E 332 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, By LILLY, WAIT, COLMAN, & HOLDEN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE. THE materials for this volume are principally derived from the posthumous works of Mr Jefferson himself. These works were received with extraordinary approbation by one great portion of the public, as was the case indeed with every thing which ever came from that remarkable man; and by another considerable portion, with a corresponding degree of dissatisfaction, always to be expected from the well known opinions of the Author on certain fundamental points, upon which a strongly marked division of public sentiment has prevailed, since the foundation of the federal government. These works extend through four large octavo volumes, of about 500 pages each; nearly the whole of which is occupied with the Correspondence of the Author, public and private. And taken as a whole, it comprises the richest auto-biographical deposit, and one of the most valuable publications ever presented to the world. It is written in a style of unrivalled felicity; and supplies the record of many important transactions connected with our government, of which no authentic memorials had been preserved. But it is in the light of a private revelation, making its disclosures from the inmost recesses of the mind and character of the man, that its most distinguishing excellence consists. We have here the ungarbled contents of the cabinet of the author, gradually accumulating through an era among the most momentous in the annals of the world, and in which he was himself a principal actor, and incessantly placed in the most trying situations which it afforded. This vast collection of letters, compiled from the unrevised manuscripts of the writer, thrown off on the spur of the occasion in the freedom of unrestrained confidence, and spreading over a period of fifty years, have opened the folding-doors to the character of Mr Jefferson, and introduced us into the sanctuary of his most secret meditations. They derive essential importance from the fact that at the time they were written, the author had no conception of their ever being made public. It would undoubtedly be a happy circumstance for this country, and for the mass of mankind, besides serving to enhance the reputation of the author, if these works could obtain a circulation which should place them in the hands of every reader; for if any thing could give stability to those principles, which form alike the basis of his renown, and the elements of the splendid structure of free government which he was instrumental in establishing, it would be such an extensive dissemination of his writings. Unfortunately, however, the form in which they have appeared, is not the most advantageous to the accomplishment of this desirable purpose. The publication is too voluminous, and consequently too expensive, to admit of a general circula tion; nor is the mode of arrangement the best adapted to its reception into ordinary use as a work of reference. These considerations have suggested the plan of the present undertaking, which aspires to no higher claims than that of an analytic, and, it is hoped, a well assorted generalization of the original publication. It has been the leading object of the compilation, to condense the most valuable substance of the four, within the compass of one volume, and to supply what are presumed to be essential wants of the former, by interweaving a connected narrative of the Author's Life. The more important political papers of Mr Jefferson, contained in the original works, have been copied into this, or their substance faithfully stated; and many others of importance, that have been procured from other sources, are likewise introduced. The selections from his private correspondence are dispersed through the volume with reference to the topic under consideration, more than to the order of time; and in making the quotations from this department, it has been the object to bring the greatest quantity of useful matter within the smallest space. Parts of letters, therefore, are usually introduced-rarely the whole of any one-but sufficient to give the full sense of the writer on any required point, avoiding all extraneous observations. The historical and biographical portions. of the work have also been derived, in great part, from this pregnant source. In some cases the very language of the author has been adopted, without invariably noting it with the usual mark of credit. In all such cases, however, the style or the sentiment will be sufficiently distinguishable to place it where it belongs. Some parts of the narrative may appear overwrought with eulogyIt is indeed a difficult matter to commemorate the deeds of so distinguished a benefactor of the human race, without yielding in some degree to the influence of a passion which they are so justly calculated to inspire; and the writer does not scruple to admit, that he has less endeavored to restrain his own grateful feelings, than to infuse them into the minds of his readers, |