good dispositions, it has assuredly weakened them within our own. The attempt ran foul of so many local interests, of so many personal views, and so much ignorance, and I have been considered as so particularly its promoter, that I see evidently a great change of sentiment towards myself. I cannot doubt its having dissatisfied with myself a respectable minority, if not a majority of the House of Delegates. I feel it deeply and very discouragingly. Yet I shall not give way. I have ever found in my progress through life, that, acting for the public, if we do always what is right, the approbation denied in the beginning will surely follow us in the end. It is from posterity we are to expect remuneration for the sacrifices we are making for their service, of time, quiet, and good will, and I fear not the appeal. The multitude of fine young men whom we shall redeem from ignorance, and who will feel that they owe to us the elevation of mind, of character, and station they will be able to obtain from the result of our efforts, will insure their remembering us with gratitude, we will not then 'be weary in well doing.' Usque ad aras, amicus tuus.”

In getting the university into operation, he seemed to have regained the activity and assiduity of his youth. Every thing was looked into, every thing was ordered by him. He suggested the remedy for every difficulty, and made the selection in every choice of expedients. Two or three times a week he rode down to the establishment to give orders to the proctor, and to watch the progress of the work still unfinished. Nor were his old habits of hospitality forgotten. His invitations to the professors and their families were frequent, and every Sunday some four or five of the students dined with him. At these times he generally ate by himself in a small recess connected with the dining room; but, saving at meals, sat and conversed with the company as usual. The number of visiters also to the University was very great, and they seldom failed to call at Monticello, where they often passed the day, and sometimes several days. He was so fully occupied with his duties, as rector of the university, and he found so much pleasure in the occupation, that for a time every cause of care and anxiety, of which

he now began to have an increased share, were entirely forgotten; and the sun of his life seemed to be setting with a soft but unclouded radiance.

It was in one of these moods when, at peace with the world, he wrote a letter to his namesake, Thomas Jefferson Smith of Washington, at the instance of his father, who requested him to address something to his son which might have a salutary influence on his future life, when he could understand it. More solid advice was never conveyed in so small a compass, and no one could have a better chance for respectability or happiness who would faithfully observe these precepts. Those which respect his religious and moral character are six. 1. Adore God. 2. Reverence and cherish your parents. 3. Love your neighbour as yourself, your country more than yourself. 4. Be just. 5. Be true. 6. Murmur not at the ways of Providence.

He also gives him ten canons for the regulation of his practical life. They were-1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. 3. Never spend your money before you have it. 4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. 5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. 6. We never repent of having eaten too little. 7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened. 9. Take things by the smooth handle. 10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.

He also cited to him for his imitation, the translation of one of the psalms, beginning, "Lord who's the happy man; which he calls "the portrait of a good man by the most sublime of poets."

His health began now to be seriously impaired. An affection of the bladder had for some time given him uneasiness, and of late the symptoms were so aggravated as to call for medical aid. On these occasions Dr. Dunglison of the university was always his physician. He bore his sufferings with exemplary patience, and except in the paroxysms of his pain, had his wonted equanimity and good humour. The disease had returned with

more than usual severity in August, when he received another visit from General La Fayette, then about to leave the United States for France. The general found him on a couch in the drawing-room, evidently altered since he saw him the year before, and then suffering acute pain. He manifested a good deal of solicitude for his friend, had conferences with Dr. Dunglison, and having learnt that certain preparations, useful in his disease, could be obtained better in Paris than elsewhere, he remembered the fact, and as soon as he returned, sent a supply which would have been sufficient for twenty patients.

La Fayette again received a public dinner at the university, given, on this occasion, by the professors and students; and though Mr. Jefferson could not partake of the entertainment, it afforded him no small gratification.

