ruth, that greatness is perfectly compatible with every thing that is amiable and engaging in man. Nay, in him it was accompanied with the most striking simplicity of character and even humility of deportment. He who had occupied so important a page in the history of his country; who had possessed a popularity and influence exceeded by one only; who had filled every station of dignity or trust, to which his country could invite him; who had shone conspicuous at the most brilliant court in Europe; he to whom the events of no age were unknown; no secrets of nature unexplored; no study, no science unsubdued; became when at the social hearth, as simple as a child; distinguished only by the suavity of his deportment; an instinctive facility in making every one happy; and the vivacity and naviete of those sallies, by which he animated conversation, without detracting from its attic elevation.

Such was the private man; and in his early habits we see the germ of that greatness, to the developement of which we have all been witnesses. Time well improved, talents assiduously cultivated, passions carefully disciplined, and the whole directed by a heart, abounding in Probity, Patriotism, and Benevolence.

The birth, parentage, early history, and early acquirements of Mr. Jefferson, belong to his biographer; we meet to commemorate the patriot, the philosopher, the benefactor of mankind: Him who burst upon the world, crowned with that halo of glory, our national manifesto. Who shall attempt its eulogy? Has it ever been heard with impatience? ever heard without elevating the feelings and thrilling the heart of an audience? It is one of those works which all commentary must prejudice. It is all light, all strength, all truth. The nation was electrified upon its dissemination, and the circle. of its influence will extend until it embraces the whole habitable earth It is the common manifesto of an oppressed world: the Ægis, that covers the prostrate and forlorn, while it flashes conviction and confusion in the face of the oppressor.

But I come not here to herald the praise of one to the exclusion of the just claims of other Patriots. The modest author himself never pretended to any higher praise, than that of having caught the spirit, and embodied the thoughts of his high associates. Nor need we hesitate to claim our share of its exalted merits. How delighted has he who has the honour to address you, listened with all the feelings of a Carolinian, whilst its eloquent author dilated on the bold, the towering spirit of a Gadsden, the impetuous, the overwhelming eloquence of the elder, and the bland, the winning virtues of the younger Rutledge. Nor was the firm, the fearless patriotism of a Middleton and a Lynch forgotten.

From this time the talents of Mr. Jefferson became the property of his country; for two short intervals only up to the termination of his second Presidency, was he ever relieved from public employment.

As the successor of the immortal Henry, the first Revolutionary Governor of Virginia, he was called from the second Congress to preside over the counsels of his native state.— His enemies have often affected to speak slightly of his services in that station. Time will not permit us to pause long upon services in which we did not participate. But here the general interest of the Union demanded his devoted attention. And, notwithstanding the sneers of some, and the affected coldness of others, it is in the power of him who now addresses you, to bear witness, from authentic original documents, that never duties were discharged with more devoted zeal.What could he do? The men and the treasures of Virginia had been lavished in defending the North and the South.Her last army fell in defending us; the remains of it were entombed in our prison ships, the bones of thousands of her sons are commingled with our soil. Virginia was left defenceless in defending others; the enemy saw her exposure, and in overwhelming her, boasted that he would reach the heart of rebellion. His whole efforts, were turned against that devoted state. And in a government prostrate and exhaust

ed, in a country overwhelmed by devastating armies, he felt himself called upon, " to take care that the republic sustained no injury;" he did assume the dictator; he exercised arbitrary power; because no other powers could meet the exigency of the occasion. He became the object of public odium, because the public good required the sacrifice. The flood of popular indignation for awhile bore him down; but it was to rise with renovated lustre, above censure and above resentment. Whenever a candid history of his administration in Virginia shall appear, every humiliating incident will disappear, and the picture be exhibited of the devoted and enlightened patriot, exerting every nerve and incurring every vexation, because the honour of the country required, that every other consideration should be abandoned.

