schools and on their farms, accumulating such substance as they could, while the despised sectaries were garnering the members of their flocks. In time the Presbyterian greatly outnumbered the established church, but the system of taxation was continued, to their manifest injustice and the emolument of the regular institution. The first session of the legislature in 1776 brought many petitions for the abolition of this spiritual tyranny. Mr. Jefferson had been brought up a Presbyterian, and took an active and decided part in the discussion of this subject. The petitions were referred to a committee of the whole on the discussion of the state of the country. Debate continued almost uninterruptedly from the 11th of October until December 5th, when the opposition achieved a partial victory. They were able only to repeal the laws which rendered criminal the maintenance of any religious opinions, the forbearance of repairing to church, or the exercise of any mode of worship; and further to exempt dissenters from contributions to the support of the established church; and to suspend, only until the next session, levies on the members of that church for the salaries of their own incumbents." On the 19th of November a resolution was carried by the house, a majority of whose members were favorable to the established church, "that provision ought to be made for continuing the succession of the clergy and superintending their conduct."

The capital of the provincial government of Virginia was originally established at Jamestown. It was later removed to Williamsburg, where it remained until sometime in 1779, when a bill for its removal to Richmond, which had been introduced by Mr. Jefferson in 1776, was passed. Williamsburg is situated between two rivers, up either of which an enemy might come, and by landing a force above the town, capture the archives of government before a possibility of this removal.

Immediately on the disorganization of the colonial system, in May, 1776, the convention of Virginia at Williamsburg entered upon the formation of a new government. But short time was taken in perfecting a constitution, which was adopted with unseemly haste, in June. Mr. Jefferson was at this time a delegate in Congress at Philadelphia. He had long foreseen the result of the contest between the people and the royal government, and had devoted much time to the formation of a plan of government to take its place. When this was completed he forwarded it to the convention at Williamsburg by an express. Action had already been taken on the constitution first proposed, but the convention unanimously adopted the preamble prepared by Mr. Jefferson. It was thought best, as the members were wearied by protracted sessions, to adhere to the plan adopted, which would answer for the time being, although it was acknowledged on all hands to be imperfect.

During the summer of this year Mr. Jefferson was called to his home by matters demanding his personal attention. In his absence he was

appointed by Congress, in conjunction with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Deane, a commissioner to France, for the purpose of forming treaties of alliance and commerce. He was at this time suffering ill health, and that, together with other matters, including the embarrassed condition of the country, caused him to decline the appointment, in a letter to Congress, dated October 11th.

Early in the legislative session of 1776, Mr. Jefferson presented a bill for the general revision of the laws, which was passed October 24th. On the 5th of November a committee, consisting of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe, George Mason, and Thomas L. Lee, was appointed to make such revision. On the 13th of January the committee met at Fredericksburg, to decide on a plan of operations, and a division of the work. Mr. Mason soon after resigned, and Mr. Lee died, leaving the remaining three members of the committee to proceed with the work. To Mr. Jefferson was assigned the common law and statutes to the time separate legislatures were established. The British statutes from that date to the change from colonial to state government, and the Virginia laws were assigned to Mr. Pendleton. In this division of labor Mr. Jefferson had charge of the preparation of the law of descents and criminal law. The final judgment of the committee was that the law of primogeniture be abolished, and that real estate be subject to division among all heirs. On the subject of the criminal law all were agreed that the death penalty should be abolished, except for treason and murder; for other felonies hard labor on public works was substituted. The committee entered with spirit into the work, which was not completed until 1779, when a meeting was had and every section read, sentence by sentence, amended, and revised. Copies were then made and the drafts presented to the general assembly June 18, 1779. A total of one hundred and twenty-six bills was presented. Certain of these bills were taken up from time to time, but the majority were not acted upon until 1785, after the termination of the war. By request of the other members of the committee, Mr. Jefferson was given charge of the acts of assembly concerning the college of William and Mary, which were included in the portion of the work assigned to Mr. Pendleton. Mr. Jefferson had given much attention to the subject of education, and his appointment to this portion of the work of revision, was peculiarly appropriate. He prepared three bills for the revisal, proposing three distinct grades of education: elementary schools for all children, rich and poor alike; colleges, affording a degree of education adapted to the common purposes of life; and a grade for teaching the sciences generally in the highest degree. But a portion of this bill, that relating to elementary education, was acted upon, and this was so amended as to leave each county to determine for itself when the act should take effect. One provision of the bill was, that all should be taxed alike to support the public school system. This would throw the greater burden on the rich, who cared nothing for these schools, they mak

ing other provision for the education of their children.

