gress against this duty in the session of 1823, which, being drawn by himself, was circulated among the members, as an object of interest and curiosity, not only as his autograph, but as a remarkable specimen of neat penmanship for one then eighty years of age. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a large majority, but in the Senate, the interest of the booksellers prevailed against that of the community, and it was rejected.

Mr. Jefferson having received from Mr. Edward Livingston,* then one of the representatives in Congress from Louisiana, a copy of his speech in favour of internal improvement, took that occasion to express, in a way as little offensive as possible, his dissent from the doctrine that the general government has constitutionally the power to make roads and canals; and that when we have any doubt about a power, the safest course is not to exercise it. He thought, however, in consideration of the extensive and deep seated opposition to the assumption of it, the conviction entertained by so many, that this deduction of power by elaborate construction prostrates the rights reserved to the states; the difficulties with which it will rub along in the course of its exercise; that changes of majorities will be changing the system backwards and forwards, so that no undertaking under it would be safe; every state in the Union would consent to give the power by an amendment to the constitution, with some

*It is gratifying to the mutual friends of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Livingston to find, by this correspondence, that an entire reconciliation had taken place between them. Mr. Livingston having removed from New York to New Orleans, purchased of John Gravier some of the alluvial ground on the banks of the Mississippi which is known there by the name of the Batture, and which was at the same time claimed by the city of New Orleans. On the representations of the citizens, Mr. Jefferson while president, ordered Mr. Livingston to be dispossessed of this property, and the possession to be restored to the city, until the merits of the conflicting claims could be judicially investigated. While this investigation was going on, papers were written both by Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Livingston in their vindication. The property was finally adjudged to Mr. Livingston, and after Mr. Jefferson's presidential term expired, a suit was brought against him in Virginia by Mr. Livingston for damages. Had it not failed for want of jurisdiction, it would have presented the novel and delicate question whether the chief magistrate of a nation was liable to answer in a civil suit for an official act.

guard against abuse, and he thought it the wisest course to ask the power. This would render its exercise smooth and acceptable to all, and insure to it all the facilities which the states could contribute, to prevent the abuse of bartering of votes which is so frequent in all public bodies. And he suggests that a proviso that the federal quota of each state should be expended within the state would give general satisfaction.

Mr. Jefferson has expressed the proposition too broadly that there would be no objection to such an amendment as he recommends, for some of those who oppose the federal power of making roads and canals, ground their opposition yet more upon its inexpediency, or rather upon its pernicious tendency, than because it contravenes the constitution, and this ground was actually taken in that very debate. They think that our government can continue either permanent or free only by limiting the sphere of its operations to a few general objects, in which the interests of the several parts are identical, or not dissimilar; and that if its powers be extended to domestic concerns, which are so various, and which are so immediately felt by the people, there will arise perpetual jealousies and contentions among them, which will finally end in separation. Nor is this all. For a power so extensive as would be one over roads and canals, might so increase the patronage and influence of the federal executive, as to render the counterpoise of the states insignificant, and gradually erect the chief magistrate into a monarch. Or if that be deemed an extravagant supposition, it might at least gradually bring all power to the general government by successive encroachments and amendments, after which consolidation, civil liberty could not long survive. A single government for a country of such vast extent as this now is, and of such a teeming population, as it is destined to be, can operate either upon its extremities, or in the minor exertions of authority, only by delegating large discretionary powers to its distant and subordinate agents. The occasional disobedience of remote districts, or the feeble exercise of its authority, under the forms of a free government, would imperiously call for an enlargement of its powers; and those who exercised the executive functions, thus furnished

with pretexts for change, would not want the means of effecting it. Every one must admit that the larger the public revenue which the executive has to collect and disburse, the greater is its actual power. Yet no supposable amount of revenue would give as much power as a general system of roads and canals. It would furnish the means of conferring or refusing reward or profit to every man in the nation. We may form some idea of its extent by adverting to what has already taken place in the state of New York. Already the tolls from its canals exceed a million a year, and the profits from the rail-roads and canals that are projected will soon be two or three millions, and may, by the extension of similar improvements and even turnpikes, be easily made to double the amount. Yet this amount of tolls, large as it is, but inadequately expresses the benefits which the community experiences from these useful works, since those who pay the tolls, have, in the increased value and productiveness of their land and industry, received perhaps ten times as much as they pay. With such exhaustless means of corruption to act on individuals and detached portions of the community, it is impossible that it would not become corrupt.

On the 5th of June, 1824, Mr. Jefferson wrote a long letter to Major John Cartwright, who had sent him a copy of his work on the English constitution, which he thought had been, in that work, correctly deduced from the Anglo-Saxons. "Having driven out the former inhabitants of that part of the island called England," he remarks, "they became aborigines as to you, and your lineal ancestry. They, doubtless, had a constitution; and though they have not left it in a written formula, to the precise text of which you may always appeal, yet they have left fragments of their history and laws, from which it may be inferred with considerable certainty. Whatever their history and laws shew to have been practised with approbation, we may presume was permitted by their constitution; whatever was not so practised, was not permitted. And although this constitution was violated and set at nought by Norman force, yet force cannot change right. A perpetual claim was kept

up by the nation, by their perpetual demand of a restoration of their Saxon laws, which shews they were never relinquished by the will of the nation. In the pullings and haulings for these ancient rights, between the nation and its kings of the races of Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, there was sometimes gain and sometimes loss, until the final conquest of their rights from the Stuarts. The destitution and expulsion of this race broke the thread of pretended inheritance, extinguished all regal usurpations, and the nation re-entered into all its rights; and although in the bill of rights they specifically reclaimed some only, yet the omission of the others was no renunciation of the right to assume their exercise also, whenever occasion should occur. The new king received no rights or powers, but those expressly granted to him." He is very severe on Hume for maintaining that the people encroached upon the sovereign, and not the sovereign upon the people, calling him a "degenerate son of science," and "traitor to his fellowmen," for saying that "the commons established a principle, which is noble in itself, and seems specious, but is belied by all history and experience, that the people are the origin of all just power."

In his sketch of the theory of our government, he notices those fundamental principles which are recognised in most of the states; and does not forget among the improvements which he hopes will be adopted, his favourite ward system. He regards the federal and state governments "as co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole." And that in cases where both claim the same subject of power, and the question can neither be avoided nor compounded, a convention of the states must be called, to ascribe the doubtful power to that department they think best. He agrees with Major Cartwright, that the judiciary had usurped legislative powers in deciding that christianity is a part of the common law, and he examines that question by a reference to numerous law authorities which implies great diligence and patience of research.

In the autumn of the present year, he had the satisfaction of seeing his old friend La Fayette, at Monticello. That gene

rous and gallant Frenchman, the friend of America for almost fifty years, had arrived at New York in August, for the purpose of meeting such of the companions of his youthful campaigns as yet survived, and of witnessing with his own eyes, the fruits of that independence he had aided in achieving, and of that civil liberty he so much prized. Such was the enthusiasm with which he was received by the whole nation, that his journey through the states appeared as one continued triumphal procession; and no national victory ever produced more fervent and universal exultation than did this unpretending visit of an ancient friend; nor did any chief or emperor, in the pride of power and conquest, ever receive homage more profound, or greetings so sincere as was voluntarily paid to this private citizen, a foreigner too, from the recollection of his disinterested services in the cause of the revolution. It appeared as if all that could gratify the pride of an American or his love of country from that event, was fixed and personified in this single individual, who thus appeared among them again, after an interval of more than forty years, and, in whose living form, they were carried back to the toils, the sufferings, the hazards of the revolution, while every thing around them reminded them of its noble fruits. An individual in New York,* partaking of the general feeling to do him honour, having remarked that he ought to be considered as the "nation's guest," the idea chiming in with the popular feeling, was immediately seized and carried into execution. The word was in every one's mouth, and with a uniformity and alacrity that no law could have produced, he was transported from city to city, from state to state, throughout the Union, in splendid equipages, and every where provided with well furnished lodgings, and a sumptuous table, free of expense. The mass of the nation of all ages, both sexes, and every condition of life, partook of this overflowing gratitude, and the more soberminded regarding this feeling as reflecting honour on the givers and receiver, countenanced and encouraged it, so that the nation appeared to be in one general state of delirious joy.

* General Morton, who has recently terminated his meritorious and blameless life.