Indiana Palladium, Volume 1, Number 20, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, 20 May 1825 — Page 2

IJYTERES TIjYG CORRESPONDENCE. The venerable Jefferson still lives, and retains his powers of mind and body to a remarkable degree. He yet writes, and his writings are yet marked with the same perspicuity of style and elevation of sentiment.

that characterized his meridian of life. He

is-at this moment one of the most interest

ing objects our country affords. He does

not belong- to the present generation, but to one that has long since faded from the

earth ; and yet he stands amongst us a living

monument of his own greatness and his country's fame. We cast our eyes upon him,

and we behold at once the young and ardent a m a t ... r . t

patriot, uniting in council with our latners to establish the liberties of our country; the

bold politician writing a declaration of in dependence, which must either give free

dom and prosperity to the nation, or, bring

destruction upon himself; the wise states

man in the meridian of life presiding over a

growing and a happy nation, and the ven

erable sage with silvery locks, far from the

scenes of public life, keeping "the noiseless

tenor of his way, and closing the last days of a long' and eventful life in building up

and fostering an extensive literary institu

tion for the instruction of the generations who are to succeed us, in order that they

may be qualified to preserve those institu

tions and political blessings, which, but for

.him, perhaps we might never have enjoyed. It is not strange that every word that drops from such a man should excite a deep interest, and that every letter drawn from him, on whatever subject, should be read with avidity. An interesting item for history is

disclosed in the following correspondence,

as it shows who were the original project

ors of those splendid political edifices of

modern days, called Constitutions.

Portland Argus-

FIRST MODERN WRITTEN CONSTITUTION. Letter from A. B. Wood-ward to President Jefferson.

Washington, March 25, 1825.

Sir I have the honor to enclose a facsimile copy of a letter received from Presi

dent Madison. He corrects an error into which he con

ceives I have fallen, in ascribing to you the

hist modern written constitution.

President Monroe, who carefully compa

red the constitution of Virginia with other

documents known to have proceeded from

your pen, was originally of opinion that my

statement was substantially correct; being

under an impression that though the draught

was first ollered by Mr. Mason at Wilhamsburgh, yet it was derived from a manuscript furnished by you, from Philadelphia. Since the perusal of the letter of President Madison, President Monroe waves somewhat from his first sentiments. Written constitutions are great moral levers. Those of America undoubtedly produced the revolution of France. They are emancipating the southern continent of the western hemisphere. They are even per

vading the domains of ancient liberty. They

will eventually, change the whole aspect of

human affairs upon this globe. The tirst which was prepared for practical use becomes, therefore however rude, in the progress of time, its construction might, comparatively appear an ethic phenomenon

of no ordinary interest. Like the source of

the Nile, which has attracted the attention of kings and nations, it is not so much the

by inch, and the subject of so much altercation and debate, that they were worried writh the contensions it had produced; and could not, from mere lassitude, have been induced to open the instrument again: but that, being pleased with the preamble to mine, they adopted it in the House by way of amendment to the report of the committee; and thus my preamble became tacked to the work of George Mason. The Constitution, with the preamble, was passed on the 29th of June, and the committee of Congress had, only the day before that, report

ed to that body the draught of the Declara

tion ot Independence. The fact is, that pre amble was prior in composition to the De

claration; and both having the same object,

of justifying our separation Irom Great Britain, they used necessarily the same materials of justification; and hence their similitude. Withdrawn by age from all other public services and attentions to public things, f am closing the last scenes of my life by fostering and fashioning an establishment for the instruction of those who are to come after us. I hope its influence on their virtue, freedom, fame and happiness will he salutary and permanent. The form and distribution of its structure are original and unique,

the architecture chaste and classical, and

the whole well worthy of attracting the cu riosity of a visit. Should it so prove to your

self at any time, it will lie a great graliiica

tion to me to see you once more at Monti-

cello; and I pray you to be assured ot my

continued and high respect and esteem.

