to me directly, as you have done, they shall be informed with frankness and thankfulness.  There is not a truth on earth which I fear or would disguise.  But secret slanders cannot be disarmed, because they are secret.  Although you desire no answer, I shall give you one to those articles admitting a short answer, reserving those which require more explanation than the compass of a letter admits, to conversation on your arrival here.  And as I write this for your personal satisfaction, I rely that my letter will, under no circumstances, be communicated to any mortal, because you well know how every syllable from me is distorted by the ingenuity of political enemies.

In the first place, then, I have had less communication, directly or indirectly, with the republicans of the east, this session, than I ever had before.  This has proceeded from accidental circumstances, not from design.  And if there be any coolness between those of the south and myself, it has not been from me towards them.  Certainly there has been no other reserve, than to avoid taking part in the divisions among our friends.  That Mr. R. has openly attacked the administration is sufficiently known.  We were not disposed to join in league with Britain, under any belief that she is fighting for the liberties of mankind, and to enter into war with Spain, and consequently France.  The House of Representatives were in the same sentiment, when they rejected Mr. R.’s resolutions for raising a body of regular troops for the western service.  We are for a peaceable accommodation with all those nations, if it can be effected honorably.  This, perhaps, is not the only ground of his alienation; but which side retains its orthodoxy, the vote of eighty-seven to eleven republicans may satisfy you:  but you will better satisfy yourself on coming here, where alone the true state of things can be known, and where you will see republicanism as solidly embodied on all essential points, as you ever saw it on any occasion.

That there is only one minister who is not opposed to me, is totally unfounded.  There never was a more harmonious, a more cordial administration, nor ever a moment when it has been otherwise.  And while differences of opinion have been always rare among us, I can affirm, that as to present matters, there was not a single paragraph in my message to Congress, or those supplementary to it, in which there was not a unanimity of concurrence in the members of the administration.  The fact is, that in ordinary affairs every head of a department consults me on those of his department, and where any thing arises too difficult or important to be decided between us, the consultation becomes general.

That there is an ostensible cabinet and a concealed one, a public profession and concealed counteraction, is false.

That I have denounced republicans by the epithet of Jacobins, and declared I would appoint none but those called moderates of both parties, and that I have avowed or entertain any predilection for those called the third party, or Quids, is in every tittle of it false.