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France in the Maryland sloop of war; and for whom he offers the "sincere prayer," May you long live to continue your useful labors, and to reap their reward in the thank"fulness of nations." (vol. iii. p. 459.) If these patriots had not aided Mr. Jefferson with their pens, it is really doubtful whether Mr. Gallatin and " myself" could have been sufficiently strengthened to stand in the gap against brow-beatings and indignities, until the constitution was rescued from the hands of its enemies.

As France and Jeffersonism on the one hand, and England and federalism on the other constitute the two great parties, to uphold the one of which and destroy the other, Mr. Jefferson toiled and devoted his patriotic life, he has done himself another injustice. He should have gone back to his report of December, 1793, made when he was Secretary of State, and which disclosed the true principles on which his own administration and that of Mr. Madison were founded. He should have taken to himself the merit of following this out, during twenty years, through commercial restrictions, evasive and deceitful negotiations, gifts of millions to Napoleon, oppressive and tyrannical embargo, and finally WAR, unprepared for, costly, and profitless.

Mr. Jefferson did himself still another injustice, (as he commences with his manhood,) in saying nothing of the declaration of independence. This was one of his proud achievements; and the fac simile of it is appended to his fourth volume. This gentleman's friends have treated this production, as though it were an original invention; the true corner-stone of the revolution laid by this great architect. One would not take from Mr. Jefferson any trophy wherewith he may think he ought to be adorned. The declaration is a writing highly honorable to him, the most so of any that came from his pen. It is a solemn and sacred writing, and privileged from all criticism. If his admirers had asked for him no higher praise than this, it would have been improper to touch on this matter. But these admirers have referred to this authorship as proof, that Mr. Jefferson could not err as to the constitution, or in patriotism, or policy. Such a shield it ought not to be. This writing sets forth why a declaration should be made; next, a recognition, (not an invention,) of social and political principles; then a statement of British tyrannies; and then the inference, that

the colonies have the right, and that it is their duty to free themselves from the parent country. It concludes with a solemn pledge to maintain freedom and independence. Now it cannot be denied, that such were the sentiments which thousands of our countrymen entertained at that day. They had been again and again expressed in popular essays, in congressional speeches, and on so many occasions, that in June, 1776, there could be no NEW thoughts. Mr. Jefferson has the merit of having taken these thoughts, (as much his own as of hundreds of others, and no more,) and of having arranged them, and clothed them in suitable and expressive language. This is meritorious, and this country is grateful for the acceptable manner in which that work was done. But this is not a satisfactory reason why Mr. Jefferson should be considered as having done equally well, all that he ever afterwards undertook to do. Let him have the full credit of that labor; and judge of him righteously as to

all others.

Mr. Jefferson, with perfect consistency, does claim for himself respect and gratitude for establishing the doctrine of NULLIFICATION. He boasts, that he was the author of the Kentucky resolutions in 1798, and the promoter of like resolutions in Virginia, in the same year. These resolutions declared two laws of Congress to be null and void. (Sedition and Alien.) Here is found (as admitted by Mr. J. C. Calhoun, in his publication of his " Sentiments," dated July 26, 1831,) the real theory on which the state of South Carolina assumes to decide for itself, what laws of the Union it will obey, and which of them it will resist with force and arms. If Mr. Jefferson had done no other acts tending to disunion and civil war, his memory deserves any sentiment rather than that which he demands for himself of his countrymen.

LETTER LVI.

NOVEMBER 25, 1833.

MR. JEFFERSON's volumes make known to any one who has the necessary patience to read them, that he entertained

opinions on social and political relations, which are utterly adverse to those expressed and maintained by the wise and virtuous republicans of the last two centuries. His opinions are entitled to no earlier origin, than the days of the French Revolution. What can be less worthy of an intelligent mind, than his theories on the rights of successive generations; and of the incapacity of one generation to bind its followers by any obligation. What less acceptable to the lovers of order and social stability, than the periodical recurrence of rebellions. It is not surprising, that one who entertained such opinions should gravely assert, that when the constitutionality of a law is doubted, the whole nation must wait until a convention can be called by two thirds of the states, to take the matter into consideration and decide upon it. (vol. iv. p. 374.) Within a short time, a disciple of Mr. Jefferson has maintained the same doctrine in the Senate of the United States. In what manner he was met and answered, (and with the general applause of the nation,) cannot be forgotten.

