weight and wealth on the good side is so great, as to leave no danger that force will ever be attempted against us. We have only to awake and snap the Lilliputian cords with which they have been entangling us during the first sleep which succeeded our labours. I begin to feel the effects of age. My health has suddenly broken down, with symptoms which give me to believe, I shall not have much to encounter of the tedium vitæ. While it remains, however, my heart will be warm in its friendships, and among these, will always foster the affections, with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant,

TH. JEFFERSON."

What motive could induce Mr. Jefferson to brand George Washington, the Executive, as a Monarchist, it is difficult to conceive. Washington! the father of his country!-The soldier who had achieved our independence through a seven years war!-the patriot, who had ever stood aloof from power-the statesman, who had assisted to frame, and who carried into practice, the free Constitution of the United States! the REPUBLICAN, who had established the precedent, which corrected the unlimited duration of the eligibility of the President to office-who had rejected all recompense for his public services, and who had now spent a life in the field and in the cabinet, devoted to the welfare and liberties of his country!! It was utterly impossible that Mr. Jefferson should believe, what he here alleged-then why allege it? Washington did not stand in his way-and if he did, he could not remove him. Did he envy him his future glory? He could not tarnish, much less diminish its lustre, by an unfounded imputation!-Then, why prefer a charge, which few would tolerate, and none would believe? To gratify feeling to create a fancied superiority for his own principles-and to be highest, not as a patriot-not as a statesman-not as an American-but to be highest, as the enthusiastic champion of universal liberty, who would tolerate nothing short of the emancipation of every people; and that the United States should, like Don Quixotte, buckle on her armour, mount her Rosinante, and set out to liberate all mankind, and slay all kings, or perish in the attempt! But the best apology for this letter is, that the writer never designed it to be published; and that, however frail may have been the feelings of his heart, his head was too strong to

X

permit him to divulge their unrighteous wanderings, except to the bosom of undivulgable friendship!

While I note these spots on the sun of Mr. Jefferson's greatness, I feel bound to observe, that the line of distinction is a broad and distinct one, which separates the true glory of the beneficial actions of one of the founders of the Republic, from the partisan blemishes, occasioned by the heats, animosities, and rivalry of the politician, who appeals to the current prejudices of the people, to wean their affections from a competitor, or court them to himself: nor does this last trait of character, demand that severity of censure, or warrant that acerbity of denunciation, which we are too much disposed to fall into, when we pass judgment upon the deeds of men made illustrious by their talents, and immortal by their virtues. In proof of this course being dictated by reason and propriety, we have only to reflect, that the very measures which Mr. Jefferson had made the pretext for the denunciation of Washington, he had himself sanctioned and approved: he admitted the Excise law to be Constitutional-he had concurred in and sanctioned the Proclamation of Neutrality he had, with his own pen, eloquently resented the insults and indignities offered to the American Republic by the audacious Genet: nor is there reason to believe, that he opposed the treaty of Mr. Jay, until he thought he discovered in the mass of the people, a dislike to it, which presented him with a prospect of an available fund of popularity, at a season auspicious to his ambition; for that he was ambitious, every syllable of humility that falls from his lips, gives incontestible assurance. Of little avail would have been his character, and his talents to his country, had he not been so. It was this ambition, which, in moments of depression, caused him to look with a jaundiced eye upon the peerless lustre of the true glory of Washington; and to exclaim in despite of his better reason

"Oh! Sun! I hate thy beams!" This, however, was but the evil spirit of the moment-it quickly passed away, and left his mind to the calm control of more benevolent feelings, and juster thoughts!

There was one feature of the policy of Washington, however, in which Jefferson never could agree, and that was the NATIONAL BANK; which he took every occasion to assail, and which there is reason to believe, constituted the chief cause of his growing dislike of Washington, as it was known to be

the sole one of his hatred of Alexander Hamilton. The following letter will tend to elucidate these points.

DEAR SIR,

TO COLONEL MONROE.

Monticello, June 12, 1796. "Congress have risen. You will have seen by their proceedings the truth of what I always observed to you, that one man outweighs them all in influence over the people, who have supported his judgment against their own and that of their representatives. Republicanism must lie on its oars; resign the vessel to its pilot, and themselves to the course he thinks best for them. I had always conjectured, from such facts as I could get hold of, that our public debt was increasing about a million of dollars a year. You will see by Gallatin's speeches, that the thing is proved.* You will see farther, that we are completely saddled and bridled, and that the BANK is so firmly mounted on us, that we must go where they will guide. They openly publish a resolution, that the national property being increased in value, they must by an increase of circulating medium furnish an adequate representation of it, and by further additions of active capital promote the enterprises of our merchants. It is supposed that the paper in circulation in and around Philadelphia, amounts to twenty millions of dollars, and that in the whole Union to one hundred millions. I think the last too high."

