Mr. Jefferson was the Democratic standard-bearer in this battle, and triumphed. The great question was, Shall the people be free and independent, or shall the national Constitution be so construed that the Federal Government, through Congress, shall rule them as masters? The majority of the people went with Jefferson, and reëlected him almost unanimously. But, strange to say, the same question, in some form, has ever since been before the people. Anti-Democrats are as persevering as their principles are dangerous to liberty. Often appearing under new names, and modified or changed professions of public good, the same principle of compulsory ruling is ever found at the bottom, though not always seen at first glance. But study and reflection will, in the end, disclose it, however plausibly it may be disguised. We shall call attention to many of these efforts to control the country and the people, by resort to constructive powers which are nowhere found in the Constitution.

Mr. Jefferson's views of the working influence of democratic principles are nowhere more concisely stated than in his first inaugural address, or more strikingly contrasted with those of conflicting character. He there said:

"Kindly separated by Nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe, too highminded to endure the degradations of the others, possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the hundredth thousandth generations, entertaining a due sense of our equal rights to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting, not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practised in various forms, yet all of them including honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which, by all its dispensations, proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still, one thing more, fellow-citizens, a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave

them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of Labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

"About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend every thing dear and valuable to you, it is proper that you should understand what I deem essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people; a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped off by the sword of revolution, when peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority-the vital principle of republics, from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia-our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; an honest payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce, as its handmaid; the diffusion of information, and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trials by juries impartially selected-these principles form the bright Constitution which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reform. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment.

They should be the creed of our political faith-the text of civil instruction-the touchstone to try the service of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety!"

A clearer and more forcible exposition of democratic principles is nowhere to be found. They have ever continued to be the guide of that party, which, if it ever has been misled for a moment from the path here marked out, it soon returned to the road of honor and safety, and pursued it with unshaken confidence. Anti-democratic principles are the converse of those thus announced by Jefferson, and the course of the political party guided by them has demonstrated their devotion to them. In the course of this work we shall show numerous instances where these anti-democratic principles have led the country to the brink of ruin. The salvation of the country will ever depend upon the Democracy, as taught by Jefferson and the early Democratic fathers.

11.-JEFFERSON'S FIRST TERM AS PRESIDENT.

After Mr. Jefferson was declared elected by the House, and eighteen days before he was sworn into office, the Federalists having determined to enforce the Alien and Sedition Laws, and to withdraw from the State courts all business possible, and to fill the country with influential men, like judges, marshals, district attorneys, and clerks, to aid their party in its struggles for power, on the 13th of February, 1801, passed an additional judiciary act. By this they created six new district courts with one judge each, and six circuit courts with three judges each, except in one case, when there was but one, all to hold office for life, and not removable by Mr. Jefferson. These judgeships were all filled on the last day of Mr. Adams's term of office, by his political friends. There was no ground for saying the business of the country required this large addition to the judicial force. The sole objects were to sustain the laws referred to, and to aid in the prosecution of party purposes, as well as to thwart Mr. Jefferson's freedom of action and deprive him of patronage, while it enabled Mr. Adams to pay off sundry political debts. In addition, this law imposed

unnecessary burdens to be borne by the people, in paying expenses of these courts, and in unnecessary calls upon them for jury duty. This act was in all repects anti-democratic, and wholly unwarranted. After full discussion before the people, this act was repealed, and has never been renewed. Its repeal vindicated the great principles of Democracy, in relieving the people from all unnecessary burdens, and defeating the objects of those who enact laws for the purpose of using patronage to secure party objects. As there could be no question as to the objects of the Federalists in passing this law, and the then administration acting under it, the people readily and emphatically condemned them, and approved of the recommendation of Mr. Jefferson and his friends in Congress in passing the repealing act.

12.-JEFFERSON'S ACQUISITION OF LOUISIANA.

When Mr. Jefferson became President, the acknowledged. limits of the United States extended no farther west than the Mississippi, nor south of thirty-one degrees north latitude, extend ing from the Mississippi River east to Pearl River. All south and west was claimed by Spain. The road from the thirty-first degree to the mouth of the Mississippi was through that river, and subject to that power, who sought to control the commerce to and from the States bordering on the east side of that river and the Ohio. The kind expressions of the Spanish monarch went far beyond his kind actions. Our communications were continually embarrassed, which deeply affected the settlement and prosperity of our Western States and Territories, which were sadly harassed by Indians. No suitable and permanent arrangement for the navigation of the Mississippi, from the thirty-first degree of north latitude to its mouth, could be effected with the Spanish authorities. The peculiar situation of Spain, and her fears, induced her to convey so much of her American possessions as lay east of the Rio Grande, and indefinitely north and northwest, to France, under the name of Louisiana. Napoleon, then emperor, with numerous wars on hand, readily saw that it would weaken him elsewhere if he attempted to hold this distant possession. When Mr. Jefferson was minister in France, he was highly esteemed and re

spected by the French, and a kind, good feeling still existed there in his favor. He ascertained that Napoleon would sell this almost indefensible property. Some doubts existed as to the power to purchase, but as it seemed to be a case of life and death with the great West, which we should be compelled to grapple with at no distant day, perhaps by conquest, it was deemed a duty to purchase, and thereupon Mr. Jefferson acquired all that immense country lying north of Mexico, and west of Pearl and Mississippi Rivers, for eleven millions of dollars, being less than one day's expenses, on some occasions, during the late war, and less than the cost, in our currency, of our purchase from Russia of her American icebound regions. No act of Mr. Jefferson's, or any other administration, has been as useful and valuable to the whole country. It was purely a democratic measure, designed specially to benefit the whole country west of the Alleghanies; to open to them a free and uninterrupted road to the West Indies and the rest of the world; to enable them to exchange their products for those of warmer climates, to build them up at home, and enable them successfully to pursue the road to prosperity and happiness. It has had that effect, beyond the expectations of those who brought about the measure. It has given us some nine new States, and half a dozen Territories.

But, wonderful to tell, the Federal party united and exerted all its power and influence in opposing this splendid achievement of diplomacy. No one measure was more strenuously opposed. This hostility extended even to organizing Territories out of the purchase, and the formation and admission of the earlier States. The anti-Democrats voted, with one exception-Dayton, of New Jersey-against ratifying the treaty. In the House the whole Federal phalanx came out against adopting the necessary legislation to carry the treaty into effect. Few agreed upon the grounds of objection. Some assumed that the House was not bound to pass such laws, notwithstanding they had sustained the contrary position during Mr. Adams's administration. An examination of the votes and speeches on these occasions will show that sectional feeling, on the part of the anti-Democrats, was just taking root. They wished to dwarf the West and preserve their relative ascendency in the