enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world, and procure them its praise.'

The specimens we have given exhibit but a slender outline of a series of correspondence, public and private, comprising more than three hundred letters, chiefly to his friends in the United States, all breathing the same devotion to the interests of his country, in every imaginable department, from the most intricate points of abstract science, and the most momentous questions of national policy, down to essays on the most simple processes in agriculture and domestic economy.` He was at the same time in habits of correspondence with many distinguished characters, literary and political, in most of the nations of Europe. His philosophical reputation and powers established him in ready favor with the constellation of bold thinkers, which then illuminated France; and much of his attention was necessarily, perhaps advantageously, occupied in the metaphysical discussions of the day. He was on terms of intimacy with the Abbe Morellet, Condorcet, D'Alembert, Mirabeau, &c; and he renewed his discussion in natural science, with Mons. de Buffon, to whom he had already given such a foretaste of his abilities, in his Notes on Virginia. The ladies of that gay capital, who maintain so powerful an ascendency in all its circles, were delighted in his society, and pressed him into their correspondence. At the solicitation of the authors of the Encyclopedie Methodique, the most popular work then publishing in Paris, Mr Jefferson prepared for insertion several articles on the United States, giving a history of the government, from its origin to the adoption of the constitution. One of the authors of that work had made the society of the Cincinnati the subject of a libel on our government and its great military leadBut before committing it to the press, he submitted it to Mr Jefferson for examination. He found it a tissue

er.

of errors, a mere philippic against the institution, in which there appeared an utter ignorance of facts and motives. He wrote over the whole article; in which he vindicated the motives of General Washington and his brother officers from every liability to reproach. His own opinions, however, of the ultimate effects of that institution, underwent such a change during his residence in Europe, as induced him to recommend its total extinction; which he did, in a letter to General Washington, November 1786.

Such are some of the numerous and diversified services performed by Mr Jefferson in his private, unofficial capacity. The circumstance ought not to be overlooked, that these attentions to the general interests of the United States, were exercised amidst the labors and anxieties of a multiplicity of public avocations. His diplomatic correspondence with the Count de Vergennes, the most subtile and powerful minister in Europe, was uninterrupted, and in point of urgency in behalf of America, remains unrivalled. His correspondence with the bankers of the United States at Amsterdam and Paris, to preserve the credit of the United States, was constant, and laborious; and his exertions for the redemption of American captives at Algiers, for establishing a general coalition of all the civilized powers against the piratical States, and, on the failure of that, for negotiating treaties of peace with them, on the most favorable terms, have seldom been equalled.

But of all the private labors of Mr Jefferson in behalf of his country, none were more useful, none more praiseworthy and patriotic, than those which were directed to the moral improvement of the rising generation. It was to them he looked, and not to those then on the stage, for the perfection of the glorious political work which he had exhausted every resource and sacrificed every comfort in advancing; and his ambition appeared insatiable to fashion their minds, their habits, their tastes and principles, after the model of the generation of "76.

It was Mr Jefferson's fortune to be an eye-witness of the opening scenes of that tremendous revolution, which began so gloriously and ended so terribly for France. The immediate and exciting cause of this struggle for political reformation, he ascribes to the influence of the American example and American ideas. In his notes on that event, he says:

"The American revolution seems first to have awakened the thinking part of the French nation, in general, from the sleep of despotism into which they were sunk. The officers, too, who had been to America, were mostly young men, less shackled by habit and prejudice, and more ready to assent to the suggestions of common sense, and feeling of common rights, than others. They came back to France with new ideas and impressions. The press, notwithstanding its shackles, began to disseminate them; conversation assumed new freedoms; politics became the theme of all societies, male and female; and a very extensive and zealous party was formed, which acquired the appellation of the patriotic party, who, sensible of the abusive government under which they lived, sighed for occasions for reforming it. This party comprehended all the honesty of the kingdom sufficiently at leisure to think, the men of letters, the easy Bourgeois, the young nobility, partly from reflection, partly from mode; for these sentiments became matter of mode, and, as such, united most of the young women to the party.'

The part sustained by Mr Jefferson in the early stages of the French revolution, was of a weighty and prominent character. It has not yet been incorporated into written history, but the late revelation of his cabinet to the world will soon place it there, when it will constitute one of the most interesting features of his posthumous reputation.

Possessing the confidence and intimacy of many of the leading patriots, and more than all, of the Marquis de la Fayette, their head and Atlas, he was consulted by them, at every step, on measures of importance; and

the prudence of his counsels, which were implicitly followed while they could have the benefit of them, retarded the moment of convulsion and civil war until after his withdrawal from the scene of action. Coming from a country which had successfully passed through a similar struggle, his acquaintance was eagerly sought, and his opinions carried with them an authority almost oracular. In attempting the redress of present grievances, he recommended a mild and gradual reformation of abuses, one after another, at suitable intervals, so as not to revolt the conciliatory dispositions of the king; and in providing against their recurrence in future, by remodelling the principles of the government, he recommended cautious approaches to republicanism, to give time for the growth of public opinion, and work a peaceable regeneration of the political system, by slow and successive improvements through a series of years. The interest he felt in the passing revolution, and his anxiety for the final result, were very great. He considered a successful reformation of government in France, as insuring a general reformation through Europe, and the resurrection to a new life of a people now ground to dust by the oppressions of the constituted powers.

He went daily from Paris to Versailles, to attend the debates of the States General, and continued there until the hour of adjournment. This assembly had been convened as a mediatorial power between the government and the people; and it was well understood that the king would now concede, 1, Freedom of the person by habeas corpus ; 2, Freedom of conscience ; 3, Freedom of the press; 4, Trial by jury; 5, A representative legislature; 6, Annual meetings; 7, The origination of laws; 8, The exclusive right of taxation and appropri ation; and 9, The responsibility of ministers. Mr Jefferson urged most strenuously, an immediate compromise, upon the basis of these concessions; and the instant adjournment of the assembly for a year. They

came from the very heart of the king, who had not a wish but for the good of the nation; and these improvements, if accepted and carried into effect, he had no doubt would be maintained during the present reign, which would be long enough for them to take some root in the constitution, and be consolidated by the attachment of the nation.

He most eagerly contended they could obtain in future, whatever might be farther necessary to improve their constitution, and perfect their freedom and happiness. They thought otherwise, however,' says he, and events have proved their lamentable error. For, after thirty years of war, foreign and domestic, the loss of millions of lives, the prostration of private happiness, and the foreign subjugation of their own country for a time, they have obtained no more, nor even that securely. They were unconscious of (for who could foresee?) the melancholy sequel of their well-meant perseverance; that their physical force would be usurped by a tyrant to trample on the independence, and even the existence, of other nations; that this would afford a fatal example for the atrocious conspiracy of kings against their people; would generate their unholy and homicidal alliance to make common cause among themselves, and to crush by the power of the whole, the efforts of any part, to moderate their abuses and oppressions.'

In the evening of August 4th, on motion of the Viscount de Noailles, brother-in-law of La Fayette, the assembly abolished all titles of rank, all the abusive privileges of feudalism, the tythes and casuals of the clergy, all provincial privileges, and in fine the feudal regimen generally. Many days were employed in putting into the form of laws, the numerous revocations of abuses: after which they proceeded to the preliminary work of a declaration of rights. An instrument of this kind had been prepared by Mr Jefferson and La Fayette, and submitted to the assembly by the latter on the 11th of July ;