been reported to the House, it was moved to
disagree to so much of the amendment as went to the putting France on an
equal footing with other nations, and Morgan and Machir turning tail (in
consequence, as is said, of having been closeted last night by Charles
Lee), the vote was forty-nine to fifty. So the principle was saved by a
single vote. They then proposed that compensations for spoliations shall
be a _sine qua non_, and this will be decided on to-morrow,

Yours affectionately,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CCXIII.--TO COLONEL BURR, June 17,1797

TO COLONEL BURR.

Philadelphia, June 17,1797.

Dear Sir,

The newspapers give, so minutely what is passing in Congress, that
nothing of detail can be wanting for your information. Perhaps, however,
some general view of our situation and prospects, since you left us,
may not be unacceptable. At any rate, it will give me an opportunity of
recalling myself to your memory, and of evidencing my esteem for you.
You well know how strong a character of division had been impressed
on the Senate by the British treaty. Common error, common censure, and
common efforts of defence had formed the treaty majority into a common
band, which feared to separate even on other subjects. Towards the close
of the last Congress, however, it had been hoped that their ties began
to loosen, and their phalanx to separate a little.

This hope was blasted at the very opening of the present session, by
the nature of the appeal which the President made to the nation; the
occasion for which had confessedly sprung from the fatal British treaty.
This circumstance rallied them again to their standard, and hitherto we
have had pretty regular treaty votes on all questions of principle. And
indeed I fear, that as long as the same individuals remain, so long we
shall see traces of the same division. In the House of Representatives
the republican body has also lost strength. The non-attendance of five
or six of that description has left the majority very equivocal indeed.
A few individuals of no fixed system at all, governed by the panic
or the prowess of the moment, flap as the breeze blows against the
republican or the aristocratic bodies, and give to the one or the other
a preponderance entirely accidental. Hence the dissimilar aspect of the
address, and of the proceedings subsequent to that. The inflammatory
composition of the speech excited sensations of resentment which had
slept under British i