Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch | Page 6

education; he drew the bill for the establishment of courts of law in the
State, and prescribing their methods and powers; he destroyed the
principle of primogeniture, and brought about the removal of the
capital from Williamsburg to Richmond.
Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry as Governor of the State, at the
opening of the year 1779. The two years were marked by incessant trial
and the severest labor, for the war had reached Virginia soil and the
State was desolated.
More than once the legislature was obliged to flee before the enemy;
Gates was crushed at Camden; Arnold the traitor scourged Richmond
with his raiders; Monticello itself was captured by cavalry, and
Jefferson escaped only by a hair's breadth. His estate was trampled over,
his horses stolen, his barns burned, his crops destroyed and many of his
slaves run off.
He declined a third election, and in the autumn of 1782, to his
inconsolable sorrow, his wife died, leaving three daughters, the
youngest a babe.
In the following November, he took his seat in congress at Annapolis,
and during that session he proposed and caused the adoption of our
present system of decimal currency.

In May, 1784, he was again elected plenipotentiary to France to assist
Franklin and Adams in negotiating commercial treaties with foreign
nations. He arrived in Paris in July, and in May, succeeding, became
sole plenipotentiary to the king of France for three years from March
10, 1785.
Jefferson's residence in France produced a profound impression upon
him and had much to do in crystallizing his ideas of the true form of
government.
That country was groveling under the heel of one of the most hideous
systems that the baseness of man ever conceived. Who has not read of
the nobleman who, when his coachman ran over a child and crushed
out its life, was only concerned lest its blood should soil his carriage, or
of the poor peasants who were compelled to beat the bogs all night long,
to prevent the frogs from croaking and thereby disturbing the slumber
of their lordly masters? The condition of no people could be more
horrible, than that of the lower classes in France previous to the
uprising, with its excesses that horrified the world.
Jefferson enjoyed the music, the art and the culture of the gay capital,
but could never shake off the oppression caused by the misery of the
people.
"They are ground to powder," he said, "by the vices of the form of
government which is one of wolves over sheep, or kites over pigeons."
He took many journeys through the country and made it a practice to
enter the houses of the peasants and talk with them upon their affairs
and manner of living. He often did this, using his eyes at the same time
with the utmost assiduity. All that he learned deepened the sad
impression he had formed, and he saw with unerring prevision the
appalling retribution that was at hand.
But Jefferson was not the officer to forget or neglect his duties to his
own government, during the five years spent in France.
Algiers, one of the pestilent Barbary States, held a number of American

captives which she refused to release except upon the payment of a
large ransom. It had been the custom for years for the powerful
Christian nations to pay those savages to let their ships alone, because
it was cheaper to do so than to maintain a fleet to fight them. Jefferson
strove to bring about a union of several nations with his own, for the
purpose of pounding some sense into the heads of the barbarians and
compelling them to behave themselves.
One reason why he did not succeed was because our own country had
no navy with which to perform her part in the compact.
France, with that idiotic blindness which ruled her in those fearful days,
maintained a protective system which prevented America from sending
cheap food to starving people, nor was Jefferson able to effect more
than a slight change in the pernicious law. One thing done by him made
him popular with the masses. His "Notes on Virginia" was published
both in French and English. Like everything that emanated from his
master hand, it was well conceived and full of information. In addition,
it glowed with republican sentiment and delighted the people. He was
in Paris when his State legislature enacted the act for which he had so
strenuously worked, establishing the freedom of religion. He had
numerous copies of it printed in French and distributed. It struck
another popular chord and received the ardent praise of the advanced
Liberals.
Jefferson was too deeply interested in educational work to forget it
among any surroundings. All new discoveries, inventions and scientific
books were brought to the knowledge of