The inclosed extract was a clipping from the Washington Gazette of 12 Apr. 1821, which in turn was extracted from the New-York Columbian, 7 Apr. 1821 (DLC: TJ Papers, 220:39272; attached with red sealing wax to PoC of TJ to Hay, 20 Apr. 1821). It reads (opening double quotation mark editorially altered to single; omitted closing quotation mark editorially supplied): “The following statement is made in the New York Columbian of Saturday evening last. The part which relates to Mr. Jefferson is particularly interesting; it has not, we must presume, or ought not to have been hazarded, without a certainty of its correctness.
 ‘Every great politician in the United States, speaks in terms of unequivocal approbation of the conduct of Governor Clinton in coming out boldly as the champion of state rights, and in warning his fellow citizens of the dangerous and alarming conduct of officers of the general government in interfering with our State elections.
 The venerable Thomas Jefferson, a name very dear to the republicans of the north, has very recently expressed his cordial and warm approbation of the conduct of Mr. Clinton in the whole of this affair, and has also expressed his conviction that the case was fully made out by the documents. Mr. Randolph, the late Governor of Virginia, has also expressed his decided approbation of the conduct of Mr. Clinton, and says it is an example which ought to be followed by every Governor in the Union.
 Other gentlemen of the old republican school of ’98 and 1800, and of the highest respectability, have also warmly and decidedly approved of the Governor of our State.’” Thomas Mann Randolph soon denied this report about his and TJ’s expressed support for DeWitt Clinton’s conduct as “wholly without foundation,” although “I concur with Mr Jefferson very heartily in admiring Governor Clintons talents and learning” (Randolph to Nicholas P. Trist, 6 May 1821 [NcU: NPT]).

The report of the joint committee also now forwarded was the Report of the Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly, In relation to the Message of the Governor of the 18th of January last, implicating the conduct of sundry individuals holding offices under the General Government. With the Documents Accompanying The Same (Albany, 1821). The specific charge exhibited by gov. clinton against the genl government was an assertion by DeWitt Clinton that members of James Monroe’s administration and other high-level political leaders, including United States senator Martin Van Buren, had used federal patronage to influence the outcome of a recent election in New York and thereby violated the sovereignty of that state’s government. The joint legislative committee concluded that “the accusation made by his excellency the governor, against the officers of the general government, charging them with interfering, as an ‘organized and disciplined corps,’ in our elections, and of violating the ‘purity and independence of our local government,’ has not been substantiated, and is wholly unfounded” (p. 24).