CHAPTER X. 1781-1784. Mr. Jefferson again appointed a Plenipotentiary-Reasons for declining-His Wife's shattered Health-His Retirement-An Accident-Writes Notes on Virginia How he collected Materials-Character of the Work-Buffon's and Raynal's Theories-An Arithmetical Argument considered-Jefferson's Ethnological Remarks-SlaveryReligion-Geology-Letter to Lafayette-To Edmund Randolph-To General Washington-De Chastellux's Visit to Monticello-Comments on his Narrative-Jefferson's Mechanical Tastes-Declines to attend Legislature-Madison's Comments Monroe's Letter to him-Jefferson's morbid Sensibility-Occasion of it-His Wife's DeclineClosing Scenes-Jefferson refuses to appeal to Sympathy-His Wife's Death-His Daughter's Description of what followed-His Family Register-Mementos of the Dead-Smallpox-Mr. Jefferson appointed Plenipotentiary third time-Reasons for Acceptance-Proposed as Secretary for Foreign Affairs-Repairs to PhiladelphiaLetter to Washington and Reply-Awaits an Opportunity to sail to Europe-Reasons for not proceeding-Letters to Eppes-Elected to Congress-Home Occupations— A Series of Family Letters commenced-Three Letters to Martha Jefferson-Congress meet-Washington's Resignation-Jefferson's Report-Chairman of Committee on Treaty of Peace-Reports a Committee of States The Plan fails-Reports a Money Unit and a Coinage-Reports in favor of Commissioners of Treasury-Reports on Public Indebtedness, etc.-Cession of Northwest Territory-Reports Plan of Government for Western Territory-Proceedings of Congress thereon-Reports Plan for locating and disposing of Public Lands-Reports Instructions for Foreign Ministers— Leaves Congress His undisputed leadership in it-Was he a Practical Man-Did he ride or guide the Current-Criticisms of Opponents-Proofs furnished by his HistoryHis Manners a source of Error-His peculiar Habits of Conversation-An AnecdoteA Description by his Grandson-Clarendon's Description of Hampden-Jefferson's Correspondence with Washington-On Virginia Internal Improvements-Washington asks Jefferson's Advice concerning Cincinnati-Jefferson's Answer-Their Personal Interviews Two Letters to Martha Jefferson-Du Simitiere and Rittenhouse. PENDING the last described proceedings in the Virginia Legislature, the national Legislature evinced in a decided manner how little Mr. Jefferson's standing had been impaired in the minds of his countrymen generally, by the events we have described. Congress, on the 15th day of June, 1781, associated him with the four American Plenipotentiaries already in Europe (Adams, Franklin. Jay, and Laurens), to appear and treat for 801 362 JEFFERSON REFUSES AN EMBASSY. [CHAP. X. peace on behalf of the United States, at the proposed Congress of Vienna. But, as he remarks in his Memoir, the same reason which had influenced him on a previous occasion of the same kind, "obliged him still to decline." This was the health of his wife. Mrs. Jefferson had borne her fifth child in the preceding November. When it was two months old, she had fled with it in her arms as Arnold approached Richmond. It was a fine healthy infant, but it had sickened and died in April. The constant liability of her husband to capture, and her necessary separation from him as he hovered about the enemy, added to the distressing anxieties of the wife and mother. Then, to shatter all her remaining strength and courage, came the sudden flight before Tarleton, and the horrors of Elkhill. The groans and ghastly forms of her dying servants haunted her by day and by night. The conduct of the Legislature, and an accident which befell her husband (presently to be named), brought new shocks, and it required but a breath more to extinguish the feeble taper of life. Mr. Jefferson nowhere, that we are aware, intimates such a thing for reasons which will by and by be more apparentbut there is not a doubt that he would have been compelled to decline a reëlection as Governor, on account of the state of his wife's health, if for no other reason. It demanded immediate quiet, and freedom from excitement, and the soothing attentions of her husband, to even briefly prolong her life.' There was another reason which would have prevented Mr. Jefferson from leaving Virginia at this period, had the previous one not existed. Letters from him to Lafayette and Edmund Randolph, show that he regarded it as incumbent on his honor to remain at home until the Legislative inquiry into his conduct was formally disposed of; though if he imagined it would end in a serious attempt to prove anything against him, he imagined To have desired Mrs. Jefferson at this period to expose herself and her two remaining children to the dangers of the sea and of capture by British ships then covering the ocean," or to have desired her to remain at home, separated from her husband for an indefinite period (and she had not a male blood-relative living), while Cornwallis and Tarleton were still roaming like beasts of prey over the State-and one or the other of these alternatives merely to enable her husband to hold an office (when his country had three acting Plenipotentiaries in Europe to appear at the Congress of Vienna of the stamp of Franklin, Jay and Adams), would have been, in our judgment, about as becoming as the gratuitous taunt insinuated by the biographer of another and rival statesman, in commenting on Mr. Jefferson's reasons for declining! CHAP. X.] WRITES NOTES ON VIRGINIA. 363 what probably no other intelligent man in the State did. But the truth is, concurring circumstances had given a morbid tone to his feelings on this subject. We shall see more of this hereafter. It has been stated that he repaired to his estate of Poplar Forest, in Bedford county, during the agitation of the Dictator scheme. The election of General Nelson relieved him of the necessity of leaving that retreat until the health of his wife should become sufficiently improved to make a return to Monticello desirable. On the last day of the month (June), he was thrown from his horse, and received contusions which, though they did not prove serious enough to confine him for any considerable length of time to his bed, or even strictly to his house, prevented him from horseback-riding, or from long journeys in a carriage, for a number of weeks.' Mr. Jefferson employed this confinement in preparing replies to a set of inquiries which had been propounded to him by the learned Marquis of Barbé-Marbois, nominally Secretary of the French Legation in Philadelphia, but perhaps as much or more than his principal, De la Luzerne, the