THE WRITINGS OF







THOMAS JEFFERSON







Definitive Edition







CONTAINING HIS







AUTOBIOGRAPHY, NOTES ON VIRGINIA, PARLIA-







MENTARY MANUAL,  OFFICIAL PAPERS,







MESSAGES AND ADDRESSES, AND OTHER



WRITINGS, OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE,







NOW COLLECTED AND















PUBLISHED IN THEIR ENTIRETY FOR THE FIRST TIME







INCLUDING















ALL OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS, DEPOSITED IN THE DEPARTMENT







OF STATE AND PUBLISHED IN 1853 BY ORDER OF THE







JOINT COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS







WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS







AND







A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYTICAL INDEX















ALBERT ELLERY BERGH







EDITOR







VOL. XIII.























ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF















THE THOMAS JEFFERSON MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION







OF THE UNITED STATES







WASHINGTON, D. C.







1907 







           















CONTENTS.















                                                        Page







JEFFERSON AS A GEOGRAPHER.  By General A. W.



  Greely, Chief Signal Officer, U. S. A.. . . . . . . . . i







EULOGY ON JEFFERSON. Delivered by Hon. William



  Wirt, LL. D., Attorney-General of the United States,



  on October  19,1826. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix











LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE



  UNITED STATES, 1789-1826. . . . . . . . . . . .     1-441



   To Doctor Benjamin Rush, January 16, 1811      . . . . 1



   To John Lynch, January 21,1811       . . . . . . . . .10



   To Monsieur Destutt de Tracy; January 26, 1811. . . . 13



   To the President of the United States (James



     Madison), March 8, 1811 . . . . . . . . . . .  .    22



   To General James Wilkinson, March 10, 1811. . . . .   23



   To John Melish, March 10, 1811. . . . .  . . . . .    24



   To Colonel William Duane, March 28, 1811. . . . . .   25



   To B. H. Latrobe, April 14, 1811. . . . . . . . . .   31



   To Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, April 14, 1811   . . 33



   To Monsieur Paganel, April 15, 1811 . . . . . .. . . .36



   To Monsieur Dupont de Nemours, April 15, 1811 . . .   37



   To General Thaddeus Kosciusko, April 13, 1811. . .    40



   To Joel Barlow, April 16, 1811 . . . . . . . . . .    44



   To Albert Gallatin, April 24, 1811. . . . . . . . . . 45



   To Robert Smith, April 30, 1811. . .. . . . . . . . . 46



   To Colonel William Duane, April 30, 1811 . . . . . .  47



   To William Wirt, May 3, 1811. . . . . . . . . . . . . 52



   To William Wirt, May 3, 1811  . . . . . . . . . . . ..56



   To John Hollins, May 5, 1811..... . . . .. . . . . .  57



   To James Monroe, May 5, 1811. . . . . . . . . . . .   59

















ix              Contents







LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE



UNITED STATES, 1789-1826-Continued



To John Severin Vater, Professor at Konigsberg,



May 11, 1811...... ........ ..... .............      60



To Count John Potocki, May 12, 1811    .... . .      61



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), July 3, 1811..... ..... ...... ...         63



To Joel Barlow, July 22, 1811....... ..... ..        64



To Colonel William Duane, July 25, 1811.. ...        65



Ta James Ogilvie, August 4, 1811.. ...... ..         68



To Judge Archibald Stuart, August 8, 1811...         71



To General Henry Dearborn, August 14, 1811...        72



To Dr. Benjamin Rush, August 17, 1811 .. ....        74



To William A. Burwell, August 19, 1811.. . ..        77



To Charles W. Peale, August 20, 1811 .... . ...      78



To Charles Clay, August 23, 1811..... ......         80



To Levi Lincoln, August 25, 1811... . . ....         81



To James L. Edwards, September 5, 1811......         82



To James Lyon, September 5, 1811... . . ..           84



To Dr. Robert Patterson, September 11, 1811..        85



To Clement Caine, September 16, 1811..... ..         89



To John W. Eppes, September 29, 1811..... ..         92



To Paine Todd, October 10, 1811..... . ...           94



To Dr. Robert Patterson, November 10, 1811..         95



To Dr. Robert Patterson, November 10, 1811..        108



To H. A. S. Dearborn, November 15, 1811.....        110



To Melatiah Nash, November 15, 1811... .. .         112



To Dr. Benjamin Rush, December 5, 1811... ..        114



To Dr. John Crawford, January 2, 1812..... .        117



To Thomas Sully, January 8, 1812... . ... .         119



To James Monroe, January 11, 1812.: ..... .         120



To John Adams, January 21, 1812 . . . . . .  . .    122



To Governor James Barbour, January 22, 1812..       125



To Benjamin Galloway, February 2, 1812  .. . .      129



To Ezra Sargeant, February 3, 1812 .... .. ..       131

















                  Contents







LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE,



UNITED STATES, 1759-1826---Continued              Page



To Dr. Wheaton, February 14, 1812 .. .. ...        133



To Charles Christian, March 21 ; 1812  ... .. ..   134



To F. A. Van Der Kemp, March 22, 1812  ... ..      135



To Hugh Nelson, April 2, 1812.. . .. .. . .        137



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), April 17, 1812  . .. .. . . . .          139



To John Adams, April 20, 1812 ... ... . ..         141



To James Maury, April 25, 1812.... ... .. .        144



To John Rodman, April 25, 1812    ... .. . ..      149



To John Jacob Astor, May 24, 1812 ...... ...       150



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), May 30, 1812  .... .. .. .. .. .         153



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), June 6, 1812..... . .. . . . . . .       154



To John Adams, June 11, 1812  .. . .. . .. ..      156



To Elbridge Gerry, June 11, 1812  .. . . .. ..     161



To Judge John Tyler, June 17, 1812 .... . . .      165



To General Thaddeus Kosciusko, June 28, 1812 ..    168



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), June 29, 1812 ... . . .. . .  . .        172



To Nathaniel Green, July 5, 1812... .. . .. .      174



To Thomas Cooper, July 10, 1812... . . .. ..       176



To B. H. Latrobe, July 12, 1812  ... . .. . .      178



To Colonel William Duane, August 4, 1812  . . .    180



To General Thaddeus Kosciusko, August 5, 1812      182



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), August 5, 1812 ... .. .. . . . . . .     183



To Robert Wright, August 8, 1812 .. . .. . ..      184



To Thomas Letre, August 8, 1812.. .. .. .          185



To Coionel William Duane,0ctober 1, 1812 ....      186



To Thomas C. Flourney,0ctober 1, 1812  .. ..       190



To Dr. Robert Patterson, December 27, 1812   ...   191



To John Adams, December, 28, 1812. . . . .         193























ix            Contents







LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE



UNITED STATES, 1759-1526--Continued.                 Page



To Henry Middleton, January 8, 1813.. ... ..          202



To James Ronaldson, January 12, 1813 .. .....         204



To John Melish, January 13, 1813.......... .          206



To Colonel William Duane, January 22, 1813    ..      213



To Dr. Robert Morrell, February 5, 1813.......        215



To General Theodorus Bailey, February 6, 1813.        216



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), February 8, 1813.............               218



To General John Armstrong, February 8, 1813..         220



To Dr. Benjamin Rush, March 6, 1813........           222



To Monsieur De Lomerie, April 3, 1813... ....         226



To Thomas Paine McMatron, April 3, 1813...            227



To Colonel William Duane, April 4, 1813..........     229



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), May 21, 181 .... ... ..... ... .            232



To Madame La Baronne De Stael-Holstein, May



24,1813...........................                    237



To John Adams,  May 27, 1813... . . ..... .           246



To James Monroe, May 30, 1813... ..... ....           250



To John Adams, June 15, 1813  ... .. ..... ...        252



To William Short, June 18, 1813... ..... ...          257



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), June 18, 1813...............                259



To James Monroe, June 18, 1813... .. . .. ..          261



To Matthew Carr, June 19, 1813....... . ....          263



To the President of the United States (James



Madison), June 21, 1813..... ... ... .....            265



To John W. Eppes, June 24, 1813.... ... ....          269



To John Adams, June 27, 1813..... ... . ..            279



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813.        284



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813.        290



To Dr. John L. E. W. Shecut, John 29; 1813.. .        295



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 30, 1813         296

















                Contents            xi







LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE



UNITED STATES, 1789-1826--Continued.               Page



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July, 1813..        300



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 9, 1813        302



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 13, 1813       306



To Dr. Samuel Brown, July 14, 1813 .........        310



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 15, 1813..     313



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 16, 1813 ...   316



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 18, 1813       319



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 22, 1813..     322



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, August 9, 1813      324



To Isaac McPherson, August 13, 1813 ...........     326



To John Waldo, August 16, 1813.................     338



To John Wilson, August 17, 1813 ................    347



To John Adams, August 22, 1813..............        349



To John W. Eppes, September 11, 1813..........      353



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson; September 14,



1813. ..............................                368



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, September 15,



1813.... ............ .. .                          373



To William Canby, September 18, 181 3 .......       376



To General William Duane, September 18,1813 ...     378



To Isaac McPherson, September 18, 1813........      379



To James Martin, September 20, 1813.......          381



To Dr. George Logan,October 3, 1813 .........       384



To John Adams,October 13, 1813 .............        387



To John Adams,October 28, 1813..............        394



To John W. Eppes, November 6, 1813............      404



To John Jacob Astor, November 9, 1813........       432



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, November 12,



1813. ..............................                434



John Adams to Thomas Jefferson,November 15,



1813. ..... . ..... ... ... .                       437







                       













                      COPYRIGHT, 1905,







                            BY







           THE THOMAS JEFFERSON MEMORIAL







                   ASSOCIATION 













JEFFERSON AS A GEOGRAPHER.















Among the associations that in late years have paid tribute to the immortal

honor of Thomas Jefferson may be mentioned the National Geographic Society,

which in 1896 visited as a body Monticello and the tomb of Jefferson.







It was not in recognition of the political ideas, statesman-like views nor even

the patriotic labors of this great American that the pilgrimage was made, but

in acknowledgment of his great services to science in general and to American

geography in particular.







The reasons that make Monticello a shrine to the intelligent visitor are too

well known to need extended comment. As long as the love of liberty abides in

American hearts ; as long as services in the interest of humanity merit man's

admiration; as long as desire of knowledge stirs youthful aspirations, so long

will the name and memory of Thomas Jefferson be cherished by the rising

generations.







He was a man worthy of honor, whether considered as an individual founding the

University of Virginia, as a Virginian shedding lustre on his native State, or

as an American, doing, in the broader national field, things of the greatest

import for his







VOL., XIII-A 













ii         Jefferson as a Geographer







countrymen and for oppressed humanity everywhere. Trite may have been the

truths he uttered, but they are the bases of human liberty ; and he voiced so

aptly and clearly the aspirations of the people that his words thrilled

mankind, and will do so in ages to come.







The National Geographic Society erred not in making Monticello the scene of its

annual field day, for its members realized that of all our Presidents,

Jefferson is the only one of whom it can be said:" He was a geographer."







We do not know how far he aided his father in the surveys or draughting that

resulted in the  famed Jefferson and Fry map of Virginia, published in London

in 1775, under Jeffreys the royal geographer. We can well imagine, however,

young Jefferson eagerly studying this valuable chart of Virginia, especially

its southwestern and scarcely known frontiers, then given over to the trapper,

the Indian and the Spaniard.







  Men of genius make all knowledge tributary to their particular interests and

ambitions; and doubtless through such studies his comprehending mind, in a

manner common to all such men, stored those geographic facts and concrete ideas

which better  fitted him for his duties in after life:







In the days of travail for this nation, when to Europe America was a land of

savages and forests, then it was that Jefferson did his first public

geographical work, writing "Notes on Virginia" to 













        Jefferson as a Geographer   iii







make known to the statesmen of France the resources and possibilities of a

struggling colony. We know that the book was timely and effective, and we

believe that its preparation broadened the mind of its author.







