To James Monroe.

DEAR SIR,—Mr. Erwin proposing to set out in the morning without my again seeing him, I think proper to add to the few lines with which he is already charged, that our interview closed without any allusion to the secondary object of the election. If I had not expected, as intimated by you, that he would bring on the subject, it would, no doubt, have dropped from me. As it is possible he may draw some erroneous inference from my silence, especially as a good deal of free conversation passed on the election generally, I hope you will take occasion to guard against it. You know my sentiments, and I am not averse to a communication of them, as far as you deem eligible. I cannot apprehend any danger of a surprize that would throw Mr. Jefferson out of the primary station. I cannot believe that any such is intended, or that a single republican vote will abandon him. The worst, therefore, that could possibly happen, would be a tie, that would appeal to the House of Representatives, where the candidates would certainly, I think, be arranged properly, even on the recommendation of the secondary one. As I do not wish that Mr. Erwin should be under any wrong impressions, which might be as injurious in a public as disagreeable in a private view, in case they should be conveyed to others. I have thought this supplement of sufficient importance to be written after the retirement of Mr. Erwin.