To James Madison from Stanley Griswold, 26 November 1804
From Stanley Griswold
Walpole, N. H. 26. Nov. 1804.
Sir,
I have the pleasure to inform you that by letters received last evening from members of the legislature of this state, now sitting at Concord, it appears that the votes for Electors of President and V. president have been canvassed, and that the ticket supported by republicans has succeeded by a majority of 702 votes over the opposite ticket. The result was as follows,
| Republican | 9088 |
| Federal | 8386 |
| Scattering | 128 |
The gentlemen elected are Mess. John Goddard, Levi Bartlett, Jonathan Steele, Robert Alcock, Timothy Walker, George Aldrich, Wm. Tarlton.1
Give me leave most cordially to congratulate you on this auspicious event.
The amendment to the U.S. constitution, proposed by the legislature of Massachusetts,2 was under consideration at the date of my letters (Saturday last,) and would unquestionably be rejected. I am with great respect, Your obedient servt.
Stanley Griswold
editor of Pol. Observatory3
RC (DLC).
1. Levi Bartlett was a member of the New Hampshire legislature who was later appointed to the state court of common pleas. Judge Timothy Walker was a Concord civic leader and convert from Federalism. William Tarleton served on the governor’s council under John Langdon, who later appointed him sheriff. Revolutionary War veteran George Aldrich (1738–1815) was a brigadier general in the New Hampshire militia who served in the state legislature from 1807 to 1811. Robert Alcock was a member of the state senate from 1803 to 1807 (Turner, The Ninth State, 173, 181, 183, 187, 253–56, 452 n. 13; Westmoreland History Committee, History of Westmoreland [Great Meadow] New Hampshire, 1741–1970 [Westmoreland, N.H., 1976], 317; “A Journal of the Proceedings of the Honorable Senate … of New-Hampshire …,”June 1803, p. 5, June 1804, p. 5, June 1805, p. 5, June 1806, p. 5, June 1807, p. 5, in Records of the States of the United States of America [DLC microfilm ed.], N.H. A.1a, reel 2). For Jonathan Steele, see Steele to JM, 24 Apr. 1804, , 7:108–9 and n. 2. For John Goddard, see Goddard to JM, 3 Nov. 1803, ibid., 6:11 and n. 1.
2. On 23 Nov. 1804 Governor John Taylor Gilman submitted to the New Hampshire legislature a resolve of the Massachusetts legislature proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution confining the apportionment of the representatives among the several states to the number of free inhabitants only. The legislature rejected the proposal in June 1805, partly on the grounds that the proposed reduction in representation would throw a heavier burden on the farmers of New Hampshire in the event of the imposition of a direct tax (“A Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the State of New-Hampshire,… November … 1804,” 13–14, “A Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the State of New-Hampshire,… June, 1805,” 71–73, “A Journal of the Proceedings of the Honorable Senate, of the State of New-Hampshire,… November … 1804,” 23–24, and “A Journal of the Proceedings of the Honorable Senate; of the State of New-Hampshire,… June … 1805,” 47–49, in Records of the States of the United States of America [DLC microfilm ed.], N.H. A.1a, reel 2, A.1b, reel 3). For a discussion of the amendment, see Linda K. Kerber, Federalists in Dissent: Imagery and Ideology in Jeffersonian America (Ithaca, N.Y., 1970), 36–38.
3. Stanley Griswold (1763–1815), Jefferson supporter and former Connecticut minister, retired from the clergy in 1803 and moved to Walpole, New Hampshire. He edited the Republican Political Observatory from 1803 until 1805, when Jefferson named him secretary of the Michigan Territory. From 1809 to 1810 he served as senator from Ohio, and from 1810 until his death he was a judge in the Illinois Territory.