Mr. Jefferson's fame will be
co-existent with the Government. When that shall perish, his great
errors will be apparent. The impartial historian, inquiring into the
cause of this destruction, with half an eye will see it, and then his
true character will be sketched, and this great, unprincipled demagogue
will go naked down to posterity. He has always been unprincipled,
immoral, and dissolute. These, accompanying his great intellect, have
made it a curse, rather than a blessing, to his kind.
"The world has produced few great statesmen--Washington and Hamilton
were the only ones of any pretensions this country has produced. It was
a great misfortune that Hamilton did not succeed Washington. Mr. Adams,
now lingering to his end at Braintree, was a patriot, but greatly
wanting in the attributes of greatness. He was suspicious,
ill-tempered, and full of unmanly prejudices--was incapable of
comprehending the great necessities of his country, as well as the
means to direct and control these necessities. He had animosities to
nurse, and enemies to punish--was more concerned about a proper respect
for himself and the office he filled, than the interest and the destiny
of his country.
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