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On the opposite side there was another brass plate with an inscription recording the fact that the hallowed remains of Virginia's beloved and illustrious son had been restored to her by New York in a most noble manner. When the "World" correspondent, on the 27th ult., came to examine the monument closely, it was found that this plate had been broken off and stolen. There is no clue to the vandal who wrought the sacrilege, and, curiously enough, the precise language of the inscription has eluded the "World's" close search in Richmond, not even its author, Colonel Geo. Wythe Munford, being able to reproduce it.

"Over and around this rather odd monument is a huge fancy bird-cage, a Gothic temple twelve feet long, nine feet wide, and twenty feet high, four pillars resting upon a foundation of dressed Virginia granite and supporting a peaked roof. It might be endurable but for the ornamental grating of cast-iron which fills in the ends and sides, with interstices so small that one has to place his face against the bars to see the monument within. This bird-cage is painted drab and sanded. It received its last coat three years ago, and is now dull and dirty; and the base of the north-western pillar is fractured and discolored with rust. Mr. Albert Leybrock, a German architect, still residing at Richmond, designed the temple, and probably the monument, receiving thirty dollars for his work. The plot is laid in grass without a tree or shrub, but round it without are beds of gay flowers, a luxuriant shrubbery, and massive oaks and other trees, older than Monroe or the city of Richmond itself."

CHAF

CHAPTER XXX.

PUBLIC WORK AND CHARACTER OF MR. MONROE,

THE

HE fair-minded Edwin Williams wrote as follows of Mr. Monroe :

:

"In his personal appearance Mr. Monroe was tall and well formed, being about six feet in stature, with light complexion and blue eyes. His countenance had no indications of superior intellect, but an honesty and firmness of purpose which commanded respect, and gained favor and friendship. He was laborious and industrious, and, doubtless, compensated in some degree by diligence for slowness of thought and want of imagination. His talents, however, were respectable, and he was a fine specimen of the old school of Virginia gentlemen, generous, hospitable, and devoted to his country, which he did not hesitate to serve to the utmost of his ability, through a long life, and his career was highly honorable, useful, and worthy of admiration."

Richard Rush, himself one of the most worthy and patriotic men of his day, who had very exalted notions of his country and the Administration under which he served, wrote in the following strain of Mr. Monroe and his Cabinet :

"It was with a full sense of responsibility that I entered upon its duties (of the mission to England). I was sustained by remembering who were at the head of my own Government. In President Monroe his country recognized a patriot and sage. Time and long service had consecrated his virtues and talents. A chivalrous officer of the Revolution, his youthful blood had been poured out on the plains of Trenton. To the careful study of history and government he added a participation in the business of legislative halls, and that of diplomacy, at home and abroad.

Perfectly acquainted with the foreign policy of the United States, as with their domestic concerns; elevated in all his principles; just, magnanimous, self-controlled, few countries ever possessed a chief magistrate better qualified to administer its affairs with wisdom, or more exempt from passions to mislead.

"First of his Cabinet, as regarded every thing foreign, stood Mr. Secretary Adams, a statesman of profound and various knowledge. He had received the best education that Europe and his own country could bestow, and from early life had been practiced in affairs. Minister at several of the Courts of Europe, favorable opportunities were before him of studying their policy, and a superior capacity enabled him to improve his opportunities. Thus gifted and trained as a statesman, he was accomplished as a scholar, fervent as a patriot, and virtuous as a man.

"For the remainder of the Cabinet of the United States there were Mr. Secretary Crawford, of the Treasury Department; Mr. Secretary Calhoun, of the War Department; Mr. Secretary Thompson, and afterwards Mr. Secretary Southard, of the Navy Department; with Mr. Attorney-General Wirt, men whose abilities gave further assurance to those in the foreign service of the country that her interests would not be overlooked.”

