assist her sister states, almost stript of arms, without money, and harassed on the east and on the west with formidable invasions, Virginia appeared at last almost without resource.

In this state of things, the twenty-fourth of May arrived, but it was not until the twenty-eighth that the legislature was formed at Charlottesville, to proceed to business. On that day the governor addressed the following letter to the commander in chief; the general view which it presents of the situation of the state, and the personal feelings of Mr. Jefferson, give it an importance, more than sufficient, to compensate for its length.

"I have just been advised," he writes on the twentyeighth of May, "that the British have evacuated Petersburg, been joined by a considerable reenforcement from New York, and crossed James river at Westover. They were on the twenty-sixth instant, three miles advanced towards Richmond, at which place major general, the Marquis Fayette, lay with three thousand men, regulars and militia; that being the whole number we could arm, until the arrival of the eleven hundred stand of arms from Rhode Island, which are about this time at the place where our public stores are deposited. The whole force of the enemy within this state, from the best intelligence I have been able to get, is, I think, about seven thousand men, including the garrison left at Portsmouth. A number of privateers which are constantly ravaging the shores of our rivers, prevent us from receiving any aid from the counties lying on navigable waters; and powerful operations meditated against our

western frontier, by a joint force of British and Indian savages, have, as your excellency before knew, obliged us to embody between two and three thousand men, in that quarter. Your excellency will judge from this state of things, and from what you know of your own country, what it may probably suffer during the present campaign. Should the enemy be able to obtain no opportunity of annihilating the marquis's army, a small proportion of their force may yet restrain his movements effectually, while the greater part is employed in detachments to waste an unarmed country, and lead the minds of the people to acquiesce under those events which they see no human power prepared to ward off. We are too far removed from the other scenes of war, to say whether the main force of the enemy be within this state; but I suppose they cannot any where spare so great an army for the operations of the field. Where it possible for this circumstance to justify in your excellency, a determination to lend us your personal aid, it is evident from the universal voice, that the presence of their beloved countryman, whose talents have so long been successfully employed in establishing the freedom of kindred states, to whose person they have still flattered themselves they retained some right, and have ever looked upon as their dernier resort in distress; that your appearance, among them I say, would restore full confidence of salvation, and would render them equal to whatever is not impossible. I cannot undertake to forsee and obviate the difficulties which lie in the way of such a resolution. The whole subject is before you, of

which I see only detached parts-and your judgment will be formed on a view of the whole. Should the danger of the state and its consequence to the Union, be such as to render it best for the whole, that you should repair to its assistance, the difficulty would then be how to keep men out of the field. I have undertaken to hint this matter to your excellency, not only on my own sense of its importance to us, but at the solicitation of many members of weight in our legislature, which has not yet assembled to speak its own desires. A few days will bring to me that relief, which the constitution has prepared for those oppressed with the labours of my office; and a long declared resolution of relinquishing it to abler hands, has prepared my way for retirement to a private station; still, as an individual, I should feel the comfortable effects of your presence. and have (what I thought could not have been) an additional motive for that gratitude, esteem and respect. which I have long felt for your excellency."

On the second of June, the term for which Mr. Jef ferson had been elected, expired, and he returned to the situation of a private citizen, after having conducted the affairs of his state, through a period of difficulty and danger, without any parallel in its preceding or subsequent history, and with a prudence and energy, that might have gained him more fame had the times been more propitious, but which from that very reason, have been and will be more appreciated and honoured, in succeeding times.

Two days after his retirement from the government, and when on his estate at Monticello, intelligence was suddenly brought, that Tarleton at the head of two hundred and fifty horse, had left the main army, for the purpose of surprising and capturing the members of assembly at Charlottesville. The house had just met, and was about to commence business, when the alarm was given; they had scarcely taken time to adjourn informally, to meet at Staunton on the seventh, when the enemy entered the village, in the confident expectation of an easy prey. The escape was indeed narrow, but no one was taken. In pursuing the legislature however, the governor was not forgotten; a troop of horse under a captain M'Leod had been despatched to Monticello, fortunately with no better success. The intelligence received at Charlottesville was soon conveyed thither, the distance between the two places being very short. Mr. Jefferson immediately ordered a carriage to be in readiness to carry off his family, who, however, breakfasted at leisure with some guests. Soon after breakfast, and when the visitors had left the house, a neighbour rode up in full speed, with the intelligence that a troop of horse was then ascending the hill. Mr. Jefferson now sent off his family, and after a short delay for some indispensable arrangements, mounted his horse, and taking a course through the woods, joined them, at the house of a friend, where they dined. It would scarcely be believed by those not acquainted with the fact, that this flight of a single and unarmed man, from a troop of cavalry, whose whole legion, too, was within

supporting distance, and whose main object was his capture, has been the subject of volumes of reproach in prose and poetry, serious and sarcastic.

In times of difficulty and danger, it is seldom that the actions of the wisest and the best, can escape without censure. Where they are not the marks of malevolence, they are yet dwelt on with morbid distrust by the discontented and the timid; they are contrasted by every speculative reasoner, with the fanciful schemes which his own imagination has suggested; and if they do not chance to be crowned with unexpected success, the failure is attributed to intrinsic weakness, rather than to unavoidable accident. In the preceding pages of this memoir a rapid, and it is acknowledged an insufficient sketch, has been recorded of the public acts of Mr. Jefferson, during the singularly eventful period in which he was placed at the head of the government in Virginia. The truth of those facts may be relied on. From them, a reader of the present day, far removed from the bustle and feelings of the times, may form a calm judgment of the principles and talents of the man, when placed in this station of unexpected difficulty. There is little danger in asserting, that such a judgment will be as favourable to the zeal and talents of the statesman, as it will be honourable to the feelings and patriotism of the man. It would therefore seem almost useless, to record imputed errors and unfounded charges with regard to him, which have passed into oblivion by the lapse of years, were it not in some degree a duty, not to pass un

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