hands of the militia, invaded by two armies, Arnold’s from the sea-board, and Cornwallis’s from the southward,—­when we were driven from Richmond and Charlottesville, and every member of my council fled to their homes, it was not the total destitution of means, but the mismanagement of them, which, in the querulous voice of the public, caused all our misfortunes.  It ended, indeed, in the capture of the whole hostile force, but not till means were brought us by General Washington’s army, and the French fleet and army.  And although the legislature, who were personally intimate with both the means and measures, acquitted me with justice and thanks, yet General Lee has put all those imputations among the romances of his historical novel, for the amusement of credulous and uninquisitive readers.  Not that I have seen the least disposition to censure you.  On the contrary, your conduct on the attack of Washington has met the praises of every one, and your plan for regulars and militia, their approbation.  But no campaign is as yet opened.  No generals have yet an interest in shifting their own incompetence on you, no army agents, their rogueries.  I sincerely pray you may never meet censure where you will deserve most praise, and that your own happiness and prosperity may be the result of your patriotic services.

Ever and affectionately yours.

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CXXI.—­TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 14, 1815

TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.

Monticello, February 14, 1815.

Mr Dear Friend,

Your letter of August the 14th has been received and read, again and again, with extraordinary pleasure.  It is the first glimpse which has been furnished me of the interior workings of the late unexpected but fortunate revolution of your country.  The newspapers told us only that the great beast was fallen; but what part in this the patriots acted, and what the egoists, whether the former slept while the latter were awake to their own interests only, the hireling scribblers of the English press said little, and knew less.  I see now the mortifying alternative under which the patriot there is placed, of being either silent, or disgraced by an association in opposition with the remains of Bonaparteism.  A full measure of liberty is not now perhaps to be expected by your nation; nor am I confident they are prepared to preserve it.  More than a generation will be requisite, under the administration of reasonable laws favoring the progress of knowledge in the general mass of the people, and their habituation to an independent security of person and property, before they will be capable of estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a sacred adherence to the principles on which it rests for preservation.  Instead of that liberty which takes root and growth in the progress of reason, if recovered by mere force or accident, it becomes,