BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

THE life of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, is one of the most interesting and instructive among those of the distinguished persons whose names are identified with American history. In the character of this extraordinary man, as well as in the events of his life, we are presented with a combination of philosophical attainments and political talents, of benevolent feelings, and ambitious aspirations, rarely found united in the same individual, and still more rarely resulting in the popular veneration bestowed upon his name by a large portion of his countrymen; while by others he has been regarded in an unfavorable light as a statesman and a ruler, particularly in the effect of his political principles upon the American people, over whom he acquired such an astonishing ascendency.

The family of Jefferson were among the early emigrants from Great Britain to Virginia. "The tradition in my father's family," the subject of this sketch says, in his own memoirs, "was, that their ancestor came to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowdon; but the first particular information I have of any ancestor, was of my grandfather, who lived at the place in Chesterfield called Osborne's, and owned the lands, afterward the glebe of the parish. He had three sons: Thomas, who died young; Field, who settled on the waters of the Roanoke, and left numerous descendants; and Peter, my father, who settled on the lands I still own, called Shadwell, adjoining my present residence. He was born February 29, 1707-'8, and intermarried, 1739, with Jane Randolph, of the age of 19, daughter of Isham Randolph, one of the seven sons of that name and family settled in Goochland. They traced their pedigree far back in England and Scotland, to which let every one ascribe the faith and merit he chooses."

At the above-named place, Shadwell, in Albemarle county, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson was born, on the 2d of April (old style), 1743. His

father, Peter Jefferson, a man of some distinction in the colony, died in 1757, leaving a widow (who lived until 1776) with two sons and six daughters. These children inherited a handsome estate from their father: Thomas, the eldest, received the lands which he called Monticello, on which he resided, when not in public life and when he died.

At the age of five, his father placed him at an English school, and at nine years of age he commenced the study of Latin and Greek, with Mr. Douglass, a Scotch clergyman, who also instructed him in French. On the death of his father, he was placed under the tuition of another clergyman, Mr. Maury, a classical scholar, with whom he pursued his studies two years. In the spring of 1760, he entered William and Mary College, where he continued two years. Dr. William Small, of Scotland, was then professor of mathematics, and is described by Mr. Jefferson as "a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners, and an enlarged and liberal mind. He, most happily for me," he adds, "became soon attached to me, and made me his daily companion when not engaged in the school; and from his conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science, and of the system of things in which we are placed. He returned to Europe in 1762, having previously filled up the measure of his goodness to me, by procuring for me, from his most intimate friend, George Wythe, a reception as a student at law under his direction, and introducing me to the acquaintance and familiar table of Governor Fauquier, the ablest man who had ever filled that office. Mr. Wythe continued to be my faithful and beloved mentor in youth, and my most affectionate friend through life. In 1767, he led me into the practice of the law, at the bar of the general court, at which I continued until the revolution shut courts of justice."

up the

"It has been thought," says Mr. Wirt, "that Mr. Jefferson made no figure at the bar; but the case was far otherwise. There are still extant, in his own fair and neat hand, in the manner of his master, a number of arguments which were delivered by him at the bar, upon some of the most intricate questions of the law; which, if they shall ever see the light, will vindicate his claim to the first honors of his profession. It is true, he was not distinguished in popular debate; why he was not so, has often been matter of surprise to those who have not seen his eloquence on paper, and heard it in conversation. He had all the attributes of the mind, and the heart, and the soul, which are essential to eloquence of the highest order. The only defect was a physical one: he wanted volume and compass of voice for a large, deliberative assembly; and his voice, from the excess of his sensibility, instead of rising with his feelings and conceptions, sank under their pressure, and became guttural and inarticulate. The consciousness of this infirmity repressed any attempt in a large body in which he knew he must fail. But his voice was all-sufficient for the

purposes of judicial debate; and there is no reason to doubt that, if the service of his country had not called him away so soon from his profession, his fame as a lawyer would now have stood upon the same distinguished ground which he confessedly occupies as a statesman, an author, and a scholar.

"At the time of Mr. Jefferson's appearance," the same writer remarks, "the society of Virginia was much diversified, and reflected pretty distinctly an image of that of England. There was, first, the landed aristocracy, shadowing forth the order of English nobility; then the sturdy yeomanry, common to them both; and last, a fœculum of beings, as they were called by Mr. Jefferson, corresponding with the mass of the English plebeians.

"Mr. Jefferson, by birth, belonged to the aristocracy: but the idle and voluptuous life which marked that order had no charms for a mind like his. He relished better the strong, unsophisticated, and racy character of the yeomanry, and attached himself, of choice, to that body. He was a republican and a philanthropist, from the earliest dawn of his character. He read with a sort of poetic illusion, which identified him with every scene that his author spread before him. Enraptured with the brighter ages of republican Greece and Rome, he had followed with an aching heart the march of history which had told him of the desolation of those fairest portions of the earth; and had read, with dismay and indignation, of that swarm of monarchies, the progeny of the Scandinavian hive, under which genius and liberty were now everywhere crushed. He loved his own country with a passion not less intense, deep, and holy, than that of his great compatriot (John Adams): and with this love he combined an expanded philanthropy which encircled the globe. From the working of the strong energies within him, there arose an early vision, too, which cheered his youth and accompanied him through life-the vision of emancipated man throughout the world."*

While he was a student of law at Williamsburg, in 1765, Mr. Jefferson heard the celebrated speech of Patrick Henry, in the Virginia house of delegates, against the stamp-act; animated by the eloquence of Henry, he from that time stood forward as a champion for his country.