confidential agent of his government in the United States. Marbois's inquiries were made in consequence of orders to collect the important statistics of the American States; and furnishing them to him, therefore, was rather gratifying the wishes of a national ally than those of a mere individual. Mr. Jefferson's answers, with some additions and corrections made principally in the winter of 1782, constitute the work subsequently published under the title of "Notes on Virginia." The rapidity with which a production betraying such an amount of research, and more particularly, such a vast amount of personal observation, was dashed off, would seem a curious fact in the life of a man who had hitherto appeared so constantly engaged in public affairs. But his habits of microscopic observation-of putting the minutest discoveries on paper-and of collecting and preserving all the facts, of any interest to him, found floating in the oral statements or transient publications of 1 The doctor was called in twice, and it is a good illustration of the currency to say his fee for the two calls was £600! But what particular sum in specie this represented, at the moment, it would be difficult to say! To relieve the doctor from all suspicion of extortion, we will proclaim that among the entries in the account book of the same week, we find the following: "Pd. for chickens £30." "Pd. Mosely for 3 quarts brandy £71 28." "Pd. for chickens to Judy £40 10s.," and the same day, to three other of his slaves, for chickens, £50 88! 364 NOTES ON VIRGINIA. [CHAP. X. the day-have been mentioned. And the busiest public man who ever lived, has found time to garner up an immense amount of knowledge on any chosen topic-to actually make important achievements in science-provided he has adopted the practice of making them the amusements of his spare hours. This practice rests the mind, as a change of movement rests the tired muscle, about as readily as complete inaction; and certainly it provides surer amusement to an active and grasping intellect. There is more substance in a pleasure which tends incidentally in a useful direction; and the horse that has strained every ligament in the severe race, will suffer less soreness and stiffening if walked gently about, than if suffered to sink down without further movement, in his stable! This train of remark applies better to the naturalist (that is, naturalist in his amusements) than perhaps to any other person. When he escapes from his business office, from his study, from the legislative hall, from the thick and eager crowd, and goes forth to look on nature, he gazes not around in the listlessness of ignorance, or superficial and soon-satisfied curiosity. For him all nature is a glorious museum of exhaustless and neverpalling wonders. For him there is not an animated existence that does not fill some fitting chink in the space from God to the worm. For him there is not one solitary plant that is not an object of beauty in itself, and that would not detract something from the perfect whole if removed. For him every rocky fossil is a medal' struck by Omnipotent hand to perpetuate the history of dead ages. For him the greater and lesser lights of the heavens, as they wheel on mystically in their eternal orbits, utter such harmonies as Zoroaster and the Magi heard them uttering, in the dawn of the ages. Not a step can the true naturalist take, not a sound can he hear, not a glance can he give with his eye, without discovering some more or less revealed part of a wondrous and connected machinery, indissoluble in every part, perfect in every part, marvellous and beautiful in every part. The knowledge which 1 Far be it from us to offer disrespect to that very sage aphorism (if not uttered by Solon or Confucius, wise enough for either of them!) that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"-albeit we cling tenaciously to our proposition in the text. We would like to know if the speckled trout or the woodcock for supper does not give substance to the day's sport in fishing or hunting! Verb. sap. We forget who first conceived the fine idea of comparing fossils to medals. CHAP. X.] CHARACTER AND STYLE OF THE WORK. 365 drinks in these things sees order, and purpose, and unity, and a glorious framing hand, where ignorance, or that poor knowledge which grasps only the practical concerns of life, finds only confusion, or chance, or sources of lamentation, or worthless shards. to be trodden upon. The character of Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia is too well known to require very extended comment. As a well digested general exposition of the natural history, statistics, and important systems of a State, we know of no preceding work, within the same compass, that compares with it. The Virginian who should now seek the best description of the physical characteristics of his country, and of at least the foundation of all its systems, would probably still turn to this work, written between seventy and eighty years ago, when there were no railroads—when scarcely turnpike-roads or highways of any kind penetrated vast regions of the State-when Indians yet possessed extensive portions of it-when no newspapers were published out of capitals or large cities-when it was about as serious an undertaking to surmount the most westerly of those chains of mountains which are in the middle of Virginia and to reach the banks of the two Kenhawas and the other eastern affluents of the Ohio, as it would now be for a Virginian to surmount the Rocky Mountains, and penetrate to the vales where "rolls the Oregon." The style of the Notes is concise, vigorous, and simple, occasionally rising, where the topic solicits it, into passages of great beauty. The descriptions of the passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge, of the Big Buffalo of Indian tradition, and some others, are instances of this, which have been familiarized to American readers by innumerable publications. Of compact argument presented in language having the freshness of narration, and set off now and then by felicitous and absolutely clinching illustrations, there are numerous examples. As a whole, perhaps, no book of statistics was ever more pleasingly or vigorously written. It now raises a smile to peruse the earnest and long array of facts and arguments with which Buffon's then recent theory of animal degeneracy in America, and the Abbé Raynal's superadded one of the degeneracy of the man of Europe transplanted to America, are combated. Raynal's assertion that America |