Jefferson was also elected a member of the convention of 1775, which met at Saint John's Church, Richmond, and when Patrick Henry by his eloquence carried the colony into open re bellion against the mother country, Jefferson was appointed a member of the committee to devise a plan for organizing the militia of the colony. Shortly after this he became a member of the Second Continental Congress. When lie entered that body he was 32 years of age, being one of the youngest three members. Here he was placed on such important committees as those which drafted a paper to explain the re bellious attitude of Massachusetts at Lexington and Concord, and to reply to Lord North's 'Conciliatory Policy." On each committee he showed such a strong republican tendency that his suggestions were not accepted. The mem bers of the Continental Congress of 1775 were not far-sighted enough to see that independence was the only course. Finally, in the spring of 1776, there came to the Virginia members of Congress instructions from the Virginia con vention of 1776 that the united colonies should be declared free and independent States •, and accordingly Richard Henry Lee, called the American Cicero, moved that a Declaration of Independence should be adopted. In accord ance with the motion, a committee was ap pointed and the members pere elected by ballot. Jefferson's facility for writing was so well known to the Congress that he received the highest number of votes and was named as chairman of the committee over such men as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sher man and Robert R. Livingston. To him as chairman fell the task of drafting that immortal document which stands in the history of the world as the most revolutionary political paper ever written. On 4 July 1776, the instrument, practically as offered. by Jefferson, was unani mously adopted and to it were placed the sig natures of all the members of Congress then present, except one. The principles set forth in that document mean a government by and for the people, and show that Jefferson was far ahead of his day; for it is only at the dawn of the 20th century that we are beginning to com prehend the great and universal truths that Jef ferson made known to the world. (See DECLA RATION OF INDEPENDENCE) . retired from Congress in 1776, and, on returning to his native State, entered the Virginia legisla ture with the hope of revising and modifying her laws so that they might accord with re publican government. For three years he served in the House of Delegates. During this time he succeeded in breaking down the laws of primogeniture and entail, in practically disestab lishing the English Church and in passing one of the best laws that the world has ever seen for public education providing an ideal system from the primary school to the university. Through his influence the legislature appointed a committee to revise thoroughly the laws of Virginia. The committee was composed of Ed mund Pendleton, George Wythe and Jefferson. After two years the revision, chiefly done by Jefferson, was submitted to the General Assem bly, but was not adopted in toto. Finally, how ever, in 1785, while Jefferson was in France, his faithful friend and political follower, James Madison, secured the passage of nearly all of Jefferson's work. It was at this time that the legislature approved the famous Statute for Re ligious Freedom, by which the complete sepa ration of Church and State was accomplished, except the taking away of the glebe lands, a thing which was done in 1802. Jefferson wished even more radical changes in Virginia, such as the equalizing of representation on population instead of having two representatives from each county. He also desired that the suffrage should not be restricted to landowners, but that it should be extended to all men who might be subject to military duty. He likewise advocated more local self-government in the counties and towns of the State. He even went so far as to advocate the emancipation and the deportation of the slaves from Virginia. These measures were too radical for the Virginia Assembly, and were rejected. It is interesting to note, however, that all of them have since been ac complished save the deportation of the negroes.
Jefferson was governor of Virginia from June 1779 to June 1781. These were trying times; Virginia was invaded by British troops under Cornwallis, and Jefferson lacked money and resources with which to defend properly the State. His administration has often been criticized, some claiming that he was a mere doctrinaire and not a practical man; but close scrutiny shows that he did all that then lay in his power.
In 1783 Jefferson entered the Congress of the United States. To this body he proposed in 1784 a plan for the government of the North west Territory which Virginia so •generously gave to the Union. One clause of this plan provided for the prohibition of slavery in that territory after 1800, and for this reason the plan was not adopted. In 1787," however, Con gress enacted a bill for the government of the Northwest much like the original draft M Jefferson. From him Congress bad the pla,n of our present decimal monetary system. In 1784 Jefferson was sent to France to join Ben jamin Franklin and John Adams in negotiating commercial matters with foreign countries, and in 1785 he succeeded Franklin as our Minister Plenipotentiary to the French court. Through
his efforts many unjust impositions on Ameri can commerce were removed by the French government.
