drew, which made Lyon's vote that of his State. The Maryland federalists put in four blanks, which made the positive ticket of their colleagues the vote of the State. South Carolina and Delaware put in six blanks. So there were ten states for one candidate, four for another, and two blanks. We consider this, therefore, as a declaration of war, on the part of this band. But their conduct appears to have brought over to us the whole body of federalists, who, being alarmed with the danger of a dissolution of the government, had been made most anxiously to wish the very administration they had opposed, and to view it when obtained, as a child of their own.' During the long and doubtful struggle in the House of Represen tatives, the public mind was in a state of feverish and agonizing suspense, throughout the country. The republicans were oppressed with dismay and gloom at the prospect before them; while the federalists, who had every thing to gain, and nothing to lose by the event, were intoxicated with delight. But this unnatural order of things was destined to be short-lived. Soon the scene was reversed. When the issue became known, one universal sentiment of exultation animated the great republican party of the Union. The intelligence was greeted with the thunder of artillery, and the peals of popular huzzas, in every city, town, and village on the continent. Reasonable men gave loose to the most extravagant demonstrations of joy. When the first moments of the enthusiasm had subsided, grave and systematic measures of public felicitation were every where put in motion. Orations, illuminations, processions, balls, banquets and toasts, characterized the occasion as the great republican jubilee of the American nation. The inspiring chorus* of "Jefferson and liberty," kindled on every patriot tongue, and reverberated from every mountain, through every glen, from the Mississippi to the St. Lawrence. Innumerable addresses of congratulation, by individuals and public bodies, poured in upon the newly elected President, rife with expressions of personal attachment, and of enthusiastic devotion to republican principles. The federal dynasty died hard. Like an Herculean victim, grap pling with destiny, it expired with a terrible repetition of struggles. When the moment of dissolution approached, a last and desperate *Rejoice! Columbia's sons, rejoice! rush was made to seize on all the offices of the government, whose tenure would make it difficult to dislodge them, particularly the Judiciary. John Jay was nominated Chief Justice, in the room of Ellsworth, resigned; Theophilus Parsons, Attorney General; Harrison G. Otis, District Attorney of Massachusetts; James A. Bayard, Minister Plenipotentiary to France; all of them chiefs of the repudi. ated regency, with a host of subordinate appointments, from the same political ranks. Finally, the celebrated batch of midnight judges, to the number of about twenty, were entrenched behind the new limb of the judiciary system, which was intended as a precious depository for the remains of federal power. These last acts of the expiring oligarchy, the object of which was, either to compel Mr. Jefferson to execute the government by federal aids and counsellors, or subject him to the odious operation of such multiplied removals as should bear him down, proved as impolitic and suicidal, in the end, as they were embarrassing to the new administration. They were extremely grating to public sentiment, and revolted a numerous ́ body of the federalists from their impassioned leaders. The following letters of Mr. Jefferson, written in the course of the first two months after his election, develope in his usual felicitous manner, the state of political parties at that memorable period, as well as the general principles of policy, on which he designed to conduct the administration of the government. Some of them were in answer to the gratulatory addresses of his ancient and venerated co-adjutors of the Revolution, and they derive additional interest from that circumstance. To J. DICKINSON.- "No pleasure can exceed that which I received from reading your letter of the 21st ultimo. It was like the joy we expect in the mansions of the blessed, when received with the embraces of our forefathers, we shall be welcomed with their blessing as having done our part not unworthily of them. The storm through which we have passed, has been tremendous indeed. The tough sides of our Argosie have been thoroughly tried. Her strength has stood the waves into which she was steered, with a view to sink her. We shall put her on her republican tack, and she will now show by the beauty of her motion the skill of her builders. Figure apart, our fellow-citizens have been led hood-winked from their principles by a most extraordinary combination of circumstanBut the band is removed, and they now see for themselves. I hope to see shortly a perfect consolidation, to effect which, nothing shall be spared on my part, short of the abandonment of the princi ces. LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS ples of our revolution. A just and solid republican government maintained here, will be a standing monument and example for the aim and imitation of the people of other countries; and I join with you in the hope and belief that they will see, from our example, that a free government is of all others the most energetic; that the inquiry which has been excited among the mass of mankind by our revolution and its consequences, will ameliorate the condition of man over a great portion of the globe. What a satisfaction have we in the contemplation of the benevolent effects of our efforts, compared with those of the leaders on the other side, who have discountenanced all advances in science as dangerous innovations, have endeavored to render philosophy and republicanism terms of reproach, to persuade us that man cannot be governed but by the rod, &c. I shall have the happiness of living and dying in the contrary hope." To S. ADAMS." I addressed a letter to you, my very dear and ancient friend, on the 4th of March: not indeed to you by name, but through the medium of some of my fellow-citizens, whom occasion called on me to address. In meditating the matter of that address, I often asked myself, Is this exactly in the spirit of the patriarch, Samuel Adams? Is it as he would express it? Will he approve of it? I have felt a great deal for our country in the times we have seen. But individually for no one so much as yourself. When I have been told that you were avoided, insulted, frowned on, I could but ejaculate, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' I confess I felt an indignation for you, which for myself I have been able, under every trial, to keep entirely passive. However, the storm is over, and we are in port. The ship was not rigged for the service she was put on. We will show the smoothness of her motions on her republican tack. I hope we shall once more see har mony restored among our