learned and logical in the use of it, and of great urbanity in debate; not quick of apprehension, but, with a little time, profound in penetration, and sound in conclusion. In philosophy he was firm, and neither troubling, nor perhaps trusting, any one with his religious creed, he left the world to the conclusion, that that religion must be good which could produce a life of such exemplary virtue. His stature was of the middle size, well formed and proportioned, and the features of his face were manly, comely, and engaging. Such was George Wythe, the honor of his own, and the model of future times.'

Immediately on leaving college, Mr Jefferson engaged in the study of the Law, under the direction of Mr Wythe. Here, it is said, he became thoroughly acquainted with the civil and common law; exploring every topic, and fathoming every principle. Here also, he is said to have acquired that facility, neatness, and order in business, which gave him in effect, the hundred hands of Briareus.' With such a guide, and in such a school, all the rudiments of intellectual greatness could not fail of being stirred into action. The occasion was not long wanting to display the master passion of his nature in bold and prominent relief.

At the time when his faculties were strengthened by manhood, an incident occurred, which fixed them in their meditated sphere, and kindled his native ardor into a flame.

That was the celebrated speech of Patrick Henry, on the memorable resolutions of 1765, against the Stamp-Act. Young Jefferson listened to the bold, grand, and overwhelming eloquence' of the orator of nature; the effect of which seems never to have lost its sorcery over his mind. More than fifty years afterwards he reverts to it with all the vividness of the first impression. He appeared to me,' says he, 'to speak as Homer wrote.' The effect was indeed tremendous. struck even that veteran and dignified assembly aghast. The resolutions were moved by Henry, and seconded

It

X

by Mr Johnston. They were resisted by the whole monarchical body of the House of Burgesses, as a matter of course. Besides, they were deemed so ill advised in point of time, as to rally in opposition to them all the old members, including such men as Peyton Randolph, Wythe, Pendleton, Nicholas, Bland, &c, honest patriots, whose influence in the House, had till then been unbroken. " But,' says Jefferson, 'torrents of sublime eloquence from Henry, backed by the solid reasoning of Johnston, prevailed. The last, however, and strongest resolution, was carried but by a single vote. The debate on it was most bloody. I was then but a student, and stood at the door of communication between the house and the lobby during the whole debate and vote; and I well remember, that, after the numbers, on the division, were told and declared from the chair, Peyton Randolph, the Attorney-General, came out at the door where I was standing, and said, as he entered the lobby, "by ———, I would have given 500 guineas for a single vote for one vote would have divided the House, and Robinson was in the chair, who he knew would have negatived the resolution." It was in the midst of this magnificent appeal that Henry is said to have exclaimed, in a voice of thunder, Cæsar had his Brutus-Charles the First his Cromwell-and George the Third-("Treason," cried the Speaker treason, treason," echoed from every part of the House. Henry faultered not; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing a determined eye on the Speaker, finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis,) may profit by their example. If this be treason make the most of it.'* 'I well remember,' says Jefferson, the cry of treason, the pause of Henry at the name of George the Third, and the presence of mind with which he closed his sentence, and baffled the vociferated charge.'

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The grandeur of that scene, and the triumphant eclat

* Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, page 65.

of Henry, made the heart of young Jefferson ache for the propitious moment which should enrol him among the champions of persecuted humanity. The tone and strength of his mind, at this early period, are indicated by those emphatic mottos which he selected for his seals: 'Ab eo libertas, a quo spiritus,' and 'Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.' These mottos attracted great attention, and were regarded as prophetic of his destiny. They are well remembered to this day by the aged inhabitants of Virginia. The seals themselves are preserved as sacred relics, by the family of Mr Jefferson; and accurate impressions of them in wax have been obtained by his particular friends in various parts of the country.

Various attempts have been made to ascertain the birth of opinions on the subject of American Independence; and to fix the precise epoch, and the particular individual, when and with whom the stupendous conception originated. The enquiry has been attended with no success, and is from the nature of the case incapable of solution. It is evident that the measure did not result from any deliberate and preconcerted design on the part of one, or of any number of individuals; but from a combination of causes, growing for the most part out of the mistaken policy of the British Parliament, and fostered and matured by its unyielding obstinacy. It was the slow and legitimate growth of political oppression, assisted it is true, by the great advance of certain minds beyond the general step of the age. To use the phraseology of Mr Jefferson, it would be as difficult to say at what moment the revolution began, and what incident set it in motion, as to fix the moment that the embryo becomes an animal, or the act which gives him a beginning.'

It is certain that if this subject were examined with reference to its bearing upon a Jefferson, it might with equal propriety be advanced, that in those pointed inscriptions which he selected in the fire of youth as the mottos

movement.

of his seals, we discover the germ, not merely of American emancipation but of European revolution, and of the general amelioration of associated man throughout the world. The revolution itself was but a preparatory The mere separation of the colonies from the mother country, was but the introductory stage of the grand and fundamental change through which they were to pass to derive any essential advantages from the act to wit, the entire abrogation of royalty, and substitution of self-government. Nay, even this magnificent result was but the first chapter in the history of the great moral and political regeneration which is advancing over the earth, and to which the revolution gave the primary impulse. Unless contemplated in the broad light of a contrast of principle, between the advocates of republican and those of kingly government, into which it finally resolved itself, it is of little importance to enquire what incident gave it birth, or who set it in motion. Stopping at the point at which many, who were the boldest at the outset, evidently wished it to stop, and with honest motives, the Revolution would have been nothing more, in effect, than transferring the government to other hands, without putting it into other forms; and no change would have been wrought in the political condition of the world. It would have been merely a spirited and successful rebellion, or rather a struggle for power, like that which long embroiled the royal races of the Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, terminating at best in a limited modification of the old system, and most likely in its entire adoption, substituting George or John the First in the place of George the Third.

The solution of the problem, therefore, if practicable, would afford no criterion of the relative advance of the leading minds of that period. But the question becomes a rational one, and assumes a powerful interest, if presented in its proper aspect, with whom those eternal rules of political reason and right originated, which crowned

with glory and immortality the American Revolution, making it one in substance as well as form? To whom belongs the honor of conceiving the grand project that gave to those detached fragments of empire which formed the nucleus of the American nation, not only shape and organization, but a new projectile impulse, to revolve in an untried orbit, under the control of a new equilibrium of forces? Viewing the subject under these, its moral phases, it becomes of some consequence to ascertain the origin and progress of individual opinions.

In 1767, Mr Jefferson was inducted into the practice of the Law, at the bar of the General Court, under the auspices of his preceptor and friend, Mr Wythe. He brought with him into practice the whole body of ancient and modern jurisprudence, text and commentary, from its rudest monuments in Anglo-Saxon, to its latest depositories in the vernacular tongue, well systematised in his his mind, and ready for use at a moment's warning. But his professional career was brief, and not favored with any occasion adequate to disclose the fitness of his technical preparation, or the extent of his abilities as an advocate. The out-breaking of the Revolution, which occasioned a general abandonment of the Courts of Justice, followed close upon his introduction to the bar; and ushered him upon a broader and more diversified theatre of action.

During the short interval he spent in his profession, he acquired considerable celebrity; but his forensic reputation was so disproportionate to his general pre-eminence, as to have occasioned the common impression, that he was deficient in the requisite qualifications for a successful practitioner at the bar. That this was not the case, however, we have the authority of a gentleman,* whose opportunities of information and well known trustworthiness are a pledge of the literal accuracy of his statement. 'Permit me,' says he, to correct an error

* William Wirt.