"by the unwearied exertions of Mr. Madison, in opposition to the endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, vexations, and delays of lawyers and demi-lawyers, most of the bills were passed by the Legislature, with little alteration." The distinguished cotemporary, who is represented as having had so important an agency in carrying this code into operation, has added verbal testimony of the uncommon estimate which he put upon its merits. "It has" says

he, "been a mine of legislative wealth, and a model of statutory composition, containing not a single superfluous word, and prefering always words and phrases of a meaning fixed as much as possible by oracular treatises, or solemn adjudications."*

In preparing this work, Mr. Jefferson improved the opportunity to push his favorite system of reform into every branch and fibre of administration, which could be reached through that avenue. The principal innovations which he made upon the established order of things, were the following:

1. The Repeal of the Law of Entails, which, though separately enacted at the first republican session, he incorporated into the Revised Code.

2. The Abrogation of the right of Primogeniture, and the equal division of inheritances among all the children, or other representatives in equal degree.

3. The Assertion of the right of Expatriation, or a republican definition of the rules whereby aliens may become citizens, and citizens make themselves aliens.

4. The Establishment of Religious Freedom upon the broadest foundation.

5. The Emancipation of all Slaves born after the passage of the act, and deportation at a proper age-not carried into effect.

6. The Abolition of Capital Punishment in all cases, except those of treason and murder; and the graduation of punishments to crimes throughout, upon the principles of reason and humanityenacted with amendments.

7. The Establishment of a systematical plan of General Education, reaching all classes of citizens, and adapted to every grade of capacity-not carried into effect.

*Letter to S. H. Smith, 1827.

The first of these prominent features of the Revisal, has already been considered at sufficient length.

The second in the catalogue, holds an eminent rank among the ancient and venerable foundations of republicanism. It overturned one of the most arbitrary and unrighteous, among the multiplied, institutions, which have been permitted to evict the laws of God and the order of nature, from the social systems of mankind. The principle of Primogeniture was a feudal engraftment upon the ancient common law of England, introduced by William the Conqueror, with the host of kindred burthens and restrictions; and as it formed the main pillar of the military despotisms in barbarian Scandinavia, so in civilized England, it constituted the grand artery of a hereditary and heavy bearing oligarchy. Like the law of entails, it operated to perpetuate the soil and wealth of the kingdom in single lines of families, and to create an artificial nobility, founded on the mere circumstance of birth, to the exclusion from all power and place, of the real nobility of talent and virtue which nature has wisely ordered for the direction of human affairs. It did not escape the penetration of Mr. Jefferson, that the existence of such a principle, in a republican government, was a political solecism; on the extinction of which, depended the consistence and stability of the whole structure. The aristocracy of Virginia opposed the innovation with the usual pertinacity, which marked their adherence to the ancient privileges of the order; but the bill was finally carried, in 1785, and forms the present law of Descents in that distinguished Commonwealth.

The law on the subject of Expatriation, established the republican doctrine on that cardinal and much controverted principle of revolution. The original opinions of the Author, in reference to this question, from the earliest dawn of colonial resistance, with the singular discrepancy between them and those of his leading compatriots, have been illustrated, in a preceding chapter, by an appeal to the written testimony of that period. Heterodox and presumptuous as his rights of colonization were deemed by the political doctors of the first phasis of the Revolution, the public mind had now approximated so nearly to the same point, as to authorize the attempt to establish them upon a legal basis. The bill for this purpose, was taken up separately, and carried, on the 26th of June, '79, principally through the exertions of George Mason, into

whose hands the Author had committed it, on his retiring from the Legislature, the first of that month. After stating the condi tions of naturalization, and declaring who shall be deemed citizens, and who aliens, on terms extremely liberal and democratic, the act goes on to prescribe: "And in order to preserve to the citizens of this Commonwealth that natural right, which all men have, of relinquishing the country, in which birth or other accident may have thrown them, and seeking subsistence and happiness wheresoever they may be able, or may hope to find them; and to declare, unequivocally, what circumstances shall be deemed evidence of an intention in any citizen to exercise that right: It is enacted and declared," &c. Having defined the necessary circumstances of evidence, and the mode of proceeding thereon, the act concludes by giving to all free white inhabitants of other States, except paupers and fugitives from justice, the same rights, privileges and immunities, as belong to the free citizens of the Commonwealth, and the liberty of free ingress and egress to and from the same;

ring, however, the right and authority of retaining persons guilty, or charged with the commission, of any high crime or misdemeanor in another State, and of delivering them over to the authorities of the State from which they fled, upon demand of the Governor or executive power of such State. Speaking of this act, the Continuator of Burk's History of Virginia, remarks:

"Its operation has been superseded by subsequent institutions; but that philanthropy which opened, in Virginia, an asylum to individuals of any nation not at open war with America, upon their removing to the State to reside, and taking an oath of fidelity; and that respect for the natural and social rights of men, which lays no restraints whatever on expatriation, and claims the allegiance of citizens, so long only as they are willing to retain that character, cannot be forgotten. The legislators of Virginia well knew, that the strongest hold of a government on its citizens, is that affection which rational liberty, mild laws, and protecting institutions never fail to produce; especially, when physical advantages march in front with political blessings, and industry and worth are perennial sources of comfort and respectability."

The act for the establishment of Religious Freedom, is perhaps the most interesting feature in the Revised Code. With the single exception of the Declaration of Independence, it is the most celebrated of the author's productions, and the one to which himself always recurred with the highest pride and satisfaction. The preamble

which ushers in the act, demonstrates, with unrivaled grandeur, and with the emphasis of mathematical certainty, the premises upon which the stupendous proposition was founded; "and the disciple of truth," says a writer,* "on beholding this temple of refuge, must feel a holier awe from the magnificence of the vestibule." Taking into consideration the infancy of political science, at that period, the feeble advances, in particular, which had been made on the subject of religious liberty, the bigoted adhesion of the mind to traditional scruples in spiritual concerns, and the high fermentation of the Church party, smarting under the recent loss of government power and patronage, the erection, by law, of this memorable bulwark of human freedom, may be regarded as the proudest triumph of reason and philosophy, of which that, or any other age, can boast. The following is the Preamble, with the accompanying Act.

"Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking, as the only true and infallible, and as such, endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages,

* S. H. Smith.

to which in common with his fellow citizens he has a natural right; that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; yet though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship,'place, or ministry, whatsoever, nor shall be enforced restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

"And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of successive Assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act should be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right."

The above is the form in which it received the sanction of the Legislature, and varies somewhat from the original draught. "The variations,' says the compiler of the Virginia statutes, 'rendered the style less elegant, though they did not materially affect the sense.' The Bill was not acted upon until the year 1785, nor carried then, but with considerable difficulty.

"I had drawn it," says the author, "in all the latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations