happy as your life has been virtuous and useful; that our youth may see in the blissful close of your days, an additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout and earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who compose the General Assembly of Virginia." Our own opinion of Mr. Jefferson's character as a man and as the head of the ruling party in the United States, might be set forth at large, were it at all needful on the present occasion; but, in truth, it is not. If, as we believe, our narrative of his public life and career is just, impartial, candid, and sufficiently full in respect to details, there is plainly little need, at our hands, of a formal delineation of his character and conduct. His acts will justify or condemn him, as they have all along in the judgment of the people; and his acts will prove incontestably, that he was either a high-minded, patriotic statesman and ruler, or an unscrupulous partisan and seeker after popular applause. Let the reader judge for himself, after carefully weighing the facts which are on record, and the principles which the third president avowed in his writings. Thomas Jefferson must always fill a large space in our country's annals, whether it be for good or for evil. It is the duty of Americans to study his life and character, and to note well the effect produced by his opinions and principles upon our countrymen. If he were not the profound statesman and large-hearted patriot which his admirers claimed him to be, he was undoubtedly in possession of vast influence, and wielded it with consummate skill, for eight eventful years. If he were not a mere party leader, as his enemies openly and constantly asserted, it is undeniable that he never lost sight of the interests and the advancement of the party at whose head he was placed. Men have differed, widely differed, men will continue to differ, in their judgments respecting Thomas Jeffer son and his claims to honor and respect. Let the youthful student weigh well what we have here laid before him, and what he will find in the authorities referred to in the course of our narrative; and let him judge soberly and fearlessly, as is the birthright no less than the bounden duty of every Amer ican. CH. V.] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS'S REMARKS. 111 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS'S REMARKS ON JEFFER- In the first wars of the French Revolution, Great Britain had begun by straining the claim of belligerent, as against neutral rights, beyond all the theories of international jurisprudence, and even beyond her own ordinary practice. There is in all war a conflict between the belligerent and the neutral right, which can in its nature be settled only by convention. And in addition to all the ordinary asperities of dissension between the nation at war and the nation at peace, she had asserted a right of man-stealing from the vessels of the United States. The claim of right was to take by force all sea-faring men, her own subjects, wherever they were found by her naval officers, to serve their king in his wars. And under color of this tyrant's right, her naval officers, down to the most beardless midshipman, actually took from the American merchant vessels which they visited, any seaman whom they chose to take for a British subject. After the treaty of November, 1794, she had relaxed all her pretensions against the neutral rights, and had gradually abandoned the practice of impressment till she was on the point of renouncing it by a formal treaty stipulation. At the renewal of the war, after the peace of Amiens, it was at first urged with much respect for the rights of neutrality, but the practice of impressment was soon renewed with aggravated severity, and the commerce of neutral nations with the colonies of the adverse belligerent was wholly interdicted on the pretence of justification, because it had been forbidden by the enemy herself in the time of peace. This pretension had been first raised by Great Britain in the seven years' war, but she had been overawed by the armed neutrality from maintaining it in the war of the American Revolution. In the midst of this war with Napoleon, she suddenly reasserted the principle, and by a secret order in council, swept | the ocean of nearly the whole mass of neutral commerce. Her war with France spread itself all over Europe, successively involving Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Denmark and Sweden. Not a single neutral power remained in Europe-and Great Britain, after annihilating at Trafalgar, the united naval power of France and Spain, ruling thenceforth with undisputed dominion upon the ocean, conceived the project of engrossing even the commerce with her enemy by intercepting all neutral navigation. These measures were met by corresponding acts of violence, and sophistical principles of national law, promulgated by Napoleon, rising to the summit of his greatness, and preparing his downfall by the abuse of his elevation. Through this fiery ordeal the administration of Mr. Jefferson was to pass, and the severest of its tests were to be applied to Mr. Madison. His correspondence with the ministers of Great Britain, France, and Spain, and with the ministers of the United States to those nations during the remainder of Mr. Jefferson's administration, constitute the most important and most valuable materials of its history. His examination of the British doctrines relating to neutral trade, will hereafter be considered a standard treatise on the law of nations; not inferior to the works of any writer upon those subjects since the days of Grotius, and every way worthy of the author of Publius and Helvidius. There is indeed, in all the diplomatic papers of American statesmen, justly celebrated as they have been, nothing su perior to this dissertation, which was not strictly official. It was composed amid the duties of the department of state, never more arduous than at that time-in the summer of 1806. It was published inofficially, and a copy of it was laid on the table of each member of Congress at the com mencement of the session in December, 1806. The controversies of conflicting neutral and belligerent rights, continued through the whole war. of Mr. Jefferson's administration, during the latter part of which they were verging rapidly to He had carried the policy of peace perhaps to an extreme. His system of defence by commercial restrictions, dry-docks, gun-boats, and embargoes, was stretched to its last hair's breadth of endurance. Far be it from me, my fellow-citizens, to speak of this system or its motives with disrespect. If there be a duty, binding in chains more adamantine than all the rest the conscience of a chief magistrate of this Union, it is that of preserving peace with all mankind peace with the other nations of the earth-peace among the several states of this Union-peace in the hearts and temper of our own people. Yet must a president of the United States never cease to feel that his charge is to maintain the rights, the interests, and the honor, no less than the peace of his country-nor will he be permitted to forget that peace must be the offspring of two concurring wills; that to seek peace is not always to ensure it. He must remember too, that a reliance upon the operation of measures, from their effect on the interests, however clear and unequivocal, of nations, cannot be safe against a counter current of their passions. That nations, like individuals, sacrifice their peace to their pride, to their hatred, to their envy, to their jealousy, and even to the craft, which the cunning of hackneyed politicians not unfrequently mistakes