The life and writings of Thomas Jefferson, including all of his important utterances on public questions

Preface

THROUGHOUT the formative period of our national life Thomas Jefferson stood second only to Washington in power and influence; after the death of Washington, for a quarter of a century, the will and words of Jefferson were supreme in American politics. After his death the spirit of Jefferson lived on, and to-day millions of men regard him as the greatest prophet of government and expounder of human rights that the world has produced.

An inquiring mind, doubtless, desires to know the exact nature of the teachings of one who has so profoundly affected society, desires to read the precise words of his doctrine. But it is not an easy matter to satisfy this desire. The doctrines of ^ :fferson are scattered through many costly volumes that are to be found only in favored private libraries or in centers where there are large public libraries. It is the purpose of this 'olume to put the teachings of Jefferson within the reach of all. His voluminous correspondence and numerous State papers have been examined and wherever a significant passage or an important official document has been found it has been classified and placed in this collection. Nothing that has point has been omitted.

For the purpose of making the writings more serviceable and intelligible a Life of Jefferson has been prepared. In this biographical sketch the aim has been to avoid controversy, abuse and eulogy, and to state the facts in a fair, non-partisan manner.

The portion of the Life beginning with Jefferson's career in France and continuing to the end has been written by Dr. W. A. Montgomery, of Arkansas College, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

S. E. F.

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON

THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS.

THOMAS JEFFERSON was born on the thirteenth day of April, 1743, at the homestead of Shadwell, near the city of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a farmer, prosperous, strong in body, intellectual, and capable of public spirit. His mother was Jane Randolph, a refined and accomplished daughter of Isham Randolph, a worthy representative of the powerful family whose name he bore. Thus from both father and mother Jefferson was fortunate in his personal inheritance: big bones, well-knit muscles, a quick understanding, gentle instincts, and high social position.

The education of young Jefferson was attended by such happy circumstances that in after life he was constrained to say that, if he were called upon to choose between the large estate left him by his father and the education given to him, he would without hesitation choose the latter. At the age of live he was sent to school at Tuckahoe, a temporary residence of his family, where he learned the rudiments of English and was practiced in psalms and in the prayers and collects of the liturgy of the Episcopal Church. At the age of nine he was placed under the care of the Rev. William Douglas, a Scotchman, from whom he learned the beginnings of Latin, Greek, French, and mathematics. With this master he remained until his fourteenth year, when death suddenly took away his father. He now left the school of the Scotchman, carrying with him memories of *'mouldy pies and excellent instruction," and entered one kept by the Rev. James Maury, a Huguenot, a man of broad and independent mind, and a correct classical scholar. For two years he remained with this masterful tutor, working hard at his books during school time, and during holidays and vacations taking abundant exercise, hunting the mountains for their plentiful game and joining heartily in all the sports of boyhood.

In 1760, Jefferson of his own will and desire, began his studies at the College of William and Mary, situated at Williamsburg, the capital of the colonial government of Virginia. Williamsburg was an unpaved, hap-hazard village of about a tho'Usand inhabitants. Small as the little capital may appear to us by comparison, it was nevertheless the center of much social and civic activity. While the legislature and Great Court were in session, prominent personages from all parts of the colony resided there with their families, and the winter season was passed in a round of pleasures and imposing functions. By reason of his connection with the Randolphs, Jefferson had easy access to the aristocratic set. Without the Randolphs he would probably have been long excluded from the fashionable circle, for he was a great, raw-boned, freckled-face, sandy-haired boy, awkward and shy. While he did not disdain the amusements of society, he did not forget the purpose for which he was spending his time and money in Williamsburg.

