above zero
was the greatest which had ever been observed.

It seems possible, from what we hear of the votes at the late election,
that you may see me in Philadelphia about the beginning of March,
exactly in that character which, if I were to re-appear at Philadelphia,
I would prefer to all others; for I change the sentiment of Clorinda to
'_L'alte temo, l'humili non sdegno_.' I have no inclination to govern
men. I should have no views of my own in doing it; and as to those of
the governed, I had rather that their disappointment (which must always
happen) should be pointed to any other cause, real or supposed, than to
myself. I value the late vote highly; but it is only as the index of the
place I hold in the esteem of my fellow citizens. In this point of
view, the difference between sixty-eight and seventy-one votes is
little sensible, and still less that between the real vote, which was
sixty-nine and seventy; because one real elector in Pennsylvania was
excluded from voting by the miscarriage of the votes, and one who was
not an elector was admitted to vote. My farm, my family, my books, and
my building give me much more pleasure than any public office would,
and, especially, one which would keep me constantly from them. I had
hoped, when you were here, to have finished the walls of my house in the
autumn, and to have covered it early in winter. But we did not finish
them at all. I have to resume the work, therefore, in the spring, and to
take off the roof of the old part during the summer, to cover the
whole. This will render it necessary for me to make a very short stay in
Philadelphia, should the late vote have given me any public duty there.
My visit there will be merely out of respect to the public, and to the
new President.

I am sorry you have received so little information on the subject of our
winds. I had once (before our revolutionary war) a project on the same
subject. As I had then an extensive acquaintance over this State, I
meant to have engaged some person in every county of it, giving them
each a thermometer, to observe that and the winds twice a day, for one
year, to wit, at sunrise and at four P. M. (the coldest and the warmest
point of the twenty-four hours) and to communicate their observations to
me at the end of the year. I should then have selected the days in which
it appeared that the winds blew to a centre within the State, and
have made a map of them, and seen how far they had analogy wit