In 1769, he was chosen by the people of his county to represent them in the legislature of the colony, a station that he continued to fill up to the period of the revolution. In that capacity he made an effort, which was not successful, for the emancipation of slaves in Virginia.

In January, 1772, Mr. Jefferson married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a widow of twenty-three years of age, daughter of Mr. John Wayles, an eminent lawyer of Virginia, who left her a considerable fortune.

On the 12th of March, 1773, Mr. Jefferson was chosen a member of the first committee of correspondence established by the colonial legisla• Wirt's Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson.

tures. In 1774, he published his "Summary View of the Rights of British America," a powerful pamphlet, addressed to the king of Great Britain, in which he set forth the true relations between the mother-country and colonies, as claimed by the people of this country. This pam phlet was republished in England, under the auspices of Edmund Burke. In 1775, he was elected one of the delegates to represent Virginia in the continental Congress, of which body he was for several years one of the most active members. The Virginia delegates having, in pursuance of instructions from their provincial convention, moved a resolution in favor of the independence of the colonies, that question was taken up in Congress, and, after debate, referred to a committee of five, of whom Mr. Jefferson was chosen chairman. The committee, whose names are given in our biography of Mr. Adams, requested Mr. Jefferson to prepare the Declaration of Independence. To this he consented, although then one of the youngest members of Congress, and his draught of that paper, which is the principal monument of his fame, was accepted by the committee and by Congress, with few amendments, and finally adopted on the 4th of July, 1776.

The new state government of Virginia having been organized the same year, while Mr. Jefferson was in Congress, and he having been elected a member of the legislature, where he thought he could be useful in framing the laws required under a republican form of government, he resigned his place in Congress, and took his seat in the Virginia legislature, in October. In this station he acted as one of a commission for revising the laws of the commonwealth.

Among the laws proposed by him, and adopted, were those prohibiting the future importation of slaves; for abolishing the law of primogeniture, and providing for the equal partition of inheritances; for establishing religious freedom; and for a system of general education; which last measure was never carried into practice in the state.

The benevolence of Mr. Jefferson's character is shown in a transaction which took place in 1779. Congress had deemed it prudent to retain in this country the British troops who were captured at Saratoga on the surrender of Burgoyne, until the British government ratified the agreement of their commanding officer. These troops were removed into the interior of the county, and Charlottesville, in Virginia, in the immediate vicinity of Mr. Jefferson's residence, was selected for their residence. There they were sent in the early part of 1779, although the barracks were in an unfinished state, the provisions for their sustenance insufficient, and the roads in a bad condition. Mr. Jefferson and some of his neighbors did all in their power to alleviate the distresses of the troops, and the circumstances of their captivity. After arrangements were made for their accommodation, the governor and council, in consequence of the representations of persons who apprehended a scarcity of provisions,

determined, as they were authorized to do by Congress, to remove the prisoners to another state, or to some other part of Virginia. This intention was heard by the officers and men with distress, and with regret by Mr. Jefferson and his neighbors. He therefore addressed a letter to Governor Henry, in which he stated, in earnest and feeling language, the inhumanity and impolicy of the proposed measure. This appeal was successful, and the troops were suffered to remain at Charlottesville. From the British officers Mr. Jefferson received many letters of thanks for his kindness and hospitality, which they did not forget in his subsequent visit to Europe. When the time arrived for their leaving Virginia to return to England, the officers united in a letter of renewed thanks and respectful farewell to him. In his reply Mr. Jefferson said: "The little attentions you are pleased to magnify so much, never deserved a mention or thought. Opposed as we happen to be, in our sentiments of duty and honor, and anxious for contrary events, I shall, nevertheless, sincerely rejoice in every circumstance of happiness and safety which may attend you personally."

On the first of June, 1779, Mr. Jefferson was elected by the legislature to succeed Patrick Henry, the first republican governor of Virginia. After holding the office two years, he retired to private life, and soon afterward he narrowly escaped capture by a company of 250 British cavalry, who were sent into the interior for the purpose of surprising and making prisoners the members of assembly at Charlottesville. No one was taken, and Mr. Jefferson, when pursued, escaped on his horse, through the woods at Carter's mountain. He was the same year elected a member of the legislature.

In 1781, Mr. Jefferson wrote his "Notes on Virginia," in reply to certain questions addressed to him by M. de Marbois, the secretary of legation from France in the United States, embracing a general view of its geography, natural productions, statistics, government, history, and laws. This little work, which has been very generally admired for its style and variety of information, was soon after published, both in French and English.

He had, in 1776, declined the appointment of commissioner, with Franklin and Deane, to negotiate treaties with France. In 1782, Congress appointed him a minister plenipotentiary, to join those who were in Europe, to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain, but intelligence having been received that preliminaries had been signed, Congress dispensed with his leaving the United States.

Having been again elected a delegate to Congress, in 1783, he was chairman of the committee to whom the treaty of peace with Great Britain was referred; and on the report of this committee the treaty was unanimously ratified. In 1784, he wrote notes on the establishment of a coinage for the United States, and proposed a different money unit from