the schism which rent his own party, Hamilton, after his death, was made the target for attack and reprobation by his political foes, who for nearly sixty years, with few intermissions, controlled the government.  His work, however, could not be undone, and as passions have subsided his fame has proved to be of that highest and rarest kind which broadens and rises with the lapse of years, until in the light of history it overtops that of any of our statesmen, except of his own great chief and Abraham Lincoln.  The work to which he was called was that of organizing a national government, and in the performance of this work he showed that he belonged to the highest type of constructive statesmen, and was one of the rare men who build, and whose building stands the test of time.

Last to be mentioned, but first in rank, was the Department of State.  For this high place Washington chose Thomas Jefferson, who was then our minister in Paris, and who did not return to take up his official duties until the following March.  Of the four cabinet offices, this was the only one where Washington proceeded entirely on public grounds.  He took Jefferson on account of his wide reputation, his unquestioned ability, his standing before the country, and his experience in our foreign relations.  With the other three there was a strong element of personal friendship and familiarity.  With the secretary of state his intercourse had been, so far as we can judge, almost wholly of a public character, and, so far as can be inferred from an expression of some years before, the selection was made by Washington in deference simply to what he believed to be the public interest.  The only allusion to Jefferson in all the printed volumes of correspondence prior to 1789 occurs in a letter to Robert Livingston, of January 8, 1783.  He there said:  “What office is Mr. Jefferson appointed to that he has, you say, lately accepted?  If it is that of commissioner of peace, I hope he will arrive too late to have any hand in it.”  There is no indication that their personal relations were then or afterwards other than pleasant.  Yet this brief sentence is a strong expression of distrust, and especially so from the fact that Washington was not at all given to criticising other people in his letters.  What he distrusted was not Jefferson’s ability, for that no man could doubt, still less his patriotism.  But Washington read character well, and he felt that Jefferson might be lacking in the qualities of boldness and determination, so needful in a negotiation like that which resulted in the acknowledgment of our independence.