endure, prove engines of mischief, if one party will call to its aid
all the resources which vice can give, and if the other (however
pressing the emergency) confines itself within all the ordinary forms
of delicacy and decorum.

The legislature can be brought together in three weeks, so that there
will be full time for the object; but none ought to be lost.

Think well, my dear sir, of this proposition; appreciate the extreme
danger of the crisis; and I am unusually mistaken in my view of the
matter if you do not see it right and expedient to adopt the measure.

Respectfully and affectionately yours.

Mr. Jay's biographer adds--"On this letter is the following
endorsement in the governor's hand, _Proposing a measure for party
purposes which I think it would not become me to adopt_."



Footnotes:

1. As there were but _few_ of "the most distinguished federalists in
the United States" residing at that time in the city of New-York, the
intelligent reader will form his own conclusions as to the source from
whence it emanated.