THE BEACON BIOGRAPHIES EDITED BY M. A. DEWOLFE HOWE THOMAS JEFFERSON BY THOMAS E. WATSON - *&m if~ /% aii/i;i>i /"jut: ; *^ . / / mam i t HU, jaumfm. IH lllK \ X^Pffl8Wi*/ >iW "^^ ^-x THOMAS JEFFERSON THOMAS E. WATSON BOSTON SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY PUBLISHERS ,.^ Copyright, 1900 By Small, Maynard & Company (Incorporated) Entered at Stationers Hall The frontispiece to this volume is from an original crayon drawing made by St. Memin in 1805, now owned by John C. Bancroft, Esq., Boston. The present en graving is by John Andrew & Son, Boston. M223675 PEEFACE. Mr. Jefferson 1 s name is one which causes men to differ, and to fall into heated debate. There are those who say that modern America is Jefferson, and those who declare that his political principles have long since been cast into the trash-pile. Some of the wise men say that, of all the fathers, he was the most far-sighted, understood the people the best, and had the correctest idea of the demo cratic-republican theory of government. Other men, equally wise so far as I know, affirm in the strongest terms that Jefferson did not possess enough constructive ability to manufacture apolitical chicken- coop. Be tween sages so far apart, seekers after the truth will probably find it. In the narrow limits allowed me it has been impossible to paint a life-size picture of Mr. Jefferson. He was a many-sided man, complex in character, full of contra dictions, and yet in his devotion to what he conceived to be the best interests of humanity x PEEFACE grandly consistent. Farmer, scientist, architect, inventor, scholar, lawyer, states man, and philosopher, he is interesting from every point of view, one of the few men whom the greed for gold never soiled; one of the few who, from first to last, worked for country and for fellow-man. I have had no space for his speculative opinions, for his political theories, for his daring suggestions in science, mechanical arts, education, and state socialism. It has been my purpose to steer clear of the con troversial, and to follow the plain road of fact. Just as the truth seems to be, so I have tried to write. T. E. w. THOMSON, GA., June, 1900. CHBONOLOGY. 1743 April 2. Thomas Jefferson was born in Albemarle County, Virginia. 1762 Graduated from the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg. 1763-66 Continued his studies at home. Bead law under George Wythe, of Williams- burg. 1767 Admitted to the bar, and began the practice of law. 1769 Elected to represent Albemarle County in the House of Burgesses. 1770-71 Practised law. Conducted his farming operations. Bead and studied. 1772 January 1. Married Martha Skelton, widow. xii CHBONOLOGY 1773 Elected again a member of House of Burgesses. Wrote the i Summary View of the causes of the troubles between Great Britain and the American colonies. 1774 Elected to Congress, and made chairman of Committee of Congress to draft the Declaration of Independence. 1776 Elected to lower house, Virginia General Assembly. Assisted in revision of laws. Secured abolition of entails and primo geniture, also separation of Church and State. Was defeated in effort for relig ious liberty. 1779 Elected Governor of Virginia, 1780 Ee-elected. 1781 Narrowly escaped capture by British. Prepared Notes on Virginia. CHEONOLOGY xiii 1782 September 6. His wife died. 1783-84 Elected to Congress by state legislature of Virginia. On his report the dollar made the unit of value of United States coinage. 1784-85 Appointed by Congress minister to Europe to negotiate treaties of com merce. 1785-89 Appointed minister to France, to suc ceed Dr. Franklin, and held the posi tion through 1786, 1787, 1788, and 1789. 1790-94 Secretary of State in cabinet of Presi dent Washington. Eesigned at end of 1793. 1796 Chosen Vice- President. Published Manual of Parliamentary Practice. xiv CHBONOLOGY 1798 Drafted " Kentucky Kesolutions." 1800-1801 Candidate for President. Tie between him and the Vice-Presidential candi date. Threw election into House of Bepresentatives, where he was elected February, 1801. 1803 Louisiana purchased. 1804 Ee-elected President. 1807 Embargo laid. 1809-15 Second Presidential term expired. Be- tired to Monticello. Lived in retire ment. Farmed and conducted extensive correspondence. 1816 Founded University of Virginia. CHBONOLOGY xv 1816-26 Continued in retirement at Monticello. Greatly distressed by debt. 1826 July 4. Thomas Jefferson died at his home, Monticello. THOMAS JEFFERSON THOMAS JEFFERSON. V I. THOMAS JEFFERSON was born in Al- bemarle County, Virginia, April 2, 1743, old style. The Jeffersons, a middle- class family, claimed Welsh descent, and had been among the first settlers in Virginia. One of the name had represented Flower de Hundred in the colonial Assembly of 1619. Peter Jefferson, the father of the statesman, was born in 1708, was the son of a farmer who lived at Osborne s on the James, and made his way in the world by sheer force of character. Like Washington, he became a land sur veyor. Like Washington, he married well. Jane Randolph, whom he wedded in 1738, was a daughter of the proudest and wealthiest of the old Virginia houses, her father being Isham Ran dolph, adjutant-general of the colony. 2 THOMAS JEFFERSON Patenting a thousand acres of land on the Rivanna, almost in the wilderness, Peter Jefferson cleared off the forest, built a comfortable dwelling, and called the place Shadwell, in honour of his wife s London birthplace. When the county of Albemarle was created, 1744, Peter Jefferson was made one of its original justices ; and he con tinued to hold, one after another, the most important county offices. A member of the Church of England, he acted as vestryman for many years ; and his children were baptized in the faith of that church. Ambitious and progressive, he valued learning, and took a keen interest in giving to his children the early advantages he had not himself enjoyed. On his death-bed he directed that his eldest son, Thomas Jefferson, should receive a thorough classical education. He died in 1757, leaving a comfortable estate, eight chil dren, and a widow who survived until 1776. THOMAS JEFFEBSON 3 Few Americans, a hundred years ago, had better training than that which guided Thomas Jefferson. At the age of five he was sent to school ; but pa rental duties were not shirked, nor home lessons neglected. The father aided the son at every early step, helped him on with his studies, directing him with wise counsel. The boy was encouraged to take physical exercise to swim, row, ride horseback, hunt so that mind and body developed together ; and both were healthy and strong. After his father s death, Thomas Jef ferson was sent to the boarding-school of the Eev. James Maury, and remained there two years. Eeady then for col lege, he was sent to William and Mary, the only university in Virginia at that time. " Old William and Mary " was not a college to boast of very loudly, the management being feeble, the discipline lax, and the moral tone disquieting to 4 THOMAS JEFFEKSON the righteous. Still, a student who was determined to learn could do so even at William and Mary. Happily, young Jefferson was a scholar of this class. He entered half advanced, studied hard, and made rapid headway. Eelated, through his mother, to the best people in the colony, Jefferson was warmly welcomed at Williamsburg, and during his first year at college went much into society. In those days the old colonial capital considered itself a very fashionable and aristocratic centre, being particularly magnificent in the winter months, when the General Court and the burgesses were in session. The great " Tobacco Lords," coming up to court pompously and somewhat heavily in their six-horse coaches, filled the principal houses with the gay and the proud of the tide-water region stately dame, lovely damsel, gallant cavalier. There was the royal governor, a mimic king ; there was the THOMAS JEFFERSON 5 governor s mansion, a backwoods palace ; there were the governor s favourites, a rustic court. Blinded slightly by such a glare, Williamsburg revelled in her splendour. The homes of the rich were thrown open to entertainment, and many a night saw the ball-room blazing with light and the " dancers dancing in tune." It is no wonder that Thomas Jefferson, a warm-blooded boy from the country, should feel the charm of music, youth, loveliness, and mirth, should find his lessons grow dull as the fiddles grew loud, should drop his books, join the merry-makers, and walk down the minuet with fair ladies, whose beauty has been dust these hundred years and more. If ever in his youth he sowed any wild oats, it was at this period ; but even his guardian did not consider the crop large. Jefferson, however, thought he had been too gay, and turned a new leaf. Horses and social enjoyments were dis- 6 THOMAS JEFFEBSON carded, fifteen hours of study were crowded iuto each day ; and for ex ercise there was at dusk, every even ing, a brisk run of a mile out of town and back. Among the teachers at William and Mary was Dr. Small, of Edinburgh, Scot land, who took such a liking to Jeffer son as to choose him for a companion. Dr. Small, a bold, profound thinker, gave to Jefferson new ideas and larger conceptions, quickening his love of learn ing and broadening his mental view. The governor of Virginia at this time was Fauquier, a scholar, patron of learn ing, free thinker, courtier, man of the world, gentleman gambler, "the ablest man who had ever filled that office. 7 Dr. Small introduced Jefferson to the governor, with whom the student be came a favourite. Not only was he in vited to the private dinner parties at the palace, but was taken into the band of musical amateurs of which Fauquier THOMAS JEFFEBSON 7 was a member, and which practised con certs once a week, Jefferson being an excellent performer on the violin. Frequenting a palace as favoured guest, dining there constantly in the " private parties of four," as Jefferson says he did, and tweedle-deeing with the governor regularly once a week, are facts which hardly seem consistent with the fifteen hours of daily study. Were it not that Mr. Jefferson himself states that Dr. Small made one of the party of four, we should incline to the opinion that these doings at the palace occurred while Jef ferson was studying law. Dr. Small, however, returned to England in 1762, the year of Jefferson s graduation. Therefore we must conclude that Mr. Jefferson often suspended the fifteen- hour rule and omitted the twilight trot. It was at this colonial court that Mr. Jefferson formed those polished manners which distinguished him through life. It was here also, perhaps, that he ac- S THOMAS JEFFEBSON quired a taste for independent thought, and became the gently inflexible Deist whom no pulpit thunder could ever shake. Completing the college course in two years, Mr. Jefferson was, for one so young, an accomplished scholar. He had mas tered Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Of French as a written language he had a thorough knowledge. In the best literature of ancient and modern times he was well read. For works of fiction he had no taste ; but he was fond of poetry, and raved about Ossian, rank ing him above all the moderns. For Plato and his abstractions he expressed unmitigated scorn ; for metaphysics he had no .use ; and he derided the study of ethics, saying that morality was not a matter of science. He argued that a ploughman would decide a moral ques tion as well as a professor, because the ploughman "has not been led astray by artificial rules." THOMAS JEFFEBSON 9 College days over, Mr. Jefferson took up the study of law under George Wythe, one of the purest and ablest of Virginians. For five years these studies went on, sometimes at Williamsburg, sometimes at Shadwell. Coke was hard and knotty, but he was sound in the doctrine ; and Jefferson, an hereditary Whig, came to love him as much as he came to detest Blackstone, whose honeyed Toryism had led so many lawyers over to the wrong side. When an ambitious young man gives five years to the reading of law before seeking admission to the bar, he proves very conclusively that he means to be thor ough. By nature Mr. Jefferson was a real student, one who loved to probe to the bottom. For half-way knowledge he had a contempt, in fact, too much contempt. Whether half-way knowl edge of a subject be valuable must al ways depend upon which half one knows, the half which one happens to 10 THOMAS JEFFEBSON need or the other. The scholar in the Eepublic rarely makes sufficient allow ance for that natural ability which seizes, here and there, catch as catch can, upon such bits of practical knowl edge as it must have, and which builds up a towering success while the scholar gapes in amazement, and vainly tries to understand how it is done. Thus Pat rick Henry studied law a month, and perplexed our five-year student by his phenomenal triumphs. Henry ( i knew no law, said Jefferson ; and what Jefferson said most lawyers endorsed. Yet Patrick went sturdily forward, win ning more big cases, pocketing more big fees, and saving more of what he made than any of the wise men who laughed at his ignorance. Preparing himself in so leisurely a manner for the practice of law, Mr. Jefferson had time and inclination for social delights again ; and we find him among the revellers at Williamsburg THOMAS JEFFEBSON 11 during the winter sessions. The lights in the Apollo Boom of the Ealeigh Tavern flashed upon one fair lady whose beauty fascinated the gangling, raw-boned, sandy-haired law-student ; and he began to sigh, and to make vows, and to write nonsense, in the good old way. Her name was Be- becca Burwell. Jefferson s poetic fancy being stirred, he evolved a new name for this loveliest of girls ; and he called her Belinda. He raved about her, but there was much prudence mingled with his passion. He wished to wed Belinda ; and he also wished to go abroad, to Europe and to the East. Apparently, he coupled a proposition to marry with a three-year license to travel. Belinda yearned for something more tangible than this, turned a willing ear to another suitor who united to his claim of right a desire for immediate possession, and married him, thus leav ing the prudent Thomas to nurse a mild case of disappointed love, 12 THOMAS JEFFEKSON During the Christmas holidays of 1759-60, while at Colonel Nathan Dand- ridge s, Mr. Jefferson had met Patrick Henry. The two became friends. Henry had recently made a failure as merchant, and, leaving others to bear the grief, was enjoying himself with the young people. He was full of life, danced well, told a good joke, played the fiddle, was ready for romps and games, and was as unconscious of the greatness that slept within him as were his gay companions. Jefferson, while at Williamsburg, saw Patrick often $ and, when Henry made his famous speech on the Stamp Act Eesolutions, Jefferson was standing at the lobby door, a rapt listener. " Torrents of sublime elo quence prevailed ; and Henry, wrest ing leadership from older, wealthier, more scholarly men, swung the colony into a declaration of defiance to Great Britain. The struggle was "most bloody, the last resolution going THOMAS JEFFEBSOST 13 through on a majority of one. "By God, I would have given five hun dred guineas for a single vote ! " cried the king s attorney-general, Peyton Bandolph, as he brushed by Jefferson, and entered the lobby. One vote would have made a tie ; and the speaker of the house was a Boyalist, who would have voted against the resolution. In 1767 Mr. Jefferson was admitted to the bar, and at once entered upon a good practice. Until the Bevolution closed the court, his legal business paid him from fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars a year. Mr. Jefferson lacked qualities necessary to success as a court house lawyer. He was learned in the law, laborious in the preparation of cases, and easily master of all the issues involved ; but he was no wrangler, had none of the gifts of oratory, and no talent for impromptu debate. If he spoke much above a conversational tone, his throat failed him and .his voice be- 14 THOMAS JEFFEESO^" came husky. In a smooth, easy-going case, where the law controlled or a few great facts dictated the result, Jeffer son must have been superb ; but in a hot fight all along the line, the law in a fog, the facts in a mist of lies, and the issues hanging on the verdict of an ex cited jury, he must have been at sad disadvantage. Before the Virginia courts of those days, profundity of learning iwas not strictly necessary. Knowledge of human nature, the art to play upon local prejudices, the gift of passionate pleading, agility to light on one