so that for the last hour of these gentlemen's speaking,
they must have had the lungs of a vendue-master to have been heard.
Livingston, however, attempted to speak. But after a few sentences, the
speaker called him to order, and told him what he was saying was not to
the question. It was impossible to proceed. The question was taken
and carried in favor of the report, fifty-two to forty-eight; the real
strength of the two parties is fifty-six to fifty. But two of the
latter have not attended this session. I send you the report of their
committee. I still expect to leave this on the 1st, and be with you on
the 7th of March. But it is possible I may not set out till the 4th, and
then shall not be with you till the 10th. Affectionately adieu.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CCLII.--TO T. LOMAX, March 12, 1799

TO T. LOMAX.

Monticello, March 12, 1799.

Dear Sir,

Your welcome favor of last month came to my hands in Philadelphia. So
long a time has elapsed since we have been separated by events, that
it was like a letter from the dead, and recalled to my memory very dear
recollections. My subsequent journey through life has offered nothing
which, in comparison with those, is not cheerless and dreary. It is a
rich comfort sometimes to look back on them.

I take the liberty of enclosing a letter to Mr. Baylor, open, because
I solicit your perusal of it. It will, at the same time, furnish the
apology for my not answering you from Philadelphia. You ask for any
communication I may be able to make, which may administer comfort to
you. I can give that which is solid. The spirit of 1776 is not dead.
It has only been slumbering. The body of the American people is
substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played
on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the dupes of artful
manoeuvres, and made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging
chains for themselves. But time and truth have dissipated the delusion,
and opened their eyes. They see now that France has sincerely wished
peace, and their seducers have wished war, as well for the loaves and
fishes which arise out of war expenses, as for the chance of changing
the constitution, while the people should have time to contemplate
nothing but the levies of men and money. Pennsylvania, Jersey, and
New York are coming majestically round to the true principles. In
Pennsylvania, thirteen out of twenty-two counties had already petitioned
on the ali