Note 116 — {179} LETTER XV

This law was passed in March, 1816, and its effect was felt in the elections of that same year. From Ohio, Delaware, and Vermont not one congressman was re-elected; in Kentucky, but three out of ten; in South Carolina, three out of nine; in Maryland, four out of nine; and in Pennsylvania, thirteen out of twenty-three. Jefferson wrote to Gallatin: “There has never been an instance before of so unanimous an opinion of the people, and that through every state of the Union.”—Ed.