bits, and manners. But in all these particulars the natives of Great Britain were identified with the Americans. There were, besides, twenty English settled in the United States for one Frenchman; many of the former people of property, intelligence, and influence, who were able, by their perfect coalescence with the natives, to inculcate their opinions with a success which was impracticable to a Frenchman.

Mr. Jefferson firmly repels the charge of national hatred to England; and when it is recollected that he was writing to one who had been his intimate associate during the greater part of his administration, who had always belonged to the same party, and to whom his sentiments must have been well known, it is impossible to doubt that, in the following remarks, he gives a correct exposition of his sentiments.

"There is not a nation on this globe with whom I have more earnestly wished a friendly intercourse on equal conditions. On no other would I hold out the hand of friendship to any. I know that their creatures represent me as personally an enemy to England. But fools only can believe this, or those who think me a fool. I am an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an enemy to the flagitious principles of her administration, and to those which govern her conduct towards other nations. But would she give to morality some place in her political code, and especially would she exercise decency, and at least neutral passions towards us, there is not, I repeat it, a people on earth with whom I would sacrifice so much to be in friendship. They can do us, as enemies, more harm than any other nation; and in peace and in war, they have more means of disturbing us internally."

About the close of the preceding year he resigned the office of President of the American Philosophical Society, which he held for eighteen years.

"I solicited on a former occasion permission from the American Philosophical Society to retire from the honour of their chair, under a consciousness that distance, as well as other circumstances, denied me the power of executing the duties of the station, and that those on whom they devolved were best entitled to the honours they confer. It was the pleasure of the society, at that time, that I should remain in their service, and they have continued since to renew the same marks of their partiality. Of these I have been ever duly sensible, and now beg leave to return my thanks for them with humble gratitude. Still I have never ceased, nor can I cease, to feel that I am holding honours without yielding requital, and justly belonging to others. As the period of election is now therefore approaching, I take the occasion of begging to be withdrawn from the attention of the society at their ensuing choice, and to be permitted now to resign the office of president into their hands, which I hereby do. I shall consider myself sufficiently honoured in remaining a private member of their body, and shall ever avail myself with zeal of every occasion which may occur of being useful to them, retaining indelibly a profound sense of their past favours.

66

I avail myself of the channel through which the last notification of the pleasure of the society was conveyed to me, to make this communication; and with the greater satisfaction, as it gratifies me with the occasion of assuring you personally of my high respect for yourself, and of the interest I shall ever take in learning that your worth and talents secure to you the successor they merit.

66

"ROBERT M. PATERSON,

"TH. JEFFERSON.

Secretary of the American Philosophical Society."

The society now, as before, had manifested the wish that Mr. Jefferson would continue in the office of President, and on the present occasion this desire was the stronger, from some discordance among the members as to the choice of his successor. On being informed of these facts by Mr. Vaughan, he thus bears testimony to the merits of. Dr. Wistar, who was the individual selected.

"Dear Sir,

"Your very friendly letter of January 4 is but just received, and I am much gratified by the interest taken by yourself and others of my colleagues of the Philosophical Society, in what concerned myself on withdrawing from the presidency of the Society: my desire to do so had been so long known to every member, and the continuance of it to some, that I do not suppose it can be misunderstood by the public. Setting aside the consideration of distance, which must be obvious to all, nothing is more incumbent on the old than to know when they should get out of the way, and relinquish to younger successors the honours they can no longer earn and the duties they can no longer perform. I rejoice in the election of Dr. Wistar, and trust that his senior standing in the Society will have been considered as a fair motive of preference by those whose merits, standing alone, would have justly entitled them to the honour, and who, as juniors, according to the course of nature, may still expect their turn. I have received with very great pleasure the visit of Mr. T., and find him highly distinguished by science and good sense. was accompanied by Mr. G., son of the late Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, of great information and promise also. It gives me ineffable comfort to see such subjects coming forward to take charge of the political and civil ights, the establishment of which has cost us such sacrifices.

VOL. II.

2 D

He

Mr. T. will be fortunate if he can get under the wing of Mr. Correa; and if the happiness of Mr. Correa requires (as I suppose it does) his return to Europe, we must sacrifice to it that which his residence here would have given us, and acquiesce under the regrets which our transient acquaintance with his worth cannot fail to embody with our future recollection of him. Of Michaux's work I possess three volumes, or rather cahiers-one on oaks, another on beeches and birches, and a third on pines.

"I I salute you with great friendship and respect.
"TH. JEFFERSON.

"JOHN VAUGHAN, Esq."

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CHAPTER XVI.

Letter to the President. To Mr. Adams. Napoleon's return to Paris. Manufactures of the United States. Letter to Benjamin Austin. To John Adams-the good and evil of life-the benefits of grief. To John Tyler. Republican Government. Instructions to Representatives. Independence of the Judiciary. County Courts of Virginia. Extension of the Right of Suffrage. Federal Executive and Senate. Letter to Mr. Crawford. The Drawback SystemRegulation of the Militia-Paper Money-Means of National

Defence.

1815-1816.

HAVING received from Mr. Madison, then president, a tract on the causes and consequences of the recent war, he strongly urges the following reasons for the publication of it:-"1. We needed it in Europe. They had totally mistaken our character. They would see that our long forbearance arose from our moderation, and our preference of the happiness of our people to that false honour, which keeps them in eternal labour, want, and wretchedness. 2. It would undeceive the people of England as to the causes of the war, who did not entertain a doubt that it was "entirely wanton and wicked on our part, and under the orders of Bonaparte. By rectifying their ideas, it would tend to that conciliation which was absolutely necessary to the peace and prosperity of both nations." 3. It was even necessary for the people of America, deceived as they had been with misrepresentations of the federalists.