and successive convulsions of transformation from a monarchical toa free structure of government, and of deliverance from the fatal catas trophe of a counter-revolution, in the last extremities of exhaustion. despair, and self-abandonment; who had lived to see the potent en ergies of those principles so extensively transfused into the very sy ophants of the tyrants of the old world, temporal and spiritual, as that the earth was every where shaking under their feet; and who at last, enjoyed the ineffable consummation of seeing his name become the synonym of political orthodoxy at home, and the watch word of the isolated aspirants for its attainment, in all parts of the civilized world.

Thus had he performed his wonderful course, and thus, full of years, and covered with glory, in the rich fruition of his earliest and sweetest aspirations, he was ready, as to all political affairs, to utter his favorite invocation: Nunc dimittas, Domine-Lord, now let test thou thy servant depart in peace.'

CHAPTER XIV.

In repairing with so much eagerness to the shades of his native mountains, it seems not to have entered the mind of Mr. Jefferson to relax his efforts for the benefit and happiness of mankind, but to divert them into a channel more analogous to his disposition. His whole life, he was in the habit of remarking, had been at war with his natural taste, feelings and wishes. Circumstances had led him along, step by step, the path he had trodden, and like a bow long bent, when unstrung, he resumed with delight the character and pursuits for which nature designed him. His was not the retirement of one who sought refuge from the pangs of disappointed ambition, and the world's mockery of them, in the vain, though vaunted resource of oblivion and stoical insensibility; or who cov eted repose from the giddy turbulence of the scene, to indulge in inglorious indolence and inanity. No, his was the voluntary seclusion of one, "who," as it has been beautifully said, "had well filled

a noble part in public life, from which he was prepared and anxious to withdraw; who sought retirement to gratify warm affections, and to enjoy his well earned fame; who desired to turn those thoughts which had been necessarily restrained and limited, to the investigation of all the sources of human happiness and enjoyment; who felt himself surrounded, in his fellow citizens, by a circle of affectionate friends, and had not to attribute to a rude expulsion from the theatre of ambition, his sincere devotion to the pursuits of agriculture and philosophy; and who, receiving to the last moment of his existence continued proofs of admiration and regard, which penetrated his remote retirement, devoted the remainder of his days to record those various reflections for which the materials had been collected and treasured up, unknown to himself, on the long and various voyage of his life."

To do justice to the remaining portion of Mr. Jefferson's life, which is fitly described as having been appropriated 'to the investigation of all the sources of human happiness and enjoyment,' would exceed the competency of any one not conversant with his daily avocations, and admitted into all the mysteries of his mighty cabinet. In the possession of undecayed intellectual powers, and a physical strength unsubdued by the labors which the history of a wonderful era had made incumbent on him,' he devoted the remnant of his days to the precious employment of unlocking all the store-houses of human knowledge, and dispensing their rich treasures to the generation who had succeeded him on the theatre of public affairs; and to laying the foundations for the still greater extension of science, and indigenous political philosophy, for the benefit of the still succeeding generations who should rise up, in perpetuum, and assume the direction of the interests of society, by the establishment of a Colossean Seminary of learning, which should rival the institutions of Cambridge and Oxford. These were his wisest, if not his happiest, days. The streams of oracular wisdom which flowed from his consecrated retreat, have continued to nourish the principles of the noble fabric which he reared, and to preserve from degeneracy those who have successively been constituted the depositories of its sacred functions. May the time never ar rive when they shall cease to maintain their ascendency in the councils of the nation, and to exert their healthful and restraining influ ence over its authorities. To give place for a series of selection:

from his cabinet, developing the OPINIONS of the Monticellean philosopher, on questions the most interesting and important to mankind, and which have not yet been brought into special review; his observations on the distinguished characters with whom he acted, or came in contact, in the course of his various career; on the parties and political occurrences of the passing day; his daily occupations and habits of living, &c.-expressed in the freedom of private and unrestrained confidence, seems the most satisfactory meth. od of supplying that portion of his history, for which the materials are of too abstract a nature to be adapted to historical narrative. The quotations must be necessarily limited, broken, and in some cases, perhaps, insufficient to convey a perfect idea of the writer's opinions.

