private 

Your letter of Novr. 14. came safely tho’ tardily to hand.

I must confess that I perceive no ground, on which a doubt could be applied to the Statement of Mr. Jefferson which you cite. Nor can it I think, be difficult to account for my declining an Executive appointment under Washington and accepting it under Jefferson, without making it a test of my comparative attachment to them; and without looking beyond the posture of things at the two epochs.

The part I had borne, in the origin and adoption of the Constitution, determined me at the outset of the Govt. to prefer a seat in the House of Representatives; as least exposing me to the imputation of selfish views; and where, if any where, I could be of service in sustaining the Constitution agst the party adverse to it. It was known to my friends when making me a candidate for the Senate, that my choice was the other branch of the Legislature. Having commenced my Legislative Career as I did, I thought it most becoming to proceed under the original impulse to the end of it; and the rather as the Constn: in its progress, was encountering trials of a new sort, in the formation of new Parties, attaching adverse constructions to it.

The Crisis at which I accepted the Executive appointment under Mr. Jefferson is well known. My Connection with it, and the part I had borne in promoting his election to the Chief Magistracy, will explain my yielding to his pressing desire that I should be a member of his Cabinet

I hope you received the copies of your father’s letters to me which were duly forwarded; and I am not without a hope, that you will have been enabled to comply with my request of Copies of mine to him. With friendly salutations