Jefferson's merit as a geographer is scarcely appreciated by the men of this

generation, who are so familiar with the phases of scientific geography which

have resulted from the knowledge, labor and genius of Alexander von Humboldt.

However Jefferson, 1781, may be said to stand in geographical tendencies

between Bernhard Varenius, who in "Geographia generalis," 1650, essayed the

interpretation of the climatic conditions and the physical changes of the

earth's surf ace, and Humboldt's "Kosmos," 1845. The latter supplemented

Varenius by pointing out the connection of climate and soil formations with the

distribution of plant and animal life, and yet more important the relation  of

geographic environment to the development of mankind, especially as to

colonization, commerce and industry.







  Jefferson's " Notes on Virginia," fifty years in advance of Humboldt, is

along lines definitely formulated by the latter in scientific geography.

Jefferson does not confine himself to a mere enumeration of towns, rivers,

boundaries, inhabitants, industries, productions and form of government in

Virginia. He describes not only its rivers, but their relations to commerce and

especially to their possible utility 













 iv       Jefferson as a Geographer







 in trade with Ohio, the Great Lakes and the Mis-



sissippi Valley. The plants and trees are classified



as to their value for ornamental, medicinal and



esculent purposes. Comparative views are given



of native birds and animals with those of Europe.



The subject of climate is handled admirably for



such an early date. The pressure, rain, tempera-



ture and wind are treated briefly and clearly in their



general aspects.  The effect of seawinds on salt-



making; the prevalence of sunshine, the temperatures



at which frosts occur and their effect on plant-life;



and other similar notes evidence the acuteness of



Jefferson's observations and his happy powers of



generalization. If he had exclusively applied him-



self to geography there is little doubt that he would



have distinguished himself in the science.







  Nor does Jefferson's merit as a geographer depend



alone on the publication of a book, but there are



constantly recurring acts which emphasize his



realization of the importance of geography in the



evolution of a nation. But for this quality the



United States might well to-day be a country cut



off from direct access either to the Gulf of Mexico



or the Pacific Ocean.







  While President he frequently forecast the direc-



tions in which the United States must grow. He



speaks of it in his first inaugural as "A rising nation



spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing



all seas with the rich production of its industry. "



Under him the " First Census " was completed























       Jefferson as a Geographer







and he says of it : " We contemplate this rapid growth, and the prospect it

holds to us, with a view to the settlement of the extensive country still

remaining vacant within our limits. "







He realized more keenly-and therein acted more wisely-than other Presidents the

value to contiguous nations of exact and definite boundaries, and in frequent

messages spoke of work inaugurated by him to mark out the boundaries between

the United States, the Indians, and the British possessions.







  His greatest geographical measure was his extraconstitutional act of

annexation by purchase of the great territory of Louisiana. He realized that

the natural and only satisfactory southern boundary of the United States was

the Gulf of Mexico, from which we were cut off by the Floridas. While the then

western limit was the Mississippi River, his opinion was clear, in' his age of

ante-steam transportation, that by this route the great crops of the West must

pass to Europe and other lands. In regard to Louisiana, not only was the

Mississippi Valley vital to the growing interests of the country, but Jefferson

realized that the great fur trade of the Northwest should find outlet in the

United States to the southward through the accessible Missouri Valley rather

than to the northward across the difficult Hudson Bay territory. Within a month

after submitting to Congress the convention with France for the cession of

Louisiana to the







    VOL. XIII--B 













vi     Jefferson as a Geographer







United States he transmitted an extensive and valuable description of

Louisiana, as of utility to Congress in providing for the government of that

country.







Nor was his action confined to messages alone, for, Louisiana acquired,

Jefferson like a good geographer initiated a survey of its immense and unknown

areas, sending Lewis and Clarke to the West, and Pike to the North and then to

the Southwest. With unwonted wisdom and courage, even before the territory was

formally transferred, he ordered Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clarke

on a long and perilous mission, the first as well as the most important of all

American explorations. Their three years' journey won the way to the Pacific

overland, and this discovery of the upper valley of the 'Columbia, conjoined

with Gray's entrance at the mouth of that noble waterway in 1792, insured the

title of the United States to Oregon territory in 1845. Without Jefferson's

original action we might have no foothold on the Pacific to-day. .







There are also due to Jefferson's action the explorations of Lieutenant Pike of

the upper Mississippi and northwestern Minnesota, and of the extension of our

geographical knowledge to the Upper Rio Grande and other parts of the Spanish

dominion, then known as New Spain.







Nor was Jefferson insensible to the geographical conditions of the Southwest.

He caused to be com













        Jefferson as a Geographer    vii







piled and submitted to Congress an account by Dr. Sibley of the Red River

Valley, including the Washita, and caused these sections to be explored.







 Jefferson took an active and conservative interest in the extinction of Indian

titles to lands, so that the trans-Allegheny regions might be peaceably opened

to enterprising settlers.







  It should also be remembered that he was foremost, if not first, in

formulating plans and methods whereby the public lands should not lie wild and

fallow, but serve their purpose of developing the nation's power by passing

systematically and easily into the hands of the settler and the farmer, a

policy which has proved to be a dominant factor in our phenomenal growth and

prosperity.







  While we pay tribute to Jefferson as an individual, as a citizen, as a lover

of liberty, and as a President, let us not then forget his special claim to

recognition as one of the greatest of American geographers.







 WIRT'S EULOGY ON JEFFERSON.'







 Having in this imperfect manner, fellow-citizens, touched rather than traced

the incidents by which Mr. Adams was prepared and conducted into the scenes of

' the Revolution, let us turn to the great luminary of the South.







Virginia, as you know, had been settled by other causes than those which had

peopled Massachusetts; and the colonists themselves were of a different

character. The first attempts at settlement in that quarter of the world had

been conducted, as you remember, under the auspices of the gallant Raleigh,

that " man of wit and man of the sword " as Sir Edward Coke tauntingly called

him, and certainly one of the brightest flowers in the courts of Elizabeth and

James. He did not live to make a permanent establishment in Virginia; but his

genius seems, nevertheless, to have presided over the State, and to have

stamped his own character on her distinguished sons. Virginia had experienced

none of those early and long-continued conflicts which had contributed to form

the robust character of the North ; on the contrary, during the







  1 From eulogy on Thomas Jefferson and John Adams delivered by William Wirt at

Washington, D. C, on October 19, 1826, in the Hall of the House of

Representatives of the United States. 













x  Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







century that Massachusetts had been buffeting with the storm, Virginia, resting

on a halcyon sea, had been cultivating the graces of science and literature and

the genial elegancies of social. life. But her moral and. intellectual

character was not less firm and vigorous than that of her Northern sister : for

the invader came, and Athens as well as Sparta was found ready to do her duty,

and to do it too, bravely, ably, heroically.







At the time of Mr. Jefferson's appearance, the society of Virginia was much

diversified, and reflected pretty distinctly an image of that of England. There

was, first, the landed aristocracy, shadowing forth the order of English

nobility; then the sturdy yeomanry, common to them both'; and last a foeculum

of beings, as they were called by Mr. Jefferson, corresponding with the mass of

the English plebeians.







Mr. Jefferson, by birth, belonged to the aristocracy; but the idle and

voluptuous life which marked that order had no charms for a mind like his. He

relished better the strong, unsophisticated, and racy character of the

yeomanry, and attached himself, of choice, to that body. Born to an inheritance

then deemed immense, and with a decided taste for literature and science, it

would not have been surprising if he had devoted himself, exclusively, to the

luxury of his studies, and left the toils and the hazards of public action to

others.







But he was naturally ardent and fond of action, 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson xi







and of action, too, on a great scale ; and so readily did he kindle in the

feelings that were playing around him, that he could no more have stood still

while his country was agitated, than the war horse can sleep under sound of the

trumpet. He was a republican and a philanthropist from the earliest dawn of his

character. He read with a sort of poetic illusion, which identified him with

every scene that his author spread before him. Enraptured with the brighter

ages of republican Greece and Rome, he had followed, with an aching heart, the

march of history which had told him of the desolation of those fairest portions

of the earth ; and had seen, with dismay and indignation, that swarm of

monarchies, the progeny of the Scandinavian hive, under which genius and

liberty were now everywhere crushed. He loved his own country with a passion

not less intense, deep, and holy, than that.. of his great compatriot : and

with this love he combined an expanded philanthropy which encircled the globe.

From the working of the strong energies within him, there arose an early

vision, too, which cheered his youth and accompanied him through life-the

vision of emancipated man throughout the world. Nor was this a dream of the

morning that passed away and was forgotten. On the contrary, like the

heaven-descended banner of Constantine, he hailed it as an omen of certain

victory, and girded his loins for the onset, with the omnipotence of truth. .







On his early studies we have already touched.























xii      Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







The study of the law he pursued under George Wythe : a man of Roman stamp, in

Rome's best age. Here he acquired that unrivaled neatness, system, and method

in business, which, through all his future life, and in every office that he

filled, gave him, in effect, the hundred hands of Briareus ; here, too,

following the giant step of his master, he traveled the whole round of the

civil and common law. From the same example, he caught that untiring spirit of

investigation which never left a subject till he had searched it to the bottom,

and of which we have so noble a specimen in his correspondence with Mr.

Hammond, on the subject of British debts. In short, Mr. Wythe performed for him

what Jeremiah Gridley had done for Mr. Adams; he placed on his head the crown

of legal preparation : and well did it become him. Permit me, here, to correct

an error which seems to have prevailed. It has been thought that Mr. Jefferson

made no figure at the bar: but the case was far otherwise. There are still

extant, in his own fair and neat hand, in the manner of his master, a number of

arguments which were delivered by him at the bar upon some of the most

intricate questions of the law; which, if they shall ever see the light, will

vindicate his claim to the first honors of the profession. It is true he was

not distinguished in popular debate; why he was not so, has often been matter

of surprise to those who have seen his eloquence on paper and heard it in

conversation. He



       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson         Xiii







had all the attributes of the mind and the heart and the soul, which are

essential to eloquence of the highest order. The only defect was a physical

one: he wanted volume and compass of voice for a large deliberative assembly;

and his voice, from the excess of his sensibility, instead of rising with his

feelings and conceptions, sunk under their pressure and became guttural and

inarticulate. The consciousness of this infirmity repressed any attempt in a

large body in which he knew he must fail. But his voice was all-sufficient for

the purposes of judicial debate ; and there is no reason to doubt that, if the

service ' of his country had not called him away so soon from his profession,

his fame as a lawyer would now have stood upon the same distinguished ground

which he confessedly occupies as a statesman, an author, and a scholar.







  It was not until 1764, when the Parliament of Great Britain passed its

resolutions preparatory to the Stamp Act, that Virginia seems to have been

thoroughly startled from her repose. Her legislature was then in session; and

her patriots, taking the alarm, remonstrated promptly and firmly against this

assumed power. The remonstrance, however, was, as usual, disregarded, and the

Stamp Act came. But it came to meet, on the floor of the House, an unlooked-for

champion, whom Heaven had just raised up for the good of his country and of

mankind. I speak of that untortured child of nature, Patrick Henry, who had

now, for the first time, left 













xiv    Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







his native forests to show the metal of which he was made, and " give the world

assurance of a man."







