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hazard of opinions, which will prove only my wish to contribute still my mite towards anything which may be useful to our country. And praying you to accept it at only what it is worth, I add the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect. TH. JEFFERSON.

Thus the "Monroe doctrine" was proposed to President Monroe between five and six weeks before he gave it that official promulgation in a message to Congress, which stamped it with his name. The message was dated December 2d, 1823.

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It announced that "we owed it to candor to declare that we should consider any attempt" on the part of European nations "to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety," etc. The tenor of the reasoning coincides with that of Mr. Jefferson's letter.'

A circumstance occurred this year in the intercourse of Jefferson and the elder Adams, which requires some preliminary explanation. When Mr. Jefferson was generally talked of in 1803, as a candidate for a second Presidential term, William Cunningham applied to Mr. Adams for information to be used in publications, the object of which was to defeat Jefferson's reëlection. Mr. Adams wrote some letters to him, which were more or less free in their tone; and he continued these beyond the immediate occasion, and for a number of succeeding years. All these communications were transmitted to Cunningham under his promise that they should not be made public during Mr. Adams's life. The former died in 1823, and his son, disregarding his father's promise, published the letters that year. Before anything but a few extracts from the "Cunningham Letters" had met Jefferson's eye, he wrote to Mr. Adams (October 12th), and after alluding to his own health, to the University, etc, in the tone of an ordinary friendly letter, he closed in a strain which is well worth attentive examination :

"Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this letter as due to a friendship coëval with our government, and now attempted to be poisoned, whea too late in life to be replaced by new affections. I had for some time observed in the public papers, dark hints and mysterious innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by that friend or his representative. And now it is said to be actually

It need scarcely be added, that this maxim of State policy has not been traced home to Mr. Jefferson from any other motive than to truly record a historical fact. No President ever did, or ever can, originate all the important policies or maxims of his Administration. It is the real glory of a ruler to choose wisely from all the plans which Come before him, whether they originate in his own mind, or in the minds of others.

published. It has not yet reached us, but extracts have been given, and such as seemed most likely to draw a curtain of separation between you and myself. Were there no other motive than that of indignation against the author of this outrage on private confidence, whose shaft seems to have been aimed at yourself more particularly, this would make it the duty of every honorable mind to disappoint that aim, by opposing to its impression a seven-fold shield of apathy and insensibility. With me, however, no such armor is needed. The circumstances of the times in which we have happened to live, and the partiality of our friends at a particular period, placed us in a state of apparent opposition, which some might suppose to be personal also; and there might not be wanting those who wished to make it so, by filling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to you under my name, to me under yours, and endeavoring to instill into our minds things concerning each other the most destitute of truth. And if there had been, at any time, a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper to let the whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of each other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men who have attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen the false colors under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and motives of others, have seen also those passions subsiding with time and reflection, dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring to us the sight of all things in their true shape and colors. It would be strange indeed, if, at our years, we were to go back an age to hunt up imaginary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so sweetening to the evening of our lives. Be assured, my dear sir, that I am incapable of receiving the slightest impression from the effort now made to plant thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to sow tares between friends who have been such for near half a century. Beseeching you then, not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by this wicked attempt to poison its peace, and praying you to throw it by among the things which have never happened, I add sincere assurances of my unabated and constant attachment, friendship, and respect."

Unfortunately here the curtain drops on this affair. We cannot but believe Mr. Adams answered in a way befitting his character and if so, the letter may have contained remarks or concessions which Jefferson's delicacy chose to put beyond the reach of perpetuation. Or, Mr. Adams (in his eighty-ninth year) may have been ill, and their correspondence thus have become interrupted, until the topic could be as appropriately passed over as revived, between friends who understood each other. Only three subsequent letters between them are published in either edition of Mr. Jefferson's works-one from Jefferson to Adams, January 8th, 1825; one from Adams to Jefferson, January 23d, 1825 (entirely taken up with denouncing the laws of different nations against heresy); one from Jefferson to Adams, March 25th, 1826, introducing his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. We have seen no other letters of the period between them, in any collection of Mr. Adams's correspondence

John Quincy Adams was named as a candidate for the Presidency in 1823. His competitors were General Andrew Jackson, William II. Crawford, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun. Jefferson wrote to his intimate friend, General Samuel Smith, May 3d:

"On the question of the next Presidential election, I am a mere looker on. I never permit myself to express an opinion, or to feel a wish on the subject. I indulge a single hope only, that the choice may fall on one who will be a friend of peace, of economy, of the Republican principles of our Constitution, and of the salutary distribution of powers made by that between the general and the local governments."

He wrote to another intimate friend, Mr. Short, September 8th, inviting him to Monticello, and adding:

"You must be contented with the plain and sober family, and neighborly society, with the assurance that you shall hear no wrangling about the next President, although the excitement on that subject will then be at its acme. Numerous have been the attempts to entangle me in that imbroglio. But at the age of eighty, I seek quiet and abjure contention. I read but a single newspaper, Ritchie's Enquirer, the best that is published or ever has been published in America.

He wrote to Lafayette, November 4th:

"We are all, for example, in agitation, even in our peaceful country. For in peace as well as in war, the mind must be kept in motion. Who is to be next President, is the topic here of every conversation. My opinion on that subject is what I expressed to you in my last letter. The question will be ultimately reduced to the northernmost and southernmost candidate. The former will get every Federal vote in the Union, and many Republicans; the latter, all of those denominated of the old school; for you are not to believe that these two parties are amalgamated, that the lion and the lamb are lying down together. The Hartford Convention, the victory of Orleans, the peace of Ghent, prostrated the name of Federalism. Its votaries abandoned it through shame and mortification; and now call themselves Republicans. But the name alone is changed, the principles are the same."

The "Northernmost" candidate was Mr. Adams, and the "Southernmost," Mr. Crawford. Jefferson came to "feel a wish" between the candidates. His preference was decidedly for Mr. Crawford, though he abstained from any interference even in conversation, except among the members of his own family.

In a letter to George Ticknor of Boston (the elegant author of the History of Spanish Literature, etc.), Mr. Jefferson defended the system of allowing students in a university the

uncontrolled choice of their studies, after reaching a certain age and grade of elementary qualification. He declared the "rock he most dreaded was the discipline of the institution," because "the insubordination of our youth was now the greatest obstacle to their education." He informed Ticknor that the last of the University buildings would be nearly finished by the autumn of 1824, and he invited him to then make a visit to Monticello and contribute his knowledge of the regulations and discipline of the European institutions of learning to aid in shaping those of the United States.

Some preceding letters from Jefferson to Ticknor have been passed without notice, as their topics were principally literary. The latter had visited Monticello in 1814, carrying flattering letters of introduction from Mr. Adams and others. He remained there some days, attracting an unusual share of the attention and regard of Mr. Jefferson and his family, by the pleasingness of his manners, and his uncommonly ripe scholarship. Until he became satisfied that it would be better to draw the body of the professors of the University from abroad, Jeffer son had been anxious that Ticknor should fill one of the chairs. The latter visited Europe in 1815, with warm letters of introduction from Jefferson to the American Minister, Lafayette, Dupont de Nemours, Say, and others. He was also commissioned to purchase such books as Mr. Jefferson wished from abroad, to furnish a new, but, compared to his former one, very limited library. Ticknor accepted the invitation to visit Monticello in 1824, and we shall have, hereafter, some incidents of the visit.

Mr. Jefferson's absorbing topic throughout 1824 was the University. The buildings were nearly prepared for use; but the professors, the library, etc., were yet to be procured, and the general machinery was to be put in motion. The pecuniary rubs were not over, nor was the opposition in the Legislature quieted. Adverse schemes were set on foot by local and denominational feelings and interests. But the faithful Cabell worked day and night-Jefferson's great hold on the public heart was unbrokenand things in the main continued to go on successfully. He wrote Cabell' in February, in regard to the selection of professors:

We regret that we have not room for Cabell's letter to which this is a reply. See History of University, p. 288.

"You know we have all, from the beginning, considered the high qualifications of our professors, as the only means by which we could give to our institution splendor and preeminence over all its sister seminaries. The only question, therefore, we can ever ask ourselves, as to any candidate, will be, is he the most highly qualified?

"We are next to observe, that a man is not qualified for a professor, knowing nothing but merely his own profession. He should be otherwise well educated as to the sciences generally; able to converse understandingly with the scientific men with whom he is associated, and to assist in the councils of the faculty on any subject of science on which they may have occasion to deliberate. Without this, he will incur their contempt, and bring disreputation on the institution.

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"In the course of the trusts I have exercised through life with powers of appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeakable comfort, that I never did appoint a relation to office, and that merely because I never saw the case in which some one did not offer, or occur, better qualified;' and I have the most unlimited confidence that in the appointment of professors to our nursling institution, every individual of my associates will look with a single eye to the sublimation of its character, and adopt, as our sacred motto, "detur digniori." In this way it will honor us, and bless our country."

It was determined to send to England for all the professors except those of Moral Philosophy and Law-and for reasons given by Mr. Jefferson to our Minister to that country, Mr. Rush, in a letter of introduction which was borne by the special agent sent to engage the professors. In this (dated April 26th) he said:

"We have determined to receive no one who is not of the first order of science in his line; and as such in every branch cannot be obtained with us, we propose to seek some of them at least, in the countries ahead of us in science, and preferably in Great Britain, the land of our own language, habits, and manners. But how to find out those who are of the first grade of science, of sober correct habits and morals, harmonizing tempers, talents for communication, is the difficulty. Our first step is to send a special agent to the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh, to make the selection for us; and the person appointed for this office is the gentleman who will hand you this letter-Mr. Francis Walker Gilmer-the best educated subject we have raised since the Revolution, highly qualified in all the important branches of science, professing particularly that of the Law, which he has practised some years at our Supreme Court with good success and flattering prospects. His morals, his amiable temper and discretion, will do justice to any confidence you may be willing to place in him, for I commit him to you as his mentor and guide in the business he goes on. We do not certainly expect to obtain such known characters as were the Cullens, the Robertsons, and Porsons of Great Britain, men of the first eminence established there in reputation and office, and with emoluments not to be bettered anywhere. But we know that there is

Mr. Jefferson had forgotten. He unquestionably did, in one or two instances, refuse to appoint relatives, purely on the ground that they were relatives, and he avowed that ground, and defended it as necessary under the circumstances.

VOL. III.-32

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