From this time Mr. Jefferson’s public life is interwoven with the history of his native state, and with that of the United States. During the war, he took no part in military movements. He was governor of Virginia in part of 1779, 1780, and part of 1781, in which year the State suffered considerably from the incursions of Lord Cornwallis; and at the close of his period of office, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by Colonel Tarleton, in his own house at Monticello.
In May, 1784, Mr. Jefferson was appointed by Congress minister to France; where he remained five years, during which he was actively employed in promoting the general interests of his country, and in keeping up an extensive correspondence. His industry and methodical habits enabled him to devote a great deal of his time to the examination of everything that could in any way prove beneficial to his countrymen. His correspondence during this period shows the variety of his pursuits, his unwearied industry, and unbounded zeal for every improvement that could benefit the social condition of man. His remarks on the political troubles of France, of which he witnessed the beginning, are characterized by his usual closeness of observation, and his sanguine anticipations of the benefit that would result from the people being called to participate in the exercise of the sovereign power. After all that has been written on the subject, they will still be read with interest.
He returned to America at the close of 1789, and early in the next year he was appointed Secretary of State by the President, General Washington. He held this office till the end of 1793, when he resigned. From 1793 to 1797 he lived in retirement. In 1797 he was elected Vice-President of the United States; and in 1801 was chosen President, in place of Mr. Adams, by the House of Representatives, on whom the election devolved in consequence of the equal division of the electors’ votes between Mr. Jefferson and Colonel Burr. He was elected a second time, and after fulfilling his term of eight years retired to his favourite residence at Monticello, near the centre of the State of Virginia.
On Mr. Jefferson’s retirement from the Presidency of the United States he received, in the form of a farewell address, the thanks of the General Assembly of his native State, Feb. 9, 1809. After briefly recapitulating the leading measures of his administration, most of which faction itself must allow were eminently calculated to promote the happiness of the nation, and secure those republican principles on which the constitution was founded, the General Assembly conclude with bearing testimony to his unvarying singleness of purpose, from the days of his youth when he resisted the Governor Dunmore, to his retirement from the highest honours which the united nation could bestow. This address, which, in point of style, is more free from objection than most American productions of the same class, is such as few men on retiring from power have received, and it was offered for services which few have performed.
In this document, among the advantages for which the nation was indebted to Mr. Jefferson’s administration, the acquisition of Louisiana and with it the free navigation of the Mississippi, are not forgotten. Mr. Jefferson early saw the importance of the United States possessing this great outlet for the commerce of the Western States, and strongly urged it while he was Secretary of State under General Washington. The object was accomplished in 1803, when Louisiana was purchased from the French, for 15,000,000 dollars.
Mr. Jefferson himself thought that the most important service which he ever rendered to his country, was his opposition to the federal party during the presidency of Mr. Adams, while he was himself Vice-President of the United States. Himself in the Senate, and Mr. Gallatin in the House of Representatives, had alone to sustain the brunt of the battle, and to keep the Republican party together. The re-action that ensued, drove Mr. Adams from his office, and placed Mr. Jefferson there. Mr. Jefferson’s administration was characterized by a zealous and unwearied activity in the promotion of all those measures which he believed to be for the general welfare. He never allowed considerations of relationship or friendship to bias him in the selection of proper persons for offices; he always found, as he says, that there were better men for every place than any of his own connexions.
The last years of his life, though spent in retirement, were not wasted in inactivity. He continued his habits of early rising and constant occupation: he maintained a very extensive correspondence with all parts of the world, received at his table a great number of visitors, and was actively engaged in the foundation and direction of the University of Virginia, which was established by the State of Virginia, near the village of Charlottesville, a few miles from Monticello.
The last letter in Mr. Jefferson’s published correspondence, and it is probably the last that he wrote, is in reply to Mr. Weightman of Washington, on behalf of the citizens of Washington who had invited Mr. Jefferson to the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence. His health would not permit him to accept the invitation: his reply is characteristic. The zeal for republican institutions which had animated him during a long life still glows warm and fresh in the letter of a man of the age of fourscore and three, suffering under a painful malady. His firm conviction in the truth of those principles which he had maintained through life, appears stronger as he approaches the termination of his career. He died July 4, 1826, the day of the celebration, just half a century after that on which the instrument was signed. Mr. Adams died on the same day. Mr. Jefferson is buried in the grounds near his own house, with a simple inscription recording him as the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the Act for Religious Toleration; and as the Rector of the University of Virginia. The fact of his having been President of the United States is not mentioned.
The latter days of Mr. Jefferson were embittered by pecuniary difficulties, which were owing, no doubt, in some measure to the neglect of his estates during his long absence on the public service; and in a great degree to an obligation which he incurred to pay a friend’s debts (see an excellent letter to Mr. Madison, Feb. 17, 1826).
In the 4th vol. of his Memoirs, &c., p. 439, are printed his Thoughts on Lotteries, which were written at the time when he was making his application to the Legislature of Virginia for permission to sell his property by lottery, in order to pay his debts and make some provision for his family. The general arguments in defence of lotteries are characterized by Mr. Jefferson’s usual felicity of expression and ingenuity in argument, and they are also in like manner pervaded by the fallacies which are involved in many of his political and moral speculations. But this paper has merits which entitle it to particular attention. It contains a brief recapitulation of his services; and is in fact the epitome of the life of a man who for sixty years was actively and usefully employed for his country. “I came,” he says, “of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination of justices of the county in which I live, and at the first election following I became one of its representatives in the legislature;