Monroe, in London, to their satisfaction, but not to that of Mr. Jefferson. There is some ground to believe then, that Mr. Jefferson confesses he misrepresented his motive in proposing the embargo to Congress, in December, 1807; and that he admits the embargo to have been a hostile measure to England; or, in other words, a part of the continental system. The sum of Mr. Jefferson's political wisdom in this matter comes to this: He was willing to impose an annual loss of fifty millions on his own countrymen, and enforce his system of restriction at the point of the bayonet, to aid Napoleon in humbling England. This it would doubtless have pleased him to do, even at that cost, with all its consequences. It is surprising, that this wise statesman was the last man in the nation to perceive, that his costly, oppressive, and ruinous measure had no tendency to effect his object.

In another part of the same volume, (iv. p. 125,) Mr. Jefferson gives another version of his embargo policy, in a letter to Dupont de Nemours. He therein contradicts his resolution formed on Mr. Adams's statement of the restlessness and plots of the East and North. He says: "The edicts of "the two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the ocean, we met by an embargo. This gave us time to call home our seamen, ships, and property; to levy men, and put our seaports into a certain state of defence," (by building gun-boats?) "We have now taken off the embargo, except as to France and England, and their territories, because "fifty millions of exports annually sacrificed are the treble "of what war would cost us; besides, that by war we "should gain something, and lose less than at present."

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It requires all Mr. Jefferson's ingenuity to reconcile this with his remarks found in vol. iv. p. 148, in a letter to General Dearborn, and also with his opinion on Mr. Adams's disclosures: "The federalists, during their short-lived as"cendency, have, nevertheless, by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests, which can never "be cured; and on our affections, which will require time "to cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican "STORY. He came on, and staid only a few days; long "enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon,* who

* A member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts.

"giving in to his representations, became panic-struck, and "communicated his panic to his colleagues; and they to a "majority of the sound members of Congress."

The comparison of these various accounts of the matter leaves one in no doubt, that Mr. Jefferson really intended to promote the views of Napoleon by the embargo, and that the "preservation," set forth in his message, was only the mask

of the true purpose. By keeping the vessels of the United

States at home, he prevented the products of the United States from reaching England, and the products of England from coming to the United States. This was one step beyond Napoleon. It looks as though Mr. Jefferson had, in this matter, suggested what was false, and suppressed what was true. But then it should be remembered, that he thought it was right to do so. That is, it was right, by any means, and at any cost and oppression to his own countrymen, to strengthen France in her war of destruction against England; and at the same time to break down monarchists and anglomen. Nevertheless, on this "calm revisal," the embargo system is not a ground on which the admirers of Mr. Jefferson can safely rest his fame for wisdom and virtue, in days to come.

It may be asked what a wise and honest President would have done, in this state of the country? He would have waited for the result of the negotiations in England. When the treaty came, as it provided effectually for every subject of controversy but that of impressment; as there were assurances on that subject, as satisfactory as can ever be expected from a maritime nation, he would have ratified the treaty. If he did not dare to recommend a defensive war against France, he would have left it to the good sense of merchants to regulate their own affairs, and to have taken their chance upon the ocean. The marine of France was little to be feared. Mercantile ingenuity would have discerned modes of profitable commerce; and the gain of successful enterprise would have far exceeded occasional loss. If Mr. Jefferson really intended to protect seamen, ships, and commerce, he was not statesman enough to know how this could be effected. It is most consistent with his own declarations to believe, that these objects were sacrificed to promote his own purposes.

LETTER LV.

NOVEMBER 20, 1833.

MR. JEFFERSON may be considered under two aspects: First, as a witness against a large portion of his fellow-citizens. Secondly, as a citizen and statesman, who confidently claims the respect and gratitude of his country and of posterity, for eminent public services; services which, he says, no other man but himself could have performed. Under the first aspect, he presents himself in a character which seriously affects the memory of the dead, the feelings of the living, the honor of his country, and the interests of mankind. If Mr. Jefferson is a credible witness, the men who conducted the American revolution, who founded the national government, and who administered our national affairs for the first twelve years, were the most unprincipled, profligate, and wicked body of men who are known in history. They are worse than the Roman triumvirates and their associates, for these did not conceal their purposes, but did their work openly. If Mr. Jefferson is a credible witness, he casts a deep and discouraging shade on the hopes of mankind, that there is honor, intelligence, and virtue enough in the world, to assert and maintain the right to rational self-government. In the second aspect; if Mr. Jefferson did not render such services to his country; if he rendered to it no service, which entitles his memory to respect and gratitude; if he misapplied his trust; if he established theories tending to destroy republican government; if he oppressed and afflicted his country more than any man who has lived in it; if he established a party dominion, unknown and repugnant to the constitution; if such dominion is seen to be here, as elsewhere in the history of nations, the precursor of popular despotism, and that, the precursor of military despotism, it is time, that Mr. Jefferson's example. and doctrines should be understood in this land: it is time, that dignified senators should cease to read his books, as an authority in their discussions.

