He was fond of reading, but his favorite study was man. "He made choice of human nature for the object of his thoughts." To this predilection did he owe that consummate knowledge of the human character, and those practical lessons of wisdom (of so much consequence in the conduct of life) which gave him rank among the "wisest and best." There is no surer test of merit than is found in the favorable opinions of the wise and the good, formed in the unrestricted freedom of social intercourse, when the seal of reserve is unloosed, and neither the pride of ostentation nor the dread of criticism or censure invites to concealment. Impressed with this truth, with a view to impart deeper interest to this sketch, by stamping the seal of verity upon the high and noble traits it portrays, recourse is had to the correspondence of eminent and distinguished statesmen, to whom all the avenues of knowledge were opened by close intimacy and long association in public life. Thomas Jefferson, whose monument is to be found in the Declaration of Independence, and in the enduring popular veneration which he so largely shared, but a few weeks after his first inauguration as President of the United States, in 1801, thus writes to Mr. Macon: "And in all cases when an office becomes vacant in your State, as the distance would occasion a great delay, were you to wait to be regularly consulted, I shall be much obliged to you to recommend the best characters. There is nothing I am so anxious about as making the best possible appointments, and no case in which the best men are more liable to mislead us by yielding to the solicitations of applicants. For this reason your own spontaneous recommendation would be desirable." Thus did Mr. Jefferson stake an important portion of his administrative duties upon his high estimate of Mr. Macon's integrity and wisdom. Again, in another letter to Mr. Macon, the 24th of March, 1826, Mr. Jefferson says: "My grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the bearer of this letter, on a journey to the North, will pass two or three days, perhaps, in Washington. I cannot permit him to do this without presenting him to a friend of so long standing, whom I consider as the strictest of our models of genuine republicanism. Let him be able to say, when you are gone, but not forgotten, that he had seen Nathaniel Macon, upon whose tomb will be written, '_Ultimus Romanorum!_' I only ask you to give him a hearty shake of the hand, on my account, as well as his own, assuring you he merits it as a citizen, to which I will add my unceasing affection to yourself." * * * * * * *