d, and that the well-to-do and best educated class
is morally superior to the less educated. Jefferson rejected this
assumption, and all real believers in democracy must take their stand with
him. He once stated his creed upon this point in a letter as follows:--

"The moral sense or conscience is as much a part of man as his leg or
arm.... It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of
the body. This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree to the guidance
of reason, but it is a small stock which is required for this, even a less
one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and
a professor. The former will decide it as well and often better than the
latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules."

This is sound philosophy. The great problems in government, whether they
relate to matters external or internal, are moral, not intellectual. There
are, indeed, purely intellectual problems, such as the question between
free silver and a gold standard; and as to these problems, the people may
go wrong. But they are not vital. No nation ever yet achieved glory or
incurred destruction by taking one course rather than another in a matter
of trade or finance. The crucial questions are moral questions, and
experience has shown that as to such matters the people can be trusted. As
Jefferson himself said, "The will of the majority, the natural law of
every society, is the only sure guardian of the rights of man. Perhaps
even this may sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary, and
short-lived."

Washington's cabinet was made up on the theory that it should represent
not the party in power, but both parties,--for two parties already existed,
the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, who, under Jefferson's
influence, soon became known by the better name of Republicans. The
cabinet consisted of four members, Jefferson, Secretary of State,
Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox, Secretary of War, and
Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General.

Knox sided almost always with Hamilton, and Randolph was an inconstant
supporter of Jefferson. Though an able and learned man, he was given to
hair-splitting and hesitation, and, in allusion to his habit of arguing on
one side, but finally voting upon the other, Jefferson once remarked that
he usually gave the shell to his friends, and reserved the oyster for his
opponents.

The political opinions of Jefferson and Hamilton