Dear Sir VII. CHARLES PINCKNEY TO JEFFERSON.1 Having finished the public Business I went to Columbia on I was returning to Charleston to take shipping for Washington and at this place met with a paper which is inclosed and which has surprised me exceedingly. is it possible that the State of Pennsylvania has been deprived of her Vote by a majority of two in the senate ? Or, taking the whole number of the federal part of their senate together, by 13 men, and that, after the public opinion had been expressed by so decided a majority in every way in which their Citizens had an opportunity of doing so? and what is to be result? fortunately for the United States South Carolina has by her Vote decided the Election without Pennsylvania but will the people of that state so easily acquiesce in being thus deprived of their constitutional right and of the honour of having participated in the change that is to take place? I now feel doubly pleased that I remained and went to Columbia to aid with my Exertions the securing the Vote of this State entire, for had she Voted otherwise I can scarcely concieve what may have been the consequence and you must have long before this been convinced that without the Vote of this state the Event might have been doubtful; for that of Rhode Island was a Was a thing scarcely to have been looked for, and I am afraid even now to rely implicitly on it as we have just heard that some of our intelligence from Maryland is premature and that after all You will not have more than one half their Vote. I wish you to be handsomely elected and to have so many sound Votes to spare that no little carpings or cavils at dates or Words or trifles shall vitiate the Election or give to your opponents the most distant right to dispute it's regularity. I trust you and all my friends at Washington have received all my letters and therefore are not surprised at not seeing me with You yet. I knew my presence at Columbia to be of more consequence, than it could possible be elsewhere, for I was always afraid Pennsylvania would not vote. Mr Monroe's Letter which I inclose to you strengthened this opinion and therefore I gave up the idea of going to Congress and went there. I send You M' Monroe's Letter to shew you how convinced I was and ought to have been, that Our state was to decide and as I have always made a point of attending my public duties. with diligence I wish You and my friends to know the absolute necessity there was for my absence and not to blame it. I intend, if nothing prevents to be with You sometime in January and until then I remain with great Esteem and regard Dear Sir Yours Truly I omitted to mention to You that the Letters I got from M' Monroe and 1 Jefferson Papers, Ser. 2, Vol. 66, No. 42. Endorsed by Jefferson: "recd Jan. 4." 2 The Senate of Pennsylvania (Federalist) by a vote of 13 to II rejected a House bill providing for the election of electors by joint ballot of the two houses. you, both shewed marks of having been opened Winyaw (in South Carolina) December 20 1800 If Colonel Hampton' of this State should go to Washington and call upon You I beg to introduce him to You in the most particular manner as one of our best friends and whose communications and services in the republican cause have been very important to us. it is with great concern I have just heard that my fears on the Rhode Island head were too well founded. I was always afraid that much good could not come out of either Nazareth or Galilee and I find I was right. New England is New England still and unless an earthquake could remove them and give them about ten degrees of our southern sun in their constitutions they will always remain So. You may as well attempt to separate the Barnacle from the Oyster, or a body of Caledonians as to divide New England. not so our southern Gentry. View MaryLand and North Carolina and tell me by what Policy can it be, that We have lost so many Votes from states who ought to cling to the southern republican interest as to the rock of their earthly salvation-states too with whom so much pains have been taken to direct them in the right road. I must request You not to come to any determination with respect to arrangements in this state until You see me, if I live to come on, as I have some information I do not choose to commit to Paper to give You after which, you will be better able to judge what is best to be done here. I have reasons very important to the republican interest for making this request, reasons which our late very arduous contest in this State could alone have developed, but which are very important to You to know. Το I wrote you some weeks since informing you that after the finishing some indispensible public Business important to the continuance and increase of the republican interest in this state I should go to Charleston and proceed from thence by Water either to Baltimore or to Washington as passages offered. Since this I am concerned to inform You that in 1 Colonel Wade Hampton; see Report of American Historical Association, 1896, pp. 845-850. 2 Jefferson Papers, Ser. 2, Vol. 66, No. 41. Endorsed by Jefferson: "rec Jan. 25." my way down from CoLumbia stopping at this place I have been siezed with a most violent cold and sore throat occasioned by the severe cold weather we have had and my being exposed to it. it has confined me to my chamber and continues to oppress me very much. I am afraid it will be sometime before I can go on to Charleston, where I left my little ones, and to which place I have written to my friends to look out for a passage from thence to Baltimore that I may be with you as soon as possible after I am better. I wish I was with You now but my absence was inevitable, as I am sure I did more good by going up to our Legislature at Columbia than I could have done by going to any other Part of the Globe at that time. Whenever I see you and present to You my situation at Columbia and what passed there You will be not a little astonished. it has unravelled mysteries which I wish to explain to You and is the reason for my requesting You not to think of any arrangements for this State until You recieve the information I have collected and prepared for You, after which You will be fully able to judge for Yourself and know what is best to be done the feds have had some hopes of creating