But personal abuse of him in the newspapers exasperating his friends, he was taken up again in October, and he arrived on the scene, he says, too late to prevent it.

He had no hope, however, of success, and was resolved to resign a seat to which he was in every way indifferent.

"Ambition, love of power," he wrote to his wife on October 16, he had never felt, and he added, if vanity ever made one of the ingredients which impelled him to take an active part in public life, it had for many years altogether vanished away.

He was nevertheless reelected by the district he had represented.
* * * * * The second session of the fourth Congress began on December 5, 1796.

At the beginning of this session Mr.Gallatin took the reins of the Republican party, and held them till its close.