circumstances of injustice to Gen. Lee, and hypocrisy and ingratitude to Gen. Washington.

As this is to be the alternative issue of the question-as on one side, it cannot dishonour the name of Gen. Lee, and on the other may bring a stain on the memory of Mr. Jefferson, I may be supposed to approach it with less diffidence as a son than as a citizen. To withdraw myself from among the admirers of this distinguished man, and take a station in the ranks of those who doubt the justice of his popularity, and the solidity of his fame, is a change of position, which however just and necessary, you may suppose to be inconvenient, as little desired as premeditated, one which I am forced to by causes that place me in a defensive attitude, which you must admit are imperative, and which so far from being of my creation, owe their unwelcome existence to the pertinacious volition and injurious spirit of Mr. Jefferson himself.

In conducting the controversy thus imposed on me, it will occur to your reflection, that it is both my right and my duty, as the representative of my father, to assume that line of defence and to employ those means of vindication, which he himself, if living, would have been entitled to adopt. It will likewise appear that inasmuch as the passage, in which Mr. Jefferson traduced and reproached him, contains both a contradiction of his assertions and an attack upon his character, he might, without transgressing the limits of moderation or indulging feelings of revenge, have endeavoured to establish from circumstances in Mr. Jefferson's conduct the truth of his own assertions, and the absence of that virtue in the imputations of his adversary. This course of proceeding, it is farther evident, will lead to the examination of the sincerity of Mr. Jefferson's professions as a friend to General Washington, the soundness of his pretensions as an enlightened patriot, and the justice of his reputation as an upright statesman-to the inquiry whether his reasonings were logical, his opinions just, his statements true, or his motives honourable. This operation will naturally be the more exigent and rigorous from the lofty manner in which the volumes that contain his slander of General Lee are given to the world, as displaying, "genius, learning, philosophic inspiration, generous devotion to virtue, and love of country," which having a tendancy to give weight to his attack, justly exposes him to the full effect of the lex talionis, the law of moral re-action as applied to that offence.

From the stations he filled, the affairs with which he was conversant, the important measures he directed, and the high reputation he acquired, the task thus proposed is by no means a light one; suitable rather to the patient and ambitious labours of a

historian, than to the unpretending and reluctant essay of an advocate.

Yet all unequal and unprepared as I am for its full accomplishment, I feel conscious of no apprehension that as far as the object of my father's vindication is involved, I shall fail in effecting it.

In order to prove that his information to General Washington was not only true, but such as was to be expected from a faithful friend and a man of honour, it will only be necessary to refer to the "Writings" of Mr. Jefferson. Happily they contain the antidote to their own poison. From them it appears that upon General Washington's first election to the Presidency, he selected Mr. Jefferson for the chief office of his Cabinet; a distinction, the honour of which was enhanced by expressions of the greatest kindness. On that occasion, he thus wrote to Mr. Jefferson, (Vol. 1, p. 144.)

New-York, October 13th, 1789.

Sir, In the selection of characters to fill the important offices of government in the United States, I was naturally led to contemplate the talents and dispositions I knew you to possess, and entertain for the service of your country; and without being able to consult your inclinations, or to derive any knowledge of your intention from your letters, either to myself or to any other of your friends, I was determined, as well by motives of private regard, as a conviction of public propriety, to nominate you for the department of state."

If the language of this letter breathes confidence and regard, that in which it was answered was not less expressive of courtly homage, and of personal respect and attachment. After deprecating the disproportion between the duties of the office and his own qualifications, he tells the President, (Vol. 3, p. 46.) "My chief comfort will be to work under your eye, my only shelter the authority of your name, and the wisdom of measures to be dictated by you, and implicitly executed by me. As early as possible in March, I shall have the honour of waiting on you in New-York. In the mean time, I have that of tendering you the homage of those sentiments of respectful attachment with which I am," &c. &c.

Thus covered with the mantle of honour and office, and glowing with the blushes of modesty and gratitude, Mr. Jefferson entered the department of State, in March, 1790; and having discharged its duties with more than common ability until December 1793, voluntarily retired from it, against the earnest and repeated instances of Gen. Washington. The force of these

it is said he was able to resist, principally by motives arising out of a decided preference for the "pursuits of private life," (Vol. 4, p. 469.) and an "excessive repugnance to public life." (p. 492.) motives which were so strong and steady, that although the president complained (p. 492.) of being "deserted by those on whose aid he had counted," and entreated (p. 494.) that he "would only stay in till the end of another quarter," the philosophic and eremitical secretary, disgusted with "the bustle of politics," and impatient of the trammels of office, could not give his consent.

From his own account it seems (pp. 484, 501.) that throughout this period, he enjoyed in an equal degree with Hamilton the confidence and favour of the President, that he was consulted as to the selection of his successor, (p. 493.) that for that station, Mr. Madison was the President's first choice, but he had expressed himself too averse to public office, to admit a hope of his accepting it; and that although this official separation took place, Mr. Jefferson carried with him into retirement the same high opinion of "his talents and disposition to serve his country," and the same degree of "private regard" and public confidence, which had prompted Gen. Washington to appoint him.

