of ruling the majority, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price inust be principle. It is true that the federalists, needing their numbers also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they must pay in. Thus a bastard system of federo-republicanism will rise on the ruins of the true principles of our revolution. And when this party is formed, who will constitute the majority of it, which majority is then to dictate? Certainly the federalists. Thus their proposition of putting themselves into gear with the republican minority, is exactly like Roger Sherman's proposition to add Connecticut to Rhode Island. The idea of forming seven Eastern States is moreover clearly to form the basis of a separation of the Union. Is it possible that real republicans can be gulled by such a bait ? And. for what? What do they wish, that they have not? Federal measures? That is impossible. Republican measures? Have they them not? Can any one deny, that in all important questions of principle, republicanism prevails? But do they want that their individual will shall govern the majority? They may purchase the gratification of this unjust wish, for a little time, at a great price; but the federalists must not have the passions of other men, if, after getting thus into the seat of power, they suffer themselves to be governed by their minority. This minority may say, that whenever they relapse into their own principles, they will quit them, and draw the seat from under them. They may quit them, indeed, but, in the mean time, all the venal will have become associated with them, and will give them a majority sufficient to keep them in place, and to enable them to eject the heterogeneous friends by whose aid they got again into power. I cannot believe any portion of real republicans will enter into this trap; and if they do, I do not believe they can carry with them the mass of their States, advancing so steadily as we see them, to an union of principle with their brethren. It will be found in this, as in all other similar cases, that crooked schemes will end by overwhelming their authors and coadjutors in disgrace, and that he alone who walks strict and upright, and who in matters of opinion will be contented that others should be as free as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly overruled, will attain his object in the end. And that this may be the conduct of us all, I offer my sincere prayers, as well as for your health and happiness."

"To Doctor LOGAN." I see with infinite pain the bloody schism which has taken place among our friends in Pennsylvania and New York, and will probably take place in other States. The main body of both sections mean well, but their good intentions will produce great public evil. The minority, whichever section shall be the minority, will end in coalition with the federalists, and some comprom ise of principle; because these will not sell their aid for nothing. Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism gain, some portion of that

ར་

ground which we thought we had rescued to good government. I
do not express my sense of our misfortunes from any idea that they
are remediable. I know that the passions of men will take their
course, that they are not to be controlled but by despotism, and that
this melancholy truth is the pretext for despotism. The duty of an
upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know noth-
ing of these family dissensions, and to cherish the good principles of
both parties. The war ad internecionem which we have waged
against federalism, has filled our latter times with strife and unhap-
piness. We have met it, with pain indeed, but with firmness, be-
cause we believed it the last convulsive effort of that Hydra, which
in earlier times we had conquered in the field. But if any degener-
acy of principle should ever render it necessary to give ascendency to
one of the rising sections (of republicans) over the other, I thank my
God it will fall to some other to perform that operation. The only
cordial I wish to carry into my retirement, is the undivided good will
of all those with whom I have acted."

It had been Mr. Jefferson's fixed intention, from the moment of
his entering office, to have retired from the government at the ex-
piration of his first term; and he continued to indulge the pleasing
anticipation until the ultimate point of time allowed him for a decis-
ion. But the unmitigable pertinacity of the opposition, which was
now developing itself in threatening forms, in those inchoate divis-
ions among the republicans in some States, which, by opening the
question of a successor, their own folly and the machinations of the
enemy would find scope and opportunity to consummate, forced his
continuance in power another term, for the public good; and the
multitude of defamatory imputations, on which he had been solemn-
ly arraigned before the world, required him to appeal once more to
the tribunal of public opinion, for his own honor. "I sincerely re-
gret," he wrote to a friend in Massachusetts, "that the unbounded
calumnies of the federal party have obliged me to throw myself on
the verdict of my country for trial, my great desire having been to
retire at the end of the present term, to a life of tranquillity; and it
was my decided purpose when I entered into office. They force my
continuance. If we can keep the vessel of State as steadily in her
course for another four years, my earthly purposes will be accom-
plished, and I shall be free to enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my
farm, and my books."

The President entertained no doubt of receiving a triumphant justification at the hands of his grateful countrymen. The affairs

