provoked, nor exercised. The king would have gone hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age, wished only, with the same pace, to advance the principles of their social constitution. The deed which closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to say, that the first magistrate of a nation cannot commit treason against his country, or is unamenable to its punishment: nor yet, that where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in our hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and redressing wrong. Of those who judged the king, many thought him wilfully criminal; many, that his existence would keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde of kings, who would war against a regeneration which might come home to themselves, and that it were better that one should die than all. I should not have voted with this portion of the legislature. I should have shut up the queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, and placed the king in his station, investing him with limited powers, which, I verily believe, he would have honestly exercised, according to the measure of his understanding. In this way, no void would have been created, courting the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor occasion given for those enormities which demoralized the nations of the world, and destroyed, and is yet to destroy, millions and millions of its inhabitants."

Mr Jefferson had been more than a year soliciting leave to return to America, with a view to place his daughters in the society of their friends, to attend to some domestic arrangements of pressing moment, and to resume his station for a short time, at Paris; but it was not until the last of August that he received the permission desired.

The generous tribute which he has paid to the French nation, at this point in his auto-biographical notes, discloses the state of feeling with which he quitted a country, where he had passed so various and useful a portion of his public life.

And here I cannot leave this great and good country, without expressing my sense of its pre-eminence of character among the nations of the earth. A more benevolent people I have never known, nor greater warmth and devotedness in their select friendships. Their kindness and accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, and the hospitality of Paris is beyond any thing I had conceived to be practicable in a large city. Their eminence, too, in science, the communicative dispositions of their scientific men, the politeness of the general manners, the ease and vivacity of their conversation, give a charm to their society, to be found no where else. In a comparison of this with other countries, we have the proof of primacy, which was given to Themistocles after the battle of Salamis. Every general voted to himself the first reward of valor, and the second to Themistocles. So, ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on earth would you rather live? Certainly, in my own, where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France.'

On the 26th of September, 1789, Mr Jefferson left Paris for America. He was detained at Havre by contrary winds, until the 8th of October, when he crossed over to Cowes, where he was again detained by contrary winds, until the 22d, when he embarked and landed at Norfolk, Virginia, on the 23d of November. On his way to Monticello he passed some days at Eppington, in Chesterfield county, the residence of his friend and connection, Mr Eppes; and while there he received a letter from the president, General Washington, by express, covering an appointment of secretary of State to the new government. Gratifying as was this high testimonial of his public estimation, the highest in the power of the president to confer, he nevertheless received it with real regret. His wish had been to return to Paris, where he had left his household establishment, to see the end of the revolution, which he then thought would

be certainly and happily closed in less than a year, and to make that the epoch of his retirement from all public employments. I then meant,' says he, 'to return home, to withdraw from political life, into which I had been impressed by the circumstances of the times, to sink into the bosom of my family and friends, and devote myself to studies more congenial to my mind.' In a letter to Mr Madison, a short time before leaving Paris, he writes: You ask me if I would accept any appointment on that side of the water? You know the circumstances which led me from retirement, step by step, and from one nomination to another, up to the present. My object is a return to the same retirement. When, therefore, I quit the present, it will not be to engage in any other office, and most especially any one which would require a constant residence from home.' In a letter to another friend in Virginia, the same sentiment is pursued: Your letter has kindled all the fond recollections of ancient times; recollections much dearer to me than any thing I have known since. There are minds which can be pleased by honors and preferments; but I see nothing in them but envy and enmity. It is only necessary to possess them, to know how little they contribute to happiness, or rather how hostile they are to it. No attachments soothe the mind so much as those contracted in early life; nor do I recollect any societies which have given me more pleasure, than those of which you have partaken with me. I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family, and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.'

In his answer to the president, under date of December 15th, he expressed these dispositions frankly, and his preference of a return to Paris; but assured him at the same time, that if it was believed he could be more

useful in the administration of the government, he would sacrifice his own inclinations without hesitation, and repair to that destination. He arrived at Monticello, on the 23d of December, where he received a second letter from the president, expressing his continued wishes that he would accept the department of State, if not absolutely irreconcilable with his inclinations. This silenced his reluctance, and he accepted the new appointment. He left Monticello on the 1st of March, 1790, arrived at New-York, the then seat of government, on the 21st, and immediately entered on the duties of his station.

In the short interval which he passed at Monticello, his eldest daughter was married to Thomas M. Randolph, eldest son of the Tuckahoe branch of Randolphs, who afterwards filled a dignified station in the general government, and, at length, the executive chair of Virginia for a number of years.

CHAPTER X.

The new system had
George Washington

MR JEFFERSON's arrival at the seat of government, in the character of secretary of State, completed the organization of the first administration under the present constitution of the United States. been in operation about one year. had been unanimously elected president, and inaugurated on the 30th of April, 1789. John Adams was vice president; Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury; Henry Knox, secretary of war; and Edmund Randolph, attorney general.

Of this cabinet, Alexander Hamilton was enjoying the unlimited confidence of the president; and acquired a preponderating influence in directing the measures of the administration. But his political opinions, with such advantages of personal ascendency, rendered him perhaps a dangerous minister at this crisis of our present government. The political character of the secretary of the treasury, is drawn with a discriminating hand by Mr Jefferson, in his private memoranda of that period.

'A conversation began on other matters, by some circumstance, was led to the British Constitution, on which Mr Adams observed, " Purge that constitution of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of representation, and it would be the most perfect constitution ever devised by the wit of man." Hamilton paused and said, "Purge it of its corruption, and give to its