THOS. JEFFERSON. The Hon. Judge Augustus B. Woodward.

the young female for the pretended de- the rory cheeken maiden in her teen?, all funct; but her new husband found means to eager to witness the rare show in which the prove that she was really the same as had death of a human being was to ahord lood been buried, and demanded restitution of for their curiosity. Many of these had come

Letter from President Madison, to Judge Woodward. Montpelier, Sept. 11, 1824.

Dear Sir I have received, and return

my thanks for, the printed communications accompanying your note of the 4th inst.

1 o appreciate your proposed expedient

for a standard of measures and weights,

would require more time than I could apply,

and more mathematical science than I re-

lin. Justice will doubtless be done to it by

competent judges.

1 have given a hash' perusal to the observations "addressed to the Individual Citizeri."

Although I cannot concur in some of them, I may say of all, that they merit every praise for the perspicuity, the preciei n, and the force wiih which they are presented to the public attention. You have fallen into a mistake, in ascri

bing the Constitution of Virginia to Mr.

Jefferson; as will be inferred from the ani

madversions on it in his "A'otcs on Viariniz"

Its origin was with George Mason, who

laid before the committee appointed to prepare a plan, a very broad outline, which

was printed by the committee, for consider

ation ; and after being varied on some points, and tilled up, was reported to that conven

tion, where a tew iurther alterations gave it

the form in vhich it now stands.

The Declaration of Rights was substan

tially, from the same hand.

the fortune which belonged to her. The

consequence was a most extraordinary law suit. The first husband persisted in asserting that she belonged to him, while the second affirmed she was dead as far as he was concerned, and that without his measures and exertions she would never have been re

stored to life. The parliament, however.

appeared to lean towards the title ot the first

husband; and this circumstance urged them to return to England, without awaiting the

decision of the law suit. The particulars of

this remarkable process are yet to be found in the journals of the Parliament.

After having reported a great number of

similar examples, ot other persons buried

alive, Dr. Hufelan, a celebrated professor of

Berlin, remarks that "These examples ought to render us more circumspect, and induce us no longer to abandon bodies on the representation of the nurses, who very often pay no attention to a corpse after they believe it to be one. 1 remember one of these women once assuring me, some time after the interment of a man she had attended, that some of his family would shortly follow, because the defunct opened one eye in the coffin, which, according to her, was the certain sign of the death of another relative ! After such a declaration, can it be doubted t hat innumerable victims have been prematurely buried, who might have otherwise enjoyed a long existence.

from a distance," in spite of the badness of

the roads, which could scarcely oe vur?e.. When the prisoner arrived at the gallows which was placed in a field west of the meeting house, she was taken from her wagon and placed upon the scaffold by her attendants to whose honor may it be said that none of them could refrain from tears. She was attended by Monster Gireux, Roman Catholic Curate of St. Luke, who had come from his parish to attend her last moments. After having joined him in prayer, she declared she was innocent of the crime for which she was to sutler, the murder of her infant child J and that she forgave all her enemies. She was then lifted up by ore of the officers, who was about to proceed to the performance of his duty, but on uttering a faint scream, excited either by terror or hysteric'! affection, he allowed her to b seated for a moment, when she became composed, and signified her readiness; upon which she was raised, and the cord adjusted; during vhich she again declared herself innocent, and prayed for the forgiveness of her enemies, and while in the utterance of these words, the bolt was pulled, the platform dropped, and with scarcely a convulsive motion, her soul was cci. signed to the land of spirits.

TIIF. BOTTLE CONJURER OUTDONE. At a small village, not ICO miles from Cheltenham, (the name we forbear mentioning out of compassion to its inhabitants) one of the most complete hoaxes was played off, by a fellow who styled himself the Emperor of ail the Conjurers, that we have heard of

lie hired a room at the

e evening, when,

I L .11 irl . 4 l- IS. -1 Hl'ni lrillC !iTf SI- 111 l"ic 1 1 1 I

of which the following is a cop, the room was literal! crammed; and five minutes before the exhibition was to have commenced,

THE EYE. In an interesting paper on "the Vision of Impressions on the Retina,' Dr. Brewster of Edinburgh, makes the following remarks:

"When the eye is not exposed to the im- for a long time, lie bin pressions of external objects, or when it isjvillage ale-house for th

msensiole to these impressions, m consequence of the mind being engrossed with its own operations, any object of mental contemplation which has either been called up by the memory or created by the imagination, will be seen as dUtinctlv as if it had been formed from the vision of a real object.

