will be more decided in the Representatives, and instead of a majority of five against us in the Senate, will be of one for us.  They will, from the necessity of the case, choose the electors themselves.  Perhaps it will be thought I ought in delicacy to be silent on this subject.  But you, who know me, know that my private gratifications would be most indulged by that issue, which should leave me most at home.  If any thing supersedes this propensity, it is merely the desire to see this government brought back to its republican principles.  Consider this as written to Mr. Madison as much as yourself and communicate it, if you think it will do any good to those possessing our joint confidence or any others where it may be useful and safe.  Health and affectionate salutations.

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CCLVII.—­TO SAMUEL ADAMS

TO SAMUEL ADAMS.

Philadelphia, February 26,1800.

Dear Sir,

Mr. Erving delivered me your favor of January the 31st, and I thank you for making me acquainted with him.  You will always do me a favor in giving me an opportunity of knowing gentlemen as estimable in their principles and talents, as I find Mr. Erving to be.  I have not yet seen Mr. Winthrop.  A letter from you, my respectable friend, after three and twenty years of separation, has given me a pleasure I cannot express.  It recalls to my mind the anxious days we then passed in struggling for the cause of mankind.  Your principles have been tested in the crucible of time, and have come out pure.  You have proved that it was monarchy, and not merely British monarchy, you opposed.  A government by representees, elected by the people at short periods, was our object, and our maxim at that day was, ‘Where annual election ends, tyranny begins’; nor have our departures from it been sanctioned by the happiness of their effects.  A debt of an hundred millions growing by usurious interest, and an artificial paper phalanx overruling the agricultural mass of our country, with other et ceteras, have a portentous aspect.

I fear our friends on the other side the water, laboring in the same cause, have yet a great deal of crime and of misery to wade through.  My confidence had been placed in the head, not in the heart of Bonaparte.  I hoped he would calculate truly the difference between the fame of a Washington and a Cromwell.  Whatever his views may be, he has at least transferred the destinies of the republic from the civil to the military arm.  Some will use this as a lesson against the practicability of republican government.  I read it as a lesson against the danger of standing armies.  Adieu, my ever respected and venerable friend.  May that kind overruling Providence which has so long spared you to our country, still foster your remaining years with whatever may make them comfortable to yourself and soothing to your friends.  Accept the cordial salutations of your affectionate friend,