take in learning that your worth and talents secure to you the successor they merit.

"ROBERT M. PATTERSON,

"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. He 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 rights, the establishment of which has cost us such sacrifices. 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 salute you with great friendship and respect.
"TH. JEFFERSON.

"JOHN VAUGHAN, Esq."

364

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 System-Regulation 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.

He congratulates Mr. Madison on the peace, especially on the eclat with which the war was closed, and says that "the affair of New Orleans was fraught with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends, and would powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of Europe." He suggests that a separate convention would be the best mode of settling the question of impressment, rather than to blend it with a commercial treaty. And he repeatedly declared that without some provision on the subject, nò treaty could be regarded as more than a truce, which would terminate with the first act of impressing an American citizen.

He was at this time engaged in arranging and sending off to Washington his library, which after that belonging to Congress had been burnt with the capitol, he had offered to dispose of to the government. It contained 10,000 volumes, for which he was willing to take 20,000 dollars; and to this offer, Congress, not without some opposition, acceded.

The return of Napoleon from Elba-his unmolested progress from the Mediterranean to Paris without an army, even without a body guard—and his quietly reseating himself on the ancient throne of the Bourbons, of which they, a few days before, had appeared to be in the secure possession, had now filled all minds with astonishment, and was the theme of every tongue. From the enthusiastic attachment of the army to the chief who had so often led them to victory, and the fear of every one else, all resistance disappeared, as it were by magic; the hereditary monarch yielded up the throne of his ancesters without a struggle; and the hopes and fears of thirty millions of men, nay, of all Europe, concentred on one man, himself a pennyless unarmed exile. Of this extraordinary event, and its principal actor, Mr. Jefferson thus speaks in a letter to Mr. Adams of June 10, 1815.

“A new trial of the Bourbons has proved to the world their incompetence to the functions of the station they have occupied: and the recall of the usurper has clothed him with the semblance of a legitimate monarch. If adversity should have taught him wisdom, of which I have little expectation, he may yet render some service to mankind, by teaching the ancient dynasties that

they can be changed for misrule, and by wearing down the maritime power of England to limitable and safe dimensions. But it is not possible he should love us; and of that our commerce had sufficient proofs during his power. Our military achievements, indeed, which he is capable of estimating, may in some degree moderate the effect of his aversions; and he may perhaps fancy that we are to become the natural enemies of England, as England herself has so steadily endeavoured to make us, and as some of our own over zealous patriots would be willing to proclaim; and in this view, he may admit a cold toleration of some intercourse and commerce between the two nations. He has certainly had time to see the folly of turning the industry of France from the cultures for which nature has so kindly endowed her, to those of sugar, cotton, tobacco, and others which the same creative power has given to other climates; and on the whole, if he can conquer the passions of his tyrannical soul, if he has understanding enough to pursue, from motives of interest, what no moral motives lead him to, the tranquil happiness and prosperity of his country, rather than a ravenous thirst for human blood, his return may become of more advantage than injury to us. And if again some great man could arise in England, who could see and correct the follies of his nation in their conduct as to us, and by exercising justice and amity towards ours, bring both into a state of temperate and useful friendship, it is possible we might thus attain the place we ought to occupy between these two nations, without being degraded to the condition of mere partisans of either."

The first part of another letter to the same correspondent, dated the 10th of August, will remind many of that singular coincidence by which these two venerable statesmen terminated their earthly career on the same day-that day which they had always regarded as the most memorable of their lives. "The simultaneous movements in our correspodence have been remarkable on several occasions. It would seem as if the state of the air, or the state of the times, or some other unknown cause, produced a sympathetic effect on our mutual recollections."