ith
the respect of the whole nation, over which he continued to exercise
influence after he had parted with power. And when he found himself poor
and embarrassed in consequence of his unwise hospitality, he sold his
library, the best in the country, to pay his debts, as well as the
most valuable part of his estate, yet keeping up his cheerfulness and
serenity of temper, and rejoicing in the general prosperity,--which
was produced by the ever-expanding energies and resources of a great
country, rather than by the political theories which he advocated with
so much ability."

In Jefferson's own mind, just what was the essence of his political
gospel we ascertain from a succinct yet comprehensive passage in his
able First Inaugural Address. In that address President Jefferson
sets forth instructively what he terms the essential principles
of government, and those upon which, as he conceives, his own
administration was founded and by which it was guided. The governing
principles it affirms are:-- "Equal and exact justice to all men, of
whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce,
and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none;
the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most
competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest
bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of
the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the
sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care
of the right of election by the people; a mild and safe corrective of
abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable
remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the
majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal
but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a
well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first
moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the
civil over the military authority--economy in the public expenditure,
that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts, and
sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture,
and of commerce as its handmaiden; the diffusion of information and
arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom
of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person, under the
protection of the Habeas Corpus