pations of agriculture and gardening. The men imitated, on a smaller scale, the example of the officers. The environs of the barracks presented a charming appear

ance.

6

But these extensive and promising arrangements were scarcely completed, when the executive of Virginia, who had been invested by congress with certain discretionary powers over the convention troops,' as they were called, came to the determination of removing them, either wholly or in part, from Charlottesville, on the ground of the insufficiency of the State for their animal subsistence. The rumored intelligence of this determination, filled the soldiers with the deepest regret and disappointment. Loud complaints were heard against the inhumanity of the measure; the nation was accused of violation of faith; and such was the degree of excitement among the prisoners, that mutiny was seriously apprehended.

The citizens among whom they were quartered participated in the general disapprobation. They contemplated the proposition, with regret and mortification. Mr Jefferson addressed a long letter to Gov. Henry, and arrayed before him the public reasons, which militated against the measure.

The reasonableness of this appeal, produced the intended effect. The governor and council, on a dispassionate review of the arguments submitted by Mr Jefferson, were convinced, that the removal or separation of the troops would be a breach of the public faith, and fix the character of unsteadiness, and what was worse, of cruelty, on the councils of the nation. The proposition was accordingly abandoned, and the troops permitted to remain together at Charlottesville.

The conduct of Mr Jefferson, on this occasion, and his uniform endeavors during their confinement, to ameliorate their suffering condition, excited in the soldiers the liveliest emotions of gratitude. They loaded him with expressions of their sensibility; and no time could

obliterate the impression from their hearts. Subsequently, when ambassador in Europe, Mr Jefferson visited Germany; and passing through a town where one of the Hessian corps, that had been at Charlottesville, happened to be in garrison, he met with Baron De Geismar, who immediately apprized his brother officers of the presence of their benefactor. They flocked around him, greeted him with affecting tokens of their remembrance, and spoke of America with enthusiasm.

On taking leave of Charlottesville, the principal officers, Major Generals Phillips and Riedesel, Brigadier Specht, C. De Geismar, J. L. De Unger, and some others, addressed him letters expressive of their lasting attachment, and bidding him an affectionate adieu. Phillips emphatically extols his delicate proceedings.' Riedesel repeatedly and fervently pours out his thanks, and those of his wife and children. To all these letters, Mr Jefferson returned answers. Some of these answers have been preserved. 'The great cause which divides our countries,' he replied to Phillips, is not to be decided by individual animosities. The harmony of private societies cannot weaken national efforts. To contribute, by neighborly intercourse and attention, to make others happy, is the shortest and surest way of being happy ourselves. As these sentiments seem to have directed your conduct, we should be as unwise as illiberal, were we not to preserve the same temper of mind.'

To General Riedesel he thus wrote: 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.'

To Lieutenant De Unger he replied in the following manner : 'The very small amusements which it has been in my power to furnish, in order to lighten your heavy

hours, by no means merited the acknowledgments you make. Their impression must be ascribed to your extreme sensibility rather than to their own weight. When the course of events shall have removed you to distant scenes of action, where laurels not moistened with the blood of my country, may be gathered, I shall urge my sincere prayers for your obtaining every honor and preferment which may gladden the heart of a soldier. On the other hand, should your fondness for philosophy resume its merited ascendancy, is it impossible to hope, that this unexplored country may tempt your residence, by holding out materials, wherewith to build a fame, founded on the happiness, and not on the calamities of human nature? Be this as it may, a philosopher or a soldier, I wish you personally many felicities.' De Unger was a votary of literature and science. He was a frequent visitor at the hospitable mansion of Mr Jefferson, and enjoyed in his library advantages, which his taste combined with his situation to render doubly precious. Other officers loved music and painting; they found in him a rich and cultivated taste for the fine arts. They were astonished, delighted; and their letters to several parts of Germany, gave of the American character, ideas derived from that exalted specimen. These letters found their way into several Gazettes of the ancient world, and the name of Jefferson was associated with that of Franklin, whose fame had then spread over Europe. Surely,' says an historian,* this innocent and bloodless conquest over the minds of men, whose swords had originally been hired to the oppressors of America, was in itself scarcely less glorious, though in its effects less extensively beneficial, than the splendid train of victories which had disarmed their hands.'

CHAPTER VII.

ON the 1st of June, 1779, Mr Jefferson was elected Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and retired from the legislature with the highest dignity in their gifts. Political distinctions being then unknown, the ballot box determined the exact value put upon the abilities of public characters.

On assuming the helm of administration, Mr Jefferson directed the weight of his station, and the powers confided to him, towards reclaiming the enemy to the principles of humanity in the treatment of American prisoners. He had seen that the conduct of the British officers, civil and military, had through the whole course of the war, been savage, and unprecedented among civilized nations; that American officers and soldiers, captured by them, had been loaded with irons-consigned to crowded gaols, loathsome dungeons, and prison-ships-supplied often with no food, generally with too little for the sustenance of nature, and that little so unsound and unwholesome, as to have rendered captivity and death almost synonymous terms; that they had been transported beyond seas, where their fate could not be ascertained, or compelled to take arms against their country, and by a refinement in cruelty to become the murderers of their own brethren.

On the other hand, the treatment extended to British prisoners by American victors, had been marked, he well knew, with singular moderation and clemency. They had been supplied, on all occasions, with whole

some and plentiful food, provided with comfortable accommodations, suffered to range at large within extensive tracts of country, permitted to live in American families, to labor for themselves, to acquire and enjoy property, and to participate in the principal benefits of society, while privileged from all its burthens. In some cases they had been treated with hospitality and courtesy. We have already witnessed the gratifying spectacle of four thousand British troops, prisoners of war, relieved suddenly from an accumulation of miseries, and raised to a condition of competency and comfort, chiefly by his own private enterprise, seconded by the liberality of his fellow citizens.

Reviewing this contrast, governor Jefferson felt impelled by a sense of public justice, to substitute a system of rigorous retribution. He felt called on,' in the impressive language of his order, 'by that justice we owe to those who are fighting the battles of our country, to deal out miseries to their enemies, measure for measure, and to distress the feelings of mankind by exhibiting to them spectacles of severe retaliation, where we had long and vainly endeavored to introduce an emulation in kindness.'

Happily, the fortune of war had thrown into his power some of those very individuals who, having distinguished themselves personally in the practise of cruelties, were proper subjects on which to begin the work of retaliation. Among these were Henry Hamilton, who for some years past had acted as lieutenant governor of the settlement at Detroit, under Sir Guy Carlton; Philip Dejean, justice of the peace for Detroit, and William Lamothe, captain of volunteers, taken prisoners of war by colonel Clarke at Fort St Vincents, and brought under guard to Williamsburg, early in June, '79. Proclamations under his own hand, and the concurrent testimony of indifferent witnesses, proved governor Hamilton a remorseless destroyer of the human race, instead

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