of that audacity which is indispensable in a place so
eminent, whatever may be the form of government. The slightest event makes
him lose his balance, and he does not even know how to disguise the
impression which he receives.... He has made himself ill, and has grown
ten years older."

Jefferson had energy and audacity,--but he was energetic and audacious only
by fits and starts. He was too sensitive, too full of ideas, too
far-sighted, too conscious of all possible results for a man of action.
During the last three months of his term he made no attempt to settle the
difficulties in which the country was involved, declaring that he felt
bound to do nothing which might embarrass his successor. But it may be
doubted if he did not unconsciously decline the task rather from its
difficulty than because he felt precluded from undertaking it.
Self-knowledge was never Mr. Jefferson's strong point.

But he had done his best, and if his scheme had failed, the failure was
not an ignoble one. He was still the most beloved, as well as the best
hated man in the United States; and he could have had a third term, if he
would have taken it.

He retired, permanently, as it proved, to Monticello, wearied and
harassed, but glad to be back on his farm, in the bosom of his family, and
among his neighbors. His fellow-citizens of Albemarle County desired to
meet the returning President, and escort him to his home; but Mr.
Jefferson, characteristically, avoided this demonstration, and received
instead an address, to which he made a reply that closed in a fit and
pathetic manner his public career. "... The part which I have acted on the
theatre of public life has been before them [his countrymen], and to their
sentence I submit it; but the testimony of my native county, of the
individuals who have known me in private life, to my conduct in its
various duties and relations, is the more grateful as proceeding from
eyewitnesses and observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my
neighbors, I may ask in the face of the world, 'whose ox have I taken, or
whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I
received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?' On your verdict I rest
with conscious security."

XII

A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE

Jefferson's second term as President ended March 4, 1809, and during the
rest of his life he lived at Monticello, w