William and Mary was a poor specimen of a college in those days. It was poorly governed and poorly equipped, and its teachers were all that teachers should not be. There was one exception to this indictment. "It was my great good fortune," said Jefferson in speaking of his college days, "and what probably fixed the destinies of my life, that Dr. William 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. He, most happily for me, became soon attached to me and made me his daily companion, when not engaged in the school; and from his conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science and of the system of things in which we are placed." Dr. Small was a skeptic as well as a mathematician, and it was from him that Jefferson learned his first lessons in agnosticism.*

By the professor the student was introduced to Francis Fauquier, the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia — the ablest man, in Jefferson's opinion, that ever held that position. Fauquier was a man of the world, an imitator of the manners and a disciple of the philosophy of Chesterfield, a liberal host, and a thorough-going- sportsman, both on the turf and at the table. Jefferson spent much time in the company of the governor, and learned many things that were to be avoided and much that was to be imitated. A third associate was George Wythe, a high-principled, scholarly lawyer, who has the honor of having been the law preceptor of Thom.as Jefferson, John IMarshall and Henry Clay. These four — Dr. Small, Governor Fauquier, George Wythe, and "Tom" Jefferson — were the acknowledged intellectual leaders of Williamsburg; and who shall say that such a coterie was not a university in itself? It proved to be a university to Jefferson. From Fauquier he learned manners, from Wythe the meaning of scholarship, and from Dr. Small the habit of thinking for himself. His mind thus awakened never relapsed into provincial slumber. The attainments of his friends stimulated him to> an industry that knew no bounds. He sometimes studied fifteen hours a day.

After two years of this sweet and wholesome intimacy, the circle was broken. Dr. Small returned to Great Britain, there to become famous. The heart of the college was now gone, and Jefferson left it to return to his home at Shadwell. He took with him a sound knowledge of French, Greek, Latin, and the higher mathematics, good health, and an open, inquisitive mind. Better than all, he took away with him good habits. He had refused to join in the governor's gaming, he had not partaken of his wine, and he had not learned to use tobacco.f He left college morally sound.

There was one thing the youth of seventeen had brought to Williamsburg that the youth of nineteen did not take away

♦See Religion, page 357; Christianity, page 152; Jesus, page 270. tSee Habits of Jefferson, page 237.

with him: that was his heart. Amid the social pleasures of the capital, he had looked long and fondly into the eyes of Rebecca Burwell, an heiress and a flamboyant and cruel beauty. Now that he was separated from her, he found that the image of the girl had burned itself into his soul, and that his peace of mind was gone. Upon leaving college he had made arrangements to read law under the direction of his friend Wythe, and had taken home his Coke and Littleton. "But to the devil with Coke; Coke is an old scoundrel," wrote the miserable youth to his friend Page. After the manner of young men in love for the first time, he bitterly bemoaned his fate. Numerous letters in which he describes his wretched condition have been preserved. "Inclination tells me to go," he writes to Page, "receive my sentence and be no longer in suspense; but reason says if you go and your attempt proves unsuccessful, you will be ten times more wretched than ever. If Belinda (a love-name for Rebecca) will not accept of my service, it shall never be ofifered to another." To be sure not! But the asseveration does credit to his heart.

Sometimes he is more hopeful, as when he writes to his friend Fleming: "I have thought of the cleverest plan of life that can be imagined. You exchange lands for Edgehill, or I mine for Fairfields; you marry Sukey Potter, I marry Rebecca Burwell, join and get a pole-chair and a pair of keen horses, and drive about to all the dances in the country together. How do you like it?" A fine program, but in a few short months he wrote to Fleming again: "With regard to the scheme I proposed to you sometime since, I am sorry to tell you it is totally frustrated by Miss Rebecca Burwell's marriage with Jacquelin Ambler."

