The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-07-13
Thomas Jefferson, The Author Of the
Declaration Of independence.
BY GEORGE BANCROFT:

The resolution of Congress changed the
old thirteen British Colonies into free and
independent States. It remained to set
forth the reason for this act, and the prin-
ciples which the new people would own as
their guides. Of the committee appointed
for that duty, Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia,
had received the largest number of votes,
and was in that manner singled out to draft
the confession of faith of the rising empire.
He owed this distinction to respect for the
colony he represented, to the consummate
ability of the State papers which he had
already written, and to that general favor
which follows merit, modesty, and sweet
dispositions; but the quality which specially
fitted him for that task was the sympathetic
character Of his nature, by which he was
able with instructive perception to read the
soul of the nation, and having collected in
himself its best thoughts and noblest feelings,
to give them out in clear and bold words,
mixed with so little of himself that his coun-
try, as it went along with him, found nothing
but what it recognized as its own. No
man of his century had more trust in the
collective reason and conscience of his fellow
men, or better knew how to take their
counsel; and in return he came to be ruler
over the willing in the world of opinion.
Born to an independent fortune, be had from
his youth been an indefatigabe student.
Of calm temperament and philosophic
cast of mind, always temperate in his mode
of life, and decorous in his manners, be was
perfect master of his passions. He was Of
delicate organization, and fond of ele>
game; bis tastes were refined; laborious in
his application to business or the pursuit
of knowledge, music, the most spiri-
tual of all pleasures of the senses,
was his favorite recreation, and be took
never failing delight in the beauty of the
various scenery ofrural life, building himself
a home in the loveliest region of his native
State. He was skillful horseman and
he also delighted to roam the mountains on
foot. The range of bis knowledge was very
wide, he was not unfamiliar with the liter
AZURE of Greece and Rome had an aptitude
for mathematics and mechanics and loved
especially the natural sciences; scornipg
nothing but metaphysics. British Govern
ment and officials had introduced to Will
liamsburgh the prevalent free thinking of
Englishmen of that country, and Jefferson
had grown up 10 its atmosphere; he was not
only hater of priestcraft and superstition,
and bigotry, and intolerance; he was
thought to be Indifferent to religion; yet
his instincts all inclined him to trace every
fact to general law, and to put faith in
ideal truth the world of the senses did not
bound his aspirations, and he believed more
than he himself was aware of. He was an
idealist in his habits of thought and life, as
indeed is every one who has an abiding and
thorough confidence in the people; and he
was kept so in spite of circumstances by the
irresistible bent of his character. He had
great power in mastering details, as we'll as
in searching for general principles. His
profession was that of the law, in which
he was methodical, pains.taking, and sue
cessful at the same time he studied law
as science, and was we'll read in the law of
nature and nation. Whatever be had to do,
it was his custom to prepare himself for it
carefully and in public life, when others
were at fault, they often found that he had
already hewed out the way so that in
council, men willingly gave him the lead,
which he never appeared to claim, and was
always able to undertake. But he rarely
spoke in public and was less fit TO engage
in the war of debate, than calmly to sum
up its conclusions. 1t was beautiful trait
in bis character that he was free from envy
and had he kept silence, John Adams would
have wanted the best witness to his great
ness as the ablest advocate and defender of
independence. A common object now riv-
eted the two statesmen together in close
bonds. l cannot find that at that period
Jefferson had any enemy; by the general
consent of Virginia, he already stood first
among her civilians. Just thirty-three years
old, married, and happy in his family aflu-
ant, with bright career before him, he was
no rash innovator by his character or his
position if his convictions, drove him to
demand independence, it was only because
he could no longer live with honor under
the British Constitution, which he still &C.
knowledged to be the best that the world
had thus far seen. His enunciation of gen.
eral principles was fearless but he was no
visionary devotee of abstract theories,
which, like disembodied souls, escape from
every embrace; the nursing of his country
the offspring of his time, he set about the
work of practical statesman, and his mea-
sures grew so naturally out of previous law
and the facts of the past, that they struck
deep root and have endured"
THos. L. TULLocK was elected Secretary
of State, Peter Sanborn Treasurer, and