passed into the library, where he called
for candles, and, sitting down at a desk, began to write. His letter was
to the President of the United States, and it was written freely and
boldly. "'Twas thus they did--'twas so I did. We won, and I am glad;
they lost, and that also is to my liking. As the party owes its victory
to your name and your power, so I owe my personal victory to your
ancient and continued kindness. May my name be abhorred if ever I forget
it! The Federalists mustered strongly. Mr. Ludwell Cary is extremely
'well born,' and that younger brother of his is--I know not why, he
troubles me. There is a breath of the future about him, and it breathes
cold. Well! I have fought and I have won. 'Let the blast of the desert
come: I shall be renowned in my day!' To-night, you see, I quote Ossian.
The moon is flooding the terrace. Were you here in your loved home, we
would talk together. Adam Gaudylock is with me. Lately he was in
Louisiana, and then with a Mr. Blennerhassett upon the Ohio. General
Wilkinson is at New Orleans. The Spaniards are leaving, the French well
affected. The mighty tide of our people has topped the mountains and is
descending into those plains of the Mississippi made ours by your
prophetic vision and your seizure of occasion. The First Consul is a
madman! He has sold to us an Empire! Empire! Emperor--Emperor of the
West! The sound is stately. You laugh. We are citizens of a republic.
Well! I am content. I aspire no higher. I am not Buonaparte. Your lilies
are budding beneath the windows; the sweet williams are all in bloom. I
have little news for you of town or country--Mrs. Randolph, doubtless,
sends you all. Work goes on upon the church. For me, I worship in the
fields with the other beasts of burden or of prey. The wheat looks well,
and there will be this year a great yield of apples. Major Churchill's
Mustapha won at Winchester. Colonel Churchill has cleared a large tract
of woods behind Fontenoy and will use it for tobacco. I rode by his
plant bed the other day, and the leaf is prime. I am a judge of tobacco.
They are bitter, the Fontenoy men. Mr. Ludwell Cary will, I suppose,
remain in the county. He is altering and refurnishing Greenwood. I
suppose that he will marry. The rains have been frequent this spring,
the roads heavy and the rivers turbid. The stream is much swollen by my
house on the Three-Notched Road. We hear that the feeling grows between
General Hamilton and Aaron Burr.