The Assembly met in the city of Williamsburg, where Mr. Jefferson was still

pursuing the study of the law. Mr. Henry's celebrated resolutions against the

Stamp Act were introduced in May, 1765. How they were resisted, and how

maintained; has been already stated to the world, in terms that have been

pronounced extravagant, by those who modestly consider themselves as furnishing

a fair standard of Revolutionary excellence. The coldest glowworm in the hedge

is about as f air a standard of the power of the sun. To the present purpose,

it is only necessary to remark, that Mr: Jefferson was present at this debate,

and has left us an account of it in his own words. He was then, he says, but a

student, and stood in the door of communication between the House and the

lobby, where he heard the whole of this magnificent debate. The opposition to

the last resolution was most vehement ; the debate upon it, to use his own

strong language, " most bloody : " but he adds, torrents of sublime eloquence

from Henry, backed by the solid reasoning of Johnson, prevailed; and the

resolution was carried by a single vote. I well remember, he continues, the cry

of " treason, " by the Speaker, echoed from every part of the House, against

Mr. Henry: I well remember his pause, and the admirable address with which he

recovered himself and baffled the charge thus vociferated. 













       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson    xv







He here alludes, as you must perceive, to that memorable exclamation of Mr.

Henry, now become almost too familiar f or quotation :, " Caesar had his

Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third (` Treason!' cried

the Speaker. ` Treason! treason!' echoed the House;) may profit by their

example. If this be treason, make the most of it."







While I am presenting to you this picture of Mr. Jefferson in his youth,

listening to the almost superhuman eloquence of Henry on the great subject

which formed the hinge of the American Revolution, are you not forcibly

reminded of the parallel scene which had passed only four years before in the

Hall of Justice in Boston : Mr. Adams catching from Otis "the breath of life"?

How close the parallel, and how interesting the incident ! Who can think of

these two young men, destined themselves to make so great a figure in the

future history of their country, thus lighting the fires of their own genius at

the altars of Henry and of Otis, without being reminded of another picture,

which had been exhibited to us by an historian of Rome?-the younger Scipio

Africanus, then in his military novitiate, standing a youthful spectator on a

hill near Carthage, and looking down upon the battlefield on which those

veteran generals, Hamilcar and Massanissa, were driving, with so much glory,

the car of war! Whether Otis or Henry first breathed into this nation the

breath of life, (a question merely for curious and friendly 'speculation,) it

is 













xvi    Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







very certain that they breathed into their two young hearers that breath which

has made them both immortal.







From this day forth Mr. Jefferson, young as he was, stood forward as a champion

for his country. It was now in the fire of his youth, that he adopted those

mottos for his seals, so well remembered in Virginia:, "Ab eo libertas, a quo

spiritus," and " Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." He joined the band

of the brave who were for the boldest measures : and by the light, the

contagious spirit and vigor of his conversation, as well as by his enchanting

and powerful pen, he contributed eminently to lift Virginia to that height

which placed her by the side of her Northern sister. It is an historical f act

well known to us all, that these two great States, then by far the most

populous and powerful in the Union, led off, as it was natural and fit that

they should do, all the strong measures that ended in the Declaration of

Independence. Together, and stroke for stroke, they breasted the angry surge,

and threw .it aside "with hearts of controversy," until they reached that shore

from which we now look back with so much pride and triumph.







It was in his thirtieth year, as you remember, that Mr. Adams gave to the world

his first great work, the Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law; and it was

about the same period of his life, that Mr. Jefferson produced his first great

political 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson   xvii







work, "A Summary View of the Rights of British America." The history of this

work is somewhat curious and interesting, and I give it to you on the authority

of Mr. Jefferson himself. He had been elected a member of that State Convention

of Virginia which, in August, 1774, appointed the first Delegates to the

Continental Congress. Arrested by sickness on his way to Williamsburg, he sent

forward, to be laid on the table, a draught of instructions to the Delegates

whom Virginia should send. This was read by the members, and they published it,

under the title of "A Summary View of the Rights of British America. " A copy

of this work having found its way to England, it received from the pen of the

celebrated Burke such alterations as adapted it to the purposes of the

opposition there, and it there reappeared in a new edition; an honor which, as

Mr. Jefferson afterwards learned, occasioned the insertion of his name in a

bill of attainder, which, however, never saw the light. So far Mr. Jefferson.

Let me add, that the old inhabitants of Williamsburg, a few years back, well

remembered the effect of that work of Lord Dunmore, then the royal Governor of

the State. His fury broke out in the most indecent and unmitigated language.

Mr. Jefferson's name was marked high on his list of proscription, and the

victim was only reprieved until the rebellion should be crushed; but that

rebellion became revolution, and the high priest of the meditated sacrifice was

sent to howl his 













xviii      Wirt's  Eulogy on Jefferson disappointment to the hills and winds of

his native Scotland.







In the next year, 1775, Mr. Jefferson young as he was, was singled out by the

Virginia legislature to answer Lord North's famous "conciliatory proposition, "

called, in the language of the day, his " olive branch. " But it was an olive

branch that hid the guileful serpent, or, in the language of Mr. Adams, " it

was an asp in a basket of flowers. " The answer stands upon the records of the

country. Cool, calm., close, full of compressed energy and keen sagacity, while

at the same time it preserves the most perfect decorum, it is one of the most

nervous and manly productions even of that age of men.







The second Congress met on the 10th of May,







Mr. Adams was, of course, again a member. Mr. Jefferson having been deputed,

contingently, (to supply the place of Peyton Randolph, ) did not take his seat

at the commencement of the session. Of the political works of this Congress, as

well as of the preceding, their petitions, memorials, remonstrances, to the

throne, to the Parliament, to the people of England, of Ireland, and of Canada,

I have forborne to speak, because they are familiar to you all. Let us suffice

to say, that in the estimation of so great a judge as Lord Chatham, they were

such as had never been surpassed even in the States of the world, in ancient

Greece and Rome ; 'and although they produced no good effect on the unhappy

monarch of Britain; though Pharaoh's's































           Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson      xix







heart was hardened so that they moved not him, they moved all heaven and all

earth besides, and opened a passage for our fathers through the great deep. The

plot of the awful drama now began to thicken







The sword had been drawn. The battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought;

and Warren, the rose of American chivalry, had been cut down, in his bloom, on

that hill which his death has hallowed. The blood which had been shed in

Massachusetts cried from the ground in every quarter of the Union. Congress

heard that cry, and resolved on war. Troops were ordered to be raised. A

commander-in-chief came to be appointed, and General Ward, of Massachusetts,

was put in nomination. Here we have an incident in the life of Mr. Adams most

strikingly characteristic of the man. Giving to the winds all local

prepossessions, and looking only to the cause that filled his soul, the cause

of his country, he prompted and sustained the nomination of that patriot hero

whom the Almighty, in His goodness, had formed for the occasion. Washington was

elected, and the choice was ratified in heaven. He accepted his commission on

the very day on which the soul of Warren winged its flight from Bunker Hill,

and well did he avenge the death of that youthful hero.







    Five days after General Washington's appointment, Mr. Jefferson, for the

first time, took his seat as a member of Congress; and here, for the first 













xx     Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







time, met the two illustrious men whom we are endeavoring to commemorate. They

met, and at once became friends-to part no more, but for a short season, and

then to be .reunited, both for time and eternity.







There was now open war between Great Britain and her colonies. Yet the latter

looked no farther than resistance to the specific power of the parent country

to tax them at pleasure. A dissolution of the Union had not yet been

contemplated, either by Congress or the nation; and many of those who had voted

for the war, would have voted, and did afterwards vote, against that

dissolution.







  Such was the state of things under which the Congress of 1776 assembled, when

Adams and Jefferson again met. It was, as you know, in this Congress, that the

question of American Independence came, for the first time, to be discussed;

and never, certainly, has a more momentous question been discussed in any age

or in any country; for it was fraught not only with the destinies of this wide

extended continent, but as the event has shown, and is still showing, with the

destinies of man all over the world.







  How fearful that question then was, no one can tell but those who, forgetting

all that had since passed, can transport themselves back to the time, and plant

their feet on the ground which those patriots then occupied.







  " Shadows, clouds, and darkness " then covered























        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson all the future, and the present was full

only of danger and terror. A more unequal contest never was proposed. It was,

indeed, as it was then said to be, the shepherd boy of Israel going forth to

battle against the giant of Gath ; and there was yet among us, enough to

tremble when they heard that giant say, " Come to me, and I will give thy flesh

to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field." But there were those who

never trembled-who knew that there was a God in Israel, and who were willing to

commit their cause " to His even-handed justice," and His Almighty power. That

their great trust was in Him, is manifest from the remarks that were

continually breaking from the lips of the patriots. Thus, the patriot Hawley,

when pressed upon the inequality of the contest, could only answer, " We must

put to sea-Providence will bring us into port ; " and Patrick Henry, when urged

upon the same topic, exclaimed, " True, true ; but there is a God above, who

rules and overrules the destinies of nations."







Amid this appalling array that surrounded them, the first to enter the breach,

sword in hand, was John Adams-the vision of his youth at his heart, and his

country in every nerve. On the sixth of May, he offered in committee of the

whole the significant resolution that the colonies should form governments

independent of the crown. This was the harbinger of more important measures,

and seems to have been put forward to feel the pulse







    VOL. XIII-C 













xxii    Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







of the House. The resolution, after a bloody struggle, was adopted on the 15th

day of May following. On the 7th of June, by previous concert, Richard Henry

Lee moved the great resolution of Independence, and was seconded by John Adams;

and " then came the tug of war. " The debate upon it was continued from the 7th

to the 10th, when the further consideration of it was postponed to the 1st of

July, and at the same time a committee of five was appointed to prepare,

provisionally, a draught of a Declaration of Independence. At the head of this

important committee, which was then appointed by a vote of the House, although

he was probably the youngest member, and one of the youngest men in the House,

(for he had served only part of the former session, and was but thirty-two

years of age,) stands the name of Thomas Jefferson-Mr. Adams stands next. And

these two gentlemen having been deputed a sub-committee to prepare the draught,

that draught, at Mr. Adams' earnest importunity, was prepared by his more

youthful friend. Of this transaction Mr. Adams is himself the historian, and

the authorship of the Declaration, though once disputed, is thus placed forever

beyond the reach of question.







The final debate on the resolution was postponed, as we have seen, for nearly a

month. In the meantime all who are conversant with the course of action of all

deliberative bodies know how much is done by conversation among the members. It

is not 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson     xxiii 



often, indeed, that proselytes are made on great questions by public debate. On

such questions, opinions are far more frequently formed in private, and so

formed that debate is seldom known to change them. Hence the value of the

out-of-door talent of chamber consultation, where objections candidly stated

are candidly, calmly, and mildly discussed' where neither pride, nor shame, nor







anger takes part in the discussion nor stands in the way of a correct

conclusion ; but where everything being conducted frankly, delicately,

respectfully, and kindly, the better cause and the better reasoner are almost

always sure of success.







  In this kind of service, as well as in all that depended on the power of

composition, Mr. Jefferson was as much a master magician as his eloquent friend

Adams was in debate. They were, in truth, hemispheres of the. same golden

globe, and required only to be brought and put together, to prove that they

were parts of the same heaven-formed whole.







  On the present occasion, however, much still remained to be effected by

debate. The first of July came, and the great debate on the resolution for

Independence was resumed, with fresh spirit. The discussion was again

protracted for two days, which, in addition to the former three, were

sufficient, in that age, to call out all the speaking talent of the House.

Botta, the Italian historian of our Revolution; has made Mr. Dickinson and Mr. 

Lee the principal speakers on the opposite sides of this 













xxiv     Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







question ; and availing himself of that dramatic license of ancient historians;

which the fidelity of modern history has exploded, he has drawn, from his own

fancy, two orations, which he has put into the mouths of those distinguished

men. With no disposition to touch, with a hostile hand, one leaf of the

well-earned laurels of Mr. Lee, (which every American would feel far more

pleasure in contributing to brighten and to cherish,) and with no feelings but

those of reverence and gratitude for the memory of the other great patriots who

assisted in that debate; may we not say, and are we not bound in justice to say

that Botta is mistaken in the relative prominency of one, at least, of his

prolocutors ?







