times rash and indiscreet, and the freedom of his
comments upon men and measures often got him into trouble. His career will
be misunderstood unless it is remembered that he was an impulsive man. His
judgments were intuitive, and though usually correct, yet sometimes hasty
and ill-considered.

Above all, Jefferson was both for friends and foes the embodiment of
Republicanism. He represented those ideas which the Federalists, and
especially the New England lawyers and clergy, really believed to be
subversive of law and order, of government and religion. To them he
figured as "a fanatic in politics, and an atheist in religion;" and they
were so disposed to believe everything bad of him that they swallowed
whole the worst slanders which the political violence of the times, far
exceeding that of the present day, could invent. We have seen with what
tenderness Jefferson treated his widowed sister, Mrs. Carr, and her
children. It was in reference to this very family that the Rev. Mr. Cotton
Mather Smith, of Connecticut, declared that Jefferson had gained his
estate by robbery, namely, by robbing a widow and her children of L10,000,
"all of which can be proved."

Jefferson, as we have said, was a deist. He was a religious man and a
daily reader of the Bible, far less extreme in his notions, less hostile
to orthodox Christianity than John Adams. Nevertheless,--partly, perhaps,
because he had procured the disestablishment of the Virginia Church,
partly on account of his scientific tastes and his liking for French
notions,--the Federalists had convinced themselves that he was a violent
atheist and anti-Christian. It was a humorous saying of the time that the
old women of New England hid their Bibles in the well when Jefferson's
election in 1800 became known.

The vote was as follows:--Jefferson, 73, Burr, 73; Adams, 65; C. C.
Pinckney, 64; Jay, 1. There being a tie between Jefferson and Burr, the
Republican candidate for Vice-President, the election was thrown into the
House of Representatives, voting by States. In that House the Federalists
were in the majority, but they did not have a majority by States. They
could not, therefore, elect Adams; but it was possible for them to make
Burr President instead of Jefferson. At first, the leaders were inclined
to do this, some believing that Burr's utter want of principle was less
dangerous than the pernicious principles which they ascribed to Jefferson,
and others thinking that Burr,