mon judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of the infraction as of the mode and measure of redress."

And, in order that these "principles " might not be misapprehended, they were supplemented, some months later, by the further declaration that "the several states who formed" the Constitution, "being sovereign" and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge" of its infraction; and that a "nullification by those sovereignties of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy."

I am aware that the admirers of the "sage of Monticello have tried to explain away the force of these ominous words; and that, conscious of failing in this, they have even gone so far as to deny that Mr. Jefferson ever wrote them. It is sufficient to remark, however, that all technical pleas in his behalf, as well as the denial that he was the real author of the Resolutions, have been completely refuted by the publication of his unofficial writings. Among his papers were found, in his own hand writing, two copies, or rather rough drafts, of the Resolutions referred to. One of them reads as follows:

"Resolved, that when the general government assumes powers which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy; that every State has a natural right, in cases not within the compact [casus non fæderis] to nullify, of their own authority, all assumptions of power by others within their limits."

It thus appears that Mr. Jefferson was not only the author of the Resolutions in question, but that he was the father of the doctrine of Nullification. He it was who first used that treasonable word. True, his assent was secured (by Mr. Madison and others) to the striking out of the word in the Resolutions as originally submitted; but there is no evidence, so far as I have ever seen, that he had begun to doubt the position assumed by its use. On the contrary, there are passages in one of his letters to Col. Nichols, which indicate quite plainly that he adhered to his original position. And thus, wily and cautious, as he proverbially was, he fully committed himself to the doctrine of Nullification, and likewise to the "constitutional right" of secession.

Such, then, are "the time honored principles" of the Jeffersonian Democracy, whereof, strange to say, we still hear so much. Of course it would be an easy task to trace their various practical application in our national politics. First in the abortive attempt to thwart the national government in its efforts to protect its adopted citizens on the high seas; then in the successful nullification of a public treaty which stood in the way of the ambitious project of one of the states; then in the effort to nullify a revenue law of Congress, resulting in the compromise measures of 1832;

and finally in the formal ordinances of secession of 1861-2, resulting in the most destructive civil war of modern times. But my purpose is to point out the incongruity between these "time honored principles" and "the Constitution as it is." In order to do this, let us see what is meant by a profession of adhesion to "the Constitution as it is." It will be admitted, I presume, that "the Constitution as it is," embraces its XIVth article; and that that article is just as obligatory and inviolable as any of the preceding thirteen. Article XIV. expressly declares that,

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the state wherein they reside."

No construction is necessary to an understanding of such language as this. It upsets completely the Jeffersonian theory of local allegiance. A person may now be a citizen of the United States without being a citizen of any particular state of the Union; whereas, according to the Jeffersonian "principles," as elaborated by Mr. Calhoun and others, a person could be a citizen of the United States only as he was such incidentally by reason of his being a citizen of some particular state. To be a citizen of the United States now, it is only necessary to be born or naturalized anywhere within our national territory and jurisdiction; while to be a citizen of a particular state of the Union, an additional circumstance is necessary, namely, we must "reside" therein. We are therefore no longer a nation without citizens or subjects; but a nation in fact as well as in name, with real men and woman for its citizens.

It is sheer nonsense, then, to talk about persons of African descent being the only beneficiaries of article XIV. It reaches far beyond all the mere incidents and consequences of African slavery. It completely eradicates, as it was intended to eradicate, those pernicious " principles," formulated by Jefferson, and advocated by his political followers, which had distracted the country for three-quarters of a century.

What shall we say, then, of those well meaning politicians who in one breath protest eternal fidelity to "the time honored Jeffersonian principles" of constitutional government, and, in the very next, protest, with equal vehemence, their eternal fidelity to " the Constitution as it is." The explanation of their strange conduct seems to be found in the force of habit, which not unfrequently controls our forms of speech as well as our modes of action; and thus makes us say things we do not really mean, as well as do things we do not fully intend.

Another rudiment of political heresy is discoverable in the current discussions of the tariff question. After the compromise measures of 1833, but more particularly after the close of the war with Mexico, in 1848, the

current of political opinion in the Southern states was in the direction of Free Trade. Under a system of slave labor, we of the South had become a purely agricultural people. We bought everything in the line of manufactured articles, from an axe helve to a bale of cloth; and we sold nothing but raw cotton and peanuts. We therefore had no local or mediate interest in the protection of mechanical or other skilled labor. To buy manufactured articles where they could be bought cheapest, and to sell our raw products in the highest markets, was our only aim. We felt little or no interest in the protection of Northern manufactures, or in the Northern system of free labor. If we could sell cotton to English manufacturers, and get in exchange cotton and woolen fabrics free of import duty, it was manifestly to our immediate pecuniary interest to do so. It was but natural, therefore, that we should have become a section of free traders. Any other people, similarly situated, would have fallen into the same line of thought. It may have been a heresy of selfish origin; but all heresies are of selfish origin, as the very etymology of the word implies. The same selfish instincts which made the inhabitants of the manufacturing states of New England protectionists, made us of the slave labor states free traders.