for policy. That nations, like individuals, have sometimes the misfortune of losing their senses, and that lunatic communities, which cannot be confined in hospitals, must be resisted in arms, as a single maniac is sometimes restored to reason by the scourge. That national madness is infectious, and that a paroxysm of it in one people, especially when generated by the Furies that preside over war, produces a counter paroxysm in the adverse Farty. Such is the melancholy condition, as yet, of associated man. And while in the wise but mysterious dispensations of an overruling Providence, man shall so continue, the peace of every nation must depend not alone upon its own will, but upon that concurrently with the will of all others, And such was the condition of the two mighti est nations of the earth during the administration of Mr. Jefferson. Frantic; in fits of mutual hatred, envy, and jealousy against each other; meditating mutual invasion and conquest; and forcing the other nations of the four quarters of the globe to the alternative of joining them as allies or encountering them as foes. Mr. Jefferson met them with moral philosophy and commercial restrictions, with dry-docks and gun-boats -with non-intercourses, and embargoes, till the American nation were told that they could not be kicked into a war, and till they were taunted by a British statesman in the imperial parliament of England, with their five fir frigates and their striped bunting. Mr. Jefferson pursued his policy of peace till it brought the nation to the borders of internal war. An embargo of fourteen months' duration was at last reluctantly abandoned by him, when it had ceased to he obeyed by the people, and state courts were ready to pronounce it unconstitutional. A non-intercourse was then substituted in its place, and the helm of state passed from the hands of Mr. Jefferson to those of Mr. Madison, precisely at the moment of this perturbation of earth and sea threatened with war from abroad and at home, but with the principle definitely settled, that in our intercourse with foreign nations, reason, justice, and commercial restric tions require live-oak hearts and iron or brazen mouths to speak, that they may be distinctly heard, or attentively listened to, by the distant ears of foreigners, whether French or British, monarchial or republican. - The Inauguration of James Madison-Inaugural Address of the fourth president - The new cabinet-Positica of affairs on Madison's accession-Conduct of England and France - Mr. Erskine's negotiations and their reults - Opening of Congress - The president's message-The British government refuses to sanction Mr. Erskine's acts Irritation and excitement- Views of the federalists - Mr. Jackson appointed minister from EnglandHis course-Congress meet-President's message quoted-Resolutions of the Senate Acts of the HouseThe manufactures of the Union-Report on conduct of General Wilkinson — The Rambouillet decree — Napoleon's announcement of the revocation of his decrees - British government refuse to rescind the orders in council-Intercourse with France renewed-Occupancy of West Florida - Congress meet in December, 1810 - - The president's message-Debate in the House on the petition of the territory of Orleans to be admitted as a state - Quincy's speech — Question as to the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States-Debate on the subject-The result-Debate on the non-intercourse act-Feeling in the navy towards England — Affair of the President and the Little Belt - The United States and two British ships-Mr. Foster appointed maister from England — His correspondence with the secretary of state-Meeting of Congress looked for with anxiety — Troubles in the cabinet-Monroe appointed secretary of state-The Indians in the north-west-Tecun.seh's plans-General Harrison's movements - The battle of Tippecanoe-Severe and bloody contest-Its result. On the 4th day of March, 1809, a of the most revered authority, I avail goodly company assembled in the cap-myself of the occasion now presented, itol at Washington, to witness the in- to express the profound impression auguration of James Madison as fourth made on me by the call of my country president of the United States. Mr. to the station, to the duties of which I Jefferson was there, as were also many am about to pledge myself by the members of Congress, the foreign min- most solemn of sanctions. So distinisters, and a crowd of citizens. Mr. guished a mark of confidence, proceed. Madison was clad in a plain suit of ing from the deliberate and tranquil black, entirely of American manufac- suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, ture, and modestly, yet in a dignified would, under any circumstances, have manner, went through the important commanded my gratitude and devotion, ceremonies of the day. His inaugural as well as filled me with an awful sense address, though brief, was not deficient of the trust to be assumed. Under in energy and ability; and it met with the various circumstances which give general approbation. As on previous peculiar solemnity to the existing peoccasions, we give the address in full. riod, I feel, that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly enhanced. "Friends and Fellow-Citizens: VOL. III.-15 "The present situation of the world 1809. is indeed without a parallel; and that of our country full of difficulties. The pressure of these too, is the more severely felt, because they have fallen upon us at a moment, when national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the contrast resulting from this change has been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations, whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivalled growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture; in the successful enterprises of commerce; in the progress of manufactures and useful arts; in the increase of the public revenue, and the use made of it in reducing the public debt; and in the valuable works and establishments everywhere multiplying over the face of our land. will not be questioned. Posterity at least will do justice to them. 1809. "This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been introduced, equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued, in spite of the demonstrations, that not even a pretext for them has been given by the United States, and of the fair and liberal attempts to induce a revocation of them, cannot be anticipated. Assuring myself, that under every vicissitude, the determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be safeguards to its honor, and its essential interests, I repair to the post assigned me, with no other discouragement than what springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink under the weight of this deep convic tion, it is because I find some support in a consciousness of the purposes, and a confidence in the principles which I bring with me into this arduous service. "It is a precious reflection, that the transition from this prosperous condition of our country, to the scene which has for some time been distressing us, is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace, by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations atmodation of differences, to a decision war, by thifilling their neutral obligathons with the most scrupulous impar tiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these assertions "To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality towards belligerent nations; to prefer, in all cases, amicable discussions and reasonable accom of them by an appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones: to foster a |