e display of her address.
The peculiar spirit of her genius is not more distinctly to be seen in
the verse of Boileau than in that of Pope,--in the sounding periods of
Bossuet than in Addison's easy phrase. The spectacle of a nation so
distinguished, which had carried tyranny to a perfection and invested it
with a splendor never before seen, becoming the coryphaeus of freedom,
might easily have fascinated a mind less impressible by nature, and less
disposed by education for favorable impressions, than that of Jefferson.
He shared the feeling of the hour. His advice was asked, and
respectfully listened to. This experience, while, as he says, it
strengthened his preconceived convictions, must have prevented him from
carefully observing, certainly from being affected by, the influences
which had been at work in his own country. He came home more assured in
republicanism, and expecting to find that America had kept pace with
him.

But many things had occurred in America to excite doubts of the
efficiency of republican institutions. The government of the
Confederation was of little value. During the war, common interests and
dangers had bound the Colonies together; with peace came commercial
rivalries, boundary disputes, relations with other countries, the
burdens of a large debt,--and the scanty powers with which Congress had
been clothed were inadequate to the public exigencies. The Congress was
a mere convention, in which each State had but one vote. To the most
important enactments the consent of nine States was necessary. The
concurrence of the several legislatures was required to levy a tax,
raise an army, or ratify a treaty. The executive power was lodged in a
committee, which was useless either for deliberation or action. The
government fell into contempt; it could not protect itself from insult;
and the doors of Congress were once besieged by a mob of mutinous
soldiery. The States sometimes openly resisted the central government,
and to the most necessary laws, those for the maintenance of the
national credit, they gave but a partial obedience. They quarrelled with
each other. New York sent troops into the field to enforce her claims
upon her New England neighbors. The inhabitants of the Territories
rebelled. Kentucky, Vermont, and Tennessee, under another name, declared
themselves independent, and demanded admission into the Union. In New
Hampshire and Pennsylvania, insurrections took place. In Massachusetts,
a re