as one might be more or less friendly to us than the other. The depredations of France upon our commerce were indeed "atrocious," but he believed that a mission sincerely disposed to peace would obtain retribution and honorable settlement. These were his principles, but he indulged no antipathy to those who differed from him. "I know too well," said he, "the texture of the human mind and the slipperiness of the human reason, to consider differences of opinion otherwise than differences of form and feature. Integrity of views, more than their soundness, is the basis of esteem."

Such is a brief outline of his opinions, political and other, in view of the fact well known, that he would again be the candidate of his party for the presidency in 1800.

The tranquil dignity of the candidate's demeanor was pleasing to witness. During 1798 and 1799 he devoted a great part of his time and strength to enlightening the public mind; employing for this purpose all that his party possessed of bright intelligence and practised ability. But when, in 1800, the contest lost the character of a conflict of ideas, and assumed that of a competition of persons, he ceased to write letters, withdrew to Monticello, and spent an unusually laborious summer in improving his nail-factory, burning bricks for his house, and superintending his farms; rarely going farther from home than the next village; never too busy to keep up his meteorological records, and look after the interests of the Philosophical Society.

Indeed, if we may judge from his letters, the more furiously the storm of politics raged about him, the more attentive he was to philosophy. It was in the very heat of the war frenzy of 1798 that he wrote his well-known letter to Mr. Nolan, asking information concerning those "large herds of horses in a wild state," which, he had been recently informed, were roaming "in the country west of the Mississippi." He entreated Mr. Nolan to be very particular and exact in detailing "the manners, habits, and laws of the horse's existence" in a state of nature. It was also during the very crisis of the French imbroglio, in February, 1799, that he penned his curious letter about the steam-engine; in which he expressed a timid hope, that perhaps the steam-engine, as now improved by Watt, might be available for pumping water to the tops of houses for family use. Every family, he said, has a kitchen fire; small, indeed, but sufficient for the purpose. To these years seems to

belong also his invention of the revolving chair, which the newspapers of that day used to style "Mr. Jefferson's whirligig chair," now a familiar object in all countries and most counting-rooms. The party papers of the time had their little joke even upon this innocent device; insisting that Mr. Jefferson invented it to facilitate his looking all ways at once.

CHAPTER LIX.

of

THE CAMPAIGN LIES OF 1800.

THAT product of the human intellect which we denominate the Campaign Lie, though it did not originate in the United States, has here attained a development unknown in other lands. It is the destiny of America to try all experiments and exhaust all follies. In the short space of seventy-seven years, we have exhausted the efficiency of falsehood uttered to keep a man out of office. The fact is not to our credit, indeed; for we must have lied to an immeasurable extent before the printed word of man, during six whole months every fourth year, could have lost so much of its natural power to affect human belief. Still less is it for our good; since Campaign Truths, however important they may be, are equally ineffectual. Soon after the publication of a certain ponderous work, called the Life of Andrew Jackson, one of the original Jackson men of Pennsylvania met the author in the street, and said in substance, "I am astonished to find how little I knew of a man whose battles I fought for twelve years. I heard all those stories of his quarrels and violence; but I supposed, OF COURSE, they were Campaign Lies!"

Thomas Jefferson, who began so many things in the early career of the United States, was the first object upon whom the Campaign Liar tried his unpractised talents. The art, indeed, may be said to have been introduced in 1796 to prevent his election to the presidency; but it was in 1800 that it was clearly developed into a distinct species of falsehood. And it must be confessed, that, even amid the heat of the election of 1800, the Campaign Liar was hard put to it, and did not succeed in originating that variety and reckless extravagance of calumny which has crowned his efforts since. Jefferson's life presented to his view a most discouraging monotony of innocent and beneficial actions, - twenty-five years of laborious

and unrecompensed public service, relieved by the violin, science, invention, agriculture, the education of his nephews, and the love of his daughters. A life so exceptionally blameless did not give fair scope to talent; since à falsehood, to have its full and lasting effect, must contain a fraction of a grain of truth. Still, the Campaign Liar of 1800 did very well for a beginner.

