The Life of Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States

*** It is necessary to state, that the edition now offered to the English
public has been printing for some time here with the concurrence of the
Author, Mr. Tucker, and has been superintended in its progress through
the press by a friend of that gentleman.

THE

LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON.

CHAPTER I.

The life of Thomas Jefferson peculiarly instructive-illustrated by the history of his native state. First settlement of Virginia. Difficulties of the first settlers. Introduction of slaves, and the cultivation of tobacco-their influence on the character and condition of the inhabitants. Towns small and few. Habits and manners of the people. Religion. Government. Aristocracy. Jealous of their civil rights.. Collisions with the crown. Subsequent harmony until the stamp act.

BIOGRAPHY can present no occasion of more interest and intruction to Americans than the life of Thomas Jefferson, whether we regard the high place he held in the affections of his countrymen, the influence he exercised in their public councils and over their political sentiments, or the means by which he attained this extraordinary elevation. It never could be more truly said of any man, that he was the artificer of his own fortune. We behold in him the rare example of one who, possessing no peculiar claims to distinction from wealth, family, or station, and without having either gained a battle, made a speech, or founded a sect, raised himself from the ranks of private life to the highest civil honours of his country, after he had contributed by his counsels to give that country independence; and whose opinions, both when he was living and since his death, have acquired a weight and currency with his countrymen, on all questions of governVOL. I.

ment and civil policy, which those of no other individual have ever attained.

Although the principal events of Mr. Jefferson's life are already familiar to his countrymen, yet they cannot but be gratified to see those events placed in immediate connexion with their less obvious causes and effects, and receive illustrations from his modes of thinking and personal traits of character. Nor ought we to disregard the claims of posterity. The numerous millions of the Anglo-Saxon race, who will hereafter inhabit this continent, will assuredly, whether they continue united in one mighty confederacy, or, by a less happy destiny, be broken up into distinct sovereignties, look back on the separation of the thirteen provinces from Great Britain, which first gave them a place among nations, as the most important era in their common history. They will naturally regard with veneration and interest all which relates to that great drama, and more especially the fortunes and characters of its principal actors. It seems, then, to be a duty of the present generation to profit by their position, and to transmit to their descendants those details to which they will so anxiously turn, whether their purpose be to gratify a liberal curiosity, or to indulge in sentiments of patriotic pride.

But the life of Mr. Jefferson is so intimately connected with the history of his country, that a brief notice of the polity and institutions of Virginia, while a colony, as well as of the manners and pursuits of its inhabitants, will not only shed light on his character, but also make us better acquainted with the sources and tendencies of some of his principal acts.

Virginia, the first colony which the English planted in North America, had been settled at the period of Mr. Jefferson's birth, in 1743, just one hundred and thirty-six years. The charters granted by the English sovereigns to its first

settlers extended the limits of the colony to the west as far as the Pacific Ocean. But as the region thus liberally bestowed was then actually occupied by numerous savage tribes, the royal bounty only conferred the exclusive right of obtaining it, by purchase or conquest, from its original proprietors. These people, on whom Europeans gratuitously bestowed the name of Indians, soon saw in the foreign intruders the direst enemy of their race, and determined to resist their further progress. They greatly annoyed the first colonists, and in 1623, in an interval of peace, had nearly exterminated them by a general massacre.

But neither their cunning nor valour could long withstand the arts and arms of civilization. The tribes nearest to the English settlements were successively either exterminated or compelled to retire farther west; and when, by the gradual increase of the whites, and the consequent extension of their settlements, the two races again came into contact, the red man, unmindful of the past, again fiercely attempted to arrest the further advances of the invader, and again was over. powered. In this way, the lands of North America, with few exceptions, were gradually won by the valour of the settlers themselves; and often won, too, by an exhibition of enterprise and bravery, and at an expense of life and endurance of privation, of which the annals of civilized society afford few parallels. The brunt of these border conflicts was borne by a small number of adventurers on the frontier, who have been properly called the pioneers of civilization; and who thus voluntarily made themselves the advanced guard of the colonists, from their passion for hunting, together with the spirit of adventure, which preferred the exciting hazards of even Indian hostility to the tame and quiet occupations of civilized life.

As the country was gradually wrested from the Indians, it was laid off into counties, and since the country near the

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