by Mr Johnston. They were resisted by the whole monarchical body of the House of Burgesses, as a matter of course. Besides, they were deemed so ill advised in point of time, as to rally in opposition to them all the old members, including such men as Peyton Randolph, Wythe, Pendleton, Nicholas, Bland, &c, honest patriots, whose influence in the House, had till then been unbroken. 6 But,' says Jefferson, 'torrents of sublime eloquence from Henry, backed by the solid reasoning of Johnston, prevailed. The last, however, and strongest resolution, was carried but by a single vote. The debate on it was most bloody. I was then but a student, and stood at the door of communication between the house and the lobby during the whole debate and vote; and I well remember, that, after the numbers, on the division, were told and declared from the chair, Peyton Randolph, the Attorney-General, came out at the door where I was standing, and said, as he entered the lobby, "by, I would have given 500 guineas for a single vote: for one vote would have divided the House, and Robinson was in the chair, who he knew would have negatived the resolution." It was in the midst of this magnificent appeal that Henry is said to have exclaimed, in a voice of thunder, Cæsar had his Brutus - Charles the First his Cromwell-and George the Third-("Treason," cried the Speaker-" treason, treason," echoed from every part of the House. Henry faultered not; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing a determined eye on the Speaker, finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis,) may profit by their example. If this be treason make the most of it.** 'I well remember,' says Jefferson, 'the cry of treason, the pause of Henry at the name of George the Third, and the presence of mind with which he closed his sentence, and baffled the vociferated charge.'

9

The grandeur of that scene, and the triumphant eclat

* Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, page 65.

of Henry, made the heart of young Jefferson ache for the propitious moment which should enrol him among the champions of persecuted humanity. The tone and strength of his mind, at this early period, are indicated by those emphatic mottos which he selected for his seals: 'Ab eo libertas, a quo spiritus,' and 'Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.' These mottos attracted great attention, and were regarded as prophetic of his destiny. They are well remembered to this day by the aged inhabitants of Virginia. The seals themselves are preserved as sacred relics, by the family of Mr Jefferson; and accurate impressions of them in wax have been obtained by his particular friends in various parts of the country.

Various attempts have been made to ascertain the birth of opinions on the subject of American Independence; and to fix the precise epoch, and the particular individual, when and with whom the stupendous conception originated. The enquiry has been attended with no success, and is from the nature of the case incapable of solution. It is evident that the measure did not result from any deliberate and preconcerted design on the part of one, or of any number of individuals; but from a combination of causes, growing for the most part out of the mistaken policy of the British Parliament, and fostered and matured by its unyielding obstinacy. It was the slow and legitimate growth of political oppression, assisted it is true, by the great advance of certain minds beyond the general step of the age. To use the phraseology of Mr Jefferson, it would be as difficult to say at what moment the revolution began, and what incident set it in motion, as to fix the moment that the embryo becomes an animal, or the act which gives him a beginning.'

It is certain that if this subject were examined with reference to its bearing upon a Jefferson, it might with equal propriety be advanced, that in those pointed inscriptions which he selected in the fire of youth as the mottos

of his seals, we discover the germ, not merely of American emancipation but of European revolution, and of the general amelioration of associated man throughout the world. movement.

The revolution itself was but a preparatory

The mere separation of the colonies from the mother country, was but the introductory stage of the grand and fundamental change through which they were to pass to derive any essential advantages from the act to wit, the entire abrogation of royalty, and substitution of self-government. Nay, even this magnificent result was but the first chapter in the history of the great moral and political regeneration which is advancing over the earth, and to which the revolution gave the primary impulse. Unless contemplated in the broad light of a contrast of principle, between the advocates of republican and those of kingly government, into which it finally resolved itself, it is of little importance to enquire what incident gave it birth, or who set it in motion. Stopping at the point at which many, who were the boldest at the outset, evidently wished it to stop, and with honest motives, the Revolution would have been nothing more, in effect, than transferring the government to other hands, without putting it into other forms; and no change would have been wrought in the political condition of the world. It would have been merely a spirited and successful rebellion, or rather a struggle for power, like that which long embroiled the royal races of the Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, terminating at best in a limited modification of the old system, and most likely in its entire adoption, substituting George or John the First in the place of George the Third.

The solution of the problem, therefore, if practicable, would afford no criterion of the relative advance of the leading minds of that period. But the question becomes a rational one, and assumes a powerful interest, if presented in its proper aspect, with whom those eternal rules of political reason and right originated, which crowned

with glory and immortality the American Revolution, making it one in substance as well as form? To whom belongs the honor of conceiving the grand project that gave to those detached fragments of empire which formed the nucleus of the American nation, not only shape and organization, but a new projectile impulse, to revolve in an untried orbit, under the control of a new equilibrium of forces? Viewing the subject under these, its moral phases, it becomes of some consequence to ascertain the origin and progress of individual opinions.

In 1767, Mr Jefferson was inducted into the practice of the Law, at the bar of the General Court, under the auspices of his preceptor and friend, Mr Wythe. He brought with him into practice the whole body of ancient and modern jurisprudence, text and commentary, from its rudest monuments in Anglo-Saxon, to its latest depositories in the vernacular tongue, well systematised in his his mind, and ready for use at a moment's warning. But his professional career was brief, and not favored with any occasion adequate to disclose the fitness of his technical preparation, or the extent of his abilities as an advocate. The out-breaking of the Revolution, which occasioned a general abandonment of the Courts of Justice, followed close upon his introduction to the bar; and ushered him upon a broader and more diversified theatre of action.

During the short interval he spent in his profession, he acquired considerable celebrity; but his forensic reputation was so disproportionate to his general pre-eminence, as to have occasioned the common impression, that he was deficient in the requisite qualifications for a successful practitioner at the bar. That this was not the case, however, we have the authority of a gentleman,* whose opportunities of information and well known trustworthiness are a pledge of the literal accuracy of his statement. 'Permit me,' says he, to correct an error * William Wirt.

which seems to have prevailed. It has been thought that Mr Jefferson made no figure at the bar: but the case was far otherwise. There are still extant, in his own fair and neat hand, in the manner of his master, a number of arguments which were delivered by him at the bar upon some of the most intricate questions of the law; which, if they shall ever see the light, will vindicate his claims to the first honors of the profession.'

Again, we have the authority of the same gentleman upon another interesting point. It will be new to the reader to learn that Mr Jefferson was any thing of a popular orator. 'It is true,' continues the writer, 'he was not distinguished in popular debate; why he was not so, has often been matter of surprise to those who have seen his eloquence on paper, and heard it in conversation. He had all the attributes of the mind, and the heart, and the soul, which are essential to eloquence of the highest order. The only defect was a physical one: he wanted volume and compass of voice for a large deliberative assembly; and his voice, from the excess of his sensibility, instead of rising with his feelings and conceptions, sunk under their pressure, and became gutteral and inarticulate. The consciousness of this infirmity repressed any attempt in a large body, in which he knew he must fail. But his voice was all sufficient for the purposes of judicial debate; and there is no reason to doubt, that if the services of his country had not called him away so soon from his profession, his fame as a lawyer, would now have stood upon the same distinguished ground which he confessedly occupies as a statesman, an author, and a scholar.'