hy. He sympathized with
man,--his sufferings, joys, fears, hopes, and aspirations. The law of
his nature made him a democrat. Men of his own rank, when introduced to
him, found his manner cold and reserved; but the young and the ignorant
were attracted from the first. Education and interest did not affect
him. Born a British subject, he became the founder of a democracy. He
was a slaveholder and an abolitionist. The fact, that the African is
degraded and helpless, to his, as to every generous mind, was a reason
why he should be protected, not an excuse for oppressing him.

Though fitness for the highest effort be denied to Jefferson, yet in the
pursuit to which he devoted himself, considered with reference to
elevation and wisdom of policy and actual achievement, he may be
compared with any man of modern times. It is the boast of the most
accomplished English historian, that English legislation has been
controlled by the rule, "Never to lay down any proposition of wider
extent than the particular case for which it is necessary to provide."
Therefore politics in England have not reached the dignity of a science;
and her public men have been tacticians, rather than statesmen. Burke
may be mentioned as an exception. No one will claim for Jefferson
Burke's amplitude of thought and wealth of imagination, but he surpassed
him in justness of understanding and practical efficiency. Burke was
never connected with the government, except during the short-lived
Rockingham, administration. Among Frenchmen, the mind instinctively
recurs to the wise and virtuous Turgot. But it was the misfortune of
Turgot to come into power at the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI. It
became his task to reform a government which was beyond reform, and to
preserve a dynasty which could not be preserved. His illustrious career
is little more than a brilliant promise. Jefferson undoubtedly owed much
to fortune. He was placed in a country removed from foreign
interference, with boundless resources, and where the great principles
of free government had for generations been established,--among a people
sprung from many races, but who spoke the same language, were governed
by similar laws, and whose minds' rebellion had prepared for the
reception of new truths and the abandonment of ancient errors. To be
called upon to give symmetry and completeness to a political system
which seemed to be Providentially designed for the nation over which it
was to extend,