), had been seduced in their judgment by the
example of an ancient republic, whose constitution and
circumstances were fundamentally different."[269]

With that artistic tact and that excellent prudence which seem never
to have failed Jefferson in any of his enterprises for the
disparagement of his associates, he here avoids, as will be observed,
all mention of the name of the person for whose fatal promotion this
classic conspiracy was formed,--leaving that interesting item to come
out, as it did many years afterward, when the most of those who could
have borne testimony upon the subject were in their graves, and when
the damning stigma could be comfortably fastened to the name of
Patrick Henry without the direct intervention of Jefferson's own
hands. Accordingly, in 1816, a French gentleman, Girardin, a near
neighbor of Jefferson's, who enjoyed "the incalculable benefit of a
free access to Mr. Jefferson's library,"[270] and who wrote the
continuation of Burk's "History of Virginia" under Jefferson's very
eye,[271] gave in that work a highly wrought account of the alleged
conspiracy of December, 1776, as involving "nothing less than the
substitution of a despotic in lieu of a limited monarch;" and then
proceeded to bring the accusation down from those lurid generalities
of condemnation in which Jefferson himself had cautiously left it, by
adding this sentence: "That Mr. Henry was the person in view for the
dictatorship, is well ascertained."[272]

Finally, in 1817, William Wirt, whose "Life of Henry" was likewise
composed under nearly the same inestimable advantages as regards
instruction and oversight furnished by Jefferson, repeated the fearful
tale, and added some particulars; but, in doing so, Wirt could not
fail--good lawyer and just man, as he was--to direct attention to the
absence of all evidence of any collusion on the part of Patrick Henry
with the projected folly and crime.

"Even the heroism of the Virginia legislature," says Wirt,
"gave way; and, in a season of despair, the mad project of a
dictator was seriously meditated. That Mr. Henry was thought
of for this office, has been alleged, and is highly
probable; but that the project was suggested by him, or even
received his countenance, I have met with no one who will
venture to affirm. There is a tradition that Colonel
Archibald Cary, the speaker of the Senate, was principally
instrumental in crus