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 HISTORIC AMERICANS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THEODORE PARKER 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 K B. F-T 
 
 1878.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 
 
 LYDIA D, PARKER, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THESE lectures were prepared in 1858, for the Frater- 
 nity Course, which had been instituted that year. They 
 were carefully elaborated, being written out in full, and 
 partly rewritten with a view to publication. The lecture 
 on Franklin was written over twice,* three times, in 
 fact, though the last reproduction was rendered neces- 
 sary by the loss of the original manuscript. But three 
 of them, however, were delivered in Tremont Temple ; 
 and these were more than should have been attempted, 
 for Mr. Parker was already so weak in this last autumn 
 of his public service, that he made his way to the hall 
 with difficulty, and barely sustained himself through the 
 effort he was making. 
 
 The lectures are printed from faithful copies of his 
 manuscript, with no more correction than was actually 
 required by occasional omissions that had to be made 
 
 * Weiss's Life of Parker, i. p. 432. 
 
 (3)
 
 4 PREFACE. 
 
 good, by very infrequent defects that were easily repaired, 
 or by misplaced references, which, it is needless to say, 
 were here, as elsewhere in Mr. Parker's writings, exceed- 
 ingly few. 
 
 The lectures were prepared at a time when the anti- 
 slavery agitation was at its height ; when, in Mr. Parker's 
 judgment, it distinctly menaced war. The subject natu- 
 rally occupies a large space in the biographies ; indeed, it 
 furnished, probably, one of the motives for preparing 
 them. That issue is dead. The war, to which the evil 
 succumbed, broke out almost immediately after his de- 
 cease, and accomplished by force what he hoped might 
 be accomplished peacefully. A few passages, containing 
 allusions to the ethics and politics of that by-gone epoch, 
 would not be penned to-day ; but none will be sorry to 
 read them who can weigh their importance as contribu- 
 tions to history, or can estimate their value as illustra- 
 tions of character. 
 
 Mr. Parker's religious opinions were too vital to him 
 . to be excluded from any kind of discourse, and the 
 reader of this volume may occasionally come across a 
 phrase, or possibly a sentence, that will seem intrusive 
 and objectionable. But such sentences and phrases are 
 singularly rare, scarcely more frequent than the subject
 
 PREFACE. 5 
 
 demanded, no more frequent than was demanded by his 
 favorite method of treatment. 
 
 That method is simple, clear, and exhaustive. Mr. 
 Parker never wrote without a direct purpose, and the 
 purpose was always serious enough to engage the ear- 
 nest exercise of his ability. When he selected the char- 
 acters of Historic Americans as themes for the lyceum, 
 his object was not, as with most lecturers it is, to amuse 
 an audience for an hour ; it was not to convey biographi- 
 cal information in a popular form ; it was not to "do 
 good " in a general sense ; much less was it, in a specific 
 sense, to do evil by affronting the reverence of his con- 
 temporaries, or diminishing the reputation of eminent 
 men whom people far and near had lifted to a pedestal of 
 honor. His design was to trace back to their sources, in 
 the creative minds of the nation, the principles that have 
 exerted a controlling influence in the nation's history, 
 and are still active in the institutions and the politics of 
 the hour. He would discuss great issues in a concrete 
 form, showing how they were associated with character 
 for better or worse. 
 
 A further intention he doubtless had, such an inten- 
 tion as Mr. Everett had in the delivery of his oration on 
 Washington, to bring the power of great historic
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 names to bear on the minds of his contemporaries, to 
 clear their conceptions, confirm their belief, or tone up 
 their courage. Grand examples are more convincing 
 than ordinary precepts, and Mr. Parker was intensely 
 persuaded that our grandest examples were on the side 
 that most needed strengthening. 
 
 But no side views of this sort tempted him to swerve 
 a hair's breadth from the sternest loyalty to the truth. 
 He made the truth serve his purpose when he could ; 
 but it was not his way to manufacture truth to suit his 
 purpose, nor was it his way to judge truth by its utility 
 for his private or public ends. The truth he would have 
 at any rate, whether it would serve him or no. It would 
 serve itself, which was better. He went always to ori- 
 ginal sources ; but not content with that, he made effort 
 to purge his own mental vision, in order that no discol- 
 oring or distorting feelings might make the truth seem 
 to him other than it actually was. In all biographical 
 studies his conscientiousness was a wonder. He laid on 
 himself prodigious labor to satisfy it. Both hate and 
 love were warned away from the canvas on which he was 
 painting a character. 
 
 These four portraits are as faithful as he, by any labor 
 of his, could make them. Those who question his truth-
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 fulness, must first revise their own. If in some respects 
 the portraits look unlike the " counterfeit presentments " 
 that are shown in the print shops, it must not be hastily 
 concluded that he has intentionally disfigured them. He 
 may possibly have restored features and lines which care- 
 less or too flattering copyists have misdrawn. 
 
 It will not be out of place here to correct the impres- 
 sion that Mr. Parker was a self-constituted image-breaker, 
 who made iconoclasm a business, and delighted in shatter- 
 ing great reputations, as Cromwell's troopers did in muti- 
 lating statues of the saints. Of all the errors in regard 
 to Mr. Parker, none are more completely errors than this, 
 though others are more difficult to account for. In an 
 age of false reverence, adulation, and sentimentalism, the 
 man who tells the unadorned truth is a destroyer of idols. 
 Such was Mr. Parker : an uncompromising idol-breaker. 
 But he never broke the idol save with an intention to re- 
 veal the man. To know a character was, in his judgment, 
 better than to worship a simulacrum. If any readers of 
 this volume feel a passing emotion of regret as a cher- 
 ished illusion here and there fades, they will rejoice at 
 last in the solid human qualities that take their place, 
 the grand columns of virtue which belong to humanity, 
 and support the State.
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 The truest compliment that can be paid to grand men, 
 consists in the fearless judgment of their qualities, under 
 the conviction that they will not only abide the test, but 
 will be purified by it. What fancy loses reason gains. 
 Were great men useful as ornaments in parlors, or as 
 decorations in public halls, he would be their best delinea- 
 tor who set them off with most imposing effect. But 
 so long as great men are needed as exemplars, he will 
 have a claim on the world's gratitude who shows pre- 
 cisely what they exemplify. It is as important that we 
 should know their foibles, as that we should know their 
 strong points. The warning of their vices, if they had 
 them, may be as useful as the encouragement of their 
 virtues. What they seem to lose in being made to ap- 
 pear human, is more than compensated by the sympathy 
 with their noblest brothers, which all men need to feel. 
 
 These lectures are published as they were written, in 
 the hope of throwing light, not merely upon four majes- 
 tic personages, but upon certain cardinal principles, far 
 more majestic and far more worthy of veneration than 
 
 they. 
 
 0. B. F.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOM 
 
 FRANKLIN. .... '. . . 13 
 
 -WASHINGTON 73 
 
 -JOHN ADAMS. . . . . . .147 
 
 ^THOMAS JEFFERSON 260
 
 FRANKLIN. 
 
 (ID
 
 FRANKLIN. 
 
 AT the beginning of the last century a hardy man, 
 Josiah Franklin by name, born in England, the son 
 of a blacksmith, himself a tallow-chandler, was liv- 
 ing in a small house, in an obscure way, in Boston, 
 then a colonial town of eight or ten thousand inhab- 
 itants, in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 On the 17th of January, at the Blue Ball, in 
 Hanover Street, 1706,* his tenth son was born into 
 
 * See Drake's History and Antiquities of Boston, page 492. 
 " Franklin himself told Mrs. Hannah M. Crocker, as she told me 
 in 1828, that he was born at the sign of the Blue Ball, on the 
 corner of Union and Hanover Streets, where his father then lived 
 and carried on his business." Page 638, ib. " Mrs. Harriett A. T. 
 Lewis, an intelligent and well-informed lady, well remembers hear- 
 ing his birthplace spoken of by old persons when she was young, as 
 a matter familiarly known to them ; namely, that Franklin was born 
 at the sign of the Blue Ball in Hanover Street, as has been stated." 
 It is important to note these authorities, because a building in Milk 
 Street is marked and is popularly known as "The Birthplace of 
 Franklin." There were other Franklins in Boston before Josiah. 
 Sparks's Franklin, i. 539; Mass. llec. ii. p. 71, iii. p. 238.
 
 14 FRANKLIN. 
 
 this world, and, it being Sunday, he was taken to 
 the meeting-house and publicly baptized the same 
 day, according to the common custom of those 
 times ; for then it was taught by the ministers that 
 the devil watched about every cradle, ready to seize 
 the souls of all babies dying before they got ecclesi- 
 astically sprinkled with water, and that the ceremony 
 of baptism would save them from his clutches until 
 they could discern good from evil. The minister 
 had a wig on his head, and Geneva bands ^>out his 
 neck. There was no Bible upon the desk of the 
 pulpit, and he thought it a sin to repeat the Lord's 
 Prayer. When he said, w This child's name is Ben- 
 jamin," how all those grim puritanic Bostouians 
 looked on the tenth boy, the fifteenth child of the 
 tallow-chandler ! and prudent aunts doubtless won- 
 dered what he would do with such a family in those 
 hard times. That little baby, humbly cradled, has 
 turned out to be the greatest man that America ever 
 bore in her bosom or set eyes upon. Beyond all 
 question, as I think, Benjamin Franklin had the 
 largest mind that has shone this side of the sea, 
 widest in its comprehension, most deep-looking, 
 thoughtful, far-seeing, of course the most original 
 and creative child of the New World. 
 
 For the last four generations no man has shed 
 such copious good influence on America ; none 
 added so much new truth to the popular knowl-
 
 FRANKLIN. 15 
 
 edge V none has so skilfully organized its ideas 
 into institutions ; none has so powerfully and wise- 
 ly directed the nation's conduct, and advanced its 
 welfare in so many respects. No man now has so 
 strong a hold on the habits and manners of the 
 people. Franklin comes home to the individual 
 business of practical men in their daily life. His 
 homely sayings are the PROVERBS OF THE PEOPLE 
 now. Much of our social machinery, academic, 
 literary, philosophic, is of his device. 
 
 WASHINGTON is a name that politicians snare the 
 people with, that eulogists hold up to the world as 
 without spot or blemish, and orators exhibit in 
 order to make sure of rounds of applause. When 
 I hear a politician refer to Washington I always 
 expect slavery will follow next, though Washing- 
 ton hated slavery himself. His great merit was 
 integrity a virtue which he possessed in the heroic 
 degree. His function was to create an army, and 
 administer the government, both of which he did 
 with self-devotion, ability, and faithfulness. This 
 it is that makes him such a rare example in the 
 history of mankind. His is a name that will be 
 honored as long as men remember great deeds, or 
 are proud and emulous of great virtue. 
 
 Let us now look this extraordinary BENJAMIN 
 FRANKLIN in the face, and see what he was.
 
 16 FRANKLIN. 
 
 Here is a sketch which will show the geography 
 and chronology of his life, a chart of his relation 
 to time and space : 
 
 He was born in Boston, on the 17th of January, 
 1706. Thence he ran away in the autumn of 1723, 
 and in October found himself a new home in Phila- 
 delphia, where he made his first meal in the street 
 one Sunday morning from a draught of Delaware 
 Ri^r water and a pennyworth of bread, giving 
 twopence worth to a poor woman.* Such was 
 his first breakfast and his earliest charity in his 
 adopted state. Here he worked as a journeyman 
 printer. Deceived by Keith, the Governor of 
 Pennsylvania, he went to England, landing there 
 the 24th of December, 1724. He followed his 
 trade in London for about two years. He re- 
 turned to Philadelphia on the llth of October, 
 1726, and resumed his business as printer, enter- 
 ing also into politics ; or, rather, I should say, he 
 became a Statesman, for he was never a politician, 
 but a Statesman from the beginning, who never 
 solicited an office, nor used any indirection to 
 retain one when it was in his possession. As 
 agent for Pennsylvania, he again went to England 
 in October, 1757, and returned to Philadelphia in 
 November, 1762. But he went back to England 
 
 * Sydney Smith says that " there would be many more good 
 Samaritans if it were not for the twopence and the oil."
 
 FRANKLIN. 17 
 
 in December, 1764, as agent for several colonies, 
 and returned thence, 5th of May, 1775. He was 
 sent as minister to France by the revolted colonies 
 in 1776, whence, on September 14, 1785, he returned 
 to Philadelphia, which he never left again. He was 
 President, or what we should now call Governor, of 
 Pennsylvania, from October, 1785, to October, 1788, 
 and was also a member of the Federal Convention, 
 which made the Constitution of the United Stages. 
 He died on the 17th April, 1790, aged eighty-four 
 years and three months, and his body lies buried at 
 Philadelphia, in the corner of the churchyard, close 
 to the Quaker meeting-house. 
 
 Franklin spent a little more than twenty-six years 
 in Europe, more than twenty-three of them in vari- 
 ous diplomatic services. He lived in Boston nearly 
 eighteen years, was a citizen of Philadelphia more 
 than sixty-six years, held his first public office in 
 1736, and left office altogether in 1788, serving his 
 state and nation in many public trusts something 
 about fifty-two years. He was married in 1730, at 
 the age of twenty-four. His wife died in 1774. He 
 was forty-four years a husband, though for twenty- 
 three years he was in Europe for the most part, 
 while she remained wholly in Pennsylvania. He 
 left two children, an illegitimate son, named 
 William Franklin, who afterwards became Governor 
 of the colony of New Jersey, and was a tory, and a 
 2
 
 18 FRANKLIN. 
 
 legitimate daughter, Sarah. Both of them married, 
 and became parents long before his death. A few 
 of his descendants are still living, though none, I 
 think, bear the name of Franklin. Such is the 
 material basis of facts and of dates. 
 
 To understand the man, look at the most impor- 
 tant scenes in his public life. 
 
 I. A stout, hardy-looking boy, with a great head, 
 ^ , twelve or fourteen years old, clad in knee breeches, 
 with buckles in his shoes, is selling ballads in the 
 streets of Boston, broadsides printed on a single 
 sheet, containing what were called " VARSES " in 
 those times. One is " The Lighthouse Tragedy," 
 giving an account of the shipwreck of Captain 
 Worthilake and his two daughters, and the other, 
 " The Capture of Blackbeard the Pirate." He 
 wrote the "varses" himself, and printed them also. 
 " Wretched stuff," he says, they were : no doubt 
 of it. From eight to nine he has been in the 
 grammar school, but less than a year ; then in an- 
 other public school for reading and writing for less 
 than another year a short time, truly ; but he made 
 rapid progress, yet "failed entirely in arithmetic." 
 In school he studied hard. Out of doors he was a 
 wild boy, "a leader among the boys," and some- 
 times " led them into scrapes." After the age of ten 
 he never saw the inside of a school-house as a pupil.
 
 FRANKLIN. 19 
 
 Harvard College was near at home, and the Boston 
 Latin School close by, its little bell tinkling to him 
 in his father's shop ; but poverty shut the door in his 
 face. Yet he would learn. He might be born poor, 
 he could not be kept ignorant. His birth to genius 
 more than made up for want of academic breeding. 
 He had educational helps at- home. His father, a 
 man of middle stature, well set, and very strong, 
 was not only handy with tools, but "could draw 
 prettily." He played on the violin, and sang withal. 
 Bather an austere Calvinist, a man of " sound under- 
 standing." Careless about food at table, he talked 
 of what was "good, just, and prudent in the conduct 
 of life," and not of the baked beans, the corned beef, 
 or the rye and Indian bread. The father had a few 
 books: Plutarch's "Lives," "Essays to do Good," 
 by Cotton Mather, a famous minister at the " North 
 End " of Boston, and besides, volumes of theological 
 controversy and of New England divinity. Benja- 
 min added some books of tp's own : Bunyan, Bur- 
 ton's Historical Collection ; in all forty little volumes. 
 He was fond of reading, and early took to writing 
 poetry. Two children were born after him, making 
 the family of the patriarchal number of seventeen. 
 The father and mother * were never sick. They died 
 
 * His mother was the daughter of Peter Folger, " a godly and 
 learned Englishman, of excellent common sense, and well educated 
 in surveying," who had settled in Nantucket. This Peter Folger 
 came out to America with the famous Hugh Peters in 1G35, and with
 
 20 FRANKLIN. 
 
 of .old age, as we ought ; he at eighty-nine, she at 
 eighty-five. The apple mellowed or shrivelled up, 
 and. then fell off. It did not rot inwardly. There 
 was an uncle Benjamin, like the nephew in many 
 things, who lived the other side of the water for a 
 long time, and subsequently came here. Now and 
 then he shot a letter to the hopeful Benjamin this 
 side the sea, poetical sometimes, whereof some frag- 
 ments still remain ; one addressed to him when he 
 was four years old, the other when he was seven- 
 teen ; one warning him against military propensities, 
 which the baby in long clothes was thought to have 
 displayed, the other encouraging the poetic aspira- 
 tion. In fact, the uncle Benjamin, like the nephew, 
 had an inclination for "varses," and the specimens 
 of his which are extant are not so bad as some 
 "varses" that have been written since his time. 
 When the nephew was seven years old, the uncle, 
 hearing of his poetic fervor, wrote, 
 
 " 'Tis time for me to throw aside my pen 
 When hanging sleeves read, write, and rhyme like men. 
 This forward spring foretells a plenteous crop, 
 For if the bud bear grain, what will the top ! " * 
 
 Mary Morrell, who was a servant girl of Hugh Peters. Folger 
 bought Mary of Peters for twenty pounds, ,and she became Ins 
 wife. So the grandmother of Dr. Franklin was bought for twenty 
 pounds out of white slavery. This on the authority of F. C. San- 
 ford, of Nantucket. 
 
 * Sparks's Franklin, 541. Also MS. vol. of Mr. Emmonds.
 
 FRANKLIN. 21 
 
 Benjamin had glimpses of academic culture, for the 
 father wished to make him a minister, thus conse- 
 crating "the tithe of his sons." But poverty forbade. 
 The boy must work. So, when he was ten years old, 
 the tallow-chandler tried him with the dips and 
 moulds of his own shop at the sign of the Blue Ball, 
 then with the cutlery of his cousin Samuel, "bred to 
 that trade in London ; " but neither business suited 
 him. These experiments continued for two years. 
 Then, at the age of twelve, he was apprenticed to his 
 brother James, a printer, afterwards an editor of the 
 "NEW ENGLAND COURANT," the fourth newspaper 
 published in America. James Franklin was a man 
 not altogether respectable. During this apprentice- 
 ship Mr. Matthew Adams, a merchant, often lent 
 Benjamin books, which he sat up the greater part 
 of the night to read. 
 
 This is the boy who is hawking his own ballads 
 about the streets of the little colonial town of Bos- 
 ton. This is the first scene in his public life. There 
 is nothing remarkable in it, nothing very promising. 
 He makes no public appearance in Boston again. 
 
 
 
 II. Next, in 1727, Franklin is a master printer on 
 his ,own account, in his own hired house or shop in 
 Market Street, Philadelphia. A white boaroV over 
 the door tells the world that "Benjamin Franklin, 
 Printer," may be found there. He has just printed
 
 22 FRANKLIN. 
 
 his first job for five shillings. There are men now 
 alive in 1860 who remember the sign right well. Since 
 he left Massachusetts his life has been quite event- 
 ful. In Boston he wrote for his brother's newspaper, 
 secretly at first, and afterwards openly. He was 
 nominally its editor, and perhaps also its poet. He 
 quarrelled with his brother James, ran away to Phil- 
 adelphia, and has had a hard and tempestuous time of 
 it. He did well as a journeyman printer in Phila- 
 delphia during his nineteenth and twentieth years. 
 But the governor took notice of him, swindled him, 
 and sent him to England on a fool's errand. Wher- 
 ever he fell he touched ground with his feet. In 
 London he followed his craft nearly two years, 
 making friends and foes. He was a wild young 
 man, and led himself into dissipations and difficul- 
 ties. He deserted Miss Read, the young woman of 
 Philadelphia to whom he was betrothed. He kept 
 low company sometimes, not only of bad men, but 
 of evil women also, "spending a good deal of his 
 earnings at plays and at public amusements." In 
 quite early life vices of passion left their stain on 
 him, which he afterwards took great pains to wipe 
 out. But even now, at twenty-one, he is industri- 
 ous, temperate, frugal, forecasting, punctual, and 
 that to an extraordinary degree. He works late 
 and early, not disdaining to wheel home in a barrow 
 the paper he bought for his trade. " He that would
 
 FRANKLIN. 23 
 
 thrive, must rise at five : " he knew it before he was 
 twenty. He had read many books, nay, studied 
 them ; the Spectator, the memorable things of Xeno- 
 phon, Cocker's Arithmetic, books on navigation, 
 which helped him to a little geometry, Locke on 
 the Understanding, Shaftesbury, Collins, with the ec- 
 clesiastical replies to the free-thinkers ; and in Lon- 
 don he read many works not elsewhere accessible. 
 He wrote, also, with simplicity, strength, and beau- 
 ty, having taken great pains to acquire a neat and 
 easy style. There is a diary of his, written when he 
 was only twenty. He was now twenty-one. He 
 soon became editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette, 
 then bookseller, then almanac maker, then postmas- 
 ter of Philadelphia, continuing always his printing 
 trade. He had many irons in the fire, yet not one 
 too many, for he was careful that none burned. He 
 became connected with politics, and was on the side 
 of the people, which is not often the popular side, 
 and is seldom counted respectable. The change 
 from the boy of fourteen, selling ballads in Boston, 
 to the youth of tAventy one, printing Quaker books, 
 or to the mature man, printer and bookseller, is 
 only a natural development. 
 
 III. Now he is forty-six years old. In June, 
 1752, attended by his son twenty-one years old, he 
 is in the fields near Philadelphia as a thunder-cloud
 
 24 FRANKLIN. 
 
 comes up. He hoists a kite, covered with a silk hand- 
 kerchief, an iron point at its head. He lets it fly 
 towards the cloud. He holds by a short end of non- 
 conducting silk the long string of hemp, a conductor 
 of electricity. An iron key hangs at the joining of 
 the silk with the hemp. He touches the key. The 
 lightning of heaven sparkles in his hand. The 
 mystery is solved. The lightning of the heavens 
 and the electricity of the chemist's shop are the same 
 thing. The difference is only in quantity ; in kind 
 they are the same. An iron point will attract the 
 lightning. A string of hemp or wire will conduct 
 it to the ground. Thunder has lost its destructive 
 terror. The greatest discovery of the century is 
 made, the parent of many more not dreamed of then 
 or yet. Truly this is a great picture. 
 
 Between Franklin, the young printer of twenty- 
 one, and Franklin, the philosopher, at forty-six, 
 many events have taken place. The obscure printer of 
 1727 is now a famous man, inclining towards riches. 
 He has had many social and civil honors. He has 
 been justice of the peace (the title then meant some- 
 thing), afterwards alderman, clerk of the General As- 
 sembly, then member of the Assembly, then speaker, 
 then postmaster of Philadelphia, then Postmaster- 
 General of all the colonies. His Almanac has made 
 him more widely known than any man in America ; 
 known to the rising democracy, respected and fol-
 
 FRANKLIN. 25 
 
 lowed, too, by the mass of the people. There are 
 hundreds of families, nay, thousands, with only two 
 books ; one the Bible, which they read Sundays, and 
 the other his " Poor Richard's Almanac," which they 
 read the other six days of the week ; and as its daily 
 lessons are short, they are remembered forever. 
 The Almanac seems to have perished in our time. So 
 the leaves which grew on the Charter Oak, in Connec- 
 ticut, a hundred years since, have all perished ; but 
 every crop of leaves left its ring all round the trunk. 
 The Almanac has perished, but the wisdom of Frank- 
 lin still lives in the consciousness and conduct of the 
 people. 
 
 He has put his thought into Philadelphia, and in 
 twenty-five years organized its municipal affairs, its 
 education and charity, more wisely than any city in 
 the world. He is in correspondence with the most 
 eminent men of science in America, and has a name 
 also with scientific men in England, France, Ger- 
 many, and Italy. After the age of twenty-one he 
 studied and learned Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, 
 German, and very soon became able to read all these 
 languages, which, at a later day, the scholars of so 
 many nations used in bestowing praises on this 
 printer-philosopher, who had snatched the lightning 
 out of the sky, and had undertaken yet greater and 
 more difficult works. The wonderful discovery is 
 known all over Europe, and the two colleges of New
 
 26 FRANKLIN. 
 
 England, Yale leading the way, honor themselves by 
 calling him Master of Arts. They adopt this runa- 
 way apprentice, this heretical tamer of lightning, 
 into the company of their academic children. Soon 
 the splendid colleges of all Europe confer their hon- 
 ors, transmit to him their medals, give him their 
 diplomas, and hereafter it is "Dr. Franklin," and no 
 longer plain " Mr. Benjamin." From the sale of the 
 ballads to the rope of the lightning, some thirty years 
 have passed, a long step of time, but one by which 
 he mounted very high. 
 
 IV. In 1776, in a small room at Philadelphia, 
 there are five men draughting the Declaration of In- 
 dependence, Livingston from New York, Jefferson 
 from Virginia, Franklin, Sherman, and John Adams, 
 New England born, all three of them, Massachusetts 
 boys, poor men's sous, who had fought their way to 
 eminence ; their birth to talent better than their 
 breeding to academic culture. Behind them all 
 stands Samuel Adams, another great man of Massa- 
 chusetts, tall and valiant, also a poor man's son. 
 Active and noiseless, he inspires the five companions 
 for this great work, with his thought, and courage, 
 and trust in God. These are the men who are mak- 
 ing the Declaration of Independence. Virginia fur- 
 nished the popular pen of Jefferson. Massachusetts 
 the great ideas, the "self-evident truths," of the Dec-
 
 FRANKLIN. 27 
 
 laration itself. New to the rest of the world, they 
 had been " Kesolved " in the meetings of Boston, and 
 in other obscure little New England towns. House- 
 hold words they were to her, which our forefathers' 
 pious care had handed down. 
 
 This is a wide prospect. A whole continent now 
 opens before us. 
 
 The curtain is lifted high. You see the young 
 nation in its infancy. " Hercules in his cradle," said 
 Franklin ; but with a legion of the mystic serpents 
 about him. If the rising sun shines auspicious, yet 
 the clouds threaten a storm, long and terrible. 
 
 In the interval from 1752 to 1776, between the act 
 of "the thunderbolt of heaven," and that of "the 
 sceptre of the tyrant," much has taken place. Frank- 
 lin has been chosen member of the first Colonial Con- 
 gress, which met at Albany in 1754, to protect the 
 Provinces from the French and Indians. His far- 
 reaching mind there planned the scheme of the 
 Union for common defence among all the colonies. 
 This the British government disliked ; for if the 
 colonies should form a Union, and the people be- 
 come aware of their .strength, they would soon want 
 independence. Also Franklin has set military ex- 
 peditions on foot ; he and another young Buckskin, 
 furnishing most of the little wisdom which went with 
 General Braddock and his luckless troop. He has 
 been a colonel in actual service, and done actual work,
 
 28 FRANKLIN. 
 
 
 too. He it was who erected the fortresses all along 
 the frontier between the English and French pos- 
 sessions west of Pennsylvania. He had been sent to 
 England as a colonial agent to remonstrate against 
 the despotism of the proprietaries. He was also 
 appointed agent for Georgia, New Jersey, and Mas- 
 sachusetts, and was commissioned to look after their 
 rights, and protect them from the despotism of the 
 King and Parliament. He was examined before the 
 House of Commons in 1776, and gave admirable tes- 
 timony as to the condition and character of the colo- 
 nies, and as to the disposition and temper of America 
 towards the Stamp Act. His cool, profound, and 
 admirable statements, for the most part made without 
 premeditation or anticipation of the questions pro- 
 posed to him, astonished the English Parliament. 
 " What used to be the pride of the Americans ? " 
 asked a questioner. "To indulge in the fashions 
 and manufactures of Great Britain." " What is now 
 their pride ? " M To wear their old clothes over again 
 till they can make new ones." He found that some 
 of the first men of Boston, Governor Hutchinson, 
 Lieutenant Governor Oliver, and other Boston tories, 
 "citizens of eminent gravity" in those times, had 
 written official and private letters to a conspicuous 
 member of Parliament, infamously traducing the 
 Colony of Massachusetts, and pointing out means 
 for destroying the liberties of all the colonies and
 
 FRANKLIN. 29 
 
 provinces, so as to establish a despotism here in 
 America. He obtained these letters, private yet 
 official, and sent them to a friend in Boston, Mr. 
 Gushing, a timid man, speaker of the Massachusetts 
 House of Representatives.* They were laid before 
 the house and printed. Massachusetts, in conse- 
 quence, sent a petition to the king, asking that these 
 treacherous officers be removed from office. This 
 righteous act, exposing the secret villany of officials, 
 drew on Franklin the wrath of the New England 
 tories, and of the rulers of Old England. For this 
 he was brought before the privy council of the King 
 of England on January 29, 1774. A great array 
 of famous men were in attendance, five and thirty 
 lords and others. There Mr. Wedderburn, the 
 king's Solicitor General, insulted him with such abuse 
 as only such a man could know how to invent. Be- 
 fore this audience of five and thirty lords, f who were 
 
 * Lord John Russell's correspondence of Fox, p. 124. Franklin 
 got the Hutchinson and Oliver letters in 1774, from John Temple, 
 who was a commissioner of customs of Boston. These letters were 
 addressed to Thomas Whately, under Secretary of State, a private 
 friend, but a private friend in office. 
 
 t For an account of this examination, see Dr. Bowring's Memoir 
 of Jeremy Eentham, Chap. III. p. 59. On the 3d of May, 1774, 
 Wedderburn (afterwards, in 1780, created Baron Loughborough, and 
 Earl Rosslyn, in 1801) and Governor Hutchinson were burnt in effigy 
 in the city of Philadelphia. 
 
 Wedderburn had called Franklin "a man of three letters, "mean- 
 ing "fur" (which signifies thief), and quoted from Zunga's speech
 
 30 FRANKLIN. 
 
 seated, did Franklin stand for two hours and listen to 
 this purchased sycophant. " He has forfeited all the 
 respect of societies and of men," said the courtier. 
 " It is impossible to read his account expressing the 
 cruellest and most deliberate malice, without horror." 
 The councillors of England cheered this tin pedler 
 of malignant rhetoric. But Franklin " stood con- 
 spicuously erect, without the smallest movement of 
 any part of his body," and kept his countenance as 
 immovable as if his features had been made of wood. 
 He appeared on this day in a suit of Manchester vel- 
 vet, which it was noticed he did not again wear in 
 England.* He was turned out of his office of Post- 
 master-General of the American colonies that very 
 night. 
 
 in the play of the " Revenge." See Lord J. Russell's Correspon- 
 dence of Fox, vol. i. p. 125. 
 
 * The writer does not pursue the story of this suit of Manchester 
 velvet, which it has been commonly understood was laid aside by 
 Franklin, and was afterwards designedly worn by him when he came 
 to sign the treaty of Peace at Paris, on the 30th November, 1782. 
 In this he has followed the cautious and accurate Mr. Sparks, who 
 discredits the authorities upon which Lord Brougham has adopted 
 the story. (Vol. i. Sparks's Franklin, 488.) But now it seems to 
 rest upon unquestionable authority, notwithstanding Mr. Sparks's 
 disclaimer. Lord John Russell considers it must be true, because 
 Lord St. Helens (the envoy of England who also signed the treaty) 
 told the story to Lord Holland, and said that Franklin informed them 
 of it "with a triumphant air"! Lord St. Helens could not speak 
 of this without indignation. See also Bowring's Memoir of Bentham, 
 Chap. III. p. 59.
 
 FRANKLIN. 31 
 
 This was the philosopher whom the learned acade- 
 mies of England, and of all Europe, had honored for 
 taking the thunderbolt out of the sky ; now in that 
 little room he is wrenching the sceptre from tyrants, 
 making the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, for 
 which alone Britain would give him a halter. More 
 than twenty years before he had sought to establish 
 a Union between the colonies ; now he seeks Inde- 
 pendence. He would build up the new government 
 on self-evident truths, that all men are created equal, 
 each endowed by their Creator with certain uualieii- 
 able rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness. He is an old man now, more 
 than seventy years of age ; an old man, lame with 
 the gout, but active, as the sun. is active with light. 
 He is the most popular man in America, the most 
 influential man in the American Congress, save only 
 the far-seeing and unflinching Samuel Adams, the 
 greatest, the most celebrated, the most conciliating. 
 It is a grand act, this moulding the progress of per- 
 manent and eternal principles, to form the American 
 government. The world saw none grander in that 
 century. There, for the first time in history, a na- 
 tion laid the foundation of its state on the natural 
 law that all governments shall uphold all men's 
 right, not a few men's privilege. 
 
 V. Franklin, at Paris, is negotiating the treaty of
 
 32 FRANKLIN. 
 
 peace between America and Great Britain in 1783, 
 in connection with John Adams, Jeflersou, Laurens, 
 and Jay. He accomplished the work, put an end to 
 all hostility with England, and secured the acknowl- 
 edgment of our independence. The war of eight sad 
 years (1775-1783) was now over. They had been 
 to him years of intense activity at the court of 
 France, where he was not only American Minister, 
 but Judge in Admiralty and Consul General, charged 
 with many and very discordant duties. Seventy- 
 seven years old, he now sets the seal of triumph on 
 the act of the American people. What was only a 
 Declaration in 1776, is now a fact fixed in the his- 
 tory of mankind. Washington was the Franklin of 
 camps, but Franklin was the Washington of courts ; 
 and the masterly skill of the great diplomatist, the 
 patience which might tire but which never gave out ; 
 the extraordinary shrewdness, dexterity, patience, 
 moderation, and silence with which he conducted the 
 most difficult of negotiations, are not less admirable 
 than the coolness, intrepidity, and caution of the 
 great general in his most disastrous campaign. Now 
 these troubles are all over. America is free, Brit- 
 ain is pacific, and Franklin congratulates his friends. 
 " There never was a good war or a bad peace ; " and 
 yet he, the brave, wise man that he was, sought to 
 make the treaty better, endeavoring to persuade 
 England to agree that there should be no more
 
 FRANLLIN. 33 
 
 temptation to privateering, and that all private 
 property on sea and land should be perfectly safe 
 from the ravages of war. But in 1783 Britain had 
 not come nearer to it than the administration in 
 America had in 1857. Franklin wished to do in 
 1783 what the wisest negotiators tried to accomplish 
 in April, 1856, in the treaty of Paris. 
 
 VI. Franklin, an old man of eighty-four, is 
 making ready to die. The great philosopher, the 
 great statesman, he has done with philosophy and 
 state craft, not yet ended his philanthropy. He is 
 satisfied with having taken the thunderbolt from the 
 sky, bringing it noiseless and harmless to the ground ; 
 he has not yet done with taking the sceptre from 
 tyrants. True, he has, by the foundation of the 
 American state on the natural and inalienable rights 
 of all, helped to set America free from the despotism 
 of the British king and Parliament. None has done 
 more for that. He has made the treaty with Prussia, 
 which forbids privateering and the war-like plunder 
 of individual property on land or sea. But now he 
 remembers that there are some six hundred thousand 
 African slaves in America, whose bodies are taken 
 from their control, even in time of peace peace to 
 other men, to them a period of perpetual war. So, 
 in 1787, he founds a society for the abolition of slavery. 
 He is its first President, and in that capacity signed a 
 3
 
 34 FRANKLIN. 
 
 petition to Congress, asking "the restitution of lib- 
 erty to those unhappy men, who alone in this land 
 of freedom are degraded into perpetual bondage ; " 
 asks Congress " that you will step to the very verge 
 of the power vested in you for discouraging every 
 species of traffic in the persons of our fellow-men." 
 This petition was the last public act of Franklin, the 
 last public document he ever signed. He had put 
 his hand to the Declaration of Independence ; to the 
 treaties of alliance with France and Prussia ; to the 
 treaty of peace with Great Britain ; now he signs 
 the first petition for the abolition of slavery. 
 
 Between 1783 and 1790 what important events had 
 taken place ! For three years he had been President 
 of Pennsylvania, unanimously elected by the Assem- 
 bly every time save the first, when one vote out of 
 seventy-seven was cast against him. He had been a 
 member of the Federal Convention, which made the 
 Constitution, and, spite of what he considered to be 
 its errors, put his name to it. Neither he, nor 
 Washington, nor indeed any of the great men who 
 helped to make that instrument, thought it perfect, 
 or worshipped it as an idol. But now, as his last 
 act, he seeks to correct the great fault, and blot, and 
 vice of the American government the only one 
 which, in seventy-six years, has given us much 
 trouble. The petition was presented on the 12th 
 of February, 1790. It asked for the abolition of the
 
 FRANKLIN. 35 
 
 slave trade, and for the emancipation of slaves. A 
 storm followed ; the South was in a rage, which lasted 
 till near the end of March. Mr. Jackson, of Geor- 
 gia, defended the " peculiar institution." The ancient 
 republics had slaves ; the whole current of the Bible, 
 from Genesis to Revelation, proved that religion 
 was not hostile to slavery. On the 23d of March, 
 1790, Franklin wrote for the National Gazette the 
 speech in favor of the enslavement of Christians. He 
 put it into the mouth of a member of the Divan of 
 Algiers. It was a parody of the actual words of Mr. 
 Jackson, of Georgia, as delivered in Congress a few 
 days before ; the text, however, being taken out of the 
 Koran. It was one of the most witty, brilliant, and 
 ingenious things that came from his mind. This was 
 the last public writing of Dr. Franklin; and, with 
 the exception of a letter to his sister and one to Mr. 
 Jefferson, it was the last line which ran out from his 
 fertile pen, written only twenty-four days before his 
 death. What a farewell it was ! This old man, "the 
 most rational, perhaps, of all philosophers," the most 
 famous man in America, now in private life, waiting 
 for the last angel to unbind his spirit and set him free 
 from a perishing body, makes his last appearance 
 before the American people as President of an aboli- 
 tion society, protesting against American slavery in 
 the last public line he writes ! One of his wittiest 
 and most ingenious works is a plea for the bondman,
 
 36 FRANKLIN. 
 
 adroit, masterly, short, and not to be answered. It 
 was fit to be the last scene of such a life. Drop 
 down the curtain before the sick old man, and let his 
 healthy soul ascend unseen and growing. 
 
 Look, now, at the CHARACTER of Dr. Franklin. All 
 the materials for judging him are not yet before the 
 public, for historians and biographers, like other at- 
 torneys, sometimes withhold the evidence, and keep 
 important facts out of sight, so as to secure a ver- 
 dict which does not cover the whole case. There 
 are writings of Franklin which neither the public 
 nor myself have ever seen. Enough, however, is 
 known of this great man to enable us to form a just 
 opinion. Additional things would alter the quantity, 
 not the kind. The human faculties, not pertaining 
 to the body, may be divided into these four : the in- 
 tellectual, the moral, the affectional, and the religious. 
 Look at Franklin in respect to each of the four. 
 
 I. He had an intellect of a very high order, 
 inventive, capacious, many-sided, retentive. His life 
 covers nearly the whole of the eighteenth century. 
 Ten years he was the contemporary of Leibnitz, twen- 
 ty-one of Sir Isaac Newton. He was sixty-three 
 years old when Afcxander Humboldt and Cuvier 
 were born. He embraced Voltaire. His orbit was 
 intersected by that of Berkeley, Montesquieu, Hume, 
 Kant, Priestley, Adam Smith. But in the eighty-
 
 FRANKLIN. 37 
 
 four years to which his life extended, I find no mind, 
 which, on the whole, seems so great. I mean so 
 generally able, various, original, and strong. Others 
 were quite superior to him in specialities of intellect, 
 metaphysical, mathematical, and poetical. Many 
 surpassed him in wide learning, of literature, or 
 science, and in careful and exact culture ; but none 
 equalled him in general largeness of power, and 
 great variety and strength of mind. In an age of 
 encyclopaedias, his was the most encyclopedic head 
 in all Christendom. In the century of revolution, 
 his was the most revolutionary and constructive in- 
 tellect. He had no nonsense, was never eccentric. 
 The intellectual faculties may be thus conveniently 
 distributed : 
 
 1. The understanding, the practical power, which 
 seeks economic use as the end. 2. The imagina- 
 tion, the poetic power which seeks ideal beauty 
 as the end. 3. The reason, the philosophic power, 
 which seeks scientific truth as the end, which is par- 
 ent alike of use and beauty, the Martha and Mary 
 of the family. Franklin had a great understanding, 
 a moderate imagination, and a great reason. He 
 could never have become an eminent poet or orator. 
 With such, the means is half tbfe end. He does not 
 seem to have attended to any of the fine arts, with the 
 single exception of music. He was not fond of works 
 of imagination, and in his boyhood he sold Bunyan's
 
 38 FRANKLIN. 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress to buy Burton's Historical Col- 
 lections. Perhaps he underrated the beautiful and the 
 sublime. I do not remember, in the ten volumes of 
 his writings, a line containing a single reference to 
 either. This defect in his mental structure continu- 
 ally appears in his works and in his life. Hence, 
 there is a certain homeliness and lack of elegance in 
 his writings, and sometimes a little coarseness and 
 rudeness. Hence, also, comes the popular judgment 
 that he was not a high-minded man. Kant, Kepler, 
 Descartes, Leibnitz, Schelling, were men of great 
 imagination, which gives a particular poetic charm 
 to their works that you do not find in the Sax- 
 on philosophers. Bacon, Locke, Newton, Adam 
 Smith, were men of vast ability, but not imaginative 
 or poetic. Franklin thinks, investigates, theorizes, 
 invents, but never does he dream. No haze hangs 
 on the sharp outline of his exact idea to lend it an 
 added charm. Besides this immense understanding, 
 Franklin had an immense reason, which gave him 
 great insight and power in all practical, philosophic, 
 and speculative matters. He was a man of the most 
 uncommon common sense. He saw clearly into the 
 remote causes of things, and had great power of 
 generalization to discuss the universal laws, the one 
 eternal principle, or the manifold and floating facts. 
 He did not come to his philosophic conclusions and 
 discoveries by that poetic imagination which creates
 
 FKANKLIN. 39 
 
 hypothesis after hypothesis, until some one fits the 
 case ; nor did he seem to reach them by that logical 
 process which is called induction. But he rather 
 perfected his wonderful inventions by his own simple 
 greatness of understanding and of reason, a sponta- 
 neous instinct of causality, which led him to the point 
 at once. He announced his discoveries with no pa- 
 rade. He does the thing, and says nothing about it, 
 as if it were the commonest thing in the world. His 
 simplicity appears not only in his manners and in 
 his life, but also in his intellectual method. Accord- 
 ingly, he was a great inventor of new ideas in sci- 
 ence, the philosophy of matter, and in politics, the 
 philosophy of States ; in both running before the 
 experience of the world. If only his philosophic 
 writings had come down to us, we should say, "Here 
 was a mind of the first order, a brother of Leib- 
 nitz, Newton, Cuvier, Humboldt."" If nought but 
 his political writings were preserved, his thoughts 
 on agriculture, manufactures, commerce, finance, the 
 condition and prospect of the colonies, the effect of 
 certain taxes on them, the historical development of 
 America and her ultimate relation to England, then 
 1 we should say, " Here was one of the greatest polit- 
 ical thinkers of the age or of the world." For 
 while he anticipated the scientific discoveries of fu- 
 ture philosophers, he does the same in the depart- 
 ments of the politician and the statesman. He
 
 40 FRANKLIN. 
 
 understood easily the complicated affairs of a Na- 
 tion, and saw clearly the great general laws which 
 determine the welfare of the individual or of the 
 State. Yet he made occasional mistakes; for the 
 swift forethought of genius, on the whole, is not so 
 wise as the slow experience of the human race. No- 
 body is as great as everybody. Constructive as well 
 as inventive, he was a great organizer. He knew 
 how to make his thought a thing, to put his scientific 
 idea into matter, making a machine, his social idea 
 into men, creating an institution. He could produce 
 the maximum of result with the minimum outlay of 
 means. His contrivances, mechanical and social, are 
 many and surprising. He improved the printing 
 press, invented stereotyping, and manifold letter- 
 writers. He cured smoky chimneys of their bad 
 habits. He amended the shape and the rig of 
 ships. He showed the sailors how they might take 
 advantage of the Gulf Stream^to shorten their east- 
 ward transit of the Atlantic, and how to steer so as 
 to avoid it on the westward passage. He told them 
 how a few men might haul a heavy boat, and how they 
 might keep fresh provisions at sea. He suggested im- 
 provements in the soup-dishes of sailors, and in the 
 water-troughs of horses. He introduced new kinds 
 of seeds, grass, turnips, broom-corn, curious beans 
 from England, vines from France, and many other 
 vegetables and plants. He drained lands skilfully,
 
 FRANKLIN. 41 
 
 and gathered great crops from them. He reformed 
 fireplaces, and invented the Franklin stove. First 
 of all men he warmed public buildings. He had a fan 
 on his chair, moved by a treadle, so as to drive away 
 the flies. He made him spectacles, with two sets of 
 glasses, for far and near sight. He invented a musi- 
 cal instrument, and improved the electrical machine. 
 He discovered that lightning and electricity are the 
 same, proving it in the simplest and deepest and 
 most satisfactory manner, by catching the actual 
 lightning. He first discerned the difference be- 
 tween positive and negative electricity. 
 
 He taught men to protect buildings from light- 
 ning, and would use electricity to kill animals with- 
 out pain, and to make tough meat tender and diges- 
 tible. "There are no bounds," says he, in 1751, M to 
 the force men may raise and use in the electrical way ; 
 for little may be added to little, ad infinitum, and so 
 accumulated, and then, afterwards, discharged "to- 
 gether at once." He invented a phonographic alpha- 
 bet, which does not now look so strange as in 1768. 
 He improved the wheels of carriages, the form of 
 wind-mills and water-mills, and the covering of roofs. 
 First of all men, he induced the citizens of Philadel- 
 phia to construct foot pavements (which we call side- 
 walks), and to place crossing-stones in their most 
 frequented streets. In London, he first proved that 
 streets could be swept in dry weather as well as hoed
 
 42 FRANKLIN. 
 
 and scraped in wet weather. He demonstrated this 
 fact, by hiring an old woman to sweep the street in 
 front of his house. Thus this Yankee printer taught 
 the Londoners a useful lesson, now universally known. 
 
 At the age of twenty-two, in 1728, Franklin found- 
 ed the first American Club for mutual improvement. 
 It was called a "Junto." In 1744 he was the founder 
 of "the American Philosophical Society," the first 
 scientific association on this continent. He estab- 
 lished, in 1751, the first American free school out- 
 side of New England, and he originated the first 
 social library in the world. He organized the first 
 fire company in America, and the first night-watch in 
 Philadelphia. In 1741 he started the first magazine 
 in America, the General Magazine, the forerun- 
 ner of the North American, Examiner, New England 
 Review, and a great host more. In the Quaker State 
 of Pennsylvania, in 1744, he first organized the mili- 
 tary force, getting ten thousand subscribers to main- 
 tain a volunteer militia. The women provided silken 
 banners, which Franklin supplied with appropriate 
 mottoes. He was himself colonel of the Philadel- 
 phia regiment. 
 
 He first enrolled men for the military defence of 
 the Quaker city, in 1744, when Spanish pirates came 
 up the river, and threatened- to burn the town. He 
 planned the admirable military organization for the 
 whole colony of Pennsylvania, in 1754, for defence
 
 FRANKLIN. 43 
 
 against the French and Indians, and in 1755 fur- 
 nished the commissariat trains of General Brad- 
 dock. He first proposed the union of all the prov- 
 inces, in 1754, and in 1775 he first made the plan of 
 a confederacy of them all, which could not be adopted 
 till 1778, though then with improvements. Such 
 was the distracted condition of all things in America 
 at that time, that this organizing skill seemed most 
 of all things needful ; and Franklin's great power 
 was not only in invention, but in organization quite 
 as much. He had a genius for creation and adminis- 
 tration. He easily saw what things belonged to- 
 gether, and found the true principle which would 
 make many coalesce and become an association, af- 
 fording freedom to each individual, and social unity 
 to all. 
 
 Yet his plan for the Constitution of the State of 
 Pennsylvania did not work well ; nor would his 
 scheme, that the Federal officers should serve with- 
 out salary, have proved to be desirable or practica- 
 ble. His design for the excitement of the ambition 
 of children at school I think was a great mistake. 
 If he had lived in 1857, instead of in 1776, he would 
 not have left a hundred pounds to be expended in 
 medals of silver or gold, which, while they stir the 
 ambition of few, dishearten and discourage many, 
 and leave heart-burnings amongst all. He could not 
 foresee what it is no merit in schoolmasters and
 
 44 FRANKLIN. 
 
 schoolmistresses to perceive after him. He founded 
 many societies, which still continue, and his schemes 
 have been extended far and wide. The people un- 
 derstood this genius for all kinds of practical and 
 social arrangement, and put his name to many insti- 
 tutions of which he was but remotely the founder. 
 Churches are called after Paul, Peter, James, John, 
 but fire companies, debating societies, book clubs, 
 libraries, hospitals, and the like, are named for 
 Franklin. Institutions for theology have the name 
 of theologic apostles, but institutions for humanity 
 bear the name of this great apostle of benevolence. 
 Administrative as well as constructive, he was a 
 most able manager. He knew how to deal with 
 men, leading them to accept his conclusions, and 
 accomplish his purposes. Here he was helped by 
 his great shrewdness and knowledge of the world, 
 and also by his admirable geniality and kindness of 
 manner, good-humor, mirth, and reserve. He did 
 not drive men, but led them, and that often with a 
 thread so delicate that they did not see it. He did 
 not affect to lead, but only to follow. So the wise 
 mother conducts her refractory boy to school for the 
 first time, not dragging him by the hand or by the 
 ear, and hauling him there, school-mother fashion, 
 but by throwing something forward, and letting lit- 
 tle Master Wilful run and pick it up ; then varying 
 the experiment, and so conquering without a battle.
 
