On coming of age, he was nominated a Justice of the Peace for the county in which he lived, and at the election following, became one of its representatives in the legislature, where he took an active part in all the measures adopted in opposition to the usurpations of Great Britain. We here find him among the signers of the non-importation resolutions of Virginia, adopted in 1769, and a member of the committee of correspondence, formed in the year 1772, which, in co-operation with like committees appointed by the other colonies, led to the eventful crisis that ensued.

In the year 1774 he compiled a tract, entitled, "A Summary of the Rights of British America set forth in some Resolutions intended for the Inspection of the present Delegates of the People of Virginia now in Convention."

It had been his intention, as a member, to present these resolutions to that body; but he was prevented by illness. In the shape of contemplated instructions to the delegates of Virginia in Congress, they present a condensed but masterly view, to be laid before the King, of the rights and wrongs of America, with the course best fitted to assert the one and redress the other. In a tone, lofty and eloquent, they propound, with perspicuity, the great points at issue, illustrated with much learning. A few of the concluding sentences will sufficiently indicate the state of the author's mind. Speaking for Congress, he says,

"These are our grievances, which we have thus laid "before his Majesty, with that freedom of language and "sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their

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rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and not as "the gift of their chief magistrate. Let those flatter "who fear. It is not an American art. To give praise "which is not due might be well for the venal, but "would ill become those who are asserting the rights of "human nature. They know, and will, therefore, say, "that kings are the servants, not the proprietors of the people. Open your breast, sire, to liberal and expanded "thought." "It behoves you to think and to act for "yourself, and your people. The great principles of

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right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue "them requires not the aid of many counsellors. The "whole art of government consists in the art of being "honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will "give you credit where fail." you "The God who gave

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us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of "force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them. This, sire, "is our last, our determined resolution."

In 1775, the conciliatory proposition of lord North reached this country. This proposition, according to which any Colony, that agreed to provide for the common defence, and defray the colonial civil list, was to be exempted from any parliamentary tax, except for the regulation of trade, whose nett amount was to be passed to the credit of the Colony, soon engaged the attention of the legislature of Virginia. The answer of that body, agreed to in the month of June, emanated from the pen of Jefferson; and there may be seen an avowal of the same sentiments, often couched in nearly the same terms, as the Declaration of Independence itself. It declared that the proposition only changed the form of oppression without lightening its burden; that it involved the interests of all the Colonies; that they considered themselves as bound in honor, as well as interest, to share one common fate with their sister Colonies; and should hold themselves as base deserters of the union to which they had acceded, were they to agree to any measures of a separate accommodation. Individually, as it respected themselves, they had exhausted every mode of application which their inventions could suggest; and concluded in these terms; "We have decently remonstrated with parliament; they have added new injuries to the old; we have wearied our King with supplications; he has not deigned to answer us; we have appealed to the native honor and justice of the British nation; their efforts in our favor have hitherto been ineffectual. What then remains to be done?"-"That we commit our injuries to the even-handed justice of that Being who doeth no wrong."

This answer preceded the Declaration more than a year. When the influence of these sentiments is estimated,

and it is realized that the events of ages were, at this era, crowded often into days, we may form some idea of the merit of taking this intrepid stand at a time so long before the adoption of the national act that declared us independent. It proves beyond all question, that the glory of Jefferson did not alone consist in penning the Declaration, but that his whole soul was embarked long before in the principles which it proclaims. So it was well understood at the time in England, he having, in a bill passed by the House of Lords, been excepted from any general pardon that might be offered to the rebels.