Mr. Jefferson has told us that " the Colossus of that Congress-the great pillar

of support to the Declaration of Independence, and its ablest advocate and

champion on the floor of the House, was John Adams. " How he supported it, can

now be only matter of imagination: for the debate was conducted with closed

doors, and there was no reporter on the floor to catch the strains living as

they rose. I will not attempt what Mr. Adams himself, if he were alive, could

not accomplish. He might recall the topics of argument : but with regard to

those flashes of inspiration, those bursts of passion, which grew out of the

awful feelings of the moment, they are gone forever, with the reality of the

occasion: and the happiest effort of fancy to supply their 













       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson     xxv







place, (by me, at least) would bear no better resemblance to the original, than

the petty criminations of an artificial volcano, to the sublime explosions of

thundering AEtna. Waiving, therefore, the example of Botta, let it suffice for

us to know that in that moment of darkness, of terror, and of consternation,

when the election was to be made between an attempt at liberty and independence

on the one hand, and defeat, subjugation, and death on the other the courage of

Adams, in the true spirit of heroism, rose in proportion to the dangers that

pressed around him; and that he poured forth that only genuine eloquence, the

eloquence of the soul, which, in the language of Mr. Jefferson, " moved his

hearers from their seats." The objections of his advers saries were seen no

longer but in a state of wreck; floating, in broken fragments, on the billows

of ' the storm : and over rocks, over breakers, and amid ingulfing whirlpools,

that everywhere surrounded him, he brought the gallant ship of the nation safe

into port.







  It was on the evening of the day on which this great victory was achieved,

(before which, in moral grandeur, the trophies of Marengo and the Nile fade

away,) and while his mind was y=et rolling with the agitation of the recent

tempest, that he wrote that letter to the venerable partner of his bosom, which

has now become matter of history; in which, after announcing the adoption of

the resolution, he foretells the future glories of his country, and the honors 













 xxvi       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







 with which the returning anniversary of her Declara-



tion of Independence would be hailed; till time



should be no more. That which strikes us on the



first perusal of this letter, is, the prophetic char-



acter with which it is stamped, and the exactness



with which its predictions have been fulfilled. But



his biographer will remark in it another character :



the deep political calculations of results, through



which the mind of the writer, according to its habit,



had flashed ; and the firm and undoubting confi-



dence with which, in spite of those appearances that



alarmed and misled weaker minds, he looked to the



triumphant close of the struggle. .







  The resolution having been carried, the draught



of the Declaration came to be examined in detail;



and so faultless had it issued from the hands of its



author, that it was adopted as he had prepared it,



pruned only of a few of its brightest inherent beau-



ties, through a prudent deference to some of the



States. It was adopted about noon of the Fourth,



and proclaimed to an exulting nation on the evening



of the same day.







  That brave and animated band who signed it-



where are they now ? What heart does not sink at



the question ? One only survives : Charles Carroll,



of Carrollton-a noble specimen of the age that is



gone by, and now the single object of that age, on



whom the veneration and prayers of his country



are concentrated. The rest have bequeathed to us



the immortal record of their virtue and patriotism,











       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson  xxvii















 and have ascended to a brighter reward than man can confer.







  Of that instrument to which you listen with



reverence on every returning anniversary of its adoption " which forms the

ornament of our halls, and the first political lesson of our children " it is

needless to speak. You know that in its origin and object it was a statement of

the causes which had compelled our fathers to separate themselves from Great

Britain, and to declare these States free and independent.  It was the voice of

the American nation addressing herself to the other nations of the earth ; and

the address is, in all respects, worthy of this noble personification. It is

the great argument of America in vindication of her course ; and as Mr. Adams

had been the Colossus of the cause on the floor of Congress, his illustrious

friend, the author of this instrument, may well be pronounced to have been its

Colossus on the theatre of the world.







  The decisive step which fixed the destiny of the nation had now been taken :

and that step was irrevocable. " The die was now indeed cast. The Rubicon had

been crossed, " effectually, finally,  forever. There was no return but to

chains, to slavery, and death. No such backward step was meditated by the firm

hearts that led on the march of the nation ; but, confiding in the justice of

Heaven and the final triumph of truth, they moved forward in solid phalanx and

with martial step, regardless of the tempest that was breaking around them. 













xxviii      Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







 Their confidence in the favor and protection of Heaven, however, strong and

unshaken as it was, did not dispose them to relax their own exertions, nor to

neglect the earthly means of securing their triumph. They were not of the

number of those who call upon Hercules, and put not their own shoulders ta the

wheel. Our adversary was one of the most powerful nations on earth. Our whole

strength consisted of a few stout hearts and a good cause. But we were wofully

deficient in all the sinews of war : we wanted men, we wanted arms, we wanted

money; and these could be procured only from abroad. But the intervening ocean

was covered with 'the fleets of the enemy; and the patriot Laurens, one of

their captives, was already a prisoner in the Tower of London. Who was there to

undertake this perilous service ? He who was ever ready to peril any service in

the cause of his country : John Adams. Congress knew their man, and did not

hesitate on the choice. Appointed a minister to France, he promptly obeyed the

sacred call, and, with a brave and fearless heart, he ran the gantlet through

the hostile fleet, and arrived in safety. Passing from court to court, he

pleaded the cause of his country with all the resistless energy of truth; and

availing himself adroitly of the selfish passions and interests of those

courts, he ceased not to ply his efforts with matchless dexterity, until the

objects of his mission were completely attained. "With the exception of one

short interval of a return 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson  xxix







 home in 1779, when he aided in giving form to the Constitution of his native

State, he remained abroad in France, in Holland-wherever he could be most

useful-in the strenuous, faithful and successful service of his country,

receiving repeated votes of thanks from Congress, till the storm was over, and

peace and liberty came to crown his felicity and realize the cherished vision

of his youth.







  Mr. Jefferson meanwhile was not less strenuously and successfully engaged at

home in forwarding and confirming the great objects of the Revolution and

making it a revolution of mind as well as of government. Marking, with. that

sagacity. which distinguished him, the series of inventions by which tyranny

had contrived to tutor the mind to subjection, and educate it in habits of

servile subordination, he proceeded, in Virginia, with the aid of Pendleton and

Wythe, to break off the manacles, one by one, and deliver the imprisoned

intellect from this debasing sorcery. The law of entails, that feudal

contrivance to foster and nourish a vicious aristocracy at the expense of the

community, had, at a previous period, been broken up, on their suggestion ; and

property was left to circulate freely, and impart health and vigor to the

operations of society. The law of primogeniture, that other feudal contrivance

to create and keep up an artificial inequality among men whom their Creator had

made equal, was now repealed, and the parent and his children were restored to

their natural relation. And, above 













xxx    Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







all, that daring usurpation on the rights of the Creator, as well as the

creature, which presumes to dictate to man what he shall believe, and in what

form he shall offer the worship of his heart, and this, too, for the vile

purpose of strengthening the hands of a temporal tyrant, by feeding and

pampering the tools of his power, was indignantly demolished, and the soul was

restored to its free communion with the God who gave it.







The preamble to the bill establishing religious freedom in Virginia, is one of

the most morally sublime of human productions. By its great author it was

always esteemed as one of his happiest efforts, and the measure itself one of

his best services, as the short and modest epitaph left by him attests. Higher

praise cannot and need not be given to it, than to say, it is in all respects

worthy of the pen which wrote the Declaration of Independence : that it

breathes the same lofty and noble spirit, and is a fit companion for that

immortal instrument.







The legislative enactments that have been mentioned, form a small part only of

an entire revision of the laws of Virginia. The collection of bills passed by

these great men, (one hundred and twenty-six ( 126) in number, ) presents a

system of jurisprudence so comprehensive, profound, and beautiful, so

perfectly, so happily adapted to the new state of things, that, if its authors

had never done anything else, impartial history would have assigned them a

place by the side of Solon and Lycurgus. 













       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson    xxxi







 In 1779, Mr. Jefferson was called to assume the helm of government in Virginia

in succession to Patrick Henry. He took that helm at the moment when war, for

the first time, had entered the limits of the commonwealth. With what strength,

fidelity and ability he held it, under the most trying circumstances, the

highest testimonials now stand on the journals of Congress, as well as those of

Virginia.







  It is true that a poor attempt was made, in after times, to wound the honor

of his administration. But he bore a charmed character ; and this, like every

other blow that has ever been aimed at it, only recoiled to crush his accuser,

and to leave him the brighter and stronger for the assault.







  In 1781 his alert and active mind, which watched the rising character of his

new-born country, with all the jealous vigilance of an anxious father, found a

new occasion to call him into the intellectual field. Our country was yet but

imperfectly known in Europe. Its face, its soil, its physical capacities, its

animals and even the men who inhabited it, were so little known, as to have

furnished to philosophers abroad a theme of unfounded and degrading

speculation. Those visionaries, dreaming over theories which they wanted the

means or the inclination to confront with facts, had advanced, among others,

the fantastic notion that even man degenerated by transplantation to America.

To refute this insolent position, and to place his country before Europe and

the world on the elevated ground 













   xxxii    Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







she was entitled to hold, the "Notes on Virginia" were prepared and published.

He there pointed to Washington, to Franklin, and to Rittenhouse, as being alone

sufficient to exterminate this heresy; and we may now point to Jefferson and to

Adams, as sufficient to annihilate it. This pure and proud offering on the

altar of his country, the " Notes on Virginia, " honored its author abroad not

less than at home; and when, shortly afterwards, the public service called him

to Europe, it gave him a prompt y and distinguished passport into the highest

circles of science and literature.







  Thus actively and usefully employed in guarding the fame and advancing the

honor and happiness of his country, the War of the Revolution came to its close

; and on the 19th of October, 1781, of which this day is the anniversary, Great

Britain bowed to the ascendancy of our cause. Her last effective army struck

her standard on the heights of York, and peace and independence came to bless

our land. Mr. Adams was still abroad when this great consummation of his early

hopes took place ; and, although the war was over, a difficult task still

remained to be performed. The terms of peace were yet to be arranged, and to be

arranged under circumstances of the most complicated embarrassment.







  That the acknowledgment of our independence was to be its first and

indispensable condition, was well understood; and Mr. Adams, then at the Hague,















        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson xxxiii







with that decision which always marked his character, refused to leave his post

and take part in the negotiation at Paris, until the powers of the British

Commissioner should be so enlarged as to authorize him to make that

acknowledgment unequivocally. I will not detain you by a rehearsal of what you

so well know, the difficulties and intricacies by which this negotiation was

protracted. Suffice it to say, that the firmness and skill of the American

Commissioners triumphed on every point. The treaty of peace was executed; and

the last seal was thus put to the independence of these States.







  Thus closed the great drama of the American Revolution. And here for a moment

let us pause. If the services of our departed fathers had closed at this point,

as it did with many of their compatriots---with too many, if the wishes and

prayers of their country could have averted it-what obligations, what honors,

should we not owe to their memories ! What would not the world owe to them !

But, as if they had not already done enough, as if, indeed, they had done

nothing, while anything yet remained to be done, they were ready with renovated

youth and elastic step, to take a new start in the career of their emancipated

country.  







The Federal Constitution was adopted, and a new



leaf was turned in the history of man. With what : characters the page should

be inscribed-whether ' it should open a great era of permanent good to the

human family, or pass away like a portent of























xxxiv     Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







direful evil, was now to depend on the wisdom and virtue of America. At this

time our two great patriots were both abroad in the public service: Mr. Adams

in England, where in 1787 he refuted, by his great work, " The Defence of the

American Constitutions," the wild theories of Turgot, DeMalby, and Price ; and

Mr. Jefferson in France, where he was presenting in his own person a living and

splendid refutation of the notion of degeneracy in the American man. On the

adoption of the Federal Constitution, they were both called home, to lend the

weight of their character and talents to this new and momentous experiment on

the capacity of man for self-government. Mr. Adams was called to fill the

second office under the new government, the first having been justly conferred

by the rule "deter fortiori"; and Mr. Jefferson to take the direction of the

highest Executive Department. The office of Vice-President afforded, as you are

aware, no scope for the public display of talent. But the leisure which is

allowed enabled Mr. Adams to pour out, from his full-fraught mind, another

great political work, his Discourses on Davilla; and while he presided over the

Senate with unexceptionable dignity and propriety President Washington always

found in him an able and honest adviser, in whom his confidence was implicit

and unbounded.