 FRANKLIN. 45 
 
 He knew 
 
 " Men should be taught as if you taught them not, 
 And things unknown proposed as things forgot." 
 
 He took care not to wound the vanity of men, or 
 hurt their self-esteem, by exhibiting his own immense 
 superiority of knowledge, insight, and skill. He had 
 tact, that admirable art of hitting the nail on 
 the head at the first strike, and not bruising the 
 fingers while it is driven home. He was one of 
 the most adroit of diplomatists, fully equal to the 
 European practitioners, whose fathers, from genera- 
 tion to generation, had been accustomed "to lie 
 abroad for the advantage of their country." Can- 
 did and open with the honest, none knew better 
 than he how to manage a cunning man. He knew 
 how to conciliate. When others made a speech, he 
 told a story, or invented a parable, and so cheaply 
 drew the thunder out of the hostile cloud. If he 
 could not help knowing the faults of the men he 
 was obliged to work with, he forbore from letting 
 them see what he knew.* He could speak at the 
 right time, none more silvery ; but he knew when 
 silence was golden, and had a wise reserve. Hence 
 
 * Jefferson declared that the charge against Franklin of subservi- 
 ency to France " had not a shadow of foundation," and "that it 
 might truly be said that they [the government of France] were more 
 under his influence than he under theirs. Eandall's Jefferson, vol. 
 iii. p. 449, note.
 
 46 FRANKLIN. 
 
 he was often thought to dissemble and feign, because 
 he said nothing. He knew how to work, and when 
 to wait. When his iron was cold he heated it, and 
 only struck it when it was hot ; and he could make 
 his chimney burn its own smoke. 
 
 Singularly modest, he claimed very little for him- 
 self of merit, honor, or originality. He let others, 
 when it helped the common cause, use his political 
 or philosophical thought as if it were common prop- 
 erty, or the private estate of any claimant ; knowing, 
 as he said, that it would all come right in the end, 
 without his wasting any words now. With abun- 
 dance of private enemies, he had no private quarrels, 
 which it always takes two to make. Calumnies 
 against him he left time to answer. Where are they 
 now? Assaulted by some- of the wiliest, craftiest, 
 and most insidious, he never broke a private friend- 
 ship. Some he convinced, some he wooed, others 
 he gently drew, and some he took up in his great 
 fatherly arms, and carried, and kissed, and set them 
 down just where he would. He quarrelled only with 
 the public enemies of his country, but took the mild- 
 est ways of allaying trouble. When the Constitu- 
 tional Convention was excited and inharmonious, 
 Franklin suggested that their meetings should be 
 opened with prayers. And so he shed oil on the 
 troubled waters, and all tumult ceased. He knew 
 how to use the auspicious moment, and to make hay
 
 FRANKLIN. 47 
 
 while the sun shoue. All men have fits of easy be- 
 nevolence. He could take advantage of them. 
 
 Thus he procured the cannon from Governor Clin- 
 ton, of New York, for the armament of the fort be- 
 low Philadelphia, against a threatened invasion of 
 French and Spaniards. Franklin, Colonel Lawrence, 
 Messrs. Allen and Taylor, were sent to New York to 
 borrow cannon of Governor Clinton. At first the gov- 
 ernor met them with a flat refusal. But after a din- 
 ner, where there was great drinking of Madeira wine, 
 he softened by degrees, and said he would lend six. 
 After a few more bumpers he advanced ten, and at 
 length he very good-naturedly granted eighteen. 
 They were fine cannon, eighteen pounders, with their 
 proper carriages, and were soon transported, and 
 mounted on the fort. 
 
 In like manner, seizing the opportunity when the 
 news of General Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga 
 reached Paris, he at once made the treaty of alliance 
 between the United States of America and France. 
 It could not have been done a moment sooner. 
 
 II. Franklin's moral powers were certainly great ; 
 his moral perceptions quick, distinct, and strong. His 
 moral character was high, though by no means without 
 defects. He uniformly sought justice in the relation 
 between nation and nation, government and people, 
 man and man, and did not stop at the letter of 
 treaties and statutes, or at habits and customs never
 
 48 FRANKLIN. 
 
 so old, but went back to the natural rights of man. 
 He loved peace, public and private, and hated all 
 that was sectional and personal. He was the enemy 
 of all slavery, called by whatever political or ecclesi- 
 astical name. Yet his moral sense does not appear 
 to have been so active as were his affections and in- 
 tellect in his early days. This is not uncommon. 
 The faculty of conscience which sees the eternal 
 right, is often dormant at the beginning of life. 
 Hence he made w errata," as he technically calls 
 them, which he afterwards pointed out himself, that 
 he might warn others. He stumbled many times in 
 learning to walk, and, as he was a tall youth, and 
 moved fast, so he fell hard. At the last there is a lit- 
 tle lack of that nice womanly delicacy which you find 
 in a moral character of the very highest elevation. 
 His was the morality of a strong, experienced person, 
 who had seen the folly of wise men, the meanness 
 of proud men, the baseness of honorable men, and 
 the littleness of great men, and made liberal allow- 
 ances for the failures of all men. If the final end to 
 be reached were just, he did not always inquire about 
 the provisional means which led thither. He knew 
 that the right line is the shortest distance between 
 two points, in morals as in mathematics, but yet did 
 not quarrel with such as attained the point by a 
 crooked line. Such is the habit of politicians, diplo- 
 matists, statesmen, who look on all men as a com-
 
 FRANKLIN. 49 
 
 mander looks on his soldiers, and does not ask them 
 to join the church or keep their hands clean, but 
 to stand to their guns and win the battle. 
 
 Thus, in the legislature of Pennsylvania, Franklin 
 found great difficulty in carrying on the necessary 
 measures for military defence because a majority of 
 the Assembly were Quakers, who, though friendly to 
 the success of the revolution, founded contrary to 
 their principles, refused to vote the supplies of war. 
 So he caused them to vote appropriations to pur- 
 chase bread, flour, wheat, or other grain. The Gov- 
 ernor said, "I shall take the money," for "I under- 
 stand very well their meaning, other grain is gun- 
 powder." He afterwards moved the purchase of a 
 fire-engine, saying to a friend, "Nominate me on the 
 committee, and I will nominate you ; we will buy a 
 great gun, which is certainly a fire-engine ; the Qua- 
 kers can have no objection to that." 
 
 Such was the course of policy that Franklin took, 
 as I think, to excess ; but yet I believe that no 
 statesman of that whole century did so much to em- 
 body the eternal rules of right in the customs of the 
 people, and to make the constitution of the universe 
 the common law of all mankind ; and I cannot be- 
 stow higher praise than that on any man whose name 
 I can recall. He mitigated the ferocities of war. He 
 built new hospitals and improved old ones. He first 
 4
 
 50 FRANKLIN. 
 
 introduced this humane principle into the Law of 
 Nations, that in time of war,* private property on 
 land shall be unmolested, and peaceful commerce 
 continued, and captive soldiers treated as well as the 
 soldiers of the captors. Generous during his lifetime, 
 his dead hand still gathers and distributes blessings 
 to the mechanics of Boston and their children. True 
 it is that 
 
 " Him only pleasure leads and peace attends, 
 Whose means are pure and spotless as his ends." 
 
 * In the treaty of 1783, between the United States and Prussia, 
 the following was the twenty -third article, prepared by Franklin : 
 
 " If war should arise between the two contracting parties, the mer- 
 chants of either country, then residing in the other, shall be allowed 
 to remain nine months to collect their debts and to settle their affairs, 
 and may depart, freely carrying off all their effects without molesta- 
 tion or hinderance. And all women and children, scholars of every 
 faculty, cultivators of the earth, artisans, manufacturers, and fisher- 
 men, unarmed and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, 
 and in general all others whose occupations are for the common sub- 
 sistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their 
 respective employments, and shall not be molested in their persons, 
 nor shall their houses and goods be burnt or otherwise destroyed, 
 nor their fields wasted by the armed force of the enemy, into whose 
 power by the events of war they may happen to fall. But if anything 
 is necessary to be taken from them for the use of such armed force, 
 the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price. 
 
 " And all merchant and trading vessels employed in exchanging the 
 products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries, 
 conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained, 
 and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested, and 
 neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue any commis-
 
 FRANKLIN. 51 
 
 But it is a great thing in this stage of the world to 
 find a man whose ends are pure and spotless. Let 
 us thank him for that. 
 
 In his private morals there were doubtless great 
 defects, and especially in his early life much that 
 was wrong and low. His temperament inclined him 
 to vices of passion. He fell the way he leaned, and 
 caught an abiding stain from his intrigues with low 
 women. His desertion of his betrothed, Miss Read, 
 who afterwards became his wife, was unjustifiable 
 
 sion to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or de- 
 stroy such trading vessels, or interrupt such commerce." 
 
 See also WASHINGTON'S letter to COUNT DE ROCHAMBEAU, 31st 
 July, 1786, as follows : 
 
 " The treaty of amity, which has lately taken place between the 
 King of Prussia and the United States, marks a new era in negotia- 
 tion. It is the most liberal treaty which has ever been entered into 
 between independent powers. It is perfectly original in many of 
 its articles, and, should its principles be considered hereafter as the 
 basis of connection between nations, it will operate more fully to 
 produce a general pacification than any measure hitherto attempted 
 amongst mankind." 
 
 Napoleon III., 7th August, 1858, on the occasion of the opening 
 of the docks at Cherbourg, when the statue of Napoleon I. was un- 
 covered, said, " Une des questions pour lequel il avoit lutte le plus 
 energiquement, la liberte des mers, qui consacre le droit des neu- 
 tres, est aujourd'hui resolue d'un commun accord, tant il est vrai 
 que la posterite se charge toujours de realiser les idees d'un grand 
 homme." 
 
 Notwithstanding this great authority, we will still claim for Frank- 
 lin the honor of first propounding this doctrine of the freedom of 
 the seas, and the notion itself as one of our Yankee " idees."
 
 52 FRANKLIN. 
 
 and mean. At the age of twenty-four he sought to 
 negotiate a matrimonial engagement with a very 
 deserving young woman. He demanded with her a 
 portion of one hundred pounds, and required her 
 father to mortgage his house to raise the money. 
 The bargain was broken off, and the woman in 
 question soon became the wife of another. He 
 then made overtures of marriage in otber quar- 
 ters, but soon found that "the business of a printer 
 being generally thought to be a poor one," he was 
 not to expect money with a wife that was worth 
 taking without. At length he married his former 
 love, Miss Deborah Read, whom he had deserted 
 more than six years before. I make no excuse for 
 these things, and shall not call twelve a score when 
 it is only a dozen. His conduct in these respects 
 was mean and low. But it is Franklin who tells us 
 these things against himself, and gives a conscien- 
 tious list of "errata." What other American ever 
 thus volunteered evidence to condemn himself? He 
 diligently corrected his "errata" at a later day, and 
 if the Sun of Righteousness did not shine bright in 
 his morning hours, it yet made for him a long clear 
 day. True, he was set free from the youthful bias 
 of passion; but of the worser vices of ambition, 
 vanity, covetousness, self-esteem, envy, revenge, 
 malice, I find no trace in all his writings, or in those 
 of his many enemies. Though he was terribly tried
 
 FRANKLIN. 53 
 
 by Dr. Arthur Lee, and by John Adams, I cannot 
 remember a single revengeful or envious word that 
 he ever wrote in all his numerous writings, public 
 and private. He hated George III. ; and it must be 
 confessed that, if that were a failing in an American, 
 it yet "leaned to virtue's side." One of the wittiest 
 of men, his feathered shaft was never pointed with 
 malice, not a word has come from his laughter or 
 scorn at the expense of his private foes. I find in 
 him no inordinate love of power, or of office, or of 
 money, and not the smallest desire for show or dis 
 tinction. He laughed at his own vanity. None else 
 could find it to laugh at. At the period of his early 
 life, men in Boston and Philadelphia, whose only 
 distinction was that they were worth five or six 
 thousand pounds, and were residents in provincial 
 towns of ten or twenty thousand inhabitants, mocked 
 at this printer, the son of a tallow-chandler, and 
 spoke of his " mechanic rust." " Contempt pierces 
 the hide of the rhinoceros," says the proverb. 
 Franklin remembered this, and thus began his last 
 will and testament : "I, Benjamin Franklin, printer, 
 late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States 
 of America to the court of France, now President of 
 the State of Pennsylvania, do make and declare this 
 my last will and testament," &c.* He had no little 
 resentments ; he forgave his enemies, as few States- 
 
 * Sparks's Franklin, i. 599.
 
 54 FRANKLIN. 
 
 men and few Christians do, except in formal prayers, 
 where it costs nothing and leads to nothing. He 
 was publicly generous, even to his country's foes. 
 Mr. John Dickinson was Franklin's bitterest enemy 
 in Pennsylvania. He had written a special book 
 against British grievances, the "Farmer's Letters," 
 while Franklin was agent in London. Franklin re- 
 printed the book, introducing it by an excellent pref- 
 ace written by himself* thus overcoming evil with 
 good, and doing good to those who persecuted him. 
 Franklin had a strong will. All great men have ; 
 but it was not invasive or aggressive. It cut not 
 
 C7CU 
 
 other wills asunder. His large stream, swift and 
 deep, kept its own banks, and did not overslaugh 
 another's land. He would go to his purpose by your 
 road. He was. inflexible for principles and for ends, 
 but very conciliating and accommodating as to means 
 and methods ; never obstinate. He could bend his 
 own will, but not suffer it to be broken. Moderate, 
 just, persistent, now open, now reserved, he accom- 
 plished the liberation of his country. Yet he was 
 often thought to be loose, irregular, not to be relied 
 upon, indifferent, and false to his country. He had 
 no puritanic asceticism. His morals were wider than 
 Boston, wider than New England. 
 
 III. Franklin was eminently an affectionate man. 
 He had a wonderful benevolence, and was even greater 
 in this than ill philosophy or politics. He was full
 
 FRANKLIN. 55 
 
 of loving-kindness and tender mercy. This affec- 
 tionate benevolence was not merely a principle, it 
 was quite as much the instinct of a kindly nature. 
 You find it in his earliest writings, those written be- 
 fore he was twenty-one years old. He was continu- 
 ally doing good in the most practical way. He took 
 care of his poor relations, some of whom, of course, 
 repaid him not with gratitude, but with perpetual 
 grumblings and complainings. Franklin, like all 
 men, found that gratitude was no common virtue. 
 He attempted to improve the condition of sailors, 
 soldiers, prisoners of war, servants, housekeepers, 
 farmers, and the rest of mankind. He had many 
 friends, making them easily, and retaining them 
 long. His correspondence with them is full of 
 beautiful and tender love. Witness his letters to 
 Priestley, Vaughan, Bishop Shipley, Hartley, Whate- 
 ly, Jared Eliot, and the numerous ladies to whom 
 he delighted to talk with pen or lip. Flowers of 
 endearment bloom in his private letters wild, nat- 
 ural, and attractive. Even in his public documents 
 wayside blossoms of affection will spring up. Lit- 
 erature records the writings of few men that were 
 so genial. I think no man in the world ever set on 
 foot so many good works of practical benevolence. 
 He sowed the seed in Philadelphia, and thence the 
 plants spread over all the Northern States. In his 
 private capacity he looked after the a*ed, the sick,
 
 56 FRANKLIN. 
 
 and the poor. He tried to protect the Indians. He 
 would have liberated the slaves. In his high diplo- 
 matic office he sought to confine the ravages of war 
 to public property, and to the actual soldiers in the 
 field. Franklin was the universal Good Samaritan. 
 When he first set his foot in Philadelphia he gave 
 twopence worth of bread to a poor woman, and his 
 last act was of the same character. 
 
 IV. It has often been said that Franklin had no 
 religion. Even the liberal Mr. Sparks thinks it is 
 to be regretted that he did not bestow more atten- 
 tion to the evidences of Christianity.* Mr. Sparks 
 did not mean that he neglected the evidences of 
 God's existence or of man's duty, or that Franklin 
 required to be convinced of the need of honesty, 
 truth, piety, morality, reverence, love to God, and 
 the keeping of his laws. Many have called him not 
 only negatively irreligious, but positively anti-reli- 
 gious and atheistic. Here all rests on a definition. 
 
 First, if religion be a compliance with the popular 
 ecclesiastical ceremonies, then Franklin had little 
 religion, for in his boyhood he did not frequent the 
 meeting-houses or churches much, but spent his only 
 leisure day in reading -and writing ; in his manhood 
 he had little to do with church forms. 
 
 Second, if religion be a belief in the standard doc- 
 
 * Sparks' s Franklin, i. 617.
 
 FRANKLIN. 57 
 
 trines of the ecclesiastical theology, the Trinity, 
 the fall, total depravity, the atonement, the invinci- 
 ble wrath of God, eternal hell, the damnation of men 
 or of babies, the miraculous Revelation of the Old 
 Testament and the New, the miracles of famous 
 men, Jews, Gentiles, or Christians, then Franklin 
 had no religion at all ; and it would be an insult to 
 say that he believed in the popular theology of his 
 time, or of ours, for I find not a line from his pen 
 indicating any such belief. 
 
 Third, if religion be fear, whining, creeping 
 through the world, afraid to use the natural facul- 
 ties in the natural way ; if it be hatred of such as 
 think differently from the mass of those who do not 
 think at all, but only hear and believe ; if it be to 
 damn men because they say there is no damnation ; 
 then Franklin had no religion at all, but was posi- 
 tively anti-religious and atheistic. For he stood up 
 straight, like a man on his own feet, and walked 
 manfully forward, daring to think and to tell what 
 he thought himself, leaving others to think also for 
 themselves, having a manly contempt for all big- 
 otry, all narrowness, yet not hating the bigot. But 
 if religion be to do justly, to love mercy, and to 
 walk humbly with God ; if it be to love God with 
 all the mind, and heart, and soul, and one's neigh- 
 bor as one's self; if it be to forgive injuries, to do 
 good, to all men, to protect the needy, clothe the
 
 58 FRANKLIN. 
 
 naked, instruct the ignorant, feed the hungry, to 
 visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, to 
 lift up the fallen, to break the rod of the oppressor 
 and let the oppressed go free, and at heart to en- 
 deavor to keep one's self unspotted from the world ; 
 then what statesman, what man, what Bishop of that 
 time, was his equal? Nay, bating the errors he has 
 himself pointed out in his life, in what was he behind 
 the very chiefest of the apostles ? If such things as 
 he practised make a man a Christian, then Franklin 
 must stand high on the list. If they do not, then 
 it is of no consequence who is called Christian, or 
 Pagan, or Turk. 
 
 In boyhood he published some opinions, which he 
 afterwards thought foolish. He had the manhood to^ 
 be sorry for it, to say so, and to recall the little tract, 
 the only printed thing of his that I have not seen. 
 For a philosopher in that age he had a singularly 
 devout spirit, and took pains to improve the form of 
 worship, making a new translation of the Lord's 
 Prayer, and publishing a modified edition of the 
 Book of Common Prayer of the English Church ; 
 there is a little volume of pikers still in manuscript, 
 which Franklin made for his own use. He was on 
 intimate terms with Priestley, one of the most able 
 men of that age ; with Shipley, an English bishop ; 
 with Dr. Price, a Welch dissenter ; with Jared Eliot, 
 a Connecticut Calvinist; with Ezra Styles, another
 
 FRANKLIN. 59 
 
 of the same stamp, who calls himself " the most un- 
 worthy of all the works of God ; " and with White- 
 field, the great Methodist orator. He had no asceti- 
 cism, no cant ; he did not undertake to patronize the 
 Deity. He was benevolent, cheerful, honest, rever- 
 ential, full of trust in God. I do not mean to say that 
 I like, in a religious point of view, everything that I 
 find in his writings. Now and then there is a tone 
 of levity which sounds ill. I do not think he meant 
 it ill. Franklin has a bad reputation among minis- 
 ters and in churches. You see why. Because he 
 had natural religion ; because he reverenced that, 
 and trusted God more than he feared man. If he 
 had done as Mr. Polk did, sent for a minister on 
 his death-bed, and declared that all his righteousness 
 was as filthy rags ; that he had not any faith in hu- 
 man nature, but through means of miracles and 
 atonement, then Franklin's praise would have been 
 sounded from one end of the land to the other. And 
 if he had said, "Brethren, slavery is all right; here 
 is the Old and New Testament for it," the whole 
 church of America, and its ministers from the Pe- 
 nobscot to the Sacramento, from the Lake of the 
 Woods clear down to Lake Nicaragua, would Have 
 been praising him to this day. Instead of these 
 things, Franklin said, "If I should escape shipwreck, 
 I should not build a church, but a light-house." 
 As it is, Franklin and Washington must be content
 
 60 FRANKLIN. 
 
 to have possessed the greatest of human virtues in 
 the heroic degree, and to endure a bad name from 
 .the American clergy. Franklin had the substance 
 of religion, such as Jesus said should be rewarded in 
 the kingdom of heaven with a " Well done, good 
 and faithful servant," an " Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto 
 me." * 
 
 Great man as he was, he saw not all the evils of 
 his own time. He owned a slave in 1758, named 
 "Billy," who ran away from him in England, but 
 was soon found under the protection of a lady, who 
 was proud of making him a Christian, and contribut- 
 ing to his education and improvement. She had sent 
 him to school. He was taught to read and write, to 
 play the violin and French horn. Franklin says, 
 " Whether she will be willing to part with him, or 
 can persuade Billy to part with her, I know not." 
 Yet in 1760 he became one of the trustees of Rev. 
 Dr. Bray's admirable association for the instruction 
 of negroes. f 
 
 But it must be considered that slavery, in 1758, 
 was a very different thing from what it is in 1859. It 
 was by no means the cruel and malignant thing that it 
 now is. In the Constitutional Convention he conseut- 
 
 * As to his religious opinions, see Sparks's Franklin, i. 514; 
 x. 422-425. 
 
 t Sparks's Franklin, vii. pp. 201, 202.
 
 FKANKLIN. 61 
 
 ed to the continuance of slavery in the Union. I do 
 not find that he publicly opposed the African slave- 
 trade. At that time he was the greatest man on the 
 Continent of America, possessing and enjoying great 
 respect, great popularity and influence throughout the 
 country. Had he said, " There must be no slavery in 
 the United States. It is unprofitable ; it conflicts with 
 our interests, social, educational, commercial, moral. 
 It is uuphilosophicalj at variance with the first prin- 
 ciples set forth in our Declaration of Independence. 
 It is in conflict with the very objects of the Constitu- 
 tion, and incompatible with the political existence 
 of a republic. Moreover, it is wicked, utterly at 
 war with the eternal law which God has written in 
 the constitution of man and of matter. It must, by all 
 means, be put down:" had he said these things, 
 what would have happened? Washington would 
 have been at his side, and Madison and Sherman, 
 with the States of New England and of New York, 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. On the 
 other hand, Virginia and North Carolina, South Caro- 
 lina and Georgia, might have gone and been annexed 
 to England or Spain. But, instead of four millions 
 of negro slaves, and instead of slave ships fitting out 
 in New York and Baltimore, and the Federal Gov- 
 ernment at Boston playing genteel comedy at the 
 slave-trader's trial, what a spectacle of domestic gov- 
 ernment should we have had ! What national pros-
 
 62 FRANKLIN. 
 
 perity ! But Franklin spoke no such word. Did he 
 not think? Did he fear? Judge ye who can. To 
 me, his silence there is the great fault of his life. 
 It was the hour of the Nation's trial. Even he could 
 not stand the rack. No man is so good as all men. 
 No experience is so wise as time. 
 
 Yet Franklin had his little inconsistencies. In his 
 Poor Richard's Almanac he said, "Lying rides on 
 debt's back," and " Pay as you go." But it must be 
 told, "Benjamin Franklin, printer," ran in debt at the 
 grocer's, and the debt accumulated from year to year. 
 It was two pounds in 1731 ; nine pounds in 1736 ; 
 and twenty-six pounds in 1750. Some of the items 
 are curious. "A fan for Debby," his wife, two shil- 
 lings ; a " beaver hat " for himself, two pounds ; dress- 
 ing an old hat for his son, two shillings. He talked 
 against luxury; but in 1758 he sent home sixteen 
 yards of floweret tissue, which cost nine guineas, or 
 about fifty dollars, for a dress for his wife. And 
 for his daughter he sends a pair of buckles, which 
 cost three guineas. Also he purchased a w pair of silk 
 blankets, very fine," taken by a privateer, and also 
 "a fine jug for beer." Said he, "I fell in love with it 
 at first sight, for I thought it looked like a fat, jolly 
 dame, clean and tidy, dressed in a neat blue and 
 white calico gown, good-natured and lovely ; and it 
 put me in mind of somebody." * But he was 
 
 * Sparks's Franklin, vii. 164.
 
 FRANKLIN. 63 
 
 wealthy then, and the country prosperous. In differ- 
 ent times he had sterner practices.* 
 
 No man ever rendered so great services to Ameri- 
 can education. They began forty years before the 
 Revolution, and are not ended yet. His newspapers 
 and pamphlets were of immense value to the cause 
 of humanity ; for he was able, wise, just, and be- 
 nevolent. At twenty years of age, he wrote as well 
 as Addison or Goldsmith. His English is fresh, idio- 
 matic, vigorous, and strong, like the language of Dean 
 Swift. His style is direct and often beautiful as a 
 fringed gentian in the meadows of September. He 
 had great skill in making an abstract style popular. 
 He reduced many things to a common denominator, 
 that is to say, to their lowest terms, and so he made 
 them easy for all to handle and comprehend, having 
 in this respect the rare excellence of Socrates and 
 Bacon. Believing sincerity to be the last part of 
 eloquence, he has not left a line of sophistry in his 
 ten volumes. For twenty-five years he published, 
 annually, ten thousand copies of "'Poor Richard's 
 Almanac," full of thrifty maxims and virtuous coun- 
 sel. It was one of the most valuable allies of the 
 Nation. For it made popular throughout the Nation 
 that thrift which enabled Congress to keep the Revo- 
 lutionary army together for nearly seven years. I 
 
 * See the admirable letter to Sarah, 3d June, 1774, Sparks's 
 Franklin, viii. 373.
 
 64 FRANKLIN. 
 
 have often thought that the battles of the Revolution 
 could not have been fought between 1775 and 1783 
 had not the Almanac been published from 1730 to 
 1755. It was the People's classic volume, hanging 
 in the kitchens from the Penobscot to the Alleghany 
 Mountains, and from Buffalo Creek to the mouth of 
 the Savannah River. It was the Bible of the shop 
 and of the barn. Poor Richard became the American 
 saint, especially the saint of New England, a saint 
 devoted to the almighty dollar. 
 
 His scientific labors were for the Human Race. Yet 
 science was only an incident in his life, which was 
 devoted intensely to practical studies. In his early 
 days he had no training in school or college, but he 
 had a nature that was more college than the university 
 that could not let him in. He had no acquaintance 
 with the higher mathematics, nor any companionship 
 with learned men until his great discoveries were all 
 made. The magnificent works of Newton, Leibnitz, 
 Haller, Blumeubach, Priestley, Cuvier, Von Hum- 
 boldt, fill me with less surprise than the grand gener- 
 alizations of Franklin, made with no help from society 
 or from any intellectual atmosphere about him, and 
 in the midst of laborious duties. He pursued sci- 
 ence under the greatest of difficulties, and how mag- 
 nificent were the prizes that he won ! 
 
 ^Franklin's diplomatic labors in England before the
 
 FRANKLIN. 65 
 
 Revolution, and during its period at Paris, were of 
 immense value. Whenever the Revolutionary Pic- 
 ture shall be composed, Franklin and Samuel Adams 
 will stand as the central figures. He is the great 
 man of the epoch. He, of all other men, made the 
 American cause popular in England, and so secured 
 troops of friends in the heart of the enemy's camp. 
 He, at an early day, obtained the efficient aid of 
 France, supplies of money and military stores ; and 
 in 1778 he induced Louis XVI. to acknowledge the 
 Independence of the United States of America. It 
 seems to me he was the only American that could 
 have accomplished that work ; and without the aid 
 of France, it now seems that the Revolution would 
 have failed, and would have been called a "Rebel- 
 lion ; " Hancock and the Adamses had been " trai- 
 tors," and the rhetoricans would have made political 
 capital by discoursing on the cowardice, the treach- 
 ery, and the wickedness of that infamous rebel, Gen- 
 eral George Washington ! 
 
 But the services by which he is best known were 
 doubtless rendered in his more common and ordinary 
 life ; in his powers of moulding matter into machines, 
 of organizing men into companies and institutions. 
 It is amazing how much he accomplished in that way. 
 Nothing was too small for him ; nothing too large. 
 He could teach a sea-cook to put a two-pound shot 
 into his kettle of hard peas so that the roll of the 
 5
 
 66 FRANKLIN. 
 
 ship should grind them to powder ; and he could or- 
 ganize a state, a nation, or a Household of nations. 
 He was a Universal Yankee, for he tilled all the space 
 between the discoveries of a scientific or political 
 truth and the operations of a mechanic who files a 
 screw in a gun-lock. 
 
 If it be the function of a great man to help the 
 little ones, to help them to help themselves, who ever 
 did it more or better? We need not be sorry to see 
 a great man busy with the discovery of little things, 
 for the little things form the welfare of a Nation, while 
 they educate the inventor to yet larger power. 
 
 Franklin had his enemies, many, bitter, powerful, 
 and unrelenting. From 1757 to 1783, the British 
 Government hated him, whom they feared more than 
 any man. George III. warned his Ministers against 
 the "crafty American, who is more than a match for 
 you all." But his worst foes were in Pennsylvania 
 and Massachusetts ; and the traditional hatred in both 
 these States has come down to this generation. But 
 "let the dead bury their dead." 
 
 The American Government was never remarkable 
 for gratitude, until the Mexican war gave us such a 
 crop of self-denying heroes, 
 
 " Who in the public breach devoted stood, 
 And for their country's cause were prodigal of blood." 
 
 Franklin, after he had been abroad for a long time,
 
 FRANKLIN. 67 
 
 entreated further aid from home, and the Nation 
 would not grant it. Smaller men had clerks as- 
 signed to them. Franklin asked in vain ; and even 
 his money-claim against the government could not 
 be attended to in his lifetime. It has not been set- 
 tled since. It never will be. 
 
 Remarkable for special gifts of the highest kind, 
 Franklin was yet more extraordinary for the admira- 
 ble balance of all his faculties, intellectual, moral, 
 affectional, and religious. He was not extravagant 
 in conduct or in opinion, or even in feelings. I do 
 not remember a single exaggeration in all his works. 
 Among all the many schemes he was busy with, there 
 were but two which could be called visionary. One 
 was, that the legislature should be but a single body, 
 and not two, as in England and America. The other 
 was, that the Executive of the Nation should have no 
 pecuniary emolument. These were his only political 
 or philosophic whimseys. He was seldom hurried 
 away by his feelings. But here is one instance, as 
 reported by himself. The famous preacher White- 
 field was preaching in Philadelphia, to raise money 
 to build an Orphan House at Savannah, in Georgia. 
 There were then no materials, tools, or workmen in 
 Georgia suitable to construct such an asylum ; and 
 Franklin advised Whitefield to build the house at 
 Philadelphia, and send the Georgia orphans to it. 
 But, says he, "He rejected my counsel, and I there-
 
 68 FRANKLIN. 
 
 fore refused to contribute. I happened soon after to 
 attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I 
 perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and 
 I silently resolved that he should get nothing from 
 me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, 
 three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. 
 As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to 
 give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory 
 made me ashamed of that, and determined me to 
 give the silver. And he finished so admirably that 
 I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, 
 gold and all." 
 
 Most economic of men in all expenditures of power, 
 he could keep his pot boiling continuously, and not 
 let it boil over. To warm his house he did not set 
 one chimney on fire. He said he should like to re- 
 turn to this earth a century after his death, to see 
 how the world went on. It is now sixty-seven years 
 since his death. What if he could have come back 
 on the day of the great procession in September, 
 1856, when his statue was inaugurated ! He would 
 find the education of the lightning carried farther 
 than he had dreamed. He taught it good manners ; 
 to keep a little iron road, and not to run against the 
 farmers' barns or the village steeple. He would find 
 that it had been taught to write and print, and to run 
 errands over lands and under seas. What new pow- 
 ers have come into play since his time ! What a
 
 FRANKLIN. 69 
 
 change he would find in America ! The thirteen 
 States grown to thirty-one ; and, alas, another asking 
 to come in, and America saying that she shall come in 
 only with fetters on her hands, a yoke on her neck, 
 and the shackles of slavery in her soul ; the three 
 millions of people to thirty millions ; the Boston of 
 ten thousand inhabitants become one of a hundred 
 and seventy-seven thousand eight hundred and forty, 
 the thirty thousand of Philadelphia increased to five 
 hundred and sixty-five thousand five hundred and 
 twenty-nine. But, alas, he would find the four hun- 
 dred thousand slaves of the United States now num- 
 bering more than four million ; and the doctrines 
 that he put into the mouth of an Algerine to ridicule 
 the idea of slavery, now adopted as the principles of 
 fifteen States, and the rules of conduct of our Federal 
 Government. What if he had come back to his own 
 Boston when she made her last rendition of a fugitive 
 slave ! . Were he to return to the United States he 
 would find nineteen towns and ninety-eight counties 
 bearing his own name, to honor his life and memory. 
 But if he staid a little while, and bore the same re- 
 lation to the nineteenth century as formerly to the 
 eighteenth, what would become of his honors? 
 
 His character was singularly simple and healthy. 
 He used the homage of France, and of all Europe, 
 and utilized his praises that were in the lips of men, 
 so as to serve the great purposes of his country.
 
 70 FRANKLIN. 
 
 His life shows the necessity of time to make a great 
 character, a great reputation, or a great estate. You 
 want a long summer to produce a great crop. His 
 old age was beautiful. Honored and admired as no 
 other man, he went to the house he had built a quar- 
 ter of a century before, with his friends and descend- 
 ants around him. He continued in public office till 
 within six months of his death, and in the public ser- 
 vice till within twenty-four days of it. 
 
 The warning he gives is plain to beware of ex- 
 cess in early youth, of trifling with the most delicate 
 sensibilities of woman, and of ever neglecting the 
 most sacred duties of domestic life. Few men un- 
 derstood the art of life so well as he. He took great 
 pains to correct his faults. All remember the day- 
 book, in which he kept an account of his virtues, 
 arranging them under thirteen heads, until he had 
 put under his feet those lusts that war against the 
 soul. The guidance he gives is also plain. He 
 shows the power of industry, by which he obtained 
 a large estate of money, and still more a manly en- 
 dowment of learning. At twenty-one he has had 
 two years schooling, and no more ; at forty he is 
 master of English, Latin, French, Italian, Span- 
 ish, and German ; at sixty, the greatest Universities 
 in the world, and whole Nations, agree in calling him 
 the greatest philosopher then living. He was not
 
 FRANKLIN. 71 
 
 ashamed of the humblest industry whereby he made 
 his fortune, his reputation, and his character. 
 
 He shows not less the power of justice and be- 
 nevolence. It is his moral and affectional character 
 that has taken the strongest hold on America and 
 the world. When he departed this life, there had 
 been, of his fellow-citizens, great men in public 
 office ; men of mighty talents : Jefferson and kin- 
 dred spirits were in similar high places; but if he 
 should cast his eye on our diplomatic servants abroad 
 now, he would not see a single man eminent for sci- 
 ence, literature, benevolence, patriotism ; only for 
 politics and satanic Democracy, not the Celestial De- 
 mocracy. When he left the world Washington was 
 President, and should he come back it would be 
 Pierce or Buchanan. If he might have beheld the 
 great procession in Boston, inaugurating the statue 
 to his honor, how much would his heart have re- 
 joiced at the stalwart and able-bodied men in the 
 fire companies, originated through his thoughts ; 
 at the men whose business it is to beat the anvil, 
 and at all manner of workmen that his eye would 
 have looked upon ; and as the Franklin-medal schol- 
 ars passed, when he saw whole families, six sons 
 of a single mother, all adorned with his medal, 
 how proud he would have been I One thing would 
 have pained him. He would have said to the Fathers
 
 72 FRANKLIN. 
 
 of Boston, "Are there no colored people in your 
 town?" "Several thousands," would have been the 
 answer. M Have none of them won the medal ? " 
 And the City Government would iave hung its 
 head with shame, and said, " We never think of 
 giving medals to those who need them most." As 
 he ran his eye along, he would have seen but twr 
 swarthy faces in the whole length of the procession, 
 and presently he would have seen the officers of the 
 Mercantile Library Association expel them from its 
 ranks, and Boston would not have answered, and 
 said, Shame ! but Franklin would have cried, Shame ! 
 What a life it was ! Begun with hawking ballads 
 in the streets of a little colonial town, continued by 
 organizing education, benevolence, industry ; by con- 
 quering the thunders of the sky, making the lightning 
 the servant of mankind ; by establishing Indepen- 
 dence ; by mitigating the ferocity of war, and brought 
 down to its very last day by his manliest effort, an 
 attempt to break the last chain from the feeblest of 
 all oppressed men. What a life ! What a charac- 
 ter ! Well said a French poet, 
 
 " LEGISLATOR OF ONE WORLD ! BENEFACTOR OF TWO I 
 
 ALL MANKIND OWES TO YOU A DEBT OF GRATITUDE."
 
 WASHINGTON.
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 IN the beginning of the eighteenth century, in the 
 Colony of Virginia, Westmoreland County, between the 
 Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, at a spot called 
 Bridge's Creek, there was living an obscure farmer, 
 named AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON. He was born in 
 1694, and came of a short-lived family, which had 
 emigrated to America in the year 1657. He inher- 
 ited but little, and by his own diligence and thrift 
 acquired a considerable property, which chiefly con- 
 sisted of wild land, negro slaves, and cattle. In the 
 rude husbandry of the time and place, he raised 
 corn, horned beasts, swine, and tobacco. Augustine 
 Washington was first married at the age of twenty- 
 one, to Jane Butler, who became the mother of four 
 children. But she died, 4th November, 1728, only 
 two of her children, her sons Lawrence and Augustine, 
 surviving. Fifteen months later, 6th March, 1730, 
 the elder Augustine, for a second wife, married Mary 
 Ball, said to be beautiful, and the belle of the neigh- 
 
 (75)
 
 76 WASHINGTON. 
 
 boring country. She became the mother of six chil- 
 dren. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON was the eldest, the fifth child 
 of his father, and the first of his mother. He was 
 born on Saturday, February 22, 1732, a day famous 
 in the political annals of America. At his birth, his 
 father was thirty-eight years of age ; his mother twen- 
 ty-eight. He first saw the light in a rude farm-house, 
 steep-roofed, with low eaves, one story high, having 
 four rooms on the ground floor, and others in the 
 attic. There were huge chimneys at each end, which 
 were built up outside the house. It was old and 
 rickety then ; not a trace now remains ; only a plain 
 stone marks the spot as K The Birthplace of Wash- 
 ington." 
 
 George Washington was descended from the com- 
 mon class of Virginia farmers. No ruler of the 
 Anglo-Saxon stock has obtained so great a reputa- 
 tion for the higher qualities of human virtue. For 
 more than one thousand years no statesman or sol- 
 dier has left a name so much to be coveted. None 
 ever became so dear to the thoughtful of mankind. 
 In the long line of generals, kings, and emperors, 
 from the first monarch to the last president or pope, 
 none ranks so high for the prime excellence of heroic 
 virtue. His name is a watchword of liberty. His 
 example and character are held up as the model for 
 all men in authority. So much is he esteemed at
 
 WASHINGTON. 77 
 
 home, that the most selfish and deceitful of politi- 
 cians use his name as the stalking-horse behind which 
 they creep when they seek to deceive and " exploiter " 
 the People, He is one of the great authorities in 
 American Politics ; all parties appealing to him, 
 sometimes for good, most commonly for evil. 
 
 This is the ground-plan of Washington's life, the 
 map of facts and dates, the headlands only being 
 sketched in. 
 
 Born, on Saturday morning, February 22, 1732, he 
 was baptized on April 3d, of the same year, in the 
 authorized Episcopal Church of the Parish. His 
 father soon after removed to Stafford County, on the 
 left bank of the Rappahannock, opposite to the town 
 of Fredericton. There George attended a poor pri- 
 vate school, there was no other, kept by the 
 parish Sexton, who only taught Reading, Writing, 
 and Arithmetic. 
 
 At sixteen years of age, in 1748, Washington be- 
 came a PUBLIC SURVEYOR of land, and found it a 
 profitable business, earning a pistole each day (about 
 three -ffo dollars), and sometimes more than that. 
 He continued in this work for about three years, but 
 had always a turn for military affairs. 
 
 There were continual troubles with the French, 
 who were advancing their frontier outposts from their 
 settlements in the Mississippi Valley towards the
 
 78 WASHINGTON. 
 
 Western Virginia borders. Also the American In- 
 dians, who dwelt and wandered through the valley 
 of the Ohio River, and along the great lakes, took 
 part in the expeditions and forages thence arising. 
 Hence it became necessary to enroll a Service of Mi- 
 litia, which might, from time to time, be called to ac- 
 tive duty. In this Militia, Washington, at the age 
 of nineteen, in 1751, was commissioned by the Gov- 
 ernor of Virginia as Adjutant General, with the rank 
 of Major an office about equal to that of a militia 
 captain in New England. In 1752, he went to the 
 West Indies with his consumptive brother Lawrence, 
 rather a distinguished person in the eastern parts of 
 Virginia, who died in 1752, leaving a large estate for 
 George to settle, of which a considerable portion 
 fell to him. In this way he became possessed of the 
 handsome property of Mount Vernon, which the 
 brother had named for the gallant British Admiral 
 Vernon, under whom he had served in early life. 
 Washington continued to hold his commission in the 
 Virginia Army until the peace in 1758, in which year, 
 about the end of December, he returned to private 
 life as a farmer at Mount Vernon. 
 
 On the 6th day of January, 1759, he married 
 Mrs. Martha Custis, the widow of John Parker Cus- 
 tis, a woman distinguished for beauty, accomplish- 
 ments, and riches. He thus added about one hundred 
 thousand dollars to his estate, which was already
 
 WASHINGTON. 79 
 
 considerable. By her previous marriage she had 
 a son of six, and a daughter of four years of age. 
 From 1759 to 1775 he attended to the details of a 
 country gentleman's life in Virginia, improving his 
 land and adding to his property. He managed his 
 large estate with much skill for the time and place. 
 He became a member of the House of Burgesses 
 (the Legislature of the Colony of Virginia) , and in 
 1774 he was elected a delegate to represent Virginia 
 in the first General Congress of all the British Prov- 
 inces and Colonies. This Congress was called ancl 
 assembled through the influence of Dr. Franklin and 
 Samuel Adams. They had devised means, and de- 
 signed the objects of the Assembly, and had laid out 
 the work for it to do. 
 
 On the 15th June, 1775, he was appointed "Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the American Forces." No longer 
 men called him Colonel or Esquire. He laid down 
 that high Military office on the 23d December, 1783, 
 and retired to private life at Mount Vernon. In 1787 
 he was appointed a member of the Federal Conven- 
 tion, which formed THE CONSTITUTION of the United 
 States of America, and, when that Convention was 
 organized, General Washington was elected, by a 
 unanimous vote, to preside over its deliberations. 
 
 He was President of the United States from 1789 
 to 1797. 
 
 He retired to private life again in March, 1797 ; but,
 
 80 WASHINGTON. 
 
 on the following January, was elected "Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Armies " then about to be called into ser- 
 vice on account of the troubles threatening with the 
 Government of France. 
 
 He died at Mount Vernon on Saturday, 14th Decem- 
 ber, 1799, aged sixty-seven years, nine months, and 
 twenty-two days, leaving an estate of about half a 
 million of dollars, and no child. He was in the mili- 
 tary service of Virginia about seven years, and of the 
 United States of America a little more than eight 
 years. He was President of the United States eight 
 years. He was forty years a husband. 
 
 For convenience, divide his life into six periods. 
 
 I. His boyhood and youth, his school time from 
 birth to his nineteenth year, 1732-1751. 
 
 II. His service in the French and Indian war, 
 from his nineteenth to his twenty-seventh year, 
 1751-1759. 
 
 III. His life as a citizen of Virginia, farmer, 
 member of Assembly, member of the Central Con- 
 gress, from his twenty-seventh to his forty-third 
 year, 1759-1775. 
 
 IV. His service in the Revolutionary War, from 
 his forty-third to his fifty-first year, 1775-1783. 
 
 V. His service as President, from his fifty-seventh 
 to his sixty-fifth year, 1789-1797. 
 
 VI. The close of all, 1799.
 
 WASHINGTON. 81 
 
 I. Ill his boyhood and youth, his opportunities for 
 education were exceedingly poor ; not equal to those 
 afforded by the public District free schools at that 
 period maintained in every New England village. 
 During the life of his father, while he lived in Staf- 
 ford County, and until he was eleven or twelve years 
 old, he had the help of Mr. Hobby, a tenant of one 
 of his father's houses, and also schoolmaster and Par- 
 ish sexton. With him, the lad was taught only read- 
 ing, writing, and arithmetic. He never studied 
 grammar. That seems to have been one of the lost 
 arts, neglected both in conversation and in writing ; 
 and even the art of spelling was in a sad condition. 
 His father died soon after George was eleven years 
 old. He then lived, for a time, with his brother 
 Augustine, at Bridge's Creek, and attended the " Su- 
 perior School" of Mr. Williams, where he seems to 
 have learned the rudiments of geometry. 
 
 Some of his early manuscript books are still pre- 
 served. One has the autograph, M George Washing- 
 ton, aged thirteen." These writing-books are hand- 
 some monuments of neatness and boyish diligence. 
 " The child is father to the man." In one of these he 
 copied " Forms of Writing," copies of mercantile and 
 legal papers, notes of hand, wills, leases, deeds, and 
 the like. In the same book he also shut up for safe 
 keeping some specimens of " poetry," or what passed 
 for such, hard-trotting verses, adorned with the 
 6
 
 82 WASHINGTON. 
 
 jingling bells of rhyme. He copied, likewise, 
 " Rules for Behavior in Company and in Conversa- 
 tion," which have rather a cold, conventional, and 
 worldly air, showing the greatest deference to men 
 of superior social rank, and implying, in general, 
 that more respect should be paid to the condition 
 than to the real quality of men. These " Rules" seem 
 to have had much influence upon his manly life. His 
 actual manners reflected them. 
 
 His fondness for the military profession began 
 early, and was stimulated by the condition of the 
 country, though the tastes of the leading men of Vir- 
 ginia could never be made soldierly. Virginia was 
 always an uumilitary State. His elder brother, 
 Major Lawrence Washington, a powerful man in 
 those parts, was of a soldierly turn. So at fourteen, 
 George procured a midshipman's warrant, and left 
 school. It is said his luggage was put on board the 
 ship. But at the last moment his mother refused her 
 consent : he must not be a British naval officer. 
 On how small a hinge turns the destiny of how great 
 a man ! He lived with his brother Lawrence for 
 about two years more, and studied geometry and 
 trigonometry enough to become a practical surveyor 
 of land. His early Field-Books, while a learner, are 
 said to be models of neat accuracy. They contain 
 plottings of the fields about his home or school- 
 house.
 
 WASHINGTON. 83 
 
 In the autumn of 1747, before he was quite six- 
 teen, he left school, yet residing with his brother 
 Lawrence at Mount Vernon, and continued his hum- 
 ble mathematical studies. He was a public land 
 surveyor at the age of seventeen. His manuscript 
 Book of Surveys begins the 22d January, 1749, and is 
 still extant. When he was about sixteen,* it seems 
 he fancied himself in love with a maiden whose name 
 has perished, but who gave his boyish heart no little 
 puerile unhappiness. He complains that she " is 
 pitiless of my griefs and woes." The course of his 
 true love not running smooth, but being crossed as 
 usual, like other bashful young men he sought to 
 improve its flow by stringing such rhymes as could 
 be had or made, and he talks of his 
 
 " Poor, restless heart, 
 Wounded by Cupid's dart." 
 
 But he survived this affliction, and only his melan- 
 choly verses remain to tell the tale. He calls his 
 flame his " Lowland Beauty." It is said she was a 
 Miss Grimes, subsequently wife of Mr. Lee, and the 
 mother of General Henry Lee, who was a favorite 
 with Washington. A little later another maiden, 
 Miss Carey, created mischief in his heart, to which 
 some drafts of letters, still to be read in his journal, 
 
 * Irving, who is often inaccurate, says at " fifteen." The more 
 careful Sparks says " seventeen." Compare Irving, i. 34, with 
 Sparks, i. 78.
 
 84 WASHINGTON. 
 
 bear fruitful witness. He complains that her pres- 
 ence " revives my former passion for your ' Lowland 
 Beauty.' Were I to live more retired from young 
 women, I might, in some measure, alleviate my sor- 
 rows by burying that chaste and troublesome passion 
 in the grave of oblivion." It seems he never told 
 his love, but absence, business, fox-hunting at length 
 cured him, and maidens and whining verses forever 
 disappeared from his journal, which, instead, is filled 
 up with details of surveying. 
 
