of the classics, joined to his zeal for civil liberty, led him to expect once more to see the language of Homer and Demosthenes a living language. To Dr. Price he writes on the subject of domestic slavery. For several friends in Virginia he purchased books. To Mr. Hartley, the British minister, who signed the treaty of peace, he communicates a full account of the public measures of the United States; to Van Staphorst and Co. the value of American certificates of debt; to Judge Hopkinson of Philadelphia, who was equally devoted to music and to poetry, an improvement in musical instruments. To several others he imparts the attempted improvements on balloons, then still an interesting novelty in Paris, and the melancholy fate of Pilâtre de Rozier, who lost his life by the balloon in which he had ascended taking fire. To one young friend he pens a dissuasive against coming to Europe for his education; to another, a nephew, the minutest details as to his course of studies. In a letter to the governor of Georgia, he discusses the merits of the claims of the Chevalier de Mezieres, a nephew of General Oglethorpe. In all these his mind exhibits, in a perspicuous style, its characteristic acuteness and boldness, with an occasional tinge of some favourite theories or predominant national feelings.'

He habitually rose early; and, with an interval for breakfast, worked till one o'clock at public business. His favourite exercise was riding; but he was also fond of taking long walks into the country. A characteristic incident occurred while he was returning from one of these rambles. Having met an acquaintance, Mr. Jefferson entered so intently into conversation, that he did not notice an obstacle in the path, and so stumbled and fell, dislocating his wrist. He said nothing

of the accident, but concealed the pain and continued the conversation uninterruptedly till he reached home, when he requested his friend to send a surgeon. The fracture was serious; and his wrist ever after remained weak and stiff. While his right hand was thus disabled, Jefferson taught himself to write with his left, rather than remain idle.

Jefferson did not return to Paris. General Washington, the President, offered him the post of Secretary of State, strongly pressing it upon him. Jefferson, however reluctantly, felt bound to relinquish his hopes of resuming his happy life in France, and to accept the important trust at home. He was now in his fifty-seventh year. From this date till 1809, the story of Thomas Jefferson's life becomes bound up inextricably with the history of the politics and political parties of his time. But it is not the object of this sketch to enter into minute details of party struggle; only the most general indications of the most important tendencies and events will be noted, as landmarks in tracing the career of the future President. There were two great parties in the State and in the Cabinetthe Republicans and the Federals; while Washington, as President, endeavoured to maintain an impartial attitude towards both. Alexander Hamilton was the chief of the Federal and Anglican party; Jefferson was the leading spirit in the Republican or Gallican. Jefferson had the State department; Hamilton presided over the Treasury. These two chiefs came into direct rivalry time after time; each failed wholly to understand the other; each was tempted to suspect the designs and the policy of the other. It was the genius of Hamilton that secured at first the predominance of the Federal party; but it was the astute leadership of Jefferson that later placed, and retained for a long period, the supremacy in the

hands of the Republican and Democratic party, whose success began from his elevation to the Presidency. When Jefferson entered Washington's Cabinet, Federal opinions were most general; and his defence of the Republican views brought him a large amount of unpopularity. His opposition to Hamilton was conducted with bitterness; and he allowed himself to speak and write with greater licence than became a responsible minister. For a time, it is true, the Secretary of the Treasury prevailed upon Jefferson to support some of his schemes; but the divergence in sentiment was too fundamental to permit a coalition of any duration; and, throughout his whole term of office, Jefferson was thwarted and harassed by his opponents. Regard for Washington alone retained him in his post; when that patriotic statesman arrived at the end of his term of office as President, Jefferson resolved to resign. In a letter dated December 31, 1793, he surrendered his office into the President's hands. A private letter, addressed to Mr. Madison, reveals the feelings which the vexations and difficulties of office had awakened in the Secretary of State :-'The motion of my blood no longer keeps time with the turmoil of the world. It leads me to seek happiness in the lap and in the love of my family; in the society of my neighbours and my books; in the wholesome occupations of my farm and my affairs; in an interest or affection in every bud that opens, in every breath that blows around me; in an entire freedom of rest or motion, of thought or incogitancy,—owing account to myself alone of my hours and actions. What must be the principles of that calculation which should balance against these circumstances of my present existence? Worn down with labours from morning till night, and day to day; knowing them as fruitless.

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to others as they are vexatious to myself; committed singly in desperate and eternal contest against a host, who are systematically undermining the public liberty and prosperity; even the rare hours of relaxation sacrificed to the society of persons of the same intentions, of whose hatred I am conscious even in those moments of conviviality when the heart most wishes to open itself to the effusions of friendship and confidence; cut off from my family and friends; my affairs abandoned to chaos and derangement; in short, giving everything I love in exchange for everything I hate,— and all this without a single gratification in possession or prospect-in present enjoyment or future wish. Indeed, my dear friend, duty being out of the question, inclination cuts off all argument, and so, never let there be more between you and me on this subject.'

Jefferson retired to his home at Monticello, a charming retreat from the stress of vexed political life. It stood upon a little hill, commanding a lovely and extensive view, about two miles from the town of Charlottesville. The hill was heavily wooded, except on the south side, where there was a hanging garden. The mansion-house was a long building, adorned with a Greek portico and an octagonal cupola. Jefferson used for himself a suite of rooms immediately to the left of the entrance-hall, consisting of library, bedroom, dressing-room, and workshop. The last was fitted with bench and tools; while the philosophical and mathematical instruments and physical specimens there and in his library indicated his prevailing tastes. Jefferson proposed to devote himself to study and to the management of his private affairs, which had already begun to show signs of their master's neglect. He had had little time to attend to his own

matters in attending to those of the State. His letters of this and later date are full of strong expressions of relief in his freedom from official labour, and of delight in his agricultural pursuits; but there is not wanting a suspicion that he did protest too much; and perhaps there may be some truth in his enemy's report, that his retirement was a cunning move in the game of politics, whose effect he expected afterwards to enjoy. In September 1794 he refused the offer of a seat in the Cabinet. 'No circumstances,' he wrote, 'will ever more tempt me again to engage in anything public. I thought myself firmly fixed in this determination when I left Philadelphia, but every day and hour since has added to its inflexibility.' Again, in a letter written in April 1795, he reiterates the same sentiments in even stronger language; by retirement from office he meant every office, high or low, without exception; while the matter of the Presidency itself had been duly weighed and dismissed from his thoughts. It is difficult to be convinced of the sincerity of these expressions. He still continued to take a keen interest in public affairs; his political antipathies were as passionate as ever; and even before Washington had expressed his determination to retire at the end of his second term as President, the late secretary was again the leader of the Republican party. Before Washington's term of office came to an end in 1797, Jefferson, in contradiction of all his protests, was the Republican candidate for the Presidency; while Adams was supported by the Federalists. Even yet the former affected to be unwilling to take office; and, when Adams was elected, expressed his satisfaction that to himself there had fallen only the VicePresidency. There were various reasons why he should return to public life.

The delights of his rural existence had pro