In 1864, Joshua Leavitt, whose historic knowledge did not qualify him very well for putting men in their right places, according to their work, wrote in "Harper's Magazine" as follows:

"The period of Mr. Monroe's Administration, from the 4th of March, 1817, to the 4th of March, 1825, is justly regarded as the golden age of our political history. It will be well for the present generation to make themselves familiar with its incidents and their lessons. It was the transition period between the patriotic devotion of the Revolution, and the dominant selfishness of the present day. The native sagacity with which our early statesmen baffled the diplomatic skill and intrigue of Europe, had ripened by the practical experience of thirty years in the administration of affairs. Private interests had not swelled to such enormous magnitude as to keep the ablest of our men from engaging in the public service. Party spirit had not eaten out a just concern for the honor of the country. Slavery had not extinguished patriotism in half of the States of the Union.

John Adams, Jefferson, Marshall, and others, who had been the pilots of the Nation through the stormy sea of the Revolution, and the fathers of the Constitution, were still alive. Madison, Monroe, Rufus King, William Pinkney, and many others, had participated in the organization of the Government, and shared the anxieties of the Second War of Independence;' by which, whatever else it did or failed to do, the public contempt of Europe, that had been our shield from aggression, was exchanged for the profound conviction that we were best to be let alone."

Of Mr. Monroe's mission under Washington, Mr. Leavitt actually says, as many of the Republicans said at the time :

"Looking back at his conduct from this distance of time, although his mission accomplished but little of specific results, it ought to be admitted the appointment was a fortunate one for the country, as it helped to carry us over a most perilous situation."

The fine, aristocratic old writer, Alden Bradford, left this view of Mr. Monroe :

"Mr. Monroe was not so great a philosopher as Jefferson, nor so learned as Madison; but he possessed more practical knowledge, or was more desirous of pursuing that which was useful than of adopting new theories, or of supporting his own speculative views in opposition to public opinion. He faithfully strove to defend and promote the great interests of the Republic; but sought not for impracticable good, in ways discovered only to his contemplative imagination. He had as much regard for humanity, and was as sincere a lover of his kind, as Mr. Jefferson; but he followed more truly the beaten path of common sense, and adhered more cautiously to the plain maxims sanctioned by experience, and shown by past history to be essential to the welfare of society."

In his famous Boston eulogy on Monroe, John Quincy Adams says, in speaking of his Presidency :

"There behold him for a term of eight years, strengthening his country for defense by a system of combined fortifications, military and naval, sustaining her rights, her dignity and honor

abroad; soothing her dissensions, and conciliating her acerbities at home; controlling by a firm, though peaceful, policy the hostile spirit of the European Alliance against republican Southern America; extorting by the mild compulsion of reason, the shores of the Pacific from the stipulated acknowledgment of Spain; and leading back the imperial autocrat of the North to his lawful boundaries, from his hastily asserted dominion over the Southern Ocean. Thus strengthening and consolidating the federative edifice of his country's Union, till he was entitled to say, like Augustus Cæsar of his imperial city, that he had found her built of brick and left her constructed of marble."

S. G. Goodrich wrote the following account of Mr. Monroe, and one of his last levees, February 2, 1825:

"The apartments at the White House were thronged to repletion; for not only did all the world desire to meet and gossip over the events of the day, but this was one of the very last gatherings which would take place under the Presidency of Mr. Monroe, and which had now continued for eight years. It was the first time that I had been present at a Presidential levee, and it was, therefore, to me, an event of no ordinary excitement. The President I had seen before at Hartford, as I have told you; here, in the midst of his court, he seemed to me more dull, sleepy, and insignificant in personal appearance, than on that occasion. He was under size, his dress plain black, and a little rusty; his neck-cloth small, ropy, and carelessly tied; his frill matted, his countenance wilted with age and study and care. He was almost destitute of forehead, and what he had was deeply furrowed in two distinct arches over his eyes, which were small, gray, glimmering, and deeply set in large sockets. Altogether, his personal appearance was owlish and ordinary, without dignity, either of form or expression; indeed, I could scarce get over the idea that there was a certain look of meanness in his countenance. The lowness of his brow was so remarkable that a person in the room said to me, in looking at him, 'He has n't got brains enough to hold his hat on!' His manners, however, which were assiduously courteous, with a sort of habitual diplomatic smile upon his face, in some degree redeemed the natural indifference of his form and features. I gazed with eager curiosity at this individual, seeking