 His early life afforded slender means for acquiring 
 knowledge of books, literature, science, or any en- 
 larged ideas. Yet it gave him a good opportunity 
 for learning practical details of American life, and 
 for the development of character. He was much in 
 the fields, fond of athletic sports, riding, hunting, 
 leaping, fencing, and the like. His mother was a 
 woman of rather a severe and hard character, with a 
 high temper and a spirit of command, which her son 
 inherited. She was a good manager, a practical 
 housekeeper, prudent and thrifty, an exact disciplina- 
 rian, reserved and formal in her manners. When 
 Lafayette visited her in 1777, he found the thrifty 
 farmer's widow at work in her garden, with an old 
 sun-bonnet on her head ; and she had the good sense 
 not to change her working dress when she came to 
 receive the courtly friend of American Liberty. She 
 was a woman of few books, perhaps of only one,
 
 WASHINGTON. 85 
 
 w Sir Matthew Hale's Contemplations, Divine and 
 Moral," which her son reverently kept till his own 
 death. She plainly had a great influence upon Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 He continued in his business of land surveying 
 for about three years, till he was nineteen years old, 
 and thus passed his youth. He was not brought up 
 on Books, but on the Breast of things. Great duties 
 came on him early. He learned self-command and 
 self-reliance. His education was not costly but pre- 
 cious. It is doubtful whether any King in all Chris- 
 tendom, in the eighteenth century, had so good a 
 preparation for the great art to rule a State as this 
 farmer's son picked up in the rough life on the fron- 
 tier of civilization in Virginia. 
 
 II. His early military life began at the age of 
 nineteen (1751), and lasted about seven years, with 
 various interruptions, till 1758. He was occupied in 
 raising and drilling the soldiers, and commanding 
 them in their rude warfare against the Indians and 
 the French. He was sent across the Alleghanies to 
 the Ohio River on business of great importance. 
 But as the British Government treated the officers 
 of the local militia with contempt, upon the formal 
 declaration of the war he resigned his post, and be- 
 came a volunteer in General Braddock's army in 
 1754. In this he held the rank of Colonel, and was
 
 86 WASHINGTON. 
 
 stationed on the frontier of Maryland. Here, for the 
 first time, he saw regular soldiers, well disciplined 
 and accustomed to a soldier's life. His previous ex- 
 posure had made him familiar with the wild coun- 
 try in Western Virginia and in Pennsylvania, and also 
 with the Indian mode of fighting. The " frontier 
 Colonel " of twenty-three had a military knowledge 
 which, in this expedition, was worth more than all 
 Braddock had gathered from the splendid strategic 
 parades of England and Holland. Had Washington's 
 counsel been followed, the expedition would have 
 been successful. After Braddock's disastrous defeat, 
 Washington was appointed Commander-iu-Chief of the 
 Forces of Virginia, with the rank of Colonel, and held 
 the office till the return of peace in 1758. His posi- 
 tion was singularly difficult. First, because the Eng- 
 lish Governor Diuwiddie, his chief, was ignorant and 
 ostentatious, at once capricious and obstinate, domi- 
 neering, now commanding and then countermanding, 
 with no reason in either case. He both despised and 
 hated the American Colonies, and, with gross inso- 
 lence, trampled on the young men of eminent talents. 
 He vexed, thwarted, and outraged Washington con- 
 tinually. Second, the Virginia Legislature, who 
 voted the money and the men, was by no means 
 high-minded, but parsimonious and short-sighted, 
 and had besides a weak and inefficient military sys- 
 tem. Third, the Virginians did not make either
 
 WASHINGTON. 87 
 
 good soldiers or good officers. It was difficult to 
 obtain recruits for the rank and file of his little 
 army. When found, they were idle, wasteful, impa- 
 tient of discipline, and continually deserting, which 
 the civil authorities encouraged them to do. Many 
 of the officers were ignorant, idle, jealous, disobe- 
 dient, and tyrannical. Washington must create both 
 the body and the soul of his army, and even the legis- 
 lative disposition to support it. It is hard to con- 
 ceive a more trying position. He stood in a cow- 
 ardly army, and had on one side an imbecile admin- 
 istration, an obstinate executive, and a miserly 
 legislature ; on the other, a people parsimonious, and 
 seemingly indifferent to their own welfare. While 
 the Indians were ravaging the border, and driving 
 whole towns of people away from their homes, he 
 was obliged to impress soldiers, and to seize Prov- 
 inces by force. He dared not venture to part with 
 any of his white men for any distance, says the Gov- 
 ernor, as he must have a watchful eye on the negro 
 slaves. His army was always ill fed and ill clad. 
 He complains continually of a perpetual lack of pro- 
 visions, clothing, and even shoes. " Scarcely a man 
 has shoes or stockings, or a hat." He finds fault with 
 his " whooping, hallooing gentlemen-soldiers." Din- 
 widdie treated him ill, because he complained, and 
 sometimes answered him with capricious cruelty. 
 Amid all these difficulties, the youth of twenty-two
 
 88 WASHINGTON. 
 
 to twenty-six went on with coolness, bravery, and 
 moderation, and rarely overstepped his duty. Some- 
 times his discipline was a little severe. If a soldier 
 swore, he had twenty-five lashes ; five hundred for 
 quarrelling and fighting; one hundred for drunk- 
 enness. Desertion was punished with death. His 
 authority was great. The selfishness and cowardice 
 of the people were disgusting. From natural dis- 
 position he loved the exercise of power. He com- 
 plains, "No order is obeyed but such as a party of 
 soldiers, or my own drawn sword, enforces. With- 
 out this, not a single horse, for the most earnest 
 occasion, can be had. To such a pitch was the inso- 
 lence of the people carried by having every point 
 conceded to them." But he was singularly careful 
 to defer to the civil authority when possible. If the 
 right was doubtful, the conscientious young soldier 
 left it to be exercised by the magistrate, not by the 
 military arm. This is to be noted, because it is so rare 
 for military men to abstain from tyranny, especially 
 for young soldiers. And, in fact, it is hard for such, 
 since, naturally, they incline to quick methods and 
 severe measures. 
 
 His seven years' apprenticeship in that terrible war, 
 from 1751 to 1758, was an admirable discipline to fit 
 him for greater trials, in a wider and more conspicu- 
 ous field. The French War was the school for the 
 American Revolution. Here this great scholar took
 
 WASHINGTON. 89 
 
 his first lessons. He learned caution, reserve, mod- 
 eration, and that steady perseverance which so marked 
 his later life. 
 
 In 1756, in the winter, he was sent to Philadel- 
 phia, New York, and Boston on military business. 
 Tradition reports that he fell in love with another 
 young lady at New York, but the affair blew over, 
 and came to nought. 
 
 III. From the last week in December, 1758, till 
 the 15th June, 1775, Washington had no direct part 
 in military affairs. On January 6, 1759, he married 
 the rich and handsome widow of Mr. Custis, and 
 three months after went to live on his large farm at 
 Mount Vernon, where he continued mainly busy with 
 the common affairs of a Virginia gentleman of large 
 estate. .He attended to his farming, raising crops 
 there, and disposing of them in London. He bought 
 and sold land, of which he owned large tracts, chiefly 
 in the unsettled parts of the Province. He visited the 
 wealthy people of Virginia a good deal ; was often 
 at Williamsburg, the capital of the Colony, a town of 
 about fifteen hundred or two thousand inhabitants. 
 He received much company at his own house. Most 
 of the distinguished men of Virginia and Maryland, 
 including the royal Governor, were there in these 
 fifteen or sixteen years. His wife's relations he sel- 
 dom saw more than once a year, they lived so far 
 away.
 
 90 WASHINGTON. 
 
 We usually conceive of Washington as a public 
 man, sternly occupied with most important concerns ; 
 but from 1759 to 1774 he was mainly free from all 
 great public duties or cares. He could employ his 
 time as he liked. His diary, kept on the blank 
 leaves of an almanac, and still preserved, shows how 
 almost every day was spent. From this and his 
 letters, then not very numerous, we see how he 
 passed that period. He was active in parish affairs, 
 a vestryman in two churches; one at Pohick, 
 seven miles off, the other at Alexandria, ten miles off*. 
 He attended at one of them every Sunday, when the 
 weather and the Virginia roads permitted. He kept 
 a four-horse coach, with a driver, postilion, and foot- 
 man, all negro slaves, all in Washington livery, 
 and lived after the old style of Virginia elegance, in 
 a great, but rather uncomfortable house, surrounded 
 by negro slaves. 
 
 At first, his dress was plain and cheap. Thus, in 
 October, 1747, he records in his diary that he deliv- 
 ered to the washerwoman " two shirts, the one marked 
 G. W. , the other not marked ; one pair of hose and 
 one band, to be washed against the November courts 
 in Frederic County." In his backwoods fighting, he 
 was often dressed in the Indian style, as were also 
 many of his soldiers. He found it most convenient. 
 But he afterwards acquired a taste for fine dress from 
 his intercourse with British officers. So, in 1756,
 
 WASHINGTON. 91 
 
 he orders from England " two complete livery suits 
 for servants (that is, for his slaves), with a Spanish 
 cloak, the trimmings and faces of scarlet, and a scarlet 
 waistcoat, and two silver-laced hats ; one set of horse 
 furniture, with livery lace, with the Washington coat 
 on the housings ; three gold and scarlet sword knots ; 
 three silver and blue of the same ; one fashionable 
 gold-laced hat." The next year, his book records an 
 order on Mr. Eichard Washington, a London trader, 
 for " one piece of French cambric ; two pair of fine 
 worked ruffles, at twenty shillings a pair : half a doz- 
 en pair of thread hose, at five shillings. If worked 
 ruffles should be out of fashion, send such as are not 
 worked ;. as much of the best superfine blue cotton 
 velvet as will make a coat, waistcoat, and breeches 
 for a tall man, with fine silk buttons to suit it, and 
 all other necessary trimmings and linings, together 
 with gaiters for the breeches ; six pair of the very 
 neatest shoes ; six pair of gloves, three pairs of which 
 to be proper for riding, and to have slit tops, the 
 whole larger than the middle size." 
 
 At a later day, articles of woman's attire appear in 
 the orders. Thus, in 1759, after marriage, we find 
 "a salmon-colored Talby of the enclosed pattern, 
 with satin flounces, to be made in a sack and coat ; 
 one cap, handkerchief and tucker, and ruffles to be 
 made of Brussels lace or Point, to cost twenty 
 pounds" (one hundred dollars). Then follow "fine
 
 92 WASHINGTON. 
 
 flounced lawn aprons ; women's white silk hose, and 
 two pair of satin shoes, one black one white, of the 
 smallest sizes ; a fashionable Hatt or Bonnet ; kid 
 gloves, kid mitts, knots, breast knots, woven silk 
 lacings (for stays) . Red minikin pins and hair pins ; 
 perfumed powder; Scotch snuff and Strasbourg 
 snuff; Phillippe shoe-buckles," &c., &c.* These 
 little good-for-nothing straws show that for a while 
 the great Washington's stream turned off from its 
 straight course, and spread out into broad shallows, 
 trifling with its flowery shores. He was a rich farm- 
 er, a country gentleman, raising tobacco, and send- 
 ing it to England for sale ; managing his own affairs 
 with diligence and shrewdness; keeping his own ac- 
 counts with great neatness of detail. f His family 
 seems to have been rather fond of dress, with a great 
 desire to be " fashionable," and made a considerable 
 show in their little provincial world, where life was 
 dull and monotonous to a terrible degree, being re- 
 lieved only by visitors and visiting. 
 
 How did he pass his time ? His diary shows. 
 
 * Kirkland's Washington, 178-180. Afterwards he changes again, 
 and writes Richard Washington, " I want neither lace nor embroid- 
 ery. Plain clothes, with gold or silver buttons, if worn, are a genteel 
 dress, and are all that I desire." Yet he complains that his clothes 
 have never fitted him well. Sparks, ii. 337. 
 
 t Sparks, i. 109. Letter to Robert Cary. Sparks, ii. 328. Agri- 
 cultural papers. Sparks, xii. Appendix.
 
 WASHINGTON. 93 
 
 "January 1st, 1770. At home alone. 
 
 "2d January. At home all day. Mr. Peake 
 dined here. 
 
 "3d. At home all day alone. 
 
 " 4th. Went a hunting with John Custis and Lund 
 Washington. Started a deer, and then a fox, but got 
 neither. 
 
 " 5th. Went to Muddy Hole and Dogue Run. Car- 
 ried the dogs with me, but found nothing. Mr. War- 
 ner Washington and Mr. Thurston came in the even- 
 ing. 
 
 " 6th. The two Colonel Fairfaxes dined here, and 
 Mr. R. Alexander, and the two gentlemen that came 
 the day before. The Belvoir family (Fairfaxes) re- 
 turned after dinner. 
 
 " 7th. Mr. Washington and Mr. Thurston went to 
 Belvoir. 
 
 " 8th. Went a hunting with Mr. Alexander, J. 
 Custis, and Lund Washington. Killed a fox (a dog 
 one) , after three hours' chase. Mr. Alexander went 
 away, and Mr. Thurston came in the afternoon. 
 
 " 9th. Went a ducking, but got nothing, the creek 
 and rivers being froze. Robert Adam dined here and 
 returned. 
 
 " 10th. Mr. Washington and Mr. Thurston set off 
 home. I went hunting on the Neck, and visited the 
 plantation there, and killed a fox, after treeing it 
 three times, and chasing it about three hours. 
 
 " llth. At home all day alone. 
 
 " 12th. Ditto, ditto. 
 
 " 13th. Dined at Belvoir, with Mrs. Washington 
 and Mr. and Miss Custis, and returned afterwards.
 
 94 WASHINGTON. 
 
 "14th. At home all day alone.* Bottled thirty- 
 five dozen cider. Fitted a two-eyed plough, eyed 
 instead of a duck-bill plough, and with much diffi- 
 culty made my chariot wheel-horses plough. Put 
 the pole-end horses into the plough in the morning, 
 and put in the postilion and hind horse in the after- 
 noon ; but, the ground being well swarded over, and 
 very heavy ploughing, I repented putting them in at 
 all, for fear it should give them a habit of stopping 
 in the chariot. Peter (my smith) and I, after several 
 efforts to make a plough upon a new model, partly 
 of my own contrivance, were fain to give it over, 
 at least for the present." 
 
 A week later we find, " Spent the greater part of 
 the day in making a new plough of my own inven- 
 tion." f His household books contain the names of 
 his horses and his dogs. He does not seem to have 
 busied himself "with any intellectual pursuits. Books 
 seldom appear in his orders for supplies from Eng- 
 land. His diary contains no philosophic thought, 
 nothing which indicates an inquiring mind, only a 
 mind attentive to the facts of every-day life, and 
 scrupulously diligent in recording things of no great 
 consequence. From this it appears that it took his 
 grist-mill fifty-five minutes to grind four pecks of 
 corn, but he was surprised to find that it made five 
 pecks of Indian meal. This is the only scientific ob- 
 servation I have heard of in his diary. His account 
 
 * Kirkland, p. 184. f Kirkland, p. 191.
 
 WASHINGTON. 95 
 
 of the way his slaves did their work is amusing as 
 well as instructive. 
 
 While still in active military service, in 1758, he 
 was chosen member of the Virginia House of Bur- 
 gesses for the next year. The poll cost him thirty- 
 nine pounds six shillings. Among the articles neces- 
 sary for the election, his book reads, a hogshead and 
 a barrel of punch, thirty-five gallons of wine, forty- 
 three of strong beer and cider.* In the Virginia 
 Assembly he was punctual in his attendance, modest 
 in his deportment, but seldom spoke, and never 
 made a set speech. He was distinguished for sound 
 judgment and undeviating sincerity. When trou- 
 bles came, and the British Government sought to 
 oppress the Colonies, Puritanic New England began 
 the complaint, and Virginia did not tamely submit. 
 A man of details and habits, more than of ideas or 
 of philosophic principles, Washington was not one 
 of the first to move, but at length joined readily 
 and firmly in all the heroic acts to which the wild and 
 eloquent Patrick Henry stirred the Virginia Legis- 
 lature. He took a prominent part in opposing the 
 Stamp Act, and other oppressive measures of the 
 British King, after the Boston Port Bill. In the ex- 
 traordinary Convention, it is said Washington made 
 the most eloquent speech that was ever made, " and 
 said, I will raise one thousand men, and subsist 
 
 * Sparks, ii. 297.
 
 96 WASHINGTON. 
 
 them at my own expense, and inarch myself at their 
 head for the relief of Boston."* In 1769 he was 
 thinking of the possibility of a fight between the 
 Mother and Daughter, f 
 
 The first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, 
 on September 5, 1774. Washington was one of the 
 six delegates from Virginia, but does not appear to 
 have been much distinguished. Yet Mr. Wirt re- 
 lates that Patrick Henry said, "In respect to solid 
 information and sound judgment, Colonel Washing- 
 ton is unquestionably the greatest man on that floor." J 
 
 He was a member of the second Congress, which 
 met 10th May 1775. This was after the battle of 
 Lexington ; and he appeared there every day dressed 
 in his military uniform. Like the war paint of an 
 Indian, his soldierly dress was a figure of speech, to 
 tell that the time of compromise had passed by, and 
 the question must be settled, not by words, but by 
 blows. 
 
 IV. On June 15, 1775, at the suggestion of John 
 Adams, Washington was chosen Commander-in-Chief 
 of the American Army. Political motives determined 
 the choice, fixing it on a Virginian. This was to 
 conciliate the South, and make it friendly to the war. 
 
 * Adams's Writings, ii. 360. 
 
 f Sparks, ii. 351, 400 (1774) ; i. 118. 
 
 J Sparks, i. 132.
 
 WASHINGTON. 97 
 
 His personal character, his wealth, his knowledge, 
 moderation, skill, and integrity drew to him the far- 
 reaching, honest eyes of John Adams. New Eng- 
 land sagacity and self-denial alike suggested the 
 choice. But New England ambition was not con- 
 tent. In the French War New England had done 
 much service, and had won laurels. The Southern 
 States did nothing. Washington was the only officer 
 who had acquired any distinction ; and he less than 
 several men from the Eastern States. They natural- 
 ly found fault. Hancock wanted the post. Cer- 
 tainly he had done more than Colonel Washington 
 to promote the Revolution ; and he long cherished a 
 grudge, I think, against Adams for his nomination 
 of Washington. The choice was a thoughtful com- 
 promise. New England overcame her prejudices 
 against a Southern man. The modest Virginian de- 
 clared to Congress, " I beg it may be remembered 
 by every gentleman in the room that I declare, with 
 the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to 
 the command I am honored with." * He declined 
 the compensation of five hundred dollars a month, 
 and said, "As no pecuniary considerations would 
 have tempted me to accept this arduous employ- 
 ment, ... I do not wish to make any profit from 
 it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses, 
 
 * See the debate of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in the 
 Boston Daily Advertiser of 17th June, 1858. 
 
 7
 
 98 WASHINGTON. 
 
 which I doubt not the Nation will discharge, and that 
 is all I desire." He wrote a letter to his wife the 
 only one that he wrote which is preserved con- 
 cerning his election, and his acceptance of the office, 
 and enclosing his will, just made. "As it has been a 
 kind of destiny," says the modest man, "that has 
 thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my 
 undertaking is designed to answer some good 
 purpose." He left Mount Vernon in May, 1775. 
 He did not enter his own doors again till January, 
 1784. 
 
 The new Commander-in-Chief left Philadelphia June 
 21, reached Cambridge on the 2d July, and took com- 
 mand of the army the next day. He found a mot- 
 ley collection of troops ; about seventeen thousand 
 men, more than three thousand sick, all ill-dressed, 
 ill-armed, ill-disciplined, and some with no muskets. 
 The line extended fifteen or sixteen miles, by the 
 then existing roads, from Charlestown Neck to Rox- 
 bury. Most of the soldiers had enlisted for a short 
 time. Few were willing to submit to the self-de- 
 nial and stern discipline of actual war. The officers 
 were ignorant of their duty. General Ward, the 
 previous Commander-in-Chief, was old, and almost 
 imbecile ; another General kept his chamber, talking 
 " learnedly of cathartics and emetics." The camp was 
 full of jealousies, rivalries, resentments, petty am- 
 bitions ; men thinking much for themselves, little
 
 WASHINGTON. 99 
 
 for their imperilled Nation. It is always so. We 
 greatly misunderstand the difficulties of the time. 
 About one third of the people in the Colonies were 
 openly or secretly Tories. Self-denial is never easy, 
 and then much of it was needful. Their trials were 
 often borne grudgingly, and with many attempts to 
 shift the burdens. Had such a spirit prevailed as our 
 rhetoricians and orators of the Fourth of July tell us 
 of, then the Revolution had all been over in a twelve- 
 month, and every red-coat had been driven into the 
 sea. But they were as mean and selfish in 1775 as 
 they have been ever since. The battle of Lexington 
 did not change human nature. Washington must 
 create an army, create even the raw material of it. 
 Congress had no adequate conception of the cost of 
 war, and dealt out money with a stingy hand. It 
 had little enough to give, and a war is of guineas. 
 The people trusted in a volunteer militia serving but 
 a few months, and were afraid of a standing army 
 and a military tyrant. Nothing was ready, no clothes, 
 tents, cannon ; even powder was scarce, and at one 
 time there were not seven cartridges to a man. The 
 sentinels returning from duty were not allowed to 
 fire their pieces, but drew the charge. 
 
 In Boston, there lay the British Army, superior in 
 numbers, well drilled, armed well, and provided with 
 all that wealth could buy or knowledge could devise. 
 We talk of the heroism of 1776. We do not exag-
 
 100 WASHINGTON. 
 
 gerate. No Nation was ever more valiant and self- 
 denying. But Washington complains "of an egre- 
 gious want of public spirit," of " fertility in the low 
 arts of obtaining advantages." There were noble 
 men, who would give up all their own property for 
 the public good ; but there were others mean and 
 base, who would take all from the public for their 
 own advantage. Then, as now, times of trouble pro- 
 duced a Hancock, an Adams : but how seldom ! The 
 superior property, the superior education was on the 
 Tory side. Very cool, very cautious and reserved, 
 Washington had yet the zeal of an enthusiast, and 
 hated the petty selfishness he met. He was not al- 
 ways quite just to New Englanders. From the begin- 
 ning of July, 1775, till the end of February, 1776, 
 the army did nothing. How could it? Often reduced 
 to ten thousand men ! Washington improved the 
 intrenchments, drilled the soldiers, gave unity of ac- 
 tion to the whole army. Feeble in men, and supplied 
 only with poor and inefficient arms, he acted on the de- 
 fensive. But in one night he clinched the industrial 
 New England palm with a mighty fist, and on the sixth 
 anniversary of the Boston Massacre, smote the Brit- 
 ish Army a deadly blow. The enemy soon left New 
 England, and took twelve hundred Tories along with 
 them. A hostile troop has appeared in Massachu- 
 setts but once since, when it tiled through the streets 
 of Boston, and did its wicked work, with none to lift
 
 WASHINGTON. 101 
 
 an arm, slashing the citizens with coward swords, 
 a wickedness not atoned for yet, but remembered 
 against the day of reckoning. In New England, the 
 people dwelt more compactly together than else- 
 where in the Northern States. They were compara- 
 tively rich, educated, and very industrious, with that 
 disposition for military affairs belonging to men fa- 
 miliar with the French and Indian Wars. But, after 
 driving the British from Boston, Washington drew 
 his army to New York, and, not having such sup- 
 port as he found in Massachusetts, there followed a 
 whole year of disasters. The Americans were driven 
 from Long Island. Two New England Brigades of 
 militia ran disgracefully from before the British guns. 
 Washington abandoned New York. Fort Washington 
 surrendered to the enemy nearly three thousand sol- 
 diers. The flower of the army, with a great quantity 
 of artillery, ammunition, and stores, were lost. The 
 British ships sailed far up the Hudson River, once 
 thought to be impregnably defended. Washington 
 retreated through the Jerseys, his little army dwin- 
 dling at every step ; without intrenching tools, with- 
 out tents, and with few blankets. Many of the sol- 
 diers were barefoot. He flew over the Passaic, over 
 the Raritan, over the Delaware Rivers. At Christ- 
 mas, the army made one desperate step back again, 
 crossed the Delaware, captured many soldiers at 
 Trenton ; then withdrew into the mountains, and
 
 102 WASHINGTON. 
 
 into the darkness of night and the snows of winter. 
 So ended the first campaign. The very January af- 
 ter the Declaration of Independence, with three thou- 
 sand or four thousand men, Washington crept into 
 his winter quarters at Morristown. What an army 
 for such a work ! The difficulties seemed immense. 
 The Midland States were full of Tories, cruel, re- 
 vengeful, and malignant. Some of the American Gen- 
 erals were of doubtful faith. General Lee had pur- 
 posely suffered himself to be taken prisoner, that 
 he might concert a treason * worse than Arnold's. 
 Congress, discouraged, left Philadelphia and fled to 
 Baltimore. Rhode Island was in the hands of the 
 enemy. Many respectable citizens in the Midland 
 States went over to the British. The Quakers hin- 
 dered the American cause. The time of most of the 
 soldiers expired. Recruits came in but slowly, and 
 a new army must be created. Still Washington did 
 not despair! 
 
 The next spring he regained the Jerseys, but was 
 soon forced to retire. Pennsylvania then, as now, 
 the most ignorant of the Northern States, with its 
 Quakers, did little for Independence. The prin- 
 cipal citizens were not friendly to the war, or to 
 its object. Philadelphia was almost a Tory town. 
 Washington had no New England energy close at 
 hand to furnish him provisions or men. He lost the 
 
 * The fact has only just come to light.
 
 WASHINGTON. 103 
 
 battle of Brandy wine, failed at Germantowu. Phil- 
 adelphia fell into the hands of the enemy. During 
 the winter of 1777-78 he went into winter quarters 
 at Valley Forge. What a terrible winter it was for 
 the hopes of America ! In 1776 he had an army of 
 forty-seven thousand men, and the Nation was ex- 
 hausted by the great effort. In 1777 it was less 
 than twenty thousand men. Women, who had once 
 melted their pewter plates into bullets, could not do 
 it a second time. At Valley Forge, within a day's 
 march of the enemy's headquarters, there were not 
 twelve thousand soldiers. That winter they lay on 
 the ground. So scarce were blankets, that many 
 were forced to sit up all night by their fires. At 
 one time, more than a thousand soldiers had not a 
 shoe to their feet. You could trace their march by 
 the blood which their naked feet left in the ice. At 
 one time, more than one fourth of all the troops there 
 are reported as t( unfit for duty, because barefoot or 
 otherwise naked." Washington offered a prize for 
 the best substitute for shoes made of untanned hides ! 
 Even provisions failed. Once there was a famine in 
 the camp, and Washington must seize provisions by 
 violence, or the arn^ would die. He ordered the 
 Pennsylvania farmers to thrash out the wheat and sell 
 it to him, or he would take it, and pay them only for 
 the straw ! Congress was disheartened. The men 
 of ability staid at home, and weaklings took their
 
 104 WASHINGTON. 
 
 place. For some time there were only twenty-one 
 members, and it was difficult to assemble a quorum 
 of States for business. Tories abounded. There 
 were cabals against Washington in the army. Mif- 
 fliu, Conway, Gates, Pickering, Schuyler, were hos- 
 tile ; and they found abundant support in Congress. 
 Samuel Adams distrusted Washington. So, too, did 
 John Adams. James Lovell, of Massachusetts, and 
 Eichard Henry Lee, of Virginia, were not more friend- 
 ly, and far less honorable. It is not wholly to be won- 
 dered at. Within a year Washington had lost New 
 York and its neighborhood, lost Philadelphia, and 
 all the strongholds around it. He had gained but 
 one victory worth naming, that at Trenton. In the 
 mean time Burgoyue, an able soldier, with an admi- 
 rable army, had walked into a trap on the North 
 River, and had been taken by Gates and the North- 
 ern Army, who were most of them militia of New Eng- 
 land. It is not wonderful that men doubted, and 
 thought that the selfish, mean-spirited, and loud-talk- 
 ing General Conway would do better than the mod- 
 est Washington to command the Army. Samuel 
 Adams wanted democratic rotation in office that the 
 Genera] should be hired by the year ! If he had not 
 been possessed of great wealth, and cared for noth- 
 ing, I think Washington's command had come to an 
 end before 1778. But Dr. Franklin was on the other 
 side of the sea, and, with consummate art, he had
 
 WASHINGTON. 105 
 
 induced the French Court to favor America with con- 
 tributions of money and of arms, and after the sur- 
 render of Burgoyne, to acknowledge the Indepen- 
 dence of the United States, and to make an open 
 treaty of alliance, furnishing America with money 
 and men, artillery and stores. Then, first, America 
 began to uplift her drooping head. But it must be 
 confessed that when she found that a foreign Nation 
 were ready to assist her, she was the less willing to 
 raise money or men, or otherwise to help herself. 
 She was fatigued, and wanted to rest. 
 
 Within our moderate limits there is not time to tell 
 the story of the war the mingled tale of nobleness, 
 cowardice, and treachery. Peace came at last ; and 
 was proclaimed in camp on the 19th of April, 1783, 
 eight years after the battle of Lexington. On the 23d 
 of December, Washington returned his commission to 
 Congress, and presented his account of personal ex- 
 penses from January 15, 1775, to that date. They 
 were, in all, sixty-four thousand three hundred and 
 fifteen dollars. He then went home to Mount Ver- 
 non, and attended to the duties of private life. Dur- 
 ing the whole war the nobleness of the man stood out 
 great and clear. But when the war was over the 
 soldiers were not at once dismissed. The Nation did 
 not seem inclined to compensate them for their suffer- 
 ings, losses, or even for their expenses. They natu- 
 rally became irritated because the money was thus
 
 106 WASHINGTON. 
 
 withheld, which they had earned by such toil in the 
 grim trials of battle. Then it was that they thought 
 of seeking redress by their own armed hand. And 
 then it was that Washington's nobility stood out 
 grander than ever before. He placed himself between 
 the Nation and the Army, and sought and found jus- 
 tice to both. 
 
 V. The beginning of 1784 beheld Washington at 
 Mount Vernon with no public office. For almost 
 eight years his shadow had not fallen on his own 
 threshold. His affairs had lapsed into some decay, 
 sp^te of the prompt and vigilant care he took at a 
 distance. "The horse is fatted by its master's eye," * 
 and letters, once a week for eight years, are not like 
 the daily presence of the owner. The active habits 
 of public office were on him still ; and when he woke 
 at daybreak, or before, it was his first impression to 
 forecast the work of the day, till he remembered 
 that he had no public work. But public cares still 
 lay heavy on his mighty soul. The soldiers were 
 his children ; and still ill fed by the Nation, and scat- 
 tered abroad, they looked to him for help. He could 
 give sympathy, if nothing more. He had his eye on 
 the whole Nation personally, not officially ; anxious 
 for the universal welfare. His correspondence was 
 immense. He attended to agriculture, always his 
 
 * " Equus saginatur in oculo domini."
 
 WASHINGTON. 107 
 
 favorite pursuit ; improved his lands, introduced bet- 
 ter seeds and breeds of cattle. He exercised a great 
 hospitality, and visitors of distinction crowded about 
 his mansion. He sought to improve the whole State 
 of Virginia, and had a scheme for uniting, by a canal, 
 the Potomac and James Rivers with the waters be- 
 yond the Alleghany Mountains. He took a deep and 
 hearty interest in the public education of the people, 
 giving both money and time for that purpose. 
 
 America was then in a sad condition. The States 
 were free from England, but not firmly united. 
 "Thirteen staves, and ne'er a hoop, do not make a 
 barrel." The destructive work of liberation had 
 been once achieved by the sword. Next must come" 
 the constructive work of Union. Franklin's plan 
 of Confederation, first proposed in 1754, afterwards 
 offered in 1775, and at last accepted, with many 
 variations, in 1778, was hardly adequate to unite the 
 Nation, even when war pressed these thirteen dis- 
 similar members together. In peace they soon fell 
 asunder. The old Government was utterly inade- 
 quate. Congress was a single body, composed of a 
 single House, not of two Houses, as now. The 
 vote was by States. Rhode Island, with sixty thou- 
 sand, counted as much as Virginia, with six hundred 
 thousand inhabitants. There was no Executive Head. 
 Congress was to administer its own laws. There 
 were no Judiciary, no organized Departments for
 
 108 WASHINGTON. 
 
 war, for foreign affairs, or for interior administra- 
 tion. There were only administrative committees of 
 Congress. 
 
 The General Government could not raise money 
 could not pay a debt. The States were intensely 
 jealous of each other. Men called Virginia, or 
 Carolina, " my country," and did not recognize Amer- 
 ica as such. It was a great work to organize the 
 Nation, and form a national union of America, while, 
 at the same time, the rights of the States, and the per- 
 sonal freedom of individuals, were also to be sacred- 
 ly preserved. How could the Nation found a firm 
 central Power, which was indispensable, and yet keep 
 intact the local self-government which each State 
 required, and to which it had become accustomed. 
 Unless this theorem could be demonstrated in Ameri- 
 ca, "Liberty" would become a mere Latin word, 
 borrowed from the French. Tories said, "It is im- 
 possible ! " An insurrection had already broken out 
 in Massachusetts, which frightened the best men in 
 the Nation, making John Adams and Washington 
 tremble, and doubt democratic institutions. " Would 
 it not be better to have a limited monarchy, an 
 hereditary Senate?" So men talked. The Federal 
 Convention of all the States was to meet at Philadel- 
 phia, May 14, 1787. Many able men were chosen 
 as delegates, Washington among them, and some 
 very weak ones. But so little zeal was then felt,
 
 WASHINGTON. 109 
 
 that on that day only two States Virginia and 
 Pennsylvania appeared to be represented at all. 
 It was not until the 25th May that seven States, the 
 required quorum for business, appeared by their dele- 
 gates in the Convention, and then Massachusetts was 
 represented by only a single man. Washington was 
 President of the Convention, but it does not appear 
 that he took any prominent part in making the Con- 
 stitution. On the 17th of September the work was 
 finished and signed " done by consent of the 
 States." I think no member of the Convention 
 was satisfied with it. Nobody thought it perfect. 
 Franklin and Washington disliked much of it, for 
 opposite reasons perhaps. Democratic Mr. Gerry 
 opposed it, and refused to sign it. Samuel Adams, 
 John Hancock, and many more, not members of the 
 Convention, were also hostile. At this day we are 
 not likely to do full justice to its authors, represent- 
 ing such diverse local interests, and animated by such 
 hostile political principles. To some the Constitution 
 is a finality, an idol, and its authors inspired men. 
 To others it is " a covenant with death," and its 
 authors proportionally evil. I know its faults, at 
 least some of them. Time will no doubt develop 
 others, perhaps yet more fatal. I see its victims. 
 There are four millions of them in the United States. 
 I blame its great men, especially JFranklin, the great- 
 est man then or since on the American continent.
 
 110 WASHINGTON. 
 
 But I see their difficulties, and remember that no- 
 body is so wise as everybody, and that now is a 
 fool to the ages which are to come. There was a 
 Monarchic party, who wanted a strong central Gov- 
 ernment. Alexander Hamilton was the ablest rep- 
 resentative of that tendency. And there was a 
 Democratic party, which contended vigorously for 
 State Eights, and wished to keep all popular power, 
 undelegated, in the hands of the people. Jefferson 
 was the typical man of the Democrats. But he 
 was out of the country, on his mission to France. 
 There really was a danger that the thirteen States 
 should not find a hoop to bind them all into a well- 
 proportioned tub, which might stand on its own bot- 
 tom. But the States accepted the Constitution, one 
 by one, adding invaluable amendments. Seventy 
 years is a short time in the life of a great people, 
 and the day for the final judgment of the Constitu- 
 tion has not yet come. 
 
 VI. Washington was chosen President. With 
 him there could be no competitor for that office. 
 For the Vice-Presidency there might be many ; for, 
 while it was plain who was the first man in popular 
 esteem, it was not equally clear who was the second. 
 But John Adams was chosen. In the beginning of 
 the Revolution, Massachusetts and Virginia went side 
 by side. So in the beginning of the Independent
 
 WASHINGTON. Ill 
 
 United States must they be joined in the administra- 
 tion of public affairs. It was very difficult to con- 
 struct the new Government. All must be made 
 anew. There were two great parties in the Nation. 
 The Federalists, who were friendly to the Constitu- 
 tion, and inclined to a strong central Government, 
 some of them perhaps favoring a Monarchy and 
 an Hereditary Senate. The Anti-Federalists, first 
 called " Republicans," and afterwards " Democrats," 
 who had opposed the Constitution, disliked a strong 
 central power, and relied more upon the local self- 
 government of the States, or upon the individual 
 man. With his usual sagacity, Washington selected 
 the best political talent of the country to help the 
 great work, and with characteristic fairness he chose 
 men from both parties. Jefferson was Secretary 
 of State, Hamilton of the Treasury, General Henry 
 Knox of War, and Edmund Randolph, Attorney- 
 General. These composed' the Cabinet. The Su- 
 preme Court were to be appointed. He put John 
 Jay at its head. He would not be President of a 
 party, but sought to reconcile differences, and to 
 fuse all parties into one. The attempt could not 
 succeed. There \vere quarrels in his own Cabinet, 
 especially between Jefferson, who was an ideal Dem- 
 ocrat, with great confidence in the mass of the Peo- 
 ple, and Hamilton, who inclined towards Monarchy, 
 and had but small confidence in the People. In the
 
 112 WASHINGTON. 
 
 eight years of Washington's two Presidencies the 
 country was full of strife and contentions be- 
 tween these parties. No President has since had 
 such difficulties to contend with all was to be 
 made anew ; the Departments of Government to be 
 constructed, treaties to be negotiated with Foreign 
 Powers, the revenue to be settled, the public debt 
 to be paid, the Continental paper money to be pro- 
 vided for, or the question disposed of, the limits of 
 the constitutional power of the General Government 
 to be fixed, the .forms of procedure in the Federal 
 courts to be settled. The Union itself was so new, 
 the elements were so diverse, the interests of North 
 and South so hostile, it was to be feared the whole 
 would soon fall to pieces. But quickly the Govern- 
 ment was organized, an admirable plan of Adminis- 
 tration was devised, and the eight years brought in- 
 creased stability to the American Institutions, greater 
 confidence in them, greater welfare to the whole peo- 
 ple, and additional renown to Washington. 
 
 I will not here recapitulate the chief acts of his 
 Administration. They are to be found in historical 
 and biographical works. His leading principle was 
 simply to be just to all, and demand justice from all. 
 This was especially difficult in a time of such trou- 
 ble ; for while the constructive work of American 
 Democracy was going on here, in Europe the great 
 destructive forces of Humanity made the earth to
 
 WASHINGTON. 113 
 
 quake, and to swallow down the most ancient Mon- 
 archy in the Christian world. Both countries felt 
 the shock of the French Revolution. The Federal- 
 ists generally took sides against France, and with 
 England, who feared the revolutionary contagion. 
 The Democrats favored the French, and were hos- 
 tile to England, as being willing to arrest the prog- 
 res? of mankind. Both parties were a little crazy. 
 
 VII. On the 3d of March, 1797, Washington with- 
 drew from public life, and in a few days again sat 
 down at Mount Vernon, devoted himself to agricul- 
 ture, and hoped to enjoy the pleasing leisure of a 
 country life. But his Farewell Address could not 
 save him from public duties. He was to die with 
 his harness on. Fear of war with France called him 
 again to the head of the American Army, which must 
 be reconstructed in the midst of new and endless dif- 
 ficulties. But soon a peaceful trumpet called him to 
 another field. On the 14th December, 1799, Wash- 
 ington ceased to be mortal ; and he who had been 
 "first in war, and first in peace," became also "first 
 in the hearts of his countrymen," where he still 
 lives. 
 
 It is not difficult, to understand a character which 
 is so plain, the features so distinct and strongly 
 marked. 
 
 8
 
 114 WASHINGTON. 
 
 I. Look at his Intellect. 
 
 He had not a great Reason that philosophic prin- 
 ciple which seeks the universal Law and the scientific 
 truths, resting in them as ends. He was not a spec- 
 ulative, but a practical man ; not at all devoted to 
 Ideas. He had no tendency to Science. He did 
 not look after causes, ultimate reasons, general 
 laws ; only after facts. He was concerned with 
 measures, not with principles. He seldom, if ever, 
 made a philosophic remark on matter or on man. 
 His diary is full of facts. It ha's no ideas, no hints 
 or studies of a thoughtful character. He had little 
 curiosity to learn the great generalizations of nature. 
 It does not appear that he ever read a single philo- 
 sophic book. His letters contain no ideas, and refer 
 to no great principles. 
 
 II. He had not much Imagination that poetic 
 power which rests in Ideal Beauty as its end. There 
 was little of the ideal element in him. He takes no 
 notice of the handsome things in Nature, Art, or Lit- 
 erature. I remember but one reference to anything 
 of the kind. That is to be found in the " Lowland 
 Beauty," who so charmed him in boyhood. Pie 
 looked at Use, not at Beauty. Handsome dress he 
 prized for the dignity and consequence it gave him. 
 This unideal character marks his style of writing, 
 which is commonly formal, stiff, and rather prim,
 
 WASHINGTON. 115 
 
 without ornament, or any of the little wayside beau- 
 ties which spring up between the stones even of a 
 military road. He seems to have had as little fond- 
 ness for Literature as for Science. The books he read 
 were practical works, which contained only informa- 
 tion, and were quite destitute of the beauty, the in- 
 spiration, and the charm of letters. In the great 
 mass of documents which bear his name it is not 
 always easy to see what is his. Some of his greatest 
 State papers were the work of other hands. The 
 Farewell Address must be adjudged to Madison, who 
 made the original draft in 1792, and to Hamilton, who 
 wrought it over in 1797. Washington wrote it out 
 anew with his own hand, making some alterations. 
 It required four months to get it ready, so important 
 did Washington deem the occasion. The greater part 
 of the letters which fill eighty manuscript volumes 
 are written by his secretaries, who must think for 
 him as well as write. Still, there are enough which 
 came unaltered from his pen to show us what power 
 of writing he possessed. 
 
 It is refreshing to find that he sometimes departed 
 from the solemn, dull, conventional language of State 
 papers, and calls the British soldiers " Red Coats," 
 and General Putnam " Old Put ; " talks of " kicking 
 up some dust," " making a rumpus," of nominating 
 " men not fit to be shoe-blacks ; " speaks of " the 
 rascally Puritanism of New England," and "the ras-
 
 116 WASHINGTON. 
 
 cally Tories ; " " a scoundrel from Marblehead a man 
 of Property." But in general his style is plain and 
 business-like, without fancy or figure of speech, and 
 without wrath. His writings are not grass which 
 grows in the fields ; they are hay which is pitched 
 down from the mow in a barn. 
 
 III. Washington had a great Understanding. He 
 had that admirable balance of faculties which we call 
 good judgment ; the power of seeing the most expe- 
 dient way of doing what must be done, a quality 
 more rare, perhaps, than what men call Genius. Yet 
 his understanding was not of a wide range, but was 
 limited to a few particulars, all pertaining to practi- 
 cal affairs. 
 
 Thus gifted, Washington was not an Originator. I 
 think he discovered nothing, invented nothing in 
 war, in politics, or in agriculture. The " new plough 
 of my own invention " came to nothing. He was a 
 soldier nearly sixteen years. I do not find that he 
 discovered anything new in military affairs. He sat 
 in the Virginia Assembly of Burgesses ; was a dele- 
 gate to the Continental Congress, and was a member 
 of the Federal Convention at the time when those 
 bodies were busy with the most important matters ; 
 but I do not learn that he brought forward any new 
 idea, any original view of affairs, or ever proposed 
 any new measure. He was eight years President,
 
 WASHINGTON. 117 
 
 and left behind him no marks of originality, of inven- 
 tive talent, or of power of deep insight into causes, 
 into their modes of operation, or even into their 
 remote effects. Here he stood on the common level 
 of mankind, and saw no deeper or farther than ordi- 
 nary men. But he was a good Organizer. Naturally 
 systematic, industrious, and regular by early habit, 
 he had the art to make things take an orderly shape, 
 and to serve the purpose he had in view. Thus 
 his large farm at Mount Vernon was managed with 
 masterly skill ; the routine of crops was adjusted as 
 well as was then known to the art of Agriculture. In 
 the French and Indian War he took the raw human 
 material, arrayed it into companies and regiments, and 
 made a serviceable little army. In the War of the 
 Revolution he did the same thing on a larger scale, 
 and with, perhaps, yet greater difficulties in his way. 
 He took the rude, undisciplined mass of New England 
 valor at Cambridge, in 1775, and in a few months 
 made it quite an effective army, able to strike a pow- 
 erful blow. He was called on to do the same many 
 times in that war, and almost always accomplished 
 such tasks with consummate skill. He laid out his 
 plans of a battle or campaign with great good sense. 
 But I think he had no originality in his plans, or in 
 his mode either of arranging his grounds or of mar- 
 shalling his soldiers. He followed the old schemes, 
 and always took abundant counsel. As President,
 
 118 WASHINGTON. 
 
 he had much of this work of organization to attend 
 to. With the help of the able heads of Adams, Jef- 
 ferson, Hamilton, Jay, and others, it was successfully 
 done. 
 
 His great talent was that of Administration. He 
 had that rare combination of judgment, courage, and 
 capacity for action which enabled him to manage all 
 things well. He was fond of detail no little thing 
 was too minute for his delicate eye. He administered 
 his farm with severe and nice economy ; yet the 
 system of Slavery did not allow it to be very produc- 
 tive. His day-books show what all the men are 
 doing. At home he remembered the value of the 
 master's eye. 
 
 While absent from Virginia eight years in the 
 army, he had accounts continually remitted from his 
 chief overseer, telling him of all the minute details of 
 the ploughing, planting, reaping, threshing, raising 
 tobacco, and selling it ; the birth of cattle and slaves, 
 the health of his animal and of his Human stock. 
 Always, once a week, Washington wrote to his over- 
 seer, even in the most troublous times. I think that 
 he never failed of this in all the period of storms, 
 from January, 1776, to December, 1784. With the 
 same skill he administered the affairs of the little mis- 
 erable Virginia army in the French and Indian War, 
 and the greater cares of the Revolutionary Army,
 
 WASHINGTON. 119 
 
 The nearer we come to the facts, the more are we 
 astonished at the great difficulties he surmounted 
 want of powder, want of guns, want of clothes, want 
 of tents, want of shoes, and, above all, want of money, 
 which is want of everything. We are amazed at the 
 jealousy of Congress, the bickerings and petty rival- 
 ries of little and mean men ambitious of his military 
 renown, at the coldness of the people of Pennsyl- 
 vania, of Maryland, of the Carolinas, of Georgia, 
 and their indifference, even, to their own success. 
 But we are still more amazed at the high ability with 
 which he administered his humble supplies of means 
 and of men, and at the grand result he brought to 
 pass. He was not a swift thinker ; he never fought 
 a brilliant campaign, or more than a single brilliant 
 battle that at Trenton ; but I doubt that Alexander, 
 that Caesar, that Napoleon, or even Hannibal, had 
 more administrative military skill, save in this, that 
 he had not the power to make rapid combinations on 
 the field of battle ; he must think it all out before- 
 hand, draw on paper the plan of movement, and fix 
 the place of the troops. Hence he was skilful in 
 attack, but not equally able when the assault was 
 made upon him. He had slow, far-sighted judgment. 
 In much time he prepared and wrought for much 
 time. He had a real military talent, not a Genius 
 for War. 
 
 As President, he administered the political affairs
 
 120 WASHINGTON. 
 
 of the Nation with the same skill, the same patience 
 in details, the same comprehensive diligence. A 
 man of judgment, not of genius, in all important 
 military matters he required each colonel and officer 
 to furnish a written report of what ought to be done, 
 compared them all carefully, and made up his mind 
 after a thorough knowledge of the facts, and a care- 
 ful examination of the opinions of able men. 
 
 I do not find that Washington had any new ideas 
 about Government, or about political affairs. He 
 opposed the British Despotism in 1768 ; but all New 
 England had gone that way before him, and he fol- 
 lowed after in the train of the ablest and some of the 
 richest men in Virginia. He favored the union of 
 the Colonies ; but Franklin had suggested that in 
 1754, and Massachusetts, in 1770, appointed a com- 
 mittee to confer with all the Colonial Legislatures. 
 He attended the Continental Congress in 1774 ; but 
 Franklin, then in England, had really originated it. 
 He sought for Independence ; but, long before him, 
 the great souls of Samuel Adams and Joseph Haw- 
 ley had shown that it was indispensable, and the fiery 
 tongue of Patrick Henry had proclaimed it. I think 
 the Constitution does not owe- a thought to him. The 
 original plan of the details of the Federal Govern- 
 ment does not seem to have come from him, but from 
 Jefferson, Hamilton, Jay. Let us be reverent of 
 great names, also just. Washington's superiority to
 
 WASHINGTON. 121 
 
 others was not intellectual. He was continually sur- 
 rounded by abler minds in the Virginia Legislature 
 and in the Continental Congress, in the Army and in 
 the Cabinet. Compare him with Franklin, Samuel 
 Adams, John Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Jay, 
 Madison, with Greene, Pickering, and many more. 
 But he pretended to no intellectual greatness, and 
 was one of the most modest of men. This appeared 
 in all his life, from the day the Virginia Assembly 
 presented the blushing colonel with their thanks, 
 until he gave the people of the United States of 
 America his Farewell Address. 
 
 II. His excellence was moral. He had that con- 
 stitution and quality of moral power which is to vir- 
 tue what good sense is to intellect. One of the most 
 conscientious of men, he was not morally romantic, 
 enthusiastic, or transcendental. There was no more 
 moonshine in his moral than in his intellectual char- 
 acter. His virtue was not 
 
 " too bright and good 
 For human nature's daily food." 
 
