public is new. Its sparse habitation is new. The mighty wave of public opinion which has rolled over it is new. But the most pleasing novelty is, its so quietly subsiding over such an extent of surface to its true level again. The order and good sense displayed in this recovery from delusion, and in the momentous crisis which lately arose, really bespeak a strength of character in our nation which augurs well for the duration of our republic: and I am much better satisfied now of its stability, than I was before it was tried. I have been above all things solaced by the prospect which opened on us, in the event of a non-election of a President; in which case, the federal government would have been in the situation of a clock or watch run down. There was no idea of force, nor of any occasion A convention, invited by the republican members of Congress with the virtual President and Vice-President, would have been on the ground in eight weeks, would have repaired the constitution where it was defective, and wound it up again. This peaceable and legitimate resource, to which we are in the habit of implicit obedience, superseding all appeal to force, and being always within our reach, shows a precious principle of self-preservation in our composition, till a change of circumstances shall take place, which is not within prospect at any definite period."

"I

To M. ROBINSON." I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 3d instant, and to thank you for the friendly expressions it contains. I entertain real hope that the whole body of your fellow citizens (many of whom had been carried away by the X. Y. Z. business) will shortly be consolidated in the same sentiments, When they examine the real principles of both parties, I think they will find little to differ about. I know, indeed, that there are some of their leaders who have so committed themselves, that pride, if no other passion, will prevent their coalescing. We must be easy with them. The Eastern States will be the last to come over on account of the dominion of the clergy, who had got a smell of union between Church and State, and began to indulge reveries which can never be realized in the present state of science. If, indeed, they could have prevailed on us to view all advances in science as dangerous innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of our forefathers, instead of looking forward, for improvement, a promising groundwork would have been laid. But I am in hopes their good sense will dictate to them, that since the mountain will not come to them, they had better go to the mountain: that they will find their interest in acquiescing in the liberty and science of their country, and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind."

To E. GERRY.- "What with the natural current of opinion which has been setting over to us for eighteen months, and the immense impetus which was given it from the 11th to the 17th of February, we may now say that the United States, from New York southwardly, are as unanimous in the principles of '76, as they were in '76. The only difference is, that the leaders who remain behind are more numerous and colder than the apostles of toryism in '76. The reason is, that we are now justly more tolerant than we could safely have been then, circumstanced as we were. Your part of the Union, though as absolutely republican as ours, had drunk deeper of the delusion, and is therefore slower in recovering from it. The ægis of government, and the temples of religion and of justice, have all been prostituted there to toll us back to the times when we burnt witches. But your people will rise again. They will awake like Samson from his sleep, and carry away the gates and the posts of the city. You, my friend, are destined, to rally them again under their former banners, and when called to the post, exercise it with firmness and with inflexible adherence to your own principles. The people will support you, notwithstanding the howlings of the ravenous crew from whose jaws they are escaping. It will be a great blessing to our country if we can once more restore harmony and social love among its citizens. I confess, as to myself, it is almost the first object of my heart, and one to which I would sacrifice every thing but principle. With the people I have hopes of effecting it. But their Coryphæi are incurables. I expect little from them.

all

"I was not deluded by the eulogiums of the public papers in the first moments of change. If they could have continued to get the loaves and fishes, that is, if I would have gone over to them, they would continue to eulogize. But I well knew that the moment that such removals should take place, as the justice of the preceding administration ought to have executed, their hue and cry would be set up, and they would take their old stand. I shall disregard that also. Mr. Adam's last appointments, when he knew he was naming counsellors and aids for me and not for himself, I set aside as far as depends on me. Officers who have been guilty of gross abuses of office, such as marshals packing juries, &c., I shall now remove, as my predecessor ought in justice to have done. The instances will be few, and governed by strict rule, and not party pas sion. The right of opinion shall suffer no invasion from me. Those who have acted well, have nothing to fear, however they may have differed from me in opinion: those who have done ill, however, have nothing to hope; nor shall I fail to do justice lest it should be ascribed to that difference of opinion. A coalition of sentiments is not for the interest of the printers. They, like the clergy, live by the zeal they can kindle, and the schisms they can create. It is contest of opinion in politics as well as religion which makes us take

great interest in them, and bestow our money liberally on those who furnish aliment to our appetite. The mild and simple principles of the Christian philosophy would produce too much calm, too much regularity of good, to extract from its disciples a support for a numerous priesthood, were they not to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it into hairs, and twist its texts till they cover the divine morality of its author with mysteries, and require a priesthood to explain them."

