basis of equal right and reason, have continued pure and
unchanged. Permit me to place here my sincere veneration for him, and
wishes for his health and happiness; and to assure yourself of the
sentiments of esteem and respect, with which I am, Dear Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CCX.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, May 13, 1797

TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.

Philadelphia, May 13, 1797.

My Dear Friend,

Your favor of the 4th instant came to hand yesterday. That of the 4th of
April, with the one for Monroe, has never been received. The first, of
March the 27th, did not reach me till April the 21st, when I was within
a few days of setting out for this place, and I put off acknowledging
it till I should come here. I entirely commend your dispositions towards
Mr. Adams; knowing his worth as intimately and esteeming it as much as
any one, and acknowledging the preference of his claims, if any I could
have had, to the high office conferred on him. But in truth, I had
neither claims nor wishes on the subject, though I know it will be
difficult to obtain belief of this. When I retired from this place and
the office of Secretary of State, it was in the firmest contemplation
of never more returning here. There had indeed been suggestions in
the public papers, that I was looking towards a succession to the
President's chair, but feeling a consciousness of their falsehood, and
observing that the suggestions came from hostile quarters, I considered
them as intended merely to excite public odium against me. I never in
my life exchanged a word with any person on the subject, till I found my
name brought forward generally, in competition with that of Mr. Adams.
Those with whom I then communicated, could say, if it were necessary,
whether I met the call with desire, or even with a ready acquiescence,
and whether from the moment of my first acquiescence, I did not devoutly
pray that the very thing might happen which has happened. The second
office of this government is honorable and easy, the first is but a
splendid misery.

You express apprehensions that stratagems will be used, to produce a
misunderstanding between the President and myself. Though not a word
having this tendency has ever been hazarded to me by any one, yet I
consider as a certainty that nothing will be left untried to alienate
him from me. These machinations will proceed from the Hamiltonians by
whom he is surrounded, and who are