To Alexander Hamilton from William Heth, 11 May 1799
From William Heth1
Petersburg [Virginia] May 11, 1799. “… I cant forego the present oppy of congratulating you, and our Country, on the election of General Marshall,2 as well as on the success which hath attended the federal cause throughout the State. I dont mean by this, to say that we have obtained a majority in Congress,3 or in the State Legislature4—the members to the latter, not being yet all known—but we have obtained such an accession of numbers as well as of talents, that I think, we may consider Jacobinism, as completely over thrown in this State. However—all this, you must have been told by Carrington,5 immediately after our triumphant election of Marshall.…”
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Heth, a Federalist and a veteran of the American Revolution, was collector of customs at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia.
2. John Marshall had been elected in April, 1799, to the House of Representatives from Virginia.
3. In 1799 the Federalists won eight of Virginia’s nineteen congressional seats. This was an increase of four seats over their representation in the previous session.
4. In the state contests Federalists were elected to more than one-third of the seats in the Virginia legislature.
5. Edward Carrington was supervisor of the revenue for Virginia.