disagreement with Jefferson was more acute, though probably never forced
to an open rupture. To his political friends Jefferson in 1796 wrote that
the measures pursued by the administration were carried out "under the
sanction of a name which has done too much good not to be sufficient to
cover harm also," and that he hoped the President's "honesty and his
political errors may not furnish a second occasion to exclaim, 'curse on
his virtues, they've undone his country.'" Henry Lee warned Washington of
the undercurrent of criticism, and when Jefferson heard indirectly of this
he wrote his former chief that "I learn that [Lee] has thought it worth
his while to try to sow tares between you and me, by representing me as
still engaged in the bustle of politics & in turbulence & intrigue against
the government. I never believed for a moment that this could make any
impression on you, or that your knowledge of me would not overweigh the
slander of an intriguer dirtily employed in sifting the conversations of
my table." To this Washington replied,--

"As you have mentioned the subject yourself, it would not be frank, candid
or friendly to conceal, that your conduct has been represented as
derogating from that opinion _I_ had conceived you entertained of me;
that, to your particular friends and connexions you have described, and
they have denounced me as a person under a dangerous influence; and that,
if I would listen more to some _other_ opinions, all would be well. My
answer invariably has been, that I had never discovered any thing in
the conduct of Mr. Jefferson to raise suspicions in my mind of his
insincerity; that, if he would retrace my public conduct while he was in
the administration, abundant proofs would occur to him, that truth and
right decisions were the _sole_ objects of my pursuit; that there was as
many instances within his own knowledge of my having decided _against_ as
in _favor_ of the opinions of the person evidently alluded to; and, I was
no believer in the infallibility of the politics or measures of _any man
living_. In short that I was no party man myself and the first wish of my
heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them."

As proof upon proof of Jefferson's secret enmity accumulated, Washington
ceased to trust his disclaimers, and finally wrote to one of his
informants, "Nothing short of the evidence you have adduced, corroborative
of intimations which I had received long before through a