RELATIVE POWERS OF THE GENERAL AND STATE GOVERN

MENTS. "With respect to our State and Federal governments, I do not think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose the former subordinate to the latter. this is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. To the State governments are reserved all legislation and administration, in affairs which concern their own citizens only, and to the Federal government is given whatever concerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States; these functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government; neither having control over the other, but within its own department. There are one or two exceptions only to this partition of power. But you may ask, if the two departments should claim each the same subject of power, where is the common umpire to decide ultimately between them? In cases of little importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties will keep them aloof from the questionable ground: but if it can neither be avoided nor compromised, a convention of the States must be called, to ascribe the doubtful power to that department which they may think best."

RELATIVE POWERS OF EACH BRANCH IN THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. -"You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide on the validity of the sedition law. But nothing in the constitution has given them a right to decide for the executive, more than to the executive to decide for them. Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action assigned to them. The judges, believing the law constitutional, had a right to pass a sentence of fine and imprisonment; because the power was placed in their hands by the constitution. But the executive, believing the law to be unconstitutional, were bound to remit the execution of it;

because that power has been confided to them by the constitution. That instrument meant that its co-ordinate branches should be checks on each other. But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional, and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch."

"If this opinion be sound, then indeed is our constitution a complete felo de se. For intending to establish three departments, coordinate and independent, that they might check and balance one another, it has given, according to this opinion, to one of them alone, the right to prescribe rules for the government of the others, and to that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of the nation. For experience has already shown that the impeachment it has provided is not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the one you combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally the public opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line they are to walk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have excited animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted with impeachment. The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be trusted no where but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law."

TENDENCIES TO CONSOLIDATION, AND MODE OF RESISTANCE. "I see as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power. Take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines of the President, [1825] and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact acted on by the legislature of the federal branch, and it is but too evident, that the three ruling branches of that department are in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions, foreign and domestic. Under the power to regulate commerce, they assume indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and call it regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of industry, and that too the most depressed, and put them into the pockets of the other, the most flourishing of all. Under the authority to

establish post roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the construction of roads, of digging canals, and aided by a little sophistry on the words 'general welfare,' a right to do, not only the acts to effect that, which are specifically enumerated and permitted, but whatsoever they shall think or pretend will be for the general welfare. And what is our resource for the preservation of the constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well reason and argue with the marble columns encircling them. The representatives chosen by ourselves? They are joined in the combination. some from incorrect views of government, some from corrupt ones, sufficient, voting together, to outnumber the sound parts; and with majorities only of one, two, or three, bold enough to go forward in defiance. Are we then to stand to our arms, with the hot-headed Georgian? No. That must be the last resource, not to be thought of until much longer and greater sufferings. If every infraction of a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at once, as a dissolution of it, none can ever be formed which would last one year. We must have patience and longer endurance then with our brethren while under delusion; give them time for reflection and experience of consequences; keep ourselves in a situation to profit by the chapter of accidents; and separate from our companions only when the sole alternatives left, are the dissolution of our Union with them, or submission to a government without limitation of powers. Between these two evils, when we must make a choice, there can be no hesitation. But in the mean while, the States would be watchful to note every material usurpation on their rights; to denounce them as they occur in the most peremptory terms; to protest against them as wrongs to which our present submission shall be considered, not as acknowledgments or precedents of right, but as a temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their accumulation shall overweigh that of separation. I would go still further, and give to the federal member, by a regular amendment of the consti tution, a right to make roads and canals of intercommunication between the States, providing sufficiently against corrupt practices in Congress, (log-rolling, &c.) by declaring that the federal proportion of each State of the monies so employed, shall be in works within the State, or elsewhere with its consent, and with a due salvo of jurisdiction. This is the course which I think safest and best as yet."

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, CONSTRUCTIVE INTERPRETATIONS, &c." You will have learned that an act for internal improvement, after passing both Houses, was negatived by the President [1817.] The act was founded, avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the constitution, which authorizes Congress 'to lay taxes, to pay the debts and provide for the general welfare,' was an extension of the powers specifically enumerated to whatever would promote the gen