officer, and Leslie, after waiting a month, sailed away with his whole armament.

Early in January (1781) news came to Richmond-the little town had just become the capital of the State-that the British fleet had again entered the Chesapeake and was ascending the James. Jefferson called out the militia and began to move the public property to Westham, a village on the James above the head of navigation. The foe was under the command of the once brilliant but now cautious and feeble Benedict Arnold. There was not a handful of raw militia to oppose his regulars, and resistance would have been a mockery. No resistance was offered, and the region lay at the mercy of the traitor. He looted the town of all its military stores and of such public property as Jefferson had failed to save. After remaining in Richmond for one day, he then dropped down the James, plundering as he went. In the consternation that prevailed personal safety was the law of the hour. The members of the Governor's Council and of the assembly gave up all to save their families and themselves. Jefferson was indefatigable in supervising the removal of the military stores and public property. Having accompanied his family on their way to a place of safety, he turned back and was pushing on to Manchester when his horse sank dead beneath him. With the saddle and bridle on his back he went to a farm house near by and secured an unbroken colt. His excellent horsemanship now stood him in good stead. He mounted the colt and sped on. In his six days' absence from Richmond, he was eighty-four hours in the saddle.

Upon the departure of Arnold, Jefferson and the legislature returned to Richmond and resumed the business of government. But civil government was now at an end in Virginia. Cornwallis and Tarleton had crossed the border and were conducting a warfare unworthy of their race and their own better natures. The legislature conferred almost absolute power upon Jefferson, but this availed little. What was needed was muskets, and these could not be procured, for there was no money with which to buy them, and there were no factories in which they

could be made. Jefferson felt his helplessness and longed for the day when his tenure of office should cease. His term expired on June 1st, 1781, but the Assembly, then trying to hold sessions at Charlottesville near Monticello, neglected to choose a successor, and for twelve days Virginia was without a Governor. A party arose advocating a dictator for the crisis. This plan Jefferson opposed with all his might. "The very thought," he declared, "was treason against the people, was treason against mankind in general." Whether Jefferson could have been elected for a third term or not is problematical. In the legislature there was considerable muttering. One member openly charged the Governor with incompetency. Jefferson removed the question of his re-election by declining to serve further. Through his influence his friend General Nelson was chosen as his successor. Supreme military power was conferred upon Nelson, but he proved to be as powerless as Jefferson to bring relief from the invader, and his dictatorial power only served to make him unpopular. In a few months he threw up his office in disgust. There was no relief until Washington should come down from the north.

The day after his term of office expired, Jefferson was visited at his home at Monticello by a body of raiders detached by Tarleton. The object of the visit was to carry away Jefferson as a rich prize of war, but a lucky circumstance balked the enterprise. Jefferson having been warned that the enemy was coming to Monticello, put his family into safe hands and promptly sent it away. He was perfectly cool in the midst of alarms. He lingered to save some of his cherished papers. After remaining as long as he thought prudent, he went to his blacksmith shop to get his horse, which he had ordered to be shod fresh for a hard run. Before mounting he ascended the hill a little way, and at a favorite spot, with the aid of his telescope he surveyed Charlottesville and the whole region round about, and could see no trace of an enemy. He listened, and there was perfect stillness. Concluding that the alarm was false, he determined to return to his mansion and save a few more of his papers. He had gone toward the house but a little way when

he noticed that in kneeling to level his telescope, his light walking sword had slipped from its sheath. He returned to where he had used his spy-glass. While there he took another look, and saw that Charlottesville was overrun with British soldiers. He mounted his horse and escaped. If he had returned to his mansion, as was his original intention, he would surely have been captured, for the troopers by an unsuspected route had entered his doors five minutes after his departure.

The mansion at Monticello, thanks to Tarleton's orders, escaped serious pillage or damage. Though the house itself was not plundered or burnt, the rest of Governor Jefferson's property suffered severely at the hands of the enemy. All the stock and farm products that might be of service were carried off, the rest being wantonly destroyed. Jefferson was especially outraged at the treatment of his slaves. Twenty-seven of these were carried off by Cornwallis. Most of them returned afterwards, but died of a pestilence contracted while in captivity. The dislike of England that showed itself so emphatically in Jefferson's subsequent career may be ascribed largely to Cornwallis' general devastation of Virginia, his own experience of wanton outrage lending a personal tinge to his bitterness.

