THE DEATH OF MRS. JEFFERSON. 119 hopeful offspring of a deceased friend, whose memory must be for ever dear to me, and who have no other reliance for being rendered useful to themselves or their country; that, by a constant sacrifice of time, labour, parental and friendly duties, I had, so far from gaining the affection of my countrymen, which was the only reward I ever asked, or could have felt, even lost the small estimation I had before possessed. That however I might have comforted myself under the disapprobation of the well-meaning but uninformed people, yet that of their representatives was a shock on which I had not calculated. That this, indeed, had been followed by an exculpatory declaration; but, in the meantime, I had been suspected in the eyes of the world, without the least hint, then or afterwards, being made public which might restrain them from supposing that I stood arraigned for treason of the heart, and not merely weakness of the mind; and I felt that these injuries, for such they have been since acknowledged, had inflicted a wound on my spirit which will only be cured by the all-healing grave.'* A few months afterwards the grave opened at his side, not for him, but, as he said, 'for the cherished companion of my life, in whose affections, unabated on both sides, I had lived the last ten years in unchequered happiness.' † His grief was deep and touching. One of his daughters, Mrs. Randolph, informs us how he nursed and wept for her, whose death made him insensible to the smarting wounds he thought he never would forget except in his own grave: His * Jefferson's Works, vol. i. p. 318; May 27, 1782. † Ibid. p. 151; Autobiography. Jefferson married 1772. wife, six years younger than him, was the widow of Mr. Bathurst Skelton, and the daughter of Mr. Wayles, a lawyer of celebrity in Virginia. 120 JEFFERSON'S GRIEF AT HIS WIFE'S DEATH. 'As a nurse, no female ever had more tenderness or anxiety. He nursed my poor mother, in turn, with Aunt Carr and his own sisters; sitting up with her, and administering her medicines and drink to the last. For four months that she lingered, he was never out of calling. When not at her bedside, he was writing in a small room that opened immediately at the head of her bed. A moment before the closing scene, he was led from the room, almost in a state of insensibility, by his sister, Mrs. Carr, who, with difficulty, got him into his library, where he fainted, and remained so long insensible that they became apprehensive he never would revive. The scene that followed I did not witness; but the violence of his grief (when, by stealth, I entered his room at night) I dare not trust myself to describe. He kept his room three weeks, during which I was never a moment from his side. He walked almost incessantly, night and day, lying down only occasionally, when nature was completely exhausted, on a pallet that had been brought in during his long fainting fit. My aunts remained constantly with him for some weeks, I do not now remember how many. When, at last, he left his room, he rode out, and from that time he was incessantly on horseback, rambling about the mountain in the least frequented roads, and just as often through the woods. In these melancholy rambles I was his constant companion, a solitary witness to many a violent burst of grief."* He at length recovered his calm a little, and on November 26, 1782, two months after his wife's death, he wrote to the Chevalier de Chastellux : — "Your letter found me a little emerging from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as dead to the world as was she whose loss occasioned it. Your letter recalled to my memory that there were persons still living of much value to . . Before that event my scheme of life had been determined, I had folded myself in the arms of me. *Tucker's Life of Jefferson, vol. i. p. 171. DESIRES TO GO AS MINISTER TO FRANCE. 121 retirement, and rested all prospects of future happiness on domestic and literary objects. A single event wiped away all my plans, and left me a blank which I had not the spirits to fill up. In this state of mind an appointment from congress found me, requiring me to cross the Atlantic; and that temptation might be added to duty, I was informed, at the same time, from his Excellency the Chevalier de la Luzerne, that a vessel of force would be sailing about the middle of December, in which you would be passing to France. I accepted the appointment, and my only object now is, to so hasten over those obstacles which would retard my departure, as to be ready to join you in your voyage, fondly measuring your affection by my own, and presuming your consent.'* son. 'Residence in a polite court, and the society of literati of the first order,' + was, since the United States had a diplomatic corps, the favourite dream of JefferTwice already had congress given him the opportunity of realising it; but anxiety about his family, of which, he says, 'I could not leave them, nor expose them to the dangers of the sea, and capture by British ships,'t had alone prevented, in 1776 and in 1781, his becoming Dr. Franklin's colleague in Paris. Appointed in 1782, on the motion of his friend Madison, to take part in the negotiations for peace with England, he could no longer resist the temptation. After the political and domestic misfortunes he had experienced, his mind concurred in recommending the change of scene proposed,'§ and he was awaiting with impatience the opportunity of employing himself upon a new stage, when his expectations were disappointed by the news of the conclusion of peace. He returned home † Ibid. p. 204; Letter to Franklin, August 13, 1777. § Ibid. 122 JEFFERSON CONTRIVES TO GET AN APPOINTMENT. depressed and discontented; but being decided upon not remaining in seclusion, he got himself sent to congress by his state. This evidently was but a make-shift. Ill organised, incapable of enforcing obedience to its own requisitions, congress, since the peace, had lost the little authority it was nominally invested with in difficult times, and was vainly struggling to recover it. Jefferson could not possibly find himself at home there, and in the midst of the long and monotonous debates on the monetary system of the United States, on the mode of ratifying the treaty with England, and on the government of the western territory, his thoughts were fixed upon Europe. Hence, in a report on the state of external relations, he made it a special point to bring out most prominently the necessity of concluding treaties of commerce with all nations, and of promptly opening negotiations on this subject, having Paris for their centre, and at which he undertook to be present. In vain did the delegates of Massachusetts endeavour to overcome his fancy for diplomacy by reducing the salaries of foreign ministers from $11,000 to $9,000. He was not covetous, and he was ambitious. Not being able to propose his own services to congress, he had recourse for this purpose to the kind offices of one of his Virginian colleagues. The suggestion once laid before congress, immediately obtained its assent, and a general commission, composed of Jefferson, Franklin, and John Adams, was instructed to negotiate simultaneously commercial treaties with England, Hamburgh, Prussia, Denmark, Russia, Austria, the Republic of Venice, the Holy See, the King of Naples, Tuscany, Sardinia, the Republic of Genoa, Spain, Portugal, the Porte, the Regency of Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis, and the Empire of Morocco. CHAPTER VI. 1784-1790. JEFFERSON IN PARIS -THE UNITED STATES IN BAD ODOUR THROUGHOUT EUROPE AT THE TIME OF HIS ARRIVAL IN FRANCE CORRUPTIONS WHICH HE SEES TO WARN HIS AMERICAN FRIENDS HE ADVISES HIS FRENCH OPINIONS OF JEFFERSON WITH RESPECT TO ENGLAND AND SCEPTICAL HE residence of Jefferson in Europe is one of the most curious portions of his life, less on account of what he did than of what he saw and thought. A radical of the New World, his mind still imbued with Anglo-Saxon traditions, coming to observe Europe, and borrowing from it, with modifications of his own, the anarchical ideas and passions which were then |