s feet in rough-and-tumble court room battles, outweighed whole libraries of legal lore. II. ME. JEFFERSON had a rare talent for pleasing, and he was popular with the young and the old. His habits were studious, and continued so all his life; but he was companionable, sympathetic, and loved a friend even better than a book. He did not use tobacco, get drunk, swear, or play cards ; but he loved music, the dance, the horse-race, the fox-hunt, and the healthy sport of the young. He had been a good son, a good brother, a good boy at school, making no enemies, and winning favour even among those who had not loved his father. His manners were quiet and agreeable, his conversation tactful, in telligent, suited to the company and the occasion. He did not pose as a censor, did not go around setting everybody to rights on everything. Pet prejudices he left undisturbed ; hobby -riders he made no effort to unhorse. When private, so- 16 THOMAS JEFFEESON cial talk could no longer be made a source of pleasure, he withdrew into silence. A scholar, he was neither prig nor pedant, bookworm nor visionary; and he charmed men because he could listen as well as talk, learn as well as teach, help as well as give advice, was easy of approach and put on no airs of superiority. In person he was six feet two and a half inches tall, spare- made, active, strong, and of robust health. He had big feet, hands, and wrists ; a long neck, a small pointed nose, perfect teeth, and hair which was light auburn or sandy. His hazel -grey eyes were neither large nor brilliant, but were clear and expres sive. His complexion was reddish, the skin of the face quick to peel under ex posure to sun or wind. His face was angular, rather ugly in youth ; but it be came fuller with advancing years, and his looks improved as he grew older. On coming of age, Mr. Jefferson was made Vestryman in the church and jus- THOMAS JEFFEKSON 17 tice of the peace. He put on foot a sub scription to clear obstructions from the Bivanna, raised, the money, got legisla tive sanction, and opened the little stream to local navigation. He con tinued to live quietly at Shadwell, pur suing his studies, busy with his farms and law cases, until 1769, when a new election of burgesses was ordered. Be coming a candidate for Albemarle County, he complied, with the custom, canvassed the voters in person, attended at the polls, dealt out lunch and punch to hungry and thirsty electors, made his bow as often as his name was voted for, and was elected So it was that Thomas Jefferson was one of the burgesses who listened to the address with which Lord Botetourt, newly appointed Governor of Virginia, opened the House in May, 1769. The Stamp Act against which Patrick Henry had thundered had been repealed, but the repeal had been coupled with 18 THOMAS JEFFEKSON the declaration of Great Britain s right to bind the colonies in all cases whatso ever. Changing her tactics without swerving from her purpose, England in 1767 adopted the stealthier and dead lier policy of indirect taxation, duties on imported goods, such as glass, tea, and paper. The machinery of coercion was put in motion, troops were landed in Boston, colonial governors instructed to dismiss rebellious assemblies, and agitators were to be sent to England for trial. The temper with which these meas ures were met can readily be imagined. The colonies had long enjoyed prac tical home rule. Their situation had made self-reliance, self-defence, and . self-government absolutely necessary to their existence. Not a colony had been planted at the expense of the English crown. Not a colony would have out- lived the storm and stress of early struggles ? had they waited Great Brit- THOMAS JEFFEBSON 19 ain s help. The French wars, which were the excuse for England s attempt to tax the colonies, were England s own wars, a part of her world- wide contest with her national enemy. France had no quarrel with the colonies, the colonies none with France. Great Britain and her chartered company, the Ohio Land Company, brought on the war, of which England reaped the benefits, while the colonies bore the brunt. Without any new taxes the colonies were already making immense contribu tions to the wealth of England. Ameri can manufactures were suppressed by law, in order that English wares should enjoy a monopoly. The navigation acts forced American trade into English markets. Of the profits of all this com merce, Great Britain reaped the lion s share. For example, when a shipload of tobacco left Virginia for London, a greedy swarm of duties, charges, com mercial stealages, followed it from the 20 THOMAS JEFFEKSON planter s wharf to the factor s ware house, and literally devoured it. Some times the cargo was not enough to feed the vultures which lit upon it, and the planter had to pay a bill after losing his tobacco. Smarting under such treat ment, Virginians were in no frame of mind to listen with patience while Eng land proposed new taxes. To have their nominal rulers ap pointed and their foreign commerce controlled by the crown was one thing : to submit to the principle that they could be arbitrarily taxed by a Parlia ment in which they had neither voice nor vote was another. The first legisla tive body of white men ever assembled on this continent, the Virginia Assem bly of 1619, had asserted the right of local self-government. The colonies, grown strong and self-confident, were determined to keep what their ancestors had claimed. As a courtesy to so distinguished a THOMAS JEFFEBSON 21 young member, the burgesses requested Mr. Jefferson to draft the resolutions which were to be the basis of their for mal reply to the governor s address. He did so, and his work was approved. He was then named on the committee which was appointed to draw up the formal reply, and the committee nat urally asked him to write it out. He did so, and his work was promptly re jected. It was too brief. It stuck too closely to the bare outline of the reso lutions. Mr. Jefferson, young and sensitive, was deeply mortified j and, brevity being the disease, the cure was complete and permanent. So far as I can discover, none of his subsequent writings suffer from being too short. The burgesses passed resolutions de claring that taxation without represen tation was illegal, and that the sending of accused persons out of the country for trial was u inexpressible complexity of wrong. 7 22 THOMAS JEFFEBSON Governor Botetourt dissolved the House ; and the members, holding a meet ing in the Apollo Boom of the Ealeigh Tavern, resolved to buy no more English goods which it was possible to dispense with, and to recommend this policy to their constituents. Eighty-eight mem bers including George Washington, Patrick Henry, George Mason, B. H. Lee, and Thomas Jefferson signed the compact. Virginia ratified the agree ment, and those members who had refused to sign were not re-elected to the House. The British government enforced the tax laws, collected some eighty thousand dollars, spent as large a sum in doing it, and once more decided to retrace their steps. Lord Botetourt joyfully recon vened the legislature of Virginia to an nounce the good news. Tea was not mentioned in the list of the articles from which the duties were to be removed, and neither the governor nor the House seemed to note the omission. THOMAS JEFFEESON 23 In March, 1770, Parliament repealed the tax act of 1767, except as to tea. Total repeal was not to be thought of "till America is prostrate at our feet. 7 In the second session of the Assembly, Mr. Jefferson attempted the work of a reformer, and met with a decided re pulse. The eloquent talk about liberty, natural rights, and so forth, had led the young statesman to think that the op portunity was favourable for a plea in behalf of the negro. Under the Vir ginia law, no slave-owner could free his negroes without sending them out of the state. Mr. Jefferson wished to re peal this law. Following the habit which had marked him at school, and which he never discarded, he put for ward another man to test the ice. The victim chosen for this particular sacri fice was Colonel Eichard Bland, and he readily agreed to offer the bill which Jefferson had drawn. The colonel was a guileless philosopher, "one of the 24 THOMAS JEFFEESOK oldest, ablest, and most respected mem bers of the House ; but his grey hairs did not shield him from, the storm. The slave- owners fell upon him in bitter wrath, rived him with oratorical bolts, riddled him with abuse, treated him with the greatest personal indignity, and damned his bill with virtuous unanim ity. Jefferson, as seconder of the reso lution, caught just enough of the punish ment to reconcile him thoroughly to his position in the rear. The right for which Mr. Jefferson here contended was given to slave- own ers in Virginia in 1782. III. EEYOLUTION was slowly collecting its forces, and no man watched its move ment with keener interest than Thomas Jefferson ; yet the years which preceded it were the happiest of his life. In all the vigour of early, robust manhood j popular, well connected and accom plished 5 sanguine, sunny-tempered, and fond of congenial work j harassed by no disadvantages of fortune or of environ ment, he must have regarded the fut ure as radiant with promise. The even current of his days ran smoothly on. With his fees he bought books and bought land. He pursued his studies and pushed his business. He kept up his walks and rides, and he gave part of every day to his fiddle. He dearly loved his sister Jane, he dearly loved young Dabney Carr, and these were his chosen companions. Never idle, he was never hurried. Each day found him at 26 THOMAS JEFFEKSOK work, each day he took recreation. A favourite stroll was to the hill he called Monticello, a part of the Shadwell tract. On one of the slopes of this hill he had made a rustic seat, under a majestic oak ; and to this spot came the friends Jefferson and Carr, bringing their books to read, to study, to dream dreams. One of these visions was of an ideal home which should crown the hill, an ideal cemetery laid out on the slope, and of two friends sleeping side by side under the wide-spreading branches of their fa vourite oak. And the dream came true. The ideal home did crown the hill. The cemetery, too, came soon enough ; and under their favourite oak the two friends did at length sleep side by side. Shadwell was accidentally burned in 1770, while Jefferson and his mother were away. The house and nearly all it contained were destroyed. "Did you save none of my books ! asked Jeffer- THOMAS JEFFEBSOX 27 son of the negro who brought the news. "No, boss; but we saved the fiddle." Eemoving his mother and the rest of the family to another house on the place, Mr. Jefferson went to live at Monticello, where he already had one room fit for use. On January 1, 1772, he was married to Martha Skelton, a childless young widow, daughter of John Wayles, who was a wealthy lawyer of the Williams- burg bar. It is said that the lady had two other suitors besides Mr. Jefferson ; and that these two did not quit the field until, on coming to make her a visit one day, they found the young widow and the young lawyer together, she playing the spinet and he the fiddle, and both mingling their voices in melodious measure, pouring out their souls in song, oblivious to all surroundings. Even to the eyes of rivalry, this looked like a plain case ; and the two belated suitors were so overcome that they silently stole 28 THOMAS JEFFEBSON away without having had the heart to mar so sweet a scene. The young couple at once went to live at Monticello, where only one of the brick " pavilions " was complete. Faster than ever now sped the work of making the ideal home. Jefferson was landscape gardener, architect, and mas ter-builder. Every plan, every detail, was his. Most of the materials brick, nails, timbers, etc. were made on the place. The workmen were his slaves, trained by him to their task. Passion ately fond of such work as this, he was almost equally in love with his grounds, gardens, orchards, and farms. He experimented with all sorts of seeds, testing numberless varieties of nuts, roots, melons, vines, grains, and trees. In all directions he went in quest of useful knowledge ; and, when found, he made a note of it in a book. Fondness for details became a passion with him, and his records included the smallest as well as the greatest. THOMAS JEFFEBSON 29 In his own right, Mr. Jefferson owned, at the time of his marriage, five thou sand acres of land and fifty-two slaves. His farms yielded him a yearly income of about two thousand dollars. By the death of his wife s father, the year after the marriage, he acquired forty thousand acres of land and one hundred and thirty-five slaves, encumbered by a British debt of about nineteen thousand dollars. On a portion of this land was situated the Natural Bridge ; and it became one of Mr. Jefferson s fancies to build him a hut there, and to live that life of contented obscurity which is the favourite illusion of the man who loves books, quiet, and solitude. Considering himself a rich man, Mr. Jefferson adopted a style of living which none but the rich could afford. He kept open house. He sported the finest horses. Many servants ministered to the wants of himself, his family, or his guests. Busy hands reared the mansion, 30 THOMAS JEFFEBSON levelled the lawn, laid out terrace and garden, planted shrubbery and orchard. Monticello grew in beauty year by year. Visitors came, visitors went, and the young couple were happy ; for, to crown it all, children came. Thus a part of Mr. Jefferson s dream had come true ; and he had, upon his mountain top, as perfect a home as life ever filled or death emptied. IV. IN 1770 the Boston massacre occurred ; in 1772 the Gaspee affair. The barning of the Gaspee inflamed Great Britain as much as the Boston massacre had maddened the Americans. Eoyal proc lamations were issued, rewards were offered, a commission was sent to investi gate, and General Gage ordered to en force the findings. Owing to circum stances, the commission could reach no findings for Gage to enforce. Provi dence knew nothing. No witness would testify. Eoyal wrath found itself baffled by the impenetrable mystery which had settled upon the whole transaction. Great Britain enacted a drastic law to protect her ships, and declared the inten tion of sending to England for trial per sons suspected of the crime which had been committed. Therefore, when the Virginia burgesses met early in 1773, feeling against the mother country had not softened. 32 THOMAS JEFFEBSOST Some of the younger members the Lees, Henry, Jefferson, and Dabney Carr became restless under the timid leader ship of the older men, and began to meet in private for consultation. At one of these meetings, Eichard Henry Lee pro posed the creation of a Committee of Cor respondence, which organised the Kevo- lution. Jefferson put the plan into writing. Dabney Car offered it to the House (March 12, 1773). The resolu tion was adopted, and the committee appointed. Governor Dunmore dis solved the burgesses, but the committee at once entered upon its work. Of this committee Mr. Jefferson was a member. In December, 1773, came the Boston 1 Tea party. In retaliation, Parliament closed the port of Boston, in part annulled the charter of Massachusetts, provided that British troops should be quartered on the people, appointed General Gage military governor of the colony, and declared that the entire region between THOMAS JEFFEESON 33 the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Great Lakes belonged to Canada. While the Virginia House of Burgesses was still in session, May, 1774, messengers sent by the Committee of Correspondence of Massachusetts came riding into Will- iamsburg, bearing the doleful tidings from the north. The younger members who had led the House in 1773 were leading it again in 1774, save Dabney Carr, who was dead. They met in the council chamber for private conference, and de cided that Virginia must stand by Mas sachusetts, the cause of one being the cause of all. But, first, Virginia must be roused. There were no telegraphs, no daily newspapers, no railroads to reach the people. To get them in motion was dif ficult. These young leaders decided that the best they could do would be to have a day of fasting, prayer, and preach ing. Jefferson, who had no faith in such things himself, knew the value of them 34 THOMAS JEFFEKSON as political agencies. He says that he and his friends " cooked up" a resolu tion which met the requirements, and that they prevailed upon a good, pious old gentleman, Nicholas, to offer it in the House. It was adopted, June 1 being fixed for the day on which the people should fast, humiliate themselves, and pray ! Patriots were i to implore Heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the king and Parliament to moderation and justice. 