made the efforts they did, our Government would have been, even at this early day, a very different thing from what the successful issue of those efforts have made it."

It has been claimed and argued, thousands of times over, that Mr. Jefferson was insincere in this whole matter as to the monarchic feelings and purposes of the Federalist leaders, that it was a political instrumentality, and that he knew all the time that he was nursing a phantom. It may at least, and safely, be claimed that he was mistaken to a great extent, if not wholly. One thing is certain, and that is, that this belief was the key to all his political actions, and the weight of evidence is to the effect that it was no Isham with him. To doubt that his was an earnest opposition on principle wants the quality of fairness. While there was not wanting the aristocratic display, and, no doubt, the oft-repeated expression of unrepublican sentiments in every sort of place in a way to alarm Mr. Jefferson's suspicions; while he did not, perhaps, misjudge some of the Federalists, and while his confidence was unshaken in Washington up to that time, believing him absolutely sincere in his support of a republic, and that under him little real harm could befall the country; and while it now appears probable, beyond a peradventure, that the efforts of the extreme republicans were of incalculable value, in a sense, the real means of salvation to the country, as Mr. Jefferson believed, it is, perhaps, quite as apparent, even at this day, that the same secure and blessed result could not have been obtained under extreme republican or democratic leaders with their largely turbulent and revolutionary following; and that only under the Federalists

with a man at their head who was universally respected and nowhere suspected, with adherence to conservative and unitizing principles, a respect for the general spirit of the age, and the former condition of this country itself, could the Republic have been introduced and established, and that with so little difficulty.

During this time Mr. Jefferson took a deep interest in forming a new constitution for Virginia, and on this subject wrote, December 23, 1791, as follows to one of his friends in that State :

"That it is really important to provide a constitution for our State can not be doubted; as little can it be doubted that the ordinance called by that name has important defects. I shall hazard my own ideas to you as hastily as my business obliges me. I wish to preserve the line drawn by the Federal Constitution between the general and particular governments as it stands at present, and to take every prudent means of preventing either from stepping over it. Though the experiment has not yet had long enough course to show us from which quarter encroachments are most to be feared, yet it is easy to foresee, from the nature of things, that the encroachments of the State governments will tend to an excess of liberty which will correct itself, while those of the General Government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cure, as all experience shows. I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it. Then it is important to strengthen the State governments, and as this can not be done by any change in the Federal Constitution (for the preservation of that is all we need contend for), it must be done by the States themselves, erecting such barriers at the constitutional line as can not be surmounted either by themselves or by the General Government. The only barrier in their power is a wise government. A weak one will lose ground in every contest. To obtain a wise and able government I consider the following changes as important: Render the Legislature a desirable station by lessening the number of representatives (say to one hundred), and lengthening somewhat their term, and proportioning them equally among the electors. Adopt, also,

a better mode of appointing senators. Render the Executive a more desirable post to men of ability, by making it more independent of the Legislature. To wit, let him be chosen by other electors, for a longer time, and ineligible forever after. Responsibility is a tremendous engine in a free government. Let him feel the whole weight, of it then, by taking away the shelter of his executive council. Experience both ways has already established the superiority of this measure. Render the judiciary respectable by every possible means; to wit, firm tenure in office, competent salaries, and reduction of their numbers. Men of high learning and abilities are few in every country; and by taking in those who are not so, the able part of the body have their hands tied by the unable. This branch of the Government will have the weight of the conflict on their hands, because they will be the last appeal of reason."

Although Mr. Jefferson now began to assume the position of leader in the peculiar line of principles and policy, which finally placed him as the founder and head of American Democracy, there was yet no departure from the broad patriotic spirit which characterized him in the Congress of 1776. He was influenced by no motives that would put party above country. Although no public character has been more generally criticised and censured, for even his motives, as well as his works, than Mr. Jefferson, it is hard to see at this day, in his political career for the most part, more than the earnest, able, courageous advocate of doctrines which he believed would be of the greatest possible benefit to the whole Nation. A discussion of the correctness or erroneousness of his theories may not be in the range and character of this work beyond a fair statement of circumstances, bearings, tests, facts. A political history of the country through a hundred years, in this spirit and scope, must now furnish the candid student, at least a partial answer to the vexed question of conflicting principles and pretensions.

MR.

CHAPTER XIII.

ORDINANCE OF 1787.

R. JEFFERSON'S famous plan of government for all the territory of the Confederation, called the Ordinance of 1784, gave way in July, 1787, to the form of government, known as the "Ordinance of 1787." This new ordinance was founded upon its predecessor, but applied only to the North-western Territory, a region lying north of the Ohio River and extending to the British border, and the Mississippi. The great feature of the Ordinance of 1784, the abolition clause, for which Mr. Jefferson labored, but which did not become a part of that act, was now revived, and with little opposition embodied in the Ordinance of 1787, one of the wisest, most beneficial, and far-reaching enactments of the Old Continental Congress. On the seventh day of August, 1789, the Congress of the United States adopted this Ordinance of the Confederation, with great unanimity, and made it a part of the machinery of the Federal Government.

This important organic measure has had a wonderful history in the partisan machinations of the country. The first of all questions brought to bear upon it was as to the authority by which it came into existence, and then as to the source of the right or authority by which the Congress of the United States made it one of its own acts. This point of question was founded

upon the fact that the Ordinance was not in harmony with the Constitution of the United States, nor was there any thing in the Articles of Confederation which sanctioned it. Even had it been justified by the Articles, that would not have given the shadow of authority to the Congress of the United States. Congress did not rest the act on the Constitution because it was entirely opposite to the Constitution in every respect.

The Ordinance was the act of the Old Continental Congress and became the act of the Congress of the United States without any constitutional sanction, and rested absolutely on a ground which subsequently became one of the most fruitful themes of party contention. That was the simple right of the sovereign power to provide for and rule its property and domain as it saw fit without considering the will of the governed.

Here at the very outset under the Confederacy and under the National Government was recognized and absolutely exercised the power of Congress to legislate for the Territories. It was an old authority known since the establishment of any government in the world, and the real virtue of which has stood the test of all time. The Ordinance was the simple reiteration of this old governmental authority, the absolute right and power of the parent to govern and care for his infant children without their having any will in the matter by right or capability.

The Congress of the Confederacy passed the Ordinance, and the States being undivided on this matter of original and self-evident unchartered power, sanctioned its act. And on the same grounds the Congress