I have turned to the constitution and laws, and find nothing to warrant the opinion that I might not have been qualified here, or wherever else I could meet with a Senator; any member of that body being authorized to administer the oath, without being confined to time or place, and consequently to make a record of it, and to deposit it with the records of the Senate.  However, I shall come on, on the principle which had first determined me, respect to the public.  I hope I shall be made a part of no ceremony whatever.  I shall escape into the city as covertly as possible.  If Governor Mifflin should show any symptoms of ceremony, pray contrive to parry them.  We have now fine mild weather here.  The thermometer is above the point which renders fires necessary.  Adieu affectionately.

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CCIX.—­TO JAMES SULLIVAN, February 9, 1797

TO JAMES SULLIVAN.

Monticello, February 9, 1797.

Dear Sir,

I have many acknowledgments to make for the friendly anxiety you are pleased to express in your letter of January the 12th, for my undertaking the office to which I have been elected.  The idea that I would accept the office of President, but not that of Vice-President of the United States, had not its origin with me.  I never thought of questioning the free exercise of the right of my fellow-citizens, to marshal those whom they call into their service according to their fitness, nor ever presumed that they were not the best judges of that.  Had I indulged a wish in what manner they should dispose of me, it would precisely have coincided with what they have done.  Neither the splendor, nor the power, nor the difficulties, nor the fame, or defamation, as may happen, attached to the first magistracy, have any attractions for me.  The helm of a free government is always arduous, and never was ours more so, than at a moment when two friendly people are like to be committed in war by the ill temper of their administrations.  I am so much attached to my domestic situation, that I would not have wished to leave it at all.  However, if I am to be called from it, the shortest absences and most tranquil station suit me best.  I value highly, indeed, the part my fellow-citizens gave me in their late vote, as an evidence of their esteem, and I am happy in the information you are so kind as to give, that many in the eastern quarter entertain the same sentiment.

Where a constitution, like ours, wears a mixed aspect of monarchy and republicanism, its citizens will naturally divide into two classes of sentiment, according as their tone of body or mind, their habits, connections, and callings, induce them to wish to strengthen either the monarchical or the republican features of the constitution.  Some will consider it as an elective monarchy, which had better be made hereditary, and therefore endeavor to lead towards that all the forms