7 Governor Dunmore appears to have had grave doubts as to the genuineness of the religious spirit which moved the mem bers who had " cooked up " these resolu tions. To have his royal master pub licly prayed for as a tyrant whose heart needed to be turned to moderation and justice was a proceeding which smelt violently of treason. In the depths of his soul the governor may have felt that THOMAS JEFFEBSON 35 all this fasting and praying was being done for political effect, and to spread the very danger which the prayers were imploring Heaven to avert. Anyhow, he dissolved the House. The members went as usual to the Apollo Boom of the Ealeigh Tavern, where they decided, to use no more tea, and to instruct the Com mittee of Correspondence to propose an annual congress of deputies from all the colonies (May, 1774). June 1 came, and it was a great day in Virginia. The preachers and the politicians had so bestirred themselves that the people were aroused as by an electric shock. So rigidly did patriots fast, so deeply were they humiliated, so violently were preached at and prayed for, that by the time the ceremonies were ended everybody was ready to fight. In August, 1774, Virginia held her convention to elect delegates to the Con tinental Congress. Mr. Jefferson, being 36 THOMAS JEFFEBSO^ chosen a member of the convention, pre pared an elaborate statement of the colonial cause against Great Britain, and proposed that this paper should be used as a basis of instructions to be given to Virginia delegates in Con gress. Falling sick on the way, Mr. Jefferson did not attend the convention, but forwarded his paper. It was not adopted by the convention ; but it at tracted notice, was published here and in England, and added greatly to the author s fame. The extreme views of Mr. Jefferson, as set forth in the document mentioned, led to his name being inserted in a list of rebels whom the British ministry proposed to attaint for treason. The convention of August, 1774, re newed their pledges to cut off trade with England. The tobacco crop of 1774 might be sold ; but, unless the heart of King George turned to moderation and justice by August 10, 1775, not a THOMAS JEFFEKSON 37 pound of Virginia tobacco should Great Britain ever have again. As to tea, it was not to be tolerated a moment : "We view it with horror. " General Gage, who had been made to get out of Boston, was denounced as "a despotic viceroy. 7 They declared that their own intentions were pacific, that they had not the most remote idea of disturb ing the peace, but that, if General Gage should presume to obey the orders sent him from England, such conduct on his part would " justify resistance and re prisal." Taken altogether, these measures bore a decided resemblance to a declaration of war. The leaders must have so un derstood it, whether the people did or not. George Washington had already declared in his county meeting that he was ready to raise and equip at his own expense a thousand men to march to the relief of Boston. Virginia named her delegates to the 38 THOMAS JEFFEESON Congress Washington, Henry, Harri son, Bland, Lee, Peyton Randolph, and Pendleton. Eandolph being the speaker of the burgesses, it was decided that, if he should have to return to pre side over that body, Mr. Jefferson should take his place in Congress. The convention adjourned over to March 20, 1775, to meet at Eichmond. Committees of Safety were elected by the counties of the state to further the work of revolution, and Mr. Jefferson was elected on the committee for Albe- marle. When the convention reassem bled in March, 1775, Patrick Henry made his famous speech, of which the passionate burden was, "We must fight ! " A committee of thirteen, which included George Washington, Patrick Henry, E. H. Lee, and Thomas Jeffer son, was appointed to prepare Virginia for war. Governor Dunmore thought that it was now high time for him to be up and THOMAS JEFFEESON 39 doing. There was a powder magazine in the public square at Williamsburg a very tempting amount of powder at a very tempting place ; and Dunmore probably dreaded the influence of such a temptation upon the heated colonial mind. At any rate, he sent a midnight party of marines to the magazine, and had the powder carted off to a British man-of-war which lay in James Eiver. This act of Dunmore s came near caus ing a riot, the utmost influence of Pey ton Eandolph and others being neces sary to keep the people quiet. One man, however, could not be pacified. Patrick Henry called out the militia of Hanover, harangued them in his hottest style, and marched them upon Will iamsburg. On the way other troops joined them, until Patrick s force was numbered by thousands, all armed, all angry, and all deeply imbued with the gospel of i We must fight ! Dunmore, unprepared for such an emergency, 40 THOMAS JEFFEKSON made terms. He agreed to pay for the powder, did pay at once ; and the rebels dispersed, leaving Patrick Henry the hero of Virginia. At this stage came Lord North s con ciliatory proposition to the colonies, and Dunmore called the burgesses together to consider it. Peyton Eandolph re turned from the Congress at Philadel phia, and asked Jefferson to remain in the House of Burgesses to draft the reply of Virginia to the mother coun try. The conciliatory proposition was this : the British ministry was to name the amount of the taxes the colonies should pay, and then the colonies were to raise the money by any method they chose. Jefferson s reply took the ground that North s plan only changed the form of the burden, and that it left the colonial grievances unredressed. The first Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia September 5, 1774, moved slowly and cautiously. It issued THOMAS JEFFEKSON 41 declarations of rights and grievances, renewed the boycott on English goods, denied Great Britain s right to tax the colonists or to quarter troops upon them without their consent ; but all this was done by men professing themselves to be loyal and loving subjects of the king. No hint of independence was heard. At the January session, 1775, the British Parliament declared Massachu setts to be in a state of rebellion. The disobedient colonies were forbidden to fish in Newfoundland waters or to trade with England, Ireland, or the West Indies. In April, 1775, came the tragedy at Lexington, and the running fight which the infuriated militia made upon the British as they retreated to Boston, after the destruction of the rebel stores. The militia, after driving the English back to the city, besieged them there ; and thus the king s loyal and loving Con gress came face to face with a crisis for 42 THOMAS JEFFEESOK which they were, perhaps, quite pre pared. Lord North s conciliatory proposition rejected, Massachusetts officially advised to govern herself, another day of fasting and prayer was observed ; and then, June 14, Congress resolved that an army should be raised. Next day, on motion of John Adams, George Washington was made commander- in- chief. Two days later came the battle of Bunker Hill. "Did the militia fight ?" asked Washington on his way to the army. Told that it did, he exclaimed, "Then the liberties of the country are safe"; and the great man rode on to shoulder his heavy task. Jefferson took his seat in Congress June 21, 1775, bringing with him a a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent for composition. Though a silent member of Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation THOMAS JEFFEBSON 43 that lie soon won the heart of John Adams, and made a most favourable im pression upon the whole assemblage. Congress had appointed a committee to draw up a statement of the causes which had led America to arms, and Mr. Jeffer son was added to the committee. He was asked to prepare the paper, and did so ; but Mr. Dickinson, of the commit tee, objected that Jefferson s draft was too strong. Dickinson wrote a substi tute, which was adopted. In his memoir Mr. Jefferson states that the last four paragraphs of Dickinson s paper (and half of another paragraph) were copied from that drawn by himself. A few weeks later he was chosen by ballot a member of the committee to answer Lord North s conciliatory proposition. The committee assigned the task to Mr. Jefferson, and his draft was adopted. Congress adjourned August 1. Mr. Jefferson returned to the Virginia con vention, and was elected by that body to 44 THOMAS JEFFEBSON the next Congress. After a few days he secured leave of absence, and returned to Monticello. Mr. Jefferson did not re sume his work in Congress until Septem ber 25. He was back in Virginia in December. The Americans had learned that Great Britain meant to coerce them, that their petition had been rejected, and that preparations were making to put down the rebellion. The colonies had grown too strong to take orders from abroad, and the whole country now was seething with excitement. "We must fight," became the creed, arming and drilling the practice. For several months Mr. Jefferson was busy in Vir ginia raising supplies for Boston, collect ing money to buy powder, and paving the way for the Declaration of Indepen dence. Dunmore s flight having left the colony without an executive, the con vention of July, 1775, had named a " Committee of Safety " to rule Virginia THOMAS JEFFEKSON 45 with almost dictatorial powers. Patrick Henry was made commander- in- chief of the state forces. Dunmore, from his headquarters at Norfolk, proclaimed martial law, offered freedom to the negroes who would enlist with him, and ravaged the shores of the Chesapeake. In December, 1775, the Committee of Safety sent Colonel William Woodford and a small force toward Norfolk ; and there was a fight at Great Bridge. Captain Fordyce, at the head of about sixty British grenadiers, attacked the Virginians. He was defeated, and killed. Dunmore, in his rage, burnt Norfolk. In May the Virginia conven tion met, and it soon appeared that Jef ferson s visit had borne fruit. A resolu tion, written by Edmund Pendleton and presented by Thomas Nelson, was unani mously adopted, instructing the Vir ginia delegates in Congress to propose to that body to * l declare the United Colo nies free and independent States." The 46 THOMAS JEFFEESON convention then adopted a Declaration of Eights and a Constitution, both writ ten by George Mason. Thus on June 29, 1776, Virginia declared herself an independent State. Patrick Henry was elected governor by this same conven tion, and the new government went into effect at once. On June 7, 1776, Eichard Henry Lee made in Congress the motion that the colonies declare themselves "free and independent States." John Adams sec onded the motion, and was "the colossus of that debate." The committee to draw up the declaration was chosen by ballot. Jefferson stood at the head, John Adams being second ; and, after some courteous sparring as to which should do the work, Mr. Jefferson took the burden and the honour. For this great state paper, the Decla ration of Independence, it is easy to claim too much and too little. Detract ors can say that it contains nothing new, THOMAS JEFFEESON 47 that its principles had become familiar in the heroic struggles of the Dutch against Spain, that its leading features had been topics of discussion in the colonies for years, and that much of its language bears close resemblance to the Virginia Bill of Eights. As truly can eulogists say that Mr. Jefferson did not pose as an inventor of political princi ples, that he claimed no monopoly of knowledge on the subjects involved, that he was selected for the purpose of putting into permanent, intelligible form the grievances and the rights claimed by the colonists, so that the world, then and afterward, might have the best possible statement of the colonial cause. This, and this only, was the duty assigned him ; and he performed it so well that his work, approved by his compatriots, has become one of the charters of human freedom which posterity reveres. The Declaration, as written by Mr. Jefferson, was pruned by Congress, and 48 THOMAS JEFFERSON very much improved by the process. Debate dragged on till July 4, when the members, greatly pestered by the flies which swarmed in from a livery stable near by, hurried up the final vote, and adopted the amended Declaration late in the afternoon. Many years after, Mr. Jefferson was confronted with the charge that he had borrowed freely from an alleged " Meck lenburg Declaration of Independence " in drafting his own. He vehemently protested that he had never heard of the Mecklenburg Declaration, and de nounced it as spurious. The truth seems to be that on May 31, 1775, the citizens of the county of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, met at Charlotte, de clared themselves independent of Great Britain, repudiated the authority of the royal officials, and organised a local gov ernment. The resolutions adopted by this meeting bear no resemblance in form or language to the Jefferson Declaration. THOMAS JEFFEBSON 49 It is singular, however, that Mr. Jeffer son should have forgotten so completely the Mecklenburg meeting ; for the reso lutions there adopted were sent to Con gress, and were published in New York and Massachusetts. They likewise at tracted the wrathful notice of the royak governors of NY)rth Carolina and Georgia, and were officially reported to the British government, being held to " surpass all the horrid and treasonable publications which the inflammatory spirits of this Continent have yet pro duced. 7 V. BE- ELECTED to Congress, but declining to serve, Mr. Jefferson was chosen a member of the Virginia House of Dele gates, where he took his seat October 7, 1776. Virginia laws were to be re modelled, and he had set his heart upon the work. Aided by George Wythe, James Madison, and George Mason, he accomplished those reforms which hum bled the aristocracy, divorced Church from State, paved the way for popular education, and modernised the code. In Virginia landed estates had been held together by the English law of en tails and primogeniture. The eldest son took the inheritance, and debts could not reach it. Thus monopoly and privilege joined hands with the usual results. Mr. Jefferson attacked and overthrew this undemocratic system. The English Church had been " established" by law, supported by taxes, and thus furnished THOMAS JEFFEKSON 51 with ample revenues from the public treasury. Mr. Jefferson combated the establishment, separated the Church from the State, and left the Episcopa lians to live as other denominations lived, on the voluntary offerings of the believ ers. A thorough- going democrat as ever lived, Mr. Jefferson feared igno rance and superstition, realising that the masses must be educated if repub lican government was to succeed. He proposed an elaborate system of state education, the common school, the high school, the university, and the state library. His plan aroused enthu siasm, and was voted through ; but the counties refused to tax themselves to support the system, and Mr. Jefferson did not live to see his pet scheme at work. The Judiciary Act was drawn by Mr. Jefferson, creating the various courts, defining their jurisdiction, and prescrib ing their procedure. Some of the bar- 52 THOMAS JEFFEKSON barities of the old code were abolished, obsolete statutes dropped, and the entire mass simplified. The laws on the sub ject of slavery were merely codified into a new bill j but Mr. Jefferson prepared an amendment which was to have been offered at the proper time. This amend ment provided for the gradual emanci pation of the negroes, their removal from this country, and the supplying of their place by the importation of white immigrants from Europe. The proper time for this amendment did not arrive. All of Jefferson s friends Colonel Eland s fate being fresh in the memory shirked the glories of martyrdom. And so Virginia drifted blindly, blindly toward the breakers, refusing to heed the pilot who would have saved her. Mr. Jefferson had not found his labour as reformer light or pleasant. He aroused fierce opposition and rancorous resentmert. The church people never forgave him for making the priest take THOMAS JEFFERSON 53 his hands out of the public treasury. The landed gentry hated him as long as he lived because he had cut the ground from under the feet of aristocracy. The church establishment died hard. As a last resort, the Anglicans made common cause with the dissenters, and endeavoured to have a "general assess ment " levied upon the people for the support of ministers of the gospel. This fund was to be divided among the vari ous denominations. Hence it secured support among all, the Baptists ex- cepted. George Washington favoured it. So did Eichard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry ; but George Mason and James Madison fought it down. Mr. Jefferson was most earnest in his effort to establish complete religious freedom. He drafted a bill for that purpose, but it could not then be passed. In 1786 it became a law, and Mr. Jefferson in his old age included it among those achievements of which he was especially proud. 54 THOMAS JEFFERSON Another measure proposed by Mr. Jefferson, and defeated at this time, but adopted later, was the removal of the capital from Williamsburg to Rich mond. Many of those who owned property at "Williamsburg, or who from sentiment opposed the change, never forgave him. VI. DURING the first three years of the war Mr. Jefferson, busy with the revi sion of the laws, was much with his growing family at Monticello. His brother-in-law, Dabney Carr, who had married Martha Jefferson in 1765, had died at the very dawning of greatness j and Jefferson had taken the widow and the orphans to his home. Henceforth the Carr children were treated as his own. In 1779 Mr. Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia by a small major ity over his old friend, John Page. For his own fame and peace of mind it would have been better not to have accepted this office. It was the dark period of the Eevolutionary War. The people were despondent ; and the state was well nigh exhausted, not of men, but of mu nitions of war. In April, 1780, came a letter from 56 THOMAS JEFFEBSOST James Madison, who was in Congress, stating that Washington s army was short of bread, nearly out of meat, and was on the point of dissolution. He said that the treasury was empty, the public credit gone, the currency nearly worthless, the states pulling one way and Congress another, and every thing in extremity. He might have added that there were feuds in each state, in Congress, and in the army, that there was a party in Congress and in the army bitterly hostile to Wash ington. He might have completed the picture by saying that on the track of the ragged, hungry, barefooted army hung the vultures, - the speculators, the forestallers, the embezzlers, who were robbing in every possible way the Congress, the people, and the soldier. It was dreary work which fell on Jef ferson. Already Virginia had sent 4, 500 troops to the army j but the cry was still for more, more men, provisions, arms, THOMAS JEFFEESON 57 wagons, horses, tents, money, anything and everything an army needs. Jeffer son was busy ; and he was earnest, and he was effective, there can be no doubt about that. Virginia was raked fore and aft for supplies ; and, where volun tary contributions stopped, impressments began. He did not spare his own farms. To Gates, in North Carolina, he forwarded troops and supplies, much to the dismay of the Virginians, who dreaded invasion themselves. At Cam- den General Gates lost all that Jefferson had sent, and much more besides. With the new year 1781 began Vir ginia s worst troubles. British vessels came up the James, bringing troops commanded by Arnold. He landed at Westover, and marched upon Rich mond. There were no forces to oppose him. Too much time had been lost in guessing whose fleet it was and where bound. The legislature of Virginia in session at Eichmond scattered. Gover- 58 THOMAS JEFFEBSON nor Jefferson got into a state of great activity, superintended the removal of public stores and papers, and did all that could be done without troops. Arnold took possession of Bichmond, rioted, looted, and destroyed at his pleasure, and carried away as much plunder as he could move. Jefferson galloped from place to place in the vi cinity, doing his utmost to keep pace with events, rode his horse to death, car ried saddle and bridle to a farm-house, mounted an unbroken colt, continued to ride, and thus kept in view of an outrage which he could neither prevent nor punish. The Virginia militia came pouring in just as Arnold went pouring out, and Jefferson was left to bear the unjust censure of critics who claimed that the affair could have been managed better. The month of May, 1781, came. Cornwallis had at last marched up from the south, and was making for the heart THOMAS JEFFEKSOK 59 of Virginia. By May 20 he was at Petersburg. The Virginia legislature, after having dodged about from place to place, was in session at Charlotteville. The gover nor was at Monticello with his family. Jefferson s term had expired with June 1, but no successor had been elected. On June 4, before sun-up, came a messen ger, who had ridden fast and far, to tell the governor that the British were com ing. Tarleton and his band hoped to be able to capture the state government, and but for a slight delay would have done so. Legislators broke for the woods once more ; and Mr. Jefferson, after having first sent his family to a place of refuge, went off on foot, just as the British began mounting the hill. A servant held a saddle-horse ready near by, and the governor rode away to re join his family. He acted as governor no more. Tarleton s men did no damage at Mon- 60 THOMAS JEFFERSON ticello, but Lord Cornwallis wreaked vengeance on Jefferson s farm at Elk Hill. Grain, provisions, cattle, were seized, fences and growing crops were destroyed, the throats of colts were cut, and the fine horses taken. Thirty ne groes were carried off, to die of fever and small-pox in British camps. So wide -spread was the feeling of dis satisfaction with Mr. Jefferson that there was some talk of an impeachment. A young member named Nicholas mem ber from Albemarle, at that moved resolutions of inquiry. To meet his ac cusers, Mr. Jefferson offered himself for re-election to the legislature for his county of Albermarle, and was unani mously elected. He challenged the in vestigation in the legislature, but no accusers appeared. He was furnished, however, with a list of the objections which had been urged against his admin istration ; and he replied to them. There the matter dropped. His friends fol- THOMAS JEFFEBSON 61 lowed up the advantage by securing the adoption of a resolution in which the legislature thanked him for his " impar tial, upright, and attentive administra tion." But the incident wounded Mr. Jefferson deeply ; and he retired to private life, vowing that he would serve the people no more. VII. AFTER having been hunted out of Charlottesville by Tarleton, the legisla ture found it difficult to assemble a quorum ; but on June 12 William Nelson was elected governor to succeed Mr. Jef ferson. Weary of the years of toil he had undergone, cut to the heart by the cen sures which had been heaped upon his administration, and anxious about his beloved wife whose health had given way under so many shocks, Mr. Jeffer son remained in retirement at a distant farm all the summer of 1781. M. de Marbois, secretary of the French legation at Philadelphia, had asked Mr. Jefferson for certain information con cerning Virginia, expecting, no doubt, a brief reply in the usual style of statistical , reports. There were twenty-three ques tions to be answered, and a page to each would probably have been as much as THOMAS JEFFERSOK 63 the Frenchman cared to read. Mr. Jef ferson relished the task so keenly that his report (Notes on Virginia) makes a printed book of three hundred and thirty - six pages, a remarkable and valuable work. It is a wilderness of dry facts and figures, but the genius of the author makes it blossom as the rose. Writing at leisure during his summer vacation, far from noise and interrup tion, Mr. Jefferson poured forth the ful ness of a rich mind, supplied a complete handbook of Virginia, and sowed it with profound reflections, which even now the student of human affairs may read with profit. In May, 1782, Mrs. Jefferson gave birth to their sixth child, and was never able to be up again. She lingered on until September, tenderly nursed by her husband, who rarely left her bedside day or night. When she died, he was led from the room, staggering from the blow ; and, on reaching the library, he 64 THOMAS JEFFEBSON fainted. For many weeks he suffered all the tortures of the greatest of griefs ; and to this succeeded a stupor from which nothing seemed able to arouse him. Friends in Congress, in deep sympathy with him, thought he might now be drawn back into public life. He was elected to the Peace Commission which was negotiating with Great Britain, and accepted ; but, before he could sail for Europe, news came that the prelimi naries had already been signed. On June 6, 1783, the Virginia legis lature elected him to Congress. By that body he was given a flattering re ception, was appointed to the most im portant committees, and he was soon steeped in congenial work. He acted as chairman of the committee which arranged the ceremonial of Washing ton s resignation as commander-in- chief. The speech of General Mifflin, president of Congress, on that occasion is credited THOMAS JEFFEBSON 65 to Mr. Jefferson, and is, perhaps, the most beautiful of his compositions. During this session, Gouverneur Mor ris s plan for a national currency was acted upon by Congress, its leading feat ure being the decimal notation, and its unit being one-fourteen hundredths of a dollar. Mr. Jefferson heartily approved the decimal principle, but contended that the unit was too cumbersome. In lieu thereof, he proposed the dollar as the unit of value. His reasoning was conclusive, and his plan was adopted. In this way he earned the right to be called the father of the American dollar. At this session, Mr. Jefferson tendered to Congress the deed of cession by which Virginia made over the North-west Ter ritory to the federal government; and he drew up the plan for its temporary administration. His proposition to abolish slavery in the new territories after the year 1800 was rejected by one vote. A New Jersey member who fa- 66 THOMAS JEFFEKSON voured the measure was absent, and thus the course of history was probably changed by the negligence of a single Congressman. In Jefferson s report on this territorial question occurs for the first time the suggestion of the plan by which future states could be admitted into the Union. He proposed a bill for the location and sale of the public lands, but it failed to pass. He like wise made the attempt to breathe some life into the central government by creating committees which should wield executive powers during adjournments of Congress. The plan was tried, and would not work. As chairman of com mittee, it was his pleasure to sign the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, which established the independence of the United States. VIII. IN May, 1784, Congress appointed Mr. Jefferson minister plenipotentiary to act with Dr. Franklin and John Adams in negotiating treaties of commerce with European nations. Mr. Jefferson set out for France in July, 1784, taking with him his eldest daughter Martha. His two other daughters (sole survivors of all his children) he left in Virginia with their aunt, Mrs. Eppes. Dr. Franklin was already in France, and Mr. Adams in Holland. Mr. Jef ferson reached Paris August 6, 1784 ; and the three ministers were soon in consultation. They drew up such a treaty as they wished to get signed a highly moral, humane, and progres sive document but Europe declined to sign. The new-born republic did not inspire confidence, and its commerce was underrated. i Old Frederick of Prussia > met the American overtures cordially, but other monarchs held aloof. 68 THOMAS JEFFEBSOK In 1785 Mr. Adams was appointed minister to England, Dr. Franklin ob tained leave to return home, and Mr. Jefferson remained in Paris as sole min ister of the United States to France. One was enough. The duties of the office consisted mainly in keeping up a respectable appearance, urging com mercial concessions, entertaining all Americans who happened to pass that way, executing commissions for friends at home, and meeting with dignified refusal the various hungry creditors who demanded that he should pay the debts of the United States. Mr. Jefferson measured up to the requirements of the position as well as any man who could have been selected. -He rented and sumptuously furnished a palace, entertained much elegant com pany, and royally spent his nine-thou sand-dollar salary, and more besides, in keeping up a creditable appearance. He urged commercial questions upon THOMAS JEFFEESON 69 the French government with tireless per sistence. In speech and in writing, month in and month out, he discussed tobacco, rice, salted meat, salted fish, and whale oil, until there was nothing more to be said with effect or heard with patience upon the dreaded sub jects. He executed all sorts of commissions for societies, colleges, friends individual and friends collective philosophical apparatus, recent agricultural inven tions, improved implements and seeds, a watch for Madison, a lamp for E. H. Lee, books for Wythe and Edmund Ean- dolph with all the zeal of a young Congressman serving an old constituency. Hungry creditors were fed on great ex pectations ; and, when such creditors had the bad taste to complain of the diet, Mr. Jefferson firmly shut off communi cations. It is probable that Mr. Jeffer son never enjoyed five years of public service so much as he did those spent 70 THOMAS JEFFEKSON in Europe. He placed his daughter at the best convent school in Paris, and was free to travel about and see every thing. He studied the people, the laws, the government, the architecture, the canals, the commerce, the agriculture, and manufactures with never-failing in terest. Early in 1786 he went to London to assist Mr. Adams in negotiating a com mercial treaty with Great Britain, and to effect some arrangement with the Bar- bary powers. Neither with Christians nor Mohammedans could the Americans prevail. England was already enjoying, unconditionally, the American trade j and she preferred to let well enough alone. The Barbary States, exercising the right to capture and hold to ransom such Christian vessels as sailed Moham- medan waters without license, would not surrender such a principle unless paid a tribute. Europe had recognised this right, and had established the precedent THOMAS JEFFEBSON 71 of paying the tribute. The American ministers were not prepared to pay, and therefore the negotiations fell through. Adams favoured tribute, Jefferson war. When the corsairs seized an American vessel, and held the crew in captivity, Mr. Jefferson at once drew up an elabo rate paper on the subject. He proposed that a European alliance should be formed, each of the contracting nations to furnish a frigate, and that war should be made on Morocco, Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis the offending infidel States. The plan was really fine, needing only the frigates. Europe naturally waited for Mr. Jefferson to produce his frigate. He could not do so, and his well- laid scheme went to nothing. Mr. Jefferson was presented at the English court, was duly stared at, super ciliously passed over, and treated to a proper turn of the royal back. He was so outraged by the contemptuous inso lence shown him that he could never afterwards think of it with comfort. 72 THOMAS JEFFEESON Eeturning to France, Mr. Jefferson resumed his labours in behalf of Ameri can commerce. In September, 1786, while out for a walk, he fell and fract ured his wrist. Bad surgery caused the injury to become permanent, one con sequence of which was that the beloved violin had to be laid aside. Advised to try the waters at Aix, he set out upon a tour which extended through southern France and northern Italy. Travelling by easy stages in his own carriage, with post horses, he took time to study the soil, the products, and the people, mak ing notes of things which interested him. Excepting the journal of Arthur Young, we know of no description of the French people which more satisfac torily pictures the situation prior to the Ee volution than the journal of Mr. Jef ferson. Wherever he went, his genuine sympathy for the common people found expression. He noted their dress, food, work, wages, farm tools, huts, general THOMAS JEFFEBSON 73 condition. Even to this day there is a glow of colour upon his picture of the life of the wretched peasantry of France, ground down by the lords of the Church and the State. In his letters home his indignation breaks out: "It is a gov ernment of wolves over sheep, J u a true picture of the country to which they say we shall pass hereafter, and where we are to see God and his angels in splen dour, and crowds of the damned tram pled under their feet." In 1787 Mr. Jefferson s daughter Maria joined him in Paris, where she, too, was placed in a convent school. His youngest child had died at the home of Mrs. Eppes in 1785. In March, 1787, he went to Holland to aid Mr. Adams in making satisfac tory arrangements with the Dutch bank ers who had loaned the colonies money when no others would do it. The United States was not ready to pay ; and the old loan was adjusted by making a new one, 74 THOMAS JEFFERSOX subject to the approval of Congress. Be fore returning to France, Mr. Jefferson made a tour through Germany. With the Revolutionary movement in France it was natural that he should sympathise. So long as he remained in the country, he was as actively its friend and counsellor as a minister could pos sibly be. Lafayette and other liberal nobles sought his advice. Montmorin, the king s minister, encouraged him to give it ; and the bishop of Bordeaux, chairman of the committee whose duty it was to draft the Constitution, invited Jefferson to attend the sittings. This high compliment he could not accept, but he did prepare a programme for both king and people. He proposed that Louis should come forward and put himself at the head of the Eevolution, and grant a charter of liberties such as would change France into a constitu tional monarchy. Louis had no policy, the nobles who then controlled him would THOMAS JEFFEBSOK 75 make no such concessions ; and, when a more liberal, better frightened crowd got hold of him, the reformers wanted concessions more sweeping, and thus each party went its own way Louis to the scaffold, and the Eevolutionists to the Terror. In 1789 Mr. Jefferson applied for leave of absence, intending to return to France after a five months vacation at home. He obtained leave, reached Mon- ticello by Christmas, 1789, was given a touching welcome by neighbours, friends, relatives, and slaves, and never left na tive land again. IX. DURING a part of the time spent by Mr. Jefferson in southern France and Italy, gazing with rapture at choice bits of ancient architecture, peering into the pots of the peasants to find what the rustics fed on, exploring the mysteries of cheese-making, vine- dressing, and rice-hulling, a select body of American statesmen, sitting with closed doors in Philadelphia, were busily at work fram ing an entirely new government for the United States. Mr. Jefferson had not been satisfied with the old Confederation, mainly be cause the central government was vested with no power over the citizen. It could only act upon the states ; and, when the states chose not to be acted on, there was inglorious paralysis. Mr. Jef ferson had spoken clearly of the neces sity of laying the rod on some of the states, holding that where two parties THOMAS JEFFEBSON 77 enter into a compact, there resulted a power in either to compel the other to carry it out. Hence he was in sym pathy with the movement to have neces sary changes made in the Articles of Confederation. The central government must have exclusive control of national affairs and foreign relations, with power to act upon the citizens of the states directly : while the states must be left in possession of what concerned their own home affairs. When Mr. Madison forwarded to his friend Jefferson a copy of the completed Constitution, his friend Jefferson was startled and dissatisfied. The liberties of the citizen were not sufficiently guarded, there was no bill of rights, no precaution against monopolies and standing armies. Freedom of conscience and of speech was not guaranteed, and the right of habeas corpus was not made secure. Presidents might succeed them selves indefinitely, and thus become 78 THOMAS JEFFEBSON kings. Nevertheless, he reluctantly gave his support to the Constitution, trusting to amendments to cure its defects. Therefore, when the state s- rights men had their one chance to enforce their views by holding off Virginia s ratifica tion, Patrick Henry and George Mason got no help from Jefferson. On the con trary, Mr. Madison used with effect a letter from Jefferson, in which he ad vised that the Constitution be ratified, subject to amendment. Mr. Jefferson was still abroad. when the new government went into operation. About the time when he sat himself down at Nancy to write out the mathe matical formula for the mould-board of a turn-plough, President Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay were tugging with might and main, in Kew York, to make the new machinery of constitutional govern ment work. So it was that when Mr. Jefferson THOMAS JEFFEBSON 79 reached home from Europe, and ac cepted Washington s repeated invitation to enter the cabinet as Secretary of State, he was very decidedly in the position of the sleeper who wakes too late. Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury, had already gathered into his strong hands the reins of power, formu lated the plans which were to dwarf the states, drawn to his support the capital ists and the speculators, laid hold of the principle that the government was greater than the Constitution, and was steering boldly, steering with dauntless resolution, toward nationality and im perialism. A heated debate was in progress on the question of the assumption of state debts when Mr. Jefferson arrived in New York. Madison led the opposi tion ; and Hamilton stood repulsed, not defeated. To whom should he turn for aid but to Jefferson I He met that un suspecting philosopher in the street, 80 THOMAS JEFFEKSON walked him up and down before the president s door for half an hour, told him the Union was in danger, New England about to secede, a general smash-up impending, and appealed to Jefferson to save the young republic. Jefferson fell into the snare. A din ner at Jefferson s was agreed on one of those nice, quiet, harmless little dinners at which so many Samsons lose hair. Several friends were to meet Jefferson and Hamilton, to talk matters over. The day came, the guests came, the din ner came and was eaten. Then the political trader cast his net. The East wants assumption of state debts ? Yes. The South wants the federal city lo cated on the Potomac? Yes. Both measures at present stand at bay for the lack of a few votes? Yes. It so hap pens that those who want assumption oppose the Potomac, and that those who want the Potomac oppose assumption? Yes. Then why not do a little bargain- THOMAS JEFFEKSON 81 ing I No sooner said than done ; and Hamilton carried assumption, while the South got Washington City. This bargain soon became a thorn in the side of Mr. Jefferson, and its wound long rankled. He claimed that Hamil ton had duped him. Mr. Hamilton, born in the British West Indies, remained more or less alien in feeling to the country of his adoption, and made 110 secret of his preference for English institutions. With an advent urer s natural sense of his own weak ness, he clung to the rich and the great, becoming their advocate and leader in the United States, much as two other upstarts, Canning and Disraeli, did in Great Britain. William Pitt himself did not despise "the mob" with more heartiness than Alexander Hamilton. According to his view, it had pleased the Almighty to create j us t a very few men who deserved to enjoy a monopoly of the good things of government. For these 82 THOMAS JEFFERSON select worthies the banquet of national favours was to be spread, and they were welcome to eat, drink, and be merry ; for on the morrow they would not die, but would feast again they or their offspring. e i The mob, " " the unwashed multitude, " the unfavoured mass of the people, were to be content with such crumbs, scraps, and bones as might be flung to them after the banquet was over j and the resignation with which they devoured these leavings was to be sweetened by the remembrance that their labour had furnished the feast. In Great Britain these happy results had been brought about by certain class regulations which courts had consented to call laws. God pity the man who can read some of the things they call laws, and not have eyes that are dimmed with tears ! In England they had a funding sys tem, by means of which a perpetual debt, an everlasting burden, was fixed THOMAS JEFFERSON 83 to the backs of "the mob," who were thus held in bondage from age to age, labouring patiently for those who owned the debt. In England they had a bank ing system, wherein the sovereign power to create money was handed over to a private corporation, the public credit farmed out to speculators, and com merce of all kinds held in subjection to the banks. In England they had a pro tective system, whereby the government favoured certain industries at the expense of others. The many who were robbed by this system were asked to submit cheerfully on the plea that the nation, as a whole, would be benefited by the spoliation. If the class which was robbed saw in this plea a principle which would excuse any other robber whatever, it was because of the perversity of their hearts, a perversity incident to neglect of education in the mysteries of legisla tion. Hamilton looked upon these English 84 THOMAS JEFFERSOX institutions, saw that they were good, and straightway imported them. In England they had established a partner ship between the government and the privileged. Hamilton hoped and be lieved they would, in the course of time, bear the same fruits here. For that pur pose he introduced them. For that reason Jefferson opposed them. The citizen of the United States who can at this day look abroad on the Re public, and be certain that Jefferson s fears and Hamilton s hopes have not been realised, belongs to the type of man we call optimistic. President Washington believed him self to be non-partisan. In fact, he was a Federalist. No matter how earnestly he might seek advice, no matter how long he might hesitate, he never failed to go with Hamilton on the vital questions necessary to Hamilton s system. The tremendous centralising tenden cies which were coiled within the meas- THOMAS JEFFEBSON 85 ures already alluded to were strength ened by another. Implied powers in the federal government were boldly asserted, and thus a doctrine was estab lished which, when wedded to the gen eral welfare clause, swept states -rights out of the way, and founded imperial ism. Mr. Jefferson s work as Secretary of State, while plentiful, was not very heavy, save as it brought him into con flict with Hamilton. There it was de cidedly heavy. The two were " pitted against each other constantly, like fight ing cocks ; and for this kind of thing Jefferson had the least possible taste. He dearly loved to draw up a plan of battle, and he dearly loved to see some one else do the fighting. Gentle, pru dent, politic, he shrank instinctively from quarrels, angry debates, and per sonal collisions. The clash of ideas was music to his ears ; and, in marshalling the cohorts of one principle against 86 THOMAS JEFFEKSON another on paper, he was Napoleonic. When, however, it came to a clash of men, or when the discussion of ideas degenerated into personalities, Mr. Jef ferson preferred to soar above the storm, and let it rage beneath him. Fighting the battles of Hamilton, during these days came Fennels Gazette, a paper in which the financial secretary was glorified in a manner highly exas perating to Jefferson, Madison, and friends. Such a devil must be fought with fire, and the Virginians brought Freneau to town. Freneau had some literary reputation, had written much rhyme which passed for poetry with the credulous, and was, in fact, as ready a man with pen, partisanship, and politi cal gall as one would care to meet. Upon Madison s recommendation, Jef ferson found a soft place for Freneau in the government service, a place in which abundant leisure and a sal ary of two hundred and fifty dollars THOMAS JEFFEBSOST 87 invited the poet to abide. In a short while Freneau s National Gazette was launched. Fenno s Gazette had vented much contempt upon the Constitution. "The shilly-shally thing" had offended Eepublicans by publishing a "court cir cular" of the doings of society in the presidential circle, and had opened its columns to John Adams s "Discourses on Davila," in which discourses there were sentiments no good Eepublican could endure. Freneau understood that he was set up to counteract all this, that he was brought on the arena to fight 5 and at it he went. He slashed away at Hamilton Hamilton s pet measures, Hamilton s pet doctrines, and Hamil ton s corrupt squadron of henchmen with growing gusto and unquenchable zeal. Presently the missiles flew higher than Hamilton, and Washington himself was irreverently handled. Not wishing the President to remain in ignorance of what one of his clerks thought of him, 88 THOMAS JEFFEKSON Freneau had the impudence to send three copies of his paper regularly to the Pres idential mansion. "That damned rascal, Freneau/ caused the Father of his Country . to become "warm and sore" ; and Jeffer son was spoken to on the subject. Nevertheless, the clerk held his posi tion. The Federalists, of course, loudly berated Jefferson, accusing him of in spiring Freneau s attacks. This was denied at the time, both by Jefferson and his clerk. Much later in his life Freneau changed his mind about it, and admitted that Jefferson had taken an active part in the crusade. Hamilton grew restive under the as saults, took up the controversy himself, passed Freneau over, struck full at Jefferson, hoping to draw that sedate philosopher into the fray. The effort failed. Jefferson s friends swarmed about Hamilton, jabbing at him wher- THOMAS JEFFERSON 89 ever they could. Jefferson himself held prudently aloof. Not until Washington, in his grandly pacific way, intervened, trying to allay the strife between his tw.o secretaries, did Mr. Jefferson speak out. Then, indeed, he expressed him self elaborately in a letter which was, in effect, a complete vindication of himself and a sweeping arraignment of his oppo nent. The Eevolution in France having guil lotined the king, Washington s cabinet was agitated by several problems grow ing out of that event. France and Eng land were about to go to war : was the United States to be neutral ? The French Republic had commissioned a minister to the United States : was he to be re ceived f To each of these questions the cabinet answered, Yes. Genet, the French minister, came, and with him came a very lively series of complications. He was quite a 90 THOMAS JEFFEESON young man, ardent and excitable by nature j was imbued with the spirit of the great Eevolution ; and, when he landed at Charleston, he was bubbling over with enthusiasm for liberty, equal ity, and fraternity. He had heard of our young and rising Eepublic, had been told that French armies, French fleets, French supplies, and French money had borne a somewhat conspicuous share in wresting the colonies from the grip of Great Britain ; and he did not doubt for a moment that he would be welcomed in America with open arms. France was now battling against England for her own freedom. What more natural than that the French minister should expect sym pathy and encouragement in the United States f That was all Genet expected : 1 i We want no help from you. We only want the sympathy and kindness which a friend shows when one is in distress. " Genet asked little, and got less. The first official with whom he came in con- THOMAS JEFFEKSOtf 91 tact was old General Moultrie, then gov ernor of South Carolina. Genet asked Moultrie for leave to commission priva teers. The old soldier, unacquainted with international law, and not familiar with any other sort, told Genet that "he knew of no law against it. The French man straightway began to issue the com missions he had brought over, and pri vateers began to make search on the high seas for English vessels weaker than themselves. Leaving these fires burning brightly in his rear, Genet set out for Philadelphia, received rousing ovations on the way, was feasted, toasted, cheered, and harangued, until he was thoroughly assured that the American heart was as warm as his own. When the ovations were all over, when banquets, addresses, toasts, balls, street parades, and miscel. laneous raptures were ended, Genet came in contact with Washington s govern* ment ; and he must have felt as the swimmer might, who finishes a bath in 92 THOMAS JEFFEESO^ the Gulf Stream by taking a seat on an iceberg. George Washington s own personal brand of austere dignity is conceded to have been the most overpowering thing of the kind ever seen on this continent. The story goes that Gouverneur Morris, upon a wager with Hamilton, once dared to lay his hand familiarly upon Wash ington s shoulder, once and only once. Morris shivered and shook as he fell back in disorder before the cold, sur prised stare of the Washington eye. Genet, one instinctively pities Genet. He came hot, panting, and enthusiastic into the presidential presence ; and a frost smote him and withered him. The sudden pain was more than the young Frenchman could bear, and his cries scandalised the presidential court. Once upon a time another young man from France, bubbling over with republican enthusiasm, had come to visit the great Washington ; and the great Washington THOMAS JEFFEBSON 93 had not been quite so cold as this. Now it was all different, and Genet could not be made to understand the change at all. He lost temper, used language diplomacy condemned, did things neutrality could not permit, and behaved so naturally (and therefore so imprudently) that even Jefferson had to use the rod on his indignant back. France agreed to recall him ; and Genet, perhaps afraid to go, married Governor Clinton s daughter, and settled in New York. In spite of Washington s earnest re quest that he would remain in the cab inet, Mr. Jefferson resigned at the end of 1794. Back to his mountain home he hurried, declaring that he was done with public life forever. Henceforth he would find happiness in his books, his farms, his family. The British debt had swept away huge slices of his land, but he still owned ten thousand acres. In his absence the property had suffered, and was now in a 94 THOMAS JEFFEBSON general state of dilapidation. Shunning politics and reading but one newspaper, he plunged into the luxuries of farming, gardening, and house - building. His travels in Europe had given him many new ideas, and he was eager to indulge his taste for experiment. Some portions of his mansion were torn down to make way for more artistic and more expen sive designs. The gardens and parks of the Old "World had excited his admira tion, hence other touches had to be given to gardens and grounds at Monti- cello. European agriculture had ap pealed to his love of orderly progress : hence his farms had to be divided anew, fruit-tree hedges run along the divid ing lines, the crops and the method of planting changed. Thus, in the midst of his debts, Mr. Jefferson mapped out pleasant occupations, which added greatly to the beauty of his estate and to the ugliness of his financial situation. On the Eivanna he had built a flour- THOMAS JEFFERSON 95 mill, which cost him thirty thousand dollars ; and here his wheat, and that of his neighbours, was ground. He had set up a small factory, in which the wool crop was made into cloth. Black smith shops on the place produced nails as well as other farm supplies, the sur plus being sold at a fair profit. There was live stock of the usual sort in plenty ; the farms were provisioned on home-raised meat ; there were fruits, melons, vegetables, milk, butter, mutton, beef, and pork in abundance, plenty to eat and plenty to wear, good houses to live in, fuel to burn, wine to drink, to bacco to chew or smoke. But cash was scarce at Monti cello, as it seems to have been at most of the proud, feudal homes of the Old South. Virginia farmers, as a rule, did not keep books very care fully. Allowance was not made for the wear and tear of land, nor for slave labour. Hence capital might be farmed away, while the figures proved a profit. 96 THOMAS JEFFERSON Book-keeping might say success, while facts proclaimed bankruptcy. Mr. Jefferson was an example of the rule. He meandered along composedly with his expensive mansion, his unlim ited hospitality, his experimental plant ing, his extravagant household establish ment, believing in his heart of hearts that he was teaching an object-lesson hugely beneficial to agriculture ; yet nothing is more obvious than that he was laying up wrath against the day of wrath, consuming his capital as well as his revenue, and allowing the thunder cloud of his debts to darken and grow, with never a fear of the storm to come. Like his great rival, Hamilton, he could enrich a nation and stay poor. Having made it a rule, that while serving his country, he would engage in no efforts to better his fortune, his country gained and his fortune lost the undivided energies of the best years of his life. While Mr. Jefferson s fondness for ex- THOMAS JEFFEBSON 97 periment and his faith in novelties caused him to be ridiculed as visionary and impracticable, his passion for prog ress conferred lasting benefit on man kind, even in the domain of the severely practical. He introduced the heavy up land rice into Georgia and South Caro lina, the olive into Georgia and Florida. He imported the merino sheep to im prove the native breed. He invented a folding and a revolving chair, and an extension top for the carriage. He in troduced improved machinery and pro gressive methods. European melons, nuts, vines, he imported and scattered broadcast among his friends. When in France, he had taken a medal awarded by the Eoyal Agricultural Society of the Seine for an improved plough : the model was to be seen in Paris so late as 1853. Mr. Jefferson did not long remain wholly indifferent to public affairs. His letters began to flow after a while, 98 THOMAS JEFFEBSO^ and faithful followers were not denied a word of guidance from the chief. On every important issue, as it arose, Mr. Jefferson found time to express written opinion, despite his keen in terest in his " pease, lucerne, and po tatoes." The excise law which had roused rebellion in Pennsylvania was an "infernal one. 7 The Jay Treaty was a pusillanimous surrender of Amer ican rights to English greed and arro gance. The " ruonocrats, " who had kindled his ire when he first entered Washington s cabinet, were still ac tively at work, Hamilton at their head, striving to put the United States under the heels of Great Britain. These wicked men had taken possession of President Washington, and were using him for unholy purposes. Such plots, such "monocrats," deserved unmeasured de nunciation ; and Jefferson denounced them accordingly. Thus opposition to Federalism took THOMAS JEFFEBSON 99 political shape under the hands of the serene gardener who bent affectionately over asparagus beds, and who noted three times a day how the wind was blowing. Not a man who craved active leader ship, not sufficiently consumed by " di vine indignation" to become a zealot capable of consecrating life, peace, and fortune to a mission, Mr. Jefferson was one of the most earnest, sincere, unself ish of statesmen. With infinite scorn he scouted the idea that God had given to any class of human beings a monopoly of worth. Class legislation, whether in Europe or America, he abhorred. He believed in the people, loved them, trusted them, and relied upon the masses as the safest repositories of power. The governing few were the same every where greedy, corrupt, tyrannical. Let government rest upon the masses, educate the masses, throw open the doors of opportunity to the masses, grant no 100 THOMAS JEFFEBSON special privileges, legislate for no class, mete out equal and exact justice to all, steer clear of Old World abuses, guard well the reserved rights of the people, watch jealously the encroachments of power. He believed in "free trade with all the nations of the world ? ; in a na tional currency created and controlled by the nation, and not by the banks ; in economy of administration, so that there should be no public debt. He was in principle opposed to militarism and to imperialism. He believed that a nation s true prosperity could best be reached by the steady development in cident to peace and to friendly rela tions with all the nations of the earth. So democratic that he disliked all titles, even those of Mister and Esquire, his cardinal doctrine was " equal and exact justice to all men" ; and he favoured a progressive tax on property in order that excessive accumulations might be discouraged. THOMAS J EJ^SBSCM iOi Writing from France to Mr. Madison, lie said that "the earth belongs in usu fruct to the living, and that < the dead have no dominion over it." He added that the debts of one generation should not bind another. Technically, this is known as " dan gerous ground," ours being a system which is overshadowed and benumbed by the Past. So jealously did he watch the en croachment of government that he rather sympathised with popular insur rections, holding that they were neces sary to the health of society, as the occasional storm was to the purity of the atmosphere. At what point a re bellion might cease to be healthy, he failed to state. As with his storm, the classification could only be made after the disturbance was over. With these intense radical opinions it is not surprising that so able a man as Mr. Jefferson should see a party rally- 102 THOMAS- JEFFEBSON ing around him. Profoundly attached to the cause of the common people, his own spirit moved over the great deep of American politics, inspiring the masses with his own faith and aspira tions. When the presidential election of 1796 came on, Jefferson, who had been put in nomination by the Republican caucus at Philadelphia, who had not stirred from Monticello nor taken part in the campaign, missed the election by a scratch. Under the old system of presidential elections the candidate who received the highest number of electoral votes became president, and he who received the next highest became vice- president. Thus Adams and Jefferson were each candidate for the highest office ; and Jefferson, though beaten for the first place, secured the second. A change of two votes from Adams to himself would have made him the suc cessor of Washington. This brilliant THOMAS JEFFEKSON 103 result of the campaign was largely due to the masterly management by which New York had been wrested from Hamil ton and Schuyler by Aaron Burr. X. ONE of the things which reconciled Mr. Jefferson to a return to office was the salary. His affairs had become so embarrassed that ready money was in great demand with him. Besides, the duties of the vice-presidency were not exacting. They would claim but a small part of each year, and the re mainder he could spend at Monticello. In the course of his studies, which ranged far and wide, he had given much attention to parliamentary law and had made copious notes, according to his usual rule. Row that he was presiding officer of the Senate, this knowledge became specially useful to him. To give others the benefit of his studies of the subject, he published his Manual of Parliamentary Practice, which became a guide-book in the dark and dismal swamp called Parliamentary Law. The quarrels with France were the THOMAS JEFFEESON 105 source of tribulation under the admin istration of Mr. Adams. Our sister Ee- public had been treated so much like an hereditary enemy, had been made so angry by the conduct of Gouverneur Morris, by the Jay Treaty, and by the Neutrality Proclamation, that it became belligerent, began to seize our merchant vessels, and practically drove our minis ter, Pinckney, out of the country. Hamilton and most of the Federalists clamoured for war. Adams did not love Hamilton, and persisted in the policy of peace. A grand embassy, composed of Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, was sent to negotiate. When these special envoys arrived in Paris, they found a corrupt Directory in possession of the government, and the corrupt Talleyrand in possession of the Directory. Did the Americans want something ? Then they must pay for it. By this simple rule Talleyrand was doing business, and to make an exception here would breed 106 THOMAS JEFFEBSON trouble yonder. The Americans must make the government a loan and Tal leyrand a gift. How much for the loan ? Apparently, five million dollars. How much for Talleyrand? Two hun dred and fifty thousand dollars in gold. "Not a sixpence!" replied the dumb founded American envoys. " Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute ! 7 In spite of this noble sentiment the indignant ministers frnmd themselves completely balked, standing on the wrong side of inexorable conditions. They remonstrated, protested, spun out lengthy discourse, all to no purpose. Talleyrand wined and dined Gerry in formally : Gerry wined and dined Tal leyrand informally. No farther could the business travel. Thus it was for six months, when Pinckney and Marshall sailed homeward, leaving Gerry in Paris. Disclosures following the return of the envoys, indignation flamed out all over the Union. Pinckney and Mar- THOMAS JEFFEESON 107 shall were toasted as heroes, Gerry uni versally damned. The "X. Y. Z." correspondence, as it was called, drove the country into a martial fever. Be fore long Talleyrand let it be known that peace could be made without gold. Gerry came to America, sought out the president at Quincy, had a private in terview, convinced him that France wanted peace, and the attempt was made. It succeeded, and the war-cloud passed away. It was while the country was wrought up over these questions that the Fed eralists enacted the Alien and Sedition laws, which caused Virginia to prepare herself to resist the encroachments of the central government, and which called forth the Virginia and Kentucky Eesolutions, drafted by Madison and Jefferson. In these celebrated Eesolu tions, around which raged such hot po litical battles afterward, extreme state- rights were proclaimed, and the doctrine of nullification set forth. 108 THOMAS JEFFERSON While Mr. Jefferson gave freest ex pression to such opinions as these, he was equally forcible in condemning se cession. When John Taylor suggested that the time had come for North Caro lina and Virginia to walk out of the Union, he was met by Mr. Jefferson s firm protest that such a policy would lead to the breaking up of the Confed eracy "into their simple units." For the presidential campaign of 1800 the Federalists renominated Mr. Adams, and the Republicans Mr. Jefferson. The Federalists were beaten by eight electoral votes. During the campaign, Jefferson was assailed with unsparing and unscrupu lous violence. He was an atheist ; he poisoned the minds of the young with heresy ; he was the father of mulatto children ; he had robbed the widow and orphans of a dead friend of fifty thousand dollars ; he despised mechan ics 5 was an enemy to the Constitution, THOMAS JEFFEBSON 109 and meant to subvert it. u Mr. Jeffer son s Congo Harem" was a party cry, and u Dusky Sally" Henning s brats were reported to have angular faces and sandy hair. But Jefferson s popularity kept marching on, and the campaign liar was swept far out to oblivion. XL EACH of the Republican nominees, Jefferson and Burr, had received the same number of votes. Under the old rule there was no election, and the choice of president fell to the House of Representatives. So intense was Federalist hatred of Jefferson that they schemed to set aside the will of the peo ple, and to make Burr the president. Burr himself remained at Albany, wrote a brief, positive note, denouncing the intrigue ; and his friends in Congress refused to make the pledges which Bay ard, in behalf of the Federalists, de manded. In a letter to his daughter Martha, bearing date January 4, 1801, Mr. Jef ferson writes : i c The Federalists were confident at first they could debauch Col. B. from his good faith, by offering him their vote to be president, and have seriously proposed it to him. His con- THOMAS JEFFEKSON 111 duct has been honourable and decisive, and greatly embarrasses them. This favourable opinion Mr. Jefferson soon dropped, but just why and when cannot be shown. If Burr cherished any secret hopes that the presidency might be thrust upon him, they were soon dashed to the ground. Hamilton could not bear the idea that his rival should win the prize, made desperate efforts to pull away from Burr the Federalist support, wrote vio lently abusive letters against him, and thus, perhaps, took the first long step toward the duelling ground of Weehaw- ken. Gouverneur Morris went with Hamilton, throwing his influence to Jefferson ; and, when Jefferson s friends (without his knowledge) made the pledges Bayard demanded, Jefferson re ceived the necessary votes in the House. Mr. Adams took his defeat so much to heart that he left Washington before the inauguration. On foot and attended 112 THOMAS JEFFERSON informally by a few friends, Mr. Jeffer son went to the Capitol, and read his noble first Inaugural Address. Under Washington s administration, where all was new and experimental, many royal forms and ceremonies had been followed. Washington was some thing of a " My Lord himself ; and the rich city people of New York and Phila delphia were painfully committed to the effort to be aristocratic. The pres idential inauguration was patterned after a royal coronation. Congress was opened as an English king would open Parliament, court levees were held on stated days, and society adopted for midable rules of precedence. With good-humoured contempt, Mr. Jefferson brushed all this rubbish aside. No six-horse coach, with blare of trumpet, boom of cannon, and crash of military bands, escorted him back and forth. Congress was opened by a written message handed in by a secretary, and THOMAS JEFFEBSON 113 levees were abolished. During Wash ington s administration our aristocratic minister at Paris, Gouverneur Morris, had startled the French republicans by reference to what he called ma cour. There was no "my court" nonsense about Jefferson, no undemocratic rules of precedence, no barriers over which one class of men and women said to another, "We are better than you." All came as equals, or not at all. The British minister was shocked at being received just as Jefferson would have received a Virginia farmer, and wrote indignant stuff to London about it. Apparently, the miserably vain minister, Mr. Merry, would have been glad to see the two nations go to war because Jefferson wore slippers about the house, and because he took Mrs. Madison in to dinner instead of Mrs. Merry. Jefferson only laughed, remembering, maybe, how he had been insulted in London. Washington City consisted at this 114 THOMAS JEFFERSON time chiefly of a large diagram on paper. There was a long streak of mnd called Pennsylvania Avenue, with the unfinished mansion at one end and the incomplete Capitol at the other, and a few shackly houses strewed along on each side. Living was expensive, and the expense brought no comfort. The executive mansion, as kept by Mr. Jeffer son, became a free hotel of the first class, the only first-class hotel in the town ; and its run of custom was the despair of inferior places. He kept a dozen ser vants, including French cooks, often spent fifty dollars a day at the George town market, kept a wagon busy hauling the more substantial supplies from Monticello, and refreshed his guests with the best French wine they had ever tippled. His wine bill alone was twenty-seven hundred dollars a year. He kept the finest horses, his carriage team costing sixteen hundred dollars. The stable expenses of this simple THOMAS JEFFEBSON 115 democrat were eight hundred dollars a year. Free and easy, generous and frank, liberal and genial, presidential hospitality as shown by Jefferson was such as had not been practised before, and was never seen in its full blossom afterwards. No respectable, decently clad Ameri can citizen needed to doubt that he could dine with his chief magistrate. The only danger was that a late arrival might find no vacant chair. Merry, the English minister, made it a matter of formal complaint to his government that in the scramble for seats at Jeffer son s table a mere Congressman had rushed in where angels fear to tread, and had seized the chair which Merry had mentally appropriated to himself. On Mr. Jefferson s return from France he had created a ripple of excitement in New York society circles by his French dress, his red breeches particu larly causing pain and consternation. 116 THOMAS JEFFERSON By the time he became president, he had grown so indifferent to clothes that a sight of him would have been refreshing to such a man as "old Frederick of Prussia." Senator William Maclay, a Jeffer- sonian senator from Pennsylvania, thus describes his chief : "Jefferson is a slender man, has rather the air of stiffness in his manner. His clothes seem too small for him. He sits in a lounging manner, on one hip commonly, and with one of his shoulders elevated much above the other. His face has a sunny aspect. His whole figure has a loose, shackling air. He had a rambling, vacant look, and nothing of that firm, collected deportment which I expected. . . . He spoke almost without ceasing, . . . his discourse . . . was loose and rambling ; and yet he scattered information wher ever he went." Augustus Foster, secretary of the British legation, wrote : THOMAS JEFFEBSON 117 "He was a tall man, with a very red, freckled face and grey, neglected hair. . . . He wore a blue coat, a thick, grey- coloured, hairy waistcoat, with a red under- waistcoat lapped over it, green velveteen breeches with pearl buttons, and slippers down at the heels, his appearance being very much like that of a tall, large-boned farmer. 7 Senator Plumer wrote : "He was dressed in an old brown coat, red waistcoat, old corduroy small clothes, much-soiled woollen hose, and slippers without heels." A hostile newspaper of the time, the Evening Post, testifies that he made a habit of appearing in public "dressed in long boots with tops turned down about the ankles, like a Virginia buck ; overalls of corduroy, faded, by frequent immersions in soap-suds, from yellow to a dull white ; a red, single-breasted waist coat, a light brown coat with brass buttons, both coat and waistcoat quite 118 THOMAS JEFFEBSON threadbare ; liuen very considerably soiled ; hair uncombed and beard un shaven. ? The Evening Post also complained that * ( he makes it a point, when he has occasion to visit the Capitol to meet the representatives of the nation 011 public business, to go on a single horse, which he leads into the shed and hitches to a peg." Negligent in dress, easy of access, in different to forms and ceremonies, loose and rambling in casual conversation, lolling on one hip with one shoulder higher than the other, this freckled- faced philosopher was a rare manager of men, and one of the astutest politi cians this country has ever known. He chose a cabinet of the strongest men men of education and experience, men who were personally and politically his friends ; and during his presidency there were no cabinet feuds. Madison, Gal- latin, Lincoln, Dearborn, Smith, were THOMAS JEFFEBSON 119 all kept working harmoniously together j and Congress he manipulated to per fection. Justly offended with Mr. Adams for having crowded life appointments into the last hours of his term, Mr. Jeffer son treated these " midnight appoint ments as nullities ; and the Judiciary Act, by which new federal courts, judges, marshals, etc., were created, was repealed. A story told by partisans of Jefferson and denied by partisans of Marshall represents the great chief justice, then acting Secretary of State, as labouring away far into the night of March 3, 1800, signing commissions for Federalists, and only stopping his work when Levi Lincoln, with Jeffer son s watch in hand, walked into the office at midnight, and called a halt. "Is he honest! Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution ? > was the test which Mr. Jefferson declared he would use on applicants for office. 120 THOMAS JEFFEESOX Yet, as the Federalists had totally ex cluded Jefferson s friends from the administration, it was only fair that Eepublicans should now get a share. In his own quiet, leisurely way, Mr. Jefferson was a good deal of a partisan. Eepublicans got all the new appoint ments, and Federalists lost many of the old. "Few die, and none resign," is a briefer version of one of Jefferson s complaints against the office- holding Federalists ; but in the end he managed to make a pretty general change in the politics of the administration. Many Federalists who were reluctant to get out by death, resignation, or removal, stayed in by professing a change of heart ; for it began to be plain enough that the Fed eralist party was doomed. Federalism was at war with itself, Washington was dead, Hamilton was at feud with Adams, Jefferson was conciliating everybody, the country was prospering, and Eepubli- canism had evidently come to stay. THOMAS JEFFEBSON 121 Hamilton could rail at Jefferson from afar off. His shafts did not reach the mark. The repeal of the Judiciary Act had excited so much antagonism that Mr. Jefferson, intensely as he disliked the federal judiciary, did not venture to proceed farther on that line, but adopted another. Impeachments might answer the purpose. Therefore Pickering, a district court judge, was arraigned, found guilty, and removed from office. He was probably insane, and his official conduct could not be defended ; but when John Eandolph of Eoanoke, at Jefferson s instigation, brought in arti cles of impeachment against Chase of Maryland, a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Federal ists felt that Marshall himself might come next, and they rallied to his sup port with the strongest array of counsel the bar could furnish. In a legal contest and pitted against the best lawyers in the 122 THOMAS JEFFERSON land, Bandolph of Roaiioke was out of his element, especially when the pre siding officer of the court was Aaron Burr. The prosecution failed miser ably. Chase came forth in triumph, the Federalists duly jubilating. Hence forth John Marshall was safe. Jeffer son could do no more than wring his hands and tear his robe as centralism marched steadily on behind the federal judges. Previous to the adoption of the Constitution he had admitted the ne cessity of a Supreme Court vested with the power to set aside unconstitutional laws 5 but, when Washington and Adams had filled the bench with Federalists, and the decisions had proved to be as partisan as the judges, he awoke, with something akin to terror, to the power of such a tribunal. In office for life, placed beyond the reach of the people, tempted by human love of supremacy to enlarge the limits of their empire, where would the federal judiciary stop ! THOMAS JEFFEBSON 123 With the vision of a prophet, he saw this body of sappers and miners advanc ing with resistless steps, sapping the foundations of republican institutions. So vividly did he describe the perils of the future that we can believe he almost realised the day when federal judges would operate railways by a decree, street- cars by injunction, and use a mail- bag and the United States army to quell a local strike. During this first term of Mr. Jefferson the internal taxes were abolished, the military and naval establishment re duced, and the expenses of administra tion economised. Gallatin began to pay off the public debt, and reduced it from eighty-three to forty-five millions of dollars. The repeal of the direct and excise taxes cut off a million and a half from the national revenue, but the income from customs duties increased so rapidly that in 1808 they stood at sixteen million dollars. 124 THOMAS JEFFEBSON True to the idea lie had advanced when foreign minister, Mr. Jefferson made war upon the Barbary States in the interest of free commerce. Partly by gallant fighting, partly by negotia tion, the corsairs were brought to terms. Mr. Jefferson s Indian policy was humane and statesmanlike. His kind ness of feeling for the red man dated far back to the time when he had listened to the friendly chiefs who gathered at his father s house in the old home of Shadwell. Holding that the Indian title to the lands they occupied must be respected, he insisted that the red men be bought out and not shot out. To the chiefs who came to Washington to con sult the Great Father he made paternal speeches, containing sage counsel. The essence of the doctrine was that the Indian should settle down, go to work, rely on industry rather than sport, re nounce mean whiskey, and fall into the ways of the laborious whites. THOMAS JEFFEKSON 125 An original expansionist, Mr. Jeffer son had encouraged Western pioneers, such as the heroic George Eogers Clarke, and had long coveted the Spanish pos sessions in America. Therefore, he was profoundly disturbed when in 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte won back to France the empire the Bourbon had lost, and planned to colonise Louisiana. In a letter to Mr. Livingston, our min ister in France, Mr. Jefferson declared that the colonising of Louisiana by France would lead to war, that the United States would make alliance with England, and that French power would sink to low-water mark. Napoleon, used to talk of this kind, paid no atten tion to it. Then Mr. Jefferson changed his tone. He would buy New Orleans and West Florida. Napoleon would not sell. Livingston could not even get Talleyrand to talk about it. Napoleon s plans of colonisation were complete, his ships ready to sail, when, all at once, a 126 THOMAS JEFFEKSON cloud swept over his dazzling sky. The Peace of Amiens broken, war was about to convulse Europe. Again England held the seas, and Louisiana would be her first prize. To escape so great a shame, Napoleon had but one resource to throw Louisiana to the United States. Quick as lightning, French policy was reversed ; and Livingston was stunned by the statement that Napoleon would sell all Louisiana. Jefferson and Living ston had been hoping against hope that New Orleans and a strip of Florida could be bought. In his eagerness and his dis tress, Mr. Jefferson had stooped to con ciliate Talleyrand. This utterly rotten minister was assured that the American people had vindicated him from the X. Y. Z. scandal by retiring from office the bad men who had accused him ! Furthermore, Mr. Jefferson had asked Congress for a special fund of two mill ion dollars, to be used at the Presi dential discretion. English newspapers THOMAS JEFFERSON 127 had chronicled this significant fact. It had thus come to Napoleon s knowledge, and Napoleon knew what it meant. It meant that Talleyrand s ruffled plumage was to be smoothed down with gold. Napoleon, therefore, employed Barb6- Marbois. Monroe had been sent to aid Living ston ; but, before he reached Paris, Napoleon had already instructed. Mar- bois to sell. Livingston had not closed the trade, however 5 and the two Ameri can ministers, acting together and with out definite instructions, assumed the responsibility of paying fifteen million dollars for all Louisiana, thus doubling the Union by a stroke of the pen. Mr. Jefferson held that his purchase of Louisiana was an act outside the Con stitution, and wished to have it ratified by constitutional amendment ; but his friends listened coldly, and nothing was done. It was during the prolonged corre- 128 THOMAS JEFFEKSON spondence on the Louisiana question that Mr. Jefferson foreshadowed the principle known as the Monroe Doctrine. XII. UNANIMOUSLY renominated by the Bepublieans in 1804, Mr. Jefferson was almost unanimously re-elected. In the ory, he had been opposed to more than one term, and feared that the office might degenerate into a life tenure, and afterward become hereditary. When he himself became president, the danger did not seem so great ; and a second term, he thought, would be harmless, par ticularly as his enemies had abused him vilely and he craved a vindication. Had he let this second term alone, his ene mies would have had far less strength in their case, and he a great deal more in his. The second term came near devouring all the glory of the first $ and there was some of the sting of dis agreeable truth in John Bandolph s comparison of Jefferson s first and second four years to Pharaoh s fat and lean kine. 130 THOMAS JEFFEKSON The Louisiana purchase included a large portion of the present State of Texas ; but, as the United States did not know of this fact and Napoleon refused to reveal it, we put forward no claim. Livingston, however, convinced himself that West Florida was included ; and seems to have brought Jeiferson over to that opinion. Florida had not been sold, bought, or paid for ; and Spain, as well as France, denied our title. Jeifer son in his message to Congress intimated that we would fight, other matters be sides the land question having caused trouble between us and Spain. In dip lomatic negotiations the president offered to buy Florida, and Congress was asked to furnish two millions for the Presi dent s use. These two policies, urged by Jefferson at the same time the one public and the other secret drove John Eandolph of Eoanoke into opposi tion ; and he afterward alluded to his former chief as " St. Thomas of Canting- bury." THOMAS JEFFEKSON 131 With his habitual diplomacy, Mr. Jefferson had continued to treat Aaron Burr with courteous distinction j but, when Burr applied to him for a foreign appointment, he refused it. Then Burr turned to New York, made the race for governor as independent candidate against the Republican nominee, and was defeated. Hamilton had again waged bitter war upon him j and Burr decided that the Empire State was not large enough for both. The duel fol lowed 5 and, when Hamilton fell, he dragged Burr down with him. A few months of his vice- presidency remained. Burr continued to preside over the Sen ate with matchless grace and dignity, addressed it finally