Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: of its having been offered in Congress, but from this time forward the subject of an amendment was agitated in the State Legislatures ' as well as in Congress. As early as 1801 Gallatin discussed the necessity for a designating amendment to avoid embarrassment in the election of a Vice-President in 1804. He had discovered among a large majority of the Republicans a want of confidence in Burr of which he had not been aware when he supported his nomination. He spoke of that nomination as not having been a necessity at the time, and as a capital fault if the Republicans were determined not to support him for the eventual succession. There is the evidence of Bayard, who had the whole matter in his hands,3 that Burr did not give Iris definite co-operation to the scheme for his election. Nevertheless he trimmed so close to the wind that although the Republican press teemed with compliments upon his high stand and his unwillingness to take the place not intended for him, distrust deepened among the Republican leaders. He was practically an isolated man from the time Jefferson's administration began. It is worth while to notice just here the part in executive business which had been taken by Adams and Jefferson while in the office of Vice-President. Although Adams complained of his office as wholly insignificant and the only situation in the world where firmness and patience were useless,4 he was consulted by Washington in many of the most important measures of the government, in the same manner as were the Heads of Departments. In 1789 the question of executive etiquette5 was submitted to his judgment. In 1790 his opinion was asked6 in regard to an important matter of foreign relations. When Washington went on his Southern tour in 1791 he sent instructions ' to his Secretaries to ...