 1. His natural temperament did not much incline 
 him to the vices of passion in youth, for he was of 
 that stern and austere make which leans to strictness 
 rather than to self-indulgence. He wrote in his 
 copy-book, M Labor to keep alive in your breast that
 
 122 WASHINGTON. 
 
 little spark of celestial fire called conscience." Ill 
 few hearts did it ever burn with a steadier and more 
 constant flame. Yet there was no unusual rigidity 
 in his rules of life. He was a man, and not an 
 ascetic. 
 
 He had a nice love of order, and a quick instinct 
 for decorum. This appears in the neatness of his 
 writing-books at the age of thirteen ; in the accuracy 
 of his diagrams made when he was a surveyor, farm- 
 er, or soldier ; in the clear round hand and lucid style 
 of his writings ; in the regularity of his habits ; the 
 stately ^deportment which marked him, whether in 
 the forest, the camp, or in the Senate of the Nation. 
 Yet if you look carefully, you find he was not so fas- 
 tidious as to order in thoughts as in things. He was 
 fond of form and parade, and when President, adopt- 
 ed the stately customs of Monarchic Courts, not un- 
 justly complained of at the time as savoring of 
 aristocracy, and looking towards kingly institutions. 
 It may be that Hamilton, Adams, and others had 
 more to do with this foolish parade than Washing- 
 ton himself. Yet he loved splendor, and rode in a 
 coach with four and sometimes six horses. Other 
 Virginia gentlemen did the same. Men could not 
 forget the old nonsense all at once. "Nihil saltatim, 
 omne gradatim," is Nature's rule of conduct. He 
 was accurate in his accounts, omitting no little de- 
 tail, punctual in regard to time, orderly in all things.
 
 WASHINGTON. 123 
 
 2. He had great power of wrath, inheriting the 
 high, hasty temper of his mother. In youth he was 
 " sudden and quick in quarrel." In middle life his 
 passion was tremendous, sometimes getting vent in 
 words, sometimes in blows. He never overcame this 
 excess of heat, this congenital distemper of the blood. 
 Jefferson tells of a great " occasion when the Presi- 
 dent was much inflamed, got into one of those pas- 
 sions when he cannot command himself," "called 
 Freneau a rascal," and did not miscall him, and said 
 "that, by God, he would rather be in his grave than 
 in his present situation." * In the latter years of 
 the Revolution his temper greatly offended the offi- 
 cers. 
 
 In 1775, at Cambridge, the army was destitute of 
 powder. Washington sent Colonel Glover to Mar- 
 blehead for a supply of that article, which was said 
 to be there. At night the colonel returned, found 
 Washington in front of his Head Quarters, pacing up 
 and down. Glover saluted. The General, without 
 returning his salute, asked, roughly, " Have you got 
 the powder?" "No, sir." Washington swore out 
 the great terrible Saxon oath, with all its three speci- 
 fications. " Why did you come back, sir, without it ? " 
 " Sir, there is not a kernel of powder in Marble- 
 head." Washington walked up and down a minute 
 or two, in great agitation, and then said, "Colonel 
 
 * See Jefferson's Works, ix. p. 164.
 
 124 WASHINGTON. 
 
 Glover, here is my hand, if you will take it, and for- 
 give me. The greatness of our danger made me 
 forget what is due to you and to myself." 
 
 Tobias Lear, his intimate friend, and private sec- 
 retary, says, that in the winter of 1791, an officer 
 brought a letter telling of General St. Glair's disas- 
 trous defeat by the Indians. It must be delivered to 
 the President himself. He left his family and guests 
 at table, glanced over the contents, and when he re- 
 joined them, seemed calm as usual. But afterwards, 
 when he and Lear were alone, he walked the room 
 silent a while, and then broke out in great agitation. 
 "It is all over. St. Clair is defeated, routed; the 
 officers nearly all killed, the men by wholesale ; the 
 disaster complete, too shocking to think off, and a 
 surprise into the bargain ! " He walked about, much 
 agitated, and his wrath became terrible. "Yes," he 
 burst forth, " here, on this very spot, I took leave of 
 him. I wished him success and honor. 'You have 
 your instructions,' I said, ' from the Secretary of War. 
 I had myself a strict eye to them, and will add but 
 one word, Beware of a surprise! I repeat it, BE- 
 WARE OF A SURPRISE ! You know how the Indians 
 fight 1 ' He went off with this, as my last solemn 
 warning, thrown into his ears ; and yet, to suffer 
 that army to be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered, 
 tomahawked, by a surprise, the very thing I guarded 
 him against! O God! O God! he is worse than
 
 WASHINGTON . 125 
 
 a murderer ! How can he answer for it to his coun- 
 try ? The blood of the slain is upon him, the curse 
 of widows and orphans, the curse of Heaven ! " His 
 emotions were awful. After which he cooled a 
 little, and sat down, and said, w This must not go 
 beyond this room. General St. Clair shall have 
 justice. I looked through the despatches, saw the 
 whole disaster, but not all the particulars. I will 
 receive him without displeasure ; I will hear him 
 without prejudice. He shall have full justice." * 
 
 3. By nature and education he had a strong 
 love of approbation, and seemed greedy of ap- 
 plause. This appears in his somewhat worldly 
 w Rules of Conduct," which he copied out in his 
 youth ; in his fondness for dress, which did not 
 come from a nice artistic sense of beauty, but rather 
 from a desire to win the respect and esteem of other 
 men ; and from that sensitiveness to public opinion 
 which appears at all periods of his life, especially 
 at the period when he was criticised with such 
 cruel injustice and wanton insult. In early life he 
 loved honor, and was ambitious for distinction, and 
 so obtained a commission in the forces of Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 I think he never had that mean passion of love of 
 
 * See MSS. in Sparks's Washington, x. p. 222; Hush's Wash- 
 ington in Domestic Life, pp. 67-69.
 
 126 WASHINGTON. 
 
 approbation which is called vanity, and is to honor 
 what the foam is to the sea. The scum it genders 
 drives before the wind, and unsubstantial melts 
 away. Yet in all his manly public life as Legislator, 
 General, President, I cannot find an instance in 
 which he courted popularity. Office always sought 
 him ; he never sought it. In no instance did he 
 stoop his majestic head to avoid calumny, or to pick 
 up the applause which might be tainted with the 
 least uncleanness. Admirers there were about him ; 
 there was no place for a flatterer.* In all his public 
 addresses, in all his official or private letters, and in 
 the reports of his familiar talk, there is no evidence 
 that he referred to himself, or alluded to any great 
 or good deed he had ever done I In the eleven 
 thick volumes of his works, and in the many other 
 manuscripts which are still preserved, I find not a 
 line which was written with the peacock feather of 
 vanity, not a word which asks applause. After 
 1790, the eyes of the nation yes, of the world 
 were on the sublimest man in it. His eye was on 
 the Nation, and on the Eternal Right, not on George 
 Washington, or on his great deeds. Popularity is a 
 boy's bonfire in the street. Merit is the heavenly 
 light of sun, and moon, and star. 
 
 * In Villemain's, Vie de Chateaubriand (Paris, 1858), pp. 51, 52, 
 see the account of the youthful enthusiast's interview with Wash- 
 ington in 1791.
 
 WASHINGTON. 127 
 
 4. Washington was a courageous man. He had 
 that vigorous animal bravery, which laughs at dan- 
 ger and despises fear. But this was tempered with 
 caution. It was discreet valor, which did not waste 
 its strength. In his report of the little battle with 
 Jumonville, in 1754, when he was twenty-two years 
 of age, it is related that he said, "I heard the bullets 
 whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming 
 in the sound ! " King George the Second added, 
 " He would not say so if he had been used to hearing 
 many." When Washington was once questioned 
 about the story, he answered, "If I ever said so, it 
 was when I was young." * 
 
 But he had that high moral courage, which dares 
 affront perils greater than the whistling of bul- 
 lets. He chose the right cause, though it were un- 
 popular, and held to it, fearful of nothing but to do 
 wrong. When defeated, he still bore up amid the 
 greatest difficulties. The Americans were beaten in 
 every attack made upon them, from the Battle of Bun- 
 ker Hill, June 17, 1775, till the battle of Fort Mif- 
 flin, October 22, 1777 : they were victorious only 
 when they made the charge. Yet Washington did 
 not despair. At Cambridge he had no powder, yet 
 his courage and perseverance held out. He lost 
 Long Island, New York Island, Fort Washington, 
 and some three thousand men. This was the great- 
 
 * Sparks, ii. 40.
 
 128 WASHINGTON. 
 
 est disaster of the whole war. He fled through the 
 Jerseys, his army dwindling and shrinking till he 
 had hardly seven thousand men, ill armed, unpaid, 
 ill clad, ill fed. Yet his heart did not fail him. He 
 wrote his brother, " If every nerve is not strained to 
 recruit the new army with all possible expedition, I 
 think the game is pretty nearly up." On the 20th 
 December, 1776, he tells the President of Congress, 
 Mr. Hancock, " Ten days more will put an end to the 
 existence of our army I " The recruits came in 
 slowly, and the enemy, in full force, lay at New 
 York, within two days' inarch of him. But Washing- 
 ton's courage did not fail him, nor his hope. Many 
 of the early officers of the Revolution left the army 
 in disgust. The Nation did not pay their expenses, 
 and made no promise of future indemnity. This 
 discouraged the men, and they could not enlist again 
 after their favorite commanders were gone. But 
 Washington still held on, and sought to cheer the 
 fainting souls of both officers and men. In 1777, when 
 the British held Philadelphia, and Washington went 
 into winter quarters at Valley Forge, only a day's 
 march off, at a time of the greatest peril, the coward- 
 ly State of Pennsylvania had but twelve hundred 
 militia in the field to defend their own firesides. 
 Tories abounded, full of insolence. Congress was 
 thinly attended. There were whole weeks with no 
 quorum of States. Many of the members were hos-
 
 WASHINGTON. 129 
 
 tile to him. But his great heart did not give up. 
 There was a cabal in the army against him. Con- 
 way, Gates, Mifflin, and perhaps Pickering, coveted 
 his place, and attempted his ruin. Reed, his confi- 
 dential secretary, was party to the intrigue. Mem- 
 bers of Congress distrusted him, and openly or se- 
 cretly opposed him, and wished to remove him from 
 office. Had he not served them for nothing, they 
 would have done so ; and yet this great soul bore 
 up against it all, and never quailed before so mani- 
 fold a storm of evil. 
 
 5. Washington had a will of mighty strength, 
 firm, resolute, tenacious. When his mind was made 
 up, nothing turned him aside. But he had such ad- 
 mirable self-command that he was not at all invasive 
 of the opinions of others. He respected the person- 
 ality of men, and did not impose his will upon them ; 
 neither did he allow others to intrude upon him ; but 
 he kept himself apart, austerely as the northern star. 
 He held the military power in exact subordination to 
 the Civil. Where he was present, the laws spoke 
 with clear voice. In the midst of arms, he did not 
 abuse power. 
 
 Yet he sometimes proposed harsh measures. He 
 
 wished, in 1776, to arrest and confine all who refused 
 
 to receive the Continental paper-money at par, and to 
 
 report them for trial to the States to which they 
 
 9
 
 130 WASHINGTON. 
 
 belonged. He wanted speculators and forestallers 
 brought to condign punishment. "I would to God," 
 said he, in 1779, "that some one of the more atro- 
 cious in each State were hung in chains upon a 
 gallows five times as high as the one prepared for 
 Haman." * 
 
 VI. The highest moral quality is Integrity, faith- 
 fulness to conviction and to all delegated trust. This 
 was his crowning virtue. He had it in the heroic 
 degree. It appears in all his life, from the boy of 
 thirteen, diligently copying his tasks, to the famous 
 man, well nigh threescore and ten. Here I know 
 not who was his superior. I cannot put my finger 
 on a deliberate act of his public or private life which 
 would detract from this high praise. He had no sub- 
 tilty of character, no cunning ; he hated duplicity, 
 lying, and liars. He withdrew his confidence from 
 Jefierson when he found him fraudulent ; from his 
 secretary, Reed, when he was found false in a small 
 particular. He would not appoint Aaron Burr to 
 any office, because he knew him to be an intriguer. 
 He could be silent, he could not feign ; simula- 
 tion and dissimulation formed no part of his char- 
 acter. Reserved, cautious, thinking before he spoke, 
 I can find no act of his civil life which implies the 
 least insincerity, the least want of ingenuousness in 
 the man. 
 
 * HUdreth, iii. 272.
 
 WASHINGTON. 131 
 
 In war, he used fraud to spare force, and won the 
 greatest triumph of the Revolution by a military lie. 
 In 1781, the British General Clinton had an army at 
 New York, Cornwallis another in Virginia. Wash- 
 ington lay along on the North River and the Jerseys. 
 He meant to strike Cornwallis. To render the blow 
 sure and effective, he must make it appear that he 
 intended to attack New York. He did so more than 
 a year beforehand. He deceived the highest civil 
 officers, the highest military officers, and all the Mid- 
 dle and Eastern States. To mislead the enemy, he 
 collected forage and boats in the neighborhood of 
 New York, built ovens, as if he intended to remain- 
 there and attack the city. He wrote letters to the 
 American and French officers, ordering them to that 
 place, for he should besiege the town, and sent them 
 so that they were sure to fall into the enemy's hands. 
 He deceived friend and foe. Then at the right 
 moment he broke up his camp, marched hastily to 
 Virginia, and dealt the fatal blow at Cornwallis at 
 Yorktown.* 
 
 All this deception was as necessary to his military 
 plan as powder to his cannon. It implies no deceit- 
 fulness of character in the deceiver. 
 
 He had no meanness, no little resentments. If he 
 wronged a man in his hasty temper, he sought to 
 repair the wrong. There was nothing selfish in his 
 
 * Sparks, viii. 141 ; ix. 402.
 
 132 WASHINGTON. 
 
 ambition. He rises above the most of men about 
 him, in the camp, in the Congress, or the Cabinet, 
 as a tall pine above the brushwood at its feet. He 
 did nothing little. After the fighting was over, the 
 army was not paid, and there was no certainty of 
 payment. The Nation might leave it to the States, 
 and the States might refer it back again to the Na- 
 tion. The Government was weak from its centre, 
 and not efficient or respectable from the character of 
 some of its members. A portion of the officers of the 
 army, aided by monarchial men in all the States, 
 wished to make Washington king. He needed only 
 to say "Yes, "and the deed was done. He pushed 
 the crown away with conscientious horror. 
 
 How admirable was all his conduct after the cessa- 
 tion of hostilities ! He was faithful to the army, 
 faithful to the Nation, because he was faithful to him- 
 self. How grand was his address to the army, his 
 letter to the governors of the States, his address to 
 Congress when he returned his commission ! In all 
 the history of mankind, can one find such another 
 example of forbearance a triumphant soldier refus- 
 ing power, and preferring to go back and till his 
 farm? 
 
 " His means were pure and spotless as his ends." 
 
 III. Washington was not what would be called an 
 affectionate man, or one rich in tender emotions of 
 love. Neither his nature nor his breeding tended
 
 WASHINGTON. 133 
 
 that way. His nature seems more stern than kindly ; 
 exact and moral, but not loving. He was a soldier 
 at nineteen. Great cares lay on him in his early 
 youth, and chilled the growth of the gentler emo- 
 tions. His marriage was not very propitious. Mrs. 
 Washington appears as a dressy, fashionable woman, 
 without much head or heart. The one letter of her 
 husband, and his occasional references to her, do not 
 give us a very pleasing picture of the woman. It is 
 said " she took the forward end of the matrimonial 
 yoke." To command and obey is a soldier's duty. 
 The great General practised the first in the army, and 
 the last at Mount Vernon. He had no children, 
 and so lost the best part of his affectional education. 
 There was nothing in his circumstances to supply the 
 original defect of nature. And so, upright in his 
 principles before God, and downright before man, 
 he was not affectionate and loving. Few flowers of 
 that tender quality spring up along his military, offi- 
 cial, or domestic paths. He was a just guardian, rath- 
 er than an affectionate uncle. He was bashful and 
 silent among women. Yet he was a benevolent man, 
 and charitable. He was attached to his relations. He 
 seems to have loved Lafayette. He had confidence in 
 Generals Knox, Lincoln, Greene, Governor Jona- 
 
 . than Trumbull, Joseph Reed, Madison, Tobias Lear, 
 perhaps Harrison, and at one time Jefferson. I 
 
 ' think of none besides ; but beyond this confidence he
 
 134 WASHINGTON. 
 
 had little affection for them. Yet he had no ten- 
 dency to cruelty, and mitigated, as far as possible, 
 the horrors of war. He had delicate feelings to- 
 wards prisoners, but no pity for the " rascally To- 
 ries," as he calls them. He wore his wife's miniature 
 all his life. It lay on his bosom when he died. But 
 at his death there were no tender partings for her. 
 He took leave of no one, but died like a soldier. 
 
 Nobody was familiar with Washington ; scarcely 
 any one intimate. Men felt admiration, reverence, 
 awe, devotion for this collection of grand qualities, 
 but not love. They would lay down their lives for 
 him, but they could not take him to their heart. He 
 would not suffer it. 
 
 IV. In Washington's religious character there ap- 
 pears the same peculiarity which distinguished his 
 intellectual, moral, and affectional relations. He had 
 much of the principle, little of the sentiment of re- 
 ligion. He was more moral than pious. In earlier 
 life a certain respect for ecclesiastical laws made him 
 a vestryman of two Episcopal Churches, and kept 
 him attentive to those externals, which, with minis- 
 ters and reporters for the newspapers, pass for the 
 substance of religion. It does not appear that he 
 took a deep and spiritual delight in religious emo- 
 tions, still less in poetry, works of art, or in the 
 beauty of Nature. His disposition did not incline
 
 WASHINGTON. 135 
 
 that way. But he had a devout reverence for the 
 First Cause of all things, and a sublime, never- 
 failing trust in that Providence which watches over 
 the affairs alike of nations and of men. He had a 
 strong, unalterable determination to do his duty to 
 his God, with an habitual dread of aught unworthy 
 of that Holy Name. I do not think he always for- 
 gave his enemies, like Dr. Franklin ; but he took no 
 revenge on others, and never, save in momentary 
 wrath, spoke ill words of men who hated and sought 
 to ruin him. 
 
 In the latter years of his life, from 1778 till death, 
 he partook of what is called the Lord's Supper but 
 once. Ministers have taken their revenge for the 
 omission, and have denied or doubted his religious 
 character. 
 
 It is not easy to ascertain in detail his theological 
 opinions, for on that matter he held his peace. Min- 
 isters often sought to learn his creed. It was in 
 vain. Once only he spoke of "the pure and benign 
 light of Revelation," and " the Divine Author of our 
 blessed Religion." Silence is a figure of speech. In 
 his latter years he had no more belief in the popular 
 theology than John Adams or Benjamin Franklin, 
 though, unlike them, he was not a speculative man. 
 He was entirely free from all cant, bigotry, and in- 
 tolerance. 
 
 Ministers, anxious to claim so noble a man for the
 
 136 WASHINGTON. 
 
 Christian Church, find proof of his religious practices 
 in the fact that he punished swearing in the army, 
 had prayers in the camp at Fort Necessity in 1754, 
 attended meeting, referred to Divine Providence, 
 spoke with praise of Christianity, and once, during 
 the Revolution, took bread and wine in a Presbyte- 
 rian meeting-house. I find his religion rather in the 
 general devoutness of the man, and in his continual 
 trust in God ; in the manly self-command which tri- 
 umphed over such a wild tempest of wrath as he 
 sometimes held chained within him, and which kept 
 within bounds that natural love of power, of all 
 evil tendencies the most difficult, perhaps, to over- 
 come. I find it in that he sought duty always, and 
 never glory. I find it in the heroic integrity of the 
 man, which so illustrated his whole life. Above all 
 do I find it in his relation to the Nation's greatest 
 crime. He was born a slaveholder, and so bred. 
 Slaves fell to him by his marriage, which were the 
 entailed property of his wife, and could not be got 
 rid off till her death. The African slave-trade was 
 then thought as legitimate and honorable a trade 
 as dealing in cattle, in land, in wheat, or in oil. 
 Washington disliked slavery, thought it wrong and 
 wicked. In June, 1774, he was chairman of the 
 committee which drafted the resolution of Fairfax 
 County, and was the moderator of the meeting 
 which passed them. " No slaves ought to be import-
 
 WASHINGTON. 137 
 
 ed into any of the British colonies on this Continent." 
 They express the "most earnest wishes to have an 
 entire stop put forever to such a wicked, cruel, and 
 unnatural traffic" In 1783, he writes to Lafayette, 
 who had bought an estate in Cayenne, with a view to 
 emancipate the slaves, " I shall be happy to join you 
 in so laudable a work. It is a generous and noble 
 proof of your humanity. Would to God a like 
 spirit might diffuse itself into the heart of the people 
 of this country. But I despair of seeing it. By de- 
 grees it certainly might, and assuredly ought, to be 
 effected, and that, too, by legislative authority." 
 
 In his famous farewell to the army, he congratulat- 
 ed the soldiers of the ^Revolution on their helping out 
 this stupendous fabric of Freedom and Empire, on 
 protecting the rights of Human Nature, and estab- 
 lishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all 
 nations and religions." * He sought to promote the 
 emancipation of all the slaves in Virginia. That 
 could not be done. At last, by his will, he set 
 free all his own bondmen. Their delivery was to 
 take place at the death of his wife. He wished it 
 before, but it could not be brought to pass. He 
 provided for the feeble and the old. The young 
 ones were to be free at twenty-five, and be taught to 
 
 * In a letter to the English or Scotch gentleman who wished to 
 settle in Virginia, he thinks he may object to slavery ; "but slavery 
 will not last long," says he.
 
 138 WASHINGTON. 
 
 read and write. He says, "I do hereby expressly 
 forbid the sale, or transportation out of the said Com- 
 monwealth, of any slave I may die possessed of, un- 
 der any pretence whatsoever. I do moreover most 
 pointedly and most solemnly enjoin it upon my exec- 
 utors to see that this clause respecting slaves, and 
 every part hereof, be religiously fulfilled, without 
 evasion, neglect, or delay." Here Washington rose 
 superior to his age ; here I find proof of the religious 
 character of the man. If Christianity be more than 
 one of the many delusions imposed on a groaning 
 world, it is because it is that Religion which consists 
 in natural piety, the love of God, and in natural 
 morality, the keeping of his laws. And if Morality 
 and Piety be Religion, then who shall dare charge 
 Washington with lack of Christianity? Shall Min- 
 isters, who fawn upon wickedness, and Legislators, 
 who enact iniquity into Laws? But great man as 
 he was, conscientious, moral, religious, in the high 
 sense of that abused word, "religion," he was not 
 without his errors and great offences in the matter 
 of slavery. A negro fell in the Boston Massacre. 
 One of the seventy at Lexington, "who fired the 
 shot heard round the world," was a negro, and died 
 for liberty on the 19th April, 1775. There were 
 many Africans in the battle of Bunker Hill ; the 
 Rhode Island troops, in the Revolution, were full of 
 black men. In the terrible fight in defence of Red
 
 WASHINGTON. 139 
 
 Bank, on the Delaware, in 1777, a negro regiment 
 from New England stood in the thickest of the bat- 
 tle. Washington was a leading member of the Fed- 
 eral Convention. He and Franklin were the great- 
 est men in the Nation. Had Washington, the great 
 and successful General, the President of the Conven- 
 tion, with the Nation's eyes fixed upon him, said to 
 that body, "Let there be no slaves in the United 
 States," there had been none to-day. We might 
 have lost the termagant and noisy Tory Sister Caro- 
 lina ; we should have gained millions of Freemen. 
 But Washington sat, and said nothing. I doubt not 
 his conscientiousness. 
 
 When he was chosen President in 1789, numerous 
 public bodies sent him their congratulations ; most 
 of the States adding their hearty testimonials of per- 
 sonal respect. The Legislature of Georgia sent the 
 address of that State, and complained of "the facility 
 of our black people crossing the Spanish line, from 
 whence we have never been able to recover them." 
 This was the beginning of the Florida War. This 
 the first address of Georgia. Washington promises 
 to attend to that matter, and in 1791 attempts to re- 
 cover those poor exiles of Florida, who had sought 
 refuge from bondage among Christians, by fleeing to 
 the Creek Indians in Spanish America. Thus Wash- 
 ington appears in the- second year of his Presidency 
 as a national stealer of men, no doubt sorely against
 
 140 -WASHINGTON. 
 
 his will.* He seized the first fugitive slave in June 
 7, 1793, one of the early invasions of the Fed- 
 eral Government upon the rights of the States. One 
 of the favorite slaves of his wife ran away. He heard 
 she was living at Portsmouth, in the State of New 
 Hampshire, and he wrote to some Government officer 
 there, asking if she could be arrested and brought 
 back without riot and public scandal. The answer 
 was, " No ! The arrest of a fugitive woman as 
 the slave of General Washington would not be 
 tolerated in New Hampshire." The President gave 
 up the pursuit. I make no doubt with inward de- 
 light. 
 
 You will say, w He did little for the freedom of the 
 slaves." He did more than all Presidents, with the 
 exception of Jefferson and Madison. Think of any 
 President for forty years daring to call slavery 
 w wicked," w unnatural," to commend emancipation, 
 or liberate his slaves at his death. Some ministers 
 would say, "He hath denied the faith, and is worse 
 than an infidel ! " Judge men by their own acts, and 
 by their own light, not by yours or mine. Before he 
 left the earth, he wrenched the fetters from off each 
 bondman's foot, and, as he began his flight to heaven, 
 dropped them down into the bottomless pit of Hell, 
 where they may find who seek. 
 
 In his person, Washington was six feet high, and 
 
 * Sparks, x. 163; xii. 181.
 
 WASHINGTON. 141 
 
 rather slender. His limbs were long; his hands 
 were uncommonly large, his chest broad and full, his 
 head was exactly round, and the hair brown in man- 
 hood, but gray at fifty ; his forehead rather low and re- 
 treating, the nose large and massy, the mouth wide and 
 firm, the chin square and heavy, the cheeks full and 
 ruddy in early life. His eyes were blue and hand- 
 some, but not quick or nervous. He required specta- 
 tacles to read with at fifty. He was one of the best 
 riders* in the United States, but, like some other good 
 riders, awkward and shambling in his walk. He was 
 stately in his bearing, reserved, distant, and appar- 
 ently haughty. Shy among women, he was not a 
 great talker in any company, but a careful observer 
 and listener. He read the natural temper of men, but 
 not always aright. He seldom smiled. He did not 
 laugh with his face, but in his body, and while calm 
 above, below the diaphragm his laughter was copious 
 and earnest. Like many grave persons, he was fond 
 of jokes and loved humorous stories. He had negro 
 story-tellers to regale him with fun and anecdotes at 
 Mount Vernon. He was not critical about his food, 
 but fond of tea. He took beer or cider at dinner, and 
 occasionally wine. He hated drunkenness, gaming, 
 and tobacco. He had a hearty love of farming, and 
 of private life. There was nothing of the politician 
 in him, no particle of cunning. He was one of the 
 most industrious of men. Not an elegant or accurate
 
 142 WASHINGTON. 
 
 writer, he yet took great pains with style, and, after 
 the Revolution, carefully corrected the letters he had 
 written in the time of the French War, more than 
 thirty years before. He was no orator, like Jeffer- 
 son, Franklin, Madison, and others, who had great 
 influence in American affairs. He never made a 
 speech. The public papers were drafted for him, 
 and he read them when the occasion came. Wash- 
 ington was no Democrat. Like the Federal party 
 he belonged to, he had little confidence in the people. 
 He thought more of the Judicial and Executive De- 
 partments than of the Legislative body. He loved 
 a strong central power, not local self-government. 
 A little tumult, like Shays's insurrection in Massachu- 
 setts, or the rebellion in Pennsylvania, made him and 
 his Federal associates tremble for the safety of the 
 Nation. He did not know that " something must be 
 forgiven to the spirit of Liberty." In his adminis- 
 tration as President, he attempted to unite the two 
 parties, the Federal party, with its tendency to mon- 
 archy, and perhaps desire for it, and the Democratic 
 party, which thought that the Government was al- 
 ready too strong. But there was a quarrel between 
 Hamilton and Jefferson, who unavoidably hated each 
 other. The Democrats would not serve in Washing- 
 ton's Cabinet. The violent, arbitrary, and invasive 
 will of Hamilton acquired an undue influence over 
 Washington, who was beginning, at sixty-four, to feel
 
 WASHINGTON. 143 
 
 the effects of age ; and he inclined more and more 
 to severe laws and consolidated power, while on the 
 other part the Nation became more and more demo- 
 cratic. Washington went on his own way, and yet 
 filled his Cabinet with men less tolerant of Repub- 
 licanism than himself. 
 
 Of all the great men whom Virginia has produced, 
 Washington was least like the State that bore him. 
 He is not Southern in many particulars. In charac- 
 ter, he is as much a New Englander as either Ad- 
 ams. Yet, wonderful to tell, he never understood 
 New England. The slaveholder, bred in Virginia, 
 could not comprehend a state of society where the 
 Captain or the Colonel came from the same class as 
 the common soldier, and that off duty they should 
 be equals. He thought common soldiers should only 
 be provided with food and clothes, and have no pay. 
 Their families should not be provided for by the 
 State. He wanted the officers to be "gentlemen," 
 and, as much as possible, separate from the soldier.* 
 He asked the Massachusetts Legislature, of 1775, to 
 impress men into the Revolutionary Army, and to 
 force them to fight for the liberty of not being forced 
 to fight. He finds more fault with New England in 
 one year than with all the other nine States in seven 
 years. He complains of the egregious want of pub- 
 
 * He thought the government of an army must be a perfect des- 
 potism. Hildreth, iii. pp. 163-166.
 
 144 WASHINGTON. 
 
 lie spirit in New England ; but little Massachusetts 
 provided more men and more money than all the 
 wide States south of Mason's and Dixon's Line, and 
 drove her Tories down to Halifax, while the Southern 
 States kept theirs at home ! While he was uttering 
 his murmurs, the little State of Rhode Island had 
 more than four thousand soldiers and sailors in actual 
 service ; yet her whole population was not sixty 
 thousand souls. Thus one fifteenth of her entire 
 population, counting men, women, and children, was 
 in active service at one time.* In like ratio, Vir- 
 ginia should have had forty thousand soldiers in the 
 field. Yet, in 1780, General Arnold, the traitor, 
 with less than two thousand men, ravaged in the 
 State of Virginia for five months. Jefferson did noth- 
 ing against him. Washington does not complain of 
 Virginia's egregious want of public spirit. He never 
 understood New England ; never loved it, never did 
 it full justice. It has been said Washington was 
 not a great soldier; but certainly he created an 
 army out of the roughest materials, outgeneralled 
 all that Britain could send against him, and in the 
 mi 1st of poverty and distress, organized victory. 
 He was not brilliant and rapid. He was slow, defen- 
 sive, and victorious. He made " an empty bag stand 
 upright," which Franklin says is "hard." Some men 
 command the world, or hold its admiration by their 
 
 * Sparks' s American Biography, vol. xix. p. 384.
 
 WASHINGTON. 145 
 
 Ideas or by their Intellect. Washington had neither 
 Original Ideas, nor a deeply-cultured mind. He 
 commands by his Integrity, by his Justice. He loved 
 Power by instinct, and strong Government by reflec- 
 tive choice. Twice he was made Dictator, with abso- 
 lute power, and never abused the awful and despotic 
 trust. The monarchic soldiers and civilians would 
 make him King. He trampled on their offer, and 
 went back to his fields of corn and tobacco at Mount 
 Vernon. The grandest act of his public life was to 
 give up his power ; the most magnanimous deed of 
 his private life was to liberate his slaves. 
 
 Washington is the first man of his type ; when will 
 there be another? As yet the American rhetori- 
 cians do not dare tell half his excellence ; but the 
 people should not complain. 
 
 tffc^te.4t 
 
 Cromwell is the greatest Anglo-Saxon who - was 
 ever a Ruler on a large scale. In intellect he was 
 immensely superior to Washington ; in integrity, im- 
 measurably below him. For one thousand years no 
 king in Christendom has shown such greatness, or 
 gives us so high a type of manly virtue. He never 
 dissembled. He sought nothing for himself. In him 
 there was no unsound spot ; nothing little or mean in 
 his character. The whole was clean and presentable. 
 We think better of mankind because he lived, adorn- 
 ing the earth with a life so noble. Shall we make 
 an Idol of him, and worship it with huzzas on the 
 10
 
 146 WASHINGTON. 
 
 Fourth of July, and with stupid Rhetoric on other 
 days? Shall we build him a great monument, found- 
 ing it in a slave pen? His glory already covers the 
 Continent. More than two hundred places bear his 
 name. He is revered as "The Father of his Coun- 
 try." The people are his memorial. The New York 
 Indians hold this tradition of him. "Alone, of all 
 white men," say they, "he has been admitted to the 
 Indian Heaven, because of his justice to the Red 
 Men. He lives in a great palace, built like a fort. 
 All the Indians, as they go to Heaven, pass by, and 
 he himself is in his uniform, a sword at his side, 
 walking to and fro. They bow reverently, with great 
 humility. He returns the salute, but says nothing." 
 Such is the reward of his Justice to the Red Men. 
 
 God be thanked for such a man. 
 
 
 " A soul supreme, in each hard instance tried, 
 Above all pain, all passion, and all pride, 
 The rage of power, the blast of public breath, 
 The lust of lucre, and the dread of death."
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 (1*0
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 IN 1634 the General Court of the Colony of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay made a grant of lands at Mount 
 Wollaston (now in the town of Quincy) to enlarge 
 the town of Boston. In 1636 the inhabitants of 
 Boston granted some of those lands in lots to indi- 
 vidual settlers, and even to new residents, who 
 presently formed a church, and settled their minis- 
 ters. In 1640 they were incorporated as a town, 
 which bore the name of Braintree. I find forty 
 acres of land granted to one Henry Adams. He 
 died in 1646, and left an estate appraised at sev- 
 enty-five pounds, thirteen shillings. It consisted of 
 the land, a barn, and a house, which had one kitchen, 
 one parlor, and one chamber in the attic, where 
 dwelt the eleven persons who made up the family. 
 The inventory of his estate, taken after his death, 
 catalogues " three beds," which must have contained 
 them all at night. He left also one cow, one heifer, 
 swine, some old books, and a silver spoon. He was 
 grandfather's grandfather to the second President of 
 
 (149)
 
 150 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 the United States. It was not a conspicuous fam- 
 ily in those times, though it has since borne two 
 Presidents, and is still vigorous and flourishing, 
 promising I know not how great future glories. 
 On the other side of the water antiquaries and gen- 
 ealogists find that the family was old and baronial. 
 
 Indeed, the name would justify a larger genea- 
 logical claim. The Adamses ought to be an old 
 family and a great. According to the received ac- 
 counts, it is the first in the world. Look at the far- 
 famed descendant of this Puritanic Henry of Brain- 
 tree, and see what he did and suffered, and what 
 extraordinary events he thereby brought to pass. 
 
 To understand his life, divide it into six parts : 
 
 I. His childhood and youth, from birth till twenty- 
 three. 1735 to 1758. 
 
 II. His doings as a lawyer in Suffolk County, 
 from twenty-three till about forty. 1758 to 1775. 
 
 III. His work as a politician in Congress and at 
 home, from forty till forty-three. 1775 to 1778. 
 
 IV. Diplomatic services in Europe, from forty- 
 three till fifty-two. 1778 to 1787. 
 
 V. His conduct in the Executive of the United 
 States as Vice-President and President, from fifty- 
 two to sixty-five. 1787 to 1800. 
 
 VI. His demeanor in private life, from sixty-five 
 till nearly ninety-one, the close of all. 1800 to 1826.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 151 
 
 i 
 
 I. 
 
 His CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 
 
 JOHN ADAMS was born October 19, 1735. His 
 father, John Adams, then forty-four years old, and 
 married but the year before, was a farmer, with 
 small means, living in that part of Braintree now 
 called Quincy ; a farmer and a shoemaker at the 
 same time, says the local tradition. When he died, 
 in 1760, he left an estate of thirteen hundred and 
 thirty pounds nine shillings and eightpence about 
 four or five thousand dollars in our money. He 
 was an officer in the British militia, and for several 
 years one of the Selectmen of the town, and also for 
 many years a deacon of the church. He seems to 
 have been a well-educated man, thoughtful, thrifty, 
 careful, with considerable capacity, genuine piety, 
 and great uprightness of character. Integrity is a 
 virtue his son could inherit if virtue runs in families. 
 John was the eldest child of this household, which, at 
 length, counted twelve, a number then not uncom- 
 mon. Of his childhood and early youth I find noth- 
 ing on record. In his sixteenth year he entered Har- 
 vard College. He had studied with two tutors Mr. 
 Cleverly, the Episcopalian Minister of the town, 
 and Mr. Marsh, the reader at the Episcopal Church. 
 Slender help it was that he got from them. He was
 
 152 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 graduated at Harvard College in 1755, ranking as 
 fourteenth in a class of twenty-four. In the classes 
 the precedence was dependent upon the social condi- 
 tion of the parents ; and as to that, his mother, a Boyl- 
 ston from Brookline, seems to have been considered 
 of higher family than that of the deacon, his father. 
 The learning he brought out of college would not 
 now qualify a boy to enter there. But it appears 
 that he stood well 'in his scholarship. Certainly he 
 had " small Latin, and less Greek." A year after 
 his graduation I find him studying Virgil, mastering 
 thirty lines in one day, and " about forty " the next, 
 in the precious spare time left to him by his more 
 serious work. Three years later he is reading 
 Horace. In 1760 he writes in his Diary, " In con- 
 sequence of the ignorance of parents, masters Clev- 
 erly, Marsh, Waters, Mayhew, &c., and by reason 
 of the ignorance of my instructors in the more ad- 
 vanced years of m}' life, my mind has lain uncultured, 
 so that at twenty-five I am obliged to study Homer 
 and Horace. Proh dolor J" Certainly he got lit- 
 tle classic culture from Harvard then. Yet his class 
 contained men afterwards distinguished, who, per- 
 haps, got less even than he. The standard of what 
 was called Education, was then exceeding low. But 
 then, as now, scholarship and manhood were differ- 
 ent things, and did not always ride in the same 
 panniers. Presently, after graduating, he went to
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 153 
 
 Worcester to keep a common school, which was 
 kept continuously throughout the year, in a town 
 of perhaps fifteen hundred inhabitants, where he 
 seems to have taught all disciples, from A, B, C, up- 
 wards to Latin and Greek, or as far as his pupils 
 could go. He thought his labor was great, and his 
 pay small. He "boards round," as the phrase was 
 then ; a little while here, a little while there. It 
 was the custom of the times. I do not find exactly 
 what his salary was, but the town had several dis- 
 trict schools, each keeping part of the year, and 
 raised but seventy pounds, or two hundred and 
 thirty-three dollars forty-four cents, for the support 
 of them all. Adams's share could not have been 
 more than one hundred and twenty-five dollars, or 
 perhaps one hundred and fifty dollars, in addition 
 to his board. He does not like the business, and 
 now and then grumbles about it. "The mischievous 
 tricks, the perpetual invincible prate, and the stupid 
 dulness of my scholars, roused my passions."* His 
 situation was extremely irksome. He says, " The 
 school is indeed a school of affliction. A large 
 number -of little nurslings, just capable of lisping 
 A, B, C, and troubling the master." Some one 
 tells him he may make those little creatures "plants 
 of renown," and " cedars of Lebanon." But Mr. 
 
 * Adams's Life of Adams, ii. 88 ; i. 22. See, too, Talk of J. Q. 
 Adams about that, ib. 

 
 154 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 Adams tells him "that keeping this school any 
 length of time would make a base weed and igno- 
 ble shrub of me." He kept it nearly three years, 
 however, and yet grew up to a pretty respectable 
 tree, not yet done blossoming in the Politics of 
 America, but still fresh and vigorous as a hundred 
 years ago. It came of good seed that tree. The 
 people of the town pleased him no better. " All 
 the conversation was dry disputes upon politics 
 and rural obscene wit." Yet there were intelli- 
 gent and reading men in the little village. Mr. 
 Adams's proclivity to grumble appears early. How 
 he kept school I know not. But as he went for two 
 years, and staid more than three, it would appear 
 he surpassed other teachers. 
 
 He must choose a profession, this young Hercules. 
 His father intended him for the Christian Ministry. 
 His uncle Joseph, the eldest of his grandfather's 
 twelve children, had before him entered that pro- 
 fession. The pulpit then absorbed most of the best 
 talent of New England, which now runs away from 
 it with swift acceleration. His nature inclined him 
 to become a minister, for he was a devout man, 
 severe in his morality, warring against all the sins 
 of passion, austere, fond of theological books and of 
 ecclesiastical ceremonies. But he had a profound 
 need of looking all important things in the face, 
 and taking nothing on hearsay, or at second hand.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 155 
 
 He was possessed with a love of freedom, and a 
 contempt for all bigots and haters of mankind. It 
 soon appeared clearly that a New England pulpit 
 was no place for him. He became acquainted with a 
 noble, generous young man, of fine genius, admirable 
 culture, who aspired to the best parish in the Prov- 
 ince. But he was suspected of Arminianism, and 
 accordingly "despised by some, ridiculed by others, 
 and detested by most." " People are not disposed to 
 inquire for piety, integrity, good sense, or learning 
 in a young preacher, but for stupidity (for so I must 
 call the pretended sanctity of some -absolute dunces) , 
 irresistible grace, and original sin." So he wrote on 
 his twenty-first birthday : " The pulpit is no place 
 for you, young man ! and the sooner you give up all 
 thoughts of it the better for you, though the worse 
 for it, and for all such as look up to it." His atten- 
 tion was called to the profession of medicine, board- 
 ing as he did with Dr. Willard, who " had a large 
 practice, a good reputation for skill, and a pretty 
 library." He read a good deal in Cheyne, Syden- 
 ham, Van Swieten, but turned away his eyes from 
 the healing art. Nay, he seriously thought of the 
 opposite art that of killing. w Nothing but want of 
 interest and patronage prevented me from enlisting 
 in the army. Could I have obtained a troop of horse 
 or a companj 1 - of foot, I should infallibly have been a
 
 156 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 soldier." * It was in 1756, the time of the French 
 War, and all New England blazed with military ar- 
 dor. Trade and farming attracted his attention, but 
 he finally fixed his eyes upon the Law, and determined 
 on that for his calling. On his twenty-first birthday, 
 in the same letter before quoted, he writes, " If I can 
 gain the honor of treading in the rear, and silently 
 admiring the noble air and gallant achievements of 
 the foremost rank, I shall think myself worthy of a 
 louder triumph than if I had headed the whole army 
 of Orthodox preachers, f The study and practice 
 of law, I am sure, does not dissolve the obligations 
 of morality or of Religion." 
 
 So he agrees to study with a Mr. Putnam, a thriv- 
 ing lawyer of Worcester, for two years, and to pay 
 him one hundred dollars for the instruction when he 
 may become able to pay the debt. Here he contin- 
 ued till October, 1758, keeping school six hours a 
 day, and studying Law most of the spare time, as 
 his health and temper allowed. His educational 
 helps at Worcester were not to be despised. There 
 were several educated and thoughtful men there, who 
 had broken away from the ecclesiastical chains which 
 yet bound so many. The war forced men to think 
 and discuss great matters, the result of which is re- 
 
 * Letter of October 19, 1756, Works i. 36; and also letter of 
 March 13, 1817, p. 38. f Works, i. 37, and ii. 31.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 157 
 
 fleeted in one of his earliest letters. He read the 
 works of some thoughtful men, Lord Bacon, Bo- 
 lingbroke, Morgan, Bishop Butler, not less than Til- 
 lotson and Baxter. The influence of the Freethinkers, 
 Bolingbroke and Morgan, is obvious and decisive. 
 
 He studied laboriously the law books deemed 
 essential in those days, some of which look rather 
 frightful to young lawyers now that the legal road is 
 straightened, smoothed, and made easy. He loves 
 to go to the original source of things. This appears 
 in his early habits of study. But he had great diffi- 
 culties to contend with, whereof poverty was the 
 least. His Diary tells us what he thought of himself. 
 He affected wit and humor. His attention was un- 
 steady and irregular. " He had a remarkable absence 
 of mind, a morose and unsocial disposition." He com- 
 plains of his own idleness, late rising, waste of time 
 in day-dreams, and gallavanting the girls. This latter 
 annoyed him for a long time, till he remedied that 
 mischief in the most natural way. He charges him- 
 self with "rash and profane swearing," with "viru- 
 lence " against divers people. But his intense vanity 
 was his greatest foe in early life. " Vanity," writes 
 the candid youth of twenty, " is my cardinal vice and 
 cardinal folly."* Envy, likewise, gnawed at the heart 
 of the poor lad ; but he keeps free from the vices of 
 passion. 
 
 * Works, ii. 16, 25, and elsewhere.
 
 158 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 II. 
 
 His LIFE AS A LAWYER. 1758-1774. 
 
 After his two years of study at Worcester, he re- 
 turns to Braintree, is admitted to practice in the 
 Superior Court of Massachusetts, October 5, 1758, 
 and establishes himself as a lawyer in his native vil- 
 lage. But his legal education is only begun. In the 
 midst of internal difficulties, he toils away at his 
 work, not without sighing for his old school at 
 Worcester, which he so much disliked while there. 
 His plan of legal study was quite comprehensive. He 
 wished to understand Natural Law, which is justice, 
 and so would study the great writers on Ethics, the 
 Common Law of England, and the Statutes, and also 
 the Civil Law of Rome, which has had such influ- 
 ence on the administration of Justice throughout all 
 Christendom. Such study demanded the reading of 
 many books a weariness to his flesh ; for he was 
 lazy and impetuous by turns, and unfit for the schol- 
 ar's slow, silent work. - But his ambition was intense 
 and persistent, though he grumbled at the difficulty 
 of studying Law while practising it during " a ram- 
 bling, roving, vagrant, vagabond life," " of here and 
 everywhere." His townsmen were disposed to honor 
 their young lawyer a little. They therefore elected
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 159 
 
 him one of the highway Surveyors, and he willing- 
 ly undertook the business of mending the roads of 
 Braintree his first official work. His first cause 
 in court was a failure. His writ was ill drawn. He 
 feared it would be so, and did not wish to undertake 
 it ; but the " cruel reproaches of my mother," and 
 other considerations, misled him. However, he 
 overcame his own defeat, and after some years had 
 a considerable business. Still his reputation grew 
 slowly. 
 
 On the 25th of October, 1764, he married Miss 
 Abigail Smith, daughter of Rev. Mr. Smith, minis- 
 ter of Weymouth, a town adjoining Braintree, and 
 then he commenced housekeeping on his own ac- 
 count. The course of true love, it seems, had its 
 troubles in his, as in many cases. Mr. Smith held 
 his daughter in high consideration. He had married 
 the daughter of Colonel John Quincy, who was of 
 an aristocratic Braintree family, having some prop- 
 erty, and being a good deal engrossed in the public 
 affairs of the Colony. Her grandmother was named 
 Norton, and came from the town of Hingham, Mas- 
 sachusetts, and was of the same family as the fa- 
 mous John Norton, a dreadful minister of Ipswich, 
 and afterwards of Boston, who helped to hang the 
 Quakers. John Norton was a man very pious, it was 
 said, but in his case, it was "grace grafted on a crab 
 stock." She was also a daughter of the minister at
 
 160 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 Hingbam, and descended from the famous Thomas 
 Shepard, first minister of Newton, now Cambridge. 
 These were the aristocracy and " first families " of 
 that day. The minister and his daughters belonged 
 to the West End of Wey mouth, for even Wey mouth 
 had its West End at that time. But poor John Ad- 
 ams, a man of obscure descent, did not belong to the 
 West End of anything. Should he be allowed to carry 
 off such a prize ? Tradition says the Reverend father 
 thought not. He had three daughters, Mary, or, as 
 she was then called, Polly, the elder, Abby, the 
 middle one, and Betsey, the younger. Mr. Richard 
 Cranch, also of Braintree, but born in England, was 
 a man of some talents, with great mechanical skill, 
 wherewith he had fought his own way to education, 
 and had acquired reputation and some wealth as a 
 lawyer. He also came a wooing at the same man- 
 sion, addressing himself to Miss Polly, while Mr. 
 Adams made similar visits on behalf of Miss Abby. 
 Mr. Cranch was warmly welcomed by the Reverend 
 father. He treated him with great consideration. 
 On Sunday nights, which were even then, as now, 
 consecrated to the pious uses of the Religion of Young 
 Hearts, Mr. Cranch's horse was well cared for at the 
 parochial barn, and he was himself treated with great 
 kindness and consideration in the parochial house. 
 But John Adams was thought a disloyal subject by 
 the minister; hot, impetuous, impatient, uncertain,
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 161 
 
 with nothing on hand, and no decided future. So, 
 while the daughter smiled, the father frowned on the 
 poor, obscure lover. He treated him rudely, neg- 
 lected him, overlooked and annoyed him not a little. 
 His horse ate hay on Sunday night. Of course all 
 the little country parish knew how his affairs were 
 going on in the minister's family, and the story soon 
 spread to the regions round about. 
 
