Virginia now seemed doomed to the alternative of submission or desolation. On the seventh of May, the Legislature, uneasy at the proximity of General Phillips and his army, adjourned to meet at Charlottesville, in Albemarle county, on the twenty-fourth. There, eighty-five miles from Richmond, in the bosom of a fertile and sheltered valley, on the banks of the Rivanna, they hoped to legislate undisturbed. Mr. Jefferson, the governor, feeling his incompetency, on account of his lack of military knowledge, to administer the affairs of the state with energy, declined a re-election on the first of June, and indicated General Nelson, of Yorktown, as a proper successor. At his elegant seat, called Monticello (Little Mountain), situated three miles southeast of Charlottesville, far from the din of actual hostilities, Jefferson sought repose for a season in the bosom of his family. His dream of quiet was soon broken, as we shall presently perceive.
Cornwallis, unlike most of the other British generals, was seldom inert. Although, from the western part of the Carolinas to Wilmington, and from thence to Petersburg, he had journeyed nearly fifteen hundred miles in his marches and counter-marches, he did not halt long. Four days after his av-
* American War, ii., 385. It is just to the memory of Cornwallis to say, that the enormities committed were without his sanction. Near the Roanoke, a sergeant and private of Tarleton's legion violated the person of a young girl, and robbed the house where she lived. The next morning Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to draw up his men in line. Some country people pointed out the miscreants. They were tried by a court-martial, found guilty, and hung on the spot. This example had a good effect.
** This venerated mansion is yet standing, though somewhat dilapidated and deprived of its former beauty by neglect. The furniture of its distinguished owner is nearly all gone, except a few pictures and mirrors, otherwise the interior of the house is the same as when Jefferson died. It is upon an eminence, with many aspen-trees around it, and commands a view of the Blue Ridge for one hundred and fifty miles on one side, and on the other one of the most beautiful and extensive landscapes in the world. Wirt, writing of the interior arrangements of the house during Mr. Jefferson's life time, records that, in the spacious and lofty hall which opens to the visitor on entering, "he marks no tawdry and unmeaning ornaments; but before, on the right, on the left, all around, the eye is struck and gratified by objects of science and taste, so classed and arranged as to produce their finest effect. On one side, specimens of sculpture, set out in such order as to exhibit at a coup d'oil the historié progress of that art, from the first rude attempts of the aborigines of our country, up to that exquisite and finished bust of the great patriot himself, from the master-hand of Carracei. On the other side, the visitor sees displayed a vast collection of specimens of the Indian art, their paintings, weapons, ornaments, and manufactures; on another, an array of fossil productions of our country, mineral and animal; the polished remains of those colossal monsters that once trod our forests, and are no more; and a variegated display of the branching honors of 'those monarchs of the waste' that still people the wilds of the American Continent." In a large saloon were exquisite productions of the painter's art, and from its windows opened a view of the surrounding country, such as no painter could imitate. There, too, were medallions and engravings in great profusion. Among Mr. Jefferson's papers was found, after his death, a very perfect impression in wax, of his famous seal, bearing his monogram and the motto, Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.
* That impression is in the present possession of Mr. Bancroft, the historian, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the privilege of making the annexed representation. I have endeavored to produce a perfect fac simile, so far as the pictorial art will allow, even to the fractures in the Wax.
* Montieello was a point of great attraction to the learned of all lands, when traveling in this country, while Jefferson lived. His writings made him favorably known as a scholar, and his public position made him honored by the nations. The remains of Mr. Jefferson lie in a small family cemetery, by the side of the winding road leading to Montieello. Over them is a granite obelisk eight feet high, and on a tablet of marble inserted in its southern face is the following inscription, whieh was found among Mr. Jefferson's papers after his death: