istened to counsel, no doubt; but taking
it was another matter. He certainly did not take it if it did not suit
him; and if it was not likely to suit him, he was in no hurry to ask for
it. It was in his own fertile brain, not in the suggestions of others,
that important measures had their birth. That trait in his character
which phrenologists have named secretiveness largely governed his
actions. It was natural for him to bring things about quietly and
skillfully by setting others to do what he wanted done, without himself
being seen, though sometimes there was no other motive than the mere
gratification of secretiveness. He preferred often to suggest measures
quietly to congressmen rather than to Congress, though the result in
either case might be the same. At other times, where the end to be
attained was of great importance and he was absolutely sure only of
himself, he boldly took the responsibility, as he did in the purchase of
Louisiana, and in the suppression of the Monroe-Pinckney treaty with
England in his second term. It is not surprising, therefore, that
Madison's part, during the eight years of Jefferson's presidency, is
found to be more a secondary one than is usual with a secretary of
state, or than was usual with him. He was in perfect accord with his
chief, who held always in the highest esteem his knowledge and judgment,
and sought, no doubt, his sound and moderate advice when he thought he
needed advice from anybody. But Madison's influence is less visible in
Jefferson's administration than in Washington's, when he was in the
opposition. Washington, where he doubted his own ability to decide a
question and felt the need of enlightenment, was accustomed to call in
Madison, though he did not always accept his friend's conclusions. It
was rarely that Jefferson was troubled with any doubt of his own
judgment in the discussion or decision of any question that might come
before him.

The most important measure of his administration was peculiarly his own,
and when once determined upon it was pushed to a conclusion with vigor
and courage. Nobody doubts now, or has doubted since the abolition of
slavery, that the purchase of Louisiana was an act of sound
statesmanship. Jefferson did not foresee that the acquisition of that
fertile territory would stimulate a domestic trade in slaves, as
profitable to the slave-breeding as to the slave-consuming States; or
that, as slavery increased and brought prosperity and po