petitions of the abolition societies against slavery in Louisiana; and Hildreth blames Jefferson for his slowness to assist; but ought we not here to take some account of the difficulties of the situation?  Ought not some weight to be given to Jefferson’s declaration to Kerchival, that in his administration his “efforts in relation to peace, slavery, and religious freedom were all in accordance with Quakerism”?

We pass now to the third great period, in which, as thinker and writer, he did so much to brace the Republic.

First of all, in this period we see him revising the translation and arranging the publication of De Tracy’s “Commentaire sur l’Esprit des Lois.”  He takes endless pains to make its hold firm on America; engages his old companion in abolitionism, St. George Tucker, to circulate it; makes it a text-book in the University of Virginia; tells his friend Cabell to read it, for it is “the best book on government in the world.”  Now this “best book on government” is killing to every form of tyranny or slavery; its arguments pierce all their fallacies and crush all their sophistries.  That famous plea which makes Alison love Austria and Palmer love Louisiana—­the plea that a people can be best educated for freedom and religion by dwarfing their minds and tying their hands—­is, in this book, shivered by argument and burnt by invective.

As we approach the last years of Jefferson’s life we find several letters of his on slavery.  Some have thought them mere heaps of ashes,—­poor remains of the flaming thoughts and words of earlier years.  This mistake is great.  Touch the seeming heap of ashes, and those thoughts and words dart forth, fiery as of old.

In 1814, Edward Coles attacks slavery vigorously, and calls on the great Democrat to destroy it.  Jefferson’s approving reply is the complete summary of his matured views on slavery.  Take a few declarations as specimens.[5]

    [5] Randall, Vol.  III., Appendix.

“The sentiments breathed through the whole do honor both to the head and heart of the writer.  Mine, on the subject of the slavery of negroes, have long since been in possession of the public, and time has only served to give them stronger proof.  The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a mortal reproach to us that they should have pleaded so long in vain.”

“The hour of emancipation is advancing in the march of time.  It will come; and whether brought on by the generous energy of our own minds or by the bloody process of St. Domingo ... is a leaf of our history not yet turned over.”

“As to the method by which this difficult work is to be effected, if permitted to be done by ourselves, I have seen no proposition so expedient, on the whole, as that of emancipation of those born after a given day.”

    “This enterprise is for the young,—­for those who can follow it up
    and bear it through to its consummation.  It shall have all my
    prayers.”