66

But now, a quarter of a century after the abolition of slavery, and in the process of re-adjusting our political creeds to a system of free labor, we are beginning to discover our possibilities as a manufacturing people. We begin to realize that our real wealth and power are not in the cotton fields and peanut patch exclusively; but in our coal and iron deposits, in our magnificent water power, in all kinds of skilled labor. We are therefore forced to the admission that if ever protection was a good thing for the Northern people, it is now an equally good thing for us. "Why, then," it may be asked, are we not now as solid for protection as we once were for free trade?" The only rational reply is, "because we are unconsciously under the dominion of an hereditary habit." We have been so long in the habit of accepting everything labeled "Free Trade," that, as in the case of everything labeled "Democratic," or "Jeffersonian," we find much difficulty in formally rejecting it. True, our judgment may condemn it as antiquated, useless, or even mischievous; but, being haunted by tradition and sentiment, we hesitate. We must therefore have time to outgrow the fixed habit of unconditionally accepting what our better judgment would now applaud us for rejecting.

William &. Scruggs.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL JOSEPH B. VARNUM

FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT, DICTATED BY GENERAL VARNUM IN 1819, RECENTLY DISCOVERED AND NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED Joseph Bradley Varnum, son of Major Samuel Varnum and Hannah Mitchell, was born in Bracutt January 29th old stile, or February 9th new stile 1751; his father and mother buried their three children who died in childhood; afterwards they had four sons, Samuel, James Mitchell, Joseph Bradley, and Daniel, and five daughters, who all lived to be married. James Mitchell had a collegiate education: the rest of the family were brought up together with the scanty opportunity of schooling which was afforded to the youth of that time, in the town of Dracutt; and the opportunity was indeed very scanty.

Thus our Joseph Bradley Varnum was left to devise ways and means to procure an education for himself, * such as would enable him to transact any important business which might be assigned him by his country, with repu tation to himself and advantage to his employers; with this view he procured such necessary books as could be obtained in his neighborhood, which to be sure formed but a very scanty library for a young man to recur to in order to obtain a knowledge of the arts and sciences, without a teacher. His father was a farmer, and his industry and economy, together with the necessities of his family, induced him to keep his son assiduously and constantly employed in that occupation until he was twenty-five years of age; but this strict attention to agriculture did not prevent him from a recurrence to his little library, and every other means which came fairly within his power, for the purpose of acquiring such an education as was the object of his pursuits. He employed many hours in pursuit of his object, while many of his neighbors and friends were reposing themselves with easy respiration on their pillows. In fact, in regard to all the improvements which he has made in the arts and sciences, he was almost entirely self taught;

* The portrait of General Joseph Bradley Varnum, who was the brother of Judge James M. Varnum-one of the first Judges of the Northwest Territory-appeared in the Magazine of American History for September, 1887. In addition to his military commissions referred to in this autobiography, he was state senator for many years, sheriff of Middlesex county, justice of the court of common pleas, chief justice of the court of general sessions, member of Congress from 1795 to 1811, speaker of the House of Representatives during 10th and 11th Congresses, United States Senator 1811-17, and president pro tem. of United States Senate at one period of his service.

how far he has succeeded in those acquirements must be left for those who have been acquainted with him, and the world to judge.

When he was about thirteen years of age, it pleased the great Sovereign of the Universe by the influences of his holy spirit, to manifest to him the enormity and evil nature of sin, and the direful consequences of living and dying in a state of unbelief; the wickedness of his own heart was made manifest to him in such glowing colors, that at many times he almost sunk into a state of despair; this situation of mind continued for more than three years; at length it was made manifest to him that Jesus Christ the Redeemer, by his virtuous life, painful death, and glorious resurrection, had wrought out and brought in, a complete salvation for every believing, repenting, and returning sinner; that this salvation, wherever it is applied to any soul, is the free gift and sovereign grace of the triune God —and not from any virtue or merit in the creature. This powerful work of Jehovah has been frequently expressed by him, as the great sheetanchor of his soul, and has enabled him in his military, civil and political characters, to view the cause of liberty, good government, and the welfare and happiness of the people of his beloved nation, to be the primary objects which he was bound in duty to pursue in his several important public cffices; which by the sufferance of the people and their immediate agents, he had been called upon to sustain; and he has often, upon a retrospective view of his own conduct, in all the public capacities aforesaid, expressed great consolation, that all his decisions in his public capacities have been governed agreeably to the dictates of his own conscience and the views above recited. But he has also expressed a repungent regret, that he has been left to wander in many instances from the paths of virtue and uprightness, both in committing offences against the divine law, and in the omission of many duties enjoined by the gospel of peace. Oh! the depravity of the human heart; but great and incomprehensible are the beneficence and mercy of Jehovah, through the merits of the second person in the adorable trinity.

In the year 1818 it pleased the Lord to impress his mind with a deep sense of the necessity of forsaking the pleasures of sin, and of a perseverance in the discharge of all the duties prescribed in the gospel; he remained under this impression until the spring of the year 1819, when he was compelled no ionger to halt between two opinions, but to come forward and embrace the ordinances of peace. On the 11th day of July, he, together with his beloved wife, and five others, were emersed in baptism by the Rev'd Charles O. Kimball; on the 5th day of August following, they with others were formed into a church, by the name of Baptist Church