THOMAS JEFFERSON 595 tinder the guns of the enemy, returning with- out the loss of a man, and the Tripolitans were compelled to sue for peace. The acquisition of Louisiana, the naval victories, and the gen- eral prosperity throughout the nation, greatly increased the popularity of the administration ; and Jefferson was reflected, with George Clin- ton of New York for vice president, for the term- commencing March 4, 1805, by a majority of 148 out of 176 electoral votes. In 1806 Jefferson was called upon to arrest Aaron Burr for treasonable operations in the southwest. (See BURR.) The former position of the ac- cused, and his prominence before the country, rendered the trial one of deep interest. It soon took a political complexion, and the oppo- nents of the administration bitterly inveighed against the anxiety displayed by the president to procure a conviction. At the same time the country was powerfully excited by the loss of its profitable foreign trade as a neutral, through the British orders in council and Na- poleon's Berlin decree, blockading European ports; and still more by the "right of search" asserted by Great Britain, under color of which American vessels were boarded, and their sailors impressed as subjects of the king. This wrong had been persistently opposed, but the claim was never relinquished. When, in June, 1807, the American frigate Chesapeake was fired upon by the British ship Leopard, and four of her crew were seized as deserters, the coun- try was in a flame, and the president issued his proclamation, interdicting the entrance of British armed vessels into the ports or waters of the United States. In consequence of the continued hostile policy of France and Eng- land, congress in December passed an act lay- ing an embargo upon American vessels, which were forbidden to leave any port of the United States. This law was violently opposed by the federal party, but it was declared by the friends of the president to be intended as only temporary; and in February, 1809, con- gress repealed it from and after the 4th of the ensuing March, substituting an act of non-in- tercourse with France and England. At this point in the history of the country Jefferson retired from office, and terminated his politi- cal career. He remained in retirement ever afterward, employing his time in the perform- ance of his various duties as the head of a large plantation. In 1817 he took an active part in"4he measures then set on foot to estab- lish the " central college " near Charlottesville, now the university of Virginia. In 1819 he superintended the erection of the building, and in the same year v.'as chosen rector. The leading part which he took in founding this great institution was a subject of peculiar pride with him, and he directed " Father of the university of Virginia " to be inscribed upon his tombstone. In the spring of 1826, his for- tunes having become greatly embarrassed by the generous scale of his expenditures and the profuse hospitality at Monticello, he was em- powered by the legislature to dispose of his estates by lottery, with a view to the discharge of his liabilities. But the project was sus- pended, and then abandoned. His health had long been failing, and in June he rapidly de- clined. As midnight approached on July 3, he was evidently dying, but retained his mem- ory, and muttered, "This is the fourth of July." He lived until past noon on the suc- ceeding day, July 4, 1826, when he expired, a few hours before John Adams. On the same day and nearly at the same hour, just half a century before, these two great men had at- tached their signatures to the Declaration of Independence ; and the coincidence of their death made a deep impression on the country. Jefferson was an original thinker in every department of human concern, and essentially a. reformer. He had no respect for claims of right founded only upon prescription, and at- tached no decisive weight to authority. In the old house of burgesses he opposed parlia- ment upon abstract grounds which were clearly defined, and which became the bases of the subsequent struggle, inaugurated by the formal exposition of the same principles in the Dec- laration of Independence. In the general as- sembly of the state he attacked the time-hon- ored system of aristocratic and religious intol- erance, as in conflict with natural right, and for that reason wrongful, however fully acquiesced in and respected by preceding generations. He carried the rule of subjecting everything to the test of abstract reason into matters of reli- gion, venerating the moral character of Christ, but refusing belief in his divine mission. In politics he was an opponent of strong govern- ment, and maintained that the world was gov- erned too much. He was in favor of the free development and exercise of human power, so far as was consistent with the good order of society, and a jealous advocate of individualism. His aim in Virginia was to overthrow the old domination of the ruling classes, and raise the people. He carried the same principles to the study of the federal compact. Once convinced that the state rights doctrine of restriction was the true theory of the government, he fought for it with persistent energy. Thus com- menced, on the threshold of his entrance into the cabinet, the long struggle against Hamilton, the federal champion. The first measure of that great leader, the funding law, had passed ; and it was followed by the assumption of state debts, and by the United States bank, in spite of Jefferson's protest against the constitution- ality of the measure. lie did not waver, how- ever, and the republican party, long suffering a series of defeats, never found its leader want- ing, and finally in 1801 bore Jefferson triumph- antly into the presidency. His devotion to state rights was so ardent that it led him to regard Shays's insurrection as a mere trifle, which the government made itself ridiculous by opposing. He could never get rid of the idea that Hamilton wished to create a mon-
