RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 23 May and so recorded in SJL.

Newspaper accounts in early May indicated that Federalists had won a substantial number of congressional seats in the late April ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK. Under the new apportionment law, the number of Representatives allotted to New York increased from 10 to 17. In the end, five Federalists won House seats in the Eighth Congress, including Gaylord Griswold, of Herkimer County; Henry W. Livingston; Joshua Sands, of the second congressional district in New York City, who defeated John Broome; George Tibbits, of Rensselaer County, who defeated Josiah Masters; and Killian K. Van Rensselaer, of Albany County. The early newspaper accounts incorrectly reported that incumbent Congressman David THOMAS, a Republican from Washington County, had been defeated by John WILLIAMS, a former Federalist congressman. An accurate account was published in the New-York Evening Post on 11 May, with the previous error noted (New-York Evening Post, 7, 11 May; New York Commercial Advertiser, 7 May, 11 June; Catskill, N.Y., Western Constellation, 24 May; U.S. Statutes at Large description begins Richard Peters, ed., The Public Statutes at Large of the United States … 1789 to March 3, 1845, Boston, 1855–56, 8 vols. description ends , 1:253; 2:128; Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989, Washington, D.C., 1989 description ends ).

BURR WILL BE SORRY: in Columbia County, Livingston defeated the incumbent congressman John P. Van Ness. For Van Ness’s friendship with Burr, see DeWitt Clinton’s Statement on a Political Faction in New York, [before 10 Dec. 1801]. The four Federalist candidates for the New York assembly from Columbia County also won election (New-York Evening Post, 6 May; Journal of the Assembly of the State of New-York: at Their Twenty-Sixth Session, Begun and Held at the City of Albany, the Twenty-Fifth Day of January, 1803 [Albany, 1803], 3).

Conrad E. ELMENDORF, a Federalist from Kingston, ran for Congress from Ulster and Greene Counties. The New-York Evening Post reported that he was running against Lucas Conrad Elmendorf, the Republican incumbent, but Lucas Elmendorf had declined to run for reelection. The Republican candidate John Cantine received a certificate of election after an error in Elmendorf’s name, made by an election inspector, disqualified at least 120 votes, which, if counted, would have given Elmendorf the victory. Plans were made to contest Cantine’s seating in the House of Representatives, but he resigned before the Eighth Congress convened and Josiah Hasbrouck, a Republican, was elected in his place (New-York Evening Post, 5 May, 14 June; Catskill, N.Y., Western Constellation, 24 May; New York Commercial Advertiser, 11 June; New York American Citizen and General Advertiser, 14 June; New-York Herald, 3, 10 July 1802; Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989, Washington, D.C., 1989 description ends ). COUNTIES WHICH COMPOSE THE DISTRICT: in the New York senate the middle district included Columbia, Ulster, Greene, Orange, Dutchess, Rockland, and Delaware counties (National Intelligencer, 7 June).

AMBROSE Spencer (SPENSER), a Connecticut native who moved to Columbia County, was DeWitt Clinton’s political ally in 1802 and served as a state senator representing the middle district and as attorney general of New York (Kline, Burr description begins Mary-Jo Kline, ed., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, Princeton, 1983, 2 vols. description ends , 1:477n; Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989, Washington, D.C., 1989 description ends ; Journal of the Senate of the State of New-York: At Their Twenty-Fifth Session, Begun and Held at the City of Albany, the Twenty-Sixth Day of January, 1802 [Albany, 1802], 3; Journal of the Assembly of the State of New-York: At Their Twenty-Fifth Session, Began and Held at the City of Albany, the Twenty-Sixth Day of January, 1802 [Albany, 1802], 67–8, 110–11, 122).

Thomas MORRIS did not run for reelection in 1802. Oliver PHELPS, a Connecticut native who lived in Canandaigua, Ontario County, won the election against two other candidates (Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989, Washington, D.C., 1989 description ends ; New York Commercial Advertiser, 11 June 1802).

VAN COURTLANDS COUNTY: Philip Van Cortlandt retained his seat as a congressman from Westchester County. An early report from the county indicated that at least half of the Federalist candidates would be elected, but Republicans won the county’s four seats in the state assembly (New-York Gazette and General Advertiser, 4 May; National Intelligencer, 7 June 1802).