any harm he could do me, I knew no cause why he should desire it, but, at the same time, I feared no injury which any man could do me:  that I never had done a single act, or been concerned in any transaction, which I feared to have fully laid open, or which could do me any hurt, if truly stated:  that I had never done a single thing with a view to my personal interest, or that of any friend, or with any other view than that of the greatest public good:  that, therefore, no threat or fear on that head would ever be a motive of action with me.  He has continued in town to this time; dined with me this day week, and called on me to take leave two or three days ago.

I did not commit these things to writing at the time, but I do it now, because in a suit between him and Cheetham, he has had a deposition of Mr. Bayard taken, which seems to have no relation to the suit, nor to any other object than to calumniate me.  Bayard pretends to have addressed to me, during the pending of the Presidential election in February, 1801, through General Samuel Smith, certain conditions on which my election might be obtained, and that General Smith, after conversing with me, gave answers from me.  This is absolutely false.  No proposition of any kind was ever made to me on that occasion by General Smith, nor any answer authorized by me.  And this fact General Smith affirms at this moment.

For some matters connected with this, see my notes of February the 12th and 14th, 1801, made at the moment.  But the following transactions took place about the same time, that is to say, while the Presidential election was in suspense in Congress, which, though I did not enter at the time, they made such an impression on my mind, that they are now as fresh, as to their principal circumstances, as if they had happened yesterday.  Coming out of the Senate chamber one day, I found Gouverneur Morris on the steps.  He stopped me, and began a conversation on the strange and portentous state of things then existing, and went on to observe, that the reasons why the minority of States was so opposed to my being elected, were, that they apprehended that, 1.  I would turn all federalists out of office; 2. put down the navy; 3. wipe off the public debt.  That I need only to declare, or authorize my friends to declare, that I would not take these steps, and instantly the event of the election would be fixed.  I told him, that I should leave the world to judge of the course I meant to pursue, by that which I had pursued hitherto, believing it to be my duty to be passive and silent during the present scene; that I should certainly make no terms; should never go into the office of President by capitulation, nor with my hands tied by any conditions which should hinder me from pursuing the measures which I should deem for the public good.  It was understood that Gouverneur Morris had entirely the direction of the vote of Lewis Morris of Vermont, who, by coming over to Matthew Lyon, would have added another vote, and decided the