whigs in Parliament, interpolated some by the celebrated Burke, in order to adapt it to opposition purposes there, and in that form ran rapidly through several editions. Such doctrines as were advanced in this pamphlet, had never before been heard in England, nor even ventured in America; and they drew upon the author, the hottest vials of ministerial wrath. The name of Jefferson was forthwith enrolled in a Bill of Attainder, for treason, in company with those of about twenty other American citizens, who were considered the principal 'agitators' in the Colonies. The Attainder, however, although actually commenced in Parliament, never came to maturity, but 'was suppressed in embryo, by the hasty step of events, which warned them to be a little cautious.'

This ancient paper is highly valuable, as containing the first disclosure, in a 'round and authentic form, of the state of Mr. Jefferson's mind, on the subject of those great political questions, which were the bases of the American Revolution; and as exhibiting, in the discussions which it gave rise to, and in the circumstances attending its rejection by the Convention, the inequality of pace' with which the leaders in the American councils travelled onward, to the same result. It is curious and impressive to take a retrospective view of the minds of that noble fraternity of American sages, which, some straining on to keep up, others falling back to receive them, moved in a column of unanimity and power, which astonished the eighteenth century. Nor will it be thought invidious, at the present day, to compare the birth, and trace the relative progress of their opinions, on the subject of those eternal principles, the practical application of which, in a rational and peacable way, has already regenerated the political condition of half the world. It appears, that in the most essential principles involved in the emancipation of the American Colonies, from Great Britain-those principles, which settled the question upon its right basis, and determined the final crisis, by forming an issue of eternal irreconcilibility-Mr. Jefferson was for a long time ahead of his cotemporaries. The great point, at which the leaders of that hazardous enterprise, with a single exception, halted, as the ne plus ultra of colonial right, he only called the 'half-way house.' A brief memorandum, which he himself has left of that period, explains the ground which he occupied, and the precise distance between him and his compatriots. Speaking of his draft of instructions, he says

"In this I took the ground that, from the beginning, I had thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was, that the relation between Great Britain and these Colonies, was exactly the same, as that of England and Scotland, after the accession of James and until the union; and the same as her present relations with Hanover, having the same executive chief, but no other necessary political connection; and that our emigration from England to this country, gave her no more rights over us, than the emigrations of the Danes and Saxons gave to the present authorities of the mother country, over England. In this doctrine, however, I had never been able to get any one to agree with me but Mr. Wythe. He concurred in it from the first dawn of the questionWhat was the political relation between us and England? Our other patriots, Randolph, the Lees, Nicholas, Pendleton, stopped at the half-way house of John Dickinson, who admitted that England had a right to regulate our commerce, and to lay duties on it for the purposes of regulation, but not of raising revenue. But for this ground there was no foundation in compact, in any acknowledged principles of colonization, nor in reason-expatriation being a natural right, and acted on as such, by all nations, in all ages."

Again, in a letter to John Saunderson, in 1820, containing some notices and recollections for the biography of George Wythe, he says:

"On the first dawn of the Revolution, instead of higgling on half-way principles, as others did, who feared to follow their reason, he [Wythe] took his stand on the solid ground, that the only link of political union between us and Great Britain, was the identity of our executive; that that nation, and its Parliament, had no more authority over us, than we had over them; and that we were coordinate nations with Great Britain and Hanover"

This point is further illustrated in the Bill of Attainder, before mentioned as having been commenced in the British Parliament. After reciting a list of proscriptions, among which were Hancock and the Adamses, as notorious leaders the opposition in Massa chusetts, Patrick Henry, as the same j. Virginia, Peyton Randolph, as President of the General Congres in Philadelphia, the Bill adds, and Thomas Jefferson, as autho- of a proposition to the Convention of Virginia, for an address to the King, in which was maintained, that there was in right, no link of union between England and the Colonies, but that of the same King; and that neither the Parliament, nor any other functionary of that government, had any more right to exercise authority over the Colonies, than over the Electorate of Hanover; yet expressing, in conclusion,

an acquiescence in reasonable restrictions of commerce, for the berefit of Great Britain, a conviction of the mutual advantages of union, and a disavowal of the wish for separation."*

It appears, therefore, that the correct definition and answer of the great question, which formed the hinge of the American Revolution, to wit, of the right of taxation without representation, were original with Mr. Jefferson. He, following out the right of expatriation into all its legitimate consequences, advanced at once, to the necessary conclusion, and the only one which he deemed orthodox or tenable-that there was no political connection whatever, between the Parliament of Great Britain and the Colonies; and, consequently, that it had no right to tax them in any case-not even for the regulation of commerce. The other patriots, either not admitting the right of expatriation, or, which is most likely, not having pursued, to the same extent, its necessary results, conceded the authority of Parliament over the Colonies, for the purposes of commercial regulation, though not of raising revenue. But this was going no farther than Burke, Chatham, Wilkes, Fox, and the opposition members generally, of the House of Commons, went; and it is not improbable, that had the question been restrained to that issue, it would have terminated in mutual reconciliation, upon that basis. But the question was not so retrained, and quite a different conclusion resulted. It is no small evidence of originality, that one of the youngest of the American counsellors, and a youth compared to most of them, should have been the first to have planted himself toon the utmost verge of colonial right, short of absolute independere.