The young man drowTied his disappointment in dull old Coke. He read deeply of the law, following its histor}- back beyond Coke, beyond Littleton, beyond Bracton, even to its Anglo-Saxon origins. Abstracts from Jefferson's note-book, kept while he was a student of the law, have come down to us, and these show that he had the instincts of a scholar, patient, accurate and fearless in his investigations. For four years he pursued his law studies, spending his winters in Williamsburg and his summers on his estate of Shadwell. Once he left his books to take a journey and get a glimpse of the outside world. In a one-horse chaise he traveled north as far as New York, passing through Annapolis and Philadelphia, At the latter place, in obedience to his penchant for science, he had himself inoculated for small-pox. In New York he made the acquaintance of Elbridge Gerry, a young man whose ideals and aims were similar to his own. The young men conceived a deep regard for each other and for many years were political allies, Gerry being the most powerful supporter of Jefferson in New England. Soon after his return from this trip, Jefferson was admitted to the practice of the la^v at the bar of the General Court of Virginia. He was now in his twenty-fourth year.

JEFFERSON AS A FARMER AND LAWYER.

The civilization of Virginia in the eighteenth century was uniformly and universally rural. When Jeft'erson at the age of seventeen entered Williamsburg, he had never in his life seen a collection of houses numbering as many as a dozen. There were no large towns, no manufacturing industries, no intercounty or inter-colonial commerce. Farming was the one occupation of the people, and tobaccO' the one product of the farm. Tobacco, as has been pithily said, was king. The farms > — large tracts of land consisting sometimes of thousands of acres — were tilled by slaves. Slavery and tobacco formed the basis of society. Jefferson was a farmer, owned slaves, and impoverished his land by the cultivation of tobacco. He esteemed farmers as God's chosen people and he never ceased to praise agriculture* as the only moral and ennobling vocation. As the oldest son of Peter Jefferson he inherited, besides a number of slaves, the homestead, Shadwell — an estate of nineteen hundred acres of the finest land in Virginia, situated on the Rivanna, a tributary of the James. When the young man took possession of his lands the Rivanna was unnavigable for

*See Agriculture, page 135.

boats of any kind, but it was not long before he had its channels deepened and the stream rendered useful to himself and his neighbors — a servicef which he deemed worthy of being ranked among the greatest of his life. The management of the plantation was assumed by Jefferson, who throughout his life was what we should call, in these days, a scientific farmer. His "garden-book," a monument of detail and patience, shows that he was deeply interested in the processes of nature, and that he brought tO' bear the keenest obsei-vation and the most careful reflection upon numberless experiments in garden, orchard, and field. His avowed ambition was to make two blades of grass grow where one had grown before. Although much given to theory, he was sufficiently practical to make his farm pay. For many years it yielded him an annual income of twO' thousand dollars, which, combined with an income of three thousand dollars made by the practice of the law, enabled him by the year 1774 to increase the number of his acres from nineteen hundred to five thousand and the number of his slaves from thirty to fifty-four. It is but just to say, however, that no slaves were ever bought as an investment. We shall see that Jefferson was quite incapable of engaging in such a traffic.

As a lawyer Jefferson was successful fromi the beginning. He was no orator; he was not even an agreeable public speaker. When elevated, his voice grew husky and indistinct. Yet in other respects he was admirably qualified for the bar. His talent for investigation enabled him to bring his cases into court thoroughly prepared, and a faculty for summarizing a case, however complex or vast, in a few short sentences, made it possible for him to dispense with the tricks of the fluent advocate. During the first year of his practice he had sixty cases before the General Court of Virginia. The second year brought him one hundred and fifteen cases. Among his clients were the Blands, Burwells, Carters, Harrisons, Randolphs, Lees, Nelsons, Pages. He continued in a lucrative practice until 1774, when the duties of public office practically ended his career as an attorney.

tSee Services of Jefferson, page 381.

Jefferson began his public life as a vestryman of the parish church and justice of the county court, offices which his father before him had filled. In 1769 he presented himself to the voters of Albemarle County as candidate for the House of Burgesses, an office which had also been held by his father. In accordance with the democratic custom of the time, the candidate went from voter to voter and made personal solicitations. He was elected as a matter of course. Indeed, he may be said to have inherited the seat of his father.

