Entering now the stormy period of the Missouri Debate, we have one
declaration from Jefferson which, at first, surprises and pains us,--the
opinion given in a letter to Lafayette, that spreading slavery will
"dilute the evil everywhere, and facilitate the means of getting rid of
it." The mistake is gross indeed. To all of us, with the political
knowledge forced upon us by events since Jefferson's death, it seems
atrocious. But unpardonable as such a theory is _now_, was it so _then_?

Jefferson had not before him the experience of these last forty years of
weakness and poverty and barbarism in our new Slave States,--and of that
tenacity of life which slavery shares with so many other noxious growths.
Hastily, then, he broached this opinion. Let it stand; and let the remark
on "geographical lines," and the two or three severe criticisms of
Northern men, wrested from him in the excitement of the Missouri struggle,
be tied to it and given to the Oligarchs. These expressions were drawn
from him in his old age,--in his vexation at unfair attacks,--in his
depression at the approach of poverty,--in his suffering under the
encroachments of disease. Any one of those bold declarations in the vigor
of his manhood will forever efface all memory of them.

The opinion expressed by Jefferson, at the same period, that "the General
Government cannot interfere with slavery in the States," all our parties
now accept--as a _peace_ policy; but if we are forced into an opposite
_war_ policy, let our generals remember Jefferson's declaration as to the
taking of his slaves by Cornwallis: "_Had this been to give them their
freedom, he would have done right_."

But there is one letter which all Northern statesmen should ponder. It
warns them solemnly, for it was written a very short time before
Jefferson's death;--it warns them sharply, for it struck one whom the
North has especially honored. This son of the North had made a well-known
unfortunate speech in Congress, and had sent it to Jefferson. In his
answer the old statesman declares,--

"On the question of the lawfulness of slavery, that is, _of the
right of one man to appropriate to himself the faculties of
another without his consent, I certainly retain my early
opinions_. On that, however, of third persons to interfere between
the parties, and the effect of Constitutional modifications of
that pretension, we are probably nearer together."

There was a blow