Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/184

146 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS the end of his life Jefferson was of opinion that, if the whole people had risen to the height of his endeavor, if the merchants had strictly observed the embargo, and the educated class given it a cor dial support, it would have saved the country the second war of 1812, and extorted, what that war did not give us, a formal and explicit concession of neutral rights. On March 4, 1809, after a nearly continuous public service of forty years, Jefferson retired to private life, so seriously impoverished that he was not sure of being allowed to leave Washington without arrest by his creditors. The embargo, by preventing the exportation of tobacco, had reduced his private income two thirds, and, in the peculiar circumstances of Washington, his official salary was insufficient. "Since I have become sensible of this deficit," he wrote, "I have been under an agony of mortification." A timely loan from a Richmond bank relieved him temporarily from his distress, but he remained to the end of his days more or less embarrassed in his circumstances. Leaving the presidency in the hands of James Madison, with whom he was in the most complete sympathy and with whom he continued to be in active correspond ence, he was still a power in the nation. Madison and Monroe were his neighbors and friends, and both of them administered the government on prin ciples that he cordially approved. As has been