It is quite true that he would
have had Federalists and Democrats in both Houses to frustrate him; but
it does not seem to have occurred to the former that impeachment would
have been inevitable, and Jefferson President but a year or two later
than the will of the people decreed. But it was a time of terrible
excitement, and for the matter of that their brains must have been a
trifle clouded by the unvarying excitement of their lives. Bayard of
Delaware, with whom Hamilton had fought over point by point, winning one
or more with each letter, changed his vote on the last ballot from Burr
to a blank. Hamilton's friends knew that Burr would kill him sooner or
later, for the ambitious man had lost his one chance of the great
office; but Hamilton chose to see only the humour of the present he had
made Thomas Jefferson. That sensible politician had tacitly agreed to
the terms suggested by the Federalists, when they debated the
possibility of accepting him, and Hamilton knew that he was far too
clever to break his word at once. What Hamilton hoped for was what came
to pass: Jefferson found the machinery of his new possession more to his
taste than he could have imagined while sitting out in the cold, and he
let it alone.
Pages:
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915