Adams and Alexander Hamilton. Practice of recording conversations considered. Public prosperity. Public credit. Spirit of speculation- its causes and effects. Discriminating duties in France. French West Indies. Indian territorial rights. The surrender of fugitives Third session of the first Congress. The commerce of the United States with France and England compared. St. Clair's defeat. Apportion- ment bill. Mr. Jefferson advises the President to negative it. Con- versation with the President on his proposed retirement. Causes of the public discontents. The power to promote the general welfare. Collision between Jefferson and Hamilton. Official correspondence with Mr. Hammond, the British minister-Pagan's case-tampering with the Creek Indians-complaints of each government. Mr. Jeffer- son's answer to Mr. Hammond's charges. The Post-office. Surren- dering of foreign fugitives. Relative powers of the legislative and executive branches. Negotiation with Algiers. Paul Jones. 360 Mr. Jefferson addresses a long letter to the President. His views of the state of parties. His various arguments why the President should serve a second term. Conversation between them on the subject of this letter. Their respective opinions on the Assumption, Bank, and Excise. Further conversation—the supposed predilections for Mo- narchy-influence of the Treasury Department. Commissioners from Spain. Discussion in the Cabinet. Disagreement as to Foreign Con- nexions. Relations with France. Party Dissentions. References to the Secretary of the Treasury—his plan of reducing the Public Debt -proposes to pay the debt to the Bank in advance. Further Assump- tion of State Debts. Mr. Giles's Resolutions against the Secretary of the Treasury. Proceedings thereon. Views of the two Parties. Conversation with the President on his Levees. Right of the United on the Neutrality of the United States. Arrival of Citizen Genet, the French Minister-his reception. Rights of France under the Treaty of Commerce. Mr. Jefferson's correspondence with the French Minis- ter. Genet's intemperate and offensive course-his recall-the popu- State of parties as to the French Revolution. The Proclamation of Neutrality-how viewed by the two parties-by Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Madison. Mr. Jefferson's letters to Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe. Cabinet consultations concerning Genet. The order of the British government relative to neutrals-the correspondence relative to it- Impressment of American seamen. French decrees relative to neu- trals. Discussions in the Cabinet-Proclamation of Neutrality-Forti- fications-Military Academy. Communications to Congress on the foreign relations of the United States. Mr. Jefferson's report on commercial restrictions. His resignation and return to Monticello. 439 Mr. Jefferson's motives for retiring from public life. His continued con- nexion with the Republican Party. Description of Monticello. Mr. Madison's Commercial Restrictions-arguments for and against them in Congress. State of parties on this Question. A naval force pro- vided. British Order in Council of the 5th of November. The Mea- sures in Congress to which it gave rise. The Chief Justice sent as Minister to England. Each party accuses the other of foreign attach- ments. Arrangement of each under different classes of citizens. 467 Insurrection in Pennsylvania. Mr. Jefferson refuses a seat in the Cabi- net. Democratic Societies. The President's Speech-Mr. Jefferson's strictures on it. The fitness of large states for Republican Govern- ment considered. Gouverneur Morris recalled-his character. James Monroe. Discontent of Kentucky. Direct and Indirect Taxes. Alex- ander Hamilton resigns-his character. Mr. Jefferson refuses to be- come a Candidate for the Presidency. Treaty with Great Britain- ratified by the Senate-made public by one of the Senators-violent opposition to it.-Mr. Jefferson's views of it-its provisions-its want CHAPTER XXI. 1796. The British Treaty ratified by the President and Senate. Proceedings 508 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. CHAPTER I. The life of Thomas Jefferson peculiarly instructive-illustrated by the history of his native state. First settlement of Virginia. Difficulties of the first settlers. Introduction of slaves, and the cultivation of tobacco-their influence on the character and condition of the inhabitants. Towns small and few. Habits and manners of the people. Religion. Government. Aristocracy. Jealous of their civil rights. Collisions with the crown. Subsequent harmony until the stamp act. BIOGRAPHY can present no occasion of more interest and instruction to Americans than the life of Thomas Jefferson, whether we regard the high place he held in the affections of his countrymen, the influence he exercised in their public councils and over their political sentiments, or the means by which he attained this extraordinary elevation. It never could be more truly said of any man that he was the artificer of his own fortune. We behold in him the rare example of one who, possessing no peculiar claims to distinction from wealth, family, or station, and without having either gained a battle, made a speech, or founded a sect, raised himself from the ranks of priVOL. I-2 vate life to the highest civil honours of his country, after he had contributed by his counsels to give that country independence; and whose opinions, both when he was living and since his death, have acquired a weight and currency with his countrymen, on all questions of government and civil policy, which those of no other individual have ever attained. Although the principal events of Mr. Jefferson's life are already familiar to his countrymen, yet they cannot but be gratified to see those events placed in immediate connexion with their less obvious causes and effects, and receive illustrations from his modes of thinking and personal traits of character. Nor ought we to disregard the claims of posterity. The numerous millions of the Anglo-Saxon race who will hereafter inhabit this continent, will assuredly, whether they continue united in one mighty confederacy, or by a less happy destiny, be broken up into distinct sovereignties, look back on the separation of the thirteen provinces from Great Britain, which first gave them a place among nations, as the most important era in their common history. They will naturally regard with veneration and interest all which relates to that great drama, and more especially the fortunes and characters of its principal actors. It seems, then, to be a duty of the present generation to profit by their position, and to transmit to their descendants those details to which they will so anxiously turn, whether their purpose be to gratify a liberal curiosity, or to indulge in sentiments of patriotic pride. But the life of Mr. Jefferson is so intimately connected with the history of his country, that a brief notice of the polity and institutions of Virginia, while a colony, as well as of the manners and pursuits of its inhabitants, will not only shed light on his character, but also make us better acquainted with the sources and tendencies of some of his principal acts. Virginia, the first colony which the English planted in North America, had been settled at the period of Mr. Jefferson's birth, in 1743, just one hundred and thirty-six years. The charters granted by the English sovereigns to its first settlers extended the limits of the colony to the west as far as the Pacific Ocean. |