"precedent bring their case within the same measure. "Have they, as in this case, devoted three score years and

one of their lives, to the service of their country? Has the "share they have borne in holding their new government "to its genuine principles been equally marked?"

What pretension can Mr. Jefferson have to say, that he did this? The original founders of this new government intended to bring, and did bring, the people of the United States into a national Union: To secure to them the services of the most able and virtuous among them, in maintaining peace, commerce, and friendly intercourse with all nations; to prepare for defence against foreign insult and aggression, and to resist and resent, when national honor demanded that course; to promote internal commerce, and to keep the sovereign members of the Union in peace and amity with each other; to give to domestic ingenuity and enterprise their fair competition with other nations; to assuage and compromise the jealousies and differences, which might be expected, from the expanding and unfolding of the powers of a great and increasing people. This intention was fully accomplished accomplished to the surprise and envy of the elder world; and if Thomas Jefferson had never lived, it is believed that this substantial and beautiful reality would not have been dissipated.

He came into this new government, and by means which he has fully disclosed; and there he ruled, and reigned, by the magic of his PEN. Passing over his disastrous policy with foreign nations; the oppressions, losses, and sufferings which he inflicted on his countrymen; grievous as these were, they are all nothing to that grievous wound which he gave to this "new government," and which seems likely to prove a mortal one.

Mr. Jefferson drew the line between rich and poor, in a republic where family influence is unknown, where inheritance depends on equal distribution, where wealth depends

on industry and talents, and where the poor man's son is far more likely to attain to office and honor, than the sons of the rich. Mr. Jefferson organized the elements which make up that monster-PARTY; he invited apostacy; he established the odious doctrine of "rewards and punishments;" he made devotion to the MAN, not to the CONSTITUTION, the passport to office; he taught the "people" (as he calls them) to sacrifice to personal feuds and jealousies, their respect for the institutions of their country. It was he who misled and debased the public mind, and who converted honorable and patriotic service, in a free republic, into a low, selfish, and dishonest struggle for office. He led the way to popular despotism. The perils, sufferings, and dread of the present hour, are all from his impulse.

That which is most to be lamented in all this, is his sincerity; his real belief that all was right; that all he did was truly patriotic; and that he is richly entitled to his reward in the respect and gratitude of all succeeding generations. That which is truly disheartening to the friends of the constitution, of the Union, and of rational republican liberty, is, that there are so many intelligent and respectable men in the United States, who conscientiously believe, to this day, in "the great and good" Mr. Jefferson. But his glories are fading in the brilliancy of the "GREATEST and BEST," the rightful successor in the line, of which Jefferson was the FIRST.

LETTER LV.

NOVEMBER 20, 1833.

MR. JEFFERSON found the United States, in 1801, at peace and in amity with all Europe; in the enjoyment of a secure and prosperous commerce; with a respectable navy;

He

a sound credit; a learned and independent judiciary. found, it is true, some increase of debt for money honorably and profitably expended, but which was insignificant, and hardly to be felt under the effect of Alexander Hamilton's system of finance. He left the United States embroiled with England; more so with France; he had demolished the navy, and the judiciary, so far as he had power to do it; he had banished the flag of the United States from the ocean; he had cost the people in actual, but useless expenditure, and by unwise restrictions on commerce, an immense sum, which he estimated, merely as to exports for one year of the embargo, at fifty millions. The nation were probably one hundred millions the worse for Mr. Jefferson's philosophy, and statesmanship. There is not the least doubt that if there had been a federal administration, instead of that of Thomas Jefferson, during his eight years, the people of the United States would have gained and saved, together, a sum equal to the cost of the revolutionary war. But he had slain federalism, and this he distinguishes as the chief trophy of his political career.

What a difference would it have made to the people of this country if Mr. Jefferson's successor had been an able, faithful, constitutional President of the United States, and not the mere chief of a vindictive and deluded party! Such a President, it is to be feared, the people of this country are never again to see. If they do not, it will be for the reason that Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison have been in the place of President.

Mr. Madison was a wiser, and a better man, than Mr. Jefferson. He had done himself an honor for which his countrymen should still be grateful, in forming, recommending, and sustaining the constitution, jointly with Jay and Hamilton, against its irreconcilable opponents. He was not mean and malignant, like Jefferson. He was well informed; an able debater; a good writer; a man of comprehensive and

useful mind. There is nothing in the life of Mr. Madison to show that he was not an honorable man. It was his misfortune to have adopted all the notions of Mr. Jefferson, as to France and England, and to have carried these fully into his administration. How far he acted in pursuance of his own judgment, and how far he yielded to the counsels of party, will never be known. This gentleman, it may be supposed, will not order the publication of his confidential letters, and of his "Anas," when he is dead. He will leave history to do its duty. It will do this, no doubt, impartially; and though it may not commend his measures as a statesman, and public agent, it will not disgrace him as a man. The first indication of Mr. Madison's devotion to Jeffersonism, is found in his resolutions presented to the House of Representatives, in January, 1794, to carry into effect Mr. Jefferson's report, as Secretary of State, dated in the preceding month. The object of these resolutions is supposed to have been to withdraw the commerce of the United States from England, and to bestow it on France. From this time till the close of Mr. Madison's public life, on the 4th of March, 1817, he faithfully pursued the Jeffersonian policy of strengthening France, and prostrating England, and of breaking down federalism. In all this he was another Jefferson. It ought not to be doubted that Mr. Madison was honest in all this, however unfortunate it may have been for his country. But this inference is to be drawn, that a mere partisan may become so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of party, as to be incapable of receiving any sentiment of an exalted and patriotic duty to a whole community. To every thing British, Mr. Madison seems to have entertained a decided and unchangeable hostility. He associated all political opposition with his British enmity. The correlative of this was devotion to France. This devotion, equally manifested throughout the changes in that country, from the terrible misrule of democracy to the tranquillity of no

less terrible despotism, in the person of imperial Napoleon, could have had no other prompting than the utility of prostrating or humbling tyrannical England.

One would like to know whether Mr. Madison, in his retirement, and retrospection, retains the belief that he governed wisely. Credit may be safely given to him for believing that he did what he thought was right. He might justify himself by insisting that he did not foresee, any more than others did, the conflagration of Moscow; the flight of Napoleon; his fall from the throne; and his exile to St. Helena. That he did not foresee, any more than others did, that exasperated England, freed from European war, could direct all her forces to our own shores. Will this excuse Mr. Madison, as a patriotic and discerning statesman, from not foreseeing, that if Napoleon had been as successful as Mr. Madison seems to have desired he should be, that the freedom and independence of this country would have depended on a tremendous and appalling struggle with the same Napoleon? Was there nothing in the conduct, declarations, and character of Napoleon, to warn him of this? How is Mr. Madison to excuse himself for this defect in foresight? His excuse lies in the terrifying fact, that ever since Mr. Jefferson's ascendency, this country has passed over, bound in fetters never to be broken, to the dominion of party. The principles of federalism were nothing more nor less than a faithful, able, and honest administration of national and state authority. These principles must always exist, and have effect, while a free republic continues. They may be known under various names, but in substance and effect, they must ever be the same. Yet all who profess them, by whatever party name distinguished, are condemned by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, to the odium of opposition. All the sound constitutional principles of federalism, by whatsoever name they may be hereafter known, must struggle for existence, against the corrupt and demoralizing influences of party.