Fifth-The repeal of internal taxes, and all excise laws. We are to consider him as a philosopher during the period of his retirement, from 1793 to the epoch of his election as President; for, although much of his time was spent in political correspondence, yet as he professed retirement, and took no prominent part in the contests of the day, we must regard him as exclusively occupied in the pursuits of litera. ture, the study of science, the practice of husbandry, and the knowledge of government. It is to be lamented, that during this period of his retirement, he could not find lei. sure to compose some elaborate work, that might have been worthy of the fame of the author of the Notes on Virginia.

As a statesman, Mr. Jefferson's character beams in full effulgence upon us, from the time of his election as President, to the period of his death; and here he exhibits an excellence of character, not indeed without blemish, but so pure, so vast, so exalted, as to extort our hearty and unqualified admiration. To detail the peculiar merits of his Presidentship, in this place, would be to indulge in a repetition of what we have already related. But a synopsis of his political creed, such as he illustrated it by his course of administration, will be necessary to make up a just estimation of his political merits, in contradistinction to the administration of JOHN ADAMS:

1. An administration conducted on the pure principles of constitutional republicanism-pomp, state and ceremony laid aside..

2. Patronage discarded, or reduced.

3. Internal taxes abolished, and superfluous officers disbanded.

4. Thirty-three millions of the national debt liquidated. 5. The liberty of SPEECH and of the PRESS maintained. 6. Peace with all nations; alliances with none.

But Mr. Jefferson has, himself, given so particular and lucid an account of his public services, that I cannot do better than conclude this sketch of his character by a quotation from his own article. He says, "I may, however, more readily than others, suggest the offices in which Í have served. I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination of justices of the county in which I live, and at the first election following, I became one of its representatives in the Legislature.'

"I was thence sent to the old Congress.

"Then employed two years with Mr. Pendleton and Mr Wythe, on the revisal and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British statutes, the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the common law.

Then elected Governor.

"Next to the Legislature, and to Congress again. "Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary.

"Appointed Secretary of State to the new government. "Elected Vice President, and PRESIDENT. And, lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the UNIVERSITY. In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I have been in the public service now sixty-one years; and during the far greater part of the time, in foreign countries, or in other States."

"If it were thought worth while to specify any particular services rendered, I would refer to the specification of them made by the Legislature itself in their farewell address, on my retiring from the Presidency, February, 1809. There is one, however, not therein specified, the most important in its consequences, of any transaction in any portion of my life; to wit, the head I personally made against the federal principles and proceedings, during the administration of Mr. Adams. Their usurpations and violations of the Constitution at that period, and their majority in both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided, and so daring, that after combating their aggressions, inch by inch, without being able in the least to check their career, the republican leaders thought it would be best for them to give up their useless efforts there, go home, get into their respective legislatures, embody whatever of resistance they could be formed into, and, if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last ditch. All, therefore, retired, leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of Representatives, and myself in the Senate, where I then presided as Vice President. Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the browbeatings and insults by which they endeavoured to drive us off also, we kept the mass of Republicans in phalanx together, until the Legislatures could be brought up to the charge; and nothing on earth is more certain, than if myself particularly, placed by my office of Vice President at the head of the Republicans, had given way, and withdrawn from my post, the Republicans throughout the Union would have given up in despair, and the cause would have been

lost forever. By holding on, we obtained time for the Legislatures to come up with their weight; and those of VIRGINIA and KENTUCKY particularly, but more especially the former, by their celebrated resolutions, saved the Constitution at its last gasp. No person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can form any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to brook. They saved our country however. The spirits of the people were so much subdued, that they would have sunk into apathy and MONARCHY as the only form of government which could maintain itself.

"If legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of liberality and equality, which was necessary to be impressed on our laws, in the first crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they will find that the leading and most important laws of that day were prepared by myself, and carried chiefly by my efforts, supported, indeed, by able and faithful coadjutors from the ranks of the House, very effective as seconds, but who would not have taken the field as leaders.

"The prohibition of the further importation of SLAVES was the first of these measures in time.

"This was followed by the ABOLITION OF ENTAILS, which broke up the HEREDITARY and HIGH-HANDED ARISTOCRACY which, by accumulating immense masses of property in SINGLE LINES OF FAMILIES, had divided our country into two distinct orders of NOBLES and PLEBEIANS." *

"But, further, to complete the equality among our citizens so essential to the maintainance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish the principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal inheritance to sons and daughters, which made a part of the revised code.

