From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 28 December 1796
From Thomas Jefferson
Monticello Dec. 28. 1796.
Dear Sir
The public & the public papers have been much occupied lately in placing us in a point of opposition to each other. I trust with confidence that less of it has been felt by ourselves personally. in the retired canton where I am, I learn little of what is passing: pamphlets I see never; papers but a few; and the fewer the happier. our latest intelligence from Philadelphia at present is of the 16th. inst. but tho’ at that date your election to the first magistracy seems not to have been known as a fact, yet with me it has never been doubted. I knew it impossible you should lose a vote North of the Delaware, & even if that of Pensylvania should be against you in the mass, yet that you would get enough South of that to place your succession out of danger. I have never one single moment expected a different issue; & tho’ I know I shall not be believed, yet it is not the less true that I have never wished it. my neighbors, as my compurgators, could aver that fact, because they see my occupations & my attachment to them. indeed it is possible that you may be cheated of your succession by a trick worthy the subtlety of your arch-friend of New York,1 who has been able to make of your real friends tools to defeat their & your just wishes. most probably he will be disappointed as to you; & my inclinations place me out of his reach. I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warm birth below, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth, than of spies & sycophants. no one then will congratulate you with purer disinterestedness than myself. the share indeed which I may have had in the late vote, I shall still value highly, as an evidence of the share I have in the esteem of my fellow citizens.2 but while in this point of view, a few votes less would be little sensible, the difference in the effect of a few more would be very sensible and oppressive to me. I have no ambition to govern men. it is a painful and thankless office. since the day too on which you signed the treaty of Paris our horizon was never so overcast. I devoutly wish you may be able to shun for us this war by which our agriculture, commerce & credit will be destroyed. if you are, the glory will be all your own; & that your administration may be filled with glory & happiness to yourself and advantage to us is the sincere wish of one who tho’, in the course of our voyage thro’ life, various little incidents have happened or been contrived to separate us, retains still for you the solid esteem of the moments when we were working for our independance, and sentiments of respect & affectionate attachment.
Th: Jefferson3
FC (NN:Thomas Addis Emmet Coll.); addressed: “John Adams / Vice President of the US. / Philadelphia.”; internal address: “J. Adams V. President of the US.”
1. That is, Alexander Hamilton.
2. For the results of the presidential election of 1796, see JA’s 4 Jan. 1797 Certification of Receipt of Presidential Votes from Kentucky, and note 2, below.
3. JA never received this letter. Jefferson enclosed it in a 1 Jan. missive to confidant James Madison and asked him to make the final decision on forwarding it. Madison declined, explaining that JA’s “ticklish” temper might spark political discord between the second president and his new vice president. Madison also recommended suspending delivery and revising the date, in the event that Jefferson’s qualms grew about JA’s professional and personal views. Jefferson’s reluctance about serving again with JA ebbed by mid-January, for, as he wrote to Madison: “Tho’ I saw that our antient friendship was affected by a little leaven produced partly by his constitution, partly by the contrivance of others, yet I never felt a diminution of confidence in his integrity, and retained a solid affection for him. His principles of government I knew to be changed, but conscientiously changed” (, 29:247–248, 263–264, 270–272).