These, Sir, are facts well known to every person in this quarter, which I have committed to paper for your own satisfaction, and that of those to whom you may choose to mention them. I only pray that my letter may not go out of your own hands, lest it should get into the newspapers, a bear-garden scene into which I have made it a point to enter on no provocation.
Jefferson went to Washington the last of November, the length and tedium of the journey to the new capital being nothing in comparison to what it had been to the old.
Results of Presidential Election.--Letter to his Daughter.-- Balloting for President.--Letter to his Daughter.--Is inaugurated.--Returns to Monticello.--Letters to his Daughter.--Goes back to Washington.--Inaugurates the Custom of sending a written Message to Congress.--Abolishes Levees.-- Letter to Story.--To Dickinson.--Letter from Mrs. Cosway.-- Family Letters.--Makes a short Visit to Monticello.
The result of the Presidential Election of 1800 was the success of the Republican candidates--both Jefferson and Burr receiving the same number (73) of electoral votes. The chance of any two candidates receiving a tie vote was a circumstance which had not been provided for, and though all knew that Jefferson had been run to fill the office of President, and Burr that of Vice-president, the tie vote gave the latter a chance--which the Federalists urged him to seize, and which he did not neglect--to be made President.
The following letter gives the first sign of the coming storm, which for a week convulsed the country with excitement, and shook the young Government to its centre.
_To Mary Jefferson Eppes, Bermuda Hundred._
Your letter, my dear Maria, of Dec. 28, is just now received, and shall be immediately answered, as shall all others received from yourself or Mr. Eppes. This will keep our accounts even, and show, by the comparative promptness of reply, which is most anxious to hear from the other. I wrote to Mr. Eppes, December 23d, but directed it to Petersburg; hereafter it shall be to City Point. I went yesterday to Mount Vernon, where Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Lewis asked very kindly after you. Mrs. Lewis looks thin, and thinks herself not healthy; but it seems to be more in opinion than any thing else. She has a child of very uncertain health.