confusion by there being an equality of Votes but I find by the inclosed Extract that Tennessee has made a difference of one Vote,' and as Your Majority over federal candidates is so great there can be no cavil. I am hopeful to be with You before the Votes are opened and counted and am with affectionate respect and attachment Dear Sir CHARLES PINCKNEY January 8: 1801 I am glad the French convention is ratified By Senate.' it was feared the payment for Captures might have been a clog by the disappointed federalists But I suppose the public opinion has overawed them and it passed as a matter of course. they would not venture to stop it. Dear Sir IX. CHARLES PINCKNEY TO JEFFERSON.3 Although not sufficiently recovered from the effects of my late fall from my carriage to venture it I propose embarking on sunday to join you at Washington having taken my passage for that purpose and as I cannot travel by land, again venture a Winter Voyage by sea. I write this Line to inform you of it and to mention that having seen in the Northern papers an account that a compromise was offered and rejected by the Federalists I do positively deny that any such compromise was 1A mistake. Tennessee gave three votes to Jefferson and three to Burr, and in the total each had 73 votes. It was not ratified till February 3. 3 Jefferson Papers, Ser. 2, Vol. 66, No. 41 a. Endorsed by Jefferson: "recd Feb. 8." offered by the body of the republican interest or ever intended by them. if any thing ever was said on that subject it must have been by some one or two of our friends who might have been very anxious to secure Your Election and would rather compromise than risque it, but if even one did whisper such a thing it was wholly unknown to me, or to the great Body of republican interest, for they were determined from the Jump never to hear of any compromise, and so far from thinking of it they met at the academy hall in CoLumbia the very first Night of the Session and near seventy of them signed a Paper and determined not to compromise but to support the Ticket of the republican interest as it was run and carried. Ten Members from the Lower Country were absent-out of these Ten three federalists three of the republican interest and four Ties or Equalities common to both. the average Majority to be relied upon on the joint Vote was 19 and I mention this to you to shew that there is never the least Danger of the South Carolina Legislature. The last Election was the most federal I ever knew in our state owing to Charleston and obvious reasons. the Wind having changed, certain influences will change also and under a proper Management I do not doubt Charleston may be made one of the Strongholds of republicanism as it possesses most excellent Materials.-Health, affectionate respect and Esteem conclude me Dear Sir Yours Truly CHARLES PINCKNEY In Charleston Dear Sir X. CHARLES PINCKNEY TO JEFFERSON.1 I recollect before I left Carolina I requested you by letter not to make any arrangements or take any step respecting that State until I had seen you as I had some opinions and information to communicate on that subject. On reflection since, I have been induced to suppose that this request on my part was an improper one, and that I ought not to presume so far as to wish to intrude on you my opinions on state arrangements, or any other subject, even as they respect South Carolina. I therefore intreat, You will not recollect such a request has ever been made by me. motives of delicacy and unfeigned respect for you make this request proper on my part before I leave Georgetown. From the difficulty of obtaining such a conveyance either by land or water from hence as is convenient I am afraid I shall be detained some days. if in the interim M' Madison for whom I have had an unchangeable respect and friendship should arrive I will be particularly obliged to you to ask him to inform me of it that I may have an opportunity of seeing him before I go. 1 1 Jefferson Papers, Ser. 2, Vol. 66, No. 37. Endorsed by Jefferson "recd Mar. 6." If you remain here as long as I do I will do myself the honour of paying my respects to You before I set out and with my most sincere wishes for Your health and honour and success in the administration I remain with respect and regard Dear Sir Yours Truly CHARLES PINCKNEY NOTE. "Journal of the most remarkable Occurrences in Quebec 1775.” Some years ago I received from London a manuscript diary which was entitled "Journal of the most remarkable occurrences in Quebec, since Arnold appear'd before the Town on the 14th November 1775," which I have only recently had an opportunity of examining. It is a foolscap octavo, 6 inches by 334, containing 95 pages and title, closely written in a uniform hand and ink, apparently at the end of the eighteenth century. The title gives no indication of authorship, but the regularity of the entries forbids the idea of its being an original. No clue exists as to its former ownership or history, further than that it was sold at a sale in London. When looking into it, my attention was called to the diary published by the New York Historical Society in their Collections for 1880, p. 173, which at first glance appeared to be the same. A closer examination, however, revealed the fact that great liberties had been taken either with the manuscript or with the printed copy. The librarian of the New York Historical Society, Mr. Kelby, kindly informed me, in response to my enquiry, that they had reprinted it from William Smith's History of Canada, Quebec, 1815, Vol. 2, p. 81, and a reference to that book confirmed the statement. It is a most circumstantial account of the attack by Montgomery and Arnold on Quebec, written by one of the defenders, and I was therefore surprised to find another version in existence. The manuscript differs from the printed copy in being more concise. The lists of troops, the condition of the weather and the direction of the wind are identical, except in the first list, p. 177, N. Y. H. S. Coll., where a palpable misprint, copied from Smith, destroys the correctness of the addition. Smith, as Chief Justice of Quebec, and a loyalist from New York State, with some literary reputation, must have had access to many documents which have since disappeared. He prints the diary as a footnote, without note VOL. IV.-9 |