citizens, and an entire oblivion of past feuds. Some of the leaders, who have most committed themselves, cannot come into this. But I hope the great body of our fellow-citizens will do it. I will sacrifice every thing but principle to procure it. A few examples of justice on officers who have perverted their functions to the oppression of their fellow-citizens, must, in justice to those citizens, be made. But opinion, and the just maintenance of it, shall never be a crime in my view; nor bring injury on the individual. Those whose misconduct in office ought to have produced their removal even by my predecessor, must not be protected by the delicacy due only to honest men. How much I lament that time has deprived me of your aid. It would have been a day of glory which should have called you to the first office of the administration. But give us your counsel, my friend, and give us your blessing and be assured that there exists not in the heart of man a inore faithful esteem than mine to you, and that I shall ever bear you the most affectionate veneration and respect.” To R. R. LIVINGSTON.- "The constitution, to which we are all attached, was meant to be republican, and we believe to be republican according to every candid interpretation. Yet we have seen it so interpreted and administered, as to be truly what the French have called it, a monarchie masque. Yet so long has the vessel run on this way and been trimmed to it, that to put her on her re publican tack will require all the skill, the firmness, and the zeal of her ablest and best friends. It is a crisis which calls on them to sacrifice all other objects, and repair to her aid in this momentous operation. Not only their skill is wanting, but their names also. It is essential to assemble in the outset persons to compose our administration, whose talents, integrity, and revolutionary name and principles may inspire the nation, at once, with unbounded confidence, and impose an awful silence on all the maligners of republicanism; as may suppress in embryo the purpose avowed by one of their most daring and effective chiefs, of beating down the administration. These names do not abound at this day. So few are they, that yours, my friend, cannot be spared among them without leaving a blank which cannot be filled. If I can obtain for the public the aid of those I have contemplated, I fear nothing. If this cannot be done, then are we unfortunate indeed! We shall be unable to realize the prospects which have been held out to the people, and we must fall back into monarchism, for want of heads, not, hands, to help us out of it. This is a common cause, my dear Sir, common to all republicans. Though I have been too honorably placed in front of those whore to enter the breach so happily made, yet the energies of every individual are necessary, and in the very place where his energies can most serve the enterprise. I can assure you that your colleagues will be most acceptable to you; one of them, whom you cannot mistake, peculiarly so. The part which circumstances constrain us to propose to you, is the secretaryship of the navy. These circumstances cannot be explained by letter. Republicanism is so rare in those parts which possess nautical skill, that I cannot find it allied there to the other qualifications. Though you are not nautical by profession, yet your residence and your mechanical science qualify you as well as a gentleman can possibly be, and sufficiently to enable you to choose under agents perfectly qualified, and to superintend their conduct. Come forward then, my dear Sir, and give us the aid of your talents and the weight of your character towards the new establishment of republicanism; I say, for its new establishment; for hitherto, we have seen only its travestie." To Gov. M'KEAN." I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of February the 20th, and to thank you for your congratulations on the event of the election. Had it terminated in the elevation of Mr. Burr, every republican would, I am sure, have acquiesced in a moment; because, however it might have been variant from the intentions of the voters, yet it would have been agreeable to the constitution. No man would more cheerfully have submitted than myself, because I am sure the administration would have been republican, and the chair of the Senate permitting me to be at home eight months in the year, would, on that account, have been much more consonant to my real satisfaction. But in the event of an usurpation, I was decidedly with those who were determined not to permit it. Because that precedent, once set, would be artificially reproduced, and end soon in a dictator. Virginia was bristling up, believe." I To Doctor PRIESTLY.-" I learned some time ago that you were in Philadelphia, but that it was only for a fortnight; and I supposed you were gone. It was not till yesterday I received in. formation that you were still there, had been very ill, but were on the recovery. I sincerely rejoice that you are so. Yours is one of the few lives precious to mankind, and for the continuance of which every thinking man is solicitous. Bigots may be an exception. What an effort, my dear Sir, of bigotry in politics and religion have we gone through. The barbarians really flattered themselves they should be able to bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put every thing into the hands of power and priestcraft. All advances in science were proscribed as innovations. They pretended to praise and encourage education, but it was to be the education. of our ancestors. We were to look backwards not forwards for improvement the President himself declaring in one of his answers to addresses, that we were never to expect to go beyond them in real science. This was the real ground of all the attacks on you: those who live by mystery and charlatanerie, fearing you would render them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy, the most sublime and benevolent but most perverted system that ever shone on man, endeavored to crush your well earned and well deserved fame. But it was the Lilliputians upon Gulliver. Our countrymen have recovered from the alarm into which art and industry had thrown them; science and honesty are replaced on their high ground; and you, my dear Sir, as their great apostle, are on its pinnacle. It is with heartfelt satisfaction that, in the first moments of my public action, I can hail you with welcome to our land, tender to you the homage of its respect and esteem, cover you under the protection of those laws which were made for the wise and good like you, and disclaim the legitimacy of that libel on legislation, which under the form of a law [alien law,] was for some time placed among them. As the storm is now subsiding and the horizon becoming serene, it is pleasant to consider the phenomenon with attention. We can no longer say there is nothing new under the sun. For the whole chapter in this history of man is new, The great extent of our re |