This treaty must of

separate them if it be better. course be laid before both houses, because both have important functions to perform respecting it. They, I presume, will see their duty to their country in ratifying and paying for it, so as to secure a good which would never again be in their power. But I suppose they must then appeal to the Nation for an additional article to the Constitution, approving and confirming an act which the nation had not previously authorized. The Constitution has made no provision for our holding foreign territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into our Union. The executive, in seizing the fleeting occurrence which so much advances the good of their country, has done an act beyond the Constitution. The legislature risking themselves like faithful sevants, must ratify and pay for it (Louisiana Territory) and throw themselves on their country for doing for them unauthorized, what we know they would have done for themselves had they been in a situation to do it. It is the case of a guardian, investing the money of his ward in the purchase of an important adjacent territory, and saying to him when of age, I did this for your good; I pretend to no right to bind you: you may disavow me, and I must get out of the scrape as I can: I thought it my duty to risk myself for you. But we shall not be disavowed by the Nation, and their act of indemnity will confirm and not weaken the Constitution, by more strongly marking out its lines.

I

WILL not say that public life is the line for making a fortune. But it furnishes a decent and honorable support, and places ones children on good grounds for public favor. The family of a beloved father will stand with the public on the most favorable ground of competition. Had General Washington left children, what would II. 424. have been denied to them? Perhaps I ought to apologize for the frankness of this communication.

It proceeds from an ardent zeal to see this government (the idol of my soul) continue in good hands.

H

OWEVER I have from the beginning determined to submit myself as the subject upon whom may be proved the impotency of a free press in a country like ours, against those who conduct themselves honestly and enter into no intrigue. I admit at the same time that restraining the press to truth, as the present laws 12. 159. do, is the only way of making it useful. But I have thought it necessary first to prove it can never be dangerous.

I

T is well known that on every question, the lawyers are about equally divided, as is seen in the present case, and were we to act but in cases where no contrary opinion of a lawyer can be had, we should never act.

12. 168.

M

Y long and intimate knowledge of my countrymen, satisfied and satisfies me, that, let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law, and the world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array themselves in opposition.

12. 184.

H

ISTORY, I believe, furnished no example of a priestridden people maintaining a free civil government. In fifty years more the United States will contain 50 million inhabitants, and fifty years are soon gone

over. 14. 21.

O

N the whole, his (Washington's) character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great,

14. 50.

and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny and merit, of leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war, for the establishment of its independence; of conducting its councils through the birth of a government, new in its forms and its principles, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his ca reer, civil and military, of which the history of the World furnishes no other example.

M

ERCHANTS have no country. The mere spot on

which they stand does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his

Own.

14. 119.

H

14. 310.

A

OW can expedition be expected from a body which we have saddled with an hundred lawyers, whose trade is talking?

FTER all men of energy and character must have enemies; because there are two sides to every question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with effect, those who take the other will of course be hostile in proportion as they feel that effect.

15. 109.

T

HE Confederation of the States, while on the carpet before the old congress, was strenuously opposed by the smaller States, under apprehensions that they would be swallowed up by the larger ones. We were long engaged in the discussion; it produced great heat, much ill

humor, and intemperate declarations from some 28. 167. members. Dr. Franklin at length brought the debate to a close with one of his little apologues. He observed that "at the time of the Union of England with Scotland, the Duke of Argyle was most violently opposed to that measure, and among other things predicted that, as the whale had swallowed Jonah, so Scotland would be swallowed by England. However," said the Doctor, "when Lord Bute came into the government, he soon brought into its administration so many of his countrymen, that it was found in event that Jonah swallowed the whale." This little story produced a general laugh and restored good humor, and the article of difficulty was passed.

APPRECIATIONS OF

THOMAS JEFFERSON

THOMAS JEFFERSON BY ABRAHAM

I

LINCOLN, 1859

REMEMBER being very much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men engaged in a fight with their great coats on, which fight, after a long and rather harmless contest, ended in each having fought himself out of his own coat and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of this day are really identical with the *I. XV. two in the days of Jefferson and Adams they have performed the same feat as the two drunken men. But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this Nation. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society, and yet they are denied and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them "glittering generalities." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident lies," and others insidiously argue that they apply to “Superior Races." These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and effect-the supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring those of classification, caste and legitimacy. They would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard, the miners and sappers, of returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom