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      THOMAS JEFFERSON

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      When the Great Ruler of the universe resolved to set his people free from Egyptian bondage, he raised up able and mighty men, to effect his glorious purposes. These he endowed with wisdom to plan, and energy to execute his noble designs. There is a most striking similarity between the history of the Israelites, bursting the chains of slavery riveted upon them by Pharaoh; and that of the American colonies, in disenthralling themselves, by the aid of Heaven, from the oppressions of the British king. Like Moses, Washington led his countrymen through the wilderness of the revolution, and planted them, when the journey was terminated, upon the promised land of freedom and independence. Like Moses, he placed his trust in the God of Hosts, and like him, he was aided and sustained by a band of sages and heroes, unrivalled in the history of the world.

      In the front of this band stood Thomas Jefferson, who was born at Shadwell, Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 24th of April, 1743. His ancestors were highly respectable, and among the early emigrants to the Old Dominion. They were true republicans, in affluent circumstances, and exercised an influence that radiated to a considerable extent. Thomas was the son of Peter Jefferson, a man much esteemed in public and private life. The feelings imbibed from him by this son, were conspicuous at an early age, and decidedly of a liberal character. From his childhood, the mind of Thomas Jefferson assumed a high elevation, and took a broad and expansive view of men and things. He was educated at the college of William and Mary, at Williamsburg; and was always found at the head of his class. For assiduity and untiring industry in the exploration of the fields of science, he had no superior. He analyzed every subject that came under his investigation, closely and carefully; passing through the opening avenues of literature with an astonishing celerity. His mind became enraptured with the history of classic Greece and republican Rome, and, in early youth, his political opinions appear to have been distinctly formed, and opposed to every kind of government, tinctured with a shade of monarchy or aristocracy.

      After having completed his collegiate course, he commenced the study of law under chancellor Wythe, whose liberal views were well calculated to strengthen and mature those already preponderating in the mind of Jefferson. With regard to the oppressions of the mother country, and the justice and necessity of resistance by the colonies, their kindred bosoms were in unison. By a thorough investigation of the science of law and government, Jefferson soon became prepared to enter upon the great theatre of public action, and into the service of his injured country. Planting himself upon the broad basis of Magna Charta, encircling himself within the pale of the British constitution, he demonstrated most clearly, that the ministry of the crown had long been advancing, with rapid strides, beyond the bounds of their legitimate authority, by exercising a tyrannical power over the American colonies, not delegated to them by the monarchy they corruptly represented. So conclusive and luminous were his expositions of chartered rights on the one hand, and of accumulating wrongs on the other, that he soon became the nucleus of a band of patriots, resolved on deeds of noble daring — on liberty or death.

      At the age of twenty-two, he was elected to the provincial legislature, and commissioned a justice of the peace, which gave him an opportunity of disseminating his liberal principles to a considerable extent. He proclaimed himself the unyielding advocate of equal rights, and had engraved upon his watch seal as his motto, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”

      By his eloquence and unanswerable reasoning, he soon kindled the flame of opposition in old Virginia, which increased as tyranny advanced; and, in 1769, assumed the shape of a resolution, offered and advocated by Mr. Jefferson in the legislature, not to import a single article from Great Britain. The boldness and firmness with which he maintained his position, astonished the adherents of the crown, and gave a fresh impetus to the glorious cause then in embryo. With ample pecuniary means, with talents unsurpassed, his soul illumined with the fire of patriotism, his indignation roused against the hirelings of the king, his sympathies excited by the sufferings of his country, Mr. Jefferson was well calculated to become one of the master spirits of the revolution; one of the giant champions of universal freedom; a pillar of fire in the cause of liberty, flashing terror and dismay into the ranks of his enemies.

      The plan of organizing committees of correspondence throughout the colonies, was devised by him in the early part of 1773, and proved eminently useful in producing unity of sentiment and concert of action among the patriots. About that time, he wrote and published “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” which also set forth the wrongs inflicted upon his countrymen, in bold and glowing colours. This he addressed to the king in respectful, but plain and impressive language, in the following eloquent strain. “Open your breast, Sire, to liberal and expanded thought. It behooves you to think and act for your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader: to peruse them, needs not the aid of many counsellors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest,” etc.

      So exasperated was Lord Duninore on perusing this article, that he threatened to arrest its author for high treason. Written and published during the session of the legislature of which Mr. Jefferson was an influential member, and finding that resolutions had been passed by the representatives, quite as treasonable in their character as the publication in question, his lordship immediately dissolved the farther action of that body.

      The following year, the British ministry, in answer to petitions for redress of grievances, sent to the assembly of the Old Dominion, a series of propositions that they termed conciliatory, but which, in truth, added insult to injury. Their hypocrisy and fallacy were unmasked and exposed by Mr. Jefferson, in a masterly strain of eloquent and withering logic and sarcasm, that carried conviction to a large majority of his colleagues. They were referred to a committee, which reported an answer, drawn by the author of the declaration of independence, similar, in its main features, to that much admired document, which was immediately adopted. The ball of resistance was put in motion, the electric fluid of patriotism commenced its insulating powers in the north and in the south; and, extending from sire to son, from heart to heart, the two streams met in the centre, and rising in grandeur, formed the beautiful and luminous arch of Freedom, with its chord extending from Maine to Georgia, its versed sine resting upon the city of Penn. Under its zenith, at the city of Philadelphia, the continental congress convened, in which Thomas Jefferson took his seat on the 21st of June, 1775. Although one of the youngest members of that venerated assemblage of sages and patriots, he was hailed as one of its main pillars. Known as a man of superior intelligence, of liberal sentiments, of strict integrity, of stern republicanism, and of unbending patriotism, his influence was strongly felt and judiciously exercised. From the beginning, he advocated a separation from the mother country, and met, at the threshold, every argument that was urged against it. He considered that allegiance to the crown had been dissolved

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