How were these sentiments of unabated friendship, of confiding attachment returned? In December, 1794, a single twelvemonth after his resignation, at a time when no decrease of regard or esteem had taken place, or been suspected on the part of Gen. Washington-when the father of his country, as he had told the secretary (Vol. 4, p. 492.) had a right to count on his aid, had a right to expect not only his public, but his personal support, his encouragement in the prosecution of right measures, his advice when in danger of adopting wrong ones; a just, if not a favourable view of his motives, and a fair, if not an indulgent account of his mistakes, Mr. Jefferson after writing to the President in May, 1794, (Vol. 3, p. 306.) "but I cherish tranquillity too much to suffer political things to enter my mind at all;" and to the Secretary of State, his successor, in September of the same year, "It is a great pleasure to me to retain the esteem and approbation of the President, and this forms the only ground of any reluctance at being unable to comply with every wish of his. Pray convey these sentiments and a thousand more to him which my situation does not permit me to go into," took occasion to make the following remarks in a letter to Mr. Madison.

"The denunciation of the Democratic Societies is one of the extraordinary acts of boldness of which we have seen so many from the faction of monocrats. It is wonderful indeed, that the President should have permitted himself to be the organ of such

an attack on the freedom of discussion, the freedom of writing, printing and publishing. It must be a matter of rare curiosity to get at the modifications of these rights proposed by them, and to see what line their ingenuity would draw, between democratical societies whose avowed object is the nourishment of the republican principles of our constitution, and the society of the Cincinnati, a self-created one; carving out for itself hereditary distinctions, lowering over our Constitution eternally, meeting together in all parts of the union, periodically, with closed doors, accumulating a capital in their separate treasury, corresponding secretly, and regularly, and of which society, the very persons denouncing the democrats, are themselves the fathers, founders, and high officers. Their sight must be perfectly dazzled by the glittering of crowns and coronets, not to see the extravagance of the proposition to suppress the friends of general freedom, while those who wish to confine that freedom to the few, are permitted to go on in their principles and practices. I here put out of sight the persons whose misbehaviour has been taken advantage of, to slander the friends of popular rights; and I am happy to observe, that as far as the circle of my observation and information extends, every body has lost sight of them, and views the abstract attempt on their natural and constitutional rights in all its nakedness. I have never heard, or heard of, a single expression or opinion which did not condemn it as an inexcusable aggression. And with respect to the transactions against the excise law, it appears to me that you are all swept away in the torrent of governmental opinions, or that we do not know what those transactions have been. We know of none which, according to the definitions of the law have been any thing more than riotous. There was indeed a meeting to consult about a separation. But to consult on a question does not amount to a determination of that question in the affirmative, still less to the acting on such a determination; but we shall see, I suppose what the court lawyers, and courtly judges, and wouldbe ambassadors, will make of it. The excise law is an infernal The first error was to admit it by the constitution; the second, to act on that admission, 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 information of our militia returned from the westward, is uniform, that though the people there, let them pass quietly, they were objects of their laughter, not of their fear; that one thousand men could have cut off their whole force in a thousand places in the Alleghany; that their detestation of the excise law is universal, and has now associated to it, a detestation of the government; and

one.

to

that separation, which perhaps was a very distant and problematical event, is now near, and certain, and determined in the mind of every man. I expected to have seen some justification of arming one part of the society against another; of declaring a civil war the moment before the meeting of that body which has the sole right of declaring war; of being so patient of the kicks and scoffs of our enemies, and rising at a feather against our friends; of adding a million to the public debt and deriding us with recommendations pay it if we can, &c. &c. But the part of the speech that was to be taken as a justification of the armament, reminded me of parson Saunder's demonstration, why minus into minus makes plus. After a parcel of shreds of stuff from Æsop's Fables, and Tom Thumb, he jumps all at once into his ergo, minus multiplied into minus makes plus. Just so the fifteen thousand men enter after the fables in the speech. However, the time is coming when we shall fetch up the lee way of our vessel. The changes in your house,* * I see are going on for the better, and even the Augean herd over your heads are slowly purging off their impurities. Hold on then, my dear friend, that we may not shipwreck in the meanwhile. I do not see in the minds of those with whom I converse, a greater affliction than the fear of your retirement; but this must not be, unless to a more splendid and a more efficacious post. There I should rejoice to see you; I hope I may say, I shall rejoice to see you. I have long had much in my mind to say to you on that subject, but double delicacies have kept me silent. I ought perhaps to say, while I would not give up my own retirement for the empire of the universe, how I can justify wishing one whose happiness I have so much at heart as yours, to take the front of the battle which is fighting for my security. This would be easy enough to be done, but not at the heel of a lengthy epistle." Here occurs a hiatus, as if part of the letter was suppressed by the editor, and it concludes, "Present me respectfully to Mrs. Madison, and pray her to keep you where you are, for her own satisfaction and the public good, and accept," &c. &c.

To exhibit thoroughly the meaning of this letter; to take a chart of its misrepresentations; to sound the depths of its detraction, and point out the shallows of its duplicity; to mark the currents of injustice, the recesses of guile, and the points of self-interest with which it abounds, it will be necessary to recur to the political parties, which, at the time it was written, prevailed in the United States. This shall be done in a letter by the next packet.

* Mr. Madison was then a member of the House of Representatives, and Congress was then in Session.