otry, the shackles of the priesthood, and the fascinating glare of rank and wealth, give fair play to the common sense of the mass of their people, so far as to qualify them for self-government, is what we do not know. Perhaps our wishes may be stronger than our hopes. The first principle of republicanism is, that the lex majoris partis is the fundamental law of every society of individuals of equal rights; to consider the will of the society announced by the majority of a single vote, as sacred as if unanimous, is the first of all lessons of importance, yet the last which is thoroughly learnt. This law once disregarded no other remains but that of force, which ends necessarily in military despotism. This has been the history of the French revolution, and I wish the understanding of our Southern brethren may be sufficiently enlarged and firm to see that their fate depends on its sacred observance.

*

"In our America we are turning to public improvements. Schools, roads, and canals are everywhere either in operation or contemplation. * *We consider the employment of the contributions which our citizens can spare, after feeding and clothing, and lodging themselves comfortably, as more useful, more moral, and even more splendid, than that preferred by Europe, of destroying human life, labor and happiness."

To Monsieur Dupont de Nemours, Jefferson on April 15th, 1811, wrote saying,

"Another great field of political experiment is opening in our neighborhood, in Spanish America. I fear the degrading ignorance into which their priests and kings have sunk them, has disqualified them from the maintenance or even knowledge of their rights, and that much blood may be shed for little improvement in their condition. Should their new rulers honestly lay their shoul

ders to remove the great obstacles of ignorance, and press the remedies of education and information, they will still be in jeopardy until another generation comes into place, and what may happen in the interval cannot be predicted, nor shall you or I live to see it."

One of Jefferson's most intimate friends was General Kosciuszko. In a brief sketch of the life of this distinguished Polish friend of America, Jefferson wrote: "The workings of his mind on the subject of civil liberty were early and vigorous; before he was twenty, the vassalage of his serfs filled him with abhorrence, and the first act of his manhood was to break their fetters." As Jefferson hated slavery and longed to see it abolished in the United States, Kosciuszko's abhorrence of slavery endeared him all the more to him. Sympathizing with the Americans in their struggle with the British Government, he obtained in Paris a letter from Benjamin Franklin to Washington. Not long after his arrival in the United States, being an accomplished officer, he was made an engineer with the rank of Colonel in the American army. He planned works on a range of hills called Bemis Heights, in the State of New York. These works Burgoyne's army twice unsuccessfully attacked before surrendering to the Americans. Kosciuszko also planned Fort Putnam at West Point-a fort whose interesting ruins are still sometimes visited by the excursionist or thoughtful traveller. After rendering other services to the United States, and receiving the thanks of Congress, he returned to Poland. In Poland he was made a MajorGeneral. It is not necessary here to dwell upon the causes of the wars which preceded the final partition of Poland. To do so it would be necessary to dwell upon the sad religious history of Poland, upon the evils existing in a nation made up of nobles and serfs; upon the

degradation to which an illiterate people sink, and to the dangers to which a people are exposed whose very incompetency for self-government invites foreign interference in their political affairs. Kosciuszko naturally wished to see the Poles as free as were Americans. Whether he took the best method to accomplish his wish need not here be discussed. As a general he became greatly distinguished. On a memorable day in the history of Poland he was wounded and fell bleeding to the earth. Soon afterwards occurred the final partition of Poland. A few years after this last event Kosciuszko, still suffering from his wounds, visited the United States, and received many honors. In Europe he also was treated with high respect. In a conversation with the Emperor of Russia he besought him to give to Poland a constitution, and to establish schools for the education of the peasants. Jefferson in a letter to Mr. Jullien, dated July 23rd, 1818, spoke of Kosciuszko as "The brave auxiliary of my country in its struggle for liberty, and," Jefferson continued, "from the year 1797, when our particular acquaintance began, my most intimate and much beloved friend. On his departure from the United States in 1798, he left in my hands an instrument, appropriating after his death, all the property he had in our public funds, the price of his military services here, to the education and emancipation of as many of the children of bondage in this country, as it would be adequate to." This trust imposed upon him by his Polish friend Jefferson accepted. Kosciuszko greatly admired Jefferson and sometimes called him his "Dear Aristides." When Kosciuszko died the women of Poland went into mourning. The Senate of Poland caused a tomb to be erected which is still a grand monument. In the rotunda of the great Capitol at Washington is a bust of this distinguished friend of liberty.

* *

*

To Kosciuszko, on April 13th, 1811, Jefferson in a letter said, "Peace then has been our principle, peace is our interest, and peace has saved to the world this only plant of free and rational government now existing in it. If it can still be preserved, we shall soon see the final extinction of our national debt, and liberation of our revenues for the defence and improvement of our country. Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, &c., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise. And behold! another example of man rising in his might and bursting the chains of his oppressors, and in the same hemisphere, Spanish America is all in revolt. The insurgents are triumphant in many of the States, and will be so in all. But there the danger is that the cruel arts of their oppressors have enchained their minds, have kept them in the ignorance of children, and as incapable of self-government as children. If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else. God send them a safe deliverance."

**

*

To John Adams on May 17th, 1818, Jefferson wrote: "I enter into all your doubts as to the event of the revolu tion of South America. They will succeed against Spain. But the dangerous enemy is within their own breasts. Ignorance and superstition will chain their minds and bodies under religious and military despotism. I do believe it would be better for them to obtain freedom by degrees only; because that would by degrees bring on light and information, and qualify them to take charge of themselves understandingly; with more certainty, if in the meantime under so much control as may keep them at peace with one another."

When Jefferson was in France he sent a long letter, dated May 4th, 1787, to John Jay. In this letter he alluded to a conversation which he had had with a Mexican, who wished to interest him in a proposed revolution in Mexico. He wrote: "I was still more cautious with him than with the Brazilian, mentioning it as my private opinion (unauthorized to say a word on the subject otherwise) that a successful revolution was still in the distance with them; that I feared they must begin by enlightening and emancipating the minds of their people."

Jefferson's highly judicious advice to his Spanish brethren to begin their revolution by "emancipating and enlightening the minds of their people was worthy of a great statesman. Who can imagine what happy results would to-day be enjoyed in Cuba and in all South America, and in Spain itself, if all friends of civil liberty had exerted themselves to establish schools and libraries, and had cherished the interests of learning;-and had been friends of religious liberty, without which true civil liberty cannot exist. When Jefferson gave from the fulness of his heart the advice to his Spanish friends to "begin" the great revolution in which they were called to engage, "by enlightening and emancipating the minds of their people," the Inquisition was doing a sad work in Spanish America. It held sessions in Mexico, Lima and Carthagena, and anathematized many books. No books, not even periodicals, not printed in the Spanish language, were permitted to go into circulation until examined by the commissioners of the Inquisition-an institution whose history is so awful that one may well shudder as he lifts for an instant the veil under which its bigotry-its innumerable cruelties

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*I was once pleased to learn from my bookseller that a book entitled Our National System of Education," which I had published in 1877, had been bought by some one to send to Cuba.