CHAPTER II.

MR JEFFERSON came of age in 1764. He had scarcely arrived at his majority, when he was placed in the nomination of Justices for the county in which he lived; and at the first election following, was chosen one of its Representatives to the Legislature.

He took his seat in that body in May, 1769, and distinguished himself at once by an effort of philanthropy, to which the steady process of liberal opinions for sixty years has not brought the tone of public sentiment; at least, so far as to reconcile the majority to the personal sacrifices which it involves. The moral intrepidity that could prompt him, new member, and one of the youngest in the House, to rise from his seat with the composure of a martyr, and propose amidst a body of inexorable planters, a bill for the permission of the Emancipation of Slaves,' gave an unequivocal earnest of his future career. He was himself a slave holder, and from the immense inheritance to which he had succeeded, probably one of the largest in the House. He knew too, that it was a measure of peculiar odium, running counter to the strongest interests, and most intractable prejudices of the ruling population; that it would draw upon him the keen resentments of the wealthy and the great, who alone held the keys of honor and preferment at home, besides banishing forever all hope of a favorable consideration with the government. In return for this array of sacrifices, he saw nothing await him but the satisfaction of an approving conscience, and the distant

commendation of an impartial posterity. He could have no possible motive but the honor of his country, and the gratification of his own benevolence.

The announcement of the proposition gave a shock to the aristocracy of the House. It touched their sensibili- ́ ties at a most irritable point, and was rejected by a sudden and overwhelming vote. Yet the courteous and conciliatory account which Mr Jefferson has left of the transaction, ascribes the failure of the bill to the vicious and despotic influence of the government, which, by its unceasing frown, overawed every attempt at reform,rather than to any moral depravation of the members themselves. 'Our minds,' says he, 'were circumscribed within narrow limits, by an habitual belief that it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother country in all matters of government, to direct all our labors in subservience to her interests, and even to observe a bigoted intolerance for all religions but hers. The difficulties with our Representatives were of habit and despair, not of reflection and conviction. Experience soon proved that they could bring their minds to rights, on the first summons of their attention.'

Indeed, under the regal government, how was it possible to expect success in any thing liberal. The Crown had directly or indirectly the appointment of all officers of consequence, even those chiefly of the ordinary Legislature. The King's Council, as they were called, who acted as an Upper House, held their places at the Royal will, and cherished a most humble obedience to that will; the Governor too, who had a negative on the laws, held by the same tenure, and with still greater devotedness to it: and last of all, the royal negative, which formed the rear-guard to the whole, barred the final pass to every project of melioration. So wanton, indeed, was the exercise of this power in the hands of his Majesty, that for the most trifling reason, and sometimes for no conceivable reason at all, he refused his assent to laws of the

most salutary tendency. Nay, the single interposition of an interested individual against a law, was scarcely ever known to fail of success, though in the opposite scale were placed the interests of a whole country.

This was Mr Jefferson's first measure of reform; and although rendered abortive, it was but the beginning of a long series of efforts, partly successful, in the same benevolent cause. It was the first public movement which he had the honor to originate, and the one, probably, whose spirit and object were most congenial to his heart. A few years after his legislative debut in the cause of slavery, we find him dilating with enthusiasm upon the same subject, in flying Notes' to M. de Marbois of the French legation, and recording that vehement and appalling admonition which recent events have almost ripened into prophecy :

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever: "that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution in the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events; that it may become probable by supernatural interference ! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.'

The business of ordinary legislation was drawing to a close in Virginia. The collision between Great Britain and her colonies, had arrived at a crisis which suspended the regular action of government, and summoned the attention of its functionaries to more imperious conPatrick Henry, who was seven years older than Mr Jefferson, and three or four ahead of him in public life, had hitherto been the master-spirit of the Revolution at the South; and had sustained its principal brunt by his superior firmness. The time had how arrived,

cerns.

when he was to divide the burthen and the glory of the distinction, with one who was his junior only in years and eloquence, his equal in moral courage, but in every thing else his superior. The session of the Legislature that first saw Mr Jefferson a member, saw him first also in the little council of the brave. The same session (1769) carried Virginia into a new mode of resistance to British tyranny, which he was chiefly instrumental in establishing to wit, the system of non-intercourse, by which the colonies gradually dissolved all commercial connection with the mother country.

The unequivocal attitude into which Virginia had thrown herself, by the opposition to the Stamp Act, which she headed in '65, was imitated with rapidity by all the other colonies; which raised the general tone of resentment to such a height, as made Great Britain herself quail before the tempest she had excited. The Stamp Act was repealed; but its repeal was soon followed by a series of parliamentary and executive acts, equally unconstitutional and oppressive. Among these, were the declaratory act of a right in the British Parliament to tax the colonies in all cases; the quartering of large bodies of British soldiery in the principal towns of the colonies, at the expense and to the annoyance of the inhabitants; the dissolution, in rapid succession, of the Colonial Assemblies, and the total suspension of the legislative power in New York; the imposition of duties on all teas, glass, paper, and other of the most necessary articles imported into the colonies, and the appointment of commissioners, armed with excessive powers, to be stationed in the several ports for the purpose of exacting the arbitrary customs. These measures, with others of a similar character provoked immediate retaliation in the commercial Provinces. The people of Massachusetts, upon whom they fell with their first and heaviest pressure, were the foremost in resisting their operation. They entered into an association, by

which they agreed and bound themselves, not to import from Great Britain any of the articles taxed, or to use them. They also addressed a circular letter to their sister colonies, inviting their concurrence and co-operation in all lawful and constitutional means for procuring relief. Petitions, memorials, and remonstrances were accordingly addressed to the King and Parliament by the Legislatures of the different colonies, entreating a revision of the obnoxious measures, and blending with their entreaties professions of unwavering loyalty. To these no answer was ever vouchsafed. Yet the non-intercourse proceedings in Massachusetts were of a character too ruinous to the new revenue bill, not to excite the attention of the British Court. They immediately called forth a set of joint resolutions, and an address from the Lords and Commons. These resolutions condemned in the severest terms, all the measures adopted by the colonies. They re-asserted the right of taxation, and of quartering their troops upon the colonies. They even went so far as to direct that the King might employ force of arms sufficient to quell the disobedient; and declared that he had the right to cause the promoters of disorders to be arrested and transported to England for trial.

These resolutions of the Lords and Commons arrived in America in May, 1769. The House of Burgesses of Virginia was then in session, and Mr Jefferson, as we have seen, was for the first time a member. These menacing papers were principally directed against the people of Massachusetts; but the doctrines avowed in them were too extraordinary to be overlooked in any assembly which contained a Jefferson. They were no sooner made known to the House, than he proposed the adoption of counter resolutions, and warmly advocated the propriety of making common cause with Massachusetts, at every hazard. Counter resolutions and an address to the King were accordingly agreed to, with little