lst our Minister to the Court of St. Cloud,
addressed a letter to JOHN JAY, dated November 14, 1788, in which he
uses this language:

"With respect to the _Consular_ appointments, it is a duty on
me to add some observations, which my situation here has
enabled me to make. I think it was in the spring of 1784, that
Congress (harassed by multiplied applications from foreigners,
of whom nothing was known but on their information, or on that
of others as unknown as themselves) came to the resolution that
the interest of America would not permit the naming of any
person, not a citizen, to the office of Consul, or Agent, or
Commissary. _Native citizens, on several valuable accounts, are
preferable to aliens, or citizens alien-born._ Native citizens
possess our language, know our laws, customs and commerce, have
general acquaintance in the United States, give better
satisfaction, _and are more to be relied on in a point of
fidelity_. To avail ourselves of our native citizens, it
appears to me advisable to _declare, by standing law_, that no
person but a native citizen shall be capable of the office of
Consul. This was the rule of 1784, restraining the office of
Consul to native citizens."

In 1797, Mr. JEFFERSON drafted a petition to the Legislature of
Virginia, on behalf of the citizens of Amherst, Albemarle, Fluvana, and
Gouchland Bounties, in which he uses the following language:

"Your petitioners further submit to the two Houses of Assembly,
whether the safety of the citizens of this Commonwealth, in
their persons, their property, their laws and government, does
not require that the capacity to act in the important office of
_Juror, Grand or Petty, civil or criminal_, should not be
restrained in future to native citizens, or such as were
citizens at the date of the Treaty of Peace which closed our
revolutionary war; and whether ignorance of our laws, and
natural partiality to the countries of their birth, are not
reasonable causes for declaring this to be one of their rights
incommunicable in future to adopted citizens."--_Jefferson's
Writings, Vol. IX., page 453._

Now, Sir, answer me in candor, are you not ashamed of having quoted Mr.
JEFFERSON, and of having so basely misrepresented his position on this
great American question? Did not Mr. JEFFERSON propose to carry