As a consequence

the bill became inoperative, those who were to decide when it should go into effect entirely ignoring it.

The bill on the subject of slavery was a digest of existing laws, it being thought best to insert nothing looking toward emancipation, but leave that subject to be provided for by amendment to the bill when it should be brought up for adoption. Mr. Jefferson was an original abolitionist, or if not strictly an abolitionist, an earnest believer in the self-evident truth that all men are born equal and universally entitled to freedom. In discussing this bill he said: "But it was found that the public mind would not yet bear the proposition [that is, a plan for a future and general emancipation], nor will they bear it at this day [1821]. Yet the day is not distant when they must bear and adopt it, or worse will follow. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion, have drawn indelible lines of distinction between them. It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation and deportation, peaceably and in such slow degree, as that the evil will wear off insensibly, and their place be pari passu, filled up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held up. We should in vain look for an example in the Spanish deportation or delation of the Moors. This precedent would fall far short of our case."

Touching laws regulating the officers of the state, he says he "considered four of these bills, passed or reported, as forming a system by which every fibre would be eradicted of ancient or future aristocracy; and a foundation laid for a government purely republican. The repeal of the laws of entail would prevent the accumulation and perpetuation of wealth, in select families, and preserve the soil of the country from being daily more and more absorbed in mortmain. The abolition of primogeniture, and equal partition of inheritance, removed the feudal and unnatural distinction, which made one member of every family rich, and all the rest poor, substituting equal partition, the best of all agrarian laws. The restoration of the rights of conscience relieved the people from the taxation for the support of a religion not theirs; for the establishment was truly of the religion of the rich, the dissenting sects being entirely composed of the less wealthy people; and these, by the bill for a general education, would be qualified to understand their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in self-government; and all this would be effected, without the viola tion of a single natural right of any one individual citizen. To these, too, might be added, as a further security, the introduction of a trial by jury. into the chancery courts, which have already ingulfed, and continue to ingulf, so great a proportion of the jurisdiction over our property."

The surrender of the army under General Burgoyne, at Saratoga, October, 17, 1777, resulted in the capture of a large number of prisoners of war, many of them being the Hessian troops under General de Riedesei. A portion of these were removed to Albemarle county, in 1779, and were detained near the residence of Mr. Jefferson, who won the hearty good will of both officers and men, by the many acts of kindness shown them. The officers were frequently guests at his table, and on their release testified their appreciation of his kindness.

CHAPTER III.

ELECTED GOVERNOR-AGAIN IN CONGRESS-ACCEPTS A FOREIGN MISSION.

ON

N the 1st of June, 1779, the term of Patrick Henry, the first governor of Virginia after the formation of the confederation, expired. Mr. Jefferson was elected to succeed him in that office, and resigned his seat in the legislature, where he had done invaluable work for the state in framing the most beneficial changes in her code of laws. He was also about this time elected one of the visitors to the college of William and Mary, and during his residence in Williamsburg that year, was instrumental in effecting a change in the organization of the institution, abolishing the grammar school, and doing away with two professorships, those of divinity and oriental languages, and substituting in their stead the chairs of law and police, anatomy, medicine, and chemistry, and modern languages. Additions were made to the duties of the professor of moral philosophy, requir ing him to teach the law of nature and nations, and the fine arts; to the duties of the professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, was added instruction in natural history.

At this time the duties of the executive were arduous and difficult. The British government had inflicted great barbarities on prisoners who were so unfortunate as to fall into its hands. A system of retaliation was inaugurated by Mr. Jefferson, which, for the time, had the effect of increasing the rigorous treatment, particularly against the troops of Virginia. Persistence in this course taught the British government a lesson in humanity that they had failed to appreciate and had the effect to ameliorate the condition of the American prisoners in their hands. They were thereafter constrained to follow more closely the laws of civilized warfare.

In the spring of 1780 Virginia became the scene of actual hostilities. Heretofore she had escaped much of the terror and devastation of war. The bold Tarleton invaded the southern part of the state, committing many atrocities, burning and pillaging the country, and forcing the inhabitants to