While he was thus distinguishing himself in this assembly, where he stood at least on equal ground with a Patrick Henry and a George Mason, he was appointed on the 27th of March, 1775, a delegate to the most august body that ever assembled to promote or defend the welfare of man. On the 21st of June, 1775, he took his seat in that body, along side of the sages of our heroic days;-along side of a Hancock, a Franklin, a John and Samuel Adams, a Lee, a Pendleton, a Rutledge, a Randolph, a Dickenson, and a Sherman. He was now in his thirty-second year, and is said to have been the youngest man in Congress. The respect in which he was held is shown by the important committees on which he was placed. He took an active part in all its proceedings. Of these the most momentous was the Act of Independence; and, as if this immortal deed were under the special auspices of a superintending Intelligence, we find it ushered into being with the overwhelming powers of that art, which more than any other, assimilates man to his Creator. That body consisted of a band of patriots, and is alleged to have contained not a member whose love of country did not elevate him above a sordid interest. They all adored Liberty next to their God. But a serious division existed whether the season had arrived for this final and irrevocable act. Happily, there was in the assembly, two men, though cast in a very different mould, animated by one soul. The great Roman advocate stood in manner personified in the one; the still greater Grecian orator in the other; while, in spirit, they both towered infinitely above their immortal prototypes. Persuasion hung on the lips of Lee, conviction followed

the accents of Adams. The one, leading the Colony of Virginia, moved, the other, heading that of Massachusetts, seconded, the Act of Independence, which was adopted amidst the glories of an eloquence probably never surpassed. The vote was passed. The sages of the land had stamped the act with the seal of wisdom and patriotism. But more was still to be done. To give it effect, it was necessary that a nation should approve it, not in a voice of cautious sanction, but with applause and enthusiasm. It was, perhaps, necessary too, that it should command, from the manner in which it was promulged, the assent of the impartial part of mankind. This was the task committed to Thomas Jefferson, to the youngest man in this august assembly, who was placed at the head of a committee, composed of himself, of Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Livingston. How he performed it we all know, we all feel. As a state paper, combining strength of principle, vigor of illustration, and depth of feeling, it stands unrivalled: and while liberty exists among men, or shines on human records, it will be considered as its great charter. The nation felt, exalted minds throughout the civilized globe felt, that a people, who held such a tone, had already achieved their independence. To Jefferson belonged nearly the entire credit of this composition. I have seen the original draft in his own hand-writing, with a very few interlineations in that of Franklin and Adams, not impairing its spirit, which the slight alterations made by Congress, in some of its features, softened.

On the 11th of August, 1775, and, again, on the 20th of June, 1776, he was re-chosen a delegate to Congress.

On the 26th of September, 1776, he, with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, were appointed by Congress Commissioners to the Court of France. Considering the vast consequence attached to the friendship of France, it it is manifest that a more unequivocal mark of the respect of Congress could not have been conferred upon him, enhanced, as it was, by associating a young man of thirty-three with a venerable philosopher of seventy, then the most distinguished civil character in America. This appointment he declined on the 11th of October,

1776, on account of the state of his family, after a conflict of three days between his sense of public and private duty.*

On the 7th of October, 1776, the first general assembly of Virginia, under the new constitution, met at Williamsburg, where, Jefferson, having resigned his seat in Congress, now appeared. He considered this, for a season, a more important field than even the floor of Congress. It may have been so, as such was the weight of this great state, that it was scarcely possible for the union to go wrong while she was right. Besides, the acts of this session were primary and organic, and would give the constitution, just adopted, its practical character. Measures of great interest were taken in this body. That of the deepest concern was the formation of a commission, composed of Jefferson, Pendleton, Wythe, Mason, and Lee, to revise and reduce to a single code the whole body of the British statutes, the acts of assembly, and portions of the common law;-a great work for any community to undertake, a still greater for any individual to accomplish. The importance attached to it is evinced by the assembly excusing Mr. Wythe from his attendance in Congress. But such was the fearless intrepidity with which Jefferson undertook every task he gave himself, that with him to will was to execute. He took the laboring oar, and, in June, 1779, with the concurrence of Pendleton and Wythe,t made, what may be truly termed, an immortal report. Not content with simplifying and reducing into the smallest compass the existing laws, he pushed with a daring, yet safe hand, the system of

"No cares," said he, in a letter to Congress, "for my own person, nor yet for my private affairs, would have induced one moment's hesitation to accept the charge. But circumstances very peculiar in the situation of my family, such as neither permit me to leave, nor to carry it, compel me to ask leave to decline a service, so honorable, and, at the same time, so important, to the American cause. The necessity under which I labor, and the conflict I have undergone for three days, during which I could not determine to dismiss your messenger, will, I hope, plead my pardon with Congress."

One of the members had, in the mean time, died, and the other declined the service.

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