1

of the nation were progressing in an unparalleled train of prosperity, internal and external. During the four years of the preceding administration, the national debt had increased about four millions of dollars, accompanied by excessive loans, on an usurious interest. During the three and a half years of Mr. Jefferson's administration, he had extinguished more than thirteen and a half millions of the principal of the public debt, with a greater sum of interest! which was a nett gain, by the republican change, of seventeen and a half millions, or two and a half millions more than the whole purchase money of Louisiana! and, proceeding in the same ratio, he would have discharged the whole national debt in twelve years more. That done, the annual revenue, which was now thirteen millions, and would then be twenty-five, would defray the expenses of any war we might be forced into, without recurrence to new taxes or loans. This great and fast increasing revenue, which had enabled the executive to double the original possessions of the United States, to extinguish the native title to a boundless extent of soil within their limits, to discharge the current expenses of the government, and to appropriate, by a fixed and permanent law, eight millions of dollars annually, to the extinguishment of the public debt-the whole of this revenue was derived from the consumption of foreign luxuries, by those who could afford to add them to domestic comforts. No farmer, no mechanic, no laborer ever saw a tax-gatherer of the United States; nor was there any borrowing of money. The fruits of this golden era of the republic, were a commerce more extended, in proportion to our population, and an industry more productive, than the United States have enjoyed at any other period, before or since. Republicanism was re-established in all its ancient vigor, five sixths of the people being cordially aggregated in its support. In such a state of things, it was scarcely in human nature to desire a change of administration, or to conceive its practicability.

Though conducted with great animosity, the contest hardly deserved the name of one, so overwhelming was the majority in favor of the existing order of things. Mr. Jefferson was re-elected by a vote of one hundred and sixty-two against fourteen. The only States which voted for his opponent, Pinckney, were Connecticut and Delaware, with two districts in Maryland. George Clinton was elected Vice President by the same majority over Rufus King. The amendment of the Constitution, which in the mean time had

taken place, debared the minority from an attempt of the scandalous
scenes of February, 1801. The unanimity of the vote on the pre
sent occasion, while it pronounced an incomparable judgment of ap-
probation on the character of the administration, is really unexam-
pled in the history of the United States, considering the circum-
stances of the times. The vote subsequently given to Mr. Monroe,
though more nearly unanimous, was much less extraordinary.
The latter vote was given in a season of dead calm; the former,
amid the raging fury of the tempest. Every other Chief Magistrate,
also, except General Jackson, has rode into office on the same tide of
opinion that sustained his predecessor. They alone on an opposing
one; and in four years Mr. Jefferson amalgamated both currents in
his favor, in defiance of every obstruction which the ingenuity of
man could devise.

On the 4th of March, 1805, Mr. Jefferson re-entered upon the
duties of the Chief Magistracy, for another term. The same ab-
sence of all parade and ostentation, which characterized the former
inauguration, was rigorously observed on the present occasion. As
the first inaugural address of the restorer of republican government,
had been appropriately all promise and profession, so the second was
triumphantly all performance, being a modest recapitulation, in
very succinct form, of the prominent transactions of his administra-
tion, in pursuance of the principles which he had inculcated from
the beginning. How rarely does it happen to civil rulers to exhibit
a faithful exemplification in office, of the professions which carried
them into it! And what an unanswerable commentary does this
rare occurrence pronounce, on the honesty and conscientious devo-
tion to principle of the republican party of the United States. For
the first time, perhaps, in the history of the world, was seen a body
of men raised to power, steadily and scrupulously abiding by the
principles they had professed during their exclusion; and, in self-
denying obedience to this purpose, laboring to diminish the amount
of patronage and influence, which they received from their predeces-

sors.

To the general character above stated of the second inaugural address of the President, there were two exceptions, in which additional principles were inculcated. The crusade preached against

* Warden's History of the United States.

philosophy by the disciples of steady habits, at that era, induced him to dwell at considerable length in illustrating its effects with the Indians. The craft and influence of these seditious intruders, operating upon the prejudices and ignorance of the Indians, had always embarrassed the general government in its efforts to change their pursuits, and ameliorate their unhappy condition. "These persons," said he, "inculcate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their ancestors; that whatsoever they did must be done through all time; that reason is a false guide, and to advance under its council in their physical, moral, or political condition, is perilous innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety, and knowledge full of danger; in short, my friends, among them is seen the action and counteraction of good sense and bigotry; they too, have their antiphilosophers, who find an interest in keeping things in their present state, who dread reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the ascendency of habit over the duty of improving our reason and obeying its mandates.”

The other exception abovementioned, in which new principles were advanced, regarded the appropriation of the surplus revenue of the nation, after the final redemption of the public debt. The epoch being not far distant, when that propitious event might be safely calculated to happen, the President thought it a fit occasion to suggest his views on the most eligible arrangement and disposal of the public contributions, upon the basis which would then be presented. Should the impost duties be suppressed, and that advantage given to foreign over domestic manufactures? Should they be diminished, and upon what principles? Or should they be continued, and applied to the purposes of internal improvement, education &c.? were questions which he submitted to the consideration of the people, and subsequently urged upon the attention of the Legislature in his official communications. They are questions which agitate the present authorities of the government, to a peculiar degree, and are becoming extremely interesting to the nation. The President did not hesitate to recommend, that the revenue, when liberated by the redemption of the public debt, should, by a just repartition among the States, and a corresponding amendment of the constitution, be applied, in time of peace, to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects of pub