophants. Still, I shall value highly the share I may have had in
the late vote, as a measure of the share I hold in the esteem of my
fellow-citizens. In this point of view, a few votes less are but little
sensible, while a few more would have been in their effect very sensible
and oppressive to me. I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful
and thankless office. And never since the day you signed the treaty of
Paris, has our horizon been so overcast. I devoutly wish you may be able
to shun for us this war, which will destroy our agriculture, commerce,
and credit. If you do, the glory will be all your own. And that your
administration may be filled with glory and happiness to yourself, and
advantage to us, is the sincere prayer of one, who, though in the course
of our voyage, various little incidents have happened or been contrived
to separate us, yet retains for you the solid esteem of the times when
we were working for our independence, and sentiments of sincere respect
and attachment.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CCIII.--to James Madison, January 1, 1797

Monticello, January 1, 1797.

_Statement, from memory, of a Letter I wrote to James Madison;