In October 1789 he returned to America and the following year became Secretary of State in Washingtonis Cabinet, in which position he opposed Hamilton (q.v.), who favored the ex ercise of extensive powers by Congress. Jef ferson believed in a real federal relation be tween the States, and in a restricting of the congressional powers to purely constitutional authorizations. The final line of cleavage came when Congress passed a bill to establish a na tional bank. Hamilton submitted to Washing ton a paper asserting that such a step was legal, while Jefferson made a vigorous written pro test showing that the bill was unconstitutional. Washington approved the measure, thus accept- ing Hamilton's views as correct. The Bank Bill, along with similar congressional acts, caused the establishment of two distinct parties —the Federalist or Loose Construction party, headed by Hamilton, and the Anti-Federalist or Strict Construction party, with Jefferson as its leader. Jefferson's followers were usually called the Democratic-Republicans.
In December 1793 Jefferson resigned from the cabinet and returned to Monticello, where he remained for four years, studying farming. His estate at this time contained 10,647 acres of land, worked by 154 slaves, and stocked with 34 horses, 5 mules and 249 cattle. Among the negroes he had a sort of industrial (manual training) school, and taught them to be cabinet makers, bricklayers, masons and smiths.
From his retirement at Monticello, Jefferson was called to become Vice-President in 1797, a position which he held till 1801. During these four years he bitterly opposed the so-called monarchical tendencies of the Federal party as seen in the Alien and Sedition Acts (q.v.), and he boldly asserted the compact theory of State sovereignty in the Kentucky resolutions of 1799. The Kentucky resolutions and Virginia- reso lutions of 1798-99 (the latter framed by Mad ison after a copy of the Kentucky resolutions sent him by Jefferson), made the platform, so to speak, of the Democratic-Republican party which elected Jefferson as President in 1801.
From 4 March 1801 to 4 March 1809 Jeffer son was President. He was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington City. He be lieved in rotation in office, and in pursuance of this idea removed a number of Federalists from their positions. His great act, however, was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France for the sum of $15,000,000. This vast territory was acquired for two reasons; (1) In order that the United States might have control of the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans; and (2) that the United States might not be hampered by European countries in the development of a republican form of government. As Secretary of State in Washington's Cabinet, Jefferson had prac tically asserted what was afterward known as the Monroe Doctrine, when he claimed that the United States should see that no European countries, other than those already holding possessions, secure a foothold in America. In 1801 Jefferson viewed with alarm the transfer of the Louisiana Territory from Spain to for he feared that, with France added to Spain, England and Russia, in control of colonies in America, republican government would have a hard struggle. Jefferson was accused of inconsistency for having sanctioned the Loui4ana Purchase (q.v.)', for if he had ap ,pked the strict construction prinoiple of the Constitution here as in such acts of Congress as the establishment of the national bank, this territory could not have been purchased, there being •no provision in the Constitution allowing territorial expansion. But Jefferson's political sagacity kept him from refusing this great op portunity, and his wish of expansion caused him to advocate earnestly the purchase of Florida from Spain. It was 13 years later be fore his desire was accomplished. The second administration of Jefferson was not so success ful as 'the first. It opened with a war against the Tripolitan pirates who were plundering Ameri can commerce. The outcome of this war was to increase our influence among the nations of the world. The last years of the second term were marked with difficult complications arising out of the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon tried to prevent the United States from trading with England, and England retaliated by attempting to cut off all commercial relations between the United States and France. Many American vessels were seized by both England and France. Adding to this indignity, England claimed the right to search American vessels for English seamen, and an English war vessel actually fired on an American man-of-war, killing three of the crew and wounding 18. Jefferson tried to meet the restrictions on American commerce by the Non-Importation Bill and the Embargo Act. To enforce the measures all of the New England ships would have 'been shut up in American harbors. The New England mer chants preferred to run the risk of losing their ships to keeping them without traffic; therefore they began to abuse the President and his pol icy. The result was that Congress felt forced to repeal the Embargo Act. Jefferson always claimed that had the embargo been enforced the United States would have gained its rights without the second war with England in 1812.