well dealt,--though at one now greatly honored. We may
refuse the subordinate idea in the letter, but we will glory in that main
confession of political faith, in the last year of Jefferson's life; and
we will not forget that the last of his letters on slavery chastised the
worst sin of Northern statesmanship.

Jefferson, then, in dealing with slavery, was a real political seer and
giver of oracles,--always sure to say _something_; whereas the "leading
men" who in these latter days have usurped his name are neither political
seers nor givers of oracles, but mere political fakirs,--striving, their
lives long, to enter political blessedness by solemnly doing and seeing
and saying--_nothing_.

Jefferson was a true political warrior, and his battle for human rights
compares with the Oligarchist battle against them as the warfare of Cortes
compares with Aztec warfare. He is the man full of strong thought backed
by civilization: they, the men trying to keep up their faith in idols,
trying to scare with war-paint, trying to startle with war-whoop, trying
to vex with showers of poor Aztec arrows.

Jefferson was an orator,--not in that he fed petty assemblages with
narcotic words to stupefy conscience, or corrosive words to kill
conscience, but in that he gave to the world those decisive, true words
which shall yet pierce all tyranny and slavery.

Jefferson was the founder of a democratic system, strong and full-orbed:
"leading men" have fastened his name to an aristocratic system with
mobocratic cries.

This great tree of Liberty which we are all trying to plant will, of
course, not grow as _we_ will, but as God and Nature will. Some branches
will be exuberant through too great wealth of sunshine,--others gnarled
and awry through too great fury of storms. We need find no fault with any
growth, but we may admire some branches and prize some fruits more than
others. Some grafts set by noblest hands have often blossomed in bad
temper and borne fruit bitter and sour. Some fruitage has been of that
poor Dead-Sea sort,--splendid in coating, but inwardly ashes,--wretched
"protective" schemes and the like. The world may yet see that the limbs of
toughest fibre and fruit of richest flavor have come from grafts set by
just such strong men in theory and in practice as Thomas Jefferson.

* * * * *

A STORY OF TO-DAY.

PART IV.

An hour after, the evening came on sultry, the air murky, opaque