The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, Issue 2, February, 1864 | Page 3

gratification of his wishes. His was a Vicar-of-Bray kind of logic. The
ultimate results of his dealings, as affecting others and the nation at

large, he apparently was unable to consider, or put them aside for the
time; taking it for granted, in a careless way, that all must come well.
Thus as times changed, he changed with them. Laws, measures,
customs, men, that seemed useful and praiseworthy when he was a
private individual, appeared pernicious and wicked to the Secretary of
State or to the President. His life and writings are full of
self-contradictions, or rather of self-refutations, for he seems to forget
that he had ever thought differently. Men of sense modify their
opinions as they advance in years and in wisdom, but very few men of
sense have held diametrically different opinions on almost every
important question that has come before them.
Jefferson satisfied himself early in life that slavery was wrong, morally
and economically. On no subject has he expressed himself more
decidedly. When a very young member of the Assembly of Virginia, he
seconded Colonel Bland's motion to extend the protection of the laws
to slaves. Bland was treated roughly, and the matter dropped. From
Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence a long
passage on the iniquity of slavery and the slave trade was stricken out
by Congress. In 1778 he introduced a bill prohibiting the importation of
slaves into Virginia. Two years later he wrote the well-known pages in
the 'Notes.' In 1783 it was proposed to adopt a new constitution in
Virginia; Jefferson drew one up, and inserted an article granting liberty
to all persons born of slave parents after the year 1800. From that time
his zeal began to cool. He perceived that his views were unpopular at
the South. The 'Notes' had been printed for private circulation only;
when Châstellux asked permission to publish them in France, Jefferson
consented on the condition that all passages relating to slavery should
be stricken out.[A] Although he adopted so heartily the most
extravagant doctrines of the French Revolution on the natural rights of
mankind, among which liberty, equality, fraternity certainly ranked
first, he quietly ignored the claims of the American black to a share in
the bright future that was promised to the human race. The act of
Congress prohibiting the importation of slaves came into force in 1808.
It was well received by slave owners, for it increased the value of the
homemade 'article.' Jefferson could safely approve of it. He did so

warmly. With that exception his silence on this great question was
profound during the period of his power; but he had no language too
theatrical for liberty in the abstract, nor too violent for despots who
were three thousand miles away, and with whose oppressions the
people of the United States had no concern whatever. When the debates
on the admission of Missouri brought up this ever-recurring question
again to the exclusion of all others, Jefferson spoke to sneer at the
friends of freedom. The Federalists had found out that their cherished
monarchical 'form' would get them no adherents, and so were trying to
throw a new tub to the whale by appealing to the virtuous sentiments of
the people. He was in favor of making Missouri a Slave State. To
extend the area of slavery would increase the comfort of the slaves
without adding one more to their number, and would improve their
chances for emancipation. It would also relieve Virginia from the
burden that was weighing her down--slaves being rather cheaper there
than horses--and would enable her to export her surplus crop of negroes;
perhaps eventually to dispose of them all. This last notion, by the way,
gives us a pretty good idea of Jefferson's practical knowledge of
political economy.
His chief objection to the new constitution, when he first saw it, was
the omission in it of a bill of rights providing for the 'eternal and
unremitting force of the habeas corpus act'--and for the freedom of the
press. When Colonel Burr was arrested, Jefferson, who, by the way,
showed a want of dignity and self-respect throughout the affair, was
eager to suspend the habeas corpus act, and got a bill to that effect
passed by one branch of Congress; it was lost in the other. This was the
first instance in the history of the United States. The many fine things
he had said on the integrity and independence of judges did not prevent
him from finding bitter fault with Chief-Justice Marshall for not
convicting Burr. He accused Marshall and the whole tribe of Federalists
of complicity in Burr's conspiracy. Poor old Paine, then near his end,
who was one of Jefferson's jackals of the press, informed the
Chief-Justice, through the Public Advertiser, that he was