University of Virginia Library

IV

I cannot do better in closing the discussion
of this subject than to quote from a scholarly
address delivered some little time back by a
cultured Virginian.[5]

"It may be of interest to relate the views of
one well qualified to judge of events, and to
whom both the choice of Washington to command
the armies of the country, and of Jefferson
to draw the great Declaration were due. In a
letter to Timothy Pickering, written August 6,
1822, John Adams writes: `You inquire why so
young a man as Jefferson was placed at the head
of the Committee for preparing a Declaration of
Independence? answer, `It was the Frankfort
advice to place Virginia at the head of everything.'
Mr. Richard Henry Lee might be gone
to Virginia to visit his sick family for aught I
know, but that was not the reason of Mr.
Jefferson's appointment. There were three
committees appointed at the same time. One
for the Declaration of Independence, another
for preparing Articles of Confederation, and
another for preparing a treaty to be proposed
to France. Mr. Lee was chosen for the Committee

of Confederation, and it was thought
convenient that the same person should be on
both. Mr. Jefferson came into Congress in
June, 1775, and brought with him a reputation
for literature, science, and a happy talent for
composition. Writings of his were handed
about, remarkable for the felicity of expression.
Though a silent member in Congress, he was
so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon
committee and in conversation (not even Sam.
Adams was more so) that he soon seized upon
my heart; and upon this occasion I gave him
my vote and did all in my power to procure
votes of others. I think he had one more vote
than any other and that placed him at the head
of the committee. I had the next highest number
and that placed me second. The committee
met, discussed the subject, and then appointed
Mr. Jefferson and me to make a draft
(I suppose because we were the first on the
list). The sub-committee met, Jefferson proposed
to me to make the draft. I said:

" `I will not.'

" `You should do it.'

" `Oh no.'

" `Why will you not? You ought to do it.'

" `I will not.'

" `Why?'

" `Reasons enough.'

" `What can be your reasons?'

" `Reason first. You are a Virginian, and a
Virginian ought to appear at the head of this
business. Reason Second. I am obnoxious,
suspected and unpopular. You are very much
otherwise. Reason third; you can write ten
times better than I can.'

" `Well,' said Jefferson, `if you are decided,
I will do as well as I can.'

"After saying that he did not make or suggest
a single alteration, and adding that he did not
remember that Franklin or Sherman criticised
anything, the distinguished New Englander
says: `As you justly observed, there is not an
idea in it but what had been hackneyed in Congress
for two years before. The substance of
it is contained in the Declaration of Rights and
the violation of these rights in the Journals of
Congress in 1774. Indeed, the essence of it
is contained in a pamphlet voted and printed
by the town of Boston before the first Congress
met, composed by James Otis, I suppose in one
of his lucid moments, and pruned and polished
by Sam. Adams.'

"The latter part of this letter recalls the saying
attributed to the writer of it, relative to the
elevation of his son to the Presidency for which

he was naturally very desirous. As Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe were respectively elected
over John Quincy, the elder Adams is alleged to
have said, `My son will stand no chance until the
last Virginian is dead.'

"Let us briefly sum up the results of the Virginian
movement, and what it accomplished. It
gave Patrick Henry to arouse and stimulate the
whole people of America. It gave George
Washington, Lewis, Henry Lee, Daniel Morgan,
George Rogers Clarke, and Thomas Nelson,
Jr., to the army. It gave Thomas Nelson, Jr.,
to draw the instructions for Independence and
to offer them to the Virginia Convention. It
gave Peyton Randolph to preside over the first
Congress. It gave Thomas Jefferson to write
the Declaration of Independence after the motion
therefor had been made by Richard Henry
Lee, who was also to be chairman of the committee
for preparing Articles of Confederation.
It won and gave the Northwest Territory to the
country. It gave the Virginia plan to the convention
that formed the Constitution of the
United States with George Washington, James
Madison and Edmund Randolph to support it;
for though Randolph refused to sign the Constitution,
he did as much as anybody to bring it to its
state of perfection. It gave John Marshall to

establish that Constitution upon a basis so impregnable
that civil war could not disturb it. It
gave four out of the first five presidents of the
United States; not to speak of the gallant sons
of Virginia who offered themselves for the public
good, nor of the treasure which Virginia
poured into the general fund which the limits
of this paper will not permit me to detail.

"The result of the Virginian movement may
be summed up in the following language that
has been well styled `monumental,' written by
one of the greatest of the Virginians and one
well qualified to speak: Thomas Jefferson.
These are his words, and my idea of what that
movement made possible:

"Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever
state or persuasion, religious and political;
peace, commerce, and honest friendship with
all nations, entangling alliances with none;
the support of the State Government in all
their rights, as the most competent administrations
for our domestic concerns and the
surest bulwark against Anti-republican tendencies,
the preservation of the general government
in its whole constitutional vigor as the
sheet-anchor of our peace at home and our
safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of
election by the people; a mild and safe correction

of abuses, which are lopped by the sword
of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided;
absolute acquiescence in the decisions
of the majority; the vital principle of Republics,
from which there is no appeal but to force, the
vital principle and immediate parent of despotism;
a well disciplined militia, our best reliance
in peace and for the first movements in war,
till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy
of the civil over the military authority; economy
in the public expense that labor may be light
burdened; the honest payment of our debts
and the sacred preservation of the Public faith;
encouragement of agriculture and of commerce
as its hand-maid; the diffusion of information
and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of
public reason; freedom of religion, freedom of
the press, and freedom of person under the
protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by
jurors impartially selected; these principles
form the light constellation which has gone
before us and guided our steps through an age
of revolution and reformation!"

Such in brief, was the part which the Old
Dominion had in the creation of the Revolutionary
movement. She inspired the movement,
encouraged her sister colonies, supplied the
statesmen who led the councils and the chief who

led the Revolutionary armies to final victory. It
was by no mere accident that George Washington,
Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George
Mason, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, the
Lees, the Harrisons, the Nelsons, the Randolphs,
the Blands and other leaders of the Revolutionary
movement came from the shores of the rivers
which poured into the Chesapeake. They were
the product of the life established on those shores.
Then, when Independence was achieved, she led
the movement to establish a more permanent
union by the adoption of the Constitution of the
United States, to consummate which she surrendered
her vast Northwest Territory which
her sons had conquered. And, having effected
this, it was under one of her sons that the great
Louisiana Territory was secured, and under another
that the loose bands of the Constitution
were welded to make the whole homogeneous
and effective.

These and many more national benefits were
the fruits of the civilization which had a footing
first at Jamestown. But the chief and choicest
fruit of all was the distinctive civilization which
sprang up within her borders and took its character
from her secluded and uncommercial life.

This life shed an inestimable influence on the
whole country. The Virginia gentleman became

a synonym for lofty courtesy; the Virginia
hospitality became noted the world over.

The quality and temper of the life were shown
to the world in men like Washington and
Marshall and Madison, and later in men like
Lee and Jackson. They were all men of genius;
but more marked than even this genius was their
character.

This was the ripest fruit of the Virginia civilization,
and the Virginians know that though
these might have been equalled by few in genius,
in character they were not exceptions, but only
types of the Virginian.