Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1858-06-29
THE RICHMOND ENQUIRER.
BY RICHIE, DUNNAvANT, TYLER d. WISE
sATURDaY. JUNE a6. 1855
IIpE or JEFFERSON.

NB a pCoet"h PtoPAfNg
ws,,oma ,broupb the columns of the "Euquirer."-
During the greater part OF the period embraced IN '"e
present volume, the enquirer" which issued its first
on the ninth of May, 1874, was the ardent and
influential supporter Of the political doctrines Of
the sage Of Monticello, who read its pages until
his death in 1854 period Of twenty-five years
and who has left in his writings numerous
Testimonials of the kind feelings with which he
ever regarded it. Our regret is that' IN reviewing
this noble monument, erected by the genius and pa
triotism of Henry S. Randall, to the memory OF our
chief, We have not the assistance OF one
who established this journal, who from bis earliest lie
was the uuainching personal and political friend Of
j Jefferson, and who would have recalled with some
thing of the fire Of youth the recoliections OF thoss
and important battles which ne fought ana
aided 80 materially in winning, under Inc banners Oh
our greatest Republican statesman.
The FIRST volume of the Life has been deliberately
reviewed by this journal; the second has also re-
ceived a deliberate notice; it is to the third anu last
volume to which we now propose 10 invite the a.
tention of our readers. The first chapter opens
with a review of the correspondence of Jefferson
during the session of Congress Of 1923, gives his
E60oVuo ~ uOChuluk " PlONs
giving days, presents a graphic account OF the Visit
of Indian Delegations to the capital. which were then
rare, and the sensible speech which Jefferson addressed
TO them, aud his charming letters to his daughters
II was At this time that Jefferson heard of the ces'
sion of LOUISIANA by Spain to France; and compre'
hending in an instant the Importance OF the Crisis
hs wrote with his usual decision 10 Livingston then
our minister in France, to take those measures wiich
intimately resulted in the acquisition OF that VAST
and fertile province by the United States. Mr.. Ram
dali here shows the morality of the Presidents mode
of ACQUIRING territory, in contrast with the Miranda
schems of Hamilton; and brings to light the ipge'
nious plot of Hamilton for the establishment OF a
%poli,icsl organization under the name Of the "Chr's'
tisn Constitutional Society,"" with the oDJec'
of enlisting the prejudices Of the people III
a crusade against the Administration OF Jener'
son. and OF restoring the Federalists to power
q plot which the good sense and patriotism OF baYara'
as he was, repudia,ed at once. The reader
will trace in this chapter the history Of the disgraced
wretched Calender. of his writings IN favor OF
the Democratic party. of the precise connection
which Jefferson had with him, his miserable apes.
tscv. and hs sudden death. We next find the Presi.
dent on one of bis brief visits TO Monticeloi and SEQ
lila employments there; and inspect an account of his
expenses for a year. We then come to the conside'
ration of a question, which, at the time, shook the
whole country: the abrogation of the right OF deposit
It New Orleans by the Spanish Inteudant, and the
discussion of this exciting question in Congress, with
appointment Of Monroe "a Envoy Extraordinary
% the French Court, to act in conjunction with Living
,ton, the resident Minister. Here the author shows,
With mastery skill, the inconsistency Of the Federal
orators, In their views about calling OIL the Executive
for papers, in 1895, and in 1903; their change of opin.
ion about the t~reaty.making power, and their spas
modio and unpstriotic course on the Spanish question:
In the course of the chapter he touches upon tile al
mission of Ohio into the Union, the increase of the
navy, the Ya2oo claims, the President's policy to.
wards the Indians, the litigated question OF Dry
Docks, concluding with the letters Of the President
10 the members of his family, never before Published {,
md representing the writer In the most endearing
ight az a father and a friend.
The second chapter includes parts Of the years 1893
and 1914, and relates the history of the acquisition OF
Louisiana. This topic is treated with the fullness and
the ability which il deserves.
Macaulay has shown that, when the Prince Of
Wdo ulCOitotihS ho NSoSS' eF
there we're difficulties in bis path which it we're i'm
possible to overcome by sDydirect agency of hisown,
but which were overcome by the unconscious aid OF
the very persons whose interests were to be most Be-
riously injured by the success OF his scheme, and who
By a kind of judicial madness, played most effectualiy
bis hands. So acted the few but able Federalists
we're still able to cling to their seatsin Congress-.
Randall has traced with great skill the difficulties,
foreign and domestic, which beset Jefferson in accom-.
plishing bis great purpose of rescuing louisiana from
the hands Of a dangerous and interruptions foreign
and Of adding it to the Union. He follows
Livingston on his arrival in France, and in his recep.
by the government; recalls the prompt and posi.
refuss! of France TO sell a single acre of her
newly acquired possessions in America, and her pro-
of an extensive colonization; the unconscious
playing of the Federaliats into the hands of Jefer.
son by their outrageous hostility towards France and
Spain; the arrival Of that crisis anticipated from tho
first by Jefferson which would force Bonaparte 10
sell his new possessions, the oifsr Of Talleyrand 10
our ministers to that effect, and its prompt acceptance
by them. Mr.. Randall shows that the measure orlgi.
mated with Jefferson, though he was too modest ever
to allude to tina fact, and properly appreciates the
unspeaka able importance Of that territory to the Union
ut large and to the Southern States in particular. All
the constitutional difficulties in the case. all the EN-.
barrassments which were thrown in the way by the
terests and could see nothing in that grand acquisi
but the increased preponderance of that par.
" which had almost crushed them to the earth,
faithfully detailed. Mr.. Randall states the singu-
lar fact that no cannot fluid among the printed letters
and papers of Hamilton any alluslon to the purchase
Of Louisiana, or any opinion expressed by that states
on the subject. Could it have been that all his
letters which alluded to the greatest political event
which had occurred since tho adoption Of the Federal
Constitution, were suppressed by the hand Of friend
ship, or that, overawed by the grandeur OF a schems
which had added, honorably and peacsably, to the
Union a territory more valuable than any embraced
u the ~pirstical Miranda, he acknowledged the genius
If Jefferson, and, in the words Of the poet, unused
bis praise7' When We reca! the cOnneIion OF Hamil-
on with the schemes Of Mirauda. the world will GER
.ainly DO curious to know how he regarded the bril-
liant achievement Of the man whose policy from the
beginning of the government he had always opposed,
but which had now achieved a Legitimate victory
which, welcome as it was at the time, will be hailed
by generations aud ages to come. Que OF Inc most
amusing notions Of the Federalists was that henceforth
and forey or Louisiana must be treated and governed
ss a colony. and no part of it elevated to the dignity
Of a State, and that the millions who were hereafter to
Iuhsbit the territory must be kept as mere political
apprentices, and never allowed a voice in the federal
in other words, that We should unsay all
that our fathers said about representation and taxation
going together. and re.estsblish the odous British
cloven down in the Revolution, over those
who might inhabit the finest lands on the American
This is one of the most signalo the many
inconsistencies and palpable derelictions from all pub
lie spirit and common honesty by a party which pc
litely a~rrogated to itself the decency, the intelligence
and the patriotism Of the whole country. 1t may be
safely affirmed that nothing tended more clearly to
expose the rottenness of the old Federal party and the
character Of It's leaders, than their entire