CHAPTER XIII.

The fourth of March, 1801, was a proud day to America. The first democratic President was inducted into office, with no other indications of solemnity, than the distant but overflowing tribute of millions of grateful hearts. The crowd of republican strangers who had thronged the city during the previous period of anxiety and agitation, had disappeared, on the understanding that it was the pleasure of the President to be made the subject of no homage or ceremony; and the vanquished party, of course, had no inclination to witness the consummation of a triumph, in which they could only participate with regret. The city of Washington had been occupied, as the seat of government, but a few months only; the number of its inhabitants, at this time, did not exceed that of a small village; the individuals composing the late administration had taken their flight, with the ex-President, early on the fourth of March; and now, divested of half its migratory population, the infant metropolis presented a solitary appearance. The wonderful simplicity of the scene and ceremony of the inauguration, is beautifully described by the Washington reminiscent, whom we have before quoted :"The sun shone bright on that morning. The Senate was convened. Those members of the republican party that remained at the seat of government, the Judges of the Supreme Court, some citizens and gentry from the neighboring country, and about a dozen ladies made up the assembly in the Senate chamber, who were collected to witness the ceremony of the President's inauguration. Mr. Jefferson had not yet arrived. He was seen walking from his lodgings, which were not far distant, attended by five or six gentlemen, who were his fellow lodgers. Soon afterwards he entered, accom

panied by a committee of the Senate, and bowing to the Senate, who arose to receive him, he approached a table on which the Bible lay and took the oath which was administered to him by the Chief Justice. He was then conducted, by the President of the Senate, to his chair, which stood on a platform raised some steps above the floor; after the pause of a moment or two he arose and delivered that beautiful inaugural address which has since become so popular and celebrated, with a clear, distinct voice, in a firm and modest mauner.-On leaving the chair he was surrounded by friends who pressed forward with cordial and eager congratulations, and some, though not many of the more magnanimous of his opponents, most of whom, however, silently left the chamber. The new President walked home with two or three of the gentlemen who lodged in the same house. At dinner he took his accustomed place at the bottom of the table, his new station not eliciting from his democratic friends any new attention or courtesy. A gentleman from Baltimore, an invited guest, who accidentally sat next to him, asked permission to wish him joy, 'I would advise you' answered Mr. Jefferson, smiling, to follow my example on nuptial occasions, when I always tell the bridegroom I will wait till the end of the year before offering my congratulations.' And this was the only and solitary instance of any notice taken of the event of the morning."

The inaugural address of Mr. Jefferson was as novel and extraordinary, as the simplicity of the scene which ushered it before the world. For condensation of ideas, and Addisonian purity of language, it is allowed to be superior to any thing in the wide circle of political composition. In the short compass in which it is compressed, all the essential principles of free governments are stated, in detail, with the measures best calculated for their attainment and security, and an ample refutation of the adversary principles. Every word is pregnant with sentiment and reproof, and every sentence contains a text on which might be written volumes of political wisdom. After a modest exordium, in which the author lamented the inadequacy of his abilities to the magnitude of the charge, and expressed his reliance for guidance and support, on the co-ordinate functionaries of the government by whom he was surrounded, the address proceeds in the following terms:

"During the contest of opinion through which we have past, the animation of discussions and of exertions, has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely, and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the constitution, all will of course arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind, let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance, as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter, his long lost liberty, it was not wonderful, that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some, and less by others; and should divide opinions, as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names, brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans: we are all Federalists. If there be any among us, who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety, with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. I know indeed, that some honest men fear, that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government, which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear, that this government, the world's best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. I believe it the only one, where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order, as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer this question.

"Let us then with courage and confidence, pursue our own fed eral and republican principles; our attachment to union and repre