Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch Part 7

Jefferson did not realize that this rustic youngster, careless of dress, and apparently thoughtless in manner, and sometimes, to all appearance, so unconcerned that he was taken by some to be an idiot, was to be the flaming tongue of a coming Revolution. Henry did not dream that this fiddling boy, Jefferson, was to be the potent pen of a Declaration which was to emanc.i.p.ate a hemisphere.

One day in 1760, just after Jefferson had entered upon his college studies at Williamsburg, Henry came to his room to tell him, that since their parting of a few months before, after the Christmas holidays, he had studied law, and had come to Williamsburg to get a license to practice. The fact was he had studied law but six weeks, and yet felt himself able to pa.s.s the examination. The examination was conducted by four examiners. Three of them signed the license. The fourth, George Wythe, refused his signature. But Henry was now duly admitted to the bar. He went back, however, to a.s.sist his father-in-law, Mr. Shelton, in tending his tavern, and for four years, practicing occasionally, he waited his time.

In May, 1765, Henry was elected to the House of Burgesses which met at Williamsburg. While in attendance as a member Henry was the guest of young Jefferson. Henry presented a rustic appearance. His dress was coa.r.s.e and worn. His fame had not become fully known at Williamsburg, "and he moved about the streets unrecognized though not unmarked. The very oddity of his appearance provoked comment."

In the a.s.sembly were some of the most brilliant and distinguished men in the Colony. Among them were Peyton Randolph, George Wythe, John Robinson, Richard Henry Lee, and Edmund Pendleton.

Dignified manners prevailed among the members. An elaborate and formal courtesy characterized them in their proceedings. They were polished and aristocratic men, not specially interested in the welfare of the common people. They were strongly desirous of perpetuating the cla.s.s distinctions observed in Virginia society. A very marked contrast was apparent between them and the tall, gaunt, coa.r.s.e-attired, unpolished member from Louisa.

Not being personally known to the majority of the House, little notice was taken of him, and no expectations of any particular influence to be exercised by him upon its deliberations were expected. When the news of the pa.s.sage of the Stamp Act reached the a.s.sembly, amazement and indignation were felt by the Royalist leaders, at the folly of the English ministry. But there seemed no way before them but submission to the Imperial decree. But Henry saw that the hour had come for meeting the issue between the King and the Colonies.

He rose in his seat and offered his famous Five Resolutions, which in substance declared that Englishmen living in America had all the rights of Englishmen living in England, and that all attempts to impose taxes upon them without the consent of their own representatives, had "a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom."

These resolutions provoked an animated and exciting debate. There is a strong probability that Jefferson knew the intentions of Henry, for he was present on that ever memorable occasion in the House.

No provision was made in the a.s.sembly chamber for spectators. There was no gallery from which they could look down upon the contestants. In the doorway between the lobby and the chamber Jefferson took his stand, intently watching Henry's att.i.tude and actions.

In a hesitating way, stammering in his utterances, he began reading his Resolutions. Then followed the opening sentences of the magnificent oration of this "Demosthenes of the woods," as Byron termed him.

No promise did they give of what was to follow. Very soon the transformation came. Jefferson saw him draw himself to his full height and sweep with a conqueror's gaze the entire audience before and about him.

No impediment now; no inarticulate utterances now. With a voice rich and full, and musical, he poured out his impa.s.sioned plea for the liberties of the people. Then soaring to one of his boldest flights, he cried out in electric tones:

"Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third -----." The Speaker sprang to his feet, crying, "Treason!

treason!" The whole a.s.sembly was in an uproar, shouting with the Speaker, "Treason! treason!" Not only the royalists, but others who were thoroughly alarmed by the orator's audacious words, joined in the cry. But never for a moment did Henry flinch. Fixing his eye upon the Speaker, and throwing his arm forward from his dilating form, as though to hurl the words with the power of a thunderbolt, he added in a tone none but he himself could command, "May profit by their example." Then, with a defiant look around the room, he said, "If this be treason, make the most of it."

Fifty-nine years afterwards Jefferson continued to speak of that great occasion with unabated enthusiasm. He narrated anew the stirring scenes when the shouts of; "treason, treason," echoed through the Hall.

In his record of the debate which followed the speech of Henry he described it as "most b.l.o.o.d.y." The arguments against the resolutions, he said were swept away by the "torrents of sublime eloquence" from the lips of Patrick Henry. With breathless interest, Jefferson, standing in the doorway, watched the taking of the vote on the last resolution. It was upon this resolution that the battle had been waged the hottest.

It was carried by a majority of a single vote. When the result was announced, Peyton Randolph, the King's Attorney General, brushed by Jefferson, in going out of the House, exclaiming bitterly with an oath as he went, "I would have given five hundred guineas for a single vote."

The next day, in the absence of the mighty orator, the timid a.s.sembly expunged the fifth resolution and modified the others. The Governor, however, dissolved the House for daring to pa.s.s at all the resolutions.

But he could not dissolve the spirit of Henry nor the magical effect of the resolutions which had been offered. By his intrepid action Henry took the leaders.h.i.+p of the a.s.sembly out of the hands which hitherto had controlled it.