He was able, of course, to prove that Mr. Jefferson "hated the Constitution," had hated it from the beginning, and was "pledged to subvert it." The noble Marcellus of New York (Hamilton apparently) writing in Noah Webster's new paper, the Commercial Advertiser, soared into prophecy, and was thus enabled to describe with precision the methods which Mr. Jefferson would employ in effecting his fell purpose. He would begin by turning every Federalist out of office, down to the remotest postmaster. Then he would "tumble the financial system of the country into ruin at one stroke;" which would of necessity stop all payments of interest on the public debt, and bring on "universal bankruptcy and beggary." Next he would dismantle the navy, and thus give such free course to privateering, that " every vessel which floated from our shores vould be plundered or-captured." And, since every source of revenue would be dried up, the government would no longer be able to pay the pensions of the scarred veterans of the Revolution, who would be seen "starving in the streets, or living on the cold and precarious supplies of charity." Soon the unpaid officers of the government would resign, and "counterfeiting would be practised with impunity." In short, good people, the election of Jefferson will be the signal for Pandora to open her box, and empty it upon your heads.

The Campaign Liar mounted the pulpit. In the guise of the Reverend Cotton Mather Smith of Connecticut, he stated that Mr. Jefferson had gained his estate by robbery and fraud,—yea, even by robbing a widow and fatherless children of ten thousand pounds, intrusted to him by the dead father's will. "All of this can be proved," said the Reverend Campaigner. Some of the falsehoods were curiously remote from the truth. "He despises mechanics," said a Philadelphia paragraphist of a man who doted on a wellskilled, conscientious workman. "He despises mechanics, and owns two hundred and fifty of them," remarked this writer. That Monticello swarmed with yellow Jeffersons was the natural conjecture

of a party who recognized as their chief the paramour of a Reynolds. "Mr. Jefferson's Congo Harem" was a party cry. There were allusions to a certain "Dusky Sally," otherwise Sally Henings, whose children were said to resemble the master of Monticello in their features and the color of their hair. In this particular Campaign Lie, there was just that fractional portion of truth which was necessary to preserve it fresh and vigorous to this day. There is even a respectable Madison Henings, now living in Ohio, who supposes that Thomas Jefferson was his father. Mr. Henings has been misinformed. The record of Mr. Jefferson's every day and hour, contained in his pocket memorandum books, compared with the record of his slaves' birth, proves the impossibility of his having been the father of Madison Henings. So I am informed by Mr. Randall, who examined the records in the possession of the family. The father of those children was a near relation of the Jeffersons, who need not be named.

Perhaps I may, in view of recent and threatened publications, copy a few words from Mr. Randall's interesting letter on this subject.. They will be valued by those who believe that chastity in man is as precious a treasure as chastity in woman, and not less essential to the happiness, independence, and dignity of his existence:

"Colonel Randolph (grandson of Mr. Jefferson) informed me (at Monticello) that there was not a shadow of suspicion that Mr. Jefferson, in this or any other instance, had any such intimacy with his female slaves. At the period when these children were born, Colonel Randolph had charge of Monticello. He gave all the general directions, and gave out all their clothes to the slaves. He said Sally Henings was treated and dressed just like the rest. He said. Mr. Jefferson never locked the door of his room by day, and that he, Colonel Randolph, slept within sound of his breathing at night. He said he had never seen a motion or a look or a circumstance which led him to suspect, for an instant, that there was a particle more of familiarity between Mr. Jefferson and Sally Henings than between him and the most repulsive servant in the establishment, and that no person living at Monticello ever dreamed of such a thing. Colonel Randolph said that he had spent a good share of his life closely about Mr. Jefferson, at home and on his journeys, in all sorts of circumstances, and he believed him to be as chaste

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