tion from South Carolina and Georgia against the Floridas, and another against New Orleans and Louisiana from the state of Kentucky-his insulting and insolent communication to the President-his threatened appeal to the publick-the solicitation for his dismissal, and his final recall;-are facts too notorious for detail, and belong rather to the political history of the United States than to this brief biography. Those desirous of full and explicit information on these interesting subjects, can be gratified by consulting the "American State Papers" published under the inspection of Congress. Suffice it for us to say, that in all these transactions, Mr. Jefferson maintained the dignity of government with firmness and discretion; repelled the sophistry of the Frenchman with success; and the language and conduct he had used in his intercourse with the American government, and the unwarrantable expressions in which he had indulged when speaking of the illustrious man at its head, were treated with indignation or contempt. The spirit of friendship for the nation was carefully preserved, while the unauthorized aggressions of its agent were resisted, and his insinuations repelled and denied.

It may not be improper here to add, that Mr. Genet being recalled, his place was supplied by a successor, Mr. Fauchet, who arrived in the United States in February, 1794.

The Brissotine party in France, which sent Mr. Genet to America, had been supplanted by that of Robespierre; many of the Brissotines were sent to the guillotine; and there can be no doubt, that Genet himself was doomed to the same fate. His successor had

special orders to send him back to France, and for this purpose to use force, if necessary.

Fauchet, therefore, immediately after his arrival, finding that Mr. Genet did not intend to return, but was rather inclined to stay where he was, requested liberty to arrest and send him back, agreeably to his instructions. This was refused by the President. Still desirous of effecting his object, he inquired whether the Executive would oppose his decoying him on board of a French vessel, under the pretence of honouring him with an entertainment, and then sailing with him for France. The President not only refused to wink at this clandestine mode of proceeding, but declared he would resist it, if necessary, by force. By this upright and impartial conduct, the president, no doubt, saved Mr. Genet from the guillotine.*

In January, 1794, Mr. Jefferson resigned the office of Secretary of State, and was succeeded by Mr. Randolph. He resigned, with an intention of never again resuming any publick office. "For as to myself," says he, in a letter to Mr. Madison, "the subject has been thoroughly weighed and decided on, and my retirement from office has been meant from all office, high or low, without exception. My health is entirely broken down within the last eight months; my age requires that I should place my affairs in a clear state; these are sound if taken care of, but capable of considerable dangers if longer neglected; and above all things, the delights I feel in the society of my family, and in the agricultural pursuits in which I am so ea

* Pitkin's United States, 2d vol. 417.

gerly engaged. The little spice of ambition which I had in my younger days has long since evaporated, and I set still less store by a posthumous than present name. In stating to you the heads of reasons which have produced my determination, I do not mean an opening for future discussion, or that I may be reasoned out of it. The question is for ever closed with me.”

The whole time of Mr. Jefferson was now devoted to the education of his family, the cultivation of his estate, the intercourse of friendship, and the pursuit of those philosophical studies which he had so long abandoned, but to which he now returned with revived ardour. In the retirement of his closet, and amid such employments, the biographer has but little to relate, and detail would be monotonous to the reader; yet, perhaps, we will be pardoned for introducing the remarks of two distinguished French travellers, who visited him at different times, and enjoyed his privacy. "His conversation," says the Duke de Liancourt, who visited Monticello in '94, "is of the most agreeable kind, and he possesses a stock of information not inferiour to that of any other man. In Europe he would hold a distinguished rank among men of letters, and as such he has already appeared there. At present he is employed with activity in the management of his farms and buildings, and he orders, directs, and pursues, in the minutest detail, every branch of business relating to them. The author of this sketch found him in the midst of harvest, from which the scorching heat of the sun does not prevent his attendance. His negroes are nourished, clothed, and treated as well as white servants could be. As he cannot expect any assistance

from the two small neighbouring towns, every article is made on his farm; his negroes are cabinet makers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, &c. The children he employs in a nail manufactory, which yields already a considerable profit. The young and old negresses spin for the clothing of the rest. He animates them by rewards and distinctions; in fine, his superiour mind directs the management of his domestick concerns with the same ability, activity, and regularity, which he evinced in the conduct of publick affairs, and which he is calculated to display in every situation of life."

Twelve years before this, he had made the same impression on the Marquis de Chastellux, a Major General in the French army, and who had come to this country with Lieutenant General Count Rochambeau. "The conversation," writes the Marquis, "continued, and brought us insensibly to the foot of the mountains. On the summit of one of them we discovered the house of Mr. Jefferson, which stands preeminent in these retirements; it was himself who built it, and preferred this situation; for although he possessed considerable property in the neighbourhood, there was nothing to prevent him from fixing his residence whereever he thought proper. But it was a debt nature owed to a philosopher and a man of taste, that in his own possessions he should find a spot where he might best study and enjoy her. He calls his house Monticello, (in Italian, Little Mountain,) a very modest title, for it is situated upon a very lofty one, but which announces the owner's attachment to the language of Italy; and, above all, to the fine arts, of which that country was

the cradle, and is still the asylum. After ascending by a tolerably commodious road for more than half an hour, we arrived at Monticello. This house, of which Mr. Jefferson was the architect, and often one of the workmen, is rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, though not without a fault: it consists of one large square pavilion, the entrance of which is by two porticoes ornamented with pillars. The ground floor consists chiefly of a very large lofty saloon, which is to be decorated entirely in the antique style; above it is a library of the same form; two small wings, with only a ground floor, and attick story, are joined to this pavilion, and communicate with the kitchen, offices, &c. which will form a kind of basement story, over which runs a terrace. My object in this short description is only to show the difference between this and the other houses of the country; for we may safely aver, that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has courted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather. But it is on himself alone I ought to bestow my time. Let me describe to you a man, not yet forty, tall, and with a mild and pleasing countenance, but whose mind and understanding are ample substitutes for every exteriour grace. An American, who, without ever having quitted his own country, is at once a musician, skilled in drawing, a geometrician, an astronomer, a natural philosopher, legislator, and A Senator of America, who sat for two years in that famous Congress which brought about the revolution; a Governour of Virginia, who filled this difficult station during the invasions of Arnold, of Phillips, and of Cornwallis; a philosopher, in vol

statesman.