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ment from the governorship, in answer to a series of questions addressed to him by the secretary of the French Legation at Philadelphia, the Marquis de Barbé-Marbois. They contain a complete description of the State of Virginia, its natural history, products, climate, population, laws, education, religion, manners, manufactures and commerce, public revenues and expenses, history, memorials, and state papers. There is much in the work that is antiquated and irrelevant now, of course. Many of the speculations on ethnology and natural history have been corrected by modern science. But in spite of this the volume is a most valuable contribution to our social and economic history, and a fascinating picture of the life of the great State of Virginia at the end of the colonial period.

Finding that he could have his Notes printed in France at about one-fourth the cost of publication in Virginia, Jefferson had two hundred copies struck off in Paris for distribution among his friends in America and learned men in Europe. The work was soon translated into French and won for its author a reputation in the world of letters. A little later his statute for religious liberty was passed through the legislature of Virginia. It was translated and circulated in Europe, where it made a great and immediate impression. Jefferson wrote to his fellow reviser, Wythe, August 13, 1786: "Our act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded.

The ambassadors and ministers of the several nations at this court have asked of me copies of it to send to their sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in several books now in the press; among others in the new Encyclopædia." Jefferson was invited by De Meusnier, the editor of the part of the Encyclopédie Méthodique which dealt with political economy and diplomacy, to answer many queries about the political and economic history of our country, and he revised the whole article, "United States," written for the same work. When the exciting political events of the convocation of the notables, the quarrel of the Court with the Parlement, the agitation over the new taxes and loans, the fall of Loménie de Brienne, and the summons of the States General followed in rapid succession (1787-9), Jefferson was recognized by the liberal statesmen as a valued adviser.

From the space which the narration of the events leading up to the French Revolution occupies in both his Memoir and his correspondence, we may judge how prominent a place they held in his mind; and from the justice and insight with which he describes these great events, with which he was so intimately associated, we can only regret that we do not have a complete and elaborate history of the outbreak of the French Revolution from his pen. The delicate responsibility of his position as accredited minister of a friendly nation to the Court of

Louis XVI prevented his taking that public part in the conduct of the Revolution which the liberal leaders would gladly have assigned to him, and to which some of them actually invited him. But in his private correspondence and intercourse he manifested the liveliest interest in their cause. He was just setting out on a journey to the south of France when the notables met in February, 1787. He wrote Lafayette: "I wish you success in your meeting. I should form better hopes of it if it were divided into two houses instead of seven.1 Keeping the good model of your neighboring country [England] before your eyes, you may get on step by step towards a good constitution." And to the Countess of Tesse, a few days later, he wrote: "I would have the deputies by all means so conduct themselves as to have him [King Louis] repeat the calls of the Assembly. . . . They would thus put themselves in the track of the best guide they could follow [Parliament]. Should they attempt more than the established habits of the people are ripe for, they may lose all and retard indefinitely the ultimate object of their own aim."

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When the States General were called eighteen months later Jefferson continued his moderating advice. "If the Etats-Généraux do not aim at too

1 The notables were divided into seven bureaus with a prince of the blood at the head of each. It took a vote of four bureaus to pass any measure.

much," he wrote Madison in November, 1788, "they may begin a good constitution. There are three articles which they may obtain: 1, their own meeting periodically; 2, the exclusive right of taxation; 3, the right of registering laws and proposing amendments to them, as exercised now by the Parlement.

If they push at much more, all may fail." Jefferson frequently attended the sessions of the National Assembly at Versailles and followed the debates with sedulous attention. When the quarrel between the privileged orders and the third estate threatened to wreck the work of the Revolution at its inception, he prepared a plan of compromise which he sent to Lafayette and Rabaut St. Etienne. The plan was for the King to come forward in a royal session with a charter of rights in his hand, which every member of the Assembly should sign. The charter was to contain five important concessions which the Court was willing to make in return for the support of the nation, namely: (1) Free annual assemblies of the delegates of the people, (2) who should have the sole right of originating the laws, and (3) of laying and appropriating the taxes; (4) abolition of all pecuniary privileges and exemptions; and (5) a "bill of rights" guaranteeing liberty of conscience and the press, habeas corpus, and trial by jury. The leading "patriots" (Barnave, Lameth, Dupont, Mounier), invited by Lafayette, gathered around Jefferson's dinner-table to discuss

plans of reconciliation between the factions. The Archbishop of Bordeaux, chairman of the Committee on the Constitution, formally invited Jefferson, by a letter of July 20, 1789, "to attend and assist" at the committee meetings, an invitation which Jefferson very properly declined on the "obvious consideration" that his mission to King Louis XVI's Court forbade him "to intermeddle with the internal transactions" of France. In all the delicate matter of his official neutrality Jefferson conducted himself so correctly as to receive the unqualified commendation of the King's foreign minister Montmorin.

While the Revolution was coming to a head in France an event of prime importance was taking place at home. Eleven weeks after the notables met at Versailles, an illustrious group of American statesmen met in the convention of Philadelphia to frame a new Constitution for the United States. "An assembly of demigods," Jefferson called them. He followed their work with intense interest, writing home long letters to Washington, Madison, Monroe, Jay, and other influential friends during the period of deliberation and ratification. Because Jefferson became a bitter opponent of the Federalist leaders who interpreted and administered the Constitution during Washington's and Adams's terms of office, he has often been represented as an opponent of our federal form of government. It has even been asserted that he was sent out of the country on the

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