we! suppose that I was the focus of all eyes. I was relieved, however, from the embarrassment of it, by the Swedish and Dutch ministers, who came to me and entertained me in a very agreeable conversation during the whole time. Some other gentlemen, whom I had seen before, came to make their compliments too; until the Marquis of Carmarthen returned and desired me to go with him to his majesty. I went with his lordship through the levee room into the king's closet. The door was shut, and I was left with his majesty and the secretary of state alone. I made the three reverences; one at the door, another about half way, and the third before the presence, according to the usage established at this, and all the northern courts of Europe, and then addressed myself to his majesty in the following words: Sir, the United States of America have appointed me their minister plenipotentiary to your majesty, and have directed me to deliver to your majesty this letter, which contains the evidence of it. It is in obedience to their express commands, that I have the honor to assure your majesty of their unanimous disposition and desire to cultivate the most friendly and liberal intercourse between your majesty's subjects and their citizens, and of their best wishes for your majesty's health and happiness, and for that of your royal family.

"The appointment of a minister from the United States to your majesty's court, will form an epoch in the history of England and America. I think myself more fortunate than all my fellow-citizens, in having the distinguished honor to be the first to stand in your majesty's royal presence, in a diplomatic character; and I shall esteem myself the happiest of men, if I can be instrumental in recommending my country more and more to your majesty's royal benevolence, and of restoring an entire esteem, confidence, and affection, or in better words, "the old good nature and the old good harmony," between people, who, though separated by an ocean, and under different governments, have the same language, a similar religion, and kindred blood. I beg your majesty's permission to add, that although I have sometimes before been intrusted by my country, it was never in my whole

life in a manner so agreeable to myself. The king listened to every word I said, with dignity, it is true, but with apparent emotion. Whether it was the nature of the interview, or whether it was my visible agitation, for I felt more than I did or could express, that touched him, I cannot say, but he was much affected, and answered me with more tremor than I had spoken with, and said, 'Sir-The circumstances of this audience are so extraordinary, the language you have now held is so extremely proper, and the feelings you have discovered, so justly adapted to the occasion, that I must say, that I not only receive with pleasure the assurances of the friendly disposition of the people of the United States, but that I am very glad the choice has fallen upon you to be their minister. I wish you, Sir, to believe, and that it may be understood in America, that I have done nothing in the late contest, but what I thought myself indispensably bound to do, by the duty which I owed to my people. I will be frank with you. I was the last to conform to the separation but the separation having been made, and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States, as an independent power. The moment I see such sentiments and language as yours prevail, and a disposition to give this country the preference, that moment I shall say, let the circumstances of language, religion, and blood, have their natural and full effect."

"I dare not say that these were the king's precise words, and it is even possible that I may have, in some particular, mistaken his meaning; for although his pronunciation is as distinct as I ever heard, he hesitated sometimes between his periods, and between the members of the same period. He was indeed much affected, and I was not less so, and therefore I cannot be certain that I was so attentive, heard so clearly, and understood so perfectly, as to be confident of all his words or sense; this I do say that the foregoing is his majesty's meaning, as I then understood it, and his own words, as nearly as I can recollect them.

"The king then asked me, whether I came last from France; an upon my answering in the affirmative, he put

on an air of familiarity, and smiling, or rather laughing, said, 'There is an opinion among some people, that you are not the most attached of all your countrymen to the manners of France.' I was surprised at this, because I thought it an indiscretion, and a descent from his dignity. I was a little embarrassed, but determined not to deny the truth on one hand, nor leave him to infer from it any attachment to England on the other. I threw off as much gravity as I could, and assumed an air of gayety and a tone of decision, as far as it was decent, and said, 'That opinion, Sir, is not mistaken. I must avow to your majesty I have no attachment but to my own country.' The king replied, as quick as lightning, An honest man will never have any other.'

