py for me till I return; for it will be lost by lending it, if
I retain it here, as the publication was suppressed after the sale of
a few copies, of which I was fortunate enough to get one. Your locks
hinges, &c. shall be immediately attended to.

My respectful salutations and friendship to Mrs. Madison, to the family,
and to yourself. Adieu.

Th: Jefferson.

P. S. The President, it is said, has refused an Exequatur to the Consul
General of France, Dupont. T. J.

LETTER CCXXXVI.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, June 1, 1798

THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN TAYLOR.

Philadelphia, June 1, 1798.

*****

Mr. New showed me your letter on the subject of the patent, which gave
me an opportunity of observing what you said as to the effect, with you,
of public proceedings, and that it was not unwise now to estimate the
separate mass of Virginia and North Carolina, with a view to their
separate existence. It is true that we are completely under the saddle
of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and that they ride us very hard,
cruelly insulting our feelings, as well as exhausting our strength and
subsistence. Their natural friends, the three other eastern States,
join them from a sort of family pride, and they have the art to divide
certain other parts of the Union so as to make use of them to govern the
whole. This is not new, it is the old practice of despots; to use a part
of the people to keep the rest in order. And those who have once got an
ascendency, and possessed themselves of all the resources of the nation,
their revenues and offices, have immense means for retaining their
advantage. But our present situation is not a natural one. The
republicans, through every part of the Union, say, that it was the
irresistible influence and popularity of General Washington played
off by the cunning of Hamilton, which turned the government over to
anti-republican hands, or turned the republicans chosen by the people
into anti-republicans. He delivered it over to his successor in this
state, and very untoward events since, improved with great artifice,
have produced on the public mind the impressions we see. But still I
repeat it, this is not the natural state. Time alone would bring
round an order of things more correspondent to the sentiments of our
constituents. But are there no events impending, which will do it within
a few months? The crisis with England, the public and authentic avowal
of sentiments hostile to the leading principles of our