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into it slightly, then shut it, and said I would accept his permission to read it, and would carefully return it. He said, 'No, keep it.' Not certain of his meaning, I again looked into it, folded it for my pocket, and said again, I would certainly return it. No,' said he, 'keep it.' I put it into my pocket, and, shortly after, took leave of him. He died on the 17th of the ensuing month of April; and as I understood that he had bequeathed all his papers to his grandson, William Temple Franklin, I immediately wrote to Mr. Franklin, to inform him I possessed this paper, which I should consider as his property, and would deliver to his order. He came on immediately to New York, and called on me for it, and I delivered it to him. As he put it into his pocket, he said carelessly, he had either the original or another copy of it, I do not recollect which. This last expression struck my attention forcibly, and for the first time suggested to me the thought that Dr. Franklin had meant it as a confidential deposite in my hands, and that I had done wrong in parting from it. I have not yet seen the collection he published of Dr. Franklin's works, and therefore know not if this is among them. I have been told it is not. It contained a narrative of the negotiations between Dr. Franklin and the British ministry when he was endeavouring to prevent the contest of arms which followed. The negotiation was brought about by the intervention of Lord Howe and his sister, who, I believe, was called Lady Howe, but I may misremember her title. Lord Howe seems to have been friendly to America, and exceedingly anxious to prevent a rupture. His intimacy with Dr. Franklin, and his position with the

ministry, induced him to undertake a mediation between them, in which his sister seemed to have been associated. They carried from one to the other, backwards and forwards, the several propositions and answers which passed, and seconded with their own intercessions, the importance of mutual sacrifices, to preserve the peace and connexion of the two countries. I remember that Lord North's answers were dry, unyielding, in the spirit of unconditional submission, and betrayed an absolute indifference to the occurrences of a rupture; and he said to the mediators distinctly, at last, that a rebellion was not to be deprecated on the part of Great Britain; that the confiscations it would produce, would provide for many of their friends.'This expression was reported by the mediators to Dr. Franklin, and indicated so cool and calculative a purpose in the ministry, as to render compromise hopeless, and the negotiation was discontinued. If this is not among the papers published, we ask, what has become of it? I delivered it with my own hands into those of Temple Franklin. It certainly established views so atrocious in the British government, that its suppression would, to them, be worth a great price. But could the grandson of Dr. Franklin be, in such degree, an accomplice in the parricide of the memory of his immortal grandfather? The suspension, for more than twenty years, of the general publication, bequeathed and confided to him, produced for a while hard suspicions against him; and if, at last, all are not published, a part of these suspicions may remain with some."

Mr. Jefferson arrived at New York on the 21st of March, where Congress was in session.

Mr. Jefferson was thus placed at the head of the department of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Hamilton at the head of the Treasury, and Mr. Knox was made Secretary of the War Department; John Jay was appointed Chief Justice; John Rutledge, James Wilson, William Cushing, Robert H. Harrison, and John Blair, Associate Judges of the Supreme Court; and Edmund Randolph, Attorney General. Nicholas Eveleigh was appointed Comptroller; Oliver Wolcott, Auditor; and Joseph Nourse, Register.

Of all the offices under the government of the United States, says one well qualified to give an opinion, there is no one which calls for the exercise of such various abilities, such extensive knowledge of laws and facts, such prompt decision on questions involving principles of the highest political import, as the department of state and in proportion to the infancy of the office itself, and the new and peculiar situation of the government, was the difficulty of the task assumed by Mr. Jefferson. The subsequent events of his political life have been tinged by the hue of party, and perhaps the time has not arrived when we can view them with strict impartiality, and weigh the policy of his measures, without dwelling too much on circumstances merely temporary or local. But all unite in the candid acknowledgment that the duties of this station were performed with a prudence, intelligence, and zeal honourable to himself, and useful to his country. In the intercourse with foreign nations, the laws of a strict neutrality, at a period of peculiar difficulty, were maintained with unyielding firmness and consummate abil. ity; the dignity of the nation was remembered and

supported; and the interests of the citizens were cherished and protected. At home, he turned his attention to objects of a minuter character, but of equal importance; he laid before Congress, from time to time, reports on various branches of domestick policy, which displayed at once the extent and variety of his genius, the depth of his information, and the zeal with which he applied them both to the peculiar duties of his situation. It has been observed, that these papers evince not only the feelings of a patriot, and the judgement of an accomplished statesman, but display at the same time, uncommon talents and knowledge as a mathematician and natural philosopher, the deepest research as a historian, and an enlarged and intimate acquaintance with the business and concerns of a merchant.

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The national legislature, during its first session, was principally occupied in providing revenues for the long exhausted treasury, in establishing a judiciary, in organizing the executive departments in detail, and in framing amendments to the constitution, agreeably to the suggestion of the President. The members imme-. diately entered upon the exercise of those powers so long refused under the old system of general government. They imposed a tunnage duty, as well as duties on various imported articles. In the exercise of these powers, they did not lose sight of the navigating interest of their country, which had so long been at the mercy of other nations.

We have always deemed it the peculiar charity of Heaven, is the remark of a distinguished writer, that, at this time, such a man as George Washington was given to fill the high and novel station of first magis

trate of the Union. One of different talents, one less endowed with exalted and uncommon qualities, one who was merely respected as a citizen, or known merely as a statesman of routine, in short, one who was not venerated as a father, would have brought to the first operations of this new and complicated gov ernment, nothing to enforce it beyond its own intrinsick merits. It would have been less impressive and efficient; and although republican principles and habits would undoubtedly have carried it through, yet it would have been coldly, and sometimes reluctantly adopted. The slow progress which it would then have made, the opposition which, at times, would probably have been presented by state administrations, feeling themselves somewhat shorn of their power, were prevented by the overbearing but unassuming influence of a name which memory ever found prominent in military recollections, and always safe in civil and domestick action.

Nor is it at all inconsistent with republicanism, that among men all politically equal, publick preference should accompany those who are the most meritorious.. There cannot be an agrarian law of the mind. Talent and virtue must ascend, and must acquire the confidence and trust of the community. But is there no danger? May not confidence and trust be carried too far? The answer is found in a written constitution, full of checks and balances; and we may confidently throw into the scale the moderation and good sense of our citizens. Compare this country with all we know of other countries-the North American republick with every other republick-the petty, rancorous de

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