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THOMAS JEFFERSON.

In his Autobiography, written to- | World. The particular account of the wards the close of his life, the author family begins with the grandfather of of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, who owned some thinking doubtless his new political lands in Chesterfield County. His career a better passport to fame with third son, Peter, established himself as posterity than any conditions of an- a planter on certain lands which he had cestry in the old society which he had "patented," or come into possession of superseded, while he could not be in- by purchase, in Albemarle County, in sensible to the worth of a respectable the vicinity of Carter's Mountain, where family history, says of the Randolphs, the Rivanna makes its way through the from whom he was descended on the Range; and about the time of his mother's side, "they trace their pedi- settlement married Jane, daughter of gree far back in England and Scotland, Isham Randolph, of Dungeness, in to which let every one ascribe the faith Goochland County, of the eminent old and merit he chooses." Whatever Virginia race, to which allusion has value may be set by his biographers already been made, a stock which has upon an ancient lineage, they cannot extended its branches through every overlook the fact-most important in department of worth and excellence in its influence upon his future history- the State. Isham Randolph was a man that he was introduced by his family of talent and education, as well as relationships at birth into a sphere of noted for the hospitality practised by life in Virginia, which gave him many every gentleman of his wealthy posi social advantages. The leveller of the tion. His memory is gratefully preold aristocracy was by no means a self-served in the correspondence of the made man of the people, struggling up- naturalists, Collinson and Bartram. ward through difficulty and adversity. The latter was commended to his care His father, Peter Jefferson, belonged to in one of his scientific tours, and ena family originally from Wales, which joyed his hearty welcome. His daughhad been among the first settlers of the ter, Jane, we are told, "possessed a colony. In 1619, one of the name was most amiable and affectionate disposi seated in the Assembly at Jamestown, tion, a lively, cheerful temper, and a the first legislative body of Europeans, great fund of humor," qualities which it is said, that ever met in the New had their influence upon her son's char

acter. Her marriage to Peter Jefferson took place at the age of nineteen, and the fruit of this union, the third child and first son, was Thomas, the subject of this sketch. He was born at the new family location at Shadwell, April 2 (old style), 1743.

ceived, were resumed under the excellent instruction of the Rev. James Maury, at his residence, and thence, in 1760, the pupil passed to William and Mary College. He was now in his eighteenth year, a tall, thin youth, of a ruddy complexion, his hair inclining to red, an adept in manly and rural sports, a good dancer, something of a musician, full of vivacity. It is worth noticing, that the youth of Jefferson was of a hearty, joyous character.

Williamsburg, also, the seat of the college, was then anything but a scholastic hermitage for the mortification of

Peter Jefferson, the father, was a model man for a frontier settlement, tall in stature, of extraordinary strength of body, capable of enduring any fatigue in the wilderness, with corresponding health and vigor of mind. He was educated as a surveyor, and in this capacity engaged in a government commission to draw the boundary youth. In winter, during the session line between Virginia and North Caro- of the court and the sittings of the lina. Two years before his death, colonial legislature, it was the focus of which occurred suddenly in his fiftieth provincial fashion and gaiety; and year, in 1757, he was chosen a member between study and dissipation the of the House of Burgesses. His son ardent young Jefferson had before him was then only fourteen, but he had the old problem of good and evil not already derived many impressions from always leading to the choice of virtue. the instructions and example of his It is to the credit of his manly percep father, and considerable resemblance is tions and healthy tastes, even then, traced between them. Mr. Randall, in that while he freely partook of the his biography, notices the inheritance amusements incidental to his station steadof physical strength, of a certain plain- and time of life, he kept his ness of manners, and honest love of ily on loftier things. "It was my great independence, even of a fondness for good fortune," he says in his Autobioreading for the stalwart surveyor was graphy, "and what probably fixed the accustomed to solace his leisure with destinies of my life, that Dr. William his Spectator and his Shakspeare. Small, of Scotland, was then professor of mathematics, a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners, and an enlarged and liberal mind." instructions, communicated not only in college hours, but in familiar personal intimacy, warmed the young student with his first, as it became his constant,

