The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-03


one He had, the misfortune to keep a |
notebook" and ''diary," and there he |
iotted down not only the occurrences of
the day, which is the most innocent form of
the nuisance "diary," but what other people
told him. and what he fancied were his reool-
lections. This Patrick-Henry memorandum
reads very much like page from "Ana"
Mr.. Jefferson never duly measured the new
terror Of death-posthumou publication of
his private papers, and he has suffered grie-
vOusly from it. Not so much, perhaps, as his
great rival Hamilton, whose fame has literally
been slaughtered by an unnatural son; but
still the work of self-disparagement was
pretty well done. His relatives and bogra-
pliers have illustrated another defect of per-
sonal character, which is now very prOmi-
nent Mr.. Jefferson never seemed to rise to
the dignity of proud Contentment with the
great triumph which he and his party won
over the Federalists, and which kept them in
full possession Of the Government for quarter
of a century from 1900 to 1926. Mr..
Madison did. Mr.. Jefferson seemed always
in fume-in political fret. He was always
thinking of the Federalists and their chiefs as
if they were in full life and in the field against
him-angrily of Hamilton, who was in his
bloody grave; as angrily of Burr, who had put
him there, though an exile and an outcast; of
Henry Lee; Of Judge Marshall, who was out
of his way, and moving innocently in the pure
serene of his high function; of Washington,
and now, it seems, of Patrick Henry. On his
tomb Mr.. Jefferson long after wrote what we
must describe as the ill-natured epitaph which
the Age, though evidently with some mis-
giving, reproduces. .
AS to Mr.. Jefferson's recolleotions of Henry
in early life and his comments on his profess
sional qualifications and intellectual charao-
teristics, we can say nothing. They may be
just or not. MIR. Jefferson was man of the
pen, and not Of the tongue. Patrick Henry
was the reverse. Mr.. Jefferson, in this memo
randum, bows down in reverence to the tri-
umphs of the pen, even when won by those
whom he disliked as he did Mr.. Jay and Mr..
Dickinson. He rather pooh-poohs the
''Orator," and this thread of disparagement of
Henry's intellect runs through this whole
criticism, and must, we think be apparent to
every one. But there is, in our judgment,
graver defect in this character of Henry.
1t is historically inexact. 1t is worth notice,
too, that Mr.. Jefferson, who was a rhetorical
artist, puts the sharp sting at the end. After
whiting away Mr.. Henry's name on small
matters, and leaving chips all about him as to
his "rapacity for fees, and his "parsimony,"
and "the 1azoo speculation" he winds up
with the following, in which the reader will
observe that at one blow, in which all his
spit t,ful energies are concentrated, he strikes
Washington, Lee, and Henry
General Washington flattered him by an ap.
pointment to a mission to Spain, which he de-
cllned; and by proposing 10 him the office of
Secretary IF State, on the most earnest solicita
tion of General Henry Lee, who pledged him
self that Henry should not accept OF it, For
General Washington knew that he was entirely
UNQUALIFIED for it, and moreover, that his self
esteem had never suffered him to act as second
to any man on earth. had this fact from In
formation, but that of the mission to Spain is
of my own knowledge, because, after my re-
tring from the office of Secretary OF State Gene
raj Washington passed the papers To Mr.. Henry
through my hands. Mr.. Henry's apoStacy sunk
him to nothing in the estimation of his coun-
try. He lost at once all that influence which
transfer with him to itself; and a man who
through long and active life, had been the
lived, descended to the grave with less than its
indifference, and verified the saving of the phi
losopher, that no man must be called happy
Here, so far as facts are concerned, Wash
ington and Lee are most disparaged-the for
mer as party to a small stratagem for buying
up political adversary by an offer (and that,
too, of cabinet Ofice) which he knew would
not be accepted, and General Lee as the 60
between on the occasion. Unfortunately for
Mr.. Jefferson, facts (stubborn things), as now
ascertained, do not support his theory. He
ignores the fact that between Washington and
Henry there had always been kind feeling
dating as far back as l777, when Henry refused
to Oin the ''Cabal." Differences as to the
Federal Constitution before its adoption, in
which we incline to think, from what we see
nowadays, Henry was right, separated them.
But concurrence of opinion as to the insanity
of the French Revolution-the bloody radical
ism of the Convention in France, so like our
Convention in the District of Columbia
brought them together again. This it is that
Mr.. Jefferson, crazy as he was on the subject
of France, never forgave. Hinc lilac objurga-
tioneS. AS to the traffic for posts in the Wash
ington Cabinet, there is not shadow OF
foundation for the gossip. The private letters
on the subject unseen, of course, by Mr..
jefferson, are now in print. They tell story
very different from his imaginings. On the
18th of August, 1874, Lee wrote to Washing
ton that he had met Mr.. Henry in Virginia,
who expressed some fears that mischief had
been made, and that he (Henry) was looked
upon as "a factious and seditious mani by
the President. "He seems" says Lee,
'to be deeply and sorely affected. 1t
is very much to be regretted, for he is
man Of positive virtue as well as of
transcendent talents" Washington replied
at once that there was no foundation for
this idea; and added, and it shows how long
Washington remembered the base means
once employed to ruin him:-"On the ques-
ton Of the Constitution, Mr.. Henry and my
self, it is well known, have been of different
opinions, but personally l have always re-
speeted and esteemed him; nay, more, have
conceived myself under obligations to him for
the friendlymanner in which he transmitted to
me some insidious anonymous writings that
were sent to him in the close Of the year l777,
with view TO embark him in the opposition
forming against me at that time" This was
communicated to Henry, who at once said in
letter. every word of which is instinct with