written. All the most advanced members received him with open arms. John Adams said of him: "Mr. Jefferson had the reputation of a masterly pen"; and again, "he brought with him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent for composition." Of him, as a member, Mr. Adams says: "Though a silent member in Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation--not even Samuel Adams was more so-that he soon seized upon my heart."

Five days after Mr. Jefferson took his seat, he was appointed on a committee to draft a declaration of the causes of taking up arms. He made a draft, but it was too radical to please John Dickinson, also a member of the committee. So Mr. Dickinson recast it, making it new with the exception of the last four paragraphs. Mr. Jefferson was one of the most advanced thinkers and actors, while Mr. Dickinson was very conservative; and yet they were intimate friends to the close of their lives.

Lord North's "conciliatory proposition" came before Congress for its answer. A committee was appointed to draft an answer July 22. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Richard H. Lee were made that committee. The committee chose Jefferson to draft the answer. It constitutes another of his great state papers, and was the last great statement of the differences between America and England by way of conciliation. Up to this time, and after, all the great leaders, the Adamses, Jay, Washington, Jefferson, desired to remain in union with England. They craved for England a great empire, and wanted to be a part of that empire. They saw, far better than English statesmen, the possibilities of that empire, and yielded this dream of British greatness, only from stern necessity. They regarded themselves as forced to an unnatural and cruel divorce.

On the ninth of November, 1775, a letter was received in Congress from Richard Penn and Arthur Lee, who had carried the second petition to the king, that "no answer would be given to it." This made the prospect of conciliation most dark. From this time the leaders were compelled to face the probability of a final separation. The dream of a great British empire

must vanish. Little by little they began to talk about the almost certain separation.

The king opened the next Parliament with bitter denunciation of the colonists as rebels, and determinatoin to punish them into submission. News of this reached America in the spring of 1776. From this time it became a question of whether the colonists could stand more punishing than the irate mother could give.

About this time Paine's "Common Sense" was published, and did much to convince many that separation and war for independence were absolute necessities. Public sentiment began to set strongly in this direction. Congress kept up with public sentiment.

On the tenth of May, John Adams offered, and on the fifteenth Congress passed, a resolution advising all the colonies to form governments for themselves. On the eleventh of June, 1776, congress resolved to appoint a committee of five to prepare a declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston were that committee, chosen by ballot. John Adams says Jefferson had one more vote than any of the rest, and on that account, he thought, he was made chairman of the committee.

Mr. Jefferson, at the instance of the committee, and, as Adams suggests, because he was the best writer, and probably because he had written several papers covering the general subject; and, still further, because he was connected with no clique, wrote the declaration. Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams made a few verbal changes; and it was read in Congress June 28. July 2, it was taken up for discussion, and two days were spent over it, according to Randall, Jefferson's biographer. The censure of the people of England and the rebuke of slavery were taken from it; and it was passed on the evening of July 4. Mr. Bancroft says the vote on it was taken July 2. At any rate, July 4 has been fixed upon as the day of its passage.

On the day of the passage of the declaration, Franklin, Adams and Jefferson were appointed to prepare a seal for THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Henceforth, a new name and a new nation are in the world. The declaration was the turning point in the great struggle. The advanced patriots were stirred to greater confidence; the moderate men were advanced to patriots; the cool were warmed; the tories were marked and silenced; the people at large were kindled to enthusiasm; foreign nations were made friendly, and France a genuine friend. It set before the armies and the people a definite object. It began the apprenticeship of a people in nation-making and defending.

NATION-BUILDING.

The

Now began everywhere the great work of nation-building. In every state there were to be constructed state, county, town and city governments, according with the great principles of the declaration. It was an era of education in this work. people were obliged to study the new work of governmentmaking. It was practical study. There were no models for the government they had to make. They had started a nation on a new plan; and they were to build it by the principles of righteousness and common sense, recognizing every man's place and right in the new structure.

Mr. Jefferson went home to Virginia to engage at once, and with all his might, in the reconstruction of Virginia. In no state was the work more radical. Virginia was thoroughly English. Its land, for the most part, was divided into large estates, which were entailed and descended to the oldest son. All the laws and usages conformed thereto.

The Church of England was the same "establishment" in Virginia as in the British isle. To reconstruct such a state on republican principles required a re-making of all the laws and all the usages of society. To such a work there was great opposition. The old property-owners, the oldest sons, the old lawyers, the conservative people generally, were against such a reconstruction as the principles of the declaration required. To carry all the people peacefully forward into the new order of things was an almost infinite task. To conquer a peace with

England was the smallest part of the work of our revolutionary fathers. From end to end of the new nation had to begin this process of reconstruction; and this while the war was going on, and the business and the growth of the country were almost stopped. It makes one almost dizzy just to read the titles of the bills which Jefferson introduced into the House of Burgesses at the session after the declaration of independence. But he had such suavity and good will, and such strong following among the younger members, that the state at once took its place by the side of Massachusetts, and held it till the nation was organized and on its feet among the great nations of the earth. Massachussetts in the north and Virginia in the south were the two arms of the new nation, and they worked together and with equal efficiency.

In 1776, Mr. Jefferson gave as one reason for declining the French mission, that he saw "that the laboring oar was really at home."

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In 1777 he wrote to Dr. Franklin: "With respect to Virginia. The people seemed to have laid aside the monarchical and taken up the republican government, with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new garment. Not a single throe has attended this important transformation. A half dozen aristocratic gentlemen, agonizing under the loss of pre-eminence, have sometimes ventured their sarcasm on our political metamorphosis. They have been fitter objects of pity than of punishment."

He took a roseate view of the difficulties he had met, because he had been successful.

Before his state was reconstructed the tide of war had sweptthat way. Massachusetts was first attacked, but with such ill success that it was soon determined to attack New York, and with a foothold there, break New England from the southern colonies by a blow from the north through Lake Champlain. Burgoyne's defeat frustrated that plan. Then the destruction of the south became the British object, and the armies by sea and land were pushed that way.

MR. JEFFERSON MADE GOVERNOR.

On the first day of June, 1779, Mr. Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia. Patrick Henry was governor before him. These two men, who had been most active in the cause of republican government in Virginia, were the first and second to occupy the chair of state under the new form.

This was the gloomiest time of the war. France had declared for America and promised help. The alliance gave the Americans a fatal sense of security. The army was decreasing and it was difficult to renew. The whole tide of war was setting southward, and Virginia was selected for the severest punishment. Georgia had been, for the most part, subjugated. The Carolinas were crippled, and armies moving upon Virginia. The most of her regular soldiers were in defeated divisions of the general army. There was no outlook for Virginia but that she must fight. Henry's words, "We must fight," had come true. The people must fight. The British were at their doors and coming with fire, and rapine and ruin, as well as with sword. They were vieing with the red savages of the forest in their cruelty. The word went out among the people of the Old Dominion, and they came from their homes to meet the coming foe. Washington hastened home with his northern army; the French came with their ships, and help from all around, and Cornwallis was cooped in Yorktown, so it turned out that the war which began in Massachusetts, with Virginia's sympathy, ended on Virginia's soil. Governor Jefferson did everything in his power for the defense of his state and conquering a peace for the nation. Governor Jefferson's home was a mark for the enemy. His stock, slaves, crops and lands were wasted; yet he pushed on the war by every force he could raise in his state.

Brief must be the reference to the important events of these great times.

MRS. JEFFERSON'S DEATH.

On the fifteenth of June, 1781, Congress associated Mr. Jefferson with Adams, Franklin, Jay and Lawrens, to settle the