bably begun to pall upon him; his desire for learned and cultivated society had never been fully satisfied in his retired home; and even the salary of his office must have had its attractions for him, for his estate, though large, was not highly productive, and his passion for architecture had led him into expenses in adding to his house at Monticello. Moreover, the Federal party had already obtained sufficient influence; he might perhaps benefit his country by bringing it back to Republican views. In January 1797 he was elected president of the American Philosophical Society, a post which he held for eighteen years.

In March 1801 the Presidency was again open to competition; and the election fell in the preceding November. Jefferson and Aaron Burr were the candidates on one side, Adams and Pinckney on the other. Of the 138 votes the two first each received 73 votes; Adams received 65, Pinckney 64, and Jay 1. According to the constitution, it then fell to the House of Representatives to decide between Jefferson and Burr. The Federalists, who had lost their own candidates, endeavoured to turn matters to their own interest by delaying the election. Jefferson was the chosen Republican candidate, therefore the Federalists voted for Burr. Thirtyfive ballots were taken in succession before Jefferson obtained the requisite proportion of votes ; but at last, on the thirty-sixth ballot, he received 10 votes against 6 cast for Burr, and was declared elected third President of the United States. On March 4, 1801, being then in his fifty-ninth year, he was inaugurated. We cannot do more than indicate generally the principal measures of his government. To his election and to his skilful rule his party was indebted for a long period of power; and the third President undoubtedly left his mark

upon the government of his country. His inaugural address was couched in his usual florid language; but it was animated by liberal principles, though to some of its clauses many politicians took exception. The main event of Jefferson's first Presidency was the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States from France, to which it had been ceded by Spain. This vast territory, comprehending what is now occupied by the States of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Dacotah was purchased in 1803 for fifteen million dollars. Other results of the first term were the reduction of the national debt by more than twelve million dollars; the lowering of taxation; and the extinction, in favour of the United States, of the titles to a vast extent of Indian territory. In foreign affairs, war with Spain and France had been skilfully averted; while Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis learned that they could not with impunity interfere with the commerce of the young Republic.

Jefferson's popularity had not waned during his four years of office; and in 1804 he was re-elected for a second term. Even in this highest post of the State, the trials and anxieties of office worked on his usually sanguine spirit. In 1806 he writes :-'I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter; but your tedium will end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to endure. I am tired of an office where I can do no more good than many others who would be glad to be employed in it. To myself personally it brings nothing but unceasing drudgery and daily loss of friends; every office becoming vacant, every appointment made, me donne un ingrat et cent ennemis. My only consolation is in the belief that my fellow-citizens at large give me credit for good intentions. I will certainly endeavour to merit the con

tinuance of the good-will which follows well-intended actions ; and their approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into retirement.'

Burr's conspiracy and the attack on the frigate Chesapeake by the British ship Leopard were the chief events of 1807; but the main feature of his second Presidency was the embargo laid and maintained on all outward-bound vessels, in retaliation against France for the Berlin and Milan decrees, and against Britain for her 'right of search' claims. In his dealings with foreign nations, Jefferson is accused of having encouraged their arrogance by a too visible anxiety to secure peace at any cost; but in domestic matters he brought about much good More than a million square miles had been added to the dominion of his country, and thirty-three million dollars of debt had been paid off. His party had grown immensely; in the last House of Representatives only 32 out of 141 were in opposition. Jefferson's administration was pure. He did not seek to aggrandize his family by appointments, or to enrich them by sinecures, and he himself refused re-election for a third term from principle. He was opposed to inflating the dignity of the Presidency by forms and ceremonies, and he refused to hold levees, or have any imitation of a court ceremonial. He received diplomatic visits in his slippers, and he declined to perplex himself with the etiquette of precedence.

The General Assembly of Virginia voted him an address on February 1809, congratulating him upon and thanking him for his conduct as President. The following paragraph from it admirably sums up the results of his office :-'We have to thank you for the model of an administration conducted on the purest principles of Republicanism; for pomp

and state laid aside, and patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous offices disbanded; and the monarchic maxim that "a national debt is a national blessing" renounced, and more than thirty-three millions of our debt discharged; the native right to near one hundred millions of acres of our national domain extinguished, and without the guilt and calamities of conquest; a vast and fertile region added to our country, far more extensive than her original possessions, bringing along with it the Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the west to the Pacific Ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself a source of permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue. There are points in your administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to understand, and to teach posterity to dwell on with delight; nor will he forget our peace with the civilised world, preserved through a season of uncommon difficulty and trial; the good-will cultivated with the unfortunate aborigines of our country, and the civilisation humanely extended among them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coasts of Barbary, that we have the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and awing them into justice; and that theme which, above all others, the historic genius will hang upon with rapture, the liberty of speech and the press preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given to men in vain.’

His property

Monticello again became his haven of rest. was in sad want of the master's eye, and he proposed to take his affairs completely into his own hands. He then possessed two estates, amounting in the aggregate to 9846 acres, with 198 slaves, and the expenses of maintenance left but a narrow margin for subsistence. Books and study and

the society of his friends and descendants were the alleviations of his pecuniary vexations. Science had left him far behind; classics and mathematics were his chief resources. 'In the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my books, I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My mornings are devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner I am in my shops, my garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to dark I give to society and recreation with my neighbours and friends; and from candlelight to early bedtime I read. My health is perfect, and my strength considerably reinforced by the activity of the course I pursue; perhaps it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near sixtyseven years of age.' His favourite exercise was still riding, and he also employed himself in mechanical arts; his carriage, his garden-seats, and some of his furniture were made by himself and his slaves. But his attention was not confined to his private affairs.

On all the great public questions of

He corre

the day he thought and uttered his opinions. sponded with men who were still in the arena of politics, and he was still an influence in the State. Not only Federal questions, but those affecting Virginia itself, also received his attention. The subject of education was always near his heart; and his last patriotic effort was to secure the establishment of a State university near Charlottesville. In all preliminary operations he took the keenest interest, and when the site was finally fixed upon, he personally superintended the erection of the building, riding over several times a week to inspect progress; and it was he who drew the general plan for the building. The university was opened in April 1825, and Jefferson was elected rector. For the preceding six years the organization of the university had