his sister, Mrs. Carr, who, with great difficulty, got him into his library, where he fainted, and remained so long insensible that they feared he would never revive. The scene that followed I did not witness; but the violence of his emotion-when almost by stealth I entered his room at night-to this day I dare not trust myself to describe. He kept his room three weeks, and I was never a moment from his side. He walked almost incessantly night and day, only lying down occasionally when nature was completely exhausted, on a pallet that had been brought in during his long fainting fit. When at last he left his room, he rode out, and from that time he was almost incessantly on horseback, rambling about the mountain in the least frequented roads, and just as often through the woods."

On the 10th of March, 1785, Jefferson succeeded Dr. Benjamin Franklin as Minister at the Court of France. In February, 1797, he was elected Vice-President under John Adams, the second President. On the 4th of March, 1801, he was inaugurated President of the United States, with Aaron Burr as VicePresident. The population of the United States at this date was 5,305,925, having grown from about 3,000,000, which was the estimated population in 1776. Mr. Jefferson's theory of civil service could not but meet with the indorsement of all

sensible men. He did not propose to remove men from office simply because the representatives of new ideas were called to power. He thought all civil servants should be submitted to these three tests: 1st. Is he honest? 2d. Is he capable? 3d. Is he faithful to the Constitution? Nothing could be wiser than this. A nation served by honest, capable, patriotic men, has everything to hope, and nothing to fear.

On the 30th of April, 1803, Louisiana was purchased at a cost of 60,000,000 frances. Some denounced this purchase as a reckless waste of money. But the years that have passed since then have shown the great wisdom of the course. One of Thomas Jefferson's biographers speaks in the following judicious terms of his administration:

"Mr. Jefferson grew in popularity and influence during his whole

administration. He served as President in stormy times, but carried the ship of state into peaceful waters. Even a hasty study of his, and the earlier administrations, shows how much the people had to learn to be self-governing. They felt their way blindly-even those who governed for the most part. The people were sensitive, critical, suspicious, excitable. Little evils portended destruction; trifles were likely to upset the government; a new idea startled many; the faces of many were always turned backward for examples, and if any took a forward look it frightened them. Mr. Jefferson looked forward, and hoped for better things in the future than the past had known. He was constitutionally a reformer. He tried experiments and took new ways of doing things. He was no worshiper of the past. When he looked back he saw so many horrible things in the oppressions and sufferings of humanity, that he shuddered. He was humane, and believed in humanity; in the equal rights of men; in fair dealing, and the helpfulness of governments and the higher classes of men. He honored human nature, and believed the natural order of things was good. He wanted to abolish slavery, and caste, and titles, and official dignities, and recognize plain worth and true merit only as conferring the dignity worth knowing."

Thomas Jefferson was one of the finest looking men of his day. The following description of him and of his habits when a young man, will be read with interest.

"He was tall and slender in comparison, standing six feet two inches in height. His face, though angular and far from beautiful, beamed with intelligence, with benevolence, and with the cheerful vivacity of a happy, hopeful spirit. His complexion was ruddy and fair; his hair was chestnut, of a reddish tinge, fine and soft; his eyes of a hazel gray. He was lithe, active, graceful. His manners were simple and cordial. In conversation he was peculiarly agreeable, so much so, that in later years his enemies attributed to him a seductive influence through his art and charm of speech. Possessing these accomplishments, he avoided the vices of the young Virginia gentry of the day. He did not gamble, or drink, or use tobacco, or swear. He had an aversion to strong drink, and was temperate at the table. With frankness, heartiness, humane sympathies and sanguine hopeful

ness, he had strong personal influence over those who came near him. This was Thomas Jefferson at twenty-four."

On the 4th of July, 1826, half a century after the Declaration of Independence had rung out its clear message to the world and to the ages yet to come, Thomas Jefferson, at the good old age of eighty-three, bade farewell to earth. His last words were: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." On this same day as is elsewhere recorded-John Adams died. So in one hour, the second and third Presidents of the United States passed from toil and care to rest and peace.

JAMES MADISON.

OF VIRGINIA. BORN 1751; DIED 1836. PRESIDENT 1809-1817.

Fourth President of the United States.

HE public life of James Madison extended over one of the most important periods of American history. The times were great, and great men were needed, and James Madison was equal to, and worthy of the times. Not long ago a young student being asked to point out some of the chief characteristics of James Madison, humorously replied, that two would suffice. "First of all," said he, 'Madison could not make a speech, and next, he would not treat, and so he lost his seat in the legislature of Virginia." This was rather a strange way of setting forth the character of our fourth president, but there was truth and suggestiveness in the delineation. James Madison was not gifted with great oratorical powers, and if his success had depended on his power to make "the worse appear the better reason," he would most assuredly have failed. He could not cajole the people with eloquent speech, and he was too upright and had too much respect for himself to buy them with whiskey. If that was the price he had to pay for the confidence of the people, then the confidence of the people was altogether too dear.

James Madison, son of James and Eleanor Madison, was born at King George, Virginia, on the 16th of March, 1751. He was descended from a good English family who emigrated to this country shortly after the crew of the "Mayflower" had landed on Plymouth Rock. His father's home was at Mont

pelier, in Orange county. James was born at the house of his maternal grandmother, but the young life of the future president was spent, for the most part, at Montpelier. He was happily placed where the advantages of a good liberal education were close at hand; and his father had the necessary means, and further still, the ardent desire to give his son the best education the times afforded. For some reason his parents thought that there were greater advantages at Princeton College, New Jersey, than at Williamsburg for their studious son, and so to Princeton he went in the year 1769, and in the eighteenth year of his age. Not unfrequently a young pupil in the first enthusiasm of college life forms an estimate of college professors bordering on reverence; he thinks they know everything, and certainly if most professors were only half as wise as they look, they would be very wise indeed. Dr. Witherspoon, the President of Princeton College, soon won the reverence of his young pupil, and it is to be very much questioned if James Madison ever believed as fully in any man throughout his long life, as he did in Dr. Witherspoon. He absorbed and accepted his teachings as though they were the ne plus ultra of all scholarship. He quoted his sayings as though he were an oracle never to be disputed. If Dr. Witherspoon said so, that was enough, there was an end of all controversy. In 1772 he graduated, taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the age of twenty-one. He remained at Princeton for the best part of another year and devoted himself to the study of philosophy and the higher branches of scholarship.

In 1773 Madison returned to his Virginian home and began the study of the law. In this, as in all his previous studies, he was most thorough and painstaking. Of all the Presidents of the United States, James Madison was beyond all question the most cultured and scholarly. His was a master mind, and his vast and varied powers, cultivated to the uttermost, gave him an influence in public life that many might envy, but few could' equal. The following estimate of our fourth President from