und during the period of his power; but he had no language too
theatrical for liberty in the abstract, nor too violent for despots who
were three thousand miles away, and with whose oppressions the people of
the United States had no concern whatever. When the debates on the
admission of Missouri brought up this ever-recurring question again to
the exclusion of all others, Jefferson spoke to sneer at the friends of
freedom. The Federalists had found out that their cherished monarchical
'form' would get them no adherents, and so were trying to throw a new
tub to the whale by appealing to the virtuous sentiments of the people.
He was in favor of making Missouri a Slave State. To extend the area of
slavery would increase the comfort of the slaves without adding one more
to their number, and would improve their chances for emancipation. It
would also relieve Virginia from the burden that was weighing her
down--slaves being rather cheaper there than horses--and would enable
her to export her surplus crop of negroes; perhaps eventually to dispose
of them all. This last notion, by the way, gives us a pretty good idea
of Jefferson's practical knowledge of political economy.

His chief objection to the new constitution, when he first saw it, was
the omission in it of a bill of rights providing for the 'eternal and
unremitting force of the habeas corpus act'--and for the freedom of the
press. When Colonel Burr was arrested, Jefferson, who, by the way,
showed a want of dignity and self-respect throughout the affair, was
eager to suspend the habeas corpus act, and got a bill to that effect
passed by one branch of Congress; it was lost in the other. This was the
first instance in the history of the United States. The many fine things
he had said on the integrity and independence of judges did not prevent
him from finding bitter fault with Chief-Justice Marshall for not
convicting Burr. He accused Marshall and the whole tribe of Federalists
of complicity in Burr's conspiracy. Poor old Paine, then near his end,
who was one of Jefferson's jackals of the press, informed the
Chief-Justice, through the _Public Advertiser_, that he was 'a suspected
character.' When Jefferson had felt the pricking of the Federal quills,
he began to think differently of the freedom of the press. Once, in the
safety of private station, he had got off this antithesis: if he had to
choose between a government without newspapers, and newspapers without a
governmen