sed; the fine shades of sentiment would have
been blotted out; the complex ideas he would have failed to grasp; its
architectural plan he could not have idealized; and its construction
would never have arisen from the chaos of scattered materials which he
would have gleaned. And, above all, the personal character of Mr. Paine
would have been left out. He would have failed in every one of these
things. And why? Want of mental similarity thereto. This, and nothing
else.

I will sum up his mentality as I find it in his writings. I have given
you Mr. Paine's already. In this I shall be brief, speaking only of
those powers which would be incompatible with, or necessary to, the
production of the Declaration.

Mr. Jefferson was a zealous partisan. Mr. Paine was a consummate
statesman. Here was the great difference between the two men. Those
qualities of the mind which produce the former are very unlike those
which produce the latter. The former mind must be narrow and selfish,
the latter broad and generous. This will take in the whole world, that
but a small portion of it. The partisan has an understanding subject to
the vice and discipline of cunning; the statesman has an understanding
subject to the noblest and most generous affections. It was this which
made Mr. Jefferson such a grand success as a party leader, and that,
too, which perhaps saved the nation from passing into the hands of the
monarchists. Without these consummate powers of the partisan, it would
have been impossible for Mr. Jefferson to have taken command of the
people, to have organized his party, to have marshaled his forces, and
with his army of followers to have put royalty under his heel. How
unlike Washington and John Adams, who preceded him. Hamilton, who would
toast a president of America and give three cheers for George the Third
of England, ruled Washington and governed the nation. John Adams, who
was so beguiled with royalty and the British constitution, could not
heartily sympathize with the people; the dupe of his own passions, he
was unfit to be the ruler of a free people. But Jefferson, while
secretary under Washington, began to form his party and draw his party
lines. Through Freneau he drove Washington to cry out: "By God, I had
rather be in my grave than in my present situation!" And, afterward, the
party he was marshaling made John Adams, then president of the United
States, desert his post for seven months, at the most trying crisis of
t