y toward the betterment of humanity; and the great mass of
the people who to this day revere his memory, "pay a just debt of
gratitude to a friend who not only served them, as many have done, but
who honored and respected them, as very few have done."

Perhaps the greatest single act of his administration was the purchase
from France of the vast territory known as Louisiana, which included the
state now bearing that name, and the wide, untrodden, wilderness west of
the Mississippi, paying for it the sum of fifteen million dollars--a
rate of a fraction of a cent an acre. The purchase aroused the bitterest
opposition, but Jefferson seems to have had a clearer vision than most
men of what the future of America was to be. He served for two terms,
refusing a third nomination which he was besought to accept, and
retiring to private life on March 4, 1809, after a nearly continuous
public service of forty-four years. The remainder of his life was spent
quietly at his home at Monticello, where men flocked for a
guidance which never failed them. The cause to which his last years were
devoted was characteristic of the man--the establishment of a common
school system in Virginia, and the founding of the University of
Virginia, which still bears the imprint of his mind.

[Illustration: JEFFERSON]

Jefferson is one of the few men whose portrait, as preserved for us,
shows us the man as we imagine him to be. No one can look at that lofty
and noble countenance, with its calm and wide-set eyes, its firm yet
tender mouth, its expression of complete serenity, without realizing
that here was a man placed above the weakness and pettiness and meanness
of the world, on a pinnacle of his own, strong in spirit, wise in
judgment, and almost prophetic in vision.

The presidency descended, by an overwhelming majority, to one of
Jefferson's stanch friends and supporters, for whom he had paved the
way--James Madison, also a Virginian, who had been his secretary of
state for eight years, and who was himself to serve two terms, during
which the influence of the "Sage of Monticello" was paramount. The great
crisis which Madison had to face was the second war with England, a war
brought on by British aggression on the high seas, and bitterly opposed,
especially in New England. The war, characterized by blunders on land
and brilliant successes on the ocean, really resulted without victory to
either side, and, indeed, was very nearly a defeat for Ameri