I have been much pleased to see a dawn of change in the spirit of your State.  The late elections have indicated something, which, at a distance, we do not understand.  However, what with the English influence in the lower, and the Patroon influence in the upper parts of your State, I presume little is to be hoped.  If a prospect could be once opened upon us of the penetration of truth into the Eastern States:  if the people there, who are unquestionably republicans, could discover that they have been duped into the support of measures calculated to sap the very foundations of republicanism, we might still hope for salvation, and that it would come, as of old, from the East.  But will that region ever awake to the true state of things?  Can the middle, southern, and western States hold on till they awake?  These are painful and doubtful questions:  and if, in assuring me of your health, you can give me a comfortable solution of them, it will relieve a mind devoted to the preservation of our republican government in the true form and spirit in which it was established, but almost oppressed with apprehensions that fraud will at length effect what force could not, and that what with currents and counter-currents, we shall in the end, be driven back to the land from which we launched twenty years ago.  Indeed, my dear Sir, we have been but a sturdy fish on the hook of a dexterous angler who letting us flounce till we have spent Our force, brings us up at last.

I am tired of the scene, and this day se’nnight shall change it for one, where, to tranquillity of mind, may be added pursuits of private utility, since none public are admitted by the state of things.  I am with great and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your friend and servant,

Th:  Jefferson,

P. S. Since writing the above, we have received a report that the French Directory has proposed a declaration of war against the United States to the Council of Ancients, who have rejected it.  Thus we see two nations who love one another affectionately, brought by the ill temper of their executive administrations, to the very brink of a necessity to imbrue their hands in the blood of each other.  T. J.

LETTER CCXIV.—­TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 21, 1797

TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.

Philadelphia, June 21, 1797.

My Dear Friend,

It was with infinite joy to me, that you were yesterday announced to the Senate, as Envoy Extraordinary, jointly with General Pinckney and Mr. Marshall, to the French republic.  It gave me certain assurances that there would be a preponderance in the mission, sincerely disposed to be at peace with the French government and nation.  Peace is undoubtedly at present the first object of our nation.  Interest and honor are also national considerations.  But interest, duly weighed, is in favor of peace even at the expense of spoliations past and future; and honor cannot now