E301 595 1834 973.45u5 Entered according to the act of Congress in the year 1834, by WILLIAM SULLIVAN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. INTRODUCTION. TOWARDS the close of his life, Mr. JEFFERSON prepared statements, seriously affecting the motives and conduct of a numerous class of his fellow-citizens. He intended to have these statements published after his decease. He seems to have expected, that they would be received as HISTORICAL TRUTHS, proceeding from high authority. If Mr. Jefferson has stated truths only, all who know the value of sound historical information are under great obligations to him. If he has stated "false facts," (as he calls them,) without intending to do so, he has increased the well-known difficulty of arriving at certainty, as to the past; and his labors are worse than useless. If he has stated what he knew to be false, he has abused public confidence, and has dishonored his own fame. As most of those citizens, of whom he speaks reproachfully, have become, like himself, insensible to earthly commendation, or censure, is it too soon to inquire, in which of the above mentioned relations Mr. Jefferson should be viewed? It would be doing, it is hoped, great injustice to the American public to assume, that they are incompetent, or unwilling, to judge calmly and justly of historical truth, whatsoever it may prove to be, or whencesoever it may come. But, if the men of this day are so near to that time in which Mr. Jefferson was a conspicuous political agent, that prejudices must prevent a calm and righteous judgment, then the same posterity, to which Mr. Jefferson confidently appeals, must judge of him, and of those whom he has attempted to consign to their reproach and contempt. According to the words on the title page, "the views and principles" of Mr. Jefferson's political adversaries are to be known by a comparison of a series of their discourses and actions." Mr. Jefferson is to be known, not from his speeches and actions," but "from the whole tenor of his language and conduct." These "views and principles," and this "language and conduct," are set forth in the following pages, "for a reasonable length of time;" that is, throughout one third of a century. The form adopted is, familiar letters, as these are better suited to the purpose than the ordinary form of History; and because these admit of personal descriptions and particular illustrations, which the "Memoirs and Writings of Thomas Jefferson" make indispensable. Boston, April 20, 1834. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. SOME time has been taken to learn what the public sentiment might be on these letters; and to ascertain what errors in facts might have occurred. All such errors have been corrected, so far as known; and a better chronological order has been made. These were not the only objections, which have been noticed. Some cautious, sensitive persons disapprove of all inquiry into Mr. Jefferson's claims to gratitude and admiration. They acknowledge such sentiments to be due to men, who, from good motives, achieved illustrious deeds; and who forgot self, in devotion to the public. These persons are not supposed to maintain, that men, who misunderstood, or who perverted their trust, are to be ranked with men of the first class. But they suggest, that, if inquiry be made into Mr. Jefferson's pretensions, the people may take it ill, and that there must always be danger in startling ancient and deep-rooted prejudices. The fear of startling prejudices may be a cogent reason for persisting in the divinity of oracular responses; for continuing in the faith, that birds were commissioned to foretell the fate of armies; and for persevering in search after the will of the gods, among the entrails of a bullock. But, in these days, reason and common sense are supposed to have some ministry in the human mind. One may venture to pay the tribute to the American people of believing, that a* they can arrive at and value truth; and that having the right and the duty of ordering their own welfare, they can and will justly estimate the means of accomplishing that purpose. We have no design to shock any one's prejudices. We are not dealing with Mr. Jefferson as an individual. We " war not with the dust." With Mr. Jefferson's principles and example, as an expounder of the constitution, every free American is deeply concerned; and, if Mr. Jefferson has been unjust to public benefactors, every American is interested that his errors should be made known. If the maintenance of constitutional liberty be the object, there may be those, who think any effort of this nature profitless and vain. They may be of opinion, that the sovereign people will not believe constitutional government to be a restraining power, intended to prevent the wrongs, which they can do to each other; and authorized to protect itself against their own illegal assaults. The people will not be convinced, it is said, that their peace, prosperity, and freedom depend on the strict observance of laws: They cannot know when they are well or ill governed; and rather prefer, if they could know, the ruling of cunning and deceitful flatterers to that of wise and honest men. We are reminded of the rebellions and of the near approach to despotism, within the last fifty years; and how all combinations of citizens, however originating, resolve themselves into political parties, and seek power by perverting the right of suffrage. We are reminded, also, of the gradual decline in the character of public authority, and of the striking contrast between the personal worth and dignity of some who have ruled, and of some who do rule. Then the future is looked to, with fearful apprehension, and it is asked, whether, as numbers increase, and the American people are farther and farther removed from the influences of the revolution, there can be any reasonable hope of preserving civil liberty. |