My time goes along tolerably enough,
one way or another. Fancy furnishes me with passions and amusements,
and about one hundred dollars a year more than meets every want I have
which money can gratify.
This election affair has, however, exposed me to five or six essays in
the newspapers, composed of lies, malice, and nonsense. One writer (an
old tory) charges yourself and Colonel Smith with having met in caucus
here, to plot the expulsion of Anthony New from Congress. I would have
given five guineas had you called again, for it is probable you would
have met Smith at my gate, and another pretty piece would have
appeared most prodigiously entertaining. Well, if you will call in
June, I will give you a hearty welcome to the best I have. May you be
happy.
Your friend,
JOHN TAYLOR.
FROM PIERCE BUTLER.
Near Darien, Georgia, March 30, 1803.
DEAR SIR,
The letter you did me the honour of writing, with the accompaniments
you so kindly forwarded, have my warm and grateful acknowledgments.
The selection of _ten miles square_ for the seat of government
appeared to me at the time, and has continued, an excrescence on the
Constitution, like a wart on a fair skin. Neither the foreign
ministers nor the resident citizens in the federal city have any thing
to alarm them under state laws. There is no finger of blood in the
laws of Maryland or Virginia.
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