"The king then said a word or two to the secretary of state, which, being between them, I did not hear; and then turned round and bowed to me, as is customary with all kings and princes, when they give the signal to retire. I retreated, stepping backwards, as is the etiquette, and making my last reverence at the door of the chamber, I went my way; and the master of ceremonies joined me at the moment of my coming out of the king's closet, and accompanied me through all the apartments down to my carriage. Several stages of servants, gentlemen porters, and under-porters, roared out like thunder as I went along, 'Mr. Adams's servants, Mr. Adams's carriage,'" &c.

In 1788, having been absent nine years, he returned to America, landing in Boston the 17th of June. In March, 1789, the new constitution of the United States went into operation, and Mr. Adams became the first vicepresident, which office he held during the whole of Washington's administration. On the resignation of Washington, John Adams became, March 4, 1797, president of the United States. He occupied this station four years, and then was succeeded by Mr. Jefferson, who was elected by a majority of one vote only. This was the termination of his public functions; and he spent the remainder of his days upon his farm in Quincy, occupying himself with agriculture, and obtaining amusement from the literature and politics of the day. He died on the fourth of July, 1826, with the same words on his lips, which

fifty years before, on that day, he had uttered on the floor of Congress-" Independence forever." His principal publications are, Letters on the American Revolution-Defence of the American Constitutions—an Essay on Canon and Feudal Law-a Series of Letters under the signature of Novanglaus-and Discourses on Davila.

THOMAS JEFFERSON,

THIRD president of the United States of America, under the constitution of 1789. He passed two years at the College of William and Mary, but his education was principally conducted by private tutors. He adopted the law as his profession. He was a member of the legislature of Virginia, from 1769 to the commencement of the American revolution. In 1775 he was a delegate in Congress from Virginia. May 15, 1776, the convention of Virginia instructed their delegates to propose to Congress a declaration of independence. In June, Mr. Lee made the motion for such a declaration in Congress, and it was voted that a committee be appointed to prepare one. The committee was elected by ballot, and consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The Declaration was exclusively the work of Mr. Jefferson, to whom the right of drafting it belonged as chairman of the committee, though amendments and alterations were made in it, by Adams, Franklin, and other members of the committee, and afterwards by Congress. Mr. Jefferson retired from Congress in September, 1776, and took a seat in the legislature of Virginia, in October. In 1779, he was chosen governor of Virginia, and held the office two years. He declined a foreign appointment in 1776, and again in 1781. He accepted the appointment of one of the commissioners for negotiating peace, but before he sailed, news was received of the signing the

provisional treaty, and he was excused from proceeding on the mission. He returned to Congress. In 1784, he wrote notes on the establishment of a money-unit, and of a coinage for the United States He proposed the money-system now in use. In May, 1784, he was appointed, with Adams and Franklin, a minister plenipotentiary to negotiate treaties of commerce with foreign nations. In 1785, he was ap pointed minister to the French court. In 1789, he returned to America, and received from Washington the appointment of secretary of state, which he held till December, 1793, and then resigned. On some appointment being offered him by Washington, in September, 1794, he replied to the secretary, "No circumstances will ever more tempt me to engage in anything public." Notwithstanding this determination he suffered himself to be a candidate for president, and was chosen vice-president in 1796. At the election in 1801, he and Aaron Burr having an equal number of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives, after a severe struggle, finally decided in his favor. He was re-elected in 1805. At the end of his second terin, he retired from office. He died July 4, 1826, at one o'clock in the afternoon, just fifty years from the date of the Declaration of Independence, aged 83. Preparations had been made throughout the United States to celebrate this day, as a jubilee; and it is a most remarkable fact, that on the same day, John Adams, a signer with Jefferson of the Declaration, and the second on the committee for drafting it, and his immediate predecessor in the office of president, also died. Mr. Jefferson's publications were, Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1774; Declaration of Independence, 1776; Notes on Virginia, 1781; Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the use of the Senate; Life of Captain Lewis, 1814; some papers in Am. Phil. Trans. IV. His works, chiefly letters, were published by his grandson, Thomas Jeffersor Randolph, 4 vols. 8vo., 1829