it did in New York and New England, the United States would have been double gainers by their independence; the great hindering evils of slavery would have been avoided; the sectionalism of our experience would not have been known; and the great civil war and its terrific loss of property, energy and life, would not have been. Jefferson was called the philosopher in his day; and the worth of his philosophy is far clearer now than it was to most people then.

He is a proof that men do sometimes rise above their circumstances; that humanity may grow to be a powerful and controlling sentiment in the midst of slavery; that democracy may have a vigorous development in the midst of aristocratic surroundings.

THE APPROACHING CONFLICT.

The House of Burgesses met in the spring of 1773. An event had just occurred to arouse such alert souls as Jefferson's to a sense of danger to come. The Gasper, a British vessel, stationed in Narraganset bay to enforce the obnoxious revenue laws, had been decoyed aground, and burned. Parliament immediately passed an act "for the better securing of His Majesty's ships, docks, etc.," which made punishable with death the least harm done to anything pertaining to the British marine service, and the transportation for trial of any one accused of such harm. Against such transportation Jefferson had offered a resolution in 1769. Now he joined with Patrick Henry, the Lees and Mr. Carr, his brother-in-law, to offer a series of resolutions against the injustice of such transportation, and against all laws "tending to deprive the colonies of their ancient, legal and constitutional rights," and in favor of seeking the earliest information of what parliament should do, and of appointing a committee of correspondence with the other colonies, to act in unison in opposition to British aggression, and especially instructing the committee of correspondence "to inform themselves particularly of the principles and authority on which was constituted a court of inquiry, said to have been lately held in Rhode Island, with powers to transport persons accused of

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offenses committed in America to places beyond the seas to be tried." The resolutions are supposed to have been drafted by Mr. Jefferson, offered in a very telling speech by Mr. Carr, and adopted without a dissenting vote by the House. This was one of the first movements for a committee of consultation from all the colonies. It was one of the seeds which ripened into a Colonial Congress.

The governor immediately dissolved the House. But the committee met the next day and prepared a circular to the colonies containing a copy of the resolutions, with a request that they might be laid before their assemblies, and asking them to appoint "some person or persons of their respective bodies to communicate from time to time with the Virginia committee."

Mr. Jefferson is said to have believed that this was the germ of colonial union. But whether it was or not, it is proof of a kindredness of sentiment, and a preparedness for union and action in Virginia and Massachusetts. And this sentiment soon reached all the colonies.

During the spring session of the Burgesses in 1774, the news of the Boston port bill reached Virginia. Mr. Jefferson, believing that something startling should be done to arouse the people to a sense of the danger to their liberties, gathered about him a few kindred spirits in consultation. They agreed upon a resolution appointing a day of fasting and prayer. And as the Boston port bill was to go into operation the first of June, they fixed upon that day for a public fast day. They consulted with some of the older and more religious members, and got such a good understanding that it was agreed to without a dissenting vote. So on the day that the port of Boston was blockaded by British assumption of power, the people of Virginia were praying for the people of Boston and the preservation of their liberties. Mr. Jefferson said: "If the pulse of the people beat calmly under such an experiment by the new and until now unheard of executive power of the British Parliament, another and another will be tried, till the measure of despotism be filled up."

The governor dissolved the assembly the next day after the

-passage of this resolution. And the next day the members met at the Apollo hall and talked freely of English tyranny and what should be done about it; and they talked of a congress of the colonies for mutual consultation. They further agreed that a convention should be held at Williamsburg, August 1, to learn the result of the proposed colonial congress, and if such a congress shall be held, to appoint delegates to it. Here was the spirit and intelligence of Massachusetts in the Old Dominion.

When the members of the assembly returned to their homes. they invited the clergy to address the people in all their churches on fast day; and they generally did so, awakening a profound interest. Mr. Jefferson said: "The effect of the day through the whole colony was like a shock of electricity, arousing every man and placing him erect and solidly on his center."

The freeholders in all the counties held meetings to appoint delegates to the coming convention and express their views in resolutions.

