November 16th
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“Your conduct has been represented as derogatory from that opinion I had conceived you entertained of me. That to your particular friends and connextions you have described, and they have denounced me, as a person under a dangerous influence.”
Artist: Rembrandt Peale
To Thomas Jefferson
Mount Vernon, 6 July 1796
Dear Sir,
When I inform you, that your letter of the 19th. Ulto. went to Philadelphia and returned to this place before it was received by me; it will be admitted, I am persuaded, as an apology for my not having acknowledged the receipt of it sooner.
If I had entertained any suspicions before, that the queries, which have been published in Bache’s Paper,* proceeded from you, the assurances you have given of the contrary, would have removed them; but the truth is, I harboured none. I am at no loss to conjecture from what source they flowed; through what channel they were conveyed; and for what purpose they and similar publications, appear. They were known to be in the hands of Mr. Parker, in the early part of the last Session of Congress; They were shown about by Mr. Giles during the Cession, and they made their public exhibition about the close of it.
Perceiving, and probably, hearing, that no abuse in the Gazettes would induce me to take notice of anonymous publications, against me; those who were disposed to do me such friendly Offices, have embraced without restraint every opportunity to weaken the confidence of the People; and, by having the whole game in their hands, they have scrupled not to publish things that do not, as well as those which do exist; and to mutilate the latter, so as to make them subserve the purposes which they have in view.
George Washington, 1795
Naitonal Gallery of Art
As you have mentioned the subject yourself, it would not be frank, candid, or friendly to conceal, that your conduct has been represented as derogatory from that opinion I had conceived you entertained of me. That to your particular friends and connextions 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 were 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 moreover, that I was no believer in the infallibility of the politics, or meassures 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.
To this I may add, and very truly, that, until within the last year or two ago, I had no conception that Parties*** would, or even could go, the length I have been witness to; nor did I believe until lately, that it was within the bonds of probability; hardly within those of possibility, that, while I was using my utmost exertions to establish a national character of our own, independent, as far as our obligations, and justice would permit, of every nation of the earth; and wished, by steering a steady course, to preserve this Country from the horrors of a desolating war****, that I should be accused of being the enemy of one Nation, and subject to the influence of another; and to prove it, that every act of my administration would be tortured, and the grossest, and most insidious mis-representations of them be made (by giving one side only of a subject, and that too in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero; a notorious defaulter; or even to a common pickpocket). But enough of this; I have already gone farther in the expression of my feelings, than I intended.
The particulars of the case you mention (relative to the Little Sarah) is a good deal out of my recollection at present, and I have no public papers here to resort to. When I get back to Philadelphia (which, unless I am called there by something new, will not be ‘till towards the last of August) I will examine my files.
* Bache had printed information from a presidential cabinet meeting (“Questions submitted by the President” to the Cabinet, Apr. 18, 1793 — Fitzpatrick, et al., WGW); to some, Jefferson (Secretary of State) was the obvious suspect for the leak. Jefferson had declared his innocence in a preceding letter:
“I cannot be satisfied as to my own part till I relieve my mind by declaring, and I attest every thing sacred & honorable to the declaration, that it has got there neither thro’ me nor the paper confided to me. this has never been from under my own lock & key, or out of my own hands. no mortal ever knew from me that these questions had been proposed.” —Source FO15
** Alexander Hamilton
*** At this time, two parties were vying for supremacy in the United States: the Federalists with views in line with Washington and formed in 1791, and the Republicans with views in line with Jefferson and formed in 1792 (later, the Democrat-Republican Party).
**** Washington’s policy of neutrality during his presidency had kept the nation out of the war between France and Britain.
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