Mr. Jefferson had a theatre that called for action. The Department of State was

now, for the first; to be organized. Its operations were all to be moulded























        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson    xxxv











 into system, and an intellectual character was to be given to it, as well as

the government to which it belonged, before this nation and before the world.







  The frequent calls made by Congress for reports on the most abstruse

questions of science connected with government, and on those vast and novel and

multifarious subjects of political economy, peculiar to this wide extended and

diversified continent : discussions with the ministers of foreign governments,

more especially with those of France and England and Spain, on those great and

agitating questions of international law, which were then continually arising;

and instructions to our own ministers abroad, resident at the courts of the

great belligerent powers, and who had consequently the most delicate and

discordant interests to manage; presented a series of labors for the mind,

which few, very few men in this or any other country could have sustained with

reputation. How Mr. Jefferson acquitted himself you all know.







  It is one of the peculiarities of his character to have discharged the duties

of every office to which he was called, with such exact, appropriate, and

felicitous ability, that he seemed, for the time, to have been born for that

alone.







  As an evidence of the unanimous admiration of the matchless skill and talent

with which he discharged the duties of this office, I hope it may be mentioned,

without awaking any asperity of feeling, that when, at a subsequent period, he

was put in 













xxxvi      Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







nomination by his friends for the office of President, his adversaries publicly

objected-" that nature had made him only for a Secretary of State."







President Washington having set the great example, which has ingrafted on the

Constitution as firmly as if it had formed one of its express provisions, the

principle of retiring from the office of President at the end of eight years,

Mr. Adams succeeded him, and Mr. Jefferson followed Mr. Adams in the office of

Vice-President.







  Mr. Adams came into the office of President at a time of great commotion,

produced chiefly by the progress of the revolution in France, and those strong

sympathies which it naturally generated here. The spirit of party was high, and

in the feverish excitement of the day much was said and done, on both sides,

which the voice of impartial history, if it shall descend to such details, will

unquestionably condemn, and which the candid and the good on both sides lived,

themselves, to regret.







  One incident I will mention, because it is equally honorable to both the

great men whom we are uniting in these obsequies. In Virginia, where the

opposition ran high, the younger politicians of the day, taking their tone from

the public journals, have, on more occasions than one, in the presence of Mr.

Jefferson, imputed to Mr. Adams a concealed design to sap the foundations of

the Republic; and to supply its place with a monarchy, on the British 













      Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson     xxxvii







model. The uniform answer of Mr. Jefferson to this charge will never be

forgotten by those who have heard it, and of whom (as I have recently had

occasion to prove) there are many still living, besides the humble individual

who is now addressing you. It was this : " Gentlemen, you do not know that man

: There is not upon this earth a more perfectly honest man than John Adams.

Concealment is no part of his character ; of that he is utterly incapable : it

is not in his nature to meditate anything that he would not publish to the

world. The measures of the General Government are a fair subject for difference

of opinion. But do not found your opinions on the notion that there is the

smallest spice of dishonesty, moral or political, in the character of John

Adams: for I know him well, and I repeat it, that a man more perfectly honest

never issued from the hands of his Creator." And such is now, and has long

been, the unanimous opinion of his countrymen.







  Of the measures adopted during his administration you do not expect me to

speak. I should offend against your own sense of propriety, were I to attempt

it. We are here to mingle together over the grave of the departed patriot, our

feelings of reverence and gratitude for services whose merit we all acknowledge

: and cold must be the heart which does not see and feel, in his life, enough

to admire and to love, without striking one string that could produce one

unhallowed note.







   VOL. XIII---D 













xxxviii       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







 History and biography will do ample justice to every part of his character,

public and private ; and impartial posterity will correct whatever errors of

opinion may have been committed to his prejudice by his contemporaries. Let it

suffice for us, at this time, to know, that he administered the government with

a pure, and honest, and upright heart, and that whatever he advised flowed from

the master passion of his breast, a holy and all-absorbing love for the

happiness and honor of his country.







Mr. Jefferson, holding the Vice-Presidency, did not leave even that negative

office, as, indeed, he never left any other, without marking its occupancy with

some useful and permanent vestige. For it was during this term that he digested

and compiled that able manual which now gives the law of proceeding, not only

to the two Houses of Congress, but to all the legislatures of the States

throughout the Union.







  On Mr. Adams' retirement, pursuing the destiny which seems to have tied them

together, Mr. Jefferson again followed him in the office which he vacated, the

Presidency of the United States: and he had the good fortune to find, or to

make a smoother sea. The violence of the party storm gradually abated, and he

was soon able to pursue his peaceful course without any material interruption.

Having forborne, for the obvious reasons which have been suggested, to touch

the particulars of Mr. Adams' administration, the same forbearance, for the

same 













      Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson    xxxix







reasons, must be exercised with regard to Mr. Jefferson. But, forbearing

details, it will be no departure from this rule to state, in general, the

facts: that Mr. Jefferson continued at the helm for eight years, the term which

the example of Washington had consecrated ; that he so administered the

government as to meet the admiration and applause of a great majority of his

countrymen, as the overwhelming suffrage at his second election attests : that

.by that majority he was thought to have presented a perfect model of a

republican administration, on the true basis, and in the true spirit of the

Constitution ; and that, by them the measures of all the succeeding

administrations have been continually brought to the standard of Mr.

Jefferson's as to an established and unquestionable test, and approved or

condemned in proportion to their accordance with that standard.







  These are facts which are known to you all. Another f act I will mention,

because it redounds so highly to the honor of his magnanimous and patriotic

rival. It is this : that  that part of Mr. Jefferson's administration, and of

his successor treading in his steps, which was most violently opposed, the

policy pursued towards the British Government subsequent to 1806, received the

open, public and powerful support of the pen, as well as the tongue, of the

great sage of Quincy. The banished Aristides never gave a nobler proof of pure

and disinterested patriotism. It was a genuine























xl     Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







emanation from the altar of the Revolution, and in perfect accordance with the

whole tenor of the life of our illustrious patriot sage.







Waiving all comment on Mr. Jefferson's public measures, there is yet a minor

subject, which, standing where we do, there seems to be a peculiar propriety in

noticing: for, small as it is, it is strikingly characteristic of the man, and

we have an immediate interest in the subject. It is this: the great objects of

national concern, and the great measures which he was continually projecting

and executing for the public good, on a new and vast scheme of policy wholly

his own, and stamped with all the vigor and grandeur of his Olympic mind,

although they were such as would not only have engrossed but overwhelmed almost

any other man, did not even give full employment to him; but with that

versatile and restless activity which was prone to busy itself usefully and

efficaciously with all around him, he found time to amuse himself and to

gratify his natural taste for the beautiful, by directing and overlooking in

person, (as many of you can witness) the improvements and ornaments of this

city of the nation : and it is to his taste and industry that we owe, among

other things which it were needless to' enumerate, this beautiful avenue 1

which he left in such order as to excite the admiration of all who approached

us.



Having closed his administration, he was followed







 1 Pennsylvania avenue. 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson    xli







by the applause, the gratitude, and blessings of his country, into that

retirement which no 'man was ever better fitted to grace and enjoy. And from

that retirement, together with his precursor, the venerable patriarch of

Quincy, could enjoy, that supreme of all earthly happiness, the retrospect of a

life well and greatly spent in the service of his country and mankind. The

successful warrior, who had desolated whole empires for his own aggrandizement,

the successful usurper of his country's rights and liberties, may have their

hours of swelling pride, in which they may look back with a barbarous joy upon

the triumph of their talents, and feast upon the adulation of the sycophants

that surround them ; but, night and silence come ; and conscience takes her

turn. The bloody field rises upon the startled imagination. The shades of the

slaughtered innocent stalk in terrific procession before the couch. The

agonizing cry of countless widows and orphans invades the ear. The bloody

dagger of the assassin plays, in airy terror, before the vision. Violated

liberty lifts her avenging lance, and a down-trodden nation rises before them,

in all the majesty of its wrath. What, what are the hours of a splendid wretch

like this, compared with those that shed their poppies and their roses upon the

pillows. of our peaceful and virtuous patriots! Every night bringing to them

the balm and health of repose, and every morning offering to them " their

history in a nation's eyes! " This, this it is to be 













xlii       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







greatly virtuous : and be this the only ambition that shall ever touch an

American bosom !







Still unexhausted by such a life of service in the cause of his country, Mr.

Jefferson found yet another and most appropriate employment for his old age:

the erection of a seat of science in his native State. The University of

Virginia is his work. His, the first conception : his, the whole impulse and

direction; his, the varied and beautiful architecture, and the entire

superintendence of its erection : the whole scheme of its studies, its

organization, and government, are his. He is therefore, indeed, the father of

the University of Virginia. That it may fulfill to the full extent the great

and patriotic purposes and hopes of its founder, cannot fail to be the wish of

every American bosom. This was the last and crowning labor of Mr. Jefferson's

life : a crown so poetically appropriate, that fancy might well suppose it to

have been wreathed and placed on his brow by the hand of the epic muse herself.







It is the remark of one of the most elegant writers of antiquity, in the

beautiful essay which he has left us, " on old age; " that " to those who have

not within themselves the resources of living well and happily, every age is

oppressive ; but that to those who have, nothing is an evil which the necessity

of nature brings along with it. " How rich our two patriots were in these

internal resources, you all know. How lightly they bore the burden of

increasing years was apparent from the cheerfulness and 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson    xliii











 vigor with which, after having survived the age to which they properly

belonged, they continued to live among their posterity. How happy they were in

their domestic relations, how beloved by their neighbors and friends, how

revered and honored by their country and by the friends of liberty in every

quarter of the world, is a matter of open and public notoriety. Their houses

were the constant and thronged resort of the votaries of virtue, and science,

and genius, and patriotism, from every portion of the civilized globe; and no

one ever left them without confessing that his highest expectation had been

realized, and even surpassed, in the interview.







  Of "the chief of the Argonauts," as Mr. Jefferson so classically and so

happily styled his illustrious friend of the North, it is my misfortune to be

able to speak only by report. But every representation concurs, in drawing the

same pleasing and affecting picture of the Roman simplicity in which that

Father of his Country lived; of the frank, warm, cordial, and elegant reception

that he gave to all who approached him ; of the interesting kindness with which

he disbursed the golden treasures of his experience, and shed around him the

rays of his descending sun. His conversation was rich in anecdote and

characters of the times that were past; rich in political and moral

instruction; full of that best of wisdom, which is learnt from real life, and

flowing from his heart with that warm and honest 













xliv       Wirt's' Eulogy on Jefferson







frankness, that fervor of feeling and force of diction, which so strikingly

distinguished him in the meridian of his life. Many of us heard that simple and

touching account given of a parting scene with him, by one of our eloquent

divines : when he rose up from that little couch behind the door, on which he

was wont to rest his aged and weary limbs, and with his silver locks hanging on

each side of his honest face, stretching forth that pure hand, which was never

soiled even by a suspicion, and gave his kind and parting benediction. Such was

the blissful and honored retirement of the sage of Quincy. Happy the life

which, verging upon a century, had met with but one serious political

disappointment ! And even for that, he had lived to receive a golden atonement

" even in that quarter in which he had garnered up his heart." Let us now turn

for a moment to the patriot of the South. The Roman moralist, in that great

work which he has left for the government of man in all the offices of life,

has descended even to prescribe the kind of habitation in which an honored and

distinguished man should dwell. It should not, he says, be small, and mean, and

sordid: nor, on the other hand, extended with profuse and wanton extravagance.

