The San Francisco call., 1899-11-24
THOMAS JEFFERSON.

irregT<lr. freckled. sunny face. He was
an athletic, reckless horseman the friend
Of science and philosophy, an enthusiastic
farmer, a man OF universal interests. the
valued correspondent OF the most famous
savants OF Europe. 1t is not hard 70 pic
ture him. by the description OF contem-
poraries, sitting bumped UP on one hip,
with neglected dress and slippers down at
the heel. talking necessarily with ram
bling charm. or with methodical industry
with his ready pen recording minutest
weather details. drawing up neat table
10 show the dates of the appearance OF
thirtyseven select vegetables in the
Washington markets during his residence
there, reporting judicial decisions, devils
ing rules for parliamentary procedure. di-
recting with gentlest suggestion the poll
tics OF a distant State. discussing with
French or English celebrity the latest dis
covery in science or inditing some other
form of that voluminous and delightful
correspondence which we'll earns for the
author the title Of the greatest American
letter writer.
Jefferson was born in 174S upon the
estate 10 which he was 10 give the name
Monticello Qittle mOuntain). The earliest
American Jefferson, Of the English yeO-
man class. sat in the first representative
assembly upon this continent in 1913: and
scended from one OF the proudest cavalier
families. His education at William and
Mary College was as good as America af-
forded. Though still young. he practiced
law with eminent success and was rap
idly augmenting his private fortune when
he was called into public service. which
was to occupy his next forty years.
Early Revolution Days-The Declara-
ton of Independence.
Already in 1765 the youth OF p had lis
doorway while his older friend. Henry. in
that most bloody debate. as Jefferson
styled it. against "all the cyphers Of the
Continent Four Years s 'aL later Pe Jefferson fE @
himself appears in the Assembly and
when that body is shortly dissolved be-
cause Of it's generous protest against Eng
lands treatment of Massachusetts, he is
one OF the deputies who assemble at the
Raleigh tavern under the lead OF Wash
ington TO form that early non-importatton
league. In lT13 he was named upon the
first Virginia IntercOlonial Correspond
ence Committee, when his colony inaugu-
rated that most important plan for united
action. During the next two stormy
years we see him drafting important state
papers chairman of committee OF safety
for his county and delegate, to the various
revolutionary provincial conventions. un-
til in lI15 he appears at Philadelphia as n
member OF the second Continental Con-
greSs.
Reforms in Virginia and War Cover
nor.
The next year Jefferson is back in the
Virginia Assembly. He had written 70
Franklin regarding the new State cOnsti-
tuition that the people seem to have laid
aside monarchlcal and taken up republican
government with as much ease as would
have attended their throwing of an old
ana putting on new suit of clothes"
But the change was not yet realized or
completed. and during 1T7-7S, in all the
turmoil of war. Virginia was TO have an
internal social revolution OF her own by
legislation. The contest was only less
bitter than that In the field and Jeffer-
sons work might easily have filed out the
fame Of a smaller man. He was the ac-
knowlcdged and almost sole leader OF the
radical reform party. which finally swept
away the church establishment with everv
check upon religious freedom, the old
sem-feudal aristocracy with its bulwarIxs
of entail and primogeniture, and the COM
plex barbarities of the old legal system
for a marvelously simple, Compact nm
name code. Jeffersons victory Ameri
canized Virginia and consolidated in thar
State the Democratic paSy he was soon
10 organize for the nation at large
His aims were even more generous and
far-reaching than these great results rba
effort to provide for gradual ernancipa-
tlon was poorly rewarded by the restric-
tion actually secured upon further Irnpor-
tation OF slaves into the State: and the
noble attempt to establish a complete
State system Of education from primary