The resolutions as originally pa.s.sed were sent to Philadelphia. There they were printed, and from that center of energetic action were widely circulated throughout the Colonies. The heart of Samuel Adams and the Boston patriots were filled with an unspeakable joy as they read them.

The drooping spirits of the people were revived and the doom of the Stamp Act was sealed.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON AND JEFFERSON.

Dr. James Schouler says: "That Jefferson did not enter into the rhapsodies of his times which magnified the first President into a demiG.o.d infallible, is very certain; and that, sincerely or insincerely, he had written from his distant retreat to private friends in Congress with less veneration for Was.h.i.+ngton's good judgment on some points of policy than for his personal virtues and honesty, is susceptible of proof by more positive testimony than the once celebrated Mazzei letter.

Yet we should do Jefferson the justice to add that political differences of opinion never blinded him to the transcendent qualities of Was.h.i.+ngton's character, which he had known long and intimately enough to appreciate with its possible limitations, which is the best appreciation of all. Of many contemporary tributes which were evoked at the close of the last century by that great hero's death, none bears reading so well in the light of another hundred years as that which Jefferson penned modestly in his private correspondence."

INFLUENCE OF PROF. SMALL ON JEFFERSON.

Speaking of the influence exerted over him by Dr. William Small, Professor of Mathematics at William and Mary College, who supplied the place of a father, and was at once "guide, philosopher and friend,"

Jefferson said: "It was Dr. Small's instruction and intercourse that probably fixed the destinies of my life."

JEFFERSON AND THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

In the epitaph of Jefferson, written by himself, there is no mention of his having been Governor of Virginia, Plenipotentiary to France, Secretary of State, Vice President and President of the United States.

But the inscription does mention that he was the "Author of the Declaration of American Independence; of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom; and Father of the University of Virginia."

These were the three things which, in his own opinion, const.i.tuted his most enduring t.i.tle to fame, and it is to be observed that freedom was the fruit of all three. By the first he contributed to the emanc.i.p.ation of the American colonies from British rule; by the second he broke the chains of sectarian bigotry that had fettered his native State; and by the third he gave that State and her sisters the chance to strike the shackles of ignorance from the minds of their sons.

Free Government, free faith, free thought--these were the treasures which Thomas Jefferson bequeathed to his country and his State; and who, it may well be asked, has ever left a n.o.bler legacy to mankind?

His was a mind that thrilled with that active, aggressive and innovating spirit which has done so much to jostle men out of their accustomed grooves and make them think for themselves.

No one appreciated more than he the fact that the light of experience, as revealed in the history of the race, should be the guide of mankind.

But, for that very reason, he did not slavishly wors.h.i.+p the past, well knowing that history points not only to the wisdom of sages and the virtues of saints, but also to the villainy of knaves and the stupidity of fools.

The condition of life is change; the cessation of change is death.

History is movement, not stagnation; and Jefferson emphatically believed in progress.

The fact that a dogma in politics, theology or educational theory had been accepted by his ancestors did not make it necessarily true in his eyes. "Let well enough alone" was no maxim of his. Onward and upward was ever his aim.

His interests were wide and intense, ranging from Anglo-Saxon roots to architectural designs, from fiddling to philosophy, from potatoes to politics, from rice to religion. In all these things, and in many more besides, he took the keenest interest; but in nothing, perhaps, did he display throughout his life a more unfaltering zeal than in the cause of education.

"A system of general instruction," said he in 1818, "which shall reach every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so it will be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest."

From first to last Jefferson's aim was to establish, in organic union and harmonious co-operation, a system of educational inst.i.tutions consisting of (1) primary schools, to be supported by local taxation; (2) grammar schools, cla.s.sical academies or local colleges; and (3) a State University, as roof and spire of the whole edifice.

He did not succeed in realizing the whole of his scheme, but he did finally succeed in inducing the Legislature to pa.s.s an act in the year 1819 by which the State accepted the gift of Central College (a corporation based upon private subscriptions due to Jefferson's efforts), and converted it into the University of Virginia.

This action was taken on the report of a commission previously appointed, which had met at Rockfish Gap, in the Blue Ridge Mountains--a commission composed probably of more eminent men than had ever before presided over the birth of a university. Three of these men, who met together in that unpretentious inn, were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe (then President of the United States).

Yet it was remarked by the lookers-on that Mr. Jefferson was the princ.i.p.al object of regard both to the members and spectators; that he seemed to be the chief mover of the body--the soul that animated it; and some who were present, struck by their manifestations of deference, conceived a more exalted idea of him on this simple and unpretending occasion than they had ever previously entertained.--R. H. Dabney.

THE FINANCIAL DIARY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Thomas Jefferson kept a financial diary and account book from January 1st 1791, to December 28th, 1803, embracing the last three years of his service as Secretary of State under Was.h.i.+ngton, the four years of his Vice-Presidency under John Adams, and the first three years following his own election to the Presidency.

This diary was one of the most valuable treasures in the library of the late Mr. Tilden.

Among the items enumerated in the very fine, but neat and legible hand of Mr. Jefferson, is the following: