Mrs. Wright's Travels in the United States. 
D 
25 
Ion, Jay, Rush, Adams, Rittenhouse, 
Mad ison, Monroe, and a thousand other 
high-minded gentlemen, soldiers, ora* 
tors, sages, and statesmen, was account* 
ed a hive of pickpockets and illiterate 
I t i n d s-. 
MR. JEFFERSON. 
Mr. Jefferson affords a splendid elu¬ 
cidation of a remark contained in my 
last letter,—that the literary strength 
of America is absorbed in the business 
of the state. In early life, we find this 
distinguished philosopher and elegant 
scholar, called from his library into the 
senate, and from that moment engaged 
in the service, and finally charged with 
the highest offices in the commonwealth. 
Had he been born in Europe, he would 
have added new treasures to the store 
of science, and bequeathed to posterity 
the researches and generous conceptions 
of his well-stored and original mind, 
not in hasty 44 notes,” but in tomes 
compiled at ease, and framed with that 
nerve and classic simplicity which 
mark the 44 Declaration” of his coun¬ 
try’s 44 independence.” Born in Ame¬ 
rica, 
u The post of honour is a public station 
to this therefore was he called ; and 
from it he retires, covered with years 
and honours, to reflect upon a life well 
spent, and on the happiness of a people 
whose prosperity he did so much to pro¬ 
mote. The fruits of his wisdom are in 
the laws of his country, and that coun¬ 
try itself will be his monument. 
The elections which raised Mr. Jef¬ 
ferson to the chief magistracy, brought 
with them a change both of men and 
measures. The most rigid economy 
was carried into every department of 
government; some useless offices were 
done away ; the slender army was far¬ 
ther reduced, obnoxious acts, passed by 
the former congress, repealed, and the 
American constitution administered in 
all its simplicity and purity. 
The policy of Mr. Jefferson, and that 
of his venerable successor, Mr. Madi¬ 
son, was so truly enlightened and mag¬ 
nanimous, as to form an era in the his¬ 
tory of their country. The violence of 
the fallen party vented itself in the most 
scurrilous abuse that ever disgraced the 
free press of a free country; it did 
more,— it essayed even to raise the 
standard of open rebellion to that go¬ 
vernment of which it had professed 
itself the peculiar friend and stay. 
PARTIES. 
It may now be said, that the party 
once misnamed Federal has ceased to 
Monthly Mag. No, 363. 
exist. There is indeed a difference of 
political character, or what will express 
it Better, a varying intensity of repub¬ 
lican feeling discernible in the different 
component parts of this great Union ; 
but all are now equally devoted to the 
national institutions, and in all differ¬ 
ence of opinion, admit the necessity of 
the minority yielding to the majority. 
And, what is yet more important, these 
differences of opinion do not hinge upon 
the merits or demerits of foreign na¬ 
tions, French or English, Dutch or 
Portuguese. The wish of your vener¬ 
able friend is now realized;—his coun¬ 
trymen are Americans. Genet may 
now make the tour of the states, and 
Henry of New-England, with infinite 
safety to the peace of their citizens ; and 
even Massachussets herself would now 
blush at the name of the Hartford con¬ 
vention. 
Genet is, or was at least when the 
author was last in Albany, a peaceable 
and obscure citizen of the state of New 
York. It is curious in a democracy, to 
see how soon the factious sink into in¬ 
significance. Aaron Burr was pointed 
out tonne in the Mayor’s court at New 
York, an old man whom none cast 
an eye upon except an idle stranger. In 
Europe, the bustling demagogue is sent 
to prison, or to the scaffold, and meta¬ 
morphosed into a martyr; in America, 
lie is left to walk at large, and soon no 
one thinks about him. 
BLACK SLAVERY. 
I must here refute a strange asser¬ 
tion, which I have seen in I know not 
how many foreign journals, namely, 
that the United States’ government is 
chargeable with the diffusion of black 
slavery. Every act that this govern¬ 
ment has ever passed regarding it, has 
tended to its suppression ; but the ex¬ 
tent and nature of its jurisdiction are 
probably misunderstood by those who 
charge upon it the black slavery of Ken¬ 
tucky or Louisiana ; and they must be 
ignorant of its acts who omit to ascribe 
to it the merit of having saved from 
this curse every republic which has 
grown up under its jurisdiction. 
There are at present twenty-two 
republics in the confederacy; of these, 
twelve have been rendered free to black 
and white; the remaining ten continue 
to be more or less defaced by negro- 
slavery. Of these five are old states, 
and the other five either parted from 
these, or formed out of the acquired 
territory of French Louisiana. Thus, 
Kentucky was raised into an inde- 
4 K pendent 