There was no one among those, whom Mr. Jefferson has spent so much time in defaming, who did not learn with regret, that the abstraction from his private affairs, his

unavoidable expenditures, his liberal hospitality, and the general effect of his own policy had imposed upon him, in the decline of life, some embarrassments.

Alive to this state of things, he sought relief, by suggesting the grant of an authority from the legislature of his native state, to sell his property by lottery. Congress had done for him a very liberal act, in the purchase of his library, to replace that destroyed by the British, in that war, which Mr. Jefferson could have easily prevented, but did not. Το induce the legislature so to interpose, Mr. Jefferson made an elaborate disquisition on the policy of lotteries, which appears in his 4th volume, pages 428-438. Having established the utility and the morality of lotteries, he goes on to show the propriety of extending the benefit of such a measure to himself on the ground of his public services. He sets forth what he had been, and what he had done. As to the services done to his native state as there enumerated; that is, in abolishing "hereditary and high-handed aristocracy," "the right of primogeniture" (in a community dependent on a peculiar sort of labor); attacking a "dominant religion; " in other words, taking from Episcopalian clergymen their parsonages and glebe lands; and his services as 66 governor," are all matters for the consideration alone of Virginians. To the same parties may be referred his foresight and good sense, in the establishment of the University, in which it is said, there is no provision for religious instruction. It is the present purpose to consider him only as a national citizen and ruler.

Mr. Jefferson refers to the address of the legislature of Virginia, on his retirement in 1809, as illustrative of his merits. He adds: "There is one service, not therein spe"cified, the most important in its consequences of any trans"action in any portion of my life; to wit, the head I "personally made against the FEDERAL principles and pro"ceedings, during the administration of Mr. Adams. Their usurpations and violations of the constitution, at that pe"riod, and their majorities in both Houses of Congress were so great, so decided, and so daring, that, after contesting "their aggressions, inch by inch, without being able in "the least to check their career, the republican leaders thought it would be best for them to give up their use"less efforts there; go home, and get into their respective

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"legislatures, embody whatever resistance they could be "formed into, and, if ineffectual, to perish there as in the "last ditch. All, therefore, retired, leaving Mr. Gallatin "alone in the House of Representatives, and MYSELF in the "Senate, where I presided as Vice President. Remaining "at our posts, and bidding defiance to the brow-beatings "and insults, by which they endeavored to drive us off also, we kept the mass of republicans in phalanx together, "until the legislatures could be brought up to the charge; " and nothing on earth is more certain, than that if I MYSELF, PARTICULARLY, placed by my office of Vice President at "the head of the republicans, had given way and withdrawn "from мy post, the republicans, throughout the Union, "would have given up in despair, and the cause would have "been lost for ever. By holding on, we obtained time for "the legislatures to come up with their weight; and those "of Virginia and Kentucky particularly; but more especially the former, by their celebrated resolutions, saved the "constitution at its last gasp. No person, who was not a "witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can form any "idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to brook. They saved our country, however. The spirits of the people were so much subdued and reduced "to despair by the X, Y, Z imposture and other strata'gems and machinations, that they would have sunk into apathy and MONARCHY, as the only form of government "which could maintain itself."

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Certainly this great service well deserved not only a lottery, but a bronze statue, even if Mr. Jefferson had never laid and enforced an embargo, or built a gun-boat.

But this gentleman does himself injustice in commencing the detail of his services in demolishing the "hydra of federalism," (as he somewhere calls it,) with his patriotic valor, while in the chair of Vice President. He might consistently have ranged under the same head his patronage of Freneau, Bache, and Duane, (honorably mentioned in his volumes,) as his coadjutors in this service to his country. He might have mentioned his liberality to that man of science," James Thompson Callender. Nor ought he to have disregarded the author of "The Age of Reason" and of the "Letter to Washington," to whom Mr. Jefferson paid the national compliment of offering him a passage from