Abstract
On April 27, 1795, Thomas Jefferson wrote an important letter to his chief political confidant Virginia colleague, James Madison. In this letter Jefferson discussed the forthcoming presidential election renewed his wish that Madison would become president because there is not another person in the U.S. who being placed at the helm of our affairs, my mind would be so completely at rest for the fortune of our political bark. The greater part of the letter, however, is a recitation of the reasons why Jefferson himself would refuse to be a candidate. He told Madison that he felt the same way that he had felt when he had retired from Washington's cabinet two years earlier. He continued to enjoy the delights . .. in the society of my family, he wrote, and the agricultural pursuits in I am so eagerly engaged. Jefferson concluded that he would not be a contestant for the presidency that the is forever closed with me; my sole object is to avail myself of the first opening ever given me from a friendly quarter (and I could not with decency do it before), of preventing any division or loss of votes, might be fatal to the interest.' The question is: what word should go in the blank space? The letterpress duplicate copy of the letter in the Jefferson Papers had a word crossed or blotted out written in above the line, thus reading which might be fatal to the Republican in-
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