Adams fell upon evil days and evil tongues. A powerful party, scarcely repressed by the transcendent veneration entertained by the whole people for his predecessor, was prepared to coil itself around the movements of Adams. 'Too independent,' in the words of another, to wear the trammels of either side,' he was not cordially supported by the federal party, while he was zealously assailed by their antagonists. Ardently attached to the constitution, and partial to England rather than France, he was ranked with those, who pushed the executive authority to extremes, and was made to bear undeservedly the odium of all their measures. High in the opinion of his party, and raised to dangerous influence around him were persons the most deeply committed in the sharp controversies of the day, whose unaccommodating counsels gave augmented vigor and vehemence to the ranks of opposition. If he yielded unqualified assent to the suggestions of one party, he exasperated the other; if he ventured to question the policy of his advisers, they broke into accusations of his " un. governable temper,' and his incorrect maxims of administration.' But surrounded as he was with difficulties, and the unregarded chief of a sinking cause, still unqualified applause is due to the attitude he assumed in our foreign relations. His conduct towards the arrogant directory, that giddy bubble blown up into transient elevation out of the impurest elements of the French revolution, was at once temperate and dignified, manly and conciliatory. Millions for defence, not a cent for tribute, was the unanimous cry of the nation then, as it ever should be on a like occasion. And who, in these more enlightened times, would reprobate, in the strong language of the past, his idea of maritime defence by a competent navy, or his reorganization of the judiciary, which it was among the first acts of the succeeding government to disturb! His faults of character were those of an open, frank, and decided temper; his errors in conduct were more the misfortunes of his position, than they were the fruit of false principles. His political tenets had, indeed, been acquired by the

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study of the great models of ancient and modern times :— what wonder then, that he dreaded the licentiousness of anarchy, the weak side in every republic but ours, the first pure representative government, which the world was happy enough to behold? He had lived a life of opposition to tyranny: what wonder if, as a consequence, he was free of speech, and his disposition was deemed chargeable with obstinacy, which Burke declares to be allied to the whole line of masculine virtues, constancy, gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness, ??

Unlike his competitor, Jefferson was firmly fixed in the enthusiastic attachment of a numerous body of men, united and guided by his genius. Dreading the influence of arbitrary power, they adhered to his party as the cause of entire and genuine democracy. Judging of the inherent character of the system by the unpopular opinions of some who aided in administering it, they apprehended, without adequate reason, as the event has shown, that freedom was jeopardized by the partial incorporation of the state sovereignties into the consolidated government of the union. They were just emerging from a war, waged nominally to gain immunity from illegal taxes, although really to secure emancipation from colonial servitude; and they looked with needless and unfounded distrust upon the proposed financial plans of Hamilton, because they more than suspected his mind, capacious as it was, of harboring tendencies unfavorable to pure republicanism. They and their political successors afterward sanctioned the principle involved in those plans, by pursuing it in corresponding circumstances. They have sincerely and ardently fostered our victorious navy, whose flag has achieved new honors for our country, by conquering the freedom of the seas, and teaching a salutary lesson of moderation to that one too prevailing maritime power, who presumptuously claimed the dominion of the common highway of nations. They have also established a national bank. And by encouraging such measures, they have declared that the change of times, the increased

population and resources of our country, and the new position, which the last war gave it among empires, have produced a change in their sentiments upon those much disputed points of policy.

Of their individual measures, none is more memorable than the purchase of Louisiana, and the peaceful annexation of that noble region, now teeming with the fruits of freedom, to the limits of the union. It doubled the extent of our country, not by the violent operation of force, but by rightful and amicable cession. It spread over the broad valley of the Mississippi a hardy population of enlightened freemen, and thus converted a hostile territory into the abode of friends and fellow-countrymen. To Jefferson's wisdom must we, of the old confederation, attribute the security of our frontiers; and him the cultivated millions of the West may bless, for the free privileges and prosperity they enjoy. Of those acts of Jefferson's administration having reference solely to the suc cess of his party, let history judge. They have perpetuated its ascendancy to this day in the national councils, and rendered his fundamental principle, of the immediate supreme sovereignty of the people, the almost universal sentiment of the nation. He was, like Adams, ambitious; but like him had ambition of a generous strain; for it was to establish the liberties of his country on what he conceived to be the foundations of eternal right. And if he had studied the precepts of history less profoundly than Adams, his political opinions were better adapted to the times and the condition of the country, and exhibited more of the original talent, prudence, and forecast of the true statesman.