In framing a system of laws for the government of the University, as well as for its course of instruction, Mr. Jefferson had had almost the sole agency; for though every thing was submitted to the approbation of the board of visiters, yet it was rarely that any of them dissented from him, and when it did happen, he was commonly supported by a majority. In the little code he prepared, he carried out even here, some of his political doctrines. Thus, believing that the authority of government is often needlessly exerted, and the restraints of law are too much multiplied, he allowed more latitude and indulgence to students than was usual. To prevent intrigues or contests for authority, and bickerings arising from its exertion, he limited the term of the presiding officer of the institution to only one year-to be held by each professor in rotation, merely allowing the members themselves to determine on the order and he did not receive the ordinary designation of president, but of "chairman," "by way of marking the limited and peculiar character of his functions.' These liberal and indulgent views well accorded both with the temper of the professors, and their inexperience, and they undertook to conduct a body of youths, by appeals to their reason, their hopes, and to every generous feeling, rather than to the fear of punishment, or dread of disgrace.

The imperfection of this system was not long in manifesting itself. It was found that though those mild measures may do for many, perhaps the far greater number, it will not do for all: and where there is such a variety of tempers and dispositions, which have been so differently trained, and have acquired such different habits, and principles of action, the course that would be salutary with one will not be so with another, that under their strong impulses to fall into bad habits, and unconscious of the dominion of such habits, no mode of acting on them can be given up, but that while you may appeal to the generous feelings, and innate love of truth and right in some, you must appeal to the fears of others. If this is not done, the few who can only be kept in restraint by this curb, will be vicious and disorderly, and their example and impunity may draw many of the well disposed into the same vortex; and though they did not, they would be sufficient to disturb the tranquillity and order that are so essential in such a place, and destroy its good name.

The consequences of this error were serious, and well nigh proved destructive to the early prosperity of the institution. Nightly disorders were habitual with the students, until passing from step to step, they reached a point of riot and excess, to which the forbearance of the professors could no longer extend, when the students considered their rights violated, and openly resisted the authority of the faculty. This happened in October, immediately before the annual meeting of the visiters. The subject was laid before them by the faculty. More deep mortification, more poignant distress, could not be felt than was experienced by Mr. Jefferson. The following day he came down with the other visiters from Monticello, which was their headquarters, summoned the students into their presence, and they were addressed in short speeches by himself, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Chapman Johnson. The object of these addresses was not merely to produce in the young men a disposition to obey the laws and return to their studies, but to induce the principal rioters to give up their names. The address of these men-the two first venerable by their years, their services, and their authority-could not be resisted. The offenders came forward,

one by one, and confessed their agency. Among those who thus almost redeemed their past error, by this manly course, was one of his own nephews. The shock which Mr. Jefferson felt when he for the first time discovered that the efforts of the last ten years of his life had been foiled and put in jeopardy by one of his family, was more than his own patience could endure, and he could not forbear from using, for the first time, the language of indignation and reproach. Some of the offenders, among whom was his nephew, were expelled by the faculty; and others were more lightly punished. Their offensive memorial was withdrawn, the exercises of the university were resumed, and under a system liberal without being lax, a degree of order and regularity has been progressively increasing, and is supposed to be now nowhere exceeded.

During the presidential canvass of the year before, though Mr. Jefferson was understood to concur with Virginia in favour of Mr. Crawford, yet, when the contest was narrowed down to Mr. Adams and General Jackson, he seemed to have taken no part, and after it was decided in favour of Mr. Adams, to have acquiesced in silence if not with satisfaction, until the first communication from the new president to Congress. The doctrines which were then avowed in favour of the powers of Congress, especially on the debateable ground of the right to make national roads and canals, alarmed and roused the friends of state rights in Virginia. This accession of strength to an opposition, already considerable, afforded a ready pretext to others for flocking to its standard.

As Mr. Jefferson had always favoured a strict construction of the constitution, and pronounced this power not only unconstitutional, but, without new guards against abuses, highly dangerous and mischievous, he was one of the first to feel dissatisfaction at the claims of power then asserted for the general government by the president. With these feelings, he soon after the president's message in 1825, (December 24th,) wrote to Mr. Madison on the subject, which he thus introduces: "I have for some time considered the question of internal improvement as desperate. The torrent of general opinion sets so VOL. II.-61