The work was done under the direction of William M. Evarts, then Secretary of State, and one beautiful summer day a simple shaft was unveiled by President Hayes, in the presence of his Cabinet and a large attendance of distinguished men. II JEFFERSON AS A LAWYER IT has always been an amiable fiction among historians, and Virginians generally, that Williamsburg, the capital of the colony, was a gay and gorgeous place, illuminated by the splendor of a titled governor and a vice-regal court. We read of balls, processions, and ceremonials of various sorts, of gilded coaches, rich apparel, queenly manners, and princely entertainments in imitation of those at Windsor Castle and Hampton Court, when, in fact, Williamsburg was a scattered village of ordinary wooden houses, most of them of a single story, and numbering only about two hundred in all. The population was less than one thousand souls, whites and blacks, including, as an early chronicler expresses it, "ten or twelve gentlemen's families, besides merchants and tradesmen." There were no sidewalks, no sewers, no water supply, and the grass grew in the streets. At the time of the greatest display of power and social elegance, it did not equal in appearance, convenience, or comforts any American village of equal population at the present day, and resembled the undeveloped towns of Kansas and Nebraska. The "Palace" of the governor, which was the centre of social excitement as well as official authority, was not superior in size or comfort to the homes of hundreds of thousands of village merchants throughout the land. The State-House was not more imposing that the court-house of the ordinary county town to-day, and the buildings of William and Mary College were insignificant compared with those that shelter the public schools in our western cities. But Williamsburg was then the social and intellectual centre of the South, and is identified with the career of many famous Virginians. The surrounding country, far into the interior of the State, was peopled by rich tobacco barons, many of whom drank to excess, gambled recklessly, raced horses, patronized cock-fights, and were carried home by their slaves insensible from their tavern carousals. Drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, extravagance, disregard of financial obligations, and other moral delinquencies were looked upon with sympathy rather than censure. They owned large, fine houses, scantily furnished and devoid of the comforts which are considered necessary at the present day, but their sideboards were loaded with silver plate and rare china, and their cellars were filled with the costliest wines. Their hospitality was as reckless as the rest of their habits. Every man who had a house kept a hotel, where friends and strangers were received with the same open-handed cordiality and tolerated as long as they cared to stay, unless, perhaps, they became offensive in their cups or behaved in an ungentlemanly manner. The planters were attended by legions of slaves, and no gentleman could labor without losing caste. They were arrogant, but generous, equally reckless in morals and with money, and they had a code of honor peculiar to themselves. A man might debauch his neighbors, rob them at the gaming-table, impoverish his own family, and fall under the table in a drunken stupor without injury to his social position, but if he allowed himself to be called a coward or a liar |