To the same source is to be traced the impracticable, not to say absurd notions on currency and banking, which some persons maintain at the present day; notions, proved by the experience of all commercial people, and by none more than our own, to be untenable and visionary. In truth, all the disorganizing and destructive "heresies," which certain politicians of the present times adhere to, are to be found in Mr. Jefferson's theories or practice. And yet this gentleman says, in obviating the objection of precedent in allowing to him a lottery: "Let those who shall quote the "precedent bring their case within the same measure. "Have they, as in this case, devoted threescore years and one of their lives to the service of their country? Has "the share they have borne in holding their new government "to its genuine principles been equally marked?"

What pretension can Mr. Jefferson have to say, that he did this? The original founders of this new government intended to bring, and did bring the people of the United States into a national Union: To secure to them the services of the most able and virtuous among them, in maintaining peace, commerce, and friendly intercourse with all nations; to prepare for defence against foreign insult and aggression, and to resist and resent, when national

honor demanded that course; to promote internal commerce, and to keep the sovereign members of the Union in peace and amity with each other; to give to domestic ingenuity and enterprise their fair competition with other nations; to assuage and compromise the jealousies and differences, which might be expected, from the expanding and unfolding of the powers of a great and increasing people. This intention was fully accomplished accomplished to the surprise and envy of the elder world; and if Thomas Jefferson had never lived, it is believed, that this substantial and beautiful reality would not have been dissipated.

*

He came into this new government, and by means which he has fully disclosed; and there he ruled and reigned by the magic of his PEN.' Passing over his disastrous policy with foreign nations; the oppressions, losses, and sufferings which he inflicted on his countrymen; grievous as these were, they are all nothing to that grievous wound which he gave to this " new government," and which seems likely to prove a mortal one.

Mr. Jefferson drew the line between rich and poor, in a republic where family influence is unknown, where inheritance depends on equal distribution, where wealth depends on industry and talents, and where the poor man's son is far more likely to attain to office and honor, than the sons of the rich. Mr Jefferson organized the elements which make up that monster - PARTY; he invited apostacy; he established the odious doctrine of "rewards and punishments; he made devotion to the MAN, not to the CONSTITUTION, the passport to office; he taught the "people" (as he calls. them) to sacrifice to personal feuds and jealousies their respect for the institutions of their country. It was he who misled and debased the public mind, and who converted honorable and patriotic service, in a free republic, into a low, selfish, and dishonest struggle for office. He led the

* This book and the " History of the Hartford Convention," by Theodore Dwight, furnished a writer in the North American Review (No. 84, July, 1834,) with an opportunity to give his views of "The old parties.' It is a very remarkable production. It required an answer, and one appeared in a pamphlet of forty pages, on the first of September, at Boston. In this may be found some disquisition on the magic of Mr. Jefferson's pen; and some further developement of his real character.

way to popular despotism. The perils, sufferings, and dread of the present hour are all from his impulse.

That, which is most to be lamented in all this, is his sincerity; his real belief that all was right; that all he did was truly patriotic; and that he is richly entitled to his reward in the respect and gratitude of all succeeding generations. That, which is truly disheartening to the friends of the constitution, of the Union, and of rational republican liberty, is, that there are so many intelligent and respectable men in the United States, who conscientiously believe, to this day, in "the great and good " Mr. Jefferson. But his glories are fading in the brilliancy of the " GREATEST and BEST," the rightful successor in the line, of which Jefferson was the FIRST.

LETTER LVII.

NOVEMBER 30, 1833.

MR. JEFFERSON found the United States, in 1801, at peace and in amity with all Europe; in the enjoyment of a secure and prosperous commerce; with a respectable navy ; a sound credit; a learned and independent judiciary. He found, it is true, some increase of debt for money honorably and profitably expended, but which was insignificant and hardly to be felt under the effect of Alexander Hamilton's system of finance. He left the United States embroiled with England; more so with France; he had demolished the navy and the judiciary, so far as he had power to do it; he had banished the flag of the United States from the ocean; he had cost the people in actual, but useless expenditure, and by unwise restrictions on commerce, an immense sum, which he estimated, merely as to exports for one year of the embargo, at fifty millions. The nation were probably one hundred millions the worse for Mr. Jefferson's philosophy and statesmanship. There is not There is not the least doubt, that, if there had been a federal administration instead of that of Thomas Jefferson, during his eight years, the people of the United States would have gained and saved together, a sum equal to the cost of the revolutionary