"I solicited on a former occasion permission from the American Philosophical Society to retire from the honour of their chair, under a consciousness that distance, as well as other circumstances, denied me the power of executing the duties of the station, and that those on whom they devolved were best entitled to the honours they confer. It was the pleasure of the society, at that time, that I should remain in their service, and they have continued since to renew the same marks of their partiality. Of these I have been ever duly sensible, and now beg leave to return my thanks for them with humble gratitude. Still I have never ceased, nor can I cease, to feel that I am holding honours without yielding requital, and justly belonging to others. As the period of election is now therefore approaching, I take the occasion of begging to be withdrawn from the attention of the society at their ensuing choice, and to be permitted now to resign the office of president into their hands, which I hereby do. I shall consider myself sufficiently honoured in remaining a private member of their body, and shall ever avail myself with zeal of every occasion which may occur of being useful to them, retaining indelibly a profound sense of their past favours. I avail myself of the channel through which the last notification of the pleasure of the society was conveyed to me, to make this communication; and with the greater satisfaction, as it gratifies me with the occasion of assuring you personally of my high respect for yourself, and of the interest I shall ever take in learning that your worth and talents secure to you the successor they merit. "ROBERT M. PATERSON, "TH. JEFFERSON. "Secretary of the American Philosophical Society." The society now, as before, had manifested the wish that Mr. Jefferson would continue in the office of President, and on the present occasion this desire was the stronger, from some discordance among the members as to the choice of his successor. On being informed of these facts by Mr. Vaughan, he thus bears testimony to the merits of Dr. Wistar, who was the individual selected. "Dear Sir, Your very friendly letter of January 4 is but just received, and I am much gratified by the interest taken by yourself and others of my colleagues of the Philosophical Society, in what concerned myself on withdrawing from the presidency of the Society: my desire to do so had been so long known to every member, and the continuance of it to some, that I do not suppose it can be misunderstood by the public. Setting aside the consideration of distance, which must be obvious to all, nothing is more incumbent on the old than to know when they should get out of the way, and relinquish to younger successors the honours they can no longer earn and the duties they can no longer perform. I rejoice in the election of Dr. Wistar, and trust that his senior standing in the Society will have been considered as a fair motive of preference by those whose merits, standing alone, would have justly entitled them to the honour, and who, as juniors, according to the course of nature, may still expect their turn. I have received with very great pleasure the visit of Mr. T., and find him highly distinguished by science and good sense. He was accompanied by Mr. G., son of the late Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, of great information and promise also. It gives me ineffable comfort to see such subjects coming forward to take charge of the political and civil rights, the establishment of which has cost us such sacrifices. VOL. II. 2 D Mr. T, will be fortunate if he can get under the wing of Mr. Correa; and if the happiness of Mr. Correa requires (as I suppose it does) his return to Europe, we must sacrifice to it that which his residence here would have given us, and acquiesce under the regrets which our transient acquaintance with his worth cannot fail to embody with our future recollection of him. Of Michaux's work I possess three volumes, or rather cahiers-one on oaks, another on beeches and birches, and a third on pines. "I salute you with great friendship and respect. "JOHN VAUGHAN, Esq." 403 CHAPTER XVI. Letter to the President. To Mr. Adams. Napoleon's return to Paris. Manufactures of the United States. Letter to Benjamin Austin. To John Adams-the good and evil of life-the benefits of grief. To John Tyler. Republican Government. Instructions to Representatives. Independence of the Judiciary. County Courts of Virginia. Extension of the Right of Suffrage. Federal Executive and Senate. Letter to Mr. Crawford. The Drawback SystemRegulation of the Militia-Paper Money-Means of National Defence. 1815-1816. HAVING received from Mr. Madison, then president, a tract on the causes and consequences of the recent war, he strongly urges the following reasons for the publication of it:"1. We needed it in Europe. They had totally mistaken our character. They would see that our long forbearance arose from our moderation, and our preference of the happiness of our people to that false honour, which keeps them in eternal labour, want, and wretchedness. 2. It would undeceive the people of England as to the causes of the war, who did not entertain a doubt that it was "entirely wanton and wicked on our part, and under the orders of Bonaparte. By rectifying their ideas, it would tend to that conciliation which was absolutely necessary to the peace and prosperity of both nations." 3. It was even necessary for the people of America, deceived as they had been with misrepresentations of the federalists. He congratulates Mr. Madison on the peace, especially on the eclat with which the war was closed, and says that "the affair of New Orleans was fraught with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends, and would powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of Europe." He suggests that a separate convention would be the best mode of settling the question of impressment, rather than to blend it with a commercial treaty. And he repeatedly declared that without some provision on the subject, no treaty could be regarded as more than a truce, which would terminate with the first act of impressing an American citizen. He was at this time engaged in arranging and sending off to Washington his library, which after that belonging to Congress had been burnt with the capitol, he had offered to dispose of to the government. It contained 10,000 volumes, for which he was willing to take 20,000 dollars; and to this offer, Congress, not without some opposition, acceded. The return of Napoleon from Elba-his unmolested progress from the Mediterranean to Paris without an army, even without a body-guard —and his quietly rescating himself on the ancient throne of the Bourbons, of which they, a few days before, had appeared to be in the secure possession, had now filled all minds with astonishment, and was the theme of every tongue. From the enthusiastic attachment of the army to the chief who had so often led them to victory, and the fear of every one else, all resistance disappeared, as it were by magic; the hereditary monarch yielded up the throne of his ancestors without a struggle; and the hopes and fears of thirty millions of men, nay, of all Europe, concentred on one man, himself a pennyless unarmed exile. Of this extraordinary event, and its principal actor, Mr. Jefferson thus speaks in a letter to Mr. Adams, of June 10, 1815. "A new trial of the Bourbons has proved to the world their incompetence to the functions of the station they have |