“I was thence sent to the old Congress;
“Then employed two years with Mr. Pendleton and Wythe, on the revisal and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British Statutes, the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the Common Law;
“Then elected Governor;
“Next to the legislature, and to Congress again;
“Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary;
“Appointed Secretary of State to the new government;
“Elected Vice-President and President;
“And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University of Virginia. In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I have been in the public service now sixty-one years, and during the far greater part of that time in foreign countries, or in other states.”
This is the outline of Mr Jefferson’s public life: to fill it up would be to write the history of the United States, from the troubles which preceded the declaration of Independence, to Mr. Jefferson’s retirement from the Presidency in 1809.
The paper from which we have already made one extract, presents us with his services, in another point of view, still more interesting. It is an epitome of those great measures which were due mainly or entirely to his firm resolution, unwearied industry, and singleness of mind, in his pursuit of objects which he believed essential to the stability and happiness of his country.