CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--Works of Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin; J. Q. Adams, _Memoirs_, I. 248-551; William Sullivan, _Familiar Letters_, 187- 289; Timothy Dwight, _Character of Thomas Jefferson_; S. G. Goodrich, _Recollections_, I. 106-137, 265-298; Basil Hall, _Voyages and Travels_; Timothy Dwight, _Travels_ (1796-1813); Thomas Ashe, _Travels_ (1806); John Mellish, _Travels_ (1806-1811); John Davis, _Travels_ (1798-1802); Isaac Weld, _Travels_; J. Stephens, _War in Disguise_.--Reprints in Mathew Carey, _The Olive Branch_; Henry Adams, _Documents Relating to New England Federalism; American History told by Contemporaries_, III. 94. THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION OF 1801. [Sidenote: Character of Jefferson.] To the mind of the Federalists the success of the Republicans, and particularly the elevation of Jefferson, meant a complete change in the government which they had been laboring to establish. Jefferson was to them the type of dangerous liberality in thought, in religion, and in government. In his tastes and his habits, his reading and investigation, Jefferson was half a century in advance of his contemporaries. Books and letters from learned men constantly came to him from Europe; he experimented in agriculture and science. Accused during his lifetime of being an atheist, he felt the attraction of religion, and, in fact, was not far removed from the beliefs held by the Unitarian branch of the Congregational Church in New England. Brought up in an atmosphere of aristocracy, in the midst of slaves and inferior white men, his political platform was confidence in human nature, and objection to privilege in every form. Although a poor speaker, and rather shunning than seeking society, he had such influence over those about him that no President has ever so dominated the two Houses of Congress. [Sidenote: Jefferson's faults.] Jefferson's great defect was a mistaken view of human nature: this showed itself in an unfortunate judgment of men, which led him to include among his friends worthless adventurers like Callender. As a student and a philosopher, he believed that mankind is moved by simple motives, in which self-interest is predominant: hence his disinclination to use force against insurrections; the people, if left to themselves, would, he believed, return to reason. Hence, also, his confidence in a policy of commercial restriction against foreign countries which ignored our neutral rights; this was set forth in his commercial report of 1793 (§ 85), and later was the foundation of his disastrous embargo policy (§ 103). He had entire confidence in his own judgment and statesmanship; his policy was his own, and was little affected by his advisers; and he ventured to measure himself in diplomacy against the two greatest men of his time,-- William Pitt the younger and Napoleon Bonaparte. [Sidenote: Moderate policy.]