December the 13th, 1803.  The Reverend Mr. Coffin of New England, who is now here soliciting donations for a college in Greene county, in Tennessee, tells me that when he first determined to engage in this enterprise, he wrote a paper recommendatory of the enterprise, which he meant to get signed by clergymen, and a similar one for persons in a civil character, at the head of which he wished Mr. Adams to put his name, he being then President, and the application going only for his name, and not for a donation.  Mr. Adams, after reading the paper and considering, said, ’he saw no possibility of continuing the union of the States; that their dissolution must necessarily take place; that he therefore saw no propriety in recommending to New England men to promote a literary institution in the south; that it was in fact giving strength to those who were to be their enemies, and therefore, he would have nothing to do with it.’

December the 31st.  After dinner to-day, the pamphlet on the conduct of Colonel Burr being the subject of conversation, Matthew Lyon noticed the insinuations against the republicans at Washington, pending the Presidential election, and expressed his wish that every thing was spoken out which was known; that it would then appear on which side there was a bidding for votes, and he declared that John Brown of Rhode Island, urging him to vote for Colonel Burr, used these words.  ’What is it you want, Colonel Lyon?  Is it office, is it money?  Only say what you want, and you shall have it.’

January the 2nd, 1804.  Colonel Hitchburn, of Massachusetts, reminding me of a letter he had written me from Philadelphia, pending the Presidential election, says he did not therein give the details.  That he was in company at Philadelphia with Colonel Burr and ------ that in the course of the conversation on the election, Colonel Burr said, ’We must have a President, and a constitutional one, in some way.’  ’How is it to be done,’ says Hitchburn; ’Mr. Jefferson’s friends will not quit him, and his enemies are not strong enough to carry another.’  ‘Why,’ says Burr, ‘our friends must join the federalists, and give the President.’  ’The next morning at breakfast, Colonel Burr repeated nearly the same, saying, ’We cannot be without a President, our friends must join the federal vote.’  ‘But,’ says Hitchburn, ’we shall then be without a Vice-President; who is to be our Vice-President?’ Colonel Burr answered, ‘Mr. Jefferson.’

January the 26th.  Colonel Burr, the Vice-President, calls on me in the evening, having previously asked an opportunity of conversing with me.  He began by recapitulating summarily, that he had come to New York a stranger, some years ago; that he found the country in possession of two rich families (the Livingstons and Clintons); that his pursuits were not political, and he meddled not.  When the crisis, however, of 1800 came on, they found their influence worn out, and solicited his aid with the people.  He lent