The son was early sent to school, and, before his father's death, was instructed in the clements of Greek, and Latin, and French, by Mr. Douglass, a Scottish clergyman. It was his parent's dying wish that he should receive a good classical education; and the seed proved to be sown in a good soil. The les sons which the youth had already re

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His

passion for natural science. This happy respondence with his friend Page, afterinstructor also gave a course of lec- wards Governor of Virginia, shows, to tures in ethics and rhetoric, which were harbor a fond attachment for a fair doubtless equally profitable to his "Belinda," as he called her, reversing young pupil in the opening of his the letters of the name and writing mind to knowledge. He had also an them in Greek, or playing upon the especial fondness for mathematics, word in Latin. The character of the reading off its processes with the young lady, Miss Rebecca Burwell, of facility of common discourse." He an excellent family, does credit to his sometimes studied, in his second year, attachment, for it was marked by its fifteen hours a day, taking exercise in a religious enthusiasm, but nothing came brisk walk of a mile at evening. of it beyond a boyish disappointment.1

Jefferson was only two years at In 1767 he was introduced to the college, but his education was happily bar of the General Court of Virginia continued in his immediate entrance by his friend Mr. Wythe, and immeupon the study of the law with George diately entered on a successful career Wythe, the memorable chancellor of of practice, interrupted only by the Virginia, of after days, to whom he Revolution. His memorandum books, was introduced by Dr. Small, and of which he kept minutely and diligently whose personal qualities-his temper- as Washington himself, show how ance and suavity, his logic and elo- extensively he was employed in these quence, his disinterested public virtue seven years; while the directions which -he wrote a worthy eulogium. The he gave in later life to young students, same learned friend also made him exhibit a standard of application, which acquainted with Governor Fauquier, he had no doubt followed himself, of then in authority, "the ablest man," the utmost proficiency. His "sufficient says Jefferson, "who ever filled the groundwork" for the study of the law office." At his courtly table the four includes a liberal course of mathemet together in familiar and liberal matics, natural philosophy, ethics, rhetconversation. It was a privilege to oric, politics, and history. His purthe youth of the first importance, suit of the science itself ascended bringing him, at the outset, into a to the sphere of public life which he was sion. destined afterwards, in Europe and ful lawyer, an adept in the casuis. America, so greatly to adorn. He try of legal questions-more distinpassed five years in the study of the guished, however, for his ability in law at Williamsburg, and, without intermitting his studies, at his home at Shadwell. Nor, diligent as he was, is it to be supposed that his time was altogether spent in study. He yet found leisure, as his early telltale cor

antique founts of the profes He was a well-trained, skill

'Mr. John Esten Cooke, of Virginia, author of the eminently judicious biography of Jefferson in Appleton's new Cyclopædia, has sketched this love affair in a pleasant paper on the "Early years of Thomas Jefferson." The "Page" correspondence is printed in Professor Tucker's Life of Jefferson,

argument than for his power as an John Wayles, a lawyer of skill and advocate. He was throughout life many good qualities, at whose death, little of an orator, and we shall find him hereafter, in scenes where eloquence was peculiarly felt, more powerful in the committee room than in debate.

the following year, the pair came into possession of a considerable property. In this circumstance, and in the manage ment of his landed estate, we may trace a certain resemblance in the fortunes of the occupants of Monticello and Mount Vernon.

Political affairs were now again calling for legislative attention. The renewed claim of the British to send persons for state offences to England, brought forward in Rhode Island, awakened a strong feeling of resistance among the Virginia delegates, a portion of whom, including Jefferson, met at the Raleigh Tavern, and drew up reso lutions creating a Committee of Corre spondence to watch the proceedings of Parliament, and keep up a communication with the Colonies. Jefferson was appointed to offer the resolutions in

His first entrance on political life was at the age of twenty-six, in 1769, when he was sent to the House of Burgesses from the county of Albemarle, the entrance on a troublous time in the consideration of national grievances, and we find him engaged at once in preparing the resolutions and address to the governor's message. The House, in reply to the recent declarations of Parliament, reasserted the American principles of taxation and petition, and other questions in jeopardy, and, in consequence, was promptly dissolved by Lord Botetourt. The members, the next day, George Washington among them, met at the Raleigh tavern, and the House, but declined in favor of his pledged themselves to a non-importa- | brother-in-law, Dabney Carr. They tion agreement.

The next year, on the conflagration of the house at Shadwell, where he had his home with his mother, he took up his residence at the adjacent "Monticello," also on his own paternal grounds, in a portion of the edifice so famous afterwards as the dwelling-place of his maturer years. Unhappily, many of his early papers, his books and those of his father, were burnt in the destruction of his old home. In 1772, on New Year's Day, he took a step farther in domestic life, in marriage with Mrs. Martha Skelton, a widow of twentythree, of much beauty and many winning accomplishments, the daughter of

were passed, and a committee—all notable men of the Revolution-was appointed, including Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, and others, ending with Thomas Jefferson. The Earl of Dunmore then, following the example of his predecessor, dissolved the House.

We may here pause, with Mr. Jeffer son's latest biographer, to notice the friendship of Jefferson with Carr. It belonged to their school-boy days, and had gained strength during their period of legal study, when they had kept company together in the shades of Monticello, and made nature the companion of their thoughts. They had

their favorite rustic seat there beneath "Went to church, and fasted all an oak, and there, each promised the day."1 other he would bury the survivor. The time soon came, a month after the scene at the Raleigh Tavern we have just narrated, when Carr, at the age of thirty, was fatally stricken by fever. The friends now rest together in the spot where their youthful summer days were passed. Carr had been eight years married to Jefferson's sister, and he left her with a family of six children. His brother-in-law took them all to his home. The sons, Peter and Dabney, who rose high in the Virginia judiciary, have an honored place in the Jefferson Correspondence, calling forth many of the statesmen's best letters. The whole family was educated and provided for by him; and here again, in these adopted children, we may recognize a resemblance to Mount Vernon with its young Custises.

The new Legislature met, as usual, the next year, and, roused by the passage of the Boston Port Bill, a few members, says Jefferson, including Henry and himself, resolved to place the Assembly "in the line with Massachusetts." The expedient they hit upon was a fast day, which, by the help of some old Puritan precedents, they "cooked up" and placed in the hands of a grave member to lay before the House. It was passed, and the Governor, “as usual,” dissolved the Assembly The fast was appointed for the first of June, the day on which the obnoxious bill was to take effect, and there was one man in Virginia, at least, who kept it. We may read in the Diary of George Washington, of that date,

The dissolved Assembly again met at the Raleigh, and decided upon a Convention, to be elected by the people of the several counties, and held at Williamsburg, so that two bodies had to be chosen, one to assemble in the new House of Burgesses, the other out of the reach of government control. The same members, those of the previous House, were sent for both. Jefferson again represented the freeholders of Albemarle. The instructions which the county gave, supposed from his pen, assert the radical doctrine of the independence of the Colonial Legislatures, as the sole fount of authority in new laws. The Williamsburg Convention met and appointed delegates to the first General Congress. Jefferson was detained from the Assembly by illness, but he forwarded a draught of instruc tions for the delegates, which was not adopted, but ordered to be printed by the members. It bore the title, "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," reached England, was taken up by the opposition, and, with some interpolations from Burke, passed through several editions. Though in

1 Mrs. Kirkland's Memoirs of Washington, p. 220.

The pamphlet took the ground, that the relation be

tween Great Britain and her Colonies was exactly the of

James, and until the Union, or as Hanover then stood, linked only by the crown. An illustration was also drawn from the Saxon settlement of Britain, “that mother counher emigrants. The trading and manufacturing repres try" never having asserted any claim of authority over sions of England in particular were dwelt upon, with other pertinent topics of reform. The whole was ex

same as that of England and Scotland after the accession

pressed in terse and pointed language. He would remind

George III. that "Kings are the servants, not the propri

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