reference to me; that to make the notice general, it
was often given to one republican and one federal printer of the same
place; that these federal printers did not in the least intermit their
abuse of me, though receiving emoluments from the government, and that
I have never thought it proper to interfere for myself, and consequently
not in the case of the Vice-President. That as to the letter he referred
to, I remembered it, and believed he had only mistaken the date at which
it was written; that I thought it must have been on the first notice of
the event of the election of South Carolina; and that I had taken that
occasion to mention to him, that I had intended to have proposed to
him one of the great offices, if he had not been elected; but that his
election, in giving him a higher station, had deprived me of his aid in
the administration. The letter alluded to was, in fact, mine to him of
December the 15th, 1800. I now went on to explain to him verbally,
what I meant by saying I had lost him from my list. That in General
Washington's time, it had been signified to him that Mr. Adams, the
Vice-President, would be glad of a foreign embassy; that General
Washington mentioned it to me, expressed his doubts whether Mr. Adams
was a fit character for such an office, and his still greater doubts,
indeed, his conviction, that it would not be justifiable to send away
the person who, in case of his death, was provided by the constitution
to take his place: that it would moreover appear indecent for him to be
disposing of the public trusts, in apparently buying off a competitor
for the public favor. I concurred with him in the opinion, and, if I
recollect rightly, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph were consulted, and gave
the same opinions. That when Mr. Adams came to the administration, in
his first interview with me, he mentioned the necessity of a mission to
France, and how desirable it would have been to him if he could have got
me to undertake it; but that he conceived it would be wrong in him to
send me away, and assigned the same reasons General Washington had done;
and therefore, he should appoint Mr. Madison, &c. That I had myself
contemplated his (Colonel Burr's) appointment to one of the great
offices, in case he was not elected Vice-President; but that as soon
as that election was known, I saw it could not be done, for the good
reasons which had led General Washington and Mr. Adams to the same
conclusion; and therefore