The Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution

by L. Carroll Judson

At the age of twenty-two he was elected to the legislature which enabled him to disseminate his liberal principles throughout the Colony. He proclaimed himself the unyielding advocate of equal rights and had engraved upon his watch seal—"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." By his eloquence and unanswerable arguments he kindled the flame of opposition in old Virginia which increased as tyranny advanced. In 1769 a resolution was passed by the legislature—not to import a single article from Great Britain. In the advocacy of this proposition by Mr. Jefferson, the adherents of the crown were astonished at the boldness and firmness with which he exposed and laid bare the venal corruption of the British cabinet. It gave a fresh impetus to the cause of Liberty just bursting into life.

With ample pecuniary means—with talents equal to the work he had undertaken, his soul illuminated with the fire of patriotism—his indignation roused against the hirelings of the king—his sympathies excited by the sufferings of his country—his moral courage raised to the zenith of its glory—Mr. Jefferson was amply armed for the conflict and became one of the master spirits of the Revolution—a gigantic champion of universal freedom—a pillar of fire, flashing terror and dismay into the ranks of the foe.

He wrote "A Summary View of the Rights of British America"—addressed it to the king respectfully but very plainly pointed to the true position of the two countries and the final result of the policy of ministers. The following is an extract. "Open your breast, sire, to liberal and expanded thought. It behooves you to think and act for your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader. To perceive them needs not the aid of many counsellors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest." The art of being honest in matters of government is a knotty problem for some modern politicians to solve. Were they all honest a political millennium would illuminate our country—bring us back to primitive tangible landmarks and unmask multitudes of political wolves cunningly dressed in sheep's clothing.

So exasperated was Lord Dunmore on perusing this article from the pen of Jefferson that he threatened to arrest him for high treason. Finding most of the members of the legislature, then in session, quite as treasonable in their views he at once dissolved that body.

The following year the British ministry, in answer to petitions for redress of grievances, sent to the legislature of the Old Dominion a series of propositions that they termed conciliatory but which added insult to injury. Their fallacy was exposed by Mr. Jefferson in such a masterly strain of eloquent burning logic and sarcasm, that conviction was carried to a large majority of his colleagues. They were referred to a committee which reported an answer written by him and was very similar to the Declaration of Independence. This reply was immediately adopted. The ball of resistance was put in motion—the electric fluid of patriotism commenced its insulating powers in the north and south—extending from sire to son, from heart to heart, until the two streams of fire met in the centre—then rising in grandeur, formed the luminous arch of Freedom—its chord extending from Maine to Georgia—its versed sine resting on the city Penn.

Under its zenith at Philadelphia, Mr. Jefferson took his seat in the Continental Congress on the 21st of June 1775. Although one of the youngest members of that venerated assembly of patriotic sages, he was hailed as one of its main pillars. Known as a man of superior intelligence, liberal sentiments, strict integrity, stern republicanism and unbending patriotism—his influence was strongly felt and judiciously exercised.

From the beginning he advocated a separation from the mother country and ably met every objection urged against it. In his view, oppression, not recognised by Magna Charta, had dissolved all allegiance to the crown—that the original contract had been cancelled on the heights of Lexington by American blood. Submission was no longer a virtue—the measure of wrongs had been overflowing for years—public sentiment demanded the sundering of the Gordian knot—a voice from Heaven proclaimed in tones of thunder—"Let my people go."

The following year the Declaration of Independence was proposed. Mr. Jefferson was appointed chairman of the committee to prepare this momentous document. The work was assigned to him by his colleagues. He performed the task with a boldness of design and beauty of execution before unknown and yet unrivalled. The substantial result of his labor has long been before the world. Admiring nations have united in bestowing the highest encomiums upon this sacred instrument. As a masterpiece of composition—a lucid exposition of the rights of man—the principles of a free government—the sufferings of an oppressed people—the abuses of a corrupt ministry and the effects of monarchy upon the destinies of man—it stands unequalled. Pure in its origin—graphic in its delineations—benign in its influence and salutary in its results—it has become the chart of patriots over the civilized world. It is the ne plus ultra [nothing more beyond] of a gigantic mind raised to its loftiest elevation by the finest touches of creative Power—displaying its noblest efforts—brightest conceptions—holiest zeal—purest desires—happiest conclusions. It combines the attributes of justice—the flowers of eloquence—the force of logic—the soul of wisdom. It is the grand palladium of equal rights—the polar star of rational Liberty—the Magna Charta of universal freedom and has crowned its author with laurels of enduring fame.

In the autumn of 1776 Mr. Jefferson was appointed a commissioner to the court of France in conjunction with Messrs. Franklin and Deane for the purpose of forming a treaty of alliance. Ill health of himself and family and an urgent necessity for his services in his native state, induced him to decline the proffered honor and resign his seat in Congress.

He was immediately elected to the first legislature of his state convened under the new Constitution. On taking his seal in that body his attention was at once directed to the demolition of the judicial code which had emanated from the British Parliament. The work of rearing a new superstructure was mostly performed by him. The first bill he introduced was aimed at the slave trade and prohibited the farther importation of negroes into Virginia. This is a triumphant refutation of the accusation often reiterated against Mr. Jefferson—that he was an advocate of slavery. To its principles he and a large majority of the South were always opposed and submitted to it practically by entail. It is a fact beyond dispute that he struck the first blow in the Colonies at the unhallowed trade of importing human beings for the purpose of consigning them to bondage. That this was the first great step to towards a correction of the most cruel feature of this system, originated by philanthropic England, is equally true. To transfer those negroes, born in the United States, from one section of this country to another, bears no comparison in cruelty to the heart-rending barbarity of forcing the African from his native home—even should he fall into the hands of those emancipators who, instead of returning him to his native shores—put him an "apprentice" to hard labor on their own plantations. Consistency thou art a jewel rather rare. Common humanity forbids the sudden emancipation of the slaves as proposed by emissary Thompson and his converts.