George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Edward Carrington, 25 April 1799

From Edward Carrington

Richmond Apl 25. 1799

Dear Sir

Knowing the anxiety of your mind on the subject of General Marshalls election I can not omit, for a moment, after being ascertained of the State of the polls, to communicate to you the satisfactory intelligence of its having issued fortunately by a majority of 108 Votes.1 So small a majority after so long and so active a canvas, is an evidence of the deep root which jacobinism had taken in the district; but as that channel of misrepresentation through which we had been deluged with circular letters, is now cut off, we are to hope that a general change of popular opinion in the district will be the consequence, which with the addition of like consequences in some other districts, may pervade the State—It is to be hoped indeed that we are arriving at a new era of Virginia politics. I am Dear Sir with the Greatest respect Your Most Ob. St

Ed. Carrington

ALS, DLC:GW.

1The Philadelphia newspapers Gazette of the United States and Porcupine’s Gazette reported John Marshall’s margin of victory in the thirteenth congressional district in Virginia as 114 votes over the Republican incumbent John Clopton (1756–1801), a New Kent County lawyer (“Congressional Election Campaign” in Stinchcombe and Cullen, Marshall Papers, description begins Herbert A. Johnson et al., eds. The Papers of John Marshall. 12 vols. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1974–2006. description ends 3:501).

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