The politicians of that day were compelled to tread no beaten path. It was conformable to the workings of a great mind, in such case, to trust to its own native sagacity, rather than to own the bondage of learned doctrine; and, in default of the light of experience for its guidance, to tread the onward march of self-relying genius. Such was the political course of Jefferson, as manifested in the principles of his

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ty, and his administration of the government. Reposing implicit confidence in the integrity and sanity of unshackled public opinion, and in the final triumph of truth over error by the exercise of its own persuasive energies,-by the most glorious of victories, the victory of reason,-he unceasingly and successfully resisted the leading mistake of his opponents,—a disposition to strengthen the arm of authority, and coerce the minority into silence. He proclaimed freedom of the press, freedom of person, freedom of justice, freedom of elections, and freedom of religion, as the cardinal points of his political faith; and these are now incorporated, like a second nature, into all our settled belief as a nation. Republicans and federalists, as such, have not become indentified; but they have. learned to respect each other's motives; to find many theories entertained by both in common; and to embrace as countrymen and brethren. The character of the government has become immoveably fixed on the basis of liberty and equality. The principles of our confederate policy are unalterably established. They are the principles of the republican party; and that discussion of them, which once shook the country to its centre, has given place to the discussion of men, of measures, and of expediency.

When such have been the happy fruits of the party strife, which divided Adams and Jefferson, and their respective friends, need we scruple to yield the palm to the most deserving, and throw the mantle of mutual forgiveness over mutual errors? A candid posterity will disapprove the spirit of acrimonious recrimination, in which both parties were too ready to indulge. And they will not less condemn the tendency of each to regard a foreign power with undue partiality.— Let our attachments be confined to the cherished name of America. Our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country'-be this the fundamental maxim of our public policy. But who can think of impugning the patriotism of either Adams or Jefferson, for any defects in his political principles or his conduct? Who, at this day, will believe

that either of them was hostile to his country, or that either of them consciously did a single act adverse to her interest ? Oh, shame on the ungenerous thought! Error is incident to human nature; but it is impossible for such men, men proved in the hours that tried the soul; men, too, whose fate it was

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their history in a nation's eyes,

to have been wilfully false to their fame and their country.The voice of the nation bears testimony, as if by acclamation, to their spotless integrity, not less than to their generous sacrifices and their exalted talents; not because party spirit has become extinct, but because holier feelings fill the soul.— The purest gratitude for the legacy of liberty they have bequeathed us, and unadulterated admiration of their fame, subdue and repress every ungrateful emotion.

But these exalted individuals have long since ceased to be regarded by the nation or by the world at large, as living characters. The estimation in which they have been held for the last ten years, has partaken more of posthumous veneration than of cotemporary respect. It was not the retirement, or fall from office, which produced this effect; nor did men wait for their death to sanctify their names. The long duration of their lives enabled their countrymen to appreciate them, as we should the great personages of distant lands, or of remote history. Withdrawn from the world, they were devoted to the cultivation of philosophy, enjoying that otium cum dignitate, which befitted their age, and the space they filled in the public eye. Their peaceful homes were the shrines, to which the lover of liberty and the admirer of genius, from every land, devoutly made his pilgrimage. Their conversational talents were of the highest order. Adams allured by his hearty frankness, his vivacity, and the dignified simplicity of his deportment, and urbanity of reception; Jefferson, by the fascination of his conciliating manners, and the munificent hospitality of his abode. And each freely poured out before their visiters the golden stream of poignant anec