Mr. Jefferson, on account of sickness, was unable to attend the August convention, but sent in "a summary view" of the situation in a long document, which Edmund Burke, in England, styled "A Summary View of the Rights of British America." It contained the most of the statements afterward put into the Declaration of Independence, only more radically stated; and denied that the British crown had any rights on American soil, because the people of America, without the king's help, have made it what it is. It was a document probably more radical than anything Otis, Adams, or Henry had ever said. In it, he said: The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them."

The Colonial Congress met in Philadelphia on the fourth of September. Peyton Randolph, one of Virginia's most accomplished and honored citizens, was made its president.

In the mean time nearly all the counties of Virginia organized committees of safety. On the twentieth of March, 1775, a second Virginia convention was held at Richmond. Mr. Jefferson was a member from his county. This was one of the most

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memorable assemblies ever held on this continent. It had many of Virginia's best men, such as Richard H. Lee, Pendleton, Bland, Wythe, Nicholas, Harrison, Mason, Page, Henry, Jefferson. It was composed of the conservatives and radicals. The old men of wealth and dignity were there, and the young men who were for forward movements. The old men spoke softly of England, praised the British constitution, and talked in conciliatory words, which were as "wormwood and gall" to Patrick Henry, who rose and moved that "the colony be immediately put in a state of defense, and that be a committee to prepare a plan for embodying, arming and disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient for that purpose.' This startling proposition was most painful to the old conservative members. It sounded like rebellion. The young members, Lee, Jefferson, Mason, Page, were quick in its support. It was on this occasion that Patrick Henry made the flaming speech which has immortalized him. It was in support of his resolution. He said, "war is inevitable; we must fight." The story of that speech has thrilled Americans for a hundred years. Wirt, in his life of Henry, has given a graphic picture of the scene and the speech. Many eye-and-ear witnesses have described it. Mr. Randall, in his life of Jefferson, gives this account as related to him by an old Baptist clergyman who heard it. "Henry rose with an unearthly fire burning in his eye. He commenced somewhat calmly-but the smothered excitement began more and more to play upon his features and thrill in the tones of his voice. The tendons of his neck stood out white and rigid 'like whipcord.' His voice rose louder and louder, until the walls of the building and all within them, seemed to shake and rock in its tremendous vibrations. Finally his pale face and glaring eye became terrible to look upon. Men leaned forward in their seats, with their heads strained forward, their faces pale and their eyes glaring like the speaker's. His last exclamation, Give me liberty or give me death,' was like the shout of a leader which turns back the rout of battle!"

The old clergyman said when Mr. Henry sat down, "he (the auditor) 'felt sick with excitement.' Every eye gazed entranced

on Henry. It seemed as if a word from him would have led to any wild explosion of violence. Men looked beside themselves." Wirt in his account of it, says: "Richard H. Lee arose and supported Mr. Henry with his usual spirit and elegance. But his melody was lost amid the agitations of that ocean which the master spirit of the storm had lifted upon high. That supernatural voice still sounded in their ears and shivered along their arteries. They heard in every pause the cry of liberty or death. They became impatient of speech. Their souls were on fire for action."

Mr. Henry's resolution for arming the colony was passed by a decided majority; and he, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were put on the committee, with others, to carry out its provisions. The committee reported a plan on the twentyfifth of March, and the convention accepted it..

The convention chose Mr. Jefferson to fill the place of Peyton Randolph in the next Colonial Congress.

On the night of the twentieth of April, 1775, a British armed vessel lying in the James river, by order of Governor Dunmore, entered Williamsburg and carried off all the powder in the magazine. This awakened much feeling. It was done two days after the battle of Lexington, the news of which soon came, to verify Henry's speech and to call many Virginians to arms.

On the first of June, the House of Burgesses was convened to consider Lord North's "conciliatory proposition." Peyton Randolph returned from the Colonial Congress to preside, and Mr. Jefferson had been elected to supply his place; but Mr. Randolph was anxious that Mr. Jefferson should draft a reply to Lord North. This reply rings with the spirit of all Mr. Jefferson's great state papers of that great period.

The eleventh of June, 1775, Mr. Jefferson took his seat in Congress. He was greeted with great cordiality. He was then but little past thirty-two years of age. His fame as a writer had gone before him. His "Summary of the Rights of British America," the "Albemarle Resolutions," and other convention papers, had stirred the whole country; and now he brought with him his reply to Lord North, more full than anything he had