It should be large enough to receive and accommodate the visitors which such a

man never fails to attract, and suited in its ornaments, as well as its

dimensions, to the character and fortune of the individual. Monticello has now

lost its great charm. Those of you 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson     xlv







who have not already visited it, will not be very apt to visit it hereafter:

arid from the feelings which you cherish for its departed owner, I persuade

myself that you will not be displeased with a brief and rapid sketch of that

abode of domestic bliss, that temple of science. Nor is it, indeed, foreign to

the express purpose of this meeting, which in looking to "his life .and

character," naturally embraces his home and domestic habits. Can anything be

indifferent to us, which was so dear to him and which was a subject of such

just admiration to the hundreds and thousands that were continually resorting

to it, as to an object of pious pilgrimage?







  The mansion house at Monticello was built and furnished in the days of his

prosperity. In its dimensions, its architecture, its arrangements and

ornaments, it is such a one as became the character and fortune of the man. It

stands upon an elliptic plain, formed by cutting down the apex of a mountain ;

and on the west, stretching away to the north and the south, it commands a view

of the Blue Ridge for a hundred and fifty miles, and brings under the eye one

of the boldest and most beautiful horizons in the world; while on the east, it

presents an extent of prospect, bounded only by the spherical form of the

earth, in which nature seems to sleep in eternal repose, as if to form one of

her finest contrasts with the rude and rolling grandeur of the west. In the

wide prospect, and scattered to the north and south, are several detached

mountains, 













xlvi        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







which contribute to animate and diversify this enchanting landscape; and among

them to the south, Williss' Mountain, which is so interestingly depicted in his

notes. From this summit the philosopher was wont to enjoy that spectacle, among

the sublimest of Nature's operations, the looming of the distant mountains; and

to watch the motions of the planets, and the greater revolution of the

celestial sphere. From this summit, too, the patriot could look down with

uninterrupted vision upon the wide expanse of the world around, for which he

considered himself born; and upward to the open and vaulted heavens which he

seemed to approach, as if to keep him continually in mind of his high

responsibility. It is, indeed, a prospect in which you see and feel at once

that nothing mean or little could live.







  It is a scene fit to nourish those great and high-souled principles which

formed the elements of his character and was a most noble and appropriate post,

for such a sentinel, over the rights and liberties of man. Approaching the

house on the east, the visitor instinctively paused to cast around one

thrilling glance at this magnificent panorama; and then passed to the

vestibule, where, if he had not been previously informed, he would immediately

perceive that he was entering the house of no common man. In the spacious and

lofty hall which opens before him, he marks no tawdry and unmeaning ornaments :

but before, on the right, on the left, 













       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson xlv











 all around, the eye is struck and gratified with objects of science and taste

so classed and arranged as to produce their finest effect. On one side,

specimens of sculpture set out, in such order, as to exhibit at a coup d'oeil

the historical progress of that art' from the first rude attempts of the

aborigines of our country, up to that exquisite and finished bust of the great

patriot himself, from the master hand of Ciracchi. On the other side the

visitor sees displayed a vast collection of specimens of Indian art, their

paintings, weapons, ornaments, and manufactures ' on another, an array of the

fossil productions of our country, mineral and animal ; the polished remains of

those colossal monsters that once trod our forests, and are no more; and a

variegated display of the branching honors of those " monarchs of the waste, "

that still people the wilds of the American continent.







  From this hall he was ushered into a noble salon, from which the glorious

landscape of the west again burst upon his view ; and which, within, is hung

thick around with the finest productions of the pencil-historical paintings of

the most striking subjects from all countries and all ages; the portraits of

distinguished men and patriots, both of Europe and America, and medallions and

engravings in endless profusion. While the visitor was yet lost in the

contemplation of these treasures of the arts and sciences, he was startled by

the approach of a strong and sprightly step, and turning with 













xlviii      Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







instinctive reverence to the door of entrance, he was met by the tall and

animated and stately figure of the patriot himself-his countenance beaming with

intelligence and benignity, and his outstretched hand, with its strong and

cordial pressure, confirming the courteous welcome of his lips. And then came

that charm of manner and conversation that passes all description-so

cheerful-so unassuming-so free, and easy, and frank, and kind, and gay-that

even the young and overawed and embarrassed visitor at once forgot his fears,

and felt himself by the side of an old and familiar friend. There was no

effort, no ambition in the conversation of the philosopher. It was as simple

and unpretending as nature itself. And while in this easy manner he was pouring

out instruction, like light from an inexhaustible solar fountain, .he seemed

continually to be asking, instead of giving information. The visitor felt

himself lifted by the contact into a new and nobler region of thought, and

became surprised at his own buoyancy and vigor. ' He could not, indeed, help

being astounded, now and then, at those transcendent leaps of the mind, which

he saw made without the slightest exertion, and. the ease with which. this

wonderful man played with subjects which he had been in the habit of

considering among the argumenta crucis of the intellect. And then there seemed

to be no end to his knowledge. He was a thorough master of every subject that

was touched. From the details of 













       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson     xlix







the humblest mechanic art, up to the highest summit of science, he was

perfectly at his ease and everywhere at home. There seemed to be no longer any

terra incognita of the human understanding : for, what the visitor had thought

so, he now found reduced to a familiar garden walk ; and all this carried off

so lightly, so playfully, so gracefully, so engagingly, that he won every heart

that approached him, as certainly as he astonished every mind.







Mr. Jefferson was wont to remark, that he never left the conversation of Dr.

Franklin without carrying away with him something new and useful. How often,

and how truly, has the same remark been made of him. Nor is this wonderful,

when we reflect that that mind of matchless vigor and versatility had been, all

his life, intensely engaged in conversing with the illustrious dead, or

following the march of science in every land, or bearing away on its own steady

and powerful wing into new and unexplored regions of thought. Shall I follow

him to the table of his elegant hospitality, and show him to you in the bosom

of his enchanting family ? Alas ! those Attic days are gone ; that sparkling

eye is quenched; that voice of pure and delicate affection, which ran with such

brilliancy and effect through the whole compass of colloquial music, now bright

with wit, now melting with tenderness, is hushed forever in the grave! But let

me leave a theme on which friendship and gratitude have, I fear, already been

tempted to linger too long. There 













l       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







was one solace of the declining years of both of these great men, which must

not be passed. It is that correspondence which arose between them, after their

retirement from public life. That correspondence, it is to be hoped, will be

given to the world.'







If it ever shall, I speak from knowledge when I say, it will be found to be one

of the most interesting and affecting that the world has ever seen. That " cold

cloud" which had hung for a time over their friendship, passed away with the

conflict out of which it had grown, and the attachment of their early life

returned in all its force.







They had both now bid adieu, a final adieu, to all public employments, and were

done with all the agitating passions of life. They were dead to the ambitious

world ; and this correspondence resembles, more than anything else, one of

those conversations in the Elysium of the ancients, which the shades of the

departed great were supposed by them to hold, with regard to the affairs of the

world they had left. There are the same playful allusions to the points of

difference that had divided their parties : the same mutual, and light, and

unimpassioned raillery on their own past misconceptions and mistakes ; the same

mutual and just admiration and respect for their many virtues and services to

mankind. That correspondence was, to







 1 The most interesting part of the correspondence here referred to by the

orator (William Wirt) has been incorporated in the present work. See Contents

of Volumes XIII, XIV, XV, XVI. 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson    li







them both, one of the most genial employments of their old age : and it reads a

lesson of wisdom on the bitterness of party spirit, by which the wise and the

good will not fail to profit.







  Besides this affectionate intercourse between them, you are aware of the

extensive correspondence which they maintained with others, and of which some

idea may be formed by those letters which, since their death, have already

broken .upon us through the press, from quarters so entirely unexpected. They

were considered as the living historians of the Revolution and of the past age,

as well as oracles of wisdom to all who consulted them. Their habit in this

particular seems to have been the same; never to omit answering any respectful

letter they received, no matter how obscure the individual, or how

insignificant the subject. With Mr. Jefferson this was a sacred law, and as he

always wrote at a polygraphic desk, copies have been preserved of every letter.

His correspondence travelled far beyond his own country, and embraced within

its circle many of the most distinguished men of his age in Europe. What a

feast for the mind may we not expect from the published letters of these

excellent men ! They were both masters in this way, though somewhat contrasted.

Mr. Adams, plain, nervous, and emphatic, the thought couched in the fewest and

strongest words, and striking with a kind of epigrammatic force. Mr. Jefferson,

flowing with easy and careless melody, the language 













lii     Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







at the same time pruned of every redundant word, and giving the thought with

the happiest precision, the aptest words dropping unbidden and unsought into

their places, as if they had fallen from the skies; and so beautiful, so

felicitous, as to fill the mind with a succession of delightful surprises,

while the judgment is, at the same time, made captive by the closely compacted

energy of the argument.







  Mr. Jefferson's style is so easy and harmonious, as to have led superficial

readers to remark, that he was deficient in strength : as if ruggedness and

abruptness were essential to strength. Mr. Jefferson's strength was inherent in

the thoughts and conceptions, though hidden by the light and graceful vestments

which he threw over them. The internal divinity existed and was felt, though

concealed under the finely harmonized form of the man; and if he did not

exhibit himself in his compositions with the. insignia of Hercules, the shaggy

lion's skin and the knotted club, he bore the full quiver and the silver bow of

Apollo ; and every polished shaft that he loosened from the string, told with

unerring and fatal precision.







These two great men, so eminently distinguished among the patriots of the

Revolution, and so illustrious by their subsequent services, became still more

so, by having so long survived all that were most highly conspicuous among

their coevals. All the stars of first magnitude in the equatorial and 













       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson    liii















 tropical regions had long since gone down, and still they remained. Still they

stood full in view, like those two resplendent constellations near the opposite

poles, which never set to the inhabitants of the neighboring zones.







  But they, too, were doomed at length to set : and such was their setting as

no American bosom can ever forget!







  In the midst of their fast-decaying strength, and when it was seen that the

approach of death was certain, their country and its glory still occupied their

thoughts, and circulated with the last blood that was ebbing to their hearts.

Those who surrounded the death-bed of Mr. Jefferson report that, in the few

short intervals of delirium that occurred, his mind manifestly relapsed to the

age of the Revolution. He talked in broken sentences of the Committees of

Safety and the rest of that great machinery which he imagined to be still in

action. One of his exclamations was, " Warn the Committee to be on their guard

; " and he instantly rose in his bed, with the help of his attendants, and went

through the act of writing a hurried note. But these intervals were few and

short: His reason was almost constantly on her throne, and the only aspiration

he was heard to breathe, was the prayer that he might live to see the Fourth of

July. When that day came, all that he was heard to whisper was the repeated

ejaculation,-` `Nunc Domine dimittis," Now, Lord, let Thy servant depart in

peace!







  VOL.XIII-E 













liv    Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







And the prayer of the patriot was heard and answered.







The patriarch of Quincy, too, with the same certainty of death before him,

prayed only for the protraction of his life to the same day. His prayer also

was heard: and when a messenger from the neighboring festivities, unapprized of

his danger, was deputed to ask him for the honor of a toast, he showed the

object on which his dying eyes were fixed, and exclaimed with energy, "

Independence forever!" His country first, his country last, his country always

! " O save my country-Heaven ! " he said, and died.







  Hitherto, fellow citizens, the Fourth of July had been celebrated among us,

only as anniversary of our Independence, and its votaries had been merely human

beings. But at its last recurrence-the great jubilee of the nation-the

anniversary, it may well be termed, of the liberty of man-Heaven itself mingled

visibly in the celebration, and hallowed the day anew by a double apotheosis.