in the farewell speech which moved his enemies to tears, and wandered off into the tortious windings of political intrigue. He " sounded" various public men j spread treasonable wares before the min isters of foreign governments ; formed 132 THOMAS JEFFERSON some sort of alliance with General Wil kinson j enlisted numerous adventurers ; made some preparations of boats, muni tions of war, and volunteers ; bought up an old Spanish land grant to four hun dred thousand acres of land ; talked about separating the Western States from the Union and of wresting Mexico from Spain. Whatever the design, it was nipped in the bud. Burr had talked too much : Jefferson was warned ; the authorities became suspicious j Wilkin son and others rushed to cover ; the conspiracy fell to pieces $ and Burr was captured in Alabama, as he was trying to escape to the coast. By the time Burr was brought to Richmond for trial, Jefferson had be come imbittered against him. There fore, the manner in which the presi dent s political enemies received the prisoner, the social attentions they show ered upon him, the banquet they spread for him, and at which the prisoner, THOMAS JEFFEBSON 133 Burr, sat down to meat with his judge, John Marshall, aroused in the pacific soul of Jefferson the hottest indignation. The result was that a partisan president pushed the prosecution, and a partisan federal judge defended the accused. As the judge had the conclusion on the president, the result was pleasant for the prisoner. Jefferson had furnished the prosecution with encouragement, advice, legal opinion, and urgent ex hortation. Unfortunately, he could not furnish evidence ; and evidence was what the district attorney most needed. The case against Burr broke down, and the Federalists again celebrated a triumph. Other humiliations crowded upon Mr. Jefferson during his second term. Spain, upheld by France, routed him in the Florida negotiations ; but the English troubles were much the worst. For al leged violations of neutrality laws, our vessels were seized, and made lawful 134 THOMAS JEFFEBSON prize, first by Great Britain and then by France. The Jay Treaty having expired in 1800, Mr. Monroe negotiated another with Great Britain, in which there was nothing said against England s practice of searching American ships for alleged deserters. On account of this and other objections, Mr. Jefferson rejected the treaty, without having taken the advice of the Senate. Great Britain continued to capture American mer chantmen by the score, and to carry off American seamen by the thousand. British Orders and French Decrees dealt crushing blows to our maritime prosper ity ; for between these furiously strug gling combatants, with their clashing Orders and Decrees, neutrals were caught as between hammer and anvil. The contemptuous insolence with which Great Britain treated us during a part of Jefferson s administration is something to make the cheek hot to this day. It was so studied, so evidently THOMAS JEFFEBSOK 135 meant to insult, so brutally disdainful of American courage and American right, that we find ourselves asking, "How could our people have borne it?" After all, nations, like individ uals, know whom to kick ; and the nation which lets all the world believe that it will not fight is in big luck if only one other nation of all the world kicks it. Just outside Hampton Eoads a British warship fired upon an American frigate, killing and wounding, brought her to a stop, boarded her, searched her, carried off four of her crew. Mr. Jefferson had neglected the navy, and the British outrage was redressed by a presidential proclamation. l Peace is our passion, 7 said Mr. Jef ferson 5 and this particular passion was certainly torn to a tatter in our dealings with England. Finally, something had to be done ; and the Embargo was laid, December, 1807. American ships were 136 THOMAS JEFFEKSON kept at home, American commerce sus pended, American products cut off from the markets of the world. The Em bargo may have injured France, it certainly cut off much revenue from England ; but it seemed to hurt us a great deal more than it hurt our ene mies. England took the carrying trade away from us, and George Canning jeered at America s distress. The Embargo fell most heavily on the Southern States, perhaps ; but the fierc est opposition came from New England. Jefferson was denounced as a tool of Bonaparte, slavishly obeying orders, and seeking to cripple England in her war with France. To his Federalist enemies, Jefferson was a transparent fraud, a corrupt, dangerous man, a blind zealot who was leading his country to ruin. Massachu setts and Connecticut passed resolutions which were in spirit similar to the Virginia and Kentucky Besolutions of THOMAS JEFFEESON 137 1798-99. Disunion sentiment spread, took definite form, and threatened civil war. Back of New England, egging on her conspirators, stood Great Britain. The Eepublican leaders became alarmed, and Jefferson signed an act repealing the Embargo March 1, 1809. Long prior to the Louisiana purchase, Mr. Jefferson had looked forward to the day when the Pacific Ocean would be your Western boundary. Under Lewis and Clarke, he carried into effect an early plan of his, which circumstances had delayed. The West was explored, even to the Columbia Eiver ; and thus Jefferson s foresight helped the nation later to win Oregon. XIII. FREED from the " splendid misery " of the presidency, Mr. Jefferson was glad to be at home again. A model ruler in peaceful times, he was not fitted by nature or training to cope with tur bulent, warlike conditions ; and during the last months of his term he had seem ingly abandoned all efforts to guide Con gress. The entire situation was carefully preserved and handed over to Mr. Madi son, and a very complicated situation it proved to be. But Jefferson was out, was glad to be out, and in his delight at being out a very large percentage of his fellow- citi zens heartily partook. So much shaken was his authority that the Senate unani mously rejected the last appointment he submitted, that of Mr. Short to be our representative at St. Petersburg. Heavily in debt, needing to borrow ten thousand dollars to ease off the most THOMAS JEFFEBSON 139 pressing demands, worn out with labour and cut to the quick by his loss of popu larity, Mr. Jefferson sought Monticello as a storm-beaten pilgrim seeks cosy fire side and well-earned rest. From that long ago night when he and his bride had ridden horseback through the snow up the winding road to the one finished pavilion at Monticello, and had found it dark and deserted (ser vants asleep in distant quarters), and had lit up the house with their happy voices, what a far cry was this ! The bride ashes many a year ago ; the children most of them dead in child hood : only the favourite daughter, Martha, now lived ; and along the cor ridors of the mansion pattered the feet of grandchildren. His daughter Martha had married Thomas Mann Eandolph in 1790 $ and they, with their children, made their home at Monticello. Maria Jefferson had married John W. Eppes in 1797, and had died in 1804, leaving one child. 140 THOMAS JEFFEBSON With public life Mr. Jefferson was now done. Out of the hurly-burly, he could view the world with all the com posure of the philosopher. As the years passed on, the troubles of his second term were swallowed up in the glory of his earlier achievments ; and his popu larity returned. His was the tranquil eminence of the soldier who had fought a good fight, and whose name was honoured throughout the world. Liberty, Progress, and Phi lanthropy were words which could not be uttered anywhere without reminding men of Jefferson. He had done for humanity, for country, for universal improvement, some work which was supremely good, work which envy could not deny nor time deface. That he was proud of it, as every conscientious workman is proud of his work, is true. Yet he was melancholy rather than elated. He had failed in that which he had had most at heart, and he knew it. THOMAS JEFFEBSON 141 He had founded a party to overthrow Federalism ; and, while the Federalist party had fallen, the spirit of the dying party had entered his own. The meas ures he most abhorred were waxing stronger every day, supported and fed by those who in lip service were his devoted followers. The consequences he had dreaded were becoming visible all about him j and, as he looked to the future, he was saddened by what he saw. But for his debts, Mr. Jefferson s after noon of life would have been almost cloudless. Few men had so many sources of pleasure as he, and few took so much pains to cultivate^them. Kind- hearted, sociable, loving men and loving nature, he was never without occupa tion, and therefore never wrapped in gloom. He loved children and flowers ; loved to plant and to watch the growth of seeds, vines, trees ; loved books, his correspondence, and his scientific studies. 142 THOMAS JEFFEKSON He loved to have his friends around him, and the crowds which collected around him were marvellous to behold. Such hospitality as was seen at Monticello made even Virginia stare. The relative, friend, acquaintance, stranger, native, foreigner, tourist, curiosity-seeker, all came, and all made themselves at home. They filled the house, and ate out the larder. Husbands, wives, children, nurses, servants, horses, dogs, crowded up the hill, and took possession of the premises. Some remained by the day, others by the week, a few by the month. The entire produce of the farm was not sufficient to feed the visitors, their ser vants and their horses. Frequently the nuisance became unbearable ; and Mr. Jefferson would order the carriage, catch up the family, and flee to Poplar Forest in Bedford County, eighty odd miles away. At the time he left the presidency Mr. Jefferson owned property worth some THOMAS JEFFEBSON 143 two hundred thousand dollars. His debts amounted to twenty thousand dol lars. On his return to Monticello the same lavish style of living which he had long indulged was adopted, and there fore the debts rapidly grew until they reached one hundred thousand dollars. A security debt (twenty thousand dol lars) which he paid for his old friend, Wilson Cary Nicholas, added very heavily to his burden ; and bankruptcy stared him in the face. His library was sold to Congress for twenty- three thou sand dollars, and he applied to the Vir ginia legislature for leave to sell some of his land by lottery. The request was granted, but the lottery failed. His dis tress becoming generally known, sub scriptions were taken up for him in several large cities, and seventeen thou sand dollars realised. Mr. Jefferson, deeply touched, believed that his many troubles were past and that Monticello was safe. When he died, the debts swept all away. 144 THOMAS JEFFEBSOK In 1824 La Fayette came to Jeffer son s door, and the two old men fell into each other s arms, friends standing a little apart, and looking on with moist ened eyes. Jefferson suggested that Con gress do something to prove national gratitude to the illustrious Frenchman, and two hundred thousand dollars, be sides land, was voted. The last great public work of Mr. Jef ferson was the founding of the Univer sity of Virginia. In larger books than this should be read the story of the tact, patience, wise foresight, and tireless persistence with which the veteran of human progress managed a sluggish state government, and secured for Vir ginia the first of modern colleges this country had known. A pioneer in edu cation as in everything else, Mr. Jeffer son imported from abroad the system which allows the student to specialise his studies ; and between all religious and political creeds he established per fect equality in the school. THOMAS JEFFEBSON 145 Mr. Jefferson did not become physi cally helpless or mentally weak, as he had dreaded. To the last he was genial, kind, benevolent ; to the last patient, self-reliant, clear-headed. He loved to ride his fine old horse, walk in his grounds, chat with friends, read his few remaining books. His grandchildren trooped about him fondly, went with him in his strolls, gathered fruits and flowers for him, ran races on the lawn at his signal and for his rewards. In the evenings they studied their lessons at his knee, his daughter Martha and himself overlooking the little brood, and thinking the thoughts which parents think as they look upon the young. His end came on very gently. The last sickness was not painful, the ap proach to the valley was gradual and easy. He looked upon death as release from infirmity, escape from weariness and care. The final sleep passed over him like a benediction. It was noon, 146 THOMAS JEFFEBSON July 4, 1826 j and his thoughts had been upon the day. He had wished to live to see it, had asked during the night of the third if it were yet the Fourth. And so, with his latest thought on the birthday of the Bepublic, the great, warm heart grew cold, and the tired hands found rest. BIBLIOGEAPHY. In addition to the direct authorities cited below, the author has used, and others will find useful, the American Statesmen series of biographies (Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co., edited by John T. Morse, Jr. ) ; the standard his tories of the United States, the Ameri can Commonwealths series of State histo ries (Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Edited by Horace E. Scudder), The Story of the Revolution (Hon. Henrj- Cabot Lodge. New York, 1898 : Charles Scribner s Sons) ; also, Moncure D. Con- way s Life of Edmund Randolph (New York, 1888 : G. P. Putnam s Sons), Hugh A. Garland s Life of John Ran dolph (2 volumes) (New York, 1850 : D. Appleton & Co.), James Parton s Life and Times of Aaron Burr (New York, 1858: Mason Brothers), Gold- win Smith s The United States : An Out line of Political History (New York, 148 BIBLIOGEAPHY 1893: Macmillan & Co.), Henry W. Elson s Sidelights on American History (New York, 1900 : The Macmillan Com pany) ; also, Aaron Burr and Thomas Paine of the Beacon Biographies (Bos ton, 1899 : Small, Maynard & Co.). I. Jefferson s NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA. (London, 1787, and various later American editions. ) One of the most instructive books any American has written. II. MEMOIR, CORRESPONDENCE, AND MISCELLANIES, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Thomas Jefferson Eandolph. (Boston, 1830 : Gray & Bowen.) Contains the memoir written by Mr. Jefferson in his old age, a large number of his letters, and memo randa of conversations, cabinet councils, etc., while Mr. Jefferson was Secretary of State. These are known as the Ana. III. THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. By Professor George Tucker of the BIBLIOGBAPHY 149 University of Virginia. (Philadelphia, 1837 : Carey, Lea & Blanchard. ) Writ ten with elegance, full and dispas sionate. IV. THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. By James Parton. (Boston, 1874 : James E. Osgood & Co.) Founded on Randall s work, but contains much in teresting matter of its own, and is ex ceedingly instructive and interesting. Highly favourable to Jefferson and sweepingly severe on Hamilton. V. THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. By Henry S. Randall, LL.D. (3 vol umes. ) (Philadelphia, 1888 : J. B. Lippincott & Co.) Full, painstaking, and sympathetic. Contains pretty much everything that can be said in favour of Mr. Jefferson, and does not ruffle or confuse the mind by stating anything on the other side. VI. THOMAS JEFFERSON. By James Schouler, LL.D. (New York, 1893 : 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY Dodd, Mead & Co.) A modern histo rian s summing up of what Eandall and others had already said. VII. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE FlRST ADMINISTRATION OF JEFFERSON (2 volumes) ; DURING THE SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF JEF FERSON (2 volumes). By Henry Adams. (New York, 1898 and 1890: Charles Scribner s Sons. ) Perhaps the best ac count of these important periods. None too partial to Mr. Jefferson, but indis pensable to a thorough understanding of his Presidency. Certainly, one of the very best of the works on American history. VIII. THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. By S. E. Forman. (Indianapolis, 1900 : The Brown Merrill Co. ) A compilation from state papers and private correspondence. Its avowed purpose is to put the teachings of Jeffer son within the reach of all. I I I I 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. * LIBRARY USE NOV 1 6 1958 7May 65LM LQM I 5 BS L ^ .REC D LD >4 j4 . / (* *- v -ttfff USE A WOV2 s i M223675 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY