the name of "Illumination;" while republicanism, which is the establishment and protection of equal rights by equal laws, was sought to be founded upon the ruins of every source of authority and social stability, whether human or divine. That such chimeras should have been ever bred from the wildest fermentations of thought, and received existence so palpable and prominent, as to have commanded the assent and affected the conduct of a large portion of civilized mankind, is perhaps the most surprising among those social phenomena which perplex the wisest and alarm the bravest. Yet the attentive reader of our history will be convinced that they had so infected our country, that nothing less than the character of Washington, consecrated as it was in the affections of the people, and the strength of the federal government, vigorous from his hand and popular from his virtues, could have resisted the frenzy of the time. The candid inquirer will be satisfied that it was necessary to strain every conservative power of that government to preserve it, and the great interests it protected, from the gravest disaster; and that those who administered it, so far from being fired with the ambitious hope of enlarging its capacities and increasing their legitimate authority, were struggling, and trembling while they struggled, for the existence of both. The result of them was that which has attended too many of the best and purest efforts of patriots, public odium instead of eternal gratitude. But they found a very ample reward for sacrificing themselves, in having saved their country. They brought the constitution safe through the conflict, though, unfortunately, somewhat infected with the odium which was cast upon its champions. The charge that "the great result of our revolution" (as the constitution has been happily called) was only a mitigated form of the British monarchy, designed by its framers ultimately to assume all its attributes, then first gained ground in the popular belief, and was a necessary step in attempting to prove that those who then administered it were monarchists in principle, and were preparing to erect a throne upon the ruins of the republic. As these treasonable imputations were fastened upon the framers of the constitution, it was natural that suspicions should attach to the soundness of their great work; and to this day the same persons who impute to the old federalists monarchical designs, attack the constitution as calculated to have facilitated them. It was, therefore, not only to relieve those good and great men from the unjust imputations cast upon their memory, which has animated me through the irksome labour of my humble share in this publication-I have hoped, that when they shall be no longer regarded as having been monarchists in principle, their greatest work will not be looked on as the offspring and fit instrument of monarchical designs; and that the vindication of their characters will inure to the benefit of the constitution. It is to be hoped, that when the public mind shall have escaped from that discreditable state of gross delusion which permits the most frivolous pretences and preposterous fictions to pass for proofs of monarchical principles and treasonable designs in the pure and patriotic bosoms of the sages and heroes of the revolution, it will so far recover its tone and shake off its disposition to be duped, as not to suffer itself to be insulted by the miserable sophistries which have so long been current, (in the language of Washington,) "to explain away the constitution." It is to bring about the latter result which is really important. For, as to those "Solomons in council and Samsons in the field," who have deserved so much gratitude, and been paid with so much reproach, their misfortunes and persecutions will only serve to enrich the story of their lives, when they shall become the subjects of faithful history and the theme of epic song. These will furnish an Odyssey of woes and wanderings to the Iliad of their revolutionary wars. "But if on life's uncertain main If faithful, wise and brave, in vain, Beneath the fickle gale, Spend not a sigh on fortune changed."— These lines are singularly descriptive of the fate of many of them, and of the temper with which they bore it. And if they would find, in the bright portions of their lives, compensation for the dark ones; and in the nobleness of their natures, support against the cruelty of their fortunes, it is not for us, who love them, to deprecate the latter, which was necessary to the full development of the former. For if, according to what Lord Bacon calls that "high speech of Seneca, after the manner of the stoics," the good things of prosperity be merely desirable, while those of adversity are admirable, it is better for the dead, whose heritage is fame, to have achieved the latter. And we are taught by their example, instead of murmuring at their misfortunes, to turn them into blessings, by making them the means of lifting our meditations to those high and halcyon places of thought and sentiment which are above the storms of the world. But I have digressed from the purpose of this Introduction, which was designed to be merely an appropriate vestibule to the theatre of controversy which the reader is now to enter. That it was forced upon the sons of General Lee, I have heard nobody deny, though some have deprecated the acrimony with which it was conducted by the author of this work. His reply to such objections was, that as the provocation was infinite, his severity could not be excessive. Whoever shall make the experiment, will find that it is not easy to feel deeply and write calmly; nor is it a wholesome state of public sentiment or taste which demands a suppression of indignation upon occasions which ought to excite it. To regret the cause of this controversy and some of its effects was permitted to the friends and family of General Lee; and is as becomingly expressed in the following pages, as I know it was sincerely felt by their author, and is now entertained by their editor. But I hope there is nothing in this work which will incur the deliberate censure of those whom experience of like injuries, or reflection upon them, has taught how to appreciate the feelings of a son at witnessing an unprovoked outrage upon the memory of his father; but that they will rather receive it with that acclaim, which I know it was hailed with by some, whom similar inflictions made companions in our sufferings. "Socii magno clamore sequuntur Dum genitor nati parma protectus abiret." From his companions loud the clamour rose, RAVENSWORTH, Fairfax County, Va. OBSERVATIONS ON THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. LETTER I. I HAVE read, my dear sir, with great regret, in Jefferson's "Writings" (v. 3, p. 330,) the following letter from that gentleman to General Washington; which contains, as I conceive, a gross and unprovoked slander on the character of my father, and which, as I design to make it the subject of examination, is transcribed here without alteration or curtailment. TO THE PRESIDENT. Monticello, June 19th, 1796. "In Bache's Aurora of the 9th instant, which came here by the last post, a paper appears which having been confided, as I presume, to but few hands, makes it truly wonderful how it should have got there. I cannot be satisfied as to my own part, till I relieve my mind by declaring, and I attest every thing sacred and honourable to the declaration, that it has got there neither through me nor the paper confided to me. This has never been from under my own lock and key, or out of my own hands; no mortal ever knew from me that these questions had been proposed. Perhaps I ought to except one person, who possesses all my confidence, as he has possessed yours. I do not remember indeed that I communicated it even to him. But as I was in the habit of unlimited trust and counsel with him, it is possible I may have read it to him, no more: for the quire of which it makes a part was never in any hand but my own, nor was a word ever copied or taken down from it by any body. I take on myself without fear, any divulgation on his part. We both know him incapable of it. From myself then, or my paper, |