In examining these mental expressions, I

have found that they follow the motions of the eyeball exactly like the spectral impres

sions of luminous objects, and that they re

semble them also in their apparent immobility when the eyeball is displaced by an external force. If this result (which I state with much diffidence, from having only my own experience in its favor) shall be found

generally true by others, it will follow that

he decamped with the money received at the door, (probably jumped down his own throat,) and has net since been heard cf. Three fellows accompanied the Conjurer when he hired the room, who most likely shared the plunder so easily filched from the unsuspecting dunes. "'For one night onfr. Felix Down nh:pihi alum, the Emperor or all Conjurers, begs leave to announce to the

nobility, gentry and inhabitants, that he has

A 1 " J 1 i' ,t J St

jusi arm eu wit a nve jz raozon is07?jurcrs, which he intends to exhibit for this night only. Any attempt to describe their extra-

The preamble to the constitution was;ternal objects; the mental spectra in the

prooamy ueriveu, in a great measure, it not

wholly, from the funds of Mr. Jefferson; the

richness of which in such materials is seen

in the declaration of Independence, as well

the objects of mental contemplation may bejordinary performances must be needless, as

seen as distinctly as external objects and will occupy the same local position in the axis of vision as if thev had been formed by the agency ot light. "Hence all the phenomena of apparitions

may depend upon the relative intensities of

these two classes of impressions, and upon their manner of accidental combination. In perfect health, when the mind possesses a

control over its powers, the impressions of

its own creation either overpower or com

bine themselves with the impressions of ex

as elsewhere.

The plan of Mr. Jefferson, annexed to one

of the editions of his "jYotes on Virginia" was drawn up after the Revolutionary War,

one case, appearing alone, while in the oth-

; are sc objects

the proprietor hatters himself that they must be seen to be believed. They are all brothers by the same father: their names, JIu r?, Bennassar, Abdullah, Jllustapha, and Sz:c kcc. At the. conclusion of their never-yet-equalled feats of slight of hand, legerde

main, ccc. &:c. they will take each a lighted torch in either hand, when lo! incredible to relate! Suckee, with the burning torches, will jump clean down Mustapha's throat, who in an instant, with equal dexterity, will pass down the throat of Abdallah, then Al dallah will jump down thar of Eennassar, and Bennassar down his brother Muley's:

hstandh;"' he is encumber-

authentic sanction of the people.

intrinsic magnificence of the object that ex-j Your love of truth will excuse this little

cites the sensibility, as the contemplation of tribute to it, or rather would not excuse its

We copy from a Northern paper an ac

count of the execution of a woman, which makes us shudder, and we present to our

with a view to correct the faults of the ex-i readers only because it may excite in them isting constitution, as well as to obtain the j horror for this mode of punishment. The

er they are seen projected among those ex- who, lastly, notwit

ternal objects to winch the oveball lsdirec- ed with his iour brothers and their four

torches, will throw a flip flap Somerset down his own throat, and leave the audience in

ted."

the resulting majesty and fertility.

I beg you, sir, to accept the repeated assurance of a veneration which increases with time and will end onlv with existence. A. B. WOODWARD. The Hon. President Jefferson. Monticello, Virginia. Letter from President Jefferson to Judge Woodward. Monticello, April 3, 1825. Dear Sin Your favor of March 25, has

been duly received. The fact is unquestionable, that the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of Virginia were drawn originally by George Mason, one of our really great men, and of the first order of greatness. The history of the preamble to the latter is as follows: I was at Philadelphia with Congress, and knowing that the convention of Virginia was engaged in forming a plan of government, I turned my mind to the same subject, and drew a sketch or outline of a constitution, with a preamble, which I sent to Mr. Pendleton, president of the convention, on the mere possibility that it might suggest something worth incorporation into that before the convention. He informed me afterwards by letter, that he received it on the day on which the committee of the whole had reported to the House the plan they had agreed to; that it had been so long in handj so disputed, inch