But there were othe principles advanced in this bold political Essay, which were deemel equally novel and extraordinary, by the sages of the Virginia Convention; and an adequate view of the singular progress of the autor's mind, at this period, cannot be given, without presenting it entire to the reader. The richness and energy of the composition, general, and the fervid eloquence of particular passages, would alone compensate for its great length. It will be perceived, that, for the first time, the word 'States' is substituted for 'Colonies,' by the author. This will not be thought a small circumstance, when it is known, that in the debates upon the

* Girardin's Пistory of Virginia, Appendix, No. 12, note.

Declaration of Independence even, the word 'States' was made a subject of repeated cavil, and in several instances, actually expung

ed.

"Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said Deputies, when assembled in General Congress, with the Deputies from the other States of British America, to propose to the said Congress that an humble and dutiful address be presented to His Majesty, begging leave to lay before him, as Chief Magistrate of the British empire, the united complaints of His Majesty's subjects in America; complaints which are excited by many unwarrantable encroachments and usurpations, attempted to be made by the Legislature of one part of the empire, upon the rights which God and the laws, have given equally and independently to all. To represent to His Majesty that these, his States, have often individually made humble application to his Imperial throne, to obtain, through its intervention, some redress of their injured rights; to none of which was ever even an answer condescended. Humbly to hope that this, their joint address, penned in the language of truth, and divested of those expressions of servility which would persuade His Majesty that we are asking favors, and not rights, shall obtain from His Majesty a more respectful acceptance; and this His Majesty will think we have reason to expect, when he reflects that he is no more than the chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws, and circumscribed with definite powers, to assist in working the great machine of government, erected for their use, and, consequently, subject to their superintendence; and in order that these, our rights, as well as the invasions of them, may be laid more fully before His Majesty, to take a view of them from the origin and first settlement of these countries.

"To remind him that our ancestors, before their emigration to America, were the free inhabitants of the British dominions in Europe, and possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them, of going in quest of new habitations, and of there establishing new societies, under such laws and regulations, as to them shall seem most likely to promote public happiness. That their Saxon ancestors had, under this universal law, in like manner left their native wilds and woods in the North of Europe, had possessed themselves of the island of Britain, then less charged with inhabitants, and had established there that system of laws which has so long been the glory and protection of that country. Nor was ever any claim of superiority or dependence asserted over them, by that mother country from which they had migrated: and were such a claim made, it is believed His Majesty's subjects in Great Britain have too firm a feeling of the rights derived to them from their ancestors, to bow down the sovereignty of their State before such

visionary pretensions. And it is thought that no circumstance has occurred to distinguish, materially, the British from the Saxon emigration. America was conquered, and her settlements made and firmly established, at the expense of individuals, and not of the British public. Their own blood was spilt in acquiring lands for their settlement, their own fortunes expended in making that settlement effectual. For themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold. No shilling was ever issued from the public treasures of His Majesty, or his ancestors, for their assistance, till of very late times, after the Colonies had become established on a firm and permanent footing. That then, indeed, having become valuable to Great Britain for her commercial purposes, his Parliament was pleased to lend them assistance, against an enemy who would fain have drawn to herself the benefits of their commerce, to the great aggrandizement of herself, and danger of Great Britain. Such assistance, and in such circumstances, they had often before given to Portugal and other allied States, with whom they carry on a commercial intercourse. Yet these States never supposed, that by calling in her aid, they thereby submitted themselves to her sovereignty. Had such terms been proposed, they would have rejected them with disdain, and trusted for better to the moderation of their enemies, or to a vigorous exertion of their own force. We do not, however, mean to underrate those aids, which, to us, were doubtless valuable, on whatever principles granted: but we would show that they cannot give a title to that authority which the British Parliament would arrogate over us; and that they may amply be repaid, by our giving to the inhabitants of Great Britain such exclusive privileges in trade as may be advantageous to them, and, at the same time, not too restrictive to ourselves. That settlement having been thus effected in the wilds of America, the emigrants thought proper to adopt that system of laws, under which they had hitherto lived in the mother country, and to continue their union with her, by submitting themselves to the same common sovereign, who was thereby made the central link, connecting the several parts of the empire thus newly multiplied.

"But that not long were they permitted, however far they thought themselves removed from the hand of oppression, to hold undisturbed, the rights thus acquired at the hazard of their lives and loss of their fortunes. A family of Princes was then on the British throne, whose treasonable crimes against their people brought on them, afterwards, the exertion of those sacred and sovereign rights of punishment, reserved in the hands of the people for cases of extreme necessity, and judged by the constitution unsafe to be delegated to any other judicature. While every day brought forth some new and unjustifiable exertion of power over their subjects on that side the water, it was not to be expected that those here, much