Is there one among us to whom this language seems too strong? Let him recall

his own feelings, and the objection will vanish. When the report first reached

us, of the death of the great man, whose residence was nearest, who among us

was not struck with the circumstance that he should have been removed on the

day of his own highest glory? And who, after the first shock of the

intelligence had passed, did not feel a thrill of mournful delight at the char













       Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







acteristic beauty of the close of such a life? But while our bosoms were yet

swelling with admiration at this singularly beautiful coincidence, when the

second report immediately followed, of the death of the great sage of Quincy,

on the same day, I appeal to yourselves-is there a voice that was not hushed,

is there a heart that did not quail, at this close manifestation of the hand of

Heaven in our affairs? Philosophy, recovered of her surprise, may affect to

treat the coincidence as fortuitous. But Philosophy herself was mute, at the

moment, under the pressure of the feeling that these illustrious men had rather

been translated than had died. It is in vain to tell us that men die by

thousands every day in the year, all over the world. The wonder is not that two

men have died on the same day, but that two such men, after having performed so

many and such splendid services in the cause of liberty-after the multitude of

other coincidences which seemed to have linked the destinies together-after

having lived so long together, the objects of their country's joint

veneration--after having been spared to witness the great triumph of their

toils at home-and looked together f rom Pisgah's top on the sublime effort of

that grand impulse which they had given to the same glorious cause throughout

the world, should on this fiftieth anniversary of the day on which they had

ushered that cause into light, be both caught up to Heaven together, in the

midst of their rap













lvi    Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson







tures! Is there a being, of heart so obdurate and sceptical as not to feel the

hand and hear the voice of Heaven in this wonderful dispensation ? And may we

not, with reverence, interpret its language ? Is it not this ? " These are My

beloved servants, in whom I am well pleased. They have finished the work for

which I sent them into the world: and are now called to their reward. Go ye,

and do likewise ! "







One circumstance alone remains to be noticed. In a private memorandum found

among some other obituary papers and relics of Mr. Jefferson, is a suggestion,

in case a memorial over him should ever be thought of, that a granite obelisk,

of small dimensions, should be erected, with the following inscription :







                  Here was buried







                 THOMAS JEFFERSON,







    Author of the Declaration of American Independence,







                  of







 The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom,







                      and







    Father of the University of Virginia.







 All the long catalogue of his great and splendid and glorious services,

reduced to this brief and modest summary !







Thus lived and thus died our sainted Patriots! May their spirits still continue

to hover over their countrymen, inspire all their counsels, and guide 













        Wirt's Eulogy on Jefferson   lvii



them in the same virtuous and noble path! And may that God in whose hands are

the issues of all things, confirm and perpetuate to us the inestimable boon

which through their agency He has bestowed, and make our Columbia the bright

exemplar for all the struggling sons of liberty around the globe.







            JEFFERSON'S WORKS.















LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN







TO THE UNITED STATES.







1789-1826.























    TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.







             MONTICELLO, January 16, 1811.







  DEAR SIR,-I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time by a

letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I received your welcome

favor of the 2d instant. I had before heard of the heartrending calamity you

mention, and had sincerely sympathized with your afflictions. But I had not

made it the subject of a letter, because I knew that condolences were but

renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and still think, this is one of the cases

wherein we should " not sorrow, even as others who have no hope."







* * * * * * * * *







You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not My present course of life admits

less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest, to dinner, I am







   VOL. XIII-I 













             Jefferson's Works







mostly on horseback, attending to my farm or other concerns, which I find

healthful to my body, mind and affairs; and the few hours I can pass in my

cabinet, are devoured by correspondences ; not those with my intimate friends,

with whom I delight to interchange sentiments, but with others, who, writing to

me on concerns of their own in which I have had an agency, or from motives of

mere respect and approbation, are entitled to be answered with respect and a

return of good will. My hope is that this obstacle to the delights of

retirement, will wear away with the oblivion which follows that, and that I may

at length be indulged in those studious pursuits, from which nothing but

revolutionary duties would ever have called me.







  I shall receive your proposed publication and read it with the pleasure which

everything gives me from your pen. Although much of a sceptic in the practice

of medicine, I read with pleasure its ingenious theories.







  I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of

friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern you take

in its restoration. This discontinuance has not proceeded from me, nor from the

want of sincere desire and of effort on my part, to renew our intercourse. You

know the perfect coincidence of principle and of action, in the early part of

the Revolution, which produced a high degree of mutual respect and esteem

between Mr. Adams and myself. Cer-













            Correspondence            3







tainly no man was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those principles of

rational republicanism which, after the 'necessity of throwing off our

monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment of a new government.

And although he swerved, afterwards, towards the principles of the English

constitution, our friendship did not abate on that account. While he was

Vice-President, and I Secretary of State, T received a letter from President

Washington, then at Mount Vernon, desiring me to call together the Heads of

departments, and to invite Mr. Adams to join us (which, by-the-bye, was the

only instance of that being done) in order to determine on some measure which

required despatch ; and he desired me to act on it, as decided, without again

recurring to him. I invited them to dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at

our wine, having settled our question, other conversation came on, in which a

collision of opinion arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton, on the

merits of the British constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion, that,

if some of its defects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect

constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary,

asserted, that with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model of

government that could be formed; and that the correction of its vices would

render it an impracticable government. And this you may be assured was the real

line of difference 













 4            Jefferson's Works







between the political principles of these two gentlemen. Another incident took

place on the same occasion, which will further delineate Mr. Hamilton's

political principles. The room being hung around with a collection of the

portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of Bacon, Newton and Locke,

Hamilton asked me who they were. I told him they were my trinity of the three

greatest men the world had ever produced, naming them. He paused for some time:

"the greatest man," said he, " that ever lived, was Julius Caesar. " Mr. Adams

was honest as a politician, as well as a man ; Hamilton honest as a man, but,

as a politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to

govern men.







  You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about that time,

to beat down the friends to the real principles of our Constitution, to silence

by terror every expression in their favor, to bring us into war with France and

alliance with England, and finally to homologize our Constitution with that of

England. Mr. Adams, you know, was overwhelmed with feverish addresses, dictated

by the fear, and often by the pen, of the bloody buoy, and was seduced by them

into some open indications of his new principles of government, and in fact,

was so elated as to mix with his kindness a little superciliousness towards me.

Even Mrs. Adams, with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly flushed.

And you recollect the short suspension of our inter













            Correspondence             5







course, and the circumstance which gave rise to it, which you were so good as

to bring to an early explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial

satisfaction of us all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the

political principles of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr. Adams in

the Presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia the vote of the

city of New York, which it was well known would decide the vote of the State,

and that, again, the vote of the Union, I called on Mr. Adams on some official

business. He was very sensibly affected, and accosted me with these words : "

Well, I understand that you are to beat me in this contest, and I will only say

that I will be as faithful a subject as any you will have." " Mr. Adams," said

I, " this is no personal contest between you and me. Two systems of principles

on the subject of government divide our fellow citizens into two parties. With

one of these you concur, and I with the other. As we have been longer on the

public stage than most of those now living, our names happen to be more

generally known. One of these parties, therefore, has put your name at its

head, the other mine. Were we both to die to-day, to-morrow two other names

would be in the place of ours, without any change in the motion of the

machinery. Its motion is from its principle, not from you or myself." " I

believe you are right," said he, " that we are but passive instruments, and

should not suffer this 













 6            Jefferson's Works







matter to affect our personal dispositions." But he did not long retain this

just view of the subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies

which the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their

ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy

intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between Burr and myself

was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating to place the

President of the Senate at the head of the government, I called on Mr. Adams

with a view to have this desperate measure prevented by his negative. He grew

warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence he had not used towards me

before, " Sir, the event of the election is within your own power. You have

only to say you will do justice to the public creditors, maintain the navy, and

not disturb those holding offices, and the government will instantly be put

into y our hands. We know it is the wish of the people it should be so. " " Mr.

Adams," said I, " I know not what part of my conduct, in either public or

private life, can have authorized a doubt of my fidelity to the public

engagements. I say, however, I will not come into the government by

capitulation. I will not enter on it, but in perfect freedom to follow the

dictates of my own judgment." I had before given the same answer to the same

intimation from Gouverneur Morris. " Then, " said he, " things must take their

course. " I turned the conversation to something else, and soon took my 













            Correspondence          7







leave. It was the first time in our lives we had ever parted with anything like

dissatisfaction. And then followed those scenes of midnight appointment, which

have been condemned by all men. The last day of his political power, the last

hours, and even beyond the midnight, were employed in filling all offices, and

especially permanent ones, with the bitterest federalists, and providing for me

the alternative, either to execute the government by my enemies, whose study it

would be to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to incur the odium of such

numerous removals from office, as might bear me down. A little time and

reflection effaced in my mind this temporary dissatisf- action with Mr. Adams,

and restored me to that just estimate of his virtues and passions, which a long

acquaintance had enabled me to fix. And my first wish became that of making his

retirement easy by any means in my power; for it was understood he was not

rich. I suggested to some republican members of the delegation from his State,

the giving him, either directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in

that State, and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem

it affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the offer;

and moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such a step in the

outset as auguring very ill of the course I meant to pursue. I dropped the

idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for some opportunity of renewing'

our friendly understanding. 













8            Jefferson's Works







   Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a daughter,

between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable attachment, she made

it the occasion of writing me a letter, in which, with the tenderest

expressions of concern at this event, she carefully avoided a single one of

friendship towards myself, and even concluded it with the wishes " of her who

once took pleasure in subscribing herself your friend, Abigail Adams."

Unpromising as was the complexion of this letter, I determined to make an

effort towards removing the cloud from between us. This brought on a

correspondence which I now enclose for your perusal, after which be so good as

to return it to me, as I have never communicated it to any mortal breathing,

before. I send it to you, to convince you I have not been wanting either in the

desire, or the endeavor to remove this misunderstanding. Indeed, I thought it

highly disgraceful to us both, as indicating minds not sufficiently elevated to

prevent a public competition from affecting our personal friendship. I soon

found from the correspondence that conciliation was desperate, and yielding to

an intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further explanation. I have the

same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had. I know him to be an honest

man, an able one with his pen, and he was a powerful advocate on the floor of

Congress. He has been alienated from me, by belief in the lying suggestions

contrived for electioneering purposes, that I perhaps mixed in 













            Correspondence







the activity and intrigues of the occasion. My most intimate friends can

testify that I was perfectly passive. They would sometimes, indeed, tell me

what was going on ; but no man ever heard me take part in such conversations;

and none ever misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence, without my asserting his

just character. With very confidential persons I have doubtless disapproved of

the principles and practices of his administration. This was unavoidable. But

never with those with whom it could do him any injury. Decency would have

required this conduct from me, if disposition had not ; and I am satisfied Mr.

Adams' conduct was equally honorable towards me. But I think it part of his

character to suspect foul play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily

to relinquish his suspicions.







  I have gone, my dear friend, into these details, that you might know

everything which had passed between us, might be fully possessed of the state

of facts and dispositions, and judge for yourself whether they admit a revival

of that friendly intercourse for which you are so kindly solicitous. I shall

certainly not be wanting in anything on my part which may second your efforts,

which will be the easier with me, inasmuch as I do not entertain a sentiment of

Mr. Adams, the expression of which could give him reasonable offence. And I

submit the whole to yourself, with the assurance, that whatever be the issue,

my friendship and respect for yourself will remain unaltered and unalterable. 













            Jefferson's Works















             TO JOHN LYNCH.







             MONTICELLO, January 21, 1811.







  SIR,-You have asked my opinion on the proposition of Mrs. Mifflin, to take

measures for procuring, on the coast of Africa, an establishment to which the

people of color of these States might, from time to time, be colonized, under

the auspices of different governments. Having long ago made up my mind on this

subject; I have no hesitation in saying that I have ever thought it the most

desirable measure which could be adopted, for gradually drawing off this part

of our population, most advantageously for themselves as well as for us. Going

from a country possessing all the useful arts, they might be the means of

transplanting them among the inhabitants of Africa, and would thus carry back

to the country of their origin, the seeds of civilization which might render

their sojournment and sufferings here a blessing in the end to that country.







I received, in the first year of my coming into the administration of the

General Government, a letter from the Governor of Virginia, (Colonel Monroe,)

consulting me, at the request of the legislature of the State, on the means of

procuring some such asylum, to which these people might be occasionally sent. I

proposed to him the establishment of Sierra Leone, to which a private company

in England had already colonized a number of Negroes, and particularly the

fugitives from these States during the 













            Correspondence







Revolutionary War; and at the same time suggested, if this could not be

obtained, some of the Portuguese possessions in South America, as next most

desirable. The subsequent legislature approving these ideas, I wrote, the

ensuing year, 1802, to Mr. King, our Minister in London, to endeavor to

negotiate with the Sierra Leone company a reception of such of these people as

might be colonized thither. He opened a correspondence with Mr. Wedderburne and

Mr. Thornton, secretaries of the company, on the subject, and in 1803 I

received through Mr. King the result, which was that the colony was going on,

but in a languishing condition; that the funds of the company were likely to

fail, as they received no returns of profit to keep them up ; that they were

therefore in treaty with their government to take the establishment off their

hands ; but that in no event should they be willing to receive more of these

people from the United States, as it was exactly that portion of their settlers

which had gone from hence, which, by their idleness and turbulence, had kept

the settlement in constant danger of dissolution, which could not have been

prevented but for the aid of the Maroon Negroes from the West Indies, who were

more industrious and orderly than the others, and supported the authority of

the government and its laws. I think I learned afterwards that the British

government had taken the colony into its own hands, and I believe it still

exists. The effort which I made with Portugal, to 













  12           Jefferson's Works







obtain an establishment for them within their claims in South America, proved

also abortive.







  You inquire further, whether I would use my endeavors to procure for such an

establishment security against violence from other powers, and particularly

from France? Certainly, I shall be willing to do anything I can to give it

effect and safety. But I am but a private individual, and could only use

endeavors with private individuals ; whereas, the National Government can

address themselves at once to those of Europe to obtain the desired security,

and will unquestionably be . ready to exert its influence with those nations

for an object so benevolent in itself, and so important to a great portion of

its constituents. Indeed, nothing is more to be wished than that the United

States would themselves undertake to make such an establishment on the coast of

Africa. Exclusive of motives of humanity, the commercial advantages to be

derived from it might repay all its expenses. But for this, the national mind

is not yet prepared. It may perhaps be doubted whether many of these people

would voluntarill consent to such an exchange of situation, and very certain

that few of those advanced to a certain age in habits of slavery, would be

capable of self-government. This should not, however, discourage the

experiment, nor the early trial of it; and the proposition should be made with

all the prudent cautions and attentions requisite 













             Correspondence







to reconcile it to the interests, the safety and the prejudices of all parties.







  Accept the assurances of my respect and esteem.















       TO MONSIEUR DESTUTT DE TRACY.







             MONTICELLO, January 26, 1811.







  SIR,-The length of time your favor of June the 12th, 1809, was on its way to

me, and my absence from home the greater part of the autumn, delayed very much

the pleasure which awaited me of reading the packet which accompanied it. I

cannot express to you the satisfaction which I received from its perusal. I

had, with the world, deemed Montesquieu's work of much merit ; but saw in it,

with every thinking man, so much of paradox, of false principle and misapplied

fact, as to render its value equivocal on the whole. Williams and others had

nibbled only at its errors. A radical correction of them, therefore, was a

great desideratum. This want is now supplied, and with a depth of thought,

precision of idea, of language and of logic, which will force conviction into

every mind. I declare to you, Sir, in the spirit of truth and sincerity, that I

consider it the most precious gift the present age has received. But what would

it have been, had the author, or would the author, take up the whole scheme of

Montesquieu's work, and following the correct analysis he has here developed,

fill up all its parts according to his sound views of them? Montes













            Jefferson's Works







quieu's celebrity would be but a small portion of that which would immortalize

the author. And with whom? With the rational and high-minded spirits of the

present and all future ages. With those whose approbation is both incitement

and reward to virtue and ambition. Is then the hope desperate? To what .object

can the occupation of his future life be devoted so usefully to the world, so

splendidly to himself ? But I must leave to others who have higher claims on

his attention, to press these considerations.







  My situation, far in the interior of the country, was not favorable to the

object of getting this work translated and printed. Philadelphia is the least

distant of the great towns of our States, where there exists any enterprise in

this way; and it was not till the spring following the receipt of your letter,

that I obtained an arrangement for its execution. The translation is just now

completed. The sheets came to me by post, from time to time, for revisal; but

not being accompanied by the original, I could not judge of verbal accuracies.

I think, however, it is substantially correct, without being an adequate

representation of the excellences of the original; as indeed no translation can

be. I found it impossible to give it the appearance of an original composition

in our language. I therefore think it best to divert inquiries after the author

towards a quarter where he will not be found; and with this view, propose to

prefix the prefatory epistle now enclosed. As soon 













             Correspondence         15







as a copy of the work can be had, I will send it to you by duplicate. The

secret of the author will be faithfully preserved during his and my joint

lives; and those into whose hands my papers will fall at my death, will be

equally worthy of confidence. When the death of the author, or his living

consent shall permit the world to know their benefactor, both his and my papers

will furnish the evidence. In the meantime, the many important truths the work

so solidly establishes, will, I hope, make it the political rudiment of the

young, and manual of our older citizens.







  One of. its doctrines, indeed, the preference of a plural over a singular

executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our present government

was first established, we had many doubts on this question, and many leanings

towards a supreme executive council. It happened that at that time the

experiment of such an one was commenced in France, while the single executive

was under trial here. We watched the motions and effects of these two rival

plans, with an interest and anxiety proportioned to the importance of a choice

between them. The experiment in France failed after a short course, and not

from any circumstance peculiar to the times or nation, but from those internal

jealousies and dissensions in the Directory, which will ever arise among men

equal in power, without a principal to decide and control their differences. We

had tried a similar experiment in 1784, by establishing a com













16          Jefferson's Works







mittee of the States, composed of a member from every State, then thirteen, to

exercise the executive functions during the recess of Congress. They fell

immediately into schisms and dissensions, which became at length so inveterate

as to render all cooperation among them impracticable; they dissolved

themselves, abandoning the helm of government, and it continued without a head,

until Congress met the ensuing winter. This was then imputed to the temper of

two or three individuals; but the wise ascribed it to the nature of man. The

failure of the French Directory, and from the same cause, seems to have

authorized a belief that the form of a plurality, however promising in theory,

is impracticable with men constituted with the ordinary passions While the

tranquil and steady tenor of our single executive, during a course of

twenty-two year s of the most tempestuous times the history of the world has

ever presented, gives a rational hope that this important problem is at length

solved. Aided by the counsels of a Cabinet of heads of departments, originally

four, but now five, with whom the President consults, either singly or all

together, he has the benefit of their wisdom and information, brings their

views to one centre, and produces an unity of action and direction in all the

branches of the government. The excellence of this construction of the

executive power has already manifested itself here under very opposite

circumstances. During the administration of our first President, his Cabinet of















            Correspondence







four members was equally divided by as marked an opposition of principle as

monarchism and republicanism could bring into conflict. Had that Cabinet been a

directory, like positive and negative quantities in Algebra , the opposing

wills would have balanced each other and produced a state of absolute inaction.

But the President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons of each, decided

the course to be pursued, and kept the government steadily in it, unaffected by

the agitation. The public knew well the dissensions of the Cabinet, but never

had an uneasy thought on their account, because they knew also they had

provided a regulating power which would keep the machine in steady movement. I

speak with an intimate knowledge of these scenes, quorum pars fui; as I may of

others of a character entirely opposite. The third administration, which was of

eight years, presented an example of harmony in a Cabinet of six persons, to

which perhaps history has furnished no parallel. There never arose, during the

whole time, an instance of an unpleasant thought or word between the members.

We sometimes met under differences of opinion, but scarcely ever failed, by

conversing and reasoning, so to modify each other's ideas, as to produce an

unanimous result. Yet, able and amicable as these members were, I am not

certain this would have been the case, had each possessed equal and independent

powers. Ill-defined limits of their respective departments, jealousies,

trifling at first, but nourished and strengthened







    VOL. XIII-2 













 18             Jefferson's Works







by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of designing persons to

build an importance to themselves on the divisions of others, might, from small

beginnings, have produced persevering oppositions. But the power of decision in

the President left no object for internal dissension, and external intrigue was

stifled in embryo by the knowledge which incendiaries possessed, that no

division they could foment would change the course of the executive power. I am

not conscious that my participation in executive authority have produced any

bias in favor of the single executive; because the parts I have acted have been

in the subordinate, as well as superior stations, and because, if I know

myself, what I have felt, and what I have wished, I know that I have never been

so well pleased, as when I could shift power from my own, on the shoulders of

others; nor have I ever been able to conceive how any rational being could

propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.







  I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your principle, that, to

insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be subject to be

changed with the greatest ease possible, and without suspending or disturbing

for a moment the movements of the machine of government. You apprehend that a

single executive, with eminence of talent, and destitution of principle, equal

to the object, might, by usurpation, render his powers hereditary. Yet I think

history furnishes as many examples of a 













            Correspondence           19







single usurper arising out of a government by' a plurality, as of temporary

trusts of power in a single hand rendered permanent by usurpation. I do not

believe, therefore, that this danger is lessened in the hands of a plural

executive. Perhaps it is greatly increased, by the state of inefficiency to

which they are liable from feuds and divisions among themselves. The

conservative body you propose might be so constituted, as, while it would be an

admirable sedative in a variety of smaller cases, might also be a valuable

sentinel and check on the liberticide views of an ambitious individual. I am

friendly to this idea. But the true barriers of our liberty in this country are

our State governments ; and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by

man, is that of which our Revolution and present government found us possessed.

Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their foreign concerns,

but single and independent as to their internal administration, regularly

organized with a legislature and governor resting on the choice of the people,

and enlightened by a free press, can never be so fascinated by the arts of one

man, as to submit voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor can they be constrained to

it by any force he can possess. While that may paralyze the single State in

which it happens to be encamped, sixteen others, spread over a country of two

thousand miles diameter, rise up on every side, ready organized for

deliberation by a constitutional legislature, and for action by their governor,

constitutionally the 













20          Jefferson's Works







commander of the militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it able

to bear arms; and that militia, too, regularly formed into regiments and

battalions, into infantry, cavalry and artillery, trained under officers

general and subordinate, legally appointed, always in readiness, and to whom

they are already in habits of obedience. The republican government of France

was lost without a struggle, because, the party of " un et indivisible" had

prevailed; no provincial organizations existed to which the people. might.

rally under authority of the laws, the seats of the directory were virtually

vacant, and a small force sufficed to turn the legislature out of their

chamber, and to salute its leader chief of the nation. But with us, sixteen out

of seventeen States rising in mass, under regular organization, and legal

commanders, united in object and action by their Congress, or, if that be in

duresse, by a special convention, present such obstacles to an usurper as

forever to stifle ambition in the first conception of that object.







  Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended from this

perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States ; to wit,

that certain States from local and occasional discontents, might attempt to

secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would be befriended by

this regular organization. But it is not probable that local discontents can

spread to such an extent, as to be able to face the sound parts of so extensive















            Correspondence           21







a Union; and if ever they should reach the majority, they would then become the

regular government, acquire the ascendency in Congress, and be able to redress

their own grievances by laws peaceably and constitutionally passed. And even

the States in which local discontents might engender a commencement of

fermentation, would be paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into

parties into which we have fallen, into which all States must fall wherein men

are at liberty to think, speak, and act freely, according to the diversities of

their individual conformations, and which are, perhaps, essential to preserve

the purity of the government, by the censorship which these parties habitually

exercise over each other.







  You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the e