"2. The supreme national legislature cannot be altered justly 'till the commonwealth is dissolved; nor a subordinate legislature taken away without forfeiture or other good cause. Nor can the subjects in the subordinate government be reduced to a state of slavery and subject to the despotic rule of others.

"3. No legislature, supreme or subordinate, has a right to make itself arbitrary.

"4. The supreme legislative cannot justly assume a power of ruling by extempore arbitrary decrees, but is bound to dispense justice by known settled rules, and by duly authorized independent judges.

"5. The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property, without his consent in person or by his representatives. "6. The legislature cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands.

"These are the bounds which by God and nature are fixed; hitherto have they a right to come, and no further:

"1. To govern by stated laws.

"2. Those laws should have no end, ultimately, but the good of the people.

"3. That taxes are not to be laid on the people but by their consent or by deputation.

"4. Their whole power is not transferable.

"These are the first principles of law and justice and the great barriers of a free State, and of the British Constitution in particular. I ask, I want no more."

This work, which in 1764 was as familiar to me as my alphabet, I had not seen for fifty-four years, and should never have seen it again if your Sketches, for which I again thank you, had not aroused me. With some pains, and as a great favor, I have obtained the loan of it for a short time. In page 73, is an elaborate and learned demonstration that all acts of Parliament laying taxes on the Colonies, without their consent, are void.

In an appendix to this work is a copy of instructions given by the City of Boston, at their annual meeting in May 1764, to their representatives, Royal Tyler, James Otis, Thomas Cushing, and Oxenbridge Thatcher, Esqrs. These instructions were drawn by Samuel Adams, who was one of the Committee appointed by the town for that purpose.

These instructions are a sample of that simplicity, purity and harmony of style which distinguished all the productions of Mr. Adams' pen. I wish I could transcribe the whole;-but the paragraph most directly to the present purpose is the following:

"But what still heightens our apprehensions is, that these unexpected proceedings may be preparatory to new taxations upon us. For, if our trade may be taxed, why not our lands? Why not the produce of our lands, and every thing we possess and make use of? This, we apprehend, annihilates our charter right to govern and tax ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which, as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our fellow subjects who are natives of Britain. If taxes are laid upon us in every shape, without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves?"

This whole work was published more than a year before Mr. Henry's resolutions were moved.

Excuse the trouble I give you, and believe me to be, sir,
Your obliged friend,

and humble servant,

JOHN ADAMS.

WILLIAM WIRT, Attorney General

of the United States, Washington.

Whilst Mr. Adams thus earnestly controverts some of the grounds taken in favor of Patrick Henry by the author of the Sketches, he gives flattering and weighty testimony to the merits of the work. That his opinion so favorably expressed in this correspondence has not been dictated by a sentiment merely of courtesy to the author, we have manifold evidence in the letters written to others, and appended to the essays of Novanglus and Massachusettensis. In one of these, to Mr. Tudor, he says, "Your judgment of Mr. Wirt's biography of my friend Mr. Henry, is in exact unison with my own. I have read it with more delight than Scott's Romances in verse and prose, or Miss Porter's Scottish Chiefs and other novels." Yet it is amusing to see, amidst the many proofs which these letters supply of kind feeling towards the author of the Sketches, how suddenly the flash of an ancient memory kindles the ardor of the veteran

patriot in the defence of his compeers; and with what jealousy he maintains their claims. "Is it not an affront," he says in another letter," to common sense, an insult to truth, virtue and patriotism, to represent Patrick Henry, though he was my friend as much as Otis,-as the father of the American Revolution, and the founder of American independence. The gentleman who has done this, sincerely believed what he wrote, I doubt not; but he ought to be made sensible that he is of yesterday, and knows nothing of the real origin of the American Revolution." The spirit, energy, and industry which these letters manifest, and especially the frequent coruscations which break forth from the depth of the writer's heart, when his theme seems to have fired some train of ancient sympathies, show us very pleasantly that the frost of eighty-two winters had not subdued, nor even chilled, the enthusiasm which took its first heat from the furnace of the Revolution. They show us, too, the characteristic temperament of his race and lineage, somewhat famous in the annals of that Puritan chivalry, which, for doughty exploit and headstrong perseverance, puts all other chivalry into the shade.