 Mr. Smith had told each of his daughters that the 
 Sunday before their marriage he would preach them 
 a sermon, from whatever text they should choose. 
 When Mr. Cranch was ready, Miss Polly selected 
 " Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not 
 be taken away from her." John and Abby were both 
 present to hear the discourse, and all the parish sat 
 and listened with greedy wonder. The old gentle- 
 man expatiated upon the " good part." It was OBE- 
 DIENCE. He dwelt with great unction on the neces- 
 sity of obedience on the part of children to their 
 parents. It was especially important that daughters 
 should obey in all things ; and more particularly in 
 the matter of selecting a husband. " And Mary hath 
 chosen that good part." But, in due time, Mr. Ad- 
 ams also had a cage ready for the minister's second 
 bird. Abby must choose her text, the bright girl. 
 She took, "John came neither eating nor drinking, 
 and they say, He hath a devil." The old man objected, 
 but the daughter would not be entreated, and he 
 11
 
 162 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 preached on the text in the case of the aforesaid 
 John and Abby, and to the no little delight of the 
 parish.* 
 
 Miss Abby was an admirable woman, religious 
 without fanaticism or bigotry, affectionate as wife 
 and mother, conscientious to the last degree, but not 
 at all austere ; thrifty, wise, prudent, and forecast- 
 ing, and with calm, cool judgment, which saw the 
 right proportion of all things. If Adams was not 
 blessed in his courtship, he was in his marriage. Few 
 men had ever a nobler mate. He Ions: afterwards 
 
 O 
 
 writes of his marriage, that it was " the source of all " 
 his w felicity." Her education was quite scanty and 
 irregular; she was never sent to school, but picked 
 up a little here and there. She read a few books, 
 chiefly poetical, it seems ; but the Spectator was 
 among them. So were the historic plays of Shake- 
 speare, and perhaps the others. These were faithful- 
 ly read, judiciously pondered over, and abundantly 
 quoted during all her life, in her letters. She said 
 herself, 
 
 " The little knowledge I have gained 
 Was all from simple nature drained." f 
 
 * The story is differently told by other authorities. 
 
 t Her father, a cautious man, taught, above all things, never to 
 speak ill of anybody; to say all the handsome things she could 
 of persons, but no evil. But her grandfather, John Quincy, was 
 remarkable for never praising anybody ; he did not often speak evil, 
 but he seldom spoke well. Adams's Works, ii. 306.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 163 
 
 The education of women was greatly neglected in 
 New England by the Puritans. Mrs. Hutchinson 
 had made them afraid of her strong and subtle 
 mind, accomplished with conscientious culture. In 
 Adams's youth it was fashionable to ridicule " female 
 learning." 
 
 After his marriage to the minister's daughter of 
 Weymouth, the descendant from such reverend an- 
 cestors, his profession and business received a con- 
 siderable increase. A year or two later his towns- 
 men honored him by making him one of the Select- 
 men of Braintree. He entered upon his office the 
 4th of March, 1766. He mentions the fact with 
 hearty exultation, not thinking of another Fourth of 
 March, thirty-one years later, General Washington 
 and fifteen States in the background. For four gen- 
 erations some of his family had been members of the 
 board of Selectmen. Before long he became well 
 known in the county. He took lively interest in op- 
 posing the Stamp Act, and got a town meeting called 
 at Braintree, to instruct her representative in the 
 General Court to oppose this wicked measure, and 
 resist its execution. He drafted the Resolutions, and 
 the town meeting passed them unanimously. Forty 
 other towns soon accepted them without alteration. 
 They contain brave words, thoughtfully spoken at the 
 right time.* His celebrated Revolutionary kinsman, 
 
 * Works, Hi. p. 4C5. See, especially, 467, third paragraph.
 
 164 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 Samuel Adams, adopted some of his paragraphs, and 
 the town of Boston, in Faneuil Hall, then said "Ay." 
 In the midst of the Stamp Act trouble, 22d Decem- 
 ber, 1765, Forefathers' Day, Sunday, he writes in his 
 journal, "At home with my family, thinking; " and 
 again, Christmas Day, "At home, thinking, reading, 
 searching concerning taxation without consent ; con- 
 cerning the great pause and rest in business." * 
 
 There was great matter for him to think of. New 
 England stood at the threshold of Revolution, and 
 only Samuel Adams and a few more saw where the 
 next step would be. As the people would not ac- 
 cept the stamps, the courts of justice were all closed. 
 Boston asked the Governor and Council to open the 
 courts, and chose Mr. Gridley, James Otis, and 
 John Adams to defend their position. It was a 
 great honor for the young men, Otis and Adams, to 
 be employed in such a cause, and to be associated 
 with such counsel as Gridley, the ablest lawyer and 
 the most elegant speaker in New England, f This 
 was "the matter" he was "thinking" about. He 
 believes the people showed cowardice by this inac- 
 tivity, and too much respect for the Act.J He says 
 the lawyers, most of them, became Tories and went 
 down to Halifax. " The bar seem to behave like a 
 flock of shot pigeons ! " " The net seems to be 
 
 * Works, ii. 162-164. f See Works, i. 76 ; ii. 165. 
 J Works, ii. 155.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 165 
 
 thrown over them, and they have scarcely courage 
 left to flounce and to nutter." * The " Sons of Lib- 
 erty" were made of other stuff, and so was John 
 Adams. 
 
 But the Stamp Act troubles got ended by the re- 
 peal of the law in 1766. " It was founded on a mis- 
 taken principle." But the Massachusetts Legislature 
 had already taken the first needful step of Revolu- 
 tion, and had called a Convention of delegates. All 
 the Colonial Legislatures had been summoned to 
 meet at New York on the first Tuesday of October, 
 1765. f 
 
 In the spring of 1768 Mr. Adams removed his 
 family to Boston, living in Brattle Square. Gov- 
 ernor Bernard offered him a considerable place in 
 the Government, the office of Advocate General. 
 Adams at once refused it. He was poor : this of- 
 fered him money. He was ambitious : this assured 
 him respect and high consideration, and opened the 
 road to all honor. But he was just, and said, M Get 
 thee behind me, Satan." Nay, he would not ask to 
 be appointed Justice of the Peace, so cautious was 
 he of receiving favors which might bias his judg- 
 ment. Yet he took no active part in politics, would 
 not speak at the Boston town meetings, then so fre- 
 quent and important. He would not even attend 
 
 * Works, ii. 156. t Works, i. p. 68, 109.
 
 166 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 them. He devoted himself to his profession and to 
 the support of his family. Yet he was popular with 
 the Patriotic party. The Sous of Liberty came at 
 night and serenaded him in his house, close to the 
 main guard of the British soldiers, who had then 
 been quartered upon the suspected and rebellious 
 town. He was placed on the Committee to prepare 
 instructions for James Otis, Thomas Gushing, Sam- 
 uel Adams, and John Hancock, the Boston Repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre, so called, 
 occurred. Captain Preston, who commanded, and 
 the six soldiers who fired the fatal shot, were ar- 
 rested and held in jail, to be tried for murder. They 
 applied to Mr. Adams to defend them. He con- 
 sented, against the advice of all his friends. He in- 
 duced Mr. Josiah Quincy, Jr., to aid in the defence. 
 Distinguished lawj'ers had declined to help the sol- 
 diers, for they feared the popular opinion, which 
 demanded their blood. His acceptance of this duty 
 was a most unpopular act, making him suspected of 
 favoring the Government whose soldiers he was 
 called upon to defend. It was considered " ruinous " 
 for him. A great clamor was raised against him. He 
 managed the case skilfully. All were acquitted of 
 the charge of murder, two only found guilty of man- 
 slaughter. Thus far this was the most valiant deed 
 of his life. It cost him fourteen or fifteen days of
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 167 
 
 most arduous work, and the sum received in payment 
 of all his labor and success was nineteen guineas, 
 say, ninety-five dollars ! * 
 
 While the case was still pending, he was chosen 
 one of the Representatives of the town of Boston to 
 the great Convention, 16th of June, 1770. I believe 
 Samuel Adams brought this to pass. Now, for the 
 first time, is he really committed to the Politics of 
 the People. " I consider the step as a devotion of 
 my family to ruin, and of myself to death," said he.f 
 " At this time I had more business at the bar than 
 any man in the Province. My health was feeble, and 
 I was throwing away as bright prospects as any man 
 ever had before him. I had devoted myself to end- 
 less labor and anxiety, if not to infamy and to death, 
 and that for nothing, except what indeed was, and 
 ought to be all in all, a sense of duty." He told his 
 wife ; she saw the peril, burst into tears, and said, 
 the noble woman, " You have done as you ought, and 
 I am willing to share in all that is to come, and to 
 place my trust in Providence." J 
 
 Soon after, the Boston Representatives, or, as they 
 were then called, " the Boston Seat," raised some 
 controversy with the Governor. Governor Shirley, 
 
 * Works, i. 104, 110; ii. 229. 
 
 t Works, ii. 232; i. 106. See remarks of John Quincy Adams. 
 
 I Works, ii. 232.
 
 1(53 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 then living in retirement at Roxbury, hearing of it, 
 asked, "Who are the Boston Seat?" He was told, 
 " Mr. Gushing, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Samuel Adams, 
 and Mr. John Adams." The old Governor replied, 
 w Mr. Cushing I know, and Mr. Hancock I know, 
 but where the devil this brace of Adamses come from 
 I know not." Had he lived a little longer, he might 
 have found out where they went to, taking the Nation 
 with them.* 
 
 In the General Court, John Adams was of great 
 service to the Patriots. They needed an able and 
 ready lawyer. Thatcher was dead ; Otis was worse 
 than dead, the victim of his own intemperance and 
 of the malignant blows of an assassin. Mr. Hawley, 
 one of the ablest and most far-sighted men in the 
 Province, lived at Northampton, and was, moreover, 
 too melancholy for a principal leader in the General 
 Court. John Adams seemed made for the vacant 
 place a skilful lawyer on the People's side. You 
 find his name on most of the important committees, 
 and the marks of his pen, his thought and technical 
 skill, in the chief papers of that session. But his 
 health failing, he declined reelection, and retired to 
 his farm at Braintree, still keeping his office in Bos- 
 ton, determined to avoid politics altogether. But 
 his profession, nature, and the circumstances of the 
 
 * He died March 24, 1771.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 169 
 
 times, were too strong for him. He must take sides 
 with the people, and against the officers of the Crown ; 
 and I find his busy pen writing articles for the 
 newspapers in the great controversy of the day. 
 
 Though no longer in the General Court, it seems 
 that he drafted the most important paper on the 
 Great Question of those times, and was called upon 
 to defend it. This he promptly and ably did ; * and 
 Hutchinson was foiled in his attempt to prove the 
 legal right of Parliament to tax the Colonies, or to 
 rule them against their consent. Then came (1773) 
 Dr. Franklin's exposure of the letters of Hutchinson 
 and Oliver, who had suggested to the British Gov- 
 ernment that in New England "there must be an 
 abridgment of what we call British liberties." The 
 wrath of the people was fairly stirred by this adroit 
 movement of Franklin reaching across the sea.f 
 
 May 25, 1773, was Election day in Massachu- 
 setts. The House of Representatives chose John 
 Adams as one of the Council. Governor Hutchin- 
 son, who hated him bitterly, put his negative on the 
 choice, because of w the very conspicuous part he 
 had taken in opposition to the Government." But 
 soon the General Court addressed the King, asking 
 him to remove Governor Hutchinson and Lieutenant 
 
 * Works, i. 118; ii. 310. 
 t See ante, page 28.
 
 J70 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 Governor Oliver, both Massachusetts men, both 
 traitors. Hutchinson went to London to confer with 
 the British Government, but he never saw his native 
 land again.* No patriotic eye drops a tear on the 
 neglected grave of the New England man whose 
 splendid talents and popular eloquence were de- 
 voted to the ruin of his native land, and who strug- 
 gled violently to put a chain on the neck of his 
 fellow-countrymen. Hutchiuson had prevented 
 Adams from being one of the Honorable Council ; 
 but, before the eye of the world, he himself soon 
 became unknown, and trampled in the dust. 
 
 The British Government wished to control the 
 judges. It is an old trick. " Let me interpret 
 the laws, I care not who makes them," is the 
 motto of tyrants to this very day. Of course the 
 judges were willing: when were they otherwise? 
 But the people of that day refused to have a chain 
 of gold put round the court-house by the King, un- 
 der which all his creature Judges must crawl as they 
 went in. One Chief Justice, without performing 
 any of the duties of his office, actually took the 
 royal salary for eighteen months afterwards. Three 
 of the puisne* judges could not be relied upon. The 
 House adjourned the General Court, and asked the 
 Governor to remove the Chief Justice. The Governor 
 
 * Adams's Works, i. 135.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 171 
 
 forbade the adjournment, and refused the removal. 
 What should be done? Should such a Judge, who 
 himself is the King's slave, hold a court, and de- 
 termine the law for freemen? In 1773 wise men 
 thought that such folly would be ruin ! John 
 Adams said, "Impeach the Chief Justice.* The 
 Charter of William and Mary gives the House of 
 Representatives the power." Other lawyers law- 
 yers are always a timid class of men, their maxim 
 being " stare decisis " hesitated. They " did not 
 know ; " " there was no American precedent." John 
 Adams was not only careful to follow the old pre- 
 cedents that were good, but also to make the good 
 precedents that we use now. The Chief Justice 
 was impeached ; ninety-two to eight in the House 
 of Representatives. When Jurors came into the 
 Courts of Suffolk County they would not be sworn. 
 Said they, "We shall not sit under a Judge im- 
 peached of high crimes and misdemeanors." Jurors 
 did the same all over the State. The Royal Court 
 never sat again. Nay, there were no courts till 
 after April 19, 1775, when the Provincial Govern- 
 ment set things on their feet again. Here was a 
 deadlock for the Government. Hutchinson and Oli- 
 ver, and their gang of Tories, were routed in the 
 House, routed in the Courts, and routed before the 
 
 People. 
 
 * Adams's Works, ii. 329.
 
 172 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 It was the beginning of the end ; but, generally, 
 men did not see it, only such men as Samuel Adams, 
 Joseph Hawley, and the far-sighted Franklin, al- 
 ready advising a General Congress.* Adams, then 
 thirty-eight years old, was the ablest lawyer in New 
 England, perhaps in America. He had the right 
 thought at the right time, and the courage to make 
 that thought a thing. Shall such a man be left " to 
 live on potatoes and Indian meal " at Braintree, with 
 nothing to do ? Massachusetts thought otherwise. 
 
 III. 
 
 MR. ADAMS AS A POLITICIAN IN THE AMERICAN 
 CONGRESS. 1774-1777. 
 
 The Boston Port Bill, and other revengeful acts, 
 were passed through the Parliament of Great Brit- 
 ain in March, 1774. In the following 13th May, 
 General Gage, the Military Governor of Massachu- 
 setts, came to Boston with his army, to dragoon 
 the people into submission. As the Judges were 
 impeached, the Courts were all closed, business was 
 at an end, and grass growing on the Long Wharf. 
 Adams did not receive a shilling a week from his 
 profession. 
 
 * Adams's Works, i. 134.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 173 
 
 The 17th of June is a marked epoch in American 
 History. On that day, 1774, the General Court, in 
 session at Salem, sat with its doors bolted fast. 
 "No man must go out to tell what they are doing, 
 nor come in to interrupt them." They chose, by a 
 vote of one hundred and seventeen ayes to twelve 
 nays, James Bowdoin, Thomas Gushing, Robert 
 Treat Paine, Samuel Adams, and John Adams, as 
 delegates to the Continental Congress, to meet at 
 Philadelphia on the first of the next September. 
 Adams doubted his own ability, doubted the Na- 
 tion's genius.* Mr. Bowdoin did not attend. He 
 had too much money to risk in such an enterprise, 
 too much respectability to be a member of a Revo- 
 lutionary Congress. 
 
 The four delegates rode to Philadelphia in a coach 
 " four poor pilgrims." Their journey through 
 New England was a triumphal procession. At 
 New Haven they visited the grave of Dixwell the 
 Regicide. A significant visit that was to the tomb 
 of one of the fifty-two, who said, "Off with the 
 head of Charles Stuart. He is not fit to live, and 
 enslave Englishmen." Until he reached New York 
 
 * Adams's Works, i. 148. " We have not men fit for the times. 
 We are deficient in genius, in education, in travel, in fortune, in 
 everything. I feel unutterable anxiety. God grant us wisdom and 
 fortitude ! Should the opposition be suppressed, should this coun- 
 try submit, what infamy and ruin ! God forbid ! Death, in any 
 form, is less terrible." Also, Works ii. 338.
 
 174 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 at this time, Adams had never been out of New 
 England. 
 
 In Congress the New England delegates had a 
 very difficult part to perform. They were regarded 
 with great distrust. First, they were Puritan peo- 
 ple ; second , they were thought desirous of break- 
 ing with the British Government, and aiming at 
 Independence. Virginia alone stood with New 
 England. All the other States looked on with 
 suspicion, especially New York and Pennsylvania. 
 This was the problem : To have New England ideas 
 prevail without putting forward New England men. 
 Samuel Adams was the most far-sighted and revo- 
 lutionary man then in the Nation. None surpassed 
 him in the great art of organizing men, of leading 
 the unwilling, while he seemed only to follow. At 
 first the two Adamses did not seem to have much 
 influence. They were looked on with great suspi- 
 cion. At length it turned out that they put their 
 ideas into all the rest. But, at the beginning, Vir- 
 ginia was nearly as far advanced as New England. 
 Richard Henry Lee stood side by side with Samuel 
 Adams. " The grave, stern figure " of George Wash- 
 ington was not far off. There he was, at the second 
 session, after the battle of Lexington, symbolically 
 clad in his military uniform, a sword at his side, the 
 thoughtful Colonel, who spoke in deeds, not words. 
 
 John Adams continued as a member of Congress
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 175 
 
 from September, 1774, till November, 1777. The 
 first session lasted but eight weeks consulting, 
 making a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, and 
 preparing Petitions and Memorials to the British 
 Government and people. On the 10th of May it 
 assembled again. During his service in that body 
 Mr. Adams tried to induce Congress to adopt the 
 Massachusetts Army, which had been gathered 
 after the battle of Lexington, to make the fight 
 national, and to put that gallant son of Virginia, 
 George Washington, at its head ; thus to gain that 
 great State of Virginia, and all the Southern States, 
 so that they should make common cause with New 
 England ; to advise the individual States to anni- 
 hilate their old Provincial Governments and de- 
 pendence on Great Britain, and to make a new 
 Constitutional Government of their own ; to de- 
 clare Independence ; to unite the States into one 
 Confederation ; to make alliances with Foreign Na- 
 tions, and to establish a Navy. 
 
 It was a .difficult matter to accomplish all this, but 
 it was done ; partly by John Adams's ardent vigor ; 
 partly by the admirable resource and persuasive tal- 
 ent of Samuel Adams, so ably helped by Richard 
 Henry Lee, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and others ; 
 partly by the quiet diligence and immense intellect 
 of Dr. Franklin. But at this day it is impossible to 
 tell in detail what each man did. Congress sat with
 
 176 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 closed doors. The journals gave nothing but re- 
 ports, and these in the most official and meagre 
 form. Mr. Adams's Diary, his own letters, and 
 those of others, help to eke out the scanty record. 
 The Declaration of Rights and Grievances, Octo- 
 ber 18, 1774, was one of the most important docu- 
 ments of the Revolutionary Congress. Mr. Adams 
 drafted it, and was the author of its most impor- 
 tant parts. He seems to have had something to do 
 with composing the Declaration of Independence. 
 A copy of the original draft is still extant in his 
 handwriting, and in England another copy in Frank- 
 lin's, it is said.* John Adams was the chief orator 
 in defence of the Declaration, and of Independence 
 itself (" the Colossus of that debate ") , but no ves- 
 tige of his speech remains. He drew up the rules 
 and regulations for the Navy, the foundation of the 
 present naval code ; also he drafted the Articles 
 of War. We must thank him for selecting George 
 Washington to be the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Army.f Mr. Hancock, it seems, wanted the office, 
 and never forgave Adams for placing Colonel Wash- 
 ington in it. But afterwards John Adams, like 
 Samuel Adams, and many others, had at times 
 some distrust of Washington. It was not to be 
 wondered at ; not surprising that such should have 
 been the case. 
 
 * Works, i. 232. f Works, i. 175, 245, 265; ii. 415.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 177 
 
 In several things Adams ran before the mass of 
 the leaders in Congress. He did not wish the vote 
 to be by States, for this gave to Delaware and Rhode 
 Island as much power as to Virginia and Massachu- 
 setts. He did not hope much good from the short- 
 sighted agreement not to import from Great Britain, 
 and not to export to her shores. He saw the im- 
 portance of a Navy, perhaps before any other mem- 
 ber of Congress, and he decidedly favored a Military 
 Academy. 
 
 He labored hard in three years of his service. He 
 was chairman of twenty-five Committees, and served 
 likewise on sixty-five more. This does not include a 
 number of committees as to which the names of the 
 members are not recorded in the journals of Con- 
 gress. For a long time he was chairman of the 
 Board of War, performing the work of the Secre- 
 tary of War under the Revolutionary Government. 
 Yet he was never a recognized leader in Congress. 
 His rapid, impatient mind disdained the intermedi- 
 ate steps in the slow process of attaining great ends. 
 But he really led men, the course of events greatly 
 aiding him. Still, in the march of Independence, 
 he never shot so far before the rest as his deep- 
 hearted and more silent kinsman, Samuel Adams, 
 nor had he such insight into the rights of the people 
 as Jefferson, nor yet had he such confidence in them. 
 Besides, Adams was capricious, and in the most criti- 
 12
 
 178 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 cal period of the Revolution, while chairman of the 
 Board of War, he absented himself from Congress 
 nearly four months, from October 13, 1776, to 
 February 9, 1777 a period full of terrible defeats, 
 though enlightened by the brilliant actions at Tren- 
 ton and Princeton. He was not conciliatory in word 
 or deed. 
 
 He left Congress on the llth of November, 1777, 
 and returned home. While a member of Congress, 
 he was at the same time one of the Selectmen of the 
 town of Braintree, and successively a member of the 
 General Court and of a Council of his native State, 
 and was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of Massachusetts, October, 28, 1775.* He 
 accepted the office though he never entered on its 
 duties or received any salary. He wrote an admi- 
 rable Proclamation to the People of his State, full 
 of sound principles of Government, and addressing 
 itself to the nobler emotions of Humanity, f In the 
 newspapers of Boston he also wrote some able pa- 
 pers in defence of the Eights of the Colonists. But 
 the most valuable document he wrote in this period 
 of his life was his w Thoughts on Government," pub- 
 lished in 1776 a work which seems to have had 
 much influence upon the Forms of Government 
 which the Colonies adopted. | 
 
 * Works, iii. 23. t Works, i. 191, and onward. 
 
 J Works, iv. 183-209. See the other references in the Index at 
 end of volume x.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 179 
 
 IV. 
 
 MR. ADAMS'S CAREER AS A POLITICIAN AND DIPLO- 
 MATIST IN EUROPE. 1778-1787. 
 
 In November, 1777, while Mr. Adams, a member 
 of Congress, but absent on leave, was arguing a 
 cause in the Admiralty Court at Portsmouth, New 
 Hampshire, he was told by a friend that he 
 (Mr. Adams) was appointed one of the Commis- 
 sioners to France, in place of Silas Deane, whose 
 conduct forced Congress to recall him. James 
 Lovell, one of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
 wrote him, w We want one man of inflexible in- 
 tegrity on the Embassy."* To accept the office 
 was to risk great difficulty and danger. The 
 chance of capture in crossing the ocean, and of 
 living for a long time shut up in the Tower as a 
 Rebel, was great. The payment was little for a 
 poor man with a large family. But it opened a 
 wide field for his ambition, and what was still 
 more with him, Duty said, "Go," and he went.f 
 He left home 13th of February, 1778, and reached 
 Paris, April 8. But the Commercial Treaty and 
 Alliance between France and America had been 
 skilfully made before he reached there. He found 
 American affairs in no little confusion, and a great 
 
 * Works, i. 275. f Works, Hi. 89.
 
 180 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 deal of quarrelling among the agents Deane, 
 Franklin, Izard, and the two Lees. He hastened 
 to bring matters to better order, and partly suc- 
 ceeded. A new disposition of diplomatic offices 
 was made. Franklin became sole Minister to 
 France, and Adams, thus left without place or 
 duty, soon returned home. He reached Boston, 
 August 2, 1779 ; the next week was elected a 
 delegate for Braintree to the Convention presently 
 to assemble, and to form the Constitution of Mas- 
 sachusetts. It met at Cambridge, September 1, 
 1779, and immediately resolved that they would 
 proceed " to establish a free Republic," and that the 
 principle of it should be, " The Government of a 
 People by fixed laws of their own making." A 
 Committee of thirty-one was chosen to draft a 
 Constitution. They chose a sub-committee of five 
 to do the work, and these five delegated it to Mr. 
 Adams. There were already two parties in the 
 new State a party of Property, represented by 
 James Bowdoin, who could not go to Congress 
 because he had great riches ; and a party of Per- 
 sons, represented by Samuel Adams, who had done 
 more than any one man to consummate the ideas 
 of the New England leaders, and to advance the 
 progress of Revolution. John Adams stood be- 
 tween these two parties, desiring to give a due 
 share both to money and to' numbers. He drafted
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 181 
 
 the first Constitution of Massachusetts. It was not 
 greatly altered in the large committee, or in the 
 Convention. He also took the most prominent part 
 ill forming the Political Institutions of Massachu- 
 setts, and so he influenced the forms of Govern- 
 ment of all the many States which have since copied 
 its provisions. I think this was one of the most 
 important acts of his life.* 
 
 But he never sat in the Convention ; for before 
 it reassembled, in October, he had been appointed 
 one of the Ministers to treat with Great Britain, 
 and to negotiate, first, a Treaty of Peace, and, sec- 
 ond, a Treaty of Commerce. Attended by his oldest 
 son, John Quincy Adams, then only promising 
 what he afterwards so successfully performed, he 
 sailed for Europe, November 13, 1779, and reached 
 Paris (vi& Spain), February 5, 1780. He had a dis- 
 agreement with Dr. Franklin, then Minister at Paris, 
 and with the Comte de Vergennes, the actual Chief 
 of the French Government under Louis the Six- 
 teenth. He could not proceed to England, and 
 Vergennes advised him not to announce the fact of 
 his approach to the British Court till a more favor- 
 able opportunity should occur. He was greatly irri- 
 tated at this, and seems to have disturbed the affairs 
 that he was sent to compose. He wrote important 
 articles on America, and had them published in the 
 
 * Works, i. 284; iv. 213-219.
 
 182 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 semi-official Journal the "Mercure de France." 
 A mutual" animosity between Adams and Vergennes 
 continued during all his residence in France, not well 
 founded on either side.* 
 
 July 27, 1780, he went to Holland, to ascertain if 
 he could borrow money for the United States. His 
 hopeful mind made things look more promising than 
 he afterwards found them to be. He had important 
 articles published in the Dutch journals, giving in- 
 formation respecting American affairs, artfully get- 
 ting some of them first published in London. He 
 wrote a work, then published for the first time, but 
 often afterwards, entitled, "Twenty-six Letters upon 
 interesting Subjects respecting the Revolution of 
 America." f They were admirably suited to the 
 time and place, and greatly helped the cause of 
 America. He informed the Dutch Government, 
 January 1, 1781,$ of his appointment as Minister 
 Plenipotentiary to their Court, and presented them 
 a memorial, asking to be recognized as such. As 
 they were slow to respond to his claim, he appealed 
 to the Dutch people, and had his memorial widely 
 circulated among them. Strange as it may seem, 
 this extraordinary appeal succeeded. The Indepen- 
 dent Provinces, one by one, demanded his reception, 
 and on the 19th of April, 1782, the authorities voted 
 
 * Works, i. 298, 312, 321, 334. f Works,\ii. 265. 
 
 t Works, i. 333.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 183 
 
 that he be recognized as Minister Plenipotentiary 
 from the United States of America. The Govern- 
 ment at first was hostile to him, for Holland was 
 under English influence, and Adams frankly ac- 
 knowledged this as the greatest success of his life. 
 Soon after he procured a loan of about two millions 
 of dollars, and subsequently yet others, which were 
 of the greatest service at a time when the United 
 States could get no more credits from France.* 
 Still further, he negotiated a treaty of Amity and 
 Commerce between the United States and Holland, 
 October 7, 1782. f In the mean time, July, 1781, 
 at Paris, he had taken part in the negotiations for 
 Peace with Great Britain, under the mediation of 
 Austria and Russia, but it all came to nothing. 
 After finishing his admirable successes in Holland, 
 October 26, 1782, he is again at Paris, Avith Franklin 
 and Jay, to negotiate a definitive treaty of peace be- 
 tween Great Britain and the United States. It was 
 a long and difficult matter, full of complication and 
 confusion. Both Franklin and Jay had great tal- 
 ents Franklin a genius for diplomacy, furnished 
 with more than twenty years of experience at Euro- 
 pean Courts during times of the greatest trial. But 
 it must be confessed that the quick, wide-seeing in- 
 telligence of John Adams his energy, his boldness, 
 and his irresistible will were of great service in 
 
 * Works, i. 340. t Works, i. 350-352.
 
 184 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 securing the Rights of America in that negotiation. 
 On 30th November, 1782, the treaty was signed with- 
 out the knowledge of the French Court. The French 
 Government had been so treacherous, that the Amer- 
 ican Commissioners departed from their instructions 
 from Congress, and finished the treaty without the 
 knowledge of the Comte de Vergennes. June 21, 
 1783. it was signed by the authorities of France, 
 England, and America, and Peace was definitively 
 restored.* Mr. Adams resigned his offices, hoping to 
 return home ; but Congress appointed him, with 
 Franklin and Jay, Commissioner to negotiate a 
 Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain. 
 
 Exhausted by labor and racked by a fever, Adams 
 went to England in a private capacity, and was ad- 
 mitted to the House of Lords as the " Friend of Lord 
 Mansfield." The next day some one said to him, 
 "How short a time since I heard that same Lord 
 Mansfield say, in that same House of Lords, ' My 
 Lords, if you do not kill him (Mr. Adams), he will 
 kill you ' ? " Mr. West, the American painter, said" 
 this " scene would make one of the finest paintings in 
 the progress of American Independence." In the 
 winter, he hurried over to Holland, to negotiate a 
 new loan, and succeeded in the midst of difficulties, 
 caused by the rashness or dishonesty of the American 
 
 * Works, i. 386-398.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 185 
 
 Government in recklessly overdrawing their credits 
 on Holland.* 
 
 He assisted in making other treaties with Sweden 
 and with Prussia, the latter being the celebrated one, 
 which does such honor to Dr. Franklin. Adams con- 
 tinued to live in the neighborhood of Paris, where his 
 wife and family joined him in the summer of 1784. 
 Here he passed, perhaps, the happiest period of his 
 life. John Quincy Adams, a promising lad of seven- 
 teen, now and then shows himself in the formal let- 
 ters of his father and mother. But halcyon days are 
 lew. February 25, 1785, he was appointed Envoy 
 to Great Britain. Vergeunes said to him, "It is a 
 great thing to be an ambassador from your country 
 to the country you sprang from. It is a mark ! " 
 The Duke of Dorset said, "You will be much stared 
 at." In May, he went to London as Minister. He 
 was presented to the King in his closet ; only Lord 
 Caermarthen was present. Adams made the three 
 reverences, and said, "I think myself more fortunate 
 than all my fellow-citizens, in having the distin- 
 guished honor to be the first to stand in your Majes- 
 ty's royal presence in a diplomatic character." The 
 King said, " I was the last to consent to separation, 
 but I will be the first to meet the friendship of the 
 United States as an independent power." Both were 
 
 * Works, i. 413, 414.
 
 186 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 greatly moved, the King the most. In conversa- 
 tion afterwards, the King told him he understood he 
 was not much attached to the manners of France. 
 Adams smartly answered, M I have no attachment but 
 to my country ; " whereto the King replied, as quick 
 as lightning, "An honest man will never have any 
 other ! " * But this interview did not prevent the 
 King from publicly turning his back on the American 
 Commissioners, Adams and Jefferson ! Whereupon 
 all respectability turned its pliant back. 
 
 Adams's condition in England was unhappy. Amer- 
 ica was treated as rebellious, and despised for her 
 weakness ; shall I not also say, for the dishonorable 
 manner in which the Americans refused to pay their 
 debts. He met with cold and formal civility, " such 
 as only the English know how, in perfection, to make 
 offensive." "No marked offence, but supercilious 
 indifference ! " No treaty of Commerce could then 
 be made. The King was cold, his family cold, the 
 courtiers cold, all respectability cold : only a few Dis- 
 senters and Democrats were on his side. The British 
 appointed no Minister to America. Adams resigned 
 his office, and came home in 1788. But before he 
 left England, he published an important work, his 
 " Defence of the American Constitution," which 
 had a good deal of influence throughout the United 
 States. 
 
 * Works, i. 419; viii. 256.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 187 
 
 V. 
 
 MR. ADAMS IN THE EXECUTIVE OF THE UNITED 
 STATES. 1787-1800. 
 
 Mr. Adams left America in the dark hours of 1779. 
 All was then uncertain. America might fail in con- 
 tending with her gigantic foe. He came back in 
 a cloudy day of 1788 ; it might turn out to be a 
 stormy one. For though the foreign foe was over- 
 come, the domestic trouble from ourselves was by 
 no means so easily disposed of. Property and per- 
 sons were less safe in the States after the Peace, than 
 in the five years before the outbreak of the Revolu- 
 tion. The States were not so prosperous as the 
 Colonies. The Provisional Government which had 
 carried the Country through the Revolution was fall- 
 ing to pieces. The new Federal Government was 
 not yet established. One by one the States, led by 
 reluctant Massachusetts, tardily gave in their consent 
 to a form of National Government. The Federal 
 Constitution then offered to the People of America 
 for their adoption was the work of the merchants in 
 the seaports, of the Southern planters, of the officers 
 of the Revolution, of the Government officials, of the 
 men of superior education, and of the prosperous 
 classes in general. Shays' rebellion in Massachu- 
 setts frightened men who had the most intense demo-
 
 188 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 cratic hostility to centralized power. So some of 
 them assented to the New Constitution. Madison, 
 Jefferson, Hancock, and Samuel Adams were types 
 of this class. But many were hostile to it. Had it 
 been put to a popular vote six mouths after the Con- 
 vention adjourned, not a State, I think, had adopted 
 the Constitution. 
 
 Great events march through gates which turn on 
 little hinges. Upon Mr. Adams's return, the Consti- 
 tution was adopted ; a new Government organized. 
 
 The great officers were first to be chosen, Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President. There could be but one 
 candidate for the highest place. Washington had all 
 the sixty-nine Electoral votes. No doubt he should 
 be the first man in the Nation. But the second 
 would be a long way behind him. There were ten 
 other competitors in the field. Mr. Adams had thir- 
 ty-four votes ; thirty-five were against him. He was 
 elected Vice-President by a minority of votes. His 
 most conspicuous rivals were Samuel Adams and 
 John Hancock. But Alexander Hamilton was his 
 chief opponent, and worked against him in his astute 
 and secret way. The motives of Hamilton's conduct 
 at this election are not yet quite apparent. 
 
 When John Adams took his oath of office, 21st 
 April, 1789, it was not a bright sky that hung over 
 him. He was not a member of the Cabinet. It was 
 his office to preside in the Senate. That consisted
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 189 
 
 of twenty-two members, though only twenty were 
 usually present. When that body was equally di- 
 vided, which happened twenty times during the two 
 years of the first Congress, he gave the casting vote. 
 It was always then in favor of Washington's Ad- 
 ministration, and the measures supported by the 
 Federal party. He took sides with England, and not 
 with France. But in the dull life of a Vice-Presi- 
 dent he found no scope for his special talents, which 
 were power in debate and firmness in execution. 
 Eight years this unhappy Theseus sat in the chair of 
 the Senate, deciding points of order, and now and 
 then giving a casting vote. Silence, calmness, im- 
 partiality, were chiefly required for that office. They 
 were not his shining talents. He called his "the 
 most insignificant office that ever the invention of 
 man contrived, or his imagination conceived." * In 
 a period of great excitement, 1789, he wrote the 
 " Davila " papers, once read with intense wrath, and 
 with unlimited delight, now dead, cold, neglected, 
 and forgotten. Yet these writings were his most im- 
 portant contributions to the public service between 
 1789 and 1797. 
 
 He disliked two men, the most powerful in Wash- 
 ington's Cabinet; nay, he hated them! Jefferson, 
 the Democrat, and Hamilton, the Federalist. But 
 while he was Vice-President, he secured the friendly 
 
 * Works, i. 460.
 
 190 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 regards of both parties in the Senate, notwithstand- 
 ing those stormy times. 
 
 When Washington withdrew from public office, 
 Adams was the only man deemed by the Federal 
 party fit to be elected President. But some of the 
 Federalists, who were leading men in their party, 
 thought that the British Government, with all its 
 complicated establishments, was the best government 
 that there was in the world, or that there ever would 
 be. These men did not trust Mr. Adams, because 
 his more transcendental theories of government dis- 
 pleased them. Hamilton, his old enemy, now worked 
 in secret, and attempted to thrust him aside, while 
 his great and more magnanimous opponent, Jeffer- 
 son, appeared in open day as a rival rather than 
 as a foe. Adams had seventy-one votes, Jefferson 
 had sixty-eight. So Adams was President and Jef- 
 ferson Vice-Presideut. Adams was much chagrined 
 at his meagre majority, only one vote more than the 
 bare number which the law required. He called 
 himself a "President of three votes." He was sworn 
 into the office on the 4th of March, 1797. Thirty-one 
 years before, on that day, he entered on his duty as 
 one of the honorable Selectmen of Braintree ! There 
 was' now a less pleasant prospect before him. The 
 retirement of Washington took away the last check 
 which had curbed the frenzy of Federalists and 
 Democrats.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 191 
 
 On the day when he became Vice-President, and so, 
 as chairman of the Senate, was obliged to declare his 
 own election to the great office, his wife characteris- 
 tically wrote him from her New England home, 
 
 " ' The sun is dressed in brightest beams, 
 To give thy honors to the day.' 
 
 " My thoughts and meditations are with you, and 
 my petitions to Heaven are that * the things which 
 make for peace may not be hidden from your eyes.' 
 My feelings are not those of pride or ostentation 
 upon the occasion. They are solemnized by a sense 
 of the obligations, the important trusts, and numer- 
 ous duties connected with it. That you may be 
 enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, 
 with justice and impartiality to your country, and 
 with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the 
 daily prayer of your A. A." * 
 
 His position was exceedingly difficult. 
 
 I. The great strife between Federalists and Demo- 
 crats was then at its height, while at the same time 
 the wars in Europe roused the passions of all Amer- 
 icans, who fiercely took sides and embraced opposite 
 opinions. The Democrats, however, were to triumph 
 in the end. Nothing but reverence for Washington 
 
 * Works, i. 496.
 
 192 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 sustained the Federal party during the first four 
 years, under the new Constitution. But Washington 
 had now withdrawn, and to weaken yet more the 
 Conservative cause, the Federalists had not entire 
 confidence in Adams. 
 
 II. By his relation to his party, he felt bound to 
 accept the feeble Cabinet which Washington had left 
 in power : Pickering and Wolcott from New Eng- 
 land, McHenry from New Jersey, and Charles Lee 
 from Virginia. They had no hold on the country. 
 By great services or great talent, they could give 
 Adams no moral or political support. They were 
 only qualified to conduct the routine of office, and to 
 superintend official work. 
 
 III. These old officials felt no obligation to 
 Adams, and bore no allegiance to him. Three of 
 them were Hamilton's men, by him selected for Gen- 
 eral Washington, who had a misplaced confidence 
 in Hamilton. Adams's Cabinet originally looked 
 to Hamilton as their master and chief, not to the 
 actual President. Their writings prove this. Adams 
 wished to be President of the Nation. He found it 
 impossible, because his Cabinet insisted that he should 
 be President only of the Federal Party. 
 
 The chief acts of Adams's administration are briefly 
 told. The French, in the fury of the Revolution, be- 
 came hostile to America ; treated our Ministers with 
 contempt, ordering them out of their territory, plun-
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 193 
 
 deringour ships, and through their agents violating the 
 sovereignty of oi:r soil. There was danger of a war 
 with France, and so it became necessary that the Na- 
 tion should be pat in a state of defence. The Ultra- 
 Federalists wanted a war with France, and to com- 
 promise their diiferences with England. But the 
 chief Democrats favored France, and hated England 
 to an extraordinary degree. Adams, who was now 
 the slave of a party, wished to act purely on the de- 
 fensive. He broke with his Cabinet on the question 
 of the command of the new army. All were agreed 
 that Washington should be General-in-Chief. The 
 Cabinet desired that Hamilton should be second in 
 rank. Such was the ambitious claim of Hamilton 
 himself; and Washington quietly favored it. Adams 
 wished to commission Knox or Pinckuey. After 
 much contention, Adams yielded to Washington, but 
 not graciously. 
 
 The French Court had rejected the American Min- 
 ister. A most respectable commission, Mr. Marshall, 
 Mr. Pinckney, and Mr. Gerry, were sent out to set- 
 tle affairs. They, too, were treated with equal dis- 
 dain. In a message to Congress, 21st of June, 1798, 
 Mr. Adams said, " I will never send another Minister 
 to France without assurance that he will be received, 
 respected, and honored as the representative of a 
 great, free, powerful, and independent nation."* 
 
 * Works, i. 519. 
 
 13
 
 194 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 War seemed unavoidable. The Nation armed itself, 
 and made ready for fight. The Dutch offered to me- 
 diate.* The French agent advised Mr. Murray, our 
 Minister at the Hague, that if the Americans should 
 send a new envoy, he would be " received as the 
 representative of a great, free, powerful, and inde- 
 pendent nation." Should Adams refuse the offer? 
 That were indeed madness. Should he consult his 
 Cabinet? They were all in favor of war, and would 
 betray the measure to other Federalists. They 
 might, and probably would, defeat the peaceful 
 policy he had determined to pursue. He took the 
 responsibility upon himself, and on the 18th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1799, he sent a message to the Senate, nomi- 
 nating Mr. William Vans Murray Minister to France, 
 at the same time transmitting the despatch of Talley- 
 rand, promising that France would receive an envoy 
 from America. " Is Mr. Adams mad ? " asked a 
 Federal Senator of Mr. Pickering. The Federalists 
 were indignant. The Senate committee on the nom- 
 ination sought an interview ; but they found the 
 President as inflexible as the granite of his own 
 native hills. He added Mr. Ellsworth and Patrick 
 Henry to the commission. The Senate confirmed the 
 nominations, but as Henry declined, George Davie, 
 of North Carolina, was put in his place. 
 
 * The French Government assumed a milder tone. They wished 
 for reconciliation with America.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 195 
 
 This was one of the great acts of his life ; no public 
 deed cost him more courage. It saved the nation from 
 a war, but it purchased for Adams the hatred of his 
 party, at least of its controlling and most ambitious 
 men. Though wisdom may ride in one pannier, the 
 other is often heavy with folly. After this great 
 deed, on March 10, 1799, Adams retired to his home 
 at Quiucy for more than seven months,* abandoning 
 the Government to his faithless Cabinet ; only occa- 
 sionally corresponding with his Secretaries upon such 
 matters as were submitted to him. He had after- 
 wards much cause to repent that he had not during 
 this period remained at the seat oL Government, 
 and in the control of its Executive affairs. 
 
 The Alien and Sedition Laws, so deservedly hateful 
 to Americans, were the measures not of himself, but 
 of his party. He assented to them, and so his was 
 the blame ; but he never liked them, and pardoned 
 John Fries, the first man ever tried for treason 
 against the United States, if indeed he could be said 
 to have been tried at all. This again brought on 
 Adams the wrath of his Cabinet and of the leading 
 men of his party. 
 
 Such, at last, became the discrepancy between him 
 and his Cabinet, that he removed the chief men from 
 office, filling their places with others of a different 
 
 * Works, viii. 628, et seq. ; also, ix. 37 ; Gibbs, " Administra- 
 tions," ii. 248.
 
 196 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 stamp. He settled some complicated difficulties 
 with both England and France. But his party was 
 displeased with him. Some of them Hamilton and 
 others sought to destroy him. 
 
 He was beaten at the next election. Jefferson was 
 chosen President in his place. This was the great 
 grief and sorrow of his life. He took what ven- 
 geance he could on his triumphant rival once his 
 intimate friend. Just as he was leaving office he filled 
 up many new judicial appointment?, then recently 
 created by act of Congress. These were called the 
 appointments of "the Midnight Jr.ciges," from the 
 commissions of some of them having been made at 
 nine o'clock on the evening of the 3d March, 1801, 
 while, as it was then considered, his Presidency was 
 to cease at midnight of that date. On the 4th 
 March, before sunrise, he left the seat of Govern- 
 ment, his feelings not suffering him to attend the 
 inauguration of his Democratic successor ! Private 
 grief, also, for the recent death of a son, lay heavy 
 on his heart,* with his great political defeat. 
 
 * Works, ix. 681.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 197 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE EX-PRESIDENT IN PRIVATE LIFE. FROM 
 MARCH, 1801, TO 4ra JULY, 1826. 
 
 Crushed with shame, and filled alike with grief 
 and indignation, Mr. Adams went home to his 
 farm at Quincy, passing at once from the most in- 
 tense activity of mind to the dull existence of a 
 country gentleman in a little town. On the last year 
 of office his letters came to him by thousands. The 
 next, out of office, there were hardly a hundred. 
 His franking privilege seemed to be all his visible 
 record for five and twenty years of earnest public 
 toil. He who so proudly 
 
 " Once trod the ways of glory, 
 And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor," 
 
 now finds all men desert him when the mantle of 
 Presidential power fell off. 
 
 "Love ends with hope; the sinking Statesman's door 
 Lets in the crowd of worshippers no more." 
 
 But dear old Massachusetts would not desert her 
 son, faithful and yet dishonored. The Legislature 
 sent him, for his past services, their thanks, in an 
 address sincere, beautiful, and affectionate. It was 
 a noble act of his native State, which he had done so 
 much to illustrate and to protect. It touched the
 
 198 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 sad old man's always thankful heart, and he found 
 the final applauses of his State " more grateful than 
 any which had preceded them." The farmers and 
 mechanics of the town of Quincy hoaored his next 
 birthday, cheering him with words of endearment, 
 where words of consolation might not have availed. 
 
 The remaining twenty-five years of his life he de- 
 voted to farming, always his favorite employment ; 
 to political writing upon his own conduct, or upon 
 the topics of the day ; to literature, and to corre- 
 sponding with his friends, who really prized him 
 in power or in disgrace. With th^ exception of 
 his letters, historical, literary, and philosophic, 
 his writings at this period do him IK> honor. They 
 are marked by partisan rage and by personal ha- 
 tred. The world has forgotten them. Let us not 
 call them from their appropriate tomb. 
 
 His wife died on the 28th of October, 1818. 
 Fifty- four years and three days had they lived to- 
 gether, a blameless and beautiful wedlock, blessed 
 with three sons and a daughter. He was eighty- 
 three, and ever after wore a tinge of unaffected sad- 
 ness. The sprightly humor vanished from his letters 
 and his talk. How could he be cheerful when the 
 Sun of his early being shone on him only from an- 
 other Home, so near and yet so far and separate ! 
 
 In 1820 Massachusetts found it nredful to revise 
 the Constitution which he had chiefly drafted in
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 199 
 
 1779. Eighty-five years old, his native town sent 
 him a delegate to this Convention, as they had done 
 to the other one, forty years before. He was chosen 
 its President, a fit honor, which the feeble old man 
 as fittingly declined. What a change from the time 
 when it seemed radical to demand that writs, title- 
 deeds, and commissions should run in the name 
 of the State; that is, of the People, and not in that 
 of the King. In the Convention of 1820 Adams 
 appeared a little more conservative than in that of 
 1779. The man at eighty-five is more timid than 
 at five and forty. But in one thing he was more 
 venturesome, younger, and more progressive than his 
 fellows. He demanded perfect religious freedom, not 
 only for Christians, but for non-Christians and anti- 
 Christians. All men should be equal before the law. 
 The State should not be Christian, but Human, as 
 Jesus himself was. Puritanic bigotry was then too 
 strong for the old man. The time came, and Mas- 
 sachusetts did what he had wished, thirty or forty 
 years afterwards. 
 
 Able-bodied, able-minded, Mr. Adams gradually 
 faded away. His hearing decayed, his eyes failed 
 him, his hands were tremulous ; but still the brave 
 old soul held on, making the most of the wreck of 
 life, now drifting alone to the Islands of the Blessed. 
 Independence Day, the great day of his life, drew 
 near. It was its fiftieth anniversary. The Nation
 
 200 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 was to keep its solemn Jubilee, grateful alike to God 
 and to His servants here below, for the blessings of 
 the smiling and happy land. A few days before the 
 time, the town orator asked him for a "sentiment" 
 .to suit the approaching occasion. The old man, in 
 his ninety-first year, infirm, feeble, and mortally sick 
 in his bed, answered, "INDEPENDENCE FOR- 
 EVER ! " The day came, and found him living, but 
 fast losing his hold upon earth. " Thomas Jefferson 
 still survives," said the old man his coadjutor and 
 his rival, yet his friend. These were his last words. 
 Soon after, while the land rang with cannons jubilant 
 over his great deed, he passed onward, and ceased 
 to be mortal. Jefferson had gone an hour or two 
 before. How fortunate the occasion of his death ! 
 His son was then the President of this mighty Na- 
 tion ; and on its fiftieth birthday, calmly, quietly, he 
 shook off the worn-out body, and, following his senti- 
 ment, went forth to " INDEPENDENCE FOREVER ! " 
 
 II. Look next at his character, and consider its 
 four elements the Intellectual, Moral, Affectional, 
 and Religious. 
 
 I. Mr. Adams had a great mind, quick, compre- 
 hensive, analytical, not easily satisfied save with ulti- 
 mate causes, tenacious also of its treasures. His 
 memory did not fail until he was old. With the 
 exception of Dr. Franklin, I think of no American
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 201 
 
 politician in the eighteenth century that was his in- 
 tellectual superior. For though Hamilton and Jef- 
 ferson, nay, Jay and Madison and Marshall sur- 
 passed him in some high qualities, yet no one of 
 them seems to have been quite his equal on the 
 whole. He was eminent in all the three depart- 
 ments of the Intellect the Understanding, the 
 practical power; the Imagination, the poetic pow- 
 er, and the Reason, the philosophic power. 
 
