and whatever may have been their immediate effect on the spirit and character of the American people, they were at any rate systematic and original. If they were experiments, they were tried on a great scale, and peace was their end. It seemed to be his ambition, and the invariable aim of his policy, to prove to the world that wars are not necessary to the preservation of peace, that a republican polity is susceptible of the utmost freedom without anarchy, and of combining with excessive liberty the utmost executive vigour, without incurring a despotism. For seven years of his administration, all his efforts appeared to aim at the diminution of his own authority, and the reduction of government, which he effected to such a degree, as to leave the people at last almost without any sensation of it. He had no talents for war, no pretensions to military fame. For the trophies of peace he contended, and withdrew before they could fade on his brow. His administration was original, pacific and mostly prosperous. It remains for a few years to come to pass judgment on its wisdom. Probably it will be least approved where he seemed anxious it should be most, in its rudest democratic features; inasmuch as all extremes endanger the system they are intended to improve. The reign of Numa, the administration of Cardinal Fleury, and most other æras of extraordinary peace have been succeeded by destructive wars. Time will show whether this first of national blessings was purchased by Mr. Jefferson at too dear a price. A desire to serve their country according to the best of their respective abilities, is almost the only point of resemblance between the presidents Adams and Jefferson, once political rivals, now political shades. When a little time shall have softened the asperity of faction, it is probable that the imbecility imputed to the one, and the hypocrisy charged to the other, will be in a great measure forgotten, and the patriotism of both be generally acknowledged. Mr. Jefferson's character and administration each present a larger field than those of Mr. Adams. They were more original and better sustained. Mr. Jefferson's nature was enthusiastic, but equable; Mr. Adams's dryer, but subject to gusts of temper. The one was visionary, but never capricious: the other resolute, but unstable. The deportment Mr. Adams affected was difficult and invidious; Mr. Jefferson's familiar and popular. But the former was becoming, though it failed; and the latter too often contemptible, though it succeeded. When the Spanish ambassadors found the Dutch deputies squatting on the ground, eating herrings with their fingers, one of their first impressions must have been disgust at the unseemliness of this republican festival; and the sentiment of every mind favourable to republicanism, at reading the account of this occurrence, which historians have taken care to set forth in all its particulars, must be a sentiment of contempt for so paltry an af fectation of republican simplicity. Jefferson's life was one continued course of experimental republicanism, conceived and executed on so large a scale, that it must benefit or injure extensively. Whereas Adams did little or no injury to his country, though he lost himself and dismembered his party. His was a stormy course, now dazzling, now overcast, shortlived, and setting in discomfiture and obscurity. After an eccentric, but, successful career, Jefferson retired powerful, if not serene; and though partially shorn of his beams, yet leaving the national horizon, even after his departure, marked with the radiance of his influence. His defects are concealed in the glare of his success. Mr. Adams's virtues obscured in the gloom of his fall. A firm, but temperate adherence to the neutral policy, which Washington practised and recommended, would perhaps have maintained the first in the presidency. A more manly assertion of that policy, a less excursive departure from the established usages of government, and a less extravagant experiment of the elasticity of republicanism, would have rendered the latter's administration more permanently useful. They wandered both, particularly Jefferson, into extremes, forgetting that politics have their ascertained centre, to which, after all eccentricities, they invariably must gravitate, and where alone they rest in security. As Mr. Madison has but just entered on the chief magistracy, his probation is to come, and his estimate can be conjectured only. The crisis is big with peril and uncertainty. The civilized world has been shaken from its ancient bases, by tremendous concussions, which the United States of America have felt but in their remote vibrations. Mr. Madison having distinguished himself as an accomplished speaker, and an able writer, it remains to be seen whether he will prove himself an enlightened executive statesman. To remove foreign embarrassments and provide against aggressions, to conciliate the feuds of faction, to concentrate without consolidating a federal republican empire, to establish and maintain a national character for patriotism and probity, to encourage internal improvements, the arts and sciences, with imperial munificence, to guard fiscal disbursements with an honest economy, to cultivate peace, and prepare for war, are the great duties he has undertaken-duties, whose accomplishment his country expects from his zeal, moderation and abilities. LETTER VIL FROM INCHIQUIN. Dated at Washington. THOUGH the literature of this country seems to have incurred the scorn of Europe, there certainly are two works, which as literary compositions on national subjects, are at least comparable, if not superior to any that have appeared in Europe since the independence of the United States: I mean Mr. Barlow's epic and Mr. Marshall's history; of which, as they have been grossly misrepresented by what are called the critics of Europe, I propose, in this letter, to take a transient review. To begin with the Columbiad, of which the American press has just put forth a splendid edition, ornamented with rich engravings, and executed altogether in such a style as to place it decidedly at the head of American typography. The poet with a venial, if not a laudable partiality, has himself contributed large sums from his private fortune to the embellishment of this work, which does great honour to its author and his country; yet I cannot help regretting that so excellent, dispassionate and benevolent a writer did not bestow the time, talents and |