Statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Jefferson Hotel, Rich

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INTRODUCTION

On July 4th 1926 a century will have elapsed since Jefferson's death at Monticello, and more than 183 years since he first saw the light in a farmhouse not far away on the same estate. No new biography is needed to emblazon his name on the roll of fame. Among the founders of the Great Republic the statesman who wrote the Declaration of Independence and added Louisiana to the Union can never be forgotten. As reformer of its laws and founder of its University his name stands first among the citizens and benefactors of Virginia. To those who, in spite of failures and disappointments, still rest their hopes of peaceful and civilized progress on representative government and popular education, Jefferson is a prophet, and more than a prophet. By those who believe that the success of democratic institutions and the establishment of good will between nations and classes depend on a wide dissemination of liberal ideas, the author of the Statute of Religious Freedom and the successful opponent of the sedition laws will be deemed not unworthy of a place beside Milton and V V Hampden and other heroic men who down to our own times have withstood the tyranny of priest, soldier, monarch, or bureaucrat. Those again who love republican frugality and simplicity, who wish their ministers to be thrifty stewards of public money, and would equalise opportunity, partly by a just system of taxation, partly by judicious expenditure on public health and education, will learn alike from the precepts and practice of Jefferson

that no one not even a Peel, a Cobden, or a Gladstone did more to graft these fruitful aims and golden rules of administration upon a new Democracy.

It were unprofitable and ungracious to weigh Jefferson's services to mankind and to America against those of Washington or Lincoln. Nor can their characters and talents be compared, though each owes his renown in large measure to a happy union of Patience, Perseverance and Fortitude. To the student of political philosophy Jefferson is the most interesting of all American statesmen, because he combined with a marvellous insight into the springs of human nature, and into the motives that sway individuals or masses, an extensive knowledge of political science and history. He was a theorist, a doctrinaire, an idealist, but always at school with experience. If the charge that he was too ambitious be true and without a spice of ambition how few men of genius would be found to climb the slippery ladder of politics? then nothing in his career is more astonishing than his constant loyalty to causes, which at times seemed lost, and to a form of religion which exposed him to the fury and intolerant fanaticism of orthodoxy at moments when political prudence would have counselled, if not conformity with received opinion, at least a quiet and unobtrusive reticence. But his convictions on moral and religious questions were so deeply entrenched, and were supported by a moral courage so proud and indomitable, that he preferred obloquy to compromise. His tenacity was equally marked in private and public life. It was observed of him that he never abandoned a plan, a principle or a friend. Of his extraordinary versatility his scientific attainments, his wide scholarship and learning, his skill in mechanics and architecture, his almost universal curiosity - we shall find many

illustrations. And with this rare assemblage of qualities and talents were blended a passionate love of home and family and a genius for friendship, which make him one of the most lovable characters among modern statesmen. It remains to explain why I have attempted to draw his portrait and paint anew the scenes and scenery of his life.

For some reason, not easy to understand, no Englishman has ever written a biography of Jefferson. Yet Great Britain has at least a share in him. He was of British stock without a drop, so far as we know, of foreign blood in his veins. He was born and bred a British citizen, and remained one for 33 years. But for George the Third there is no reason to suppose that Thomas Jefferson would ever have had cause to change his allegiance.

The qualities of Washington, Jefferson and John Adams were truly English; their stubborn love of liberty and independence had been transplanted from England; they were inspired by the same principles which had been asserted by Pym and Hampden and were to be reasserted by the Reformers of 1832. Jefferson's theories of law and government were derived, as we shall see, not from Rousseau or any French source but from Coke and Algernon. Sydney and John Locke.

My own interest in Jefferson goes back to the second Hague Conference, when Lord Chancellor Loreburn asked me to trace out for him the history of sea law in time of war. I then discovered how Jefferson helped Benjamin Franklin to negotiate the first Treaty which embodied the doctrine of Freedom of the Seas and protected peaceful commerce from capture or destruction by naval captains and privateers.

But it was a visit to Virginia in 1921, when I saw Monticello and Williamsburg and the University of Virginia, and