 First. His understanding was ample. Though he 
 was constitutionally averse to regular, severe, and 
 long-continued attention, he yet easily mastered what 
 lay before him, and reproduced it fluently when oc- 
 casion required. He gathered a great amount of 
 worldly knowledge, for he was a sharp observer of 
 human affairs, if not a nice one. Yet he attended 
 little to the world of matter, except for the economic 
 purposes of Agriculture, or the enjoyment of its visi- 
 ble beauty. It is only when he is stimulated by the 
 great mind of Franklin that he gives any attention to 
 the investigations of Science. 
 
 At the age of forty he was the ablest lawyer in New 
 England, perhaps the ablest lawyer in America. He 
 was the most learned in historic legal lore, the most 
 profound in the study of first principles. He went to 
 the fountains of English Law, and did not disdain to 
 follow the stream in all its crooked and self-contra- 
 dictory course. He had a more complete collection
 
 202 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 of law books than any man in New England, and so 
 both puzzled and defeated the officers of the Crown 
 with whom he contended. He was exceedingly well 
 read, for that time and place, in the Roman Law, 
 the Law of Nature, and the Law of Nations ; and 
 also well versed in Politics and in Morals. He had 
 read much in the histories of Greece and Rome, 
 and had some acquaintance with a few of their great 
 writers, though never an accomplished classic scholar. 
 He was quite familiar with the practical affairs of 
 New England life. 
 
 His first opinion was often faulty, not seldom ut- 
 terly wrong ; but his final thought was commonly deep 
 and just respecting the true nature of things. Hence, 
 in spite of great defects, he was a man not only of 
 instinctive sagacity, but also of sound judgment. 
 In respect to this he has not received justice. All 
 the great acts of his life, the defence of Captain 
 Preston, the denial that the British Parliament had 
 any right by English law to rule these Colonies, the 
 appointment of Washington as General, Coinmand- 
 ing-in-Chief, the Declaration of Independence, the 
 sending of a Commission to France in 1798, all 
 these things indicate the soundest of human judg- 
 ment. But he lacked method in his intellectual pro- 
 cesses. He had not the genius which is its own 
 method, nor yet that sober, systematic habit of work, 
 which, though seemingly slow, is, in the long run, so
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 203 
 
 swift and sure. He did things helter-skelter. In 
 his administration as President he had no rule for 
 anything. 
 
 Second. He had a good fair Imagination, above 
 the average of educated men. Yet his Imagination 
 was not equal to his Understanding. Besides, it had 
 small opportunity for early culture, or even for acci- 
 dental education in later life. He had more fondness 
 for the beauty of Nature, and even of Art, than I find 
 in his eminent political contemporaries. He was 
 fond of music, of sculpture, and painting, and took 
 delight in the grand Avorks of European Architecture, 
 which so astonish an American. His larger works 
 his controversial writings, his political papers are 
 plain to dire homeliness ; but his letters to his few 
 intimates, and especially to his wife, are charged with 
 wild flowers of wit, humor, and fancy, which spread 
 a cheering light on the grim landscape which expands 
 all around. 
 
 Third. He had a great Reason, though its culture 
 was greatly defective, and its method capricious and 
 uncertain. He had not calmness enough to be a 
 great philosopher, yet always looked for the actual 
 causes of things, and studied carefully their modes 
 of operation. This philosophic, metaphysical ten- 
 dency appears in most of his deliberate writings, 
 which always relate to political affairs. He is bold 
 in his abstract speculation, always founding his work
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 on the ultimate principles of Nature. He is often 
 profound in his remarks. Thus, in 1765, he speaks 
 of n Rights derived from the great Legislator of the 
 universe, Rights that cannot be repealed or re- 
 strained by human laws ; they are antecedent to all 
 earthly government."* "Rulers are no more than 
 attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people ; the 
 people have a right to revoke the authority that they 
 themselves have delegated, and to constitute abler 
 and better agents, attorneys, and trustees. The 
 preservation of the means of knowledge among the 
 lowest ranks is of more importance to the public 
 than all the property of all the rich men in the 
 country." | 
 
 The Declaration of Grievances, which he wrote in 
 1774, contains many profound thoughts, partly his 
 own, partly the work of James Otis and Samuel 
 Adams. His "Thoughts on Government"! is the 
 finest specimen of his political writing. As it should 
 be, his "PLAN" was borrowed from existing institu- 
 tions ; but it proves a careful observation of their 
 effects, and a profound investigation of the causes of 
 political welfare. His " Defence " of the American 
 
 / 
 
 * Works, iii. 449. 
 
 t Works, iii. 457. On the Canon and Feudal Laws. A mere frag- 
 ment, written by him at the age of twenty-nine, irregular and insuffi- 
 cient, but of great value at the time, 1765, not unprofitable now. 
 
 I Works, iv. 189. Works, iv. and v.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 205 
 
 Constitutions is less valuable, and contains many hasty 
 generalizations, which experience has not confirmed, 
 nor did history warrant them. He appeals from Hu- 
 man History to H uinan Nature ; from the Actual of 
 Establishment to the Ideal Right of Humanity. 
 
 Adams certainly had not a mind of the highest 
 class. If he were the first American of that age 
 after Franklin, he was second to him by a long in- 
 terval, and several competitors stood nearly as high 
 as he did. Unlike Franklin and Washington, he was 
 not a man of well-balanced intellect or of self-con- 
 trolled temper. 
 
 Thus constituted, he was an Inventor; but he was 
 not a great Inventor. He was often in advance 
 of his times, especially in his Plan of Government, 
 his scheme of Universal Toleration, making a Chris- 
 tian Humanity to constitute all men as equals before 
 the State. His Christian Commonwealth, like the 
 Kingdom of Heaven, was to grant no privilege to 
 Christians, but to secure justice to all Mankind. 
 
 He ran before the foremost of his time in seeing 
 the Nation's necessity of a Navy and of a Military 
 Academy. He required them in 1779, he founded 
 them in 1799. 
 
 As an Organizer, he could deal with political 
 ideas, constructing them into a Constitution. He 
 could plan a Government with masterly skill. But
 
 206 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 he had only the smallest talent for organizing men. 
 He was always a lawyer, who could shape his prin- 
 ciples into a measure. Here he had few equals ; but 
 he was never a practical politician, who could organ- 
 ize men about his idea, so that they should defend his 
 measures and adopt his thoughts and conclusions. 
 Thus many ran before him, and hence came the great 
 failure of his political life. He could construct In- 
 stitutions, but he could not govern men. 
 
 He was not a good Administrator, except in his 
 own private affairs, where, perhaps, his wife was the 
 presiding spirit. He had no system, but was gov- 
 erned by the enthusiasm of the moment.* In the 
 most important matter he went to work fluently, 
 often with haste and without good heed. In diploma- 
 cy, at Paris, 1780, he ran violently down steep places, 
 careless whom he ran over or what he ran against. 
 In 1798 he took the lead in appointing Washington 
 Commander-in-Chief of the army without consult- 
 ing him beforehand,f and quarrelled with him about 
 the appointment of officers. J 
 
 He acted often from personal whim and caprice, 
 and in a time of great political crisis, in 1799, left 
 
 * Jefferson's Writings, ix. 186. 
 
 f Sparks's Washington, xi. 304. See, also, Washington's letter to 
 McHenry. xi. 574. He never corresponded with Washington after 
 April 5, 1798, xi. 198. 
 
 J Sparks's Washington, xi. 419, 420.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 207 
 
 the seat of Government, and went home to Quincy 
 to stay for many months. 
 
 Hence he was not a skilful diplomatist abroad. 
 When Vice-President, Washington doubted if he was 
 fit for a foreign mission.* His administration as 
 President was not peaceful or prosperous. He could 
 not administer the Nation well, nor even manage his 
 own party. Yet it must be confessed that he won a 
 great diplomatic victory in Holland, and was called the 
 " Washington of Negotiation," and, while President, 
 successfully settled difficult questions with France 
 and England. I give the rule and the exceptions. 
 
 II. Mr. Adams had great moral virtues, also great 
 vices. Able-bodied, compact, and vigorous, though 
 not always healthy, he had abundant physical cour- 
 age. In scholarly men this is a great and a rare 
 virtue. He says he meant to have been a soldier, and 
 always had doubted whether he should have been a 
 hero or a coward. He needed not to doubt. No 
 drop of coward blood ran in his impetuous veins. He 
 inherited "spunk," and transmitted it too. 
 
 He had moral courage in the heroic degree. He 
 could not only face the bullets of a British man-of- 
 War, but face the Royal Government of Massachu- 
 setts in 1765, all through the ante-revolutionary 
 period. Nay, he could front the wrath of his own 
 
 * Jefferson's Works, ix. 206.
 
 208 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 friends and the whole town, and defend Captain 
 Preston in 1770. He could face the indignation of 
 the leaders of the Federal party in 1799. Let him 
 be sure he was right, and he feared nothing but to 
 be false to Eight. When the Massachusetts Judges 
 went under the golden chain of Britain in 1773, and 
 the Government held it low to make them stoop 
 the more lowly ; when the precedent-loving lawyers 
 knew not what to do, Adams said, "Impeach the 
 Judges ; r> and the Court did no more business.* 
 Conscious of great integrity he did not hesitate to 
 take great risks, and also to accept great responsi- 
 bility. 
 
 He says he had four great trials in his life. 
 
 The first came from Captain Preston's case in 
 1770. The popular voice said, " Hang the authors 
 of the Boston Massacre ! " Adams's conscience said* 
 w Defend them ; give them a free trial ! " His friends 
 said, "If you save them, you ruin yourself !" But 
 Adams was John Adams, and he did his duty, saving 
 the lives of the soldiers, and the virtuous reputation 
 of Massachusetts. 
 
 On the 24th July, 1775, he wrote two private let- 
 ters for Congress, which fell into the hands of the 
 British, and were published. In one of these he 
 recommends Disunion, Independence, concentration 
 of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial powers 
 
 * Works, x. 237, et al.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 209 
 
 of the whole Continent, a Navy, and seizure of the 
 Tories. Hateful doctrines these to all but a minor- 
 ity of the Congress. Besides, he spoke of John Dick- 
 inson of Pennsylvania, then a chief political favorite, 
 in terms of exquisite contempt. The doubtful mem- 
 bers of Congress looked at him with wrath. Mr. 
 Dickinson passed him without recognition in the 
 street. He bore it patiently, and waited for his 
 time.* 
 
 In 1781, while minister to Holland, the Gov- 
 ernment delayed to acknowledge him as Minister. 
 Others said, " Wait." He appealed to the Dutch 
 people, who compelled their High Mightinesses to 
 receive him, and so this bold and unprecedented 
 diplomacy f turned out to be a great success. 
 
 In 1798, his Cabinet, the Federal party, and 
 even Washington, said, " Send no Minister to 
 France." Adams took the responsibility on him- 
 self; did not consult his hostile and treacherous 
 Cabinet, but sent the Minister, and so broke the 
 cloud of war which hung dark and fearful over 
 the land and sea.} These four great trials he 
 came out of them all, clean and pure as he went in. 
 
 He was a conscientious man, and sought counsel 
 of that still small voice, which tells the law of the 
 mind, the Eternal Right, to whoso listens. He 
 
 * Works, i. 178, 183. t Works, i. 349, et al. 
 
 J Works, i. 536-643. 
 
 14
 
 210 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 could not understand that the King's will was to 
 govern the conscience of a subject.* He had cleat 
 perception of justice, was veracious and outspoken, 
 had an utter hatred of lies, of dissembling, and gen- 
 erally of hypocrisy in any form. He was terribly 
 open, earnest, and direct, and could not keep his 
 mouth shut. He knew this. Once he, went with 
 others to see the picture of Washington in Faneuil 
 Hall. Some one remarked on the firm mouth, and 
 said, " It looks as if he could keep it shut." " So 
 he did," said Adams ; but tapping with his cane his 
 own bust, which the town of Boston had also placed 
 in Faneuil Hall, he added, "that d d fool never 
 could." He hated all stratagems and tricks, and 
 growled about the slow, noiseless way in which old, 
 experienced Dr. Franklin threw out his lines, and 
 drew in the treasures of the treacherous political 
 deep. "Diplomacy is a silent art," and Adams was 
 a talker. A man of deepest integrity, he could not 
 dissemble, but wore his heart upon his sleeve. He 
 had no reserve. His early rule was never to de- 
 ceive the People, nor to conceal from them any 
 truth essential to their welfare. f He observed this 
 as a maxim all his life. He had great moral deli- 
 cacy, and, being President, doubted if he ought to 
 retain his son John Quincy Adams in the diplomatic 
 office to which Washington had appointed him. To 
 
 * Works, iii. 223. t Works, ii. 214.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 211 
 
 his letter, asking advice upon this, Washington re- 
 plied, " It is right for you to keep him there, not to 
 put him there."* Yet Adams afterwards made his 
 wife's nephew, William Cranch, Judge of the United 
 States District Court at Washington, and his son-in- 
 law, Colonel Smith, he put in a high office. f All 
 our Presidents, except Washington and John Quincy 
 Adams, have put their relations in office. It is a 
 dangerous and unjust practice. 
 
 John Adams had a strong temptation to the in- 
 dulgence of animal passions, but he kept all the ap- 
 petites in their place ; and in his old age could 
 proudly write, " No virgin or matron ever had cause 
 to blush at the sight of me, or to regret her acquaint- 
 ance with me. No father, brother, son, or friend 
 ever had cause of grief or resentment for any inter- 
 course between me and any daughter, sister, mother, 
 or any other relation of the female sex." | Here he 
 was greatly the superior of Franklin, Jefferson, Ham- 
 ilton, nay, of Washington himself. 
 
 These are great virtues. Few politicians can boast 
 such. But he was ill-tempered, " sudden and quick 
 
 * Works, viii. 529. In this letter Washington expresses a strong 
 hope that "you will not withhold merited promotion from Mr. 
 John [Quincy] Adams because he is your son ; " and also says, 
 " I give it as my decided opinion that Mr. Adams is the most valu- 
 able public character we have abroad," and so on in the same strain. 
 
 t Works, ix. 63. J Works, ii. 145.
 
 212 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 in quarrel," and madly impetuous. He was not a 
 good judge of character. He often suspected the 
 noblest of men, and put credulous faith in mean and 
 deceitful persons, and so was unjust while he meant 
 it not. Intensely ambitious of place and of power, 
 he yet sought always to rule -his desire by his duty. 
 But if he sought only excellent things, the spirit of 
 the search was not in all cases commendable. The 
 motive was often selfish, the method wrong, and the 
 manner harsh. His temper was not magnanimous or 
 noble. He was suspicious, and jealous, and envious 
 of men before him in social rank, or above him in 
 power. He attributes mean motives to all men, often 
 to the noblest in the land. His early writings prove 
 this abundantly, and his later also. He was envious 
 of Dr. Franklin in France ; and the frog stretched 
 himself to resemble the ox. He hated a superior. 
 
 I think he rarely forgave a foe, or one he fancied 
 such. Keverence he had for God ; little for noblest 
 men. Witness his harsh words about Samuel Adams 
 and John Hancock ; his unrelenting enmity to Ham- 
 ilton and Pickering. 
 
 But his wrath against Dr. Franklin was of the 
 most needless, wanton, and malignant character. I 
 think he bore it with him to his grave. Sound- 
 headed by nature as he was, he was constitutionally 
 a fighting man. This appears in his Diary, and in 
 the newspaper articles written by him before the
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 213 
 
 Revolution and after it. It also became manifest 
 when he was Vice-President, and in the higher office 
 of President, and it may be observed in the Autobi- 
 ography which he wrote in his old age. His letters 
 .to Mr. Cunningham, in 1804-1809, seem to me not 
 less than wicked. He was intensely violent in his 
 wrath, which a trifle could rouse, and nothing could 
 stay. He was indiscriminate as to the object of it. 
 It might be a member of his Cabinet who opposed a 
 measure, or a butcher in Quincy who brought in his 
 bill. But shortly after the passion of his wrath he 
 cooled down, and did with delight what he had at 
 first refused with vehement anger.* 
 
 Impatient of process, and greedy of result, he was 
 most intensely desirous of honor and applause. His 
 early Diary is full of examples ; so, too, is the later. 
 
 * When he was President of the United States, Congress required 
 him to negotiate a loan for the support of the American Army. The 
 Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Wolcott, was decidedly of opinion 
 that in the then condition of the money market he ought not to 
 publish proposals for the loan offering to subscribers a less rate of 
 interest than eight per cent. As to this state of things, he writes 
 many years afterwards, in 1815, " My patience, which had been put 
 to so many severe trials by enemies and friends, was quite exhaust- 
 ed, and I broke out, ' This d d army will be the ruin of this 
 country. If it must be so, it must. I cannot help it. Issue your 
 proposals as you please.' I ask pardon for that peevish and vulgar 
 expression ; but for the truth, in substance and essence, of this narra- 
 tion, I appeal to Mr. Wolcott himself. I know that Oliver Wolcott 
 dare not lie." Works, x. 130.
 
 214 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 At Paris, in 1782, he was highly complimented for 
 the success of his negotiation in Holland. He writes 
 in his journal, "A few of these compliments would 
 kill Franklin, if they should come to his ears." * He 
 reads all the complimentary nothings which the 
 French said to him. Yet, great as his vanity was, 
 I think it never bent him aside from his duty. Lov- 
 ing the praise of man, he never once stooped for it ; 
 never hesitated to do the most unpopular act if sure 
 it was right ; never bowed that great, manly head to es- 
 cape abuse which his imprudence or his temper brought 
 upon him. He was excessively arrogant. " I always 
 consider the whole Nation as my children," he writes 
 in 1809 ; j- "but they have almost all been undutiful to 
 me. You two gentlemen," Mr. Wright and Mr. Ly- 
 man, "are almost the only ones, out of my own house, 
 who have expressed a filial affection for John Adams." 
 He claims that he is the author of the chief things 
 in the Declaration of Independence. " Jefferson has 
 acquired such glory by his Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, in 1776, that, I think, I may boast of my 
 declaration of independence in 1755, twenty-one 
 years older than his." J He refers to a letter of his 
 written when he was a boy of twenty at Worcester. 
 Some one ascribed to Samuel Adams " the honor of 
 the first idea and project of Independence." John 
 Adams claims that it was his thunder, let off when 
 
 * Works, iii. 309. f 615. J ix. 592.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 215 
 
 he was twenty years old. "In 1755, when my letter 
 to Dr. Webb was written, I had never seen the face 
 of Samuel Adams.* I heartily wished the two coun- 
 tries were separated forever." f " The Declaration 
 of Independence of 4th of July, 1776, contained 
 nothing but the Boston Declaration of 1772, and the 
 Congressional Declaration of 1774. Such are the 
 caprices of fortune ! The Declaration of Rights [of 
 1774] was drawn by the little John Adams. The 
 mighty Jefferson, by the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence of 4th July, 1776, carried away the glory 
 of the great and the little." } 
 
 Claiming so much for himself, he abused his rivals. 
 Samuel Adams and John Hancock are the " Stone 
 House faction, and will be sure of all the loaves and 
 fishes in the National Government, and the State 
 Government as they hope." He speaks sneeringly 
 of Hancock. "Yes, this is the place where the great 
 Governor Hancock was born. John Hancock ! a man 
 without head and without heart; the mere shadow 
 of a man ; and yet a Governor of old Massachu- 
 setts ! " || He did not like to hear the praises of 
 Washington. One day he dined with a company in 
 a neighboring town. After dinner, when he rose to 
 
 * Works, ix. 692. t Works, ix, 612. 
 
 J Works, vi. 278. Works, viii. 508. 
 
 || Cunningham Correspondence, p. 215. See his admirable ac- 
 count of Hancock, Works, x. 259.
 
 216 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 depart, a clergyman attended him to the hall, and 
 offered to wait upon him with his cloak, and said, 
 " Sir, the country owes so much to Washington and 
 you." Mr. Adams snapped him up. " Washington 
 and me I Do not let me hear you say that again I Sir, 
 Washington was a dolt." It was a momentary spasm 
 of envy and of wrath, coming from " that weak hu- 
 mor that his mother," or some one else, "gave him." 
 At other times he did justice to Washington, 
 though always a little coldly, for neither liked the 
 other. He was often unjust to Samuel Adams, and 
 even to John Hancock, whose faults were certainly 
 offensive, though his virtues were exceedingly great. 
 Constitutionally, Adams was a grumbler. He 
 hated things present, and longed for the absent or 
 the past. Thus; while a schoolmaster at Worcester, 
 he often complains of his irksome task ; but at Brain- 
 tree, studying law, he sighs for the mental activity 
 which school-keeping forced out of him. His life as 
 a country lawyer, riding his circuit, pleases him no 
 more. It is a life of " here and there and anywhere," 
 and will lead him to neither fame, fortune, power, 
 nor to the service of his friends, clients, or country.* 
 In 1765, in the Stamp Act times, the courts were 
 shut. Adams writes in his journal, "Thirty years 
 of my life are passed in preparation for business. I 
 have had poverty to struggle with, envy and jealousy 
 
 * Works,!. 84; ii. 208.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 217 
 
 and malice of enemies to encounter ; no friends, or 
 but few, to assist me, so that I have groped in dark 
 obscurity till of late, and had but just become known, 
 and gained a small degree of reputation, when this 
 execrable project (the Stamp Act) was set on foot for 
 my ruin, as well as that of America in general, and of 
 Great Britain." December 18, 1765.* The very next 
 day he finds that Boston has chosen him for her Attor- 
 ney, to appear before the Council on this very matter 
 of closing the Courts ! What he thought was his ruin 
 became the highway to fortune and to fame. By and 
 by he complains of his public life, that he has done so 
 much for the people. " I reap nothing but insult, ridi- 
 cule, and contempt for it, even from many of the peo- 
 ple themselves." "I have stood by the people much 
 longer than they would stand by themselves. But I 
 have learned wisdom by experience. I shall certainly 
 become more retired and cautious. I shall certainly 
 mind my own farm and my own office." f But here 
 he complains he is out of politics. "I believe there 
 is no man in so curious a situation as I am. I am, 
 for what I can see, quite left alone in the world." J 
 
 He travels for his health along the beautiful valley 
 of the Connecticut River, but gets "weary of this 
 idle, romantic jaunt." " I believe it would have been 
 as well to have staid in my own country, and amused 
 myself with my farm, and rode to Boston every day. 
 
 * Works, i. 76. f Works, ii. 260. J Works, ii. 279.
 
 218 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 I shall not certainly take such a ramble again merely 
 for rny health." " I want to see my wife, my chil- 
 dren, my farm, my horse, oxen, cows, walls, fences, 
 workmen, office, books, and clerks. I want to hear 
 the news and politics of the day. But here I am at 
 Bissell's, in Windsor, hearing my landlord read a 
 chapter in the kitchen, and go to prayers with his 
 family in the genuine tone of a Puritan." * When in 
 Congress he wants to resign. Ten days before the 
 Declaration of Independence he writes, "When a 
 few mighty matters are accomplished here, I retreat, 
 like Cincinnatus, to my plough, and, like Sir Wil- 
 liam Temple, to my garden, and farewell politics ! 
 I am wearied to death. Some of you younger folks 
 must take your trick, and let me go to sleep." (He 
 is then about forty-one.) "My children will scarcely 
 thank me for neglecting their education and interest 
 so long. They will be worse off than ordinary beg- 
 gars, because I shall teach them, as a first principle, 
 not to beg. Pride and want, though they may be ac- 
 companied with liberty, or at least may live under a 
 free Constitution, are not a very pleasant mixture nor 
 a very desirable legacy, yet this is all that I shall leave 
 them." f In the grand letter which tells of the Dec- 
 laration of Independence itself, while his own mag- 
 nificent defence of it is still echoing in his ears, 
 
 * Works, ii. 272. f Works, ix. 411.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 219 
 
 and composing music at the end of his pen, he tells 
 his wife he cannot accept the office of Chief Justice 
 of Massachusetts. He has not " fortune enough to 
 support my family, and what is of more importance, 
 to support the dignity of that exalted station. It is 
 too high and lifted up for me, who delight in nothing 
 so much as retreat, solitude, silence, and obscurity."* 
 " In private life no one has a right to censure me for 
 following my own inclinations in retirement, sim- 
 plicity, and frugality. In public life every man has 
 a right to remark as he pleases. At least he thinks 
 so." " I had rather build stone walls on Penn's Hill 
 (part of his farm) , than be the first Prince in Europe, 
 or the first General, or the first Senator in America." 
 So he wrote on the 18th of August, 1776.f When 
 Vice-President, he does not like the office ; it is the 
 most insignificant in the world. " I wish very hearti- 
 ly that a change of Vice-President could be made 
 to-morrow. I have been too ill used in the office to 
 be fond of it, if I had not been introduced into it in 
 a manner that made it a disgrace. I will never serve 
 in it again upon such terms." \ President Jefferson 
 appointed John Quincy Adams Minister to Russia. 
 The father was not pleased. "Aristides is banished 
 because he is too just." "He will not leave an 
 honester or abler man behind him. He was sent 
 
 * Works, ix. 417. t Hamilton's Hamilton, i. 16i. 
 
 J Works, ix. 567.
 
 220 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 away, as a dangerous rival too near the throne."* 
 Certainly these are great vices ; but John Adams 
 possessed such virtues that he can afford to have them 
 told, and subtracted from his real merit. He was so 
 perfectly open that it is himself who furnishes all 
 the evidence against himself. If he exaggerates the 
 faults of other men, he treats his own quite as se- 
 riously. He defended Hancock, whom he sometimes 
 abused, and said, " If he had vanity and caprice, so 
 had I. And if his vanity and caprice made me some- 
 times splitter, as you know they often did, mine, I 
 well know, had often a similar effect upon him. But 
 these little flickering 's of little passions determine noth- 
 ing concerning essential characters." f 
 
 III. Adams was not very rich in his affectional 
 nature ; the objects of his love were few. Out of 
 the family circle, I think he had no intimates or con- 
 fidants. There were no friendships between him and 
 the leading Patriots of the Revolution. His Diary 
 represents him as a man "intensely solitary," who 
 confided little in any one, and quarrelled often with 
 many. He liked the Lees of Virginia ; liked Ralph 
 Izard, a quite unworthy man; but made friend- 
 ships with none of them, not even with Washington, 
 Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and other famous 
 chiefs of the Revolution. But in the later years of 
 
 * Works, x. 158. t Works, x. 259.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 221 
 
 his life a friendship quite beautiful sprang up with Jef- 
 ferson, his old rival and former foe. The letters which 
 passed between them are an honor to both of them, 
 and form one of the pleasantest episodes in the later 
 lives of these two great men. The rage of ambition 
 is all over, and a tone of friendship enlivens the 
 themes of the letters which occasionally passed be- 
 tween them, and in which both much delighted. His 
 correspondence with Mr. Van der Kemp, a learned 
 and scholarly Dutchman, whom the French Revolu- 
 tion drove to America, shows his affection in its most 
 pleasing light. He was a charitable man, and did 
 his alms in secret. While President, in a time of 
 great distress, he subscribed five hundred dollars for 
 the poor at Philadelphia ; but he did it in private, and 
 kept his name out of sight. He was lenient towards 
 offenders. Thus, against the vehement advice of 
 his Cabinet, he pardoned Mr. Fries, condemned for 
 treason. The leading Federalists hated him for this 
 act of righteous clemency.* But he sometimes 
 writes truculent letters about men who used what 
 he called seditious language. f He was violent in 
 his hasty speech, never cruel in his deliberate acts. 
 
 IV. Mr. Adams had strong religious emotions 
 reverence for God, conscientious desire to keep his 
 
 * Works, ix. 57. 
 
 f Works, ix. 13, et. seq. ; ix. 582-684.
 
 222 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 natural Laws, a deep remorse when he violated the 
 integrity of his own conscience, and a devout, unfail- 
 ing trust in the goodness of God, which is alike the 
 protection of Nations and of individual men. He, 
 by his nature, inclined to the Ministerial profession ; 
 and but for the bigotry of that age, and for his own 
 spontaneous enlightenment, would probably have 
 been one of the most powerful in that class which 
 has enrolled so much of the talent and virtue of New 
 England, and made so profound a mark on the char- 
 acter of the people. All his life long Mr. Adams 
 had a profound religious sense. Though hating for- 
 mality, he was yet an ecclesiastical man as well as a 
 religious man. But he hated Hypocrisy, hated Big- 
 otry, hated Intolerance. Not a word of cant deforms 
 his writings. In his early life he learned to hate Cal- 
 vinism. That hatred continued all his days. He 
 was an Arminian at twenty. He read Bolingbroke, 
 Morgan, and other free-thinking writers, in his 
 youth. Their influence is obvious. They helped to 
 emancipate him from the thraldom of New England 
 Theology. But they did not weaken his religious 
 sense, nor impair his virtue. When an old man, he 
 read the great French writers on religious matters, 
 not without enlightenment and profit ; but he did not 
 show that audacious immorality which delighted to 
 pull down, with mockery, the Sacred Instruction 
 which they neither could nor would replace, nor
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 223 
 
 even attempt to supply. His theological opinions 
 seem to have been much like those of Franklin, 
 though in his case they do not seem to have had the 
 same genial influence. 
 
 In framing the Constitution of Massachusetts, in 
 1779, he wished religion * to be left free. All sects, 
 Christian and non-Christian, were to be equal be- 
 fore the Law, and alike eligible to all offices. He 
 could not carry that point. He labored for the same 
 end in the Convention which revised the Constitution 
 of Massachusetts in 1820 ; but still without success. 
 In respect to religious toleration in 1779, he was far 
 in advance of the Convention which sat forty years 
 later, and indeed he was far in advance of the Courts 
 of Massachusetts of this present day. He intro- 
 duced a remarkable section into that Constitution for 
 the encouragement of Literature, Science, and Mor- 
 als, f He had a lively indignation against "that sys- 
 tem of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and 
 triumphed for fifteen hundred years." He detested 
 the cruelties practised in the name of religion. " Re- 
 member the Index Expurgatorius, the Inquisition, 
 the stake, the axe, the halter, and the guillotine, and 
 O, horrible, the rack ! " J He writes to Jefferson, 
 in 1817, "Twenty times in the course of my late 
 reading, have I been on the point of breaking out, 
 
 * Works, i. 627; IT. 221. 
 
 f Works, ir. 259 ; C. F. Adams's note. J Works, yi. 479.
 
 224 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 ' This would be the best of all possible worlds if there 
 were no religion in it ! ' But in this exclamation I 
 should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. 
 Without religion, this world would be something not 
 fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean 
 Hell. So far from believing in the total and univer- 
 sal depravity of human nature, I believe there is no 
 individual totally depraved. The most abandoned 
 scoundrel that ever existed never yet wholly extin- 
 guished his conscience ; and while conscience re- 
 mains, there is some religion. Popes, Jesuits, Sor- 
 bonnists, and Inquisitors have some conscience and 
 some religion. Fears and terrors appear to have 
 produced a universal credulity. . . . But fears of 
 pain and death here do not seem to have been so un- 
 conquerable as fears of what is to come hereafter." * 
 He sympathized with all sects in their desire for 
 Piety and Morality, and thought Jefferson as " good 
 a Christian as Priestley and Lindsey, who had called 
 Jefferson an unbeliever." f " The human understand- 
 ing is a Revelation from its Maker, which can never 
 be disputed or doubted." " No prophecies, no mira- 
 cles are necessary to prove this celestial communica- 
 tion." | He scorns the doctrine of eternal damna- 
 tion. " I believe no such things. My adoration of 
 the Author of the Universe is too profound and too 
 sincere. The love of God and of his creation de- 
 
 * Works, x. 254. f Works, x. 56, 57. J Works, x. C6.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 225 
 
 light, joy, triumph, exultation in my own existence, 
 though but an atom, a molecule organique, in the 
 universe, these are my religion." 
 
 "Howl, snarl, bite, ye Calvinistic, ye Athanasiau 
 divines, if you will. Ye will say I am no Christian. 
 I say ye are no Christians, and there the account is bal- 
 anced. Yet I believe all the honest men among you 
 are Christians in my sense of the word." * He finds 
 Christianity before Christ, Christian piety in the 
 sacred writers before Jesus of Nazareth. He w does 
 not believe in demoniacal possessions ; even if the 
 Evangelists believed it, he does not." f 
 
 Of course the charge of Infidelity was brought 
 against him, as against all thoughtful and outspoken 
 men, who seek to understand the causes of things, 
 and to trample fear beneath their feet. 
 
 I find his lack of religion in his bad temper, in 
 envy, jealousy, hate, wrath ; but not in his disbelief 
 of malignant devils and eternal Hell. The proof of 
 his real religion I find in his Veracity, his Justice, 
 Philanthropy, and in that Integrity which, I think, 
 never failed him. 
 
 Mr. Adams's personal appearance was not impos- 
 ing or dignified. He was less then the average 
 height of New England men, though with much 
 more than an average of weight and width. He was, 
 
 * Works, x. 67. t Works, x. 92. 
 
 15
 
 226 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 in fact, a stout, corpulent man. His head was large, 
 wide at the base, nearly round, but not high. His 
 forehead was full and ample, though low for its 
 width ; the mouth well cut, the nose sufficiently 
 massive. The general appearance of the face indi- 
 cated power and repose, not that terrible vehemence 
 of wrathful emotions with which it was sometimes 
 animated. His bust and features seem to afford a 
 good likeness of the man. 
 
 Mr. Adams wrote much, but he only wrote books 
 designed to meet the need of the hour. His most 
 important writings are : a Discourse on the Canon 
 and Feudal Law, 1765 ; the State papers in the quar- 
 rel between the Colony of Massachusetts and Gov- 
 ernor Hutchinson ; the Rights and Grievances of the 
 American Colonies, 1774 ; his Plans of Government 
 of the Independent States, 1776; the Constitution 
 of Massachusetts, 1779 ; the Defence of the Ameri- 
 can Constitution, 1786, and the papers on Davila, 
 written while he was Vice-President, and published 
 in the Philadelphia newspapers. These were applica- 
 tions of his political principles to the actual affairs of 
 America. In all these the style is poor, inelegant, 
 and yet artificial. He is often inaccurate in his 
 statement of facts, and sometimes hasty in his gen- 
 eralizations. His first address as President contains 
 a sentence which I think was then the longest in 
 what is known of the English language. It since
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 227 
 
 has been but once surpassed, and that by another 
 citizen of Massachusetts who is yet more distin- 
 guished than Mr. Adams for literary culture. 
 
 His letters are the most pleasing part of his works, 
 the only part now readable. Here the best are found 
 in the beautiful correspondence with Jefferson, full 
 of wit and wisdom, and, above all, enriched with a 
 gentleness and affection that you vainly seek in so 
 many other works of the great man. But the most 
 charming of all his many writings are the letters to 
 his wife. I think more than three hundred of them 
 have been printed, and I know not where in the 
 English language to find so delightful a collection. 
 He had but one confidant, his wife ; but one inti- 
 mate friend, the mother of his children. To her he 
 told all his loves and his hates, his anger and his 
 gratitude, his hopes and his fears. She was able to 
 comprehend his great mind, to sympathize in all his 
 excellence. Her judgment seems to have been as 
 sound as his own. If not original like his, like 
 Washington's it was cool, critical, and accurate. 
 She poured oil on the troubled waters of his life, 
 and called him to behold the heavenly bow of beauty 
 and of hope in the cloud which brooded over them. 
 The cloud dropped down, and the Sunshine followed 
 in the footsteps of the storm. 
 
 He was not what is now called an eloquent man. 
 He had no oratorical tricks, no stops for applause,
 
 228 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 no poetic images, nothing of what the editors and 
 reporters and half-educated ministers name " fine 
 writing," and what school-girls call " perfectly splen- 
 did." But everywhere strong sense, mastery of his 
 matter, philosophic knowledge of causes, vehemence 
 of emotion, and condensed richness of thought. The 
 form is often faulty and misshapen, but the substance 
 strong and sound. He moved other persons, for he 
 was moved himself, and the great natural force which 
 stirred him he brought to bear on other men. So he 
 was always powerful as a speaker and writer. Yet, 
 July 2,1776,1 think men did not say, " What a fine 
 speech John Adams made!" but only, w Down with 
 the Kingly Government." He abounded in Eve^eiu, 
 which Demosthenes said was the first, second, and 
 third requisite in oratory. Scarce any specimens of 
 his speeches are left ; only the fame of their power 
 survives. You often find profound thought in his 
 writings.* No American writer upon Politics more 
 abounds in it. 
 
 He had not much confidence in the people, no in- 
 stinct of Democracy. He leaned to aristocratic 
 forms of Government. So, in the Constitution of 
 the State of Massachusetts, he would give the Gov- 
 
 * Works, iv. 216. He argued that it was impossible for human 
 wisdom to form a plan of government that should suit all future 
 emergencies, and that, therefore, periodical revisions were requi- 
 site.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 229 
 
 ernor an absolute negative to all Acts of the Legisla- 
 ture, and empower him to appoint all the officers of 
 the Militia, the Generals, Colonels, Majors, Captains, 
 and so on down to the Sergeants and Corporals.* 
 
 He insisted on four things in his Plan of Govern- 
 ment. (1.) A separation of the legislative, judicial, 
 and executive Powers. (2.) The Legislature must 
 have two bodies, a House and a Senate. (3.) The 
 Judiciary must be appointed during good behavior. 
 (4.) The Executive must be single; one man, not a 
 council of men. It was a wise man who devised 
 such a scheme in 1776. He was often accused of 
 favoring Monarchy, and wishing to establish in Amer- 
 ica a King and a House of Lords. The charge is 
 utterly false. I think Jefferson is not blameless for 
 his representation of Adams's opinions. He foresaw 
 the greatness of America, and in 1786 said, " We 
 are now employed in making establishments which 
 will affect the happiness of a hundred millions of in- 
 habitants at a time, in a period not very distant. "f 
 He wrote a book on all the liberal Governments of 
 the world, to show their virtues and their vices. He 
 dared tell the faults of our own Institutions. J Who 
 
 * Works, iv. 186, 231, 249, 260, 258. See his respect for birth, 
 vi. 502. But see, in this connection, ix. 574; also, ix. 376, 551, 
 557, 571, 590. 
 
 t Works, iv. 587. Cunningham Correspondence. 
 
 J Works, iv. 276, 399 ; also x. 268. Cunningham Letters, lix. 
 p. 195.
 
 230 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 ventures on that now? Even then he was, for doing 
 so, much abused. 
 
 In 1780 Dr. Franklin wrote from France home to 
 his Government, that " Adams means well for his 
 country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, 
 sometimes, and in some things, is absolutely out of 
 his senses ; " * and adds also, " I know that by tell- 
 ing it I hazard a mortal enmity." The criticism was 
 just, and also the forecast of its consequence. But 
 weigh the man in an even balance. His faults were 
 chiefly of ill-temper and haste ; his virtues Patri- 
 otism, Truthfulness, Moral Courage, Integrity have 
 seldom been surpassed, nay, rarely equalled in pub- 
 lic men. He had no prejudice against any section 
 of the country. Here he was superior to both Jef- 
 ferson and Washington, who ever denied justice to 
 New England. He was an intense Patriot, and did 
 not hesitate to sacrifice his dearest personal wishes 
 for the good of his country. In his later days some 
 distinguished foreigners came to visit him at Quincy. 
 He met them by appointment, and sat in a great 
 chair in the shade close by his house. " In the be- 
 ginning of the fight did you think you should suc- 
 ceed ?" asked one of the visitors. "Yes," said the 
 old man ; " I never doubted that the country would 
 succeed, but I expected nothing but certain ruin for 
 myself." 
 
 * Diplomatic Corres. of Revolution, iv. 139.
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 231 
 
 The hate against him has not died away. Still, 
 for old Federalist and for old Democratic families, 
 detraction is busy at its work. But after all just 
 deduction is made from his conduct, it must be con- 
 fessed that no man has had so wide, so deep, and so 
 lasting an influence on the great constructive work 
 of framing the best Institutions of America. And 
 the judgment of posterity will be, that he was a 
 brave man, deep-sighted, conscientious, patriotic, 
 and possessed of Integrity which nothing ever shook, 
 but which stood firm as the granite of his Quincy 
 Hills. While American Institutions continue, the 
 People will honor brave, honest old John Adams, 
 who never failed his country in her hour of need, 
 and who, in his life of more than ninety years, 
 though both passionate and ambitious, wronged no 
 man nor any woman I
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSOK 
 
 (333)
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 NEW ENGLAND was settled by real Colonists; 
 men full of ideas which were far in advance of their 
 times. These ideas could not be carried out in Eng- 
 land, and therefore they emigrated to what was af- 
 terwards called the "NEW ENGLAND." Here Demo- 
 cratic Institutions at once sprung up among them. 
 Their antecedents and their principles could not have 
 produced any different growth. The distinction be- 
 tween rich and poor, educated and ignorant, soon 
 became the chief differences in their social scale. 
 There was but one sort of men, though many condi- 
 tions. The Government was by the people, and it 
 favored the distribution of wealth, not its accumula- 
 tion in special families. Education was open to all, 
 at the public cost. The form of Religion was Con- 
 gregational. The Congregational Church had more 
 individual members than any Christian sect. The 
 theology was Calviuistic, and that always stimu- 
 lates men to metaphysical speculation and to liberal 
 study. 
 
 (236)
 
 236 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 In Virginia, it was quite different. Religion had 
 nothing to do with its settlement. Partly, the emi- 
 grants were younger sons of younger brothers, de- 
 scendants from wealthy houses, who either had some 
 moderate property, or had got manorial grants of land 
 from the Crown ; partly, they were the servants and 
 vassals of these nominal lords of Manors, and partly, 
 they were the scourings of the British jails. They 
 brought no superior Ideas along with them. They 
 did not found democratic institutions ; for all their 
 care was to keep their institutions aristocratic. The 
 Government was in the hands of a few, and it favored 
 the entailment of property on a few, not its distribu- 
 tion among many. It kept up the division of Castes, 
 so that there should be as many sorts of men as there 
 were conditions of society. Social distinction was 
 founded on the acknowledged differences in birth, 
 property, and powerful connection, and to appear- 
 ance not at all dependent upon knowledge, virtue, 
 or true nobility of character. No pains were taken 
 to provide for public education. 
 
 The Printing Press had come early to New Eng- 
 land, where it had printed Eliot's translation of the 
 Bible into the Indian language, and had published 
 two editions of it long before Virginia had produced 
 a printed line. 
 
 The form of Religion in Virginia was Episcopal. 
 None other was tolerated. It encouraged neither
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 237 
 
 metaphysical thought nor biblical study. This 
 tended to repress individuality of religion. 
 
 In New England wealth was diffused ; education, 
 political power, all were diffused widely. In 1764, 
 James Otis said, "The Colonists are men ; the Colo- 
 nists are therefore free born ; for, by the law of Na- 
 ture, all men are free born, white or black. No good 
 reason can be given for enslaving them of any color. 
 Is it right to enslave a man because his color is black, 
 or his hair short and curled like wool, instead of 
 Christian hair? Can any logical inference or form 
 of slavery be drawn from a flat nose, or a long or 
 short face ? The riches of the West Indies, or the 
 luxury of the metropolis, should not have weight to 
 swerve the balance of Truth and Justice. Liberty is 
 the gift of God, and cannot be annihilated." 
 
 In a word, in Virginia everything was condensed 
 upon a few, while in New England all was thorough- 
 ly Democratic. Still it might be seen, that in Vir- 
 ginia, while her Institutions were framed, and in- 
 tended to be thoroughly Aristocratic, yet in spite 
 of them the excellent men in that new country could 
 not be kept down. They would rise, and by the 
 natural high pressure of their qualities they would, 
 like water, seek their natural level, because a down- 
 ward tendency is impossible to Human Nature. And 
 so, too, in New England, it happened that, although 
 all her Institutions had been, from the beginning,
 
 238 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 most eminently Liberal and Popular, yet many things 
 there hindered the immediate and free development 
 of the People. 
 
 In the beginning of the last century, in Virginia 
 there were three classes of free white men. 
 
 First. The great proprietors, who owned large 
 tracts of land. These were the " First Families " of 
 Virginia, who, though dwelling in "abodes compara- 
 tively mean," affected to live in the style of British 
 Nobles. They had rude wealth, laud, cattle, fine 
 horses, slaves, white servants, "bought for a time," 
 and abundance of maize, wheat, and especially of 
 tobacco the great article of export. 
 
 Second. The small proprietors, men with moderate 
 landed estates, cultivated under their own eye. Some 
 of these became rich men, but never acquired that 
 social rank to which the first were born. Yet the 
 primal vigor of this population, its ready talent, and 
 all its instinct of progress, lay in this second class, 
 whence have arisen, I think, all the distinguished 
 men of Virginia. 
 
 Third. Below these was the class of poor whites, 
 indispensable to such a scheme of society. These 
 were laborers, without landed property more than a 
 patch of ground, and a little hovel, which added the 
 deformity of a low Humanity to the original beauty 
 of Nature. These men had no literary or scientific 
 education, and could obtain none.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 239 
 
 Underneath all were the negro slaves, who gave a 
 peculiar character to the entire colony, affecting its 
 industry, its thought, and its morals. 
 
 In the second class of small proprietors was born 
 Peter Jefferson, on the 29th of February, 1708, at 
 Osbornes, on James River, in Chesterfield County. 
 The family had come from Wales. Peter seems to 
 have inherited no property ; the Jefferson family, I 
 think, was poorer than the average of the class, just 
 above the poor whites. Peter had no education in 
 early life, but was able-minded as well as able- 
 bodied, with a thoughtful turn. He became a sur- 
 veyor of land, mainly self-taught, I fancy. He got 
 a little property together, and in 1735 "patented" 
 one thousand acres of land ; that is, had it granted 
 him by the Legislature of the Colony of Virginia. 
 He bought four hundred acres more, the considera- 
 tion paid being "Henry Weatherbourne's biggest bowl 
 of arrack punch " ! He made a little clearing in the 
 primeval forest, and began his career as a planter. 
 In 1738 he married Jane Randolph, she being in 
 her twentieth, he in his thirtieth year. She was the 
 daughter of Isham Randolph, a wealthy man, who 
 lived in rough splendor and had great pretensions 
 to family dignity, well educated for a man of that 
 time ; he was, moreover, intelligent and generous. 
 Peter took his wife, delicately bred as she had 
 been, to his rough farm, which he called Shad well.
 
 240 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Here he planted his family tree, and subsequently 
 became a prosperous man. He was appointed by 
 the Legislature, in connection with Professor Fry, 
 to make a map of Virginia. The work was done 
 well for the time. He was commissioned Justice of 
 the Peace, and appointed Colonel, and afterwards 
 elected member of the House of Burgesses of the 
 Colony of Virginia. He died August 17, 1757. 
 
 At Shad well, on the 13th of April, 1743, his first 
 son and third child was born, and christened THOMAS. 
 His lineage was humble, as Virginians count gene- 
 alogy ; his destination was not humble, as Virginia's 
 history may certify. After the great men I have be- 
 fore sketched, none has had so much influence on the 
 destiny of America. Let us look this boy carefully 
 in the face, and consider his deeds throughout all 
 periods of his life, the character therein developed, 
 and the extraordinary eminence he thereby acquired. 
 
 I. Look at his boyhood and youth. 1743 to 1764. 
 
 At the age of five he was sent to a common school 
 at Tuckahoe, where the family moved when he was 
 two years old. At nine years of age he studies un- 
 der the Rev. Mr. Douglass, a Scotchman, a scholar, 
 and an Episcopal Minister at Shadwell. With him 
 the boy begins Latin, Greek, and French. He lived 
 with the Minister, - and found good instruction and 
 mouldy pies. At fourteen he goes to Rev. Mr.
 
 THOMAS JEFFEltSON. 241 
 
 Maury's school, fourteen miles off, at Peter's Moun- 
 tain. Mr. Maury, also a Scotchman, was a good 
 scholar and a good teacher. In his spare time 
 Thomas hunts on Peter's Mountain, and acquires 
 an intimate knowledge of the animals and the plants, 
 and some general knowledge of Natural History. 
 These two gentlemen kept schools at their parson- 
 ages. When company came the schools broke up, 
 and thus Thomas got less Latin and more hunting. 
 The pay for his board and instruction was sixteen 
 pounds a year at the one place, and twenty pounds 
 at the other. He was a bright boy, courteous and 
 quick. 
 
 In 1760, aged seventeen, he entered William and 
 Mary's College, at Williamsburg, the capital of the 
 Province, a town of fifteen hundred or two thousand 
 inhabitants. Here he found another Scotchman, 
 Professor Small, a good scholar, who still further 
 helped and stimulated the intelligent youth. Jeffer- 
 son was a friend of Dr. Small, and was devoted to 
 study, often working fifteen hours a day. The Greek 
 and Latin languages, and the mathematics, were his 
 favorite pursuits. Metaphysics and ethics he great- 
 ly disliked. He did not incline to works of fiction, 
 commonly so attractive to young minds. He was 
 highly moral, it is said, but fond of horses, which 
 fondness continued all his life. He was also inclined 
 to music, and learned to play skilfully on the violin. 
 16
 
 ""242 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Thus he did iiot forget his sport in his toil. He 
 staid at college but two years, and then, at nineteen, 
 at the same place, began the study of Law with Mr. 
 George Wythe, thought to be a profound lawyer at 
 that tirfie. He continued this preparation. for his 
 profession five years, often studying fourteen or fif- 
 teen hours a day. He had a, natural fondness for 
 profound investigation, yet he found Coke "a dull 
 old scoundrel." He learned, the Anglo-Saxon, the 
 itaiian,.aud jthe Spanish. Languages, and, it seems, 
 read r$anyJbQ6k$. very indirectly connected with his 
 profession. HereTie became intimate with-Mr. Fau- 
 quier, the royal Governor of Virginia, a.distinguished 
 man, with quite elegant manners. Living familiarly 
 in the best society of the Provincial capital, it was 
 here and at this period that Jefferson acquired the 
 easy carriage, gentlemanly deportment, and courteous 
 manners which distinguished him all his life, and 
 -which greatly helped his success. Governor Fauquier 
 was a gamWer, and contaminated the Province with 
 this vice. Jefferson kept clear from this detestable 
 wickedness, shunning and hating it all his life. 
 Fauquier was also a Freethinker in religion, and 
 the effect was visible on the young man. 
 
 He fell in lave at this early period, like other 
 young men, and, like- them, wrote silly letters, such 
 as are still penned. Indeed, all his letters of this 
 period are, rather frivolous. He talks about " Becca "
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 243 
 
 and " Sukey," Judy " and " Belinda," finding those 
 names more attractive than that "dull old scoundrel," 
 Lord Coke. " How did Nancy look aU yfluiwhen- you 
 danced with her afSdutlialt'S?^ ' * * I 
 
 "Handsome in his* olcf rtge;*iivmVy6uth Jefferson 
 was no beauty. "Then h'6* wa's tall? thin, and "raw- 
 boned ; had red "hair, -a freckled face, and pointed 
 features ; " but his face was intelligent and kindly, he 
 talked with ease and grace, and in spite of exterior 
 disadvantages, was a favorite with" all the young 
 women.* 
 
 At the age of twenty-four, 1767, he was admitted 
 to practice at the bar. Thus far his life had been an 
 easy one, and' singularly prosperous. How different 
 from the youth of Franklin, or of Washington, or of 
 Adams { He kept .hi'mse'lf free from the common 
 vices of Virginia young men, such as ga'ming, drunk- 
 enness, debauchery ; he never swore or used tobacco. 
 His letters begin in his twentieth year, and, though 
 somewhat frivolous, are written in a natural style at 
 once easy arid elegant. Here was a dawn to promise 
 the great man. 
 
 II. 1764-1768. A Lawyer and Politician, engaged 
 in the affairs of Virginia and of the Nation, Jefferson 
 had his office at Williamsburg, the capital of that 
 Colony. It seems he " had little taste for the techni- 
 
 * Tucker, i. 23.
 
 244 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 calities and chicanery of that profession," and never 
 thought very highly of lawyers as a class. " Their 
 business is to talk," said he. For the seven or eight 
 years he followed this profession he gradually rose 
 to some eminence. His style was clear, but his 
 voice poor and feeble, and, after speaking a few 
 moments, it " would sink in his throat." He was 
 not meant for a speaker. Yet, it appears, he had a 
 considerable business for a young man. I find him 
 employed in about five hundred causes previous to 
 the year 1771, and in about four hundred and fifty 
 causes in the next three and a half years, when he 
 finally gave up business. His total fees of 1771 
 were about two thousand dollars for the year ; and 
 that, probably, shows the average of his profes- 
 sional receipts. 
 
 In 1772, January 1, in the twenty-ninth year of 
 his age, Mr. Jefferson married Mrs. Martha Skelton, 
 the childless widow of Bathurst Skelton, and the 
 daughter of John Wayles. She is said to have been 
 handsome and accomplished, and she certainly was 
 rich. Jefferson then owned one thousand nine hun- 
 dred acres of land and forty or fifty slaves, bringing 
 him an income of two thousand dollars a year. Mr. 
 Skelton's widow brought him forty thousand acres of 
 land and one hundred and thirty-five slaves, which 
 she had inherited from her father. 
 
 Such was the marriage portion of the great Dem-
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 245 
 
 ocrat.* The marriage was happy, and both parties 
 seem to have been greatly fond of each other. Many 
 tender little passages occur in his life showing how 
 deep was their mutual affection. There is no more 
 talk about " Becca " and " Sukey " in the letters. 
 
 In 1769, three years before his marriage, at about 
 the age of twenty-six, he had been chosen member of 
 the House of Burgesses for Albemarle County. He 
 was on the side of America, and against the oppres- 
 sive measures of George III. Still more, in favor of 
 Liberty, he urged the Legislature to allow individ- 
 uals to emancipate their slaves. No ; it could not be 
 granted. Not until 1782 could he persuade that 
 body to allow manumission in Virginia, f In 1774 
 the Governor dissolved the House. Some of the 
 most patriotic men met in a tavern to consider the 
 matter. Thomas Jefferson was one of them. 
 
 In May, 1774, there was a People's Convention in 
 Virginia, the first ever held there without expresa 
 form of law. This Convention was to choose del- 
 egates to the Continental Congress, which had been 
 called to meet at Philadelphia, in September. Jeffer- 
 son did not attend the Convention, being prevented 
 by illness ; but he drew up a form of instructions for 
 the delegates to Congress, that it might be offered to 
 the Convention, and adopted therein. This was a 
 
 * Randall, i. 63-65. 
 
 t Tucker, i. 43 ; also Randall, i. 58.
 
 246 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 very remarkable paper, and revolutionary enough for 
 New England. His draft was not adopted ; but it 
 was read, and afterwards printed as "A Summary 
 View of the Rights of British America." The leap 
 was too long, as yet, for the mass of the citizens. 
 The " instructions " declared that the king " has no 
 right to land a single armed man on our shores." 
 "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the 
 same time." * 
 
 On May 17, 1775, he was chosen member of Con- 
 gress, to supply the place of Peyton Randolph. He 
 took his seat, June 21, 1775, rather an obscure man 
 then, with on\y a Virginia reputation. He had no 
 national fame save what the "Summary View" of 
 1774 had given him. He was a silent member, but 
 John Adams calls him "powerful, frank, explicit, 
 and decisive." 
 
 His most important services in Congress were, 
 (1) his draft of an address on the " Causes of taking 
 up arms against England ;" f (2) the answer which 
 he wrote to Lord North's " Conciliatory proposition ; " 
 and (3) his report of the far-famed "DECLARATION 
 OF INDEPENDENCE," to me the most remarkable and 
 important State paper in the world. Some of his 
 descendants in Boston, I am told, still keep the little 
 
 * Tucker, i. 60, 61. 
 
 t This address was not adopted, but shared the fate of his draft of 
 " instructions " in the Virginia Convention.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 247 
 
 desk he wrote it upon. I hope the spirit of De- 
 mocracy, which is freedom to all men, still animates 
 and inspires all who write or look thereon. 
 
 In 1776, September 1, Jefferson returned from 
 Congress, and devoted himself to reconstructing the 
 Constitution of his native State. He drafted a sketch 
 or outline of a Constitution, which was not accepted, 
 and is now lost ; but he wrote the preamble to the 
 Constitution, which was adopted. This came from 
 the same inspiration which had animated the Declara- 
 tion of Independence. He took his seat in the 
 Virginia House of Delegates, October 7, 1776, and 
 there began the other great work of his life, the 
 thorough Reformation of the State Institutions. 
 
 1. He proposed to abolish all entails of landed 
 estates. The actual possessors of entailed estates 
 might dispose of them like other property. This 
 was a Revolution. Jefferson laid the democratic 
 axe at the root of that evil tree which poisoned 
 the people. You may guess at the opposition to 
 the measure, and the wrath against its author. But 
 it prevailed. Males and the first-born were to have 
 no special privilege. Primogeniture was done away 
 with. All the children might share alike in the 
 inheritance of their father's land and goods. 
 
 2. He advised that foreigners should be allowed 
 to become naturalized, and to attain all the rights of 
 citizens.
 
 248 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 3. He recommended the revision of the laws 'in 
 three important matters. 
 
 The penal laws must be mitigated. The pen- 
 alty of death ought to be limited to murder and 
 treason. There should be no imprisonment for 
 honest debt. 
 
 There must be complete religious freedom. No 
 one should be forced to pay for opinions which he 
 disliked, or for the support of any form of reli- 
 gion against his will. The church must rest on 
 the voluntary contributions of the people. The law 
 may judge no man's opinions. The Commonwealth 
 of Virginia, like the Kingdom of Heaven, is to show 
 no special favor to Christians, but Jews, Mohamme- 
 dans, Deists, and Atheists are all to be equal before 
 the law, and alike eligible to all offices. The 
 church Establishment should be abolished, and all 
 religious sects put on an equal footing. 
 
 He would provide for the public education of 
 the people, promote the culture of the great mass 
 of men in free common schools, and improve the 
 colleges for the superior education of the few. 
 
 Some of these things he accomplished at once. 
 Others were so far in advance of the times, that 
 years must elapse before his ideas could be real- 
 ized. He wished to abolish Slavery, but he had 
 tried in vain to procure an act to enable a master
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 249 
 
 to emancipate his slaves. So in the revision of the 
 laws he made no new attempt. 
 
 In these great works other men labored with 
 Jefferson, but his was the leading mind, and shot 
 before all others in the Slaveholding States. 
 
 Next he was chosen Governor of Virginia, June 
 1, 1779. He was reflected the following year. 
 Here he had a difficult work to perform. Virginia 
 contained about two hundred and ninety thousand 
 free whites, and two hundred and seventy thousand 
 slaves. They were scattered over sixty-one thou- 
 sand square miles. The militia included all the 
 free white men between sixteen and sixty ; but so 
 scattered was the population, that, in most of the 
 settled parts of the State there was not one militia- 
 man to a square mile. And so ill-armed were the 
 people, that there was not more than one gun that 
 could fire a bullet, to five militia-men. Not a gun 
 to five square miles of land ! In an average tract 
 of ten miles square, containing a hundred square 
 miles, there would not be twenty guns. When 
 recruits were drafted into the militia, many came 
 without hats or caps, and were, moreover, barefoot ! 
 Besides all that, the State of Virginia had no ship- 
 ping. There were two hundred and seventy thou- 
 sand men, black enemies in the midst of the people, 
 ready to side with an invader when he should ap- 
 pear. The coast of Virginia is intersected with
 
 250 THOMAS JEFFEKSON. 
 
 bays and navigable rivers. In 1781 the British at- 
 tacked the State with a numerous fleet and well- 
 appointed armies ; what defence could be made ? 
 With the most able Governor she could not have 
 done much. But Jefferson had little administrative 
 skill, and not the least military talent or disposition. 
 The British did what they would in his State, 
 burnt the houses, pillaged the people, and in a 
 few months did damage to the amount of ten million 
 hard dollars. Thirty thousand slaves were carried 
 off. The British did not arm them and set them 
 against their masters, else the State had been lost 
 beyond recovery. Jefferson's own estates were plun- 
 dered. He barely escaped being taken prisoner, 
 for the militia made scarce any defence. Only two 
 hundred men could be found to defend Richmond, 
 one of the largest towns in the State. 
 
 Jefferson resigned his office, declining a reelection 
 in 1781. He found he was unfit for the station, and 
 left it for braver and more military men. An at- 
 tempt was made to impeach him, but it failed ; and, 
 instead of impeaching him, the Legislature subse- 
 quently passed a vote of thanks to him. 
 
 In 1781 I find him a member of the House of 
 Delegates, working nobly for the great enterprises 
 that have been previously mentioned. He went 
 back to Congress in 1783, and there he, the author 
 of the Declaration of Independence, helped to ratify
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 251 
 
 the treaty of peace. In 1780, June 1, the Delegates 
 of Virginia ceded the portion claimed by her of the 
 North-west Territory to the United States. Con- 
 gress in 1784 passed the famous "Ordinance of the 
 North-west Territory." Jefferson drafted the bill, 
 and provided that the governments to be constituted 
 therein " shall be in republican forms, and shall 
 admit no person to be a citizen who holds any hered- 
 itary title ; " " that after the year 1800 of the Chris- 
 tian era, there shall be neither slavery nor involun- 
 tary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise 
 than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
 shall have been duly convicted to have been per- 
 sonally guilty." * A motion was made on the 19th 
 
 * Randall, i. 398. In April, 1784, Mr. Jefferson was Chairman 
 of a Committee (Mr. Chase of Maryland and Howell of Rhode Is- 
 land also were members), and in that capacity submitted a plan for 
 the government of the entire western region, from the thirty-first 
 degree of north latitude to the northern boundary of the United 
 States (thus including much more than the territory north-west of 
 the Ohio River). One of the provisions of this important bill was, 
 " that after the year 1800 there shall be neither slavery nor involun- 
 tary servitude in any of the said States " into which it was provided 
 that the territory might be divided, " other than in the punishment of 
 crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." The 
 question being taken upon this proviso, six States voted for it, and 
 but three against; one State was equally divided in its representa- 
 tion, and three were absent. And so it was lost, as by the rules at^ 
 le.'ist two thirds of the thirteen States were required to vote for it 
 before it could become a law.
 
 252 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 April, 1784, and afterwards carried, to strike out 
 this clause. The New England members gave a 
 unanimous vote to retain that clause which would 
 have established slavery in what is now Ohio, Mich- 
 igan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson was the recognized leader of Con- 
 gress in 1783-4, though he had able men for rivals. 
 On the 10th of March, 1785, Congress appointed 
 him Minister to France, to succeed Dr. Franklin. 
 Indeed, he had three times before been offered the 
 same office, and had declined it, sometimes in con- 
 sequence of the feeble health of his wife : now she 
 had become loosed from her frail body. 
 
 III. As Diplomatist in Europe. 1785-1789. 
 
 I shall not discourse at any length on his services 
 abroad. He was a skilful diplomatist. His great 
 knowledge, his admirable sagacity, his conciliatory 
 spirit, and his good manners, helped to accomplish 
 what he sought. He attended to the usual routine 
 of a Minister's duties, but no great services were 
 to be accomplished. He returned to his country, on 
 leave of absence, in 1789. A singular reception 
 awaited him at home. When he came to Monticello 
 his slaves took him from his coach, and bore him 
 in their arms to the house.* A singular mode of 
 riding for the author of the Declaration of Inde- 
 
 * Tucker, i. 337.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 253 
 
 pendence ! But it proved that if a master, he was 
 kind and beloved ! Jefferson was pleased with a 
 diplomatic position, but President Washington had 
 destined him to higher services. 
 
 IV. In the Executive of the United States. 1790- 
 1809. 
 
 When Jefferson returned from France the Con- 
 stitution was adopted, the new officers chosen, the 
 Government organized. At first he did not like the 
 Constitution. It made the Central Government too 
 strong, excessively curtailing the power of the in- 
 dividual States. It would allow the same man to 
 be chosen President again and again, to the end of 
 his life. It contained no Bill of Eights, declaring 
 what powers the States and the individual citizens 
 did not delegate to the General Government. Jef- 
 ferson was a Democrat, and the Constitution was 
 not the work of Democrats ; in fact Franklin and 
 Madison were the only men of considerable ability 
 who represented the Democracy in forming the 
 Constitution. But after it was adopted he came 
 earnestly to its defence, and held three several Exec- 
 utive offices under it. 
 
 1. He was Secretary of State from March 21, 
 1790, to December 31, 1793. 
 
 He did not wish to accept the office, preferring his 
 Diplomatic Mission at Paris. But Washington so-
 
 254 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 licited him to accept, and he entered on the duties 
 of the Secretaryship. Hamilton was Secretary of 
 Treasury, Kuox of War both Federalists, whom 
 Jefferson accuses of leaning towards Monarchy. 
 Edmund Randolph was Attorney General, and Jeffer- 
 son Secretary of State both Democrats. Jeffer- 
 son and Hamilton were commonly on opposite sides. 
 They contended on measures and on principles, then 
 quarrelled, and finally hated one another with all 
 their might. 
 
 Jefferson opposed the great measures of Washing- 
 ton's Administration ; the Funding Bill, the As- 
 sumption of State Debts, and the establishment of 
 the United States Bank. Here, I think, he was 
 right; but the measures prevailed, and were popu- 
 lar with the wealthy and educated classes in all the 
 Northern States. But he opposed the Military 
 Academy, the Coast Fortification, and the Navy. 
 He especially disliked the Navy, and opposed the 
 measures of the President to raise it to any footing 
 efficient for War. He took sides with France, and 
 favored her encroachments. He was willing to allow 
 Mr. Genet, the Minister of France, to violate the 
 neutrality of our soil, to enlist soldiers in our towns, 
 and to fit out and commission privateers in our har- 
 bors. He disliked England, and, in fact, had a dis- 
 trust and fear of that Nation, which were only too 
 well founded. Thus he inclined to a war with Eng-
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 255 
 
 land, and resolutely resisted some of her pretensions 
 with manly spirit. He supported men who abused 
 Washington and the Government, of which Jefferson 
 himself was a part. 
 
 Washington became more and more anti-democratic 
 in his administration, put more and more confidence 
 in Hamilton, whose active mind, invasive will, and 
 skill in organizing men had an undue influence over 
 the President, then waxing feeble, and becoming 
 averse to business. Jefferson found his power di- 
 minishing in the Cabinet, and not growing in the 
 country. At the end of 1793 he withdrew from 
 his post, and sat down on his estate at Monticello 
 to repair his private fortunes, already somewhat 
 shattered.* 
 
 Out of office he was the head of the Democratic 
 party even more than while in it, and the centre of 
 the opposition to Washington and his administra- 
 tion. His house was the headquarters of the oppo- 
 sition. His letters show that his heart was not at 
 Moiiticello, nor his mind busy with maize, tobacco, 
 and breeding slaves. He professed to desire no 
 office. He would live in private, and arrange his 
 plantations and his books. 
 
 But when Washington was about to withdraw 
 from office, in 1796, Jefferson was the Democratic 
 candidate for the Presidency. He was defeated. 
 
 * Tucker, i. 466-470.
 
 256 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 John Adams had seventy-one votes, one more than 
 a majority ; Jefferson, sixty-eight, two less than 
 enough. John Adams represented the Constitu- 
 tional Party, which included the wealth, the educa- 
 tion, the farming and the mercantile interests, and 
 the inventive skill of the Nation. Jefferson was the 
 champion of the Progressive Party, which was com- 
 posed of a few men of genius, of ideas, and strength, 
 but chiefly made up of the lower masses of men, with 
 whom the instincts are stronger than reflection, and 
 the rich slaveholders of the South, who liked not the 
 constraints of law. 
 
 2. While Jefferson was Vice-President, his only 
 function was to preside in the Senate, where the 
 Federalists had a decided majority. President 
 Adams disliked him, shunned him, did not consult 
 him about public affairs. Indeed, the political dif- 
 ference between them was immense. Their systems 
 were antagonistic. Jefferson looked with the eyes 
 of a partisan on some of the measures of Adams's 
 administration, and with righteous contempt on the 
 " Alien and Sedition " Law, and other despotic meas- 
 ures. But in these he must have read the prophecy 
 that his opponents would soon fall, to rise never 
 more. He contended vehemently against the party 
 in power. 
 
 In 1798 he said, "Our General Government, in 
 nine or ten years, has become more arbitrary than
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 257 
 
 even that of England, and has swallowed up more 
 of the public liberty." * He drew up the celebrated 
 Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, which declared sev- 
 eral Acts of Congress "null and void;" "not law, 
 but altogether void, and of no force ; " and called 
 on the other States, within their bounds, to nullify 
 them, and all such unconstitutional acts. Such res- 
 olutions looked revolutionary. Alas, they were 
 only too just ! But Kentucky was not quite ready 
 for such strong measures, and modified the resolu- 
 tions. Presently Madison presented the same doc- 
 trine in the Virginia Resolutions of 1798. Both 
 papers came from the Democratic spirit of Jeffer- 
 son, and the seeming dangers were yet unavoidable. 
 For the acts they opposed were about as unjust 
 as the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. Jefferson feared 
 centralized power, which always degenerates into 
 despotism. He loved local self-government, and 
 did not apprehend that it would run to license, as 
 it yet often has done, and now does in South Caro- 
 lina, Georgia, and Alabama. He was afraid only of 
 the concentrated despotism of the few, not knowing 
 that the many may^ also become tyrants. 
 
 He watched with a keen eye the increasing trou- 
 bles of the Federal party, the hostility of its leaders 
 to the President, for whose office he was the chief 
 candidate of the Deinocracj 7 . He grew more and 
 
 * Tucker, ii. 43. 
 
 17
 
 258 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 more bold, and confident of success. Indeed, the 
 ultimate victory of his partisans was never doubtful. 
 They embodied the Nation's instinct of progress, 
 though in no high moral form. 
 
 The Federal party deserted the ablest and the 
 most honest of their great men. John Adams was 
 defeated. Jefferson and Burr had the same number 
 of Electoral votes. It came to the House of Repre- 
 sentatives to decide who should be President. They 
 voted by States. The Democracy voted for Jeffer- 
 son, the Federalists preferred Aaron Burr. Thirty- 
 five times they balloted without choice. On the 
 17th of February (1801), on the seventh day of 
 the ballot, and at the thirty-sixth trial, Jefferson 
 was chosen. Burr was Vice-President, and the Fed- 
 eral party dead. Rich in great men, who did noble 
 service in their day, it had done its work, and it 
 died when it was needed no longer. Let you and 
 me do justice to its great merits and to its great 
 men, but never share in its distrust of the People 
 and of the dearest instincts of Humanity. 
 
 3. Jefferson became President on the 4th of March, 
 1801, and held the office eight years. 
 
 It was a fortunate time for the chief of the Demo- 
 cratic party to enter upon his power. The Federal- 
 ists had taken the responsibility of organizing the 
 Government, providing for the payment of debts, 
 levying taxes, making treaties of alliance and com-
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 259 
 
 merce with foreign states. The Democracy had only 
 to criticise the faults of their rivals ; they were not 
 obliged to share the blame of what was unpopular. 
 Besides, the storm of war which had threatened 
 between the United States and either England or 
 France, had been blown off by the powerful breath 
 of Adams. The Nation was at peace, the revenue 
 abundant, industry more various and successful than 
 ever before. Jefferson was the most popular man in 
 his party ; perhaps, also, himself the ablest. Certain- 
 ly no Democrat was endowed with such versatile 
 skill. There was no longer any hope of reconciling 
 the two parties as such, or of reconciling the Federal 
 leaders. John Adams had gone down. Washington 
 himself could not have breasted the flood of waters 
 for a week longer ; the great swollen sea of the De- 
 mocracy would have overwhelmed him, and, with its 
 irresistible surge, would have borne some more 
 fortunate rival far up the strand. 
 
 The Federal party was swallowed up. Jefferson's 
 policy was not to array the hostile parties, but, 
 breaking up all parties, to gather to himself the 
 mass of the people. His Inaugural Address, very 
 handsomely written, was a proclamation of peace. 
 * We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists," 
 said he. Nothing could be more timely. 
 
 He selected a good Cabinet. The Mates were all 
 Democrats. He was Master, not to be overcome
 
 260 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 by his councillors, as Adams, and even as Washing- 
 ton, had often been. He did not change them in 
 eight years : they were a unit. He removed the 
 Federal leaders from all the most important offices. 
 How else could he get rid of them? "Few die," 
 said he, " and none resign." But he intended not 
 more than twenty removals in all. Of course those 
 who went out looked grim at those who came in, lean 
 with expectation. Jefferson would have rotation in 
 office. 
 
 Here are the six chief acts of his administration. 
 
 1. He abandoned the defences of the country. 
 Upon the ground of expediency, he opposed the 
 fortification of the principal harbors, and he consid- 
 ered the establishment of a Military Academy not 
 within the specific powers assigned to Congress. 
 While he was Vice-President, he and his Republican 
 party had vehemently opposed a Navy, as being alto- 
 gether unsuited to the means of the United States, 
 and as being likely to involve the country in war. 
 In this he opposed and obstructed the policy very 
 much favored by Mr. Adams. And, consistently 
 with these principles, when he himself came into 
 power, he neglected the Army and Navy, and insist- 
 ed upon building two hundred and fifty gunboats, 
 which should cost but five thousand dollars each, 
 instead of constructing larger and more efficient ves-
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 261 
 
 sels, which would require the permanent employ- 
 ment of naval officers and seamen. It was Mr. Jef- 
 ferson's plan, that in time of peace these gunboats 
 should be hauled up under sheds, erected for the 
 purpose on the sea-shore ; and that in war time they 
 should be fitted for service, and manned with a mar- 
 itime militia, enlisted temporarily for the purpose. 
 This scheme was violently attacked, and in fact it 
 proved a failure. Mr. Jefferson employed Thomas 
 Paine to write in defence of it. He certainly wrote 
 very ingeniously, but, in spite of his logic, the pub- 
 .lic and the men of experience remained incredulous, 
 and " when, soon afterwards, many of the gunboats 
 were driven ashore in a tempest, or were otherwise 
 destroyed, no one seemed to regard their loss as a 
 misfortune, nor has any attempt been since made to 
 replace them." In these things he made great mis- 
 takes, partly because he limited his views from ill- 
 conceived motives of economy, and partly because 
 of a wise fear of laying the foundations of great and 
 permanent military and naval establishments. And 
 thus it was that he left his country's commerce and 
 seamen defenceless on the ocean. 
 
 2. He promoted the repeal of the Judiciary Act. 
 
 This swept off forever Mr. Adams's w Midnight 
 Judges," * and established an admirable precedent, 
 
 * Jefferson had always looked upon this act of Mr. Adams as 
 personally unkind to himself. See his letter from Washington, June 
 13, 1804, to Mrs. Adams. Randall, iii. 105.
 
 262 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 which will have its due weight at some future 
 day. 
 
 From his earliest days of public life he had always 
 known that judges were but men, and that they 
 were affected with weakness and infirmity, with 
 prejudice and party spirit, like as other men are.* 
 In 1778 he had attempted to provide, that in the 
 Chancery Court of Virginia, all matters of fact should 
 be tried by a jury, in the same manner as in the 
 courts of law. But here he was defeated by an 
 adroit amendment proposed by Mr. Pendleton.f It 
 was one of his objections to the Constitution of the 
 United States, that the decisions of the judges of 
 
 * Works, vii. 178. Our judges are as honest as other men are, 
 and not more so. ... Their maxim is, Boni judicis ampliare 
 jurisdictionem. 
 
 Works, iii. 81. To the Abbe Arnoud, Paris, July 19, 1789. " We 
 all know that permanent judges acquire an esprit de corps ; that 
 being known, they are liable to be tempted by bribery; that they are 
 misled by favor, by relationship, by a spirit of party, by a devotion 
 to legislative or executive power ; that it is better to leave a cause to 
 the decision of cross and pile than to that of a judge biassed to one 
 side ; and that the decision of twelve honest men gives still a better 
 hope of right than cross and pile does. It is in the power, therefore, 
 of the juries, if they think permanent judges are under any bias 
 whatever, in any cause, to take on themselves to judge the law as 
 well as the fact. They never exercise this power, but when they 
 suspect partiality in the judges; and by the exercise of this power 
 they have been the firmest bulwarks of English liberty. Were I 
 called upon to decide whether the people had best be omitted in the 
 legislative or judiciary departments, I would say it is better to leave 
 them out of the legislative." 
 
 f Works, i. 37.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 263 
 
 the National Courts were not subject to the same 
 qualified negative of the Executive power as are all 
 the acts of Congress.* In his Autobiography he 
 writes, "Nothing could be more salutary there [in 
 England] than a change to the tenure [of the judges] 
 of good behavior, and the question of good be- 
 havior left to the vote of a simple majority in the 
 two Houses of Parliament." f In his first annual 
 message, as President, to Congress, he says that the 
 papers he lays before them will enable them " to 
 judge of the proportion which the institution [Unit- 
 .ed States Supreme Court] bears to the business it 
 has to perform." J In a letter to Mr. Kerchival 
 he objects to the independence of the Judiciary, and 
 affirms that they ought to have been elected. " The 
 judges of Connecticut," says he, "have been chosen 
 by the people for nearly two centuries, and I believe 
 that there has never hardly been an instance of 
 change." He proceeds, and remarks that " if preju- 
 dice is still to prevail . . . against the vital prin- 
 ciple of periodical election of judges by the people, 
 ... let us retain the power of removal on the 
 concurrence of the executive and legislative branch- 
 es, and nomination by the Executive alone. Nomi- 
 nation to office is an Executive function. To leave 
 it to the legislature, as we do, is a violation of 
 
 * Works, ii. 329. t Works, i. 81. 
 
 J Works, viii.. 13. Works, vii. 12.
 
 264 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the principle of the separation of powers." Also, in 
 1799, he writes,* w The judiciary is alone and single- 
 handed in its assaults upon the Constitution, but its 
 assaults are more sure and deadly, as from an agent 
 seemingly passive and unassuming ; " and to Judge 
 Johnson, f "This practice [of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States] of travelling out of the case 
 to prescribe what the law would be in a moot case 
 not before the court, is very irregular and very 
 censurable. ... In the Marbury Case, the Chief 
 Justice went on to lay down what the law would 
 have been had the court jurisdiction of the case. 
 . . . The object was clearly to instruct any other 
 court, having the jurisdiction, what they should do 
 if Marbury should apply to them." And to Mr. 
 Barry,} in 1822, he writes, "We already see the 
 power installed for life, responsible to no authority 
 (for impeachment is not even a scarecrow), advan- 
 cing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great 
 object of consolidation." To Edward Livingston, in 
 1825, " One single object, if your provision attains 
 it, will entitle you to the endless gratitude of society, 
 that of restraining judges from usurping legislation. 
 With no body of men is this restraint more wanting 
 than with the judges of what is called our General 
 Government, but what I call our Foreign department. 
 
 * Tucker, ii. 436. t Works, vii. 295. 
 
 J Works, vii. 256. Works, vii. 403.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 265 
 
 They are practising on the Constitution by infer- 
 ences. . . . This member of the government was 
 at first considered the most harmless and help- 
 less of all its organs. But it has proved that the 
 power of declaring what the law is, ad libitum, by 
 sapping and mining, slowly and without alarm, the 
 foundations of the Constitution, can do what open 
 force would not dare to attempt." There are many 
 other better known and more frequently quoted pas- 
 sages to the same purpose.* And to show that Mr. 
 Jefferson's fear of the despotism of the Judiciary was 
 by no means unfounded, read a letter from a dis- 
 tinguished Federalist, Oliver Wolcott (then Secre- 
 tary of the United States Treasury), to his friend 
 Fisher Ames, which bears date 29th of December, 
 1799: "There is no way [for the General Govern- 
 ment] to combat the State opposition but by an 
 efficient and extended organization of judges, magis- 
 trates, and other civil officers." Thus it seems that 
 Mr. Jefferson was, during his whole political life, 
 well aware of those tendencies which would make 
 the Judiciary, to use his own language, "a despotic 
 branch." 
 
 3. He caused to be abolished all the internal and 
 direct taxes which had, before his Administration, 
 
 * For these and other passages, see Tucker, ii. 112. Works, iv. 
 661 ; v. 649 ; vi. 462 ; vii. 134, 178, 192, 199, 216, 278, 322, 403. 
 Kandall, iii. 124, 636.
 
 266 THOMAS JEFFEL1SON. 
 
 been levied by the Government of the United States. 
 TJiey consisted of taxes, or excise, on stills, domes- 
 tic spirits, refined sugars, licenses to keep shops, 
 sales at auction, and on carriages, stamped vellum, 
 parchment, &c. They were abolished after the first 
 day of June, 1802. Meantime, and during their col- 
 lection, they had excited such opinions and feelings 
 as were expressed in Mr. Jefferson's letter to Mr. 
 Madison, dated December 28, 1794: "The excise 
 law is an infernal one. The first error was to admit 
 it by the Constitution ; the second, to act on that ad- 
 mission ; the third, and last, will be to make it the 
 instrument of dismembering the Union, and setting us 
 all afloat to choose what part of it we will adhere to. 
 . . . The detestation of the excise law is universal, 
 and has now associated to it a detestation of the 
 Government, and [the information] that a separation 
 which, perhaps, was a very distant and problematical 
 event, is now near and certain, and determined in 
 the mind of every man." These taxes had after- 
 wards caused the famous Whiskey Insurrection in 
 Pennsylvania in 1794, which at that time seemed as 
 seriously to threaten the stability of our Union as 
 any political disturbances that have since taken place. 
 The entire amount which these excise and direct 
 taxes brought into the treasury of the United States 
 was but six hundred thousand dollars per annum ; 
 that is to say, the gross revenue was one million of
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 267 
 
 dollars, and the cost of its collection was four hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. As Mr. Jefferson said, "By 
 suppressing at once the whole internal taxes, we 
 abolish three fourths of the offices now existing 
 and spread over the laud." It was certainly a wise 
 measure of administration and pacification. 
 
 4. He pardoned all persons in jail for offences 
 against the Alien and Sedition Laws, and discontin- 
 ued all process against men who were waiting trial 
 on charges of breaking those laws. He was clearly 
 of opinion that these wicked laws were unconstitu- 
 tional, and he went forward promptly and boldly to 
 remedy the injustice which they had so uselessly oc- 
 casioned. 
 
 5. He secured the acquisition of the territory of 
 Louisiana by negotiation and purchase. 
 
 This was a success of the greatest importance to 
 the security and to the prosperity of this country. 
 And by no one could it have been attained with 
 more foresight and skill, or by more wise use of 
 fortunate opportunities, than were exhibited by Mr. 
 Jefferson before and during the events of the nego- 
 tiation. 
 
 April 18, 1802, President Jefferson writes to 
 Robert R. Livingston, " The cession of Louisiana and 
 the Floridas by Spain to France works most sorely 
 on the United States. ... It reverses our political 
 relations, and will form a new epoch in our political
 
 268 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 course. . . . We have ever looked to her [France] 
 as our natural friend. . . . There is on the globe 
 one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural 
 and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through 
 which the produce of three eighths of our territory 
 must pass. . . . France, placing herself in that 
 door, at once assumes to us the attitude of defiance. 
 Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Her 
 pacific dispositions, her feeble state, would induce 
 her to increase our facilities there. . . . Not so cau 
 it ever be in the hands of France. The impetuosity 
 of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her 
 character, . . . render it impossible that France and 
 the United States can continue long friends when 
 they meet in so irritable a position. The day that 
 France takes possession of New Orleans, . . . from 
 that moment we must marry ourselves to the British 
 fleet and nation. We must turn all our attention 
 to a maritime force, for which our resources place 
 us on very high ground." 
 
 Such was his statement of the position of affairs at 
 the time when he so wisely initiated the measures 
 which were to secure the vast territories of the West 
 to the United States. On his part everything was 
 ready and prepared to receive the gift of what was 
 then for the most part a wilderness, but which he 
 knew would soon become of inestimable importance 
 to the peace and welfare of his country. Very quick-
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 260 
 
 ly, sooner thuu he could have hoped or dreamed, the 
 situation changed. First Consul Bonaparte suddenly 
 decided to break the Peace of Amiens with England. 
 As a preparation for so doing, and to raise means for 
 his immense projects, it became necessary for him 
 to make sale of Louisiana to the party who would 
 pay him the most for it ; for he well knew that such 
 property as France had in Louisiana would not be 
 worth two months' purchase after his war should be 
 declared. Therefore it was that, in the early sum- 
 mer of 1803 (the treaty having been concluded 30th 
 of April of that year) , President Jefferson was able 
 to accept the congratulations of his friends on the 
 acquisition of Louisiana. " The territory acquired," 
 says he, "as it includes all the waters of the Missouri 
 and Mississippi, has more than doubled the area of 
 the United States." 
 
 In this connection Mr. Jefferson has been much 
 blamed for the addition of Louisiana to the terri- 
 tories of the United States without any constitu- 
 tional authority. It was his own opinion, never 
 concealed by him, that an amendment of the Con- 
 stitution was necessary to consummate the effect of 
 his negotiations. The same idea frequently ap- 
 peared in his correspondence, and even the forms 
 of the amendments to the Constitution proposed by 
 him, to authorize the acquisitions of Louisiana and 
 Florida, were more than once recorded. The
 
 270 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 importance of promptly concluding this valuable 
 purchase, or the overruling influence of political 
 friends, seems to have extinguished these constitu- 
 tional scruples, which were really and earnestly enter- 
 tained by him. It is the more to be regretted that he 
 who had boasted, "I never had an opinion in "politics 
 which I was afraid to own," should not, on this 
 important occasion, and when President of the United 
 States, have required the respect which he himself 
 thought due to the Constitution, to have been ob- 
 served. It would have given the weight of his great 
 name to an honest precedent, and it might have made 
 impossible the juggling tricks of diplomacy whereby 
 Texas afterwards became annexed to the United 
 States.* 
 
 * Works, iv. 506. " When I consider that the limits of the United 
 States are precisely fixed by the treaty of 1783, that the Constitu- 
 tion declares itself to be made for the United States, I cannot help 
 believing the intention was not to permit Congress to admit into the 
 Union new States which should be formed out of the Territory for 
 which, and under whose authority alone, they were then acting. I 
 do not believe it was meant they might receive England, Ireland, 
 Holland, &c., into it, which would be the case on your construction. 
 When an instrument admits two constructions, ... I prefer that 
 which is safe and precise. . . . Our peculiar security is in the 
 possession of a written Constitution." Also see iv. 503, his letter 
 to the Secretary of State, August 25, 1803, in which he proposes the 
 following form of " Amendment to the Constitution necessary in the 
 case of Louisiana : " " Louisiana, as ceded by France to the United 
 States, is made a part of the United States. Its white inhabitants 
 shall be citizens, and stand, as to their rights and obligations, on the
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 271 
 
 6. He imposed the Embargo in 1807. 
 
 This measure also is to be considered the act of 
 Mr. Jefferson, in a particular manner, and was in- 
 itiated by him in his special message of December 18, 
 1807.* England, predominant at sea, had destroyed 
 the French naval power, and to aggravate the French 
 commercial embarrassments to the utmost, had re- 
 sorted to extreme and odious pretensions, claiming 
 the penalties of blockade against neutral vessels pro- 
 ceeding to or from seaports where no actual block- 
 ade was maintained by her. In the end, a contention 
 of Decrees, issued by the Emperor of France, and of 
 Orders in Council, proclaimed by the government of 
 England, had brought things to such a pass that the 
 neutral vessels of the United States could not con- 
 tinue their established commerce in any direction 
 without being subject to capture either by the naval 
 powers and privateers of England or of France. If 
 they made any voyage to England or to English 
 possessions, or allowed themselves to be searched 
 
 same footing with other citizens of the United States in analogous 
 situations." 
 
 Works, iv. p. 500. August 12, 1803, he wrote to Judge Brecken- 
 ridge, " The Constitution has made no provision for our holding 
 foreign territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into our 
 Union. The Executive, in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so 
 much advances the good of their country, have done an act beyond 
 the Constitution." 
 
 * Works, viii. 89.
 
 272 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 < 
 
 or visited by any English vessel of war, the Emperor 
 of France claimed the right to capture and confiscate 
 them. If they made any voyage to any part of the 
 Continent of Europe, the whole of which was then 
 under the domination of France, in that case the in- 
 numerable cruisers of England intervened, and made 
 what they called lawful prize of American ships. 
 The situation was such that it seemed to force a war 
 upon the country, for which it was by no means 
 prepared, and which it could in no way afford. 
 And, moreover, even had America decided to de- 
 clare a war, the dilemma was serious, whether it 
 ought to be declared against France or against Eng- 
 land. The action of each Government had been 
 towards us equally aggressive in principle and almost 
 equally ruinous in practice. But France had been to 
 us, during the Revolutionary struggles of thirty years 
 before, our stanch and profitable friend, and neither 
 the ill treatment of her more recent Governments, nor 
 the haughty injustice of some of their powerful min- 
 isters in promoting the unjust confiscation of our 
 ships, nor the venal corruption of others in holding 
 out their hands to our envoys for secret bribes, could 
 make our country forget how great was our debt of 
 gratitude to France. Yet, on the other part, the 
 temptation was great to uphold the policy of Eng- 
 land. By so doing, a very considerable part of our 
 commerce would have been preserved with England,
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 273 
 
 and we should have enjoyed a considerable share of 
 the English carrying trade. And this was the view 
 taken by the Eastern and Northern States, by leading 
 Federalists, and by all those who had great sympathy 
 with England as the champion of Liberty, and the 
 efficient leader of the combination which she alone 
 could maintain against the enlarging tyranny of 
 Bonaparte. Thus it was, our commerce extended, 
 our vessels captured, both on seas and in port, by 
 authorities both English and French, under pretences 
 which had no support from the law of nations, or any 
 maritime law. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson found the solution of all these dif- 
 ficulties in the Embargo, which forbade to American 
 ships and merchants all foreign commerce whatever. 
 Under the circumstances it may be justified as a wise 
 measure of temporary relief and preparation. But 
 the hurried manner in which it was forced upon the 
 country, and the unnecessarily long period of its 
 continuance, until their distresses had nearly com- 
 pelled the commercial States to rebellion and seces- 
 sion, is not easily to be justified, nor would in any 
 recent times have been considered as otherwise than 
 degrading to our national honor. 
 
 On the 10th of November, 1807, the ship Horizon, 
 
 which had been stranded on the French coast by 
 
 stress of weather, was condemned as a prize by the 
 
 French courts, because she had English produce on 
 
 18
 
 274 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 board, and this decree was upheld and justified by 
 the French Government. The day after, November 
 11, the Order in Council was passed, by which Great 
 Britain prohibited all trade whatever with France, 
 or with her allies ; that is to say, with the whole 
 Continent of Europe. Immediately on receipt of 
 intelligence of these facts, on the 18th of December, 
 1807, Mr. Jefferson sent to Congress his message 
 recommending the Embargo. The bill was passed 
 though the Senate, with closed doors, after only four 
 hours' debate. It was also forced through the House 
 of Representatives in like manner, though not with 
 equal speed, and became a law on the 22d of Decem- 
 ber. No notice was given, nor was any opportunity 
 for consultation or explanation afforded to the numer- 
 ous merchants and ship-owners who were so deeply 
 interested in the measure, and who were thus de- 
 prived of their lawful business and property. It 
 seemed as if the despotic and arbitrary Decrees 
 dictated by the French Emperor and by the British 
 Council, were to be imitated by the first President of 
 the United States who was by eminence entitled a 
 "Republican ; " with this difference only, that where- 
 as the Decrees of Berlin and Milan, and the British 
 Orders, were aimed as measures of retaliation against 
 enemies, our Embargo was so directed as to invade 
 the rights, oppress the commerce, and destroy the 
 fortunes and subsistence of our own citizens.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 275 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's own explanation and justification 
 may be -found in several passages of his writings. In 
 his reply to an address of Tammany Society, Febru- 
 ary 29, 1808,* less than ten weeks after the passage 
 of the bill : " There can be no question in a mind 
 truly American whether it is best to send our citizens 
 and property into certain captivity, and then wage 
 war for their recovery, or to keep them at home, and 
 to turn seriously to that policy which plants the 
 manufacturer and the husbandman side by side, and 
 establishes at the door of every one that exchange of 
 mutual labors and comforts which we have hitherto 
 sought in distant regions, and under perpetual risk of 
 broils with them." f November 21, of the same year, 
 he writes, " By withdrawing a while from the ocean 
 we have suffered some loss, but we have gathered 
 home our immense capital. . . . We have saved 
 our seamen from the jails of Europe, and gained time 
 to prepare for defence. . . . Submission and 
 tribute, if that be our choice, are no baser now than 
 at the date of the Embargo." 
 
 As time went on the Embargo became exceedingly 
 oppressive to all the commercial interests of the 
 country, and they were the less patient of its effects 
 because of the sudden manner in which it had been 
 forced upon them. And in the winter of 1809, after 
 an interview with John Quincy Adams, which con- 
 
 * Works, viii. 127. t Works, viii. 140.
 
 276 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 vinced him of an extreme dissatisfaction in the East- 
 ern States, bordering upon rebellion, he was obliged 
 to submit to its repeal, which took effect on the 4th 
 of March in that year. As to its repeal, which was 
 carried sorely against his own personal opinion, he 
 writes to General Armstrong, on the 5th of March,* 
 " After fifteen months' continuance, it is now dis- 
 continued, because, losing fifty millions of dollars of 
 exports annually by it, it costs more than war, which 
 might be carried on for a third of that, besides what 
 might be got by reprisal. War, therefore, must fol- 
 low if the Edicts are not repealed before the meeting 
 of Congress in May." And also to Mr. Short, three 
 days later, he says, K Our Embargo has worked hard. 
 It has, in fact, federalized three of the New England 
 States. We have substituted for it a non-intercourse 
 with France and England and their dependencies, and 
 a trade to all other places. It is probable that the bel- 
 ligerents will take our vessels under their Edicts, in 
 which case we shall probably declare war against 
 them." 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1809, the last day of Mr. 
 Jefferson's Presidency, the Embargo ceased to exist. 
 Originally it may have been a measure of reasonable 
 discretion, but it had been protracted so as to have 
 produced great distress to those who were engaged 
 in commerce and in shipping, and through large 
 
 * Works, v. 433.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 277 
 
 districts of country it had cooled the friends and 
 heated the enemies of the Democratic party. Mr. 
 Jefferson himself could never have realized the im- 
 portance of .commerce and navigation to his country. 
 In October 13, 1785, he writes to Count Hogendorp,* 
 "You ask what I think on the expediency of encoura- 
 ging our States to be commercial. Were I to in- 
 dulge my own theory, I should wish them to practise 
 neither commerce nor navigation, but to stand, with 
 respect to Europe, precisely on the footing of China. 
 We should thus avoid wars, and all our citizens would 
 be husbandmen." Such ideas he seems to have en- 
 tertained, at least until the close of his political life ; 
 nor does he ever appear to have been convinced until 
 his interview with John Quincy Adams, before al- 
 luded to, of the extreme and intolerable pressure with 
 which his Embargo weighed down some of the great- 
 est and most important interests of his country. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's public life was now brought to a 
 close. He had attended the inauguration of his friend, 
 James Madison, his successor in the Presidency, and 
 still a vigorous man of sixty-six years of age. He 
 retired to Monticello about the middle of March, 
 able to accomplish the last three days of his journey 
 there on horseback. Here he resided during the 
 remaining seventeen years of his life. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson cannot be reproached with any fond- 
 
 * Works, i. 465.
 
 278 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ness for money, or for any disposition unduly to 
 hoard or to accumulate it. His expenditures were 
 always those of a generous and liberal mind. In 
 his youth, when it could not have been the custom for 
 young men to collect a library, we find that he lost, 
 by the burning of his house at Shad well, books 
 which cost him about a thousand dollars. Not 
 discouraged by this, during all his active life he had 
 purchased books in literature, science, history, diplo- 
 macy, the classics, belles-lettres, such as were impor- 
 tant to his mental culture. The hospitalities of his 
 mansion, too, had always been without stint or bound, 
 according to the custom of the country in which he 
 lived, and this the attraction of his distinguished and 
 agreeable social qualities, and of his important politi- 
 cal position, had rendered very burdensome to a for- 
 tune of an amount which could never have been con- 
 sidered very large, and of a nature which could only 
 have been made to yield any considerable income by 
 a degree of care and attention which he was never in 
 a position to afford. In his public life he had always 
 considered it due to the dignity of his high political 
 positions to apportion his expenses in a liberal manner 
 for hospitality, service, and equipage. And, in fact, 
 during his time, in memory of the aristocratic insti- 
 tutions which had existed, and of the circumstances 
 of forms and dignities with which Washington had 
 recently surrounded himself, it would have hardly
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 279 
 
 been possible for him to make any savings, either 
 from the allowances of his official employments or 
 from the income of his private fortune. 
 
 He returned, then, to Monticello in declining life, 
 with a moderate income, and with great demands upon 
 it. The principal occupations of his remaining years 
 were the education of his grandchildren, who lived 
 with him, the management of his own estates, hospi- 
 talities to numerous guests, and, most of all, the writ- 
 ing of replies to the multitude of letters with which 
 he was quite overburdened and almost overwhelmed. 
 Thus for sixteen years he passed his time, for the 
 most part in the daily duties and the daily pleasures 
 of the life of a country gentleman. The order of his 
 life was at times shaded and darkened by serious 
 anxieties as to his pecuniary affairs. These severely 
 pressed upon him during his later years, not so much 
 by reason of his own improvidence, as of failure on 
 the part of friends whom he had trusted. Yet, not- 
 withstanding these things, he still preserved his phi- 
 losophy and serenity of mind, and made such arrange- 
 ments as were possible to meet his obligations and 
 to preserve his independence. During the period 
 from 1817 to 1826, he had also found very serious 
 and continued occupation in founding the establish- 
 ment of the University of Virginia. He had re- 
 sumed the projects of his youth, which were for the 
 education of all classes of white people. By his
 
 280 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 influence, constantly and unremittingly exhibited, the 
 Legislature of his State had made grants, not indeed 
 so large as he demanded, but still in large and liberal 
 measure, for the purposes of Education, generally for 
 the founding of the University of Virginia. The con- 
 trol and superintendence of this establishment in its 
 earlier years, indeed its initiation and foundation, 
 were confided by the State to a Board of Visitors, 
 upon which were glad to serve the most distinguished 
 men of Virginia, with Mr. Jefferson as their Rector 
 and Chief. To Mr. Jefferson it was mainly due that 
 the most able and learned men were induced to serve 
 as Professors in this Institution, and that its Consti- 
 tution was of the most liberal character. 
 