It was a critical and troublous period when he took his seat. Throughout the colonies there was a growing distrust of George III. and Parliament. Virginia imagined herself loyal, but outward forms apart, she was drifting with the general tide away from the home government. The great proprietors, the royal officers, and the clergy^ partly through interest, partly through affection, were unshaken in their fidelity to the old order of things"; but there were appearing upon the scene leaders who, like Otis and Adams in the north, were determined to resist to the last the encroachments of the crown. Jefferson fell in with those threatening revolution as naturally as a duck takes to water. He liked rebellion for its own sake. It cleared up the political atmosphere, he thought; a country without a rebellion,* say every century, he regarded as being in a dangerous way. Among his colleagues in the legislature were George Washington and Patrick Henry. These three men conducted the Revolution in Virginia. Washington was its sword, Henry its tongue, and Jefferson its pen. At the opening of the first session the member from Albemarle drafted a reply to the Governor's address, but his effort was rejected as being deficient in both style and contents. The young man was doubtless mortified, but his propensity to draw up addresses, constitutions, etc., was deeply rooted, and we shall find him trying his hand again upon the first and all succeeding occasions.

On the Thursday after the opening of the session the House passed resolutions which, after denying the right of taxation

♦See Rebellion, page 354.

lO THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

without representation, and the right of trying accused Americans in EngHsh courts, declared the right of the colonies to concur and co-operate in seeking redress of grievances. On account of those resolutions Lord Botetourt, the royal Governor, promptly dissolved the Burgesses, who, as private citizens, immediately met in the Apollo room of the famous Raleigh Tavern and, following the example of Massachusetts, pledged themselves to refrain from trade with England until such time as she should show a disposition to treat the colonies justly. When in a few months word was brought that the English government had relented, and that at the next session of Parliament a proposition would be made to^ remove the obnoxious duties, the governor reassembled the Burgesses in the hope that the trouble would be tided over. At this session, advancing about a century ahead of his time, Jefiferson introduced a bill making it lawful for a master to emancipate his slaves. The prompt and emphatic rejection of the bill caused him to: lose hope of the speedy settlement of the slavery question in Virginia, but it did not shake his belief in the justice of the cause.

In 1770 Jefiferson's home at Shad well was destroyed by fire, and with it his furniture, books and law-papers. Only a highly prized violin was rescued from, the flames. About two miles from the Shadwell house was a hill named by Jeiferson, Monticello* (little mount). This eminence commands a view of surpassing beauty, and was chosen by Jefiferson as the site of a mansion that should embody his ideas of architecture — an art upon which he expended much thought, and in which he was more than an amateur. After the fire the building of a new house upon the "little mount" was pushed rapidly, and in something more than a year a section was ready for occupancy.

In 1772 Jefferson married and brought to his new mansion Martha Skelton, a childless widow of twenty-two, the daughter of John Wayles, a wealthy lawyer of Williamsburg. A story of the wooing is told by Randall, Jefferson's most faithful biographer. The widow Skelton, it seems, had many suitors. "Upon

*See Monticello, page 311.

one occasion t\vo of her admirers called and were shown into a room from which they heard her harpsichord and voice, accompanied by Mr. Jefferson's viohn and voice in the passages of a touching song. Whether something in the words or in the tone of the singers offered suggestion to them, tradition does not say, but it does aver that they took their hats and retired to return no more on the same errand." Jefferson was happy in his marriage. His wife was a woman distinguished by charms of mind and person, and she received from her husband an affection that was deep and imperishable.

GETTING UNDER WAY AS A STATESMAN.

llie Convention that assembled in Williamsburg in August, 1774, in response to the call of the coterie of patriots that had in l\Iay met at the Raleigh Tavern was the first extra-legal representative body that met in Virginia. Among its members were Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Harrison and the Lees. Jefferson was chosen tO' represent Albemarle County, but on his way to Williamsburg he was taken ill and was prevented from attending. His influence in the Convention, however, was exerted through a document which he had prepared and placed in the hands of Randolph and Henry. This was the celebrated "Summary View of the Rights of British America" — a composition intended to form the basis of instructions to the delegates from Virginia in the Continental Congress. Tlie manuscript was inspected by the members of the Convention, and was found to contain so much that was vigorous and convincing that it was printed at Williamsburg at private expense, without the knowledge of the author and without his name appearing. It was quickly reprinted in Philadelphia and also in London. The "Summary View^' was probably the most important political pamphlet published at the South in the early days of the Revolution. It was JeiYerson's aim to "set a pace that would bring the front and rear ranks of his fellow countrj^men together." These "Instructions" show that his pace was a pretty rapid one. for they breathe the spirit of independence in every paragraph.

Indeed, it was the odd fortune of the writer of the Declaration of Independence to be accused in later years of having pilfered many of his ideas from the "Summary View."

Jefferson's views were too radical for the official approbation of the Convention, but he seems not to have been in advance of the public opinion of his constituency, for upon the occasion of his double election tO' the Convention and to the House of Burgesses in July, 1774, he drew up and caused to be adopted by the freeholders of Albemarle County a set of resolutions in which the right of self-government among the colonies without the intervention of Parliament was strictly asserted. Other counties passed spirited resolutions, but none were sO' spirited and revolutionary as these. The same citizens of Albemarle, after they had adopted the resolutions drawn up by their leader, armed themselves and threatened Lord Dunmore with punishment for stealing the powder of the colonists from the magazine in Williamsburg. Jefferson was doubtless behind this uprising, for he was the most prominent member of the Committee of Safety in his county.

In March, 1775, the Virginia Convention met at Richmond in the parish church of St. John, Jefferson in attendance. The eloquence of Patrick Henry hurried the willing body into revolution. He moved that the Colony "be immediately put into a state of defense," and in support of his motion delivered a speech that set on fire the souls of his hearers and still thrills the hearts of American school boys. Henry's motion was carried, and a committee consisting of himself, R. H. Lee, R. C. Nicholas, Benjamin Harrison, George Washington, Edmund Pendleton and Thomas Jefferson was appointed to devise a plan for putting the colony upon a military basis. Before the Convention adjourned it selected Jefferson to represent the colony in the Continental Congress in the place of Peyton Randolph, providing the latter should be recalled to preside over the House of Burgesses. In June, 1775, Randolph was recalled, and Jefferson became a member of Congress. Before he took leave of the colonial legislature, however, he prepared a reply to Lord North's "Conciliatory Proposition," which had been referred to the Burgesses by the Grovemor for their consideration. It was understood throughout the colonies that Virginia was to make the first answer to the ministry's proposition for peace, and Jefferson was anxious that she should set for the other colonies an example of firmness and courage. The reply, passed by a vote "approaching unanimity," shows that the colony was rebellious and bent upon war, despite its protestations of loyalty and its oft-expressed desire for peace. Patrick Henry had uttered the real sentiment of his countrymen when he said: *'The God of Hosts is all that is left us. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace."

It was in a spirit of war and rebellion that Jefferson drew up a reply to^ the "Conciliatory Proposition," and it was in this spirit that he went to Philadelphia in June, 1775, to take his seat as a delegate to Congress. He was now thirty-two years of age; only two members of Congress were younger. He had developed into an all-round man of the world. He could "calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play the violin." His fame had preceded him in Congress. "Mr. Jefferson," wrote John Adams in 1822, "came to Congress in June, 1775, and brought with him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent for composition. Writings of his were handed about, remarkable for the peculiar felicity of expression." His pen was soon called into requisition. Congress, feeling obliged to give the world reasons for the rebellious scenes of Lexington and Bunker Hill, appointed a committee to draw up a declaration of causes for taking up arms. The report of this committee proving unsatisfactory. Congress recommitted it and added Jefferson a.n4 John Dickinson to the committee. Jefferson drew up a declaration that was too strong for the conservatives. Especially was the language of the young Virginian too strong for John Dickinson, who had great influence in Congress and still cherished hopes of reconciliation. Jefferson, seeing there was no chance for the adoption of his own draft against the opposition of Dickinson, gave way. Dickinson then prepared a statement more agreeable to the less radical, although not less patriotic, wing of Congress. The concluding paragraphs of Dickinson's draft, however, are substantially copied from Jefferson. One passage from Jefferson's portion of the address is often quoted by historians on account of the ominous import of one of its words. "We mean hot to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. Necessity has not yet driven us intO' that desperate measure."