CHAPTER III.

1818.

APPOINTMENT TO THE POST OF ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE U. S.-MOTIVES FOR ACCEPTING IT.-REMOVAL OF HIS RESIDENCE TO WASHINGTON.-POLITICAL AND PERSONAL ASSOCIATIONS OF THE CABINET.-MR. MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.-REPOSE OF PARTY SPIRIT.-DUTIES OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL.-REFORMS IN THE OFFICE.-LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.

MR. WIRT's appointment to the post of Attorney General of the United States was made in the recess of Congress, on the 13th of November 1817. The nomination was sent to the Senate and confirmed on the 15th of the following December. Early in January, after this event, he repaired to Washington to enter upon the duties of his office.

His reluctance to embark in public life, which we have seen so frequently expressed in his letters, was an unaffected and matured sentiment. He coveted no political honors. His thoughts were turned towards a life which was to derive its pleasures from the domestic circle, and its fame from private pursuits. His ambition was to earn affluence and leisure from the diligent practice of his profession; and renown from the dedication of these to literary employments. He had consequently repelled every attempt heretofore, to bring him upon the political stage. In 1813, when a rumor prevailed that Mr. Giles, who was then one of the senators of Virginia in Congress, had it in contemplation to resign his seat, a general wish was expressed that Wirt would accept the appointment to the expected vacancy. The expression of this wish was equally rife when Mr. Giles did resign, in 1815. On both occasions, Mr. Wirt discountenanced all expectations on this point, by the refusal to allow his name to be presented to the Legislature for the vacancy.*

⚫ It appears that, in January, 1815, when the Virginia Legislature found itself obliged to elect a senator to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Richard

The acceptance by Mr. Rush of the mission to England, unexpectedly opened to Mr. Wirt the appointment to the attorneygeneralship. He was summoned to this post under circumstances that almost forbade a denial. The President, Mr. Monroe, had many claims upon him. He had been his early friend and patron, at a period when he stood in need of such a relation; he had the highest confidence in Wirt's ability, and a most cordial esteem for his private worth and personal qualities. There was something more, therefore, in this summons to a post in the cabinet than the ordinary and appropriate discharge of an official function. It implied, also, an appeal to a friend for the indulgence of a personal gratification, by which the toils of public administration were to be lightened of some portion of their irksomeness, and cheered by the communion of an intimate and cherished companion.

Wirt did not hesitate to accept. The post he was about to fill had as much of a professional as of a political character. The acceptance of it so far coincided with his plan of life, that it facilitated his purpose of practising in the Supreme Court of the United States, and thus gave him a more commanding access to that theatre which he had already chosen as the most desirable field for the employment of his talents.

The Attorney General, until within a few years previous to this date, had not been so closely associated with the Cabinet as he has been since. He had not, even, been required to reside at the seat of government; and was regarded more distinctly as a mere adviser on legal questions arising in the course of administration, than as a cabinet councillor charged with the duties of consultatation in matters of general concern. He was, therefore, left at liberty to pursue his practice wherever he found it most convenient, limited only in his choice, in this particular, by the exigency of his duties to the government. Mr. Pinkney, in fact, resided altogether in Baltimore during the short period of his Brent, Mr. Wirt's friends put him in nomination, in competition with that of Governor Barbour, and that the vote which resulted in the choice of Governor Barbour was a very close one. I presume that this nomination was made without Mr. Wirt's consent, and, most probably, without his knowledge: that, if he had been elected, he would have declined the appointment. I infer this not only from the general tenor of his letters, but from his known refusal to be a candidate upon the resignation of Mr. Giles, which took place in the same year as the above-mentioned proceeding.