 The year 1826 found him at the crisis of his for- 
 tunes and of his life. Eighty-three years old, infirm 
 of body, the vigor of his mind failing, the embar- 
 rassments of his pecuniary affairs increasing, and 
 suddenly much aggravated by an unexpected loss of 
 considerable amount, he found himself obliged to con- 
 sider how he could so dispose of his remaining prop- 
 erty as to pay his debts and supply the necessities 
 of living. While he was engaged in proposing 
 such arrangements as occurred to him, and while his 
 private and public friends and the Legislatures of 
 some of the States were occupied in devising meas- 
 ures for the pecuniary relief of one to whom they 
 were so much indebted, worn with age, and with
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 281 
 
 cares and disorders, he quietly expired, a little after 
 noon, on the 4th of July, 1826 ; about four hours 
 before the death of his compatriot and friend, John 
 Adams, and just fifty years after himself and the 
 same John Adams had signed that Declaration which, 
 on the 4th of July, 1776, announced to the world the 
 Independence of America. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson had intellectual talents greatly supe- 
 rior to the common mass of men, and for the times 
 his opportunities of culture in youth were admirable. 
 It was a special advantage to him to have begun with 
 excellent academic learning in early life, and at col- 
 lege to have felt the quickening influence of an able 
 man like Professor Small, well trained in scholarship, 
 and cherishing a taste for science and literature. Mr. 
 Jefferson early learned the Latin, Greek, French, 
 Spanish, and Italian languages, and showed a fond- 
 ness for reading and study not common in Virginia, 
 and quite uncommon in any part of America, for a 
 young man who had such independent control of time 
 and means as he had. 
 
 All his life he associated, by preference, with able 
 men and educated men. His inherited property 
 enabled him to buy books, which, to the value of 
 one thousand dollars, were burned with his house 
 at Shadwell, when he was twenty-two years old. 
 He could indulge his taste for music^ He was not
 
 282 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 forced by the humble circumstances of his younger 
 days to print books like Franklin, to survey lands 
 like Washington, or to keep school like Adams. But 
 I cannot think his mind a great one. I cannot point 
 out any name of those times which may stand in the 
 long interval between the names of Franklin and 
 John Adams. In the shorter space between Adams 
 and Jefferson there were many. Some of them 
 in power and force nearly approached, and almost 
 equalled Adams. There was a certain lack of solidi- 
 ty : his intellect was not very profound, not very 
 comprehensive. Intelligent, able, adroit as he was, 
 his success as an intellectual man was far from be- 
 ing entire or complete. He exhibited no spark 
 of genius, nor any remarkable degree of original 
 natural talent. 
 
 His strength lay in his understanding the practical 
 power. He learned affairs quickly. He remem- 
 bered well. He was fond of details in all things. 
 He kept a Diary, in which he noted systematically 
 all sorts of facts. He was a nice observer of Nature, 
 and as well as his opportunities permitted he culti- 
 vated the sciences of Botany, Zoology, Geology. 
 
 Ardent in his feelings, quick in his apprehension, 
 and rapid in his conclusions, his judgment does not 
 appear to have been altogether sound and reliable. 
 
 As to his imagination, he seems to have had less 
 than the average of educated men ; and though fond
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 283 
 
 of beauty and simplicity in all forms, there yet 
 seemed to be little of the creative power of poetry 
 in him. In his youth he loved to read poetry, but 
 in his old age he laid it aside for the most part, re- 
 taining only his fondness for Homer, Hesiod, Sopho- 
 cles, Euripides, and the Greek and Latin classics 
 generally. In answer to a letter making inquiries 
 as to a proper course of education for females, he 
 writes, in 1818, " Too much poetry should not be in- 
 dulged. Homer is useful for forming style and taste. 
 Pope, Dryden, Thomson, and Shakspeare, and of the 
 French, MolieTe, Racine, the Corneilles, may be read 
 with pleasure and improvement." 
 
 In literature he disliked fiction generally. Don 
 Quixote was a favorite in his youth ; so were a few 
 pastoral and lyric writers ; but he never learned to 
 admire Byron, Campbell, Southey, or Coleridge. 
 Yet I find no American, during the Revolutionary 
 period, whose intellectual life was so marked with 
 good taste and aesthetic culture. His was a fine 
 nature finely educated. He hated all coarseness, 
 and in that respect was as modest as a maiden, any 
 indelicacy in his presence causing him to blush even 
 in old age. 
 
 He had not great power of reason. In matters of 
 science he was rather a dabbler than a philosopher, 
 yet he had considerable love for science. He knew 
 something of mathematics, and read thoughtful books.
 
 284 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 He disliked ethics and metaphysics, and had no tal- 
 ent for either. He had no understanding of abstract 
 and universal truth. He thought Plato a writer of 
 nonsense, speaks of the "whimseys, the puerilities, 
 and unintelligible jargon " of Plato's Republic, and 
 says he often asked himself how the world could 
 have so long consented to give reputation to such 
 nonsense.* 
 
 As an inventor he had some pretensions. But 
 he was an inventor, not of new ideas, but of forms 
 only. He had great skill in organizing ideas into 
 institutions, and in influencing and marshalling men 
 into parties. 
 
 His administrative powers were neither great nor 
 good. Though he always gave a certain degree of 
 attention to his private affairs, yet they were never 
 well managed. His own property and that brought 
 him by his wife, would have seemed sufficient to 
 maintain an honorable independence ; and yet this 
 estate, notwithstanding its large receipts from offi- 
 cial salaries for many years, seems to have been con- 
 stantly diminishing, as well during his absence from 
 home as after his return to it. So, too, his capacity 
 for administration, both as Governor of Virginia and 
 as President of the United States, can by no means 
 be considered eminent. His conduct of the affairs 
 of Virginia during the British invasion, when a 
 
 * Tucker, ii. 356.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 285 
 
 British army of fifteen hundred strong held his 
 State for months, however difficult may have been 
 the circumstances, by no means adds to his reputa- 
 tion. In the Presidency, it is now quite certain that 
 his administrative ideas respecting the Army and the 
 Military Academy, the Navy and the Gunboats, and 
 the continuance of the Embargo, as an honorable 
 measure less oppressive' and more economical than 
 war, were all great mistakes to have been made by 
 the Head of the Government at that time. 
 
 Let us now consider his moral character. 
 
 He had a good deal of moral courage, though this 
 was somewhat limited by his sensitiveness to public 
 opinion.* He had not great physical courage, else 
 the charge against him as Governor of Virginia could 
 never have been made, and would have been more 
 decisively repelled. His natural delicacy of nature 
 gave him quick intuitions and rapid perceptions of 
 the Right. These induced him even to avoid the 
 theatre, to hate drunkenness, though he was by no 
 means an ascetic, and to shun tobacco, swearing, 
 gaming, and all indecency. But I think the charge 
 that he was father of some of his own slaves is but 
 'too well founded. There is no instance of his hav- 
 ing been engaged in any duel. His faults were vices 
 of calculation, and not of passion. He was quick- 
 
 * Works, iv. 444 ; Randall, ii. 183.
 
 286 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tempered, earnest, and excitable, but at the same 
 time he was free and outspoken, good-humored, and 
 cheerful. Always hopeful, he for a long time 
 thought the war of 1812 not likely to take place ; 
 and after 1816 was quite sanguine that he could 
 redeem his own private fortunes by successes in 
 farming. In his earlier years he was confident that 
 the American Revolution would turn out well ; and in 
 his later life thought he should live to see the Virginia 
 University attract five hundred or a thousand stu- 
 dents. He was not vindictive. It is true he was 
 not tolerant to Ideas, but he was tolerant to persons. 
 He never made a political division into a personal 
 difference.* He was not always quite sincere. He 
 made great professions of love and respect to Wash- 
 ington, while he, at the same time, sustained Freneau 
 and Callender, Washington's vilest and most un- 
 scruplous libellers. In the matters also of Thomas 
 Paine's pamphlet, and of his having given Mr. Paine 
 a passage to America in a public ship, his desire for 
 popularity seems to have betrayed him into making 
 undue apologies. The affair of his letter to Mazzei, 
 which came to the public knowledge, and at which 
 Washington was justly offended, affords another in- 
 stance of explanations, which could not have been 
 quite sincere. f He sometimes used harsh language. 
 
 * Randall, iii. 636. 
 
 f Jefferson's expression in the Mazzei letter, of " Samsons in the
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 287 
 
 He calls Marshall's Life of Washington " a five-vol- 
 umed libel " on the Democracy. Hamilton's Life is 
 to be written by one " who to the bitterness of the 
 President adds the rancor of the fiercest Federal- 
 ism." It seems of him, as of Franklin, that he had 
 lived in a bad moral atmosphere,* though born with 
 a good and exact moral nature. He was of an ear- 
 nest character, though he did not always seem to be 
 so. He was not reverential of great men, and his 
 temper was quite emancipated from the authority of 
 great names. He had great powers of pleasing all 
 that were about him, or that came near to him. 
 He was never quarrelsome, or inclined to dispute. 
 " Never had an enemy in Congress," says Mr. Ran- 
 dall. He had many friends, and he kept their friend- 
 ships, and always addressed himself to conduct 
 
 field and Solomons in council," must have referred to Washing- 
 ton. At the time of publication Jefferson wrote Madison, August 3, 
 that he could not avow the Mazzei letter "without a personal dif- 
 ference between General Washington and myself, which nothing be- 
 fore the publication of this letter had ever done. It would embroil 
 me also with all those with whom his character is still popular; 
 that is to say, with nine tenths of the people of the United States." 
 Hildreth, v. p. 65. 
 
 " Mr. Jefferson was a consummate politician whenever he deemed 
 a resort to policy expedient and allowable, and few men then had 
 more penetration in fathoming the purposes of others or in conceal- 
 ing his own." Tucker. 
 
 * " L'accent du pays oti Ton est ne demeure dans 1'esprit et dang 
 le cceur, comme dans le langage."
 
 288 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 affairs in the smoothest and pleasantest manner. 
 His perfectly good temper consistently manifested 
 itself in every way. He was fond of young children. 
 All the members of his family and his household 
 were exceedingly attached to him. And his letters 
 to his daughters and grandchildren, and even to Mr. 
 and Mrs. Adams, exhibit his affectionate nature. 
 Yet he was not a loving man, like Franklin or Madi- 
 son ; rather he had great love of approbation, and 
 great fear of censure, together with a mild, amiable, 
 affectionate temper. 
 
 Of Mr. Jefferson's relation to Slavery we have 
 already seen something. His family biographer, Mr. 
 Randall, sums up the whole by saying, "He was 
 wholly opposed to Slavery on all grounds, and de- 
 sired its abolition."* And, indeed, it is true that 
 not many Republicans of the present day have prin- 
 ciples more decided, or more thoroughly considered, 
 as to the abstract right of the negro to freedom, than 
 were uttered and written by Mr. Jefferson, from his 
 earliest to his latest year. At his first entrance into 
 the Legislature of Virginia, he attempted, but failed, 
 to carry a bill giving to owners the right to free their 
 slaves. Soon afterwards he writes, that "the Rights 
 of human nature are deeply wounded by this prac- 
 tice " [Slave Trade]. On many occasions he sug- 
 gested the abolition of Slavery in Virginia, by an act 
 
 * Randall, iii. 667.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 289 
 
 providing for the freedom of all the children of 
 slaves born after a certain day. The provision 
 which he proposed, excluding Slavery from all the 
 Territory of the United States north of the thirty- 
 first parallel of latitude, has already been cited. In 
 his annual message to Congress, December 2, 1806, 
 he declares, "I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on 
 the approach of the period at which you may consti- 
 tutionally interpose your authority to withdraw the 
 citizens of the United States from all further partici- 
 pation in those violations of human rights which have 
 been so long continued on the unoffending inhabit- 
 ants of Africa." And in a letter written only seven 
 weeks before his death (dated May 20, 1826), he 
 says, "My sentiments [on the subject of Slavery] 
 have been forty years before the public. . . . Al- 
 though I shall not live to see them consummated, 
 they will not die with me ; but, living or dying, 
 they will always be in my most fervent prayer." 
 
 In 1781, Tarleton, in his raid through Virginia, 
 captured Monticello, compelled Mr. Jefferson to fly, 
 committed much waste upon his property, and car- 
 ried off about thirty of his slaves. Seven years 
 later, at Paris, Mr. Jefferson, writing to Dr. Gor- 
 don, says, as to the. carrying off of his slaves, "had 
 this been to give them freedom he [Tarleton] 
 would have done right." * 
 
 * Works, ii. 42G. 
 
 19
 
 290 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 There is no distinguished writer of his time frgm 
 whom the Abolitionists can more effectively quote. 
 " You know that no one wishes more ardently to see 
 an abolition, not only of the trade, but of the condi- 
 tion of slavery." He earnestly desires " to see a 
 good system commenced for raising the condition 
 both of their [the negroes] body and mind to what 
 it ought to be." And he believed the race capa- 
 ble of improvement and enlightenment, and very 
 possibly of self-government. 
 
 " What an incomprehensible machine is man ! who 
 can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and 
 death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and 
 the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose 
 power supported him through his trial, and inflict 
 on his fellow-man a bondage, one hour of which is 
 fraught with more misery than ages of that which he 
 rose iu rebellion to oppose. But we must wait with 
 patience the workings of an overruling Providence. 
 I hope that that is preparing deliverance of these our 
 suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears 
 shall be full, when their groans shall have involved 
 heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of Justice 
 will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light 
 and liberality among their oppressors, or, at length, 
 by His exterminating thunder manifest His attention 
 to the things of this world, and [show] that they are 
 not left to the guidance of a blind fatality." And
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 291 
 
 what can be more graphic than the often-cited pas- 
 sage from his Works, on Virginia, respecting slave- 
 ry. "The parent storms, the child looks on, catches 
 the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the 
 circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to the worst 
 of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily 
 exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it 
 with odious peculiarities. . . . Indeed, I tremble 
 for my country when I reflect that God is just. 
 . . . The Almighty has no attribute which can take 
 side with us in such a contest." * 
 
 Some person asked Mr. Jefferson " whether he had 
 made any change in his religion." He replied, "Say 
 nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and 
 myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be 
 sought in my life ; if that has been honest and du- 
 tiful to society, the religion which has regulated it 
 cannot be a bad one." f We have seen that Mr. 
 Jefferson was a profound and independent thinker ; 
 he called no man master, and among the various 
 sectarians of his day, who would not allow the name 
 of Christian to each other, it cannot be expected that 
 it should have been commonly allowed to him. Yet 
 surely there was a certain piety, and some depth of 
 religious feeling in the man. The book most fre- 
 queutty chosen for reading before he went to bed 
 was a collection of extracts from the Bible. In 
 * Works, viii. 403, 404. t Works, vii. 65.
 
 292 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 1803, when President of the United States, and 
 overwhelmed with business, he extracted from the 
 New Testament such passages as he believed to have 
 come from the lips of Jesus Christ, and arranged 
 them in a small volume. Of this he says, " A more 
 beautiful or more precious morsel of ethics I have 
 never seen. It is a document in proof that I am a 
 real Christian ; that is to say, a disciple of the doc- 
 trines of Jesus ; very different from the Platonists, 
 who call me Infidel and themselves Christians and 
 teachers of the Gospel, while they draw all their 
 characteristic dogmas from what its Author never 
 said or saw." 
 
 He said of himself that he had never meditated a 
 specific creed ; and this is confirmed by what he in 
 another place refers to as his religious creed on 
 paper, which was contained in a writing to Dr. Ben- 
 jamin Rush, dated April 21, 1803.* It was not the 
 statement of any creed, but a very general criticism 
 of the progress of mankind. He well knew that his 
 religious ideas were unpopular, and probably con- 
 sidered them, however suitable to his own intellec- 
 tual power and independence, not necessarily to be 
 adopted by others. Therefore, though he wrote to 
 his daughter, Mrs. Randolph, saying, "I have placed 
 my religious creed on paper, that my familj r should 
 be enabled to estimate the libels published against 
 
 * Works, iv. 479.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 293 
 
 me on this subject," yet he never made any attack 
 on the religious faith of any sect, nor ever attempted 
 to make any proselyte to his own. He never com- 
 municated his religious belief to more than half a 
 dozen persons. His oldest grandson writes, "Of his 
 peculiar religious views his family know no more 
 than the world." He said, " It was a subject each was 
 religiously bound to study assiduously for himself, 
 unbiassed by the opinions of others. It was a matter 
 solely of conscience. After thorough investigation, 
 they were responsible for the righteousness, but not 
 for the rightfulness, of their opinions. That the 
 expression of his opinion might influence theirs, and 
 that therefore he would not give it." * 
 
 An anecdote is told of his once passing the even- 
 ing at Ford's Tavern, as he was travelling in the 
 interior of Virginia, with a clergyman who had no 
 acquaintance with him. While the topic of conver- 
 sation was mechanical, the stranger thought him to 
 be an engineer ; when agricultural, he believed him 
 to be a farmer ; but when the topic of religion was 
 broached, the clergyman considered that his com- 
 panion must be another clergyman, though without 
 making up his mind of what particular persuasion. 
 Afterwards the clergyman inquired of the landlord 
 the name of his fellow-guest. " What ! don't you 
 know the Squire? That was Mr. Jefferson," was the 
 
 * Randall, iii. 561.
 
 294 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 reply. " Not President Jefferson 1 " " Yes, Presi- 
 dent Jefferson ! " " Why ! " exclaimed the clergyman, 
 "I tell you that was neither an atheist nor an irre- 
 ligious man. One of juster sentiments I never met 
 with." * And so it is ; if we would form an opinion 
 as to his religion (and would it not be well in the 
 case of others as well as of himself?) , we must seek 
 its evidence in his life. If that was honest and beau- 
 tiful to society, the religion which regulated it cannot 
 have been a bad one. 
 
 Of all those who controlled the helm of affairs 
 during the time of the Revolution, and while the Con- 
 stitution and the forms of our National and State 
 Institutions were carefully organized, there is none 
 who has been more generally popular, more common- 
 ly beloved, more usually believed to be necessary to 
 the Legislation and Administration of his country, 
 than Thomas Jefferson. It may not be said of him 
 that of all those famous men he could least have been 
 spared ; for in the rare and great qualities for pa- 
 tiently and wisely conducting the vast affairs of State 
 and Nation in pressing emergencies, he seems to 
 have been wanting. But his grand merit was this 
 that while his powerful opponents favored a strong 
 government, and believed it necessary thereby to 
 repress what they called the lower classes, he, Jef- 
 
 * Randall, iii. 345.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 295 
 
 ferson, believed in Humanity ; believed in a true 
 Democracy. He respected labor and education, and 
 upheld the right to education of all men. These 
 were the Ideas in which he was far in advance of all 
 the considerable men, whether of his State or of his 
 Nation ideas which he illustrated through long 
 years of his life and conduct. The great debt that 
 the Nation owes to him is this that he so ably and 
 consistently advocated these needful opinions, that 
 he made himself the head and the hand of the great 
 party that carried these ideas into power, that put 
 an end to all possibility of class government, made 
 naturalization easy, extended the suffrage and applied 
 it to judicial office, opened a still wider and better 
 education to all, and quietly inaugurated reforms, yet 
 incomplete, of which we have the benefit to this day, 
 and which, but for him, we might not have won 
 against the party of Strong Government, except by 
 a difficult and painful Revolution.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 FRANKLIN. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Adams, John. . 26, 32 
 
 Adams, Matthew 21 
 
 Adams, Samuel 26 
 
 A great Organizer 40 
 
 A great Picture 23 
 
 Almanac, Poor Richard's. . 24 
 
 A master Printer 21 
 
 Analysis of Character and Intellect. . . . 37, 39 
 
 An old Man, but active . . . 31 
 
 A Pacificator 46, 48 
 
 Appeared in a Suit of Manchester Velvet. .... 30 
 Appointed Agent for Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. 28 
 
 "Billy." 60 
 
 Birthplace. . .13 
 
 Books 19, 23 
 
 Born in Boston. 16 
 
 Borrows Cannon of Governor Clinton 47 
 
 Boy of Fourteen 18, 23 
 
 Braddock, General. 27 
 
 Brought before the Privy Council of King of England. . 29 
 
 Burial Place 17 
 
 Buys Burton's Historical Collections 38 
 
 Character 36, 54 
 
 Children 17 
 
 Chosen Member of First Colonial Congress. . . . .27 
 " Citizens of eminent Gravity." 28 
 
 (297)
 
 298 INDEX. 
 
 Clerk of the General Assembly. 24 
 
 Colleges confer Honors. 25, 26 
 
 Constructive as well as inventive 40 
 
 Contemporaries ....36 
 
 Correspondence. 25 
 
 Gushing, Mr 29 
 
 Daughter. 18 
 
 Deceived by Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania. ... 16 
 
 Devout Spirit 58 
 
 Died at Philadelphia 17 
 
 Diplomatic Labors 65 
 
 Disliked by the British Government. ..... 27 
 
 Drafting the Declaration of Independence 26 
 
 Editor of his Brother's Newspaper 22 
 
 Education 18 
 
 Endeavors to prevent Privateering. . . . . 32, 33 
 
 Enemies. 66 
 
 Enrolled Men for Defence of Quaker City 42 
 
 " Errata " given by himself. . 62 
 
 Established first American Free School out of New England. . 42 
 
 Father and Mother 19 
 
 Fifteenth Child of the Tallow Chandler 14 
 
 Filled various Offices. 24 
 
 First Meal in Philadelphia 16 
 
 Founder of the first Scientific Association on this Continent. . 42 
 
 General Braddock 27 
 
 Genius for Creation and Administration. . / . . . 43 
 Governor Hutchinson. . . . . . . 28, 29 
 
 Grandmother of Franklin bought for twenty Founds. . . 20 
 Greatest Discovery of the Century. ...... 24 
 
 Gunpowder 49 
 
 His illegitimate Son 17 
 
 Hugh Peters 19, 20 
 
 Hutchinson and Oliver Letters 29 
 
 Insulted by the King's Solicitor. 29 
 
 Intellect 86, 37
 
 INDEX. 299 
 
 In the Field near Philadelphia. 23, 24 
 
 Invented a Phonographic Alphabet 41 
 
 Intimacies with Religious Men. 58 
 
 Jackson, Mr., of Georgia 35 
 
 James Franklin. 21 
 
 Jay. .'.... 32 
 
 Jefferson 26, 32, 45 
 
 Josiah Franklin 13 
 
 Journeyman Printer in Philadelphia. 22 
 
 Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania 16 
 
 Knew how to conciliate 45 
 
 Knew how to use the auspicious Moment 46, 47 
 
 Last public Act. 34 
 
 Last public Writing 35 
 
 Lieutenant Governor Oliver . 28 
 
 Little Inconsistencies 62 
 
 Manages the Legislature of Pennsylvania. . . . .49 
 
 Married 17 
 
 Mary Morrell 19 
 
 Minister to France. 17 
 
 Miss Read 22, 51, 52 
 
 Moral Powers 47, 48 
 
 National Gazette. 35 
 
 Never revengeful or envious. 53 
 
 New England Courant 21 
 
 New England Tories 29 
 
 One of his most ingenious Works. . ..... 35 
 
 Organized various Societies and Companies 42 
 
 Peter Folger . . . .19 
 
 Petition to Congress. 34 
 
 Planned the Scheme of the Union 27 
 
 Political Whimseys. 67 
 
 Poor Richard's Almanac 63, 64 
 
 Policy 49 
 
 Popular Judgment 38 
 
 Private Morals. ... ..... 51
 
 300 INDEX. 
 
 Quaker Fire Engine 49 
 
 Quaker Grain. 49 
 
 Quarrelled with his Brother James 22 
 
 Religious Views 56-60 
 
 Sells his " Varses" in the Streets of Boston. ... 18 
 
 Services to American Education 63 
 
 Set on foot Military Expeditions 27, 28 
 
 Sign of the Blue Ball. ........ 13 
 
 Slavery in 1758 60 
 
 Society for Abolition of Slavery 33 
 
 Started first Magazine in America. 42 
 
 Studied Languages 25 
 
 Sydney Smith 16 
 
 Testimony before House of Commons 28 
 
 Twenty-third Article of Treaty 60, 61 
 
 " The Peculiar Institution " defended. . . . . .35 
 
 Uncle Benjamin 20 
 
 Various Contrivances and Suggestions 40, 41 
 
 Wedderburn, Mr 29 
 
 Whitefield's Orphan House 67, 68 
 
 Wife died. 17 
 
 William Temple Franklin. 17 
 
 Whately 29 
 
 Wrenching the Sceptre from Tyrants 31
 
 INDEX. 301 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 Administrative Talents 118, 119 
 
 A good Organizer . .117 
 
 A great Work before him 108 
 
 Alexander Hamilton 110 
 
 Anxiety for the universal Welfare. 106 
 
 Appointed Commander-in- Chief of the American Forces. . . 79 
 
 Appointments. 110 
 
 Arnold. . 144 
 
 Augustine Washington. 75 
 
 Beginning of Florida War 139 
 
 Benevolent and charitable. 133 
 
 Birth. . ~. . . 76, 77 
 
 Book of Surveys. . . - 83 
 
 Born a Slaveholder 136 
 
 Boyhood and Youth 80 
 
 Bravery and Caution. . . 127 
 
 Bridge's Creek 75 
 
 Burgoyne entrapped. . 104 
 
 Cabal in the Army. . 129 
 
 Cabinet Ill 
 
 Character 133, 134 
 
 Chosen Delegate to Federal Congress 108 
 
 Commander-in-Chief of the American Army. ... 96 
 Commissions. ..........78 
 
 Compared with Franklin, Adams, &c 121 
 
 Constitution 109 
 
 Cromwell and Washington. ..*.... 145 
 
 Created an Army 144 
 
 Crowning Virtue 130 
 
 Death. . 80 
 
 Defeat of General St. Clair 124 
 
 Diary. . . ..... . . . 90,93,94 
 
 Difficulties 102, 112, 119, 127, 128 
 
 Discipline. . . . . . . . . . 88 
 
 Dress 90 
 
 Dr. Franklin. 79, 104
 
 302 INDEX. 
 
 Early Military Life 85 
 
 Elected a Delegate to First General Congress. ... 79 
 Enemies 104 
 
 Faithful to himself. 132 
 
 Farewell Address 115 
 
 Father. . . 79, 81 
 
 Federal Party. 142 
 
 First Fugitive Slave 140 
 
 Fond of Form and Parade. 122 
 
 Fondness for the Military Profession. ..... 82 
 
 Franklin's Plan. 107 
 
 General Henry Lee 83 
 
 General Lee. . . . 102 
 
 General Ward 98 
 
 Gerry, Mr 109 
 
 Governor Dinwiddie 86 
 
 Hancock's Grudge against Adams. . . . . ... 97 
 
 Harsh Measures . . 129, 130 
 
 Hasty Temper 123 
 
 Hamilton's Influence . . . 122 
 
 House of Burgesses 79, 95 
 
 Ideas of Managing the Army. . . . . . . 143 
 
 Integrity 130 
 
 Intellect 1 . . 114 
 
 Intended Treason of General Lee 102 
 
 Interest in Public Education. 107 
 
 Jane Butler . 75 
 
 Jealousy of the States 108 
 
 Jumonville. 127 
 
 Knew how to command and obey 133 
 
 Lawrence Washington 75, 78 
 
 Left School ' . . . 82 
 
 Letters 115 
 
 Little Confidence in the People 142 
 
 Love of Approbation. 125 
 
 " Lowland Beauty." 83, 84
 
 INDEX. 303 
 
 Making a new Plough. 94. 
 
 Manuscript Books. 81, 126 
 
 Married the Widow of Mr. Custis 78, 89 
 
 Mary Ball. . 75 
 
 Member of Second Congress 95 
 
 Miss Carey. .......... 83 
 
 Miss Grimes 83 
 
 Moral Excellence 121, 132 
 
 Mother 84 
 
 Mount Vernon 78, 89, 106, 141 
 
 Mrs. Martha Custis 78, 89, 133 
 
 Natural Temperament. . - . . . . . . 121 
 
 Never understood New England. . . 143, 144 
 
 Nobility of Character 105, 106 
 
 Not an Originator 116, 120 
 
 No Vanity 126 
 
 Obliged to create an Army. ....... 99 
 
 One of the Great Authorities in American Politics. . . 77 
 
 Peace proclaimed in Camp. 105 
 
 Peculiarities. . 141 
 
 Personal Appearance. 140, 141 
 
 President of the Convention to frame a Constitution. . . 109 
 
 President of the United States 79 
 
 Public Surveyor 77, 110 
 
 Quarrel in his Cabinet. Ill 
 
 Refused a Crown. 132, 145 
 
 Remark of Patrick Henry 96 
 
 Religious Character 134-136, 138 
 
 Resolute Will -129 
 
 Returns his Commission 105 
 
 Reverence of the Red Man 146 
 
 Richard Henry Lee 104 
 
 Rules for Behavior 82 
 
 Samuel Adams 79, 120 
 
 Saturday a famous Day in American Annals 76 
 
 School Privileges. 77, 81
 
 304 INDEX. 
 
 Sends to Marblehead for Gunpowder. ..... 123 
 
 Sent to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston 89 
 
 Seven Years' Apprenticeship in War 88 
 
 Sixth Anniversary of Boston Massacre 100 
 
 Slaves 91, 136-138 
 
 State of the Troops . . 98, 103 
 
 Style of Living 90 
 
 Sufferings of the Troops 103 
 
 Superiority of British Army. ...... 99 
 
 Taste for fine Dress 90, 91 
 
 The first Man of his Type 145 
 
 " The Frontier Colonel." ...;... 86 
 
 The Soldiers his Children 106 
 
 The sublimest Man in the World 126 
 
 Trials with his Army 87 
 
 Undue Influence of Hamilton 142 
 
 Used Fraud to spare Force 131 
 
 Various Schemes. 107 
 
 Virginia Legislature. 86 
 
 Volunteer in General Braddock's Army 85 
 
 Went to the West Indies 78 
 
 What he might have said 139 
 
 Who were regarded with Confidence. 133 
 
 Williamsburg 89 
 
 Writes to Lafayette 137 
 
 Youthful Flames. . . . 83
 
 INDEX. 305 
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 Abby Smith's Education 162, 1G3 
 
 Acts on his own Responsibility 194, 209 
 
 Advice and Service. . . 175 
 
 Alien and Sedition Laws 195 
 
 American Affairs in Confusion 179 
 
 Appeals to the Dutch People 182, 183, 209 
 
 Appointed Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Massachusetts. 178 
 Appointed Commissioner. ....... 184 
 
 Appointed Minister to Great Britain 181 
 
 Art of Leading 174 
 
 A Sentiment for Independence Day. 200 
 
 Beaten at Election. 196 
 
 Boston Massacre 166 
 
 Brace of Adamses 168 
 
 Braintree "... 149, 151 
 
 British Government 170 
 
 Broke with his Cabinet 193 
 
 Bound by his Relation to his Party 192, 193 
 
 Career as a Politician and Diplomatist. . . . 179, 206, 207 
 
 Character 200, 201 
 
 Chief Acts of his Administration 192 
 
 Chief Justice impeached 171, 208 
 
 Childhood and Youth 151 
 
 Closed Session of General Court 173 
 
 Colonel John Quincy 159 
 
 Courtship and Marriage 159, 162 
 
 " Davila " Papers 189 
 
 Death of his Wife. 198 
 
 Declaration of Independence 176, 214, 215, 218 
 
 Defence of the Constitution 186 
 
 Defended the British Soldiers 166, 208 
 
 Delegates to American Congress * 173 
 
 Diary 157, 213, 214, 220 
 
 Difficult Part to perform 174 
 
 Dixwell. 173
 
 306 INDEX. 
 
 Declaration of Rights and Grievances 176, 204 
 
 Dr. Willard 155 
 
 Educational Helps 156 
 
 Election Day. 1G9 
 
 Executive of the United States. 187 
 
 Ex-President in private Life 197 
 
 Faithful, yet dishonored. 197 
 
 Favored a Naval and Military Academy 177, 205 
 
 Federalists displeased 190 
 
 Franklin 183, 200, 201, 205, 210, 230 
 
 French Court and American Minister 193 
 
 Four great Trials 208 
 
 Fiftieth Birthday of the Nation 200 
 
 George Davie 194 
 
 Governor Bernard 165 
 
 Governor Shirley. . 167 
 
 Grandfather's Grandfather to the Second President. . . 149 
 Grass growing on Long Wharf. . . . . . .172 
 
 Great Risk 179 
 
 Great Virtues 211 
 
 Grumbling Proclivity 154, 216, 220 
 
 Halcyon Days 185 
 
 Henry Adams. 149 
 
 Honored by Townsmen . . 198 
 
 Hostility to the Constitution . . .188 
 
 " Independence Forever." 200 
 
 Intended for the Ministry. ....... 154, 155 
 
 Interest in the Stamp Act, &c., 163 
 
 Interview with the King 185, 186 
 
 Jefferson 190, 200, 221, 223, 224 
 
 John Fries. 195, 221 
 
 John Norton, 159 
 
 John Quincy Adams 210,211 
 
 Josiah Quincy 166 
 
 Letter from his Wife. 191 
 
 Letters of Hutchinson and Oliver. . 1C9
 
 INDEX. 307 
 
 Left Congress. 178 
 
 Life as a Lawyer. 158 
 
 Lord Mansfield 184 
 
 Married 159 
 
 " Midnight Judges." ........ 196 
 
 Minority of Votes 188 
 
 Miss Abigail Smith. 159 
 
 Mount Wollaston 149 
 
 Mr. Gridley . . 164 
 
 Mr. West 184 
 
 Noble Act of his native State. 197 
 
 Nominates Mr. William Vans Murray Minister to France. . 194 
 
 Obedience 161 
 
 Old Officials. .......... 192 
 
 One Man of inflexible Integrity 179 
 
 One of the most important Acts of his Life 181 
 
 Otis and Adams 164 
 
 Period of terrible Defeats 178 
 
 Politician in the American Congress 172 
 
 Position as Vice-President. 189 
 
 Presented to the King. . 185 
 
 " President of three Votes." . 190 
 
 Private Life and political Defeat 196 
 
 Property and Persons. 180 
 
 Quarrels with Washington 206 
 
 Religious Emotions and Views. 221, 225 
 
 Representatives of Boston 167 
 
 Resigned his Offices 184, 186 
 
 Retires to his Home . 195 
 
 Revised the Constitution 198 
 
 Rev. Mr. Smith . .... KM 
 
 Richard Cranch 1GO 
 
 Samuel Adams 164 
 
 Selects Commander-in-Chief of Army. . . . 176, 202, 20<J 
 Shays's Rebellion 187
 
 308 INDEX. 
 
 Silas Deane 179 
 
 Stamp Act 165 
 
 Studies 161, 152, 157, 158 
 
 Studying Law. 156 
 
 Teaches School. 153 
 
 " The Boston Seat." 167 
 
 Thinking . .164 
 
 Thomas Shepard . . . . 160 
 
 Treaty of Commerce. 184 
 
 Trouble with his Cabinet 195, 196 
 
 Tutors 151 
 
 Twenty-six Letters. . 182 
 
 Two Parties in the new State 180 
 
 Vergennes 181, 182, 184, 185 
 
 Vice-President and President. 150 
 
 Visit to the Grave of Dixwell 173 
 
 Went to England 184 
 
 West End 160 
 
 Wooing . 160, 161 
 
 Writings . 178, 198, 226, 227, 
 
 Yielded to Washington 193
 
 INDEX. 309 
 
 THOMAS JEFFEKSON. 
 
 Aaron Burr 258 
 
 Abolished direct Taxes. 266 
 
 A fine Nature finely educated 283 
 
 Anecdote of Ford's Tavern. 293 
 
 A nice Observer of Nature. . 282 
 
 Anxiety as to pecuniary Affairs 279, 280 
 
 Associates. 281 
 
 Autobiography. . . . ...... 263 
 
 Birth, Boyhood, and Youth. . . . . . 240, 243 
 
 Blame attached to Jefferson 269 
 
 British Orders. . . . 274 
 
 Burr, Vice-President.- 258 
 
 
 
 Cabinet. 259, 260 
 
 Champion of the progressive Party. 256 
 
 Chancery Court 262 
 
 Close of public Life. . ' 277 
 
 Commercial States 273 
 
 Conduct of Affairs during British Invasion. . . . 284, 285 
 
 Constitutional Scruples. 270 
 
 Crisis of his Fortunes and his Life 280 
 
 Death 281 
 
 Decrees of Berlin and Milan 274 
 
 Decrees of Emperor of France 271 
 
 Democracy 260 
 
 Destined to higher Services. 253 
 
 Disliked by President Adams . . 256 
 
 Education. 235 
 
 Educational Projects 279 
 
 Embargo. . 271,273,276 
 
 Entered College 241 
 
 Estates plundered. 250 
 
 Excise Law 266 
 
 Executive of the United States 253 
 
 Expenditures. ........... 278
 
 310 INDEX. 
 
 Explanation and Justification . 275 
 
 Extracts from the New Testament 292 
 
 Faults 285, 286 
 
 Fear of the Despotism of the Judiciary. ..... 265 
 
 Federal Party dead 258 
 
 " Few die, and none resign." 260 
 
 First Consul Bonaparte. , 269 
 
 " First Families." 238 
 
 Fondness for Reading and Study 281 
 
 Friends 287 
 
 George Wythe. 242 
 
 Good Temper. 288 
 
 Governor of Virginia ... 242 
 
 Hamilton. 254, 255 
 
 Hamilton's Life 287 
 
 Headquarters of the Opposition 255 
 
 Henry Weatherbourne's Bowl of Punch 239 
 
 A. 
 
 Inaugural Address 259 
 
 Intellectual Talents 281, 282 
 
 Inventive and administrative Powers. .... 284, 285 
 Isham Randolph 239 
 
 James Madison. 277 
 
 Jane Randolph 239 
 
 Jefferson and Burr 258 
 
 John Quincy Adams. . . . . . . . 275, 277 
 
 John Wayles. 244 
 
 Juggling Tricks of Diplomacy 270 
 
 Kentucky Resolutions. . .. .... . 257 
 
 Laid the Axe at the Root of the Tree 247 
 
 Lawyer and Politician 243 
 
 Letter to Mazzei 286, 287 
 
 Little administrative Talent 250 
 
 Loss of Books 278 
 
 Love for Science. ........ 283, 284
 
 INDEX. 311 
 
 Member of House of Delegates. ...... 250 
 
 Mental Powers. 282, 283 
 
 Monticello 251, 277, 279, 289 
 
 Moral Character. 285 
 
 Mr. Maury ' 241 
 
 Mrs. Martha Skelton 244 
 
 Mrs. Randall 288 
 
 Negotiations and Purchase 267 
 
 New England 235, 237 
 
 Not an Atheist nor an irreligious Man. ..... 294 
 
 Occupation of his last Years 279 
 
 Oliver Wolcott's letter to Fisher Ames. .... 265 
 
 One Objection to the Constitution 262 
 
 Opinion of female Education. 283 
 
 Opposed the establishment of a Navy 260 
 
 Orders in Council 271, 274 
 
 Ordinance of the North-west Territory 251 
 
 Pardon 267 
 
 People's Convention. 245 
 
 Personal Appearance 225, 226 
 
 Peter Jefferson 239 
 
 Peyton Randolph. 246 
 
 Popular and beloved. . . 294 
 
 Poverty of the Militia 249 
 
 Power diminishing. ........ 255 
 
 Provision excluding Slavery. . 289 
 
 Quick Intuitions 285 
 
 Recognized Leader of Congress 252 
 
 Recommended Revision of the Laws. ..... 248 
 
 Relation to Slavery 288 
 
 Religion 235,236 
 
 Religious Views. . 291-294 
 
 Removed the Federal Leaders. 260 
 
 Repeal of the Embargo 276 
 
 Report of the Declaration 246 
 
 Responsibility of the Federalists 258
 
 312 INDEX. 
 
 Resumes the Projects of his Youth. . . . . . 279 
 
 Rotation in Office. 260 
 
 Secretary of State 253, 254 
 
 Sentiments on the Subject of Slavery 289 
 
 Serious Dilemma. > 272 
 
 Shadwell 239, 240, 278, 281 
 
 Ship Horizon condemned 273 
 
 Singular Reception at Home 252 
 
 Solution of Difficulties 273 
 
 Studies. . 240 
 
 Tarleton. ^ . 289 
 
 The great Debt the Nation owes to him. ..... 295 
 
 The Judiciary . . . . 264 
 
 Theory of Commerce and Navigation 277 
 
 " Trembles for his Country " in View of Slavery. . . 291 
 
 University of Virginia . . 279, 280 
 
 Urges Emancipation 245 
 
 View of leading Federalists. ....... 273 
 
 View of the Cession of Louisiana 267, 268 
 
 Views of Abolition. ........ 290,291 
 
 Virginia. . . . . . . . . . 236, 237 
 
 Virginia Resolutions. 257 
 
 Whiskey Insurrection. ........ 266 
 
 Writes to Robert R. Livingston. 267
 
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 The Material Condition of the People of 
 
 Massachusetts. Pamphlet. 20 cts. 
 Sold by Booksellers, or mailed, postpaid, on receipt of the price, by 
 
 HORACE B. FULLER, Publisher, 
 14 Bromfield Street, 
 
 BOSTON.
 
 ^OFULA.11 BOOKS. 
 
 THE LITTLE BAREFOOT, 
 
 A TALE, BY 
 BERTHOLD AUERBACH. 
 
 Translated from the German by ELIZA BUCKMINSTER LEE. With four 
 full-page, and numerous smaller Original Illustrations. 
 
 Price, $1.25. 
 
 " LITTLE BAREFOOT " is a very quaint and touching story of 
 the adventures and struggles of two orphan children, named 
 Amrie, and Datui her brother. The translation is very graceful, 
 and just enough of the German tone and coloring are retained to 
 add to the charm of the book. The main points of the story are 
 to show how self-reliance, a resolute spirit, and, most of all, a 
 cheerful faith in God, finally triumph over all adversity, and 
 establish a character which commands love and respect, and is a 
 constant blessing. 
 
 " This is a beautiful little story by Auerbach, soft and hazy as an Indian 
 Bummer; a story on which in lazy mood you would float off into cloud- 
 l&nd, and forget the actual toiling world. And yet there are pictures in it 
 as sharply and clearly drawn as any sketched by the engraver's hand. 
 " Barefoot," though living a life of the strangest thoughts and fancies, is 
 yet one of the most actual and practical of bodies, by a downright inde- 
 pendence and unswerving honesty winning her way in the world. Though 
 the schools do but little for her, nature and the sharp realities of her lot 
 teach her a deep insight and wisdom, to which few who are more favored 
 Attain." Journal and Messenger, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 " It is one of those delightful little German stories of woman's self-deny- 
 ing virtue which, like Hans Christian Andersen's, will be read with pleas- 
 ure by children, and with little less pleasure and no small profit by their 
 grandsires." Hound Table, JV. T. 
 
 " This little story has long been recognized as one of the best of juvenile 
 books. It teaches a pure and noble lesson, and is written with the grace 
 and beauty of style that characterizes so much of the juvenile literature 
 of Grermany. The illustrations are drawn with skill and true artistic 
 feeling, and put to shame the feeble drawings with which American books 
 are too frequently illustrated." N. Y. Independent.
 
 Popular Books. 
 
 JOSEPH IN THE SNOW. 
 
 BY BERTHOLD AUERBACH, 
 
 [Author of " The Little Barefoot." Illustrated with 24 Original designs 
 Price, $1.35. 
 
 Auerbach has a high reputation in Germany as a writer of 
 stories designed for popular amusement and instruction, es- 
 pecially those adapted to youthful minds. He constructs the 
 most charming fictions out of the incidents of common life, and 
 while he delights the imagination with his simple and natural 
 story, he aims at the same time to catch the sympathies of the 
 heart, and inspire it with a love of virtue. 
 
 " This is one of those simple and beautiful tales, in the production of 
 which the German novelists specially excel, and which have given Auer- 
 bach so wide a popularity. The story is naturally and gracefully told, 
 and it has been translated in a manner which leaves nothing to be desired. 
 We have seldom seen a translation which was characterized by greater 
 smoothness, dignity of expression, and manifest fidelity. The volume is 
 embellished with numerous engravings and initial letters, from original 
 designs, by Miss Greene, many of which are of great merit." Christian 
 Register. 
 
 " ' Joseph in the Snow,' published by Horace B. Fuller, Boston, is a 
 story translated from the German of Berthold Auerbach, the well-known 
 and favorite author, whose admirable novel, ' On the Heights,' has been 
 so favorably received in this country. It is doubtful whether ' Joseph in 
 the Snow ' should be considered a juvenile story or not. The hero is a 
 child, and upon this child the chief interest of the narrative concentrates, 
 but in many respects it is written for mature minds. It is a graphic, sim- 
 ple, and touching tale of unusual power, that may be read with pleasure by 
 old and young alike." N. T. Evening Post. 
 
 The Ferry Boy and the Financier, 
 
 By a well-known author. 12mo. Illustrated. 
 Price, $1.50. 
 
 " THE FERRY BOY AND THE FINANCIER " is a narrative, en* 
 ttrely authentic, of the boy-life of Hon. S. P. Chase, now Chief 
 Justice of the United States. It is the only life of one of our 
 most distinguished statesmen, and is at once entertaining and 
 instructive. 
 
 " The perusal of the first chapter compels the perusal of the second, 
 and so on until the volume is finished, and pronounced unsurpassed of iti 
 class." Independent, N. Y.
 
 Popular Books. 
 
 THE WELL-SPENT HOUR. 
 
 A STORY FOB GIRLS. 
 
 BY MRS. FOLLEN. 
 Illustrated. Price, $1.35. 
 
 The WELL-SPENT HOUR is a wholesome, simply written little 
 etory, old-fashioned in its matter of fact, tone, and sober account 
 of a little girl's life, into which no thread of romance is woven. 
 
 " ' The Well-Spent Hour ' is written in Mrs. Pollen's happiest vein. It 
 is full of touches of nature, impressive with a serene wisdom, and while it 
 makes the older men and women bend to catch the suggestive teachings 
 of childhood, it takes childhood gently by the hand and leads it up to 
 maturer thinking and a higher plane of life." Morning Star. 
 
 " It has just the qualities needed to counteract the intense, melodramatic, 
 1 smart,' slipshod, and otherwise injurious style of writing, which charac- 
 terizes so many of the popular juveniles of the present day." Sunday 
 School Gazette. 
 
 " This is a well printed, finely illustrated, and an admirable child's book. 
 It is almost impossible to over-estimate the value of this class of books, 
 which inculcate a sound morality in a very interesting manner." Morning 
 Herald, Philadelphia. 
 
 Morning Glories, and Other Stories, 
 
 A delightful volume of Tales in Prose and Verse. 
 BY Miss LOUISA M. ALCOTT, 
 
 Author of " Little Women," Ac. 1 vol. 16mo. Beautifully illustrated 
 with original designs, by Miss GREENE. 
 
 Price, $1.25. 
 
 These stories are very admirable, both in their substance, 
 style, and lessons. They catch the attention of the young by 
 their extra human qualities, and are not likely to mislead 
 either the fancy, judgment, or heart. 
 
 " The lessons of all these stories are noble, the imagery charming, and 
 the writing fresh and original." Anti-Slavery Standard. 
 
 " Miss Aleott is a woman of genius, and whatever she writes is sure to 
 have both merit and attraction. Both these qualities appear conspicuously 
 In this collection of stories and poems. They are admirably constructed 
 to interest children, and there is material in them for the entertainment of 
 the older class of readers as well. The book is to be recommended in 
 every aspect, for the publisher has made it one of the handsomest of holi- 
 day volumes by the taste he has shown in its illustrations, paper, printing 
 and binding." Roxbury Journal.
 
 4 Popular Books. 
 
 THE FARMER BOY, 
 
 And How He Became Commander-in- Chief. 
 
 BY UNCLE JUVINELL. 
 
 With an introduction by WILLIAM M. THAYER, author of" Pioneer Boy 
 etc. 12mo. With original illustrations. $1.50. 
 
 This is, perhaps, the most delightful life of Washington fo' 
 the young ever written. The incidents are invested with a new 
 interest by the graceful style of the narrative ; and the particu- 
 lars of the youthful hero's education and early training are so 
 presented as to be doubly valuable in helping the young reader 
 to the formation of correct habits, and the construction of a 
 manly character. 
 
 Fairy Bells, and What They Tolled Us, 
 
 Translated from the German by Miss LANDER, author of " Spectacles for 
 
 Young Eyes.'' Beautifully illustrated. 
 
 Price, $1.35. 
 
 " These tales, as the title indicates, are from the German, and have the 
 freshness, originality, and quaintness that usually characterize German 
 stories. The volume is neatly and tastefully bound, and will form a beau- 
 tiful present for the holidays." Springfield Union. 
 
 " ' Fairy Bells ' ring BO sweetly and merrily that we have been charmed 
 by their harmonies. They are admirably translated, and Mr. Fuller has 
 published them in beautiful style, with graceful illustrations and superior 
 paper. The getting up is sumptuous, and the volume is one of the most 
 acceptable for children's holiday gifts that we have yet seen." City Item, 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 " The stories are well constructed, the translation is good (much better 
 than that given to most of the German theological treatises that come to 
 us in an English dress), and the material dress of the book is elegant." 
 Christian Advocate, If. Y. 
 
 THE PIONEER BOY, 
 
 And How He Became President. 
 
 BY WM. M. THAYER, 
 
 Author of the " Youth's History of the Rebellion." 12mo. Illustrated. 
 (A new edition in press.) 
 
 These books are sold by booksellers, or mailed, postpaid, on 
 receipt of the price by the publisher. 
 
 HORACE B. FULLER, 
 
 14 Bromfleld Street, Boston.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
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