The leisure of a year's retirement which followed his administration of Virginia, gave to the world that work which, under no other title than "Notes on Virginia," stands unrivalled among American productions. A work which connected him with the Literati of his time and introduced him into the most celebrated associations of those, who adorned by their learning, the age in which they flourish. A work, which vindicated his country and the new world against the calumnies and errors of the old; and which, by developing the resources, tracing out the policy, and scanning the high destinies of his native state, gave a happy impetus and direction, to the studies and efforts of the rising generation.

It was impossible that such a man should continue long in retirement. The returning good sense of his native state, soon brought him again into Congress; and when peace and victory, had crowned the struggles of his country, we find him associated in Europe with two great names in the momentous work of adjusting our commercial relations. In the hands of Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson, it is supererogation to say that the duty was ably discharged. Let the commercial prosperity that distinguished our country "speak their praises."

Nor were the six years spent by Mr. Jefferson at the Court of Verseilles, less beneficially employed. His zeal, and general attention to the interests of the country, were here strikingly exemplified. Not confining himself to the signal privileges acquired by negotiation to the growers of our great staples, he sought to transfer to the husbandry of our country, every object of industry, which he saw contributing to the wealth or the comfort of the European States. Not an improvement in agriculture, not an animal of value, not an article of cultivation came to his knowledge, that he did not seek to bestow upon his own country. The gift of Minerva to the Athenians, the source of so much wealth and comfort to three quarters of the world, he was particularly anxious to make our own. And many a flourishing tree, now tendering us in vain the luxury of its fruits, and reproaching our inattention to its value, was transplanted here by his benificent hand.

At that time we were but imperfectly acquainted with the arts, the politics and corruptions of the old world; still less with its embellishments and improvements. It required a mind like Jefferson's to bring home to us that kind of information which is acquired only by close and discriminating scrutiny. His leisure was sedulously improved under the most signal advantages; and when, upon the adoption of the present Constitution, he was called by Washington to take charge of the port-feuille of the department of state, he came to it, full of that kind of information, which enabled him to organize its administration, and to discharge its high and then peculiarly perplexing duties, with ease to himself and with signal relief to his high employer. Were there no other monuments remaining of the range and power of his talents, the reports elicited from him at this time by various resolves of Congress, would perpetuate his fame.

Comprehensive, voluminous, minute; they present the most astonishing variety of talent, uniformly accompanied with truth of discrimination, and justness of thought. The policy, resources, relations, and obligations of the country,

are scanned with the eye of a master, and grasped in a giant's embrace.

Is the perplexed subject of a standard of weights and measures presented to his mind? One would imagine it the only subject that had ever occupied his thoughts. The politician retires; and the sciences pour forth all their stores. He pervades all nature; he mounts into the firmament; and with the finger of the mathematician, the geographer, and astronomer, points to the only means in nature, by which science can here be gratified by prescribing to the arts.

Are the value, the protection, the political bearings of the Fisheries to be reported on? The sage of Monticello descends from the mountain to the ocean; he grasps the line and the oar; every sea is ransacked; every market explored; the ocean to be cultivated; a rich harvest to be gathered from its barren waves; and the hardy son of the trident to be fostered, that he may bear our enterprise and our thunder to wherever the ocean flows.

In fine, my fellow-citizens, those reports leave very little original matter for his successors. In them we see the imitation and the outline of the policy hitherto pursued by a paternal government. And the whole discussed in a style of beautiful simplicity; with that point and conciseness which constitute the chief excellence of productions intended for popular perusal.

Yet these were not the productions of leasure and tranquillity; they were composed in the midst of all those perilous discussions in which the intemperate zeal of foreign agents, if not the immoral views of foreign governments, then involved us. Those discussions which drew from the same pen that able, learned, impartial, and triumphant correspondence which carried conviction and confusion to the Ministers of France and Great Britain. Here too, the policy of the States, in anoth er of their relations, their diplomatic and social intercourse is ably delineated and fearlessly established; established on