"The attack on the establishment of a DOMINANT RELIGION was first made by myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries for one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year, and so from

The distribution of FEDERAL PATRONAGE in single lines of FAMI LIES, by the national executive, has produced the same effect. SoNs inherit the offices of their FATHERS with as much regularity and certainty as they did their estates, under the law of PRIMOGENITURE !! and this, too, under the reformed dynasty of the immaculate Republicans, of whom Mr. Jefferson was the model and the father!!!

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year to year until the public mind was ripened for the bill for establishing RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, which I had prepared for the revised code also. This was at length established permanently, and by the efforts chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that work was brought forward.

"To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of our university, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time, as I do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the visitation. But my residence in the vicinity, threw, of course, on me the chief burthen of the enterprise, as well of the buildings, as of the general organisation and care of the whole. The effect of this institution on the future fame, fortune, and prosperity of our country, can as yet be seen but at a distance. But an hundred well educated youths, which it will turn out annually, and ere long, will fill all its offices with men of superior qualifications, and raise it from its humble state to an eminence among its associates which it has never yet known; no, not in its brightest days. That institution is now qualified to raise its youth to an order of science unequalled in any other State; and this superiority will be the greater from the free range of mind encouraged there, and the restraint imposed at other Seminaries by the shackles of a DOMINEERING HIERARCHY, and a BIGOTED ADHESION TO ANCIENT HABITS. Those now on the theatre of affairs, will enjoy the ineffable happiness of seeing themselves succeeded by sons of a grade of science beyond their own ken. Our sister States will also be repairing to the same fountains of instruction, will bring hither their genius to be kindled at our fire, and will carry back the fraternal affections, which, nourished by the same alma mater, will knit us to them by the indissoluble bands of early personal friendships. The good old dominion, the blessed mother of us all, will then raise her head with pride among the nations, will present to them that splendour of genius which she has ever possessed, but has too long suffered to rest uncultivated and unknown, and will become a centre of ralliance to the States whose youth she has instructed, and as it were adopted. I claim some share in the merits of this great work of regeneration."

We may consider as among Mr. Jefferson's last acts, the publication of his Memoirs,' Anas,' and 'Correspondence,'

which we have understood, that he marked for publication, previous to his demise, with his own hand.* That his mind was sound and sane at that period, will not admit of a doubt. The works, therefore, which he thus ordered to be placed before the people, must be estimated as performances published by the author during his life-time; and not as posthumous productions, for the publicity of which he was not responsible. The fact that he arranged and directed their publication, is sufficient to stamp them with the character of his living works, as much so, as if he had corrected the proof-sheets, as they fell from the press. Why he did so direct their publication, will admit of various constructions. My hypothesis is this-that he designed the volumes published by his grandson as materials for a biography, or history, from the time he ceased his Memoirs up to the period immediately preceding his death; and certainly the character of the papers thus published, are every way calculated to carry out the idea of their publicity, as here suggested; being every way competent to furnish ample materials for a history of his life. How far they influence the moral hues of his character, is another question, which perhaps, in the enthusiasm of literary vanity, and the fulness of political fame, he entirely omitted to consider. Censure, heavy and inconsiderate, has already been his portion for this redeeming act of political justice; for which, in our opinion, he deserves more encomium, than for any other act of his retirement. By giving the public these documents, he has placed them in possession of the truth, reckless of the consequences to his own glory, and in defiance of the vulgar prejudices of a narrow minded policy. But why should the disclosure of the truth, depreciate the fame of Mr. Jefferson? Such a position is neither consistent with sound ethics, nor compatible with political justice. Whatever Mr. Jefferson has avouched for under his own hand, touching himself, must be received as historical truth: and if such averments be not favourable to his fame, who shall say, he had not a right to delineate himself as he really was, without being controlled, or restricted by any artificial

I have this fact from Roberts Vaux, Esq. who derived his information from the grandson of Mr. Jefferson; and which is important, as it dispels a general error of opinion, that his grandson acted with INDISCRETION in making the publication, when, in fact, he had no MORAL agency whatever in the act.