In July, 1775, Congress, by ballot, chose Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and R. H. Lee as a committee to report on Lord North's "Conciliatory Proposition." Jefferson had already drawn Virginia's answer to the overture, and his colleagues on the committee requested him to draft the reply O'f Congress also. This he did to the satisfaction of the committee, and his report with slight emendations was promptly adopted by Congress. In this reply of Congress he necessarily followed quite closely the form of reply drawn up by himself for the House of Burgesses of Virginia. The tone of the document was sullen and defiant. It held firmly to a denial of Parliament's right to "intermeddle with our provisions for the support of civil government. * * * g^^it while Parliament pursues its plan of civil government within its own jurisdiction, we hope also to pursue our own without molestation." In a few weeks hard work and an aggressive and fearless nature had brought Jefferson to the front in Congress. "He was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in Convention," said John Adams, "that he soon seized upon my heart."

Congress adjourned in August, 1775, and Jefferson returned to Richmond to take his seat as the representative of Albemarle in the Virginia Convention. Immediately he was elected to represent the colony in the next Congress. The election was by ballot, with the following result: Peyton Randolph 89 votes, R. H. Lee 88, Thomas Jefferson 85, Benjamin Harrison 83, Thomas Nelson 66, Richard Bland 61, George Wythe 58. A question came before the Convention at this time that had for Jefferson a most abiding interest. It was a question of religious liberty — a thing as yet unheard of in Virginia. A petition was presented by the Baptists asking that Baptist ministers be allowed to preach to Baptist soldiers. The Convention passed a resolution granting their request. Jefferson's vote for the resolution was his first act in a movement directed by himself which led to the disestablishment of the church in Virginia, and to a general separation of Church and State in America.

After a few days' attendance upon the Convention, Jefferson, sought his beloved Monticello, the scene of so much joy and sorrow in his life. This time sorrow darkened his stay. His second child, Jane, died in September. A letter written by him about this time to John Randolph, a kinsman whose interests had caused him to leave America at the outbreak of hostilities and take up his residence in England, reflects in clear light Jefferson's views upon the troublous questions of the hour. "I would rather be in dependence on Great Britain, properly limited," he writes in this letter, "than on any nation on earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those, too, who rather than submit to the rights of legislating for us assumed by the British Parliament, would lend my hand to sink the whole island." This could mean but one thing — separation.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

Jefferson returned to Philadelphia in September to find that the temper of Congress accorded with his own. The king had spurned the petition of the Americans, had not deigned even to listen to it, and was making active military preparations for the coercion of the colonists. The Americans, on the other hand, were taxing all their resources in their preparation for resistance. Philadelphia, where the companies were drilling twice a day, was more like a camp than a peaceful Quaker town. News came from the North that Boston was evacuated and Ticonderoga captured ; from the South, that Norfolk, the largest city of Virginia, was burned by the British. Congress sat with closed doors but its members were not deaf to the alarming state of affairs without. They saw it was only left to them to declare a war that public sentiment had already declared. Necessity demanded an ally, and wistful eyes were cast towards England's historic foe. An agent of France was in Philadelphia charged with the mission of offering the good services of his government to the colonies. Congress deputed Jay, Franklin and Jefferson as a committee to confer with the envoy. The conference was successful, and was the first in a chain of events that led to the French alliance and to Jefferson's diplomatic career in France.