omission. With esteem and good wishes, JAMES MADISON. A. B. Woodward, Judge, &c-

PREMA 'J URE LYTERMEjYT. A young man fell in love with the daughter of a rich citizen of Paris, and his affection was returned. The father of the lady obliged her, however, to renounce her lover, and to marry another. A short time after her nuptials, the young wife fell ill and died. She was buried at Paris, twenty-four hours after her decease. Her first lover, incapable of resisting the desire he felt of seeing her for the last time, succeeded in gaining the sexton, who consented to open the tomb the same night. The young man threatened the latter to kill him if he committed the smallest indiscretion; after which he carried off the body, conveyed it to a neighbouring house, placed it near the fire, rubbed it with warm cloths, and tried all possible means of restoring to life the wo

man he adored. After some hours, he had'

the happiness to discover signs of life appear; she first began to emit gentle signs, and at last returned entirely to herself. As soon as she was entirely re-established in health, the two lovers, thus re-united by death, set out for England, whence they did not dare return till several years had elapsed. At first a stand was made against recognizing

public banging of a female would suit a bar

barous age and nation: It becomes notour times and country: it is either too revolting

or affecting to operate upon either sex as an example in the spirit of the law. This instance illustrates its unprofitableness for society in all respects except the destruction

of the culprit; a point at least questionable)

total darkness ! ! Probata

2-1 i i y t i. O i w , J - tfti i 3 J i

New-Orleans, March 25. iiooa i.Tjcctsf't Licensed Lruiiiour:? nouses A few days since, a young man cf good character and respectable connections arrived in

this city from our adjoining state, wiih 7 7 bales of cotton, the property cf his family and friends. After making sale of his cotton, and receiving his money, and when ready to depart to his friends, was beset by some of the

as to its public utility, especially in the casej runners of the gambling tables, and after

of a female, whom other inllictions might re-

lorm, however heinous her immediate guilt. JVV. Gaz. Plattsburg, March 23.

Execution of Peggy Facto. On Friday last,

the usual ceremony had passed, of intoxica

ting the unwary the allurements of gain were too tempting he proceeded from small sums to large, until the proceeds cf his cotton had vanished. The anguish of

at an pnrlv U

..v iiuui, ui-jj ui L'gcm hjhi juu man, an nen sooereu to ins

collect in this village, irom every point of mind, was indescribable. He had been re-

rich t

the vicinity, to witness the execution of this

unfortunate convict. Before noon, the period pointed out in the sentence, between which and two o'clock, the last act of the law was to be performed, the concourse had become very great. At a few moments past 12 the prisoner was brought from the jail in a state of feebleness which required the assistance of the

omcers by whom she wras placed in the vehicle prepared for the purpose: when the procession moved on; formed by the light infantry company under the command of Captain Sailly, and the rifle company commanded by Lieut. Cough; the whole under the command of Captain Baily. A crowd preceded and followed the cavalcade on toot and in waggons; the latter class were

a great part of females of various aes, from

posed with a trust, which not even his enemy could have suspected: that trust he had forfeited. He was determined not to brook the displeasure of his friends, and in a moment of thoughtlessnefs and anguish, repaired to a rendezvous and sealed his fate by enlisting as a common soldier. Thus were the fond hopes of parents and friends blasted in a moment, by a practice which is as disgraceful to our city, ns to those who were the authors of a law, r.o better than an rct to authorize swindling. o . Preaching to Fishes. LadyMorgan describes a picture in the Borjfhese palace at Rome, representing St. Anthonv preaching to the fishes: The salmon looks at the preacher with an edified face, and a ccd, with his upturned rves, seems anxiously

the decripitude of the grandmother down to! seeking for the new light. Tl

i ne banu s