Both these amounts were exaggerated far beyond their possible limits. This letter to Colonel Monroe, is dated, June 12. On the 19th of the same month, and same year, he addressed a letter to General Washington, denying the publication of the Interrogatories put to the Cabinet on the

* Mr. J. here again declaims as a partisan, instead of reasoning as a statesman. The anti-federalists opposed taxes and imposts, to discharge the expenses of government; and yet complained that the public debt was augmented! How could it be otherwise, when the public revenue was deficient. Who caused that deficiency? The anti-federalists! Yet, in a letter to Washington, dated Paris, Dec. 4, 1788, he says: "Calculation has convinced me, that circumstances may arise, and probably will arise, wherein all the resources of taxation will be necessary for the safety of the State. For, although I am decidedly of opinion, we should take no part in European quarrels, but cultivate peace and commerce with all, yet who can avoid seeing the source of war in the tyranny of those nations, who deprive us of the natural right of trading with our neighbour."

occasion of Genet's reception, and which had appeared in Bache's Aurora, then the assailing journal on the WASHINGTON CABINET. In this letter, Mr. Jefferson says, 6. I learn that this last person [General H. Lee!] has thought it worth his while to try to sow tares between you and me, by representing me as still engaged in the bustle of politics, and in turbulence and intrigue against the government. I never believed for a moment that this could make any impression on you, or that your knowledge of me would not outweigh the slander of an intriguer, dirtily employed in sifting the conversations of my table, where alone he could hear of me; and seeking to atone for his sins against you, by sins against another, who had never done him any other injury than that of declining his confidence. Political conversations I really dislike, and therefore avoid where I can without affectation."

We have seen, however, that Mr. Jefferson had not an equal dislike to political correspondence; and that his free denunciation of Washington, and his cabinet, under his pen, were not intended to be embraced in his denial of attacking the government in his conversations. He appeared, therefore, to the face of Washington as a friend, and behind his back as an enemy. Some organic frailty of his constitution, in the moral courage of his mind, must have led to this trait of inconsistency. Thus, only three weeks after his friendly letter to General Washington, we find him writing to Monroe in the following terms:

"Monticello, July 10, 1796. "DEAR SIR,-The campaign of Congress has closed. Though the Anglomen have, in the end, got their treaty through, and so far have triumphed over the cause of republicanism, yet it has been to them a dear bought victory: it has given the most radical shock to their party which it has ever received: and there is no doubt, they would be glad to be replaced on the ground they possessed the instant before Jay's nomination extraordinary. They see that nothing can support them but the colossus of the President's merits with the PEOPLE; and the moment he retires, that his successor, if a monocrat,* will be overborne by the republican sense of his constituents; if a republican, he will of course give fair play to that sense, and lead things into the channel of

* The party attached to the National Bank, and the Funded System!

harmony, between the governors and governed. In the mean time, patience."

"Most assiduous court is paid to Patrick Henry. He has been offered every thing which they knew he would not accept. Some impression is thought to be made, but we do not believe it is radical. If they thought they could count upon him, they would run him for their Vice President; their first object being to produce a schism in this State. As it is, they will run Mr. Pinckney; in which they regard his Southern position rather than his principles. Mr. Jay, and his advocate Camillus, are completely treaty-foundered."

Enough has now been cited, from Mr. Jefferson's letters, to show, that however religiously he might be devoted to the culture of lucerne and potatoes,' that he found ample leisure, amidst all his avocations of building, planting, reading, science, philosophy and rustic pleasures, to not only attend to the passing events of the political world, but to interpose his voice and his pen in deciding their tendency, and controlling their movements. There is contained in the letter just quoted enough to prove him not only a close observer, but a consummate actor in the finesse and secret management of the day and it is apparent that his mind now began to assume that texture of refined equivocation, which the habit of political intrigue and management so naturally engrafts upon it; leading step by step to that system of mental reservation, which reconciles the conscience to the loss of integrity, without shocking the sensibilities by the flagrant violation of veracity. If, up to the period of his retirement from the office of Secre tary of State, he retained the bold and single front of undissembled honesty, wearing his heart upon his sleeve.? which may reasonably be doubted, from the current stories of the day, he soon found it necessary to his purpose, of rising to the supreme station in the government, to profess to one set of men an attachment, which he either did not feel, or could not, consistently with his interest, avow to another; and which naturally begat that duplicity which he afterwards carried to such extreme refinement. The first attempt of the intrigue to prostrate Hamilton and Adams, no doubt comprehended the person and character of WASHINGTON, who was also to be immolated on the bloody altar of French liberty; but being foiled in this attempt, the