On October 19th, 1781, the ravages of Cornwallis were brought to an end at Yorktown, and peace and civil law resumed their sway in Virginia. But victory did not bring peace to Jefferson's mind. The public disapprobation* of his conduct as Governor continued to disturb him long after every one else had ceased to think of the matter. He would not rest without what we should call a "vindication." He had himself elected from Albemarle to the Assembly expressly that he might in person meet certain charges that it was said would be brought against him. At the proper time he arose and asked for the charges. No one had any charges to make. "Not a word was heard in reply." Jefferson then made a statement exculpating himself from every real and fancied charge. The legislature was in the kindest humor with him-it was just two months after Yorktown-and

*See Approbation, page 140.

it ought to have been, for many of its members had run from Arnold faster than he. It accordingly in all sincerity promptly passed without a dissenting voice a resolution thanking Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, for his impartial, upright and attentive administration while in office, and declaring in the strongest manner that it entertained a high opinion of his ability, rectitude and integrity as chief magistrate of the Commonwealth. For all that, his career as Governor was a sore point with Jefferson. In his Memoir the only thing he relates of the period of his governorship concerns his connection with William and Mary College, to which institution he was appointed visitor in 1779. He skips his administration completely, saying that to write his own history of these two years would be to write a history of the revolution in Virginia for the period. In omitting this subject Jefferson showed good taste, but his reasons for so doing convict him of a conspicuous inconsistency, for he wrote copiously of himself in all other public capacities.

Early in 1782 Jefferson left the legislature. Though his exculpation had been complete, yet continued brooding over the attacks upon him induced a morbid state of mind, which practically withdrew him from all association with the world. This course was severely criticised by his enemies, and to his friends it was a source of deep regret. Colonel Monroe, a neighbor, ventured in the name of friendship to attempt to recall him to more healthy views of life; but his appeals were of no avail, for they reached Jefferson while he was experiencing the deepest sorrow of his life. In September, 1782, his wife, who had been in failing health since she fled from Richmond on Arnold's approach, expired. The blow was no less prostrating for being expected, and he abandoned himself to an excess of grief.

Two months after, Jefferson was appointed by Congress a Plenipotentiary to Europe. Madison had been instrumental in bringing about the appointment. He wrote that the death of his wife had probably changed the sentiment of Mr. Jefferson with regard to public life, and that all the reasons which had led to his original appointment still existed. In June, 1781, the

same post had been offered to Jefferson, but he had refused to serve, preferring to return to the legislature to clear himself of any charges that might be brought against him. He now accepted the appointment for reasons afterward stated in his Memoir. "I had, two months before that, lost the cherished companion of my life, in whose affections, unabated on both sides, I had lived the last ten years in unchequered happiness. With the public interests the state of my mind concurred in recommending the change of scene proposed."

Though Jefferson at once set to work to put his private affairs in order, the purposes of the mission were so far advanced by the spring of 1783 that there was no necessity for him to sail. The appointment, however, was of the utmost consequence in his life. It presented new interests and lifted him from the gloom into which he had allowed himself to sink. In June, 1783, he was elected to Congress. He soon resumed the influence and activity of former sessions and acquired a leadership which, in view of the ability of his colleagues, is not to be rated cheaply. He served on every important committee, and was chairman of the committees on the Peace Treaty, on the Treasury, on the Public Debt, and on Commercial Relations with the nations of Europe. He headed his fellow-delegates in the execution of the deed by which Virginia ceded to the general government the entire Territory of the Northwest; and it was with peculiar pleasure that he thus saw consummated a measure due so largely to his own initiation. His plan for the government of this Territory, submitted by him to Congress. late in the session, was one of his greatest contributions to our political history. Briefly speaking, it provided for the development, along lines of local self-government, of all acquired territory, and assured the ultimate statehood of each growing community in the West. In his plan no detail was neglected. The names (many of them absurdly fanciful) and boundaries of the States were proposed, and the nature of the temporary government to be established in them; and the conditions of their admission to full statehood were all clearly laid down. Among these conditions by far the most important and far-reaching was