The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

2ET. 65.] LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 521
his journeys between Monticello and Philadelphia, to
attend Congress at two regular sessions and one extra
session before Washington's death, he never paid him
a visit nor saw him after they separated at the time of
Mr. Adams's inauguration.
A decisive judgment on this subject ought not to
be formed, however, without considering the position in
which Mr. Jefferson was placed, and his own testimony.
As the head of a party opposed to the administration,
he was the centre of action to that party; and he would
necessarily be led to remark on public transactions, and
to express his disapprobation of them. At such times,
his conversation may have been misinterpreted by his
watchful opponents as applying to Washington, when
in reality he had in view only the system of measures to
which he gave his support. If it is difficult in this case
to separate the measures from the man, and the censure
of the one from that of the other, it must be remembered, that the difficulty is inherent in the case itself,
and that there was no other way by which Mr. Jefferson
could escape from it, entertaining such opinions as he
did, than by abstaining altogether from speaking on
public affairs. This forbearance was not to be expected,
nor was it to be required of him, more than of any
other person.
Again, Mr. Jefferson has affirmed that no correspondence took place between him and Washington, during
the interval in which none has been found among the
papers of the latter; that he always believed him to
be firmly attached to the republican principles of the
constitution, and determined to sustain them at all hazards; and that neither in the letter to Mazzei, nor on
any other occasion, did he intend to include Washington
among those, whom he charged with moulding the
government into monarchical and aristocratical forms.
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