CHAPTER IV.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

THOMAS JEFFERSON had not been so engrossed in building up his private fortune that he had had no time for larger interests. When he was still a law student, in 1765, he had been one of the throng crowded in the lobby of the assembly room to hear his friend, Patrick Henry, make his speech, moving resolutions against the Stamp Act.

His pulse had bounded when he heard Patrick Henry say: "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell-and George the Third-" but his was not one of the voices that interrupted with the cry of "Treason! treason!" He listened breathlessly for the orator's fearless conclusion-" may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it."

Thomas Jefferson said that Patrick Henry

spoke as Homer wrote. He was thrilled by his words, and all his native love of freedom and justice was fired to a heat not easily subdued. Shortly after beginning the practice of law, Thomas Jefferson had been elected a member of the House of Burgesses. The House had not been long in session before it was dissolved by the governor for asserting rights denied the colonies by the king and Parliament.

The next day the members met in the Apollo, the long room in the Raleigh Tavern. They formed an association agreeing to retaliate against England's laws interfering with colonial trade by not buying taxed goods from England. Thomas Jefferson was among those who signed this agreement.

He was repeatedly re-elected to his place in the House of Burgesses, and was one of the committee that drew up resolutions against the deportation of American citizens to England for trial. These resolutions were passed without opposition, and the Assembly was again dissolved by the Royal Governor. But undis

mayed, the members of the committee met and sent copies of their resolutions to other colonies.

When, in 1774, news of the bill closing the Boston Port reached the Virginia Assembly, Thomas Jefferson was one of the leaders in the movement to have the day of its taking effect celebrated by fasting and prayer. The usual punishment had the usual effect. The dissolution of the House of Burgesses was followed by a meeting at the Raleigh Tavern. This time it was decided to consult with other colonies about holding an annual Congress made up of represetatives from all the colonies. The result was the First Continental Congress, which convened at Philadelphia on the fourth of September, 1774. To Thomas Jefferson had been intrusted the important work of drawing up instructions to guide the Virginia delegates in their actions in Congress. He rose to the occasion and wrote the masterly document afterward known as "A Summary View of the Rights of British America."

It was a clear and fearless presentation of

many of the ideas afterward expressed in the Declaration of Independence. It was somewhat in advance of the feeling of the time, and the Virginia Convention gave its delegates milder instructions. Yet Thomas Jefferson's work had not been done in vain; the Summary View was published and circulated widely in America and in England and found many eager readers.

Thomas Jefferson was already well known in Virginia, but this paper made him more prominent than ever. When Peyton Randolph was called away from the Second Continental Congress in order to preside over the Virginia House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson was chosen to take his place in Congress.

On the eleventh of June, 1775, he started on his journey from Williamsburg to Philadelphia. He traveled in a four-horse carriage, and it took him ten days to make the journey. The road was so poorly marked that he had several times to employ guides. On reaching Philadelphia he found comfortable rooms in the house of a carpenter, the man who made for

him the desk on which he wrote the Declara

tion of Independence.

As a representative of the leading Southern colony, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson was assured a certain prominence in Congress. All were,

indeed, anxious to hear from Williamsburg. They knew Thomas Jefferson brought with him Virginia's answer to England's Conciliatory Propositions, and, moreover, that he was the author of that answer.

When he took his place in that gathering of distinguished men, a great many were surprised to find the writer of the "Summary View of the Rights of British America" so young a man. He was, in fact, next to the youngest member in Congress. He was unusually tall, being six feet two inches in height, and very slender.

His eyes were hazel; his hair, reddish; his features, delicate; his face was sensitive and expressive. His voice was gentle and he rarely spoke in Congress. Those who had been prepared to oppose the newcomer were disarmed. His personality was so winning that