BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES and ANECDOTES of some of the most eminent PUBLIC CHARACTERS in the United States.

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Thomas Jefferson-James Madison-John Adams -Aaron Burr-Blanner hasset-General Hamilton-John Randolph-Gardenier - Albert Gallatin-Thomas Addis Emmet - General Moreau-Madame Jerome Bonaparte-Robert R. Livingston-Joel Barlow-Chief Justice Jay -Commodore Barron-Dr. Mitchill-General Pinckney-James Munroe-Commerce of the United States-Exports and Imports for 1807 -Duties upon Imports at the principal Sea-port Towns-Salaries of the principal Officers of the Government-Names of the separate States belonging to the Federal Republic-General statistical View of the United States for a period of Twenty Years.

MR. JEFFERSON.

THE character of this gentleman has been placed in such opposite lights by his friends and enemies,

that it is difficult for an impartial person to ascertain which side is most entitled to credit. From one party he has experienced the grossest flattery, and from the other the most malignant invective; by the one he is described as the wisest and most virtuous of men, by the other he is denounced as a traitor to his country. Now in a nation like the United States, where party spirit and prejudice repeatedly burst asunder the strictest bonds of friendship, and even family union, facts will be exaggerated to suit the views of the contending parties; and where facts cannot be found, invention will necessarily supply their place. To hear both sides of the question, and to take the medium, is, in such cases, perhaps, the most likely method of coming at the truth; but in the conduct of public characters there will always be circumstances that will speak for themselves, independent of the flattery of friends, or of the calum. niating prejudice of enemies. Without entering, therefore, into the cabals of either party, I shall endeavour to set before the reader those plain facts and circumstances in the course of Mr. Jefferson's public career, that will best explain his real character, and show whether he merits the applauses or execrations which have been so abundantly bestowed upon him.

Mr. Jefferson is a native of Virginia, and said to be between fifty and sixty years of age. In his

person
he is tall and of slender make; possessed
of a fresh complexion, and of a clear and pene-
trating eye. His manners and deportment are
modest and affable. An enemy to luxury and
parade,' he lives at Monticello in the simple and
negligent style of a man wholly devoted to rural
and philosophical pursuits. When the sitting of
Congress required his presence at Washington,
he carried with him the same negligent simpli-
city. In the plainest garb, and unattended even
by a single negro, he would ride up to his splendid
mansion, tie his horse to the paling, and immedi
ately receive the visits of the foreign ministers and
others who had business to transact with him.
This appearance of republican simplicity so much
praised by Mr. Jefferson's admirers is, however,
more the offspring of a philosophical spirit than
an unambitious mind. What cares a man of
learning and research for dress or appearances? He
prides himself upon despising them; but he has
not the less ambition for that. So it has been with
Mr. Jefferson, who upon various occasions during
his public career, while he carried the outward
air of an unassuming patriot, was secretly em-
ployed in promoting his own aggrandizement.

With respect to the charge brought against
Mr. Jefferson for deserting the government of
Virginia at the most critical period of the revo
lutionary war, it has been flatly contradicted by

some, and is at best but feebly supported by his opponents. At all events, he is not the first patriotic philosopher and orator, who, when the enemy appeared, abandoned his trust and fled from the danger that surrounded him.

His resignation of the office of Secretary of State in 1794, previous to the western insurrec tion, is less favourable to his reputation than even the abandonment of his post in Virginia, if we can put any faith in the intercepted dispatches of the French minister Fauchet. Speaking of the probability of the insurrection (which afterwards took place), Fauchet says, "Jefferson, on whom the patriots cast their eyes to succeed the president (Washington), had foreseen this crisis: he prudently retired, in order to avoid making a figure against his inclination in scenes the secret of which will soon or late be brought to light." These instances (says an American writer) show Mr.Jefferson to want firmness; and a man who shall once have abandoned the helm in the hour of danger, or at the appearance of a tempest, seems not fit to be trusted in better times; for no one can know how soon, or from whence, a storm may come.

The great and principal accusation, however, against Mr. Jefferson is, that he promoted the revolutionary war, opposed the British treaty, and became the determined enemy of Great Britain, in order to cancel the debts which he and his family