Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/34

 FATHERS OF THE REVOLUTION

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Jefferey Smith, of Long Island, New York, ir founding Providence Forge, in New Kent county, Virginia, where they had a forge and mills. He was a signer of the associa- tion entered into May 27. 1774. against the importation of British goods, and mayor of Williamsburg. In 1776 he was made a com- missioner in admiralty. He died in 1791, leaving several sons and a daughter, Eliza- beth, who married William Coleman, of James City county. His sister. Mary, mar- ried Rev. Samuel Davies, the noted Presby- terian divine.

Jefferson* Thomas, son of Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph, daughter of Isham Ran- dolph, of "Dungeness," Goochland county. Virginia, was born at •*Shadwell," Albemarle county. April 2, 1