you; we will buy a great gun, which is
certainly a fire engine; the Quakers can have no objection to that."

Such was the course of policy that Franklin took, as I think, to excess;
but yet I believe that no statesman of that whole century did so much to
embody the eternal rules of right in the customs of the people, and to
make the constitution of the universe the common law of all mankind; and
I cannot bestow higher praise than that, on any man whose name I can
recall. He mitigated the ferocities of war. He built new hospitals, and
improved old ones. He first introduced this humane principle into the
Law of Nations, that in time of war, private property on land shall
be unmolested, and peaceful commerce continued, and captive soldiers
treated as well as the soldiers of the captors. Generous during his
life-time, his dead hand still gathers and distributes blessings to the
mechanics of Boston, and their children. True is it that

"Him only pleasure leads and peace attends,
Whose means are pure and spotless as his ends."

But it is a great thing in this stage of the world to find a man whose
_ends_ are pure and spotless. Let us thank him for that.

* * * * *

From "Historic Americans."

=_171._= CHARACTER OF THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Of all those who controlled the helm of affairs during the time of the
Revolution, and while the Constitution and the forms of our National and
State Institutions were carefully organized, there is none who has been
more generally popular, more commonly beloved, more usually believed to
be necessary to the Legislation and Administration of his country, than
Thomas Jefferson. It may not be said of him that of all those famous men
he could least have been spared; for in the rare and great qualities for
patiently and wisely conducting the vast affairs of State and Nation in
pressing emergencies, he seems to have been wanting. But his grand merit
was this--that while his powerful opponents favored a strong government,
and believed it necessary thereby to repress what they called the
lower classes, he, Jefferson, believed in Humanity; believed in a true
Democracy. He respected labor and education, and upheld the right to
education of all men. These were the Ideas in which he was far in
advance of all the considerable men, whether of his State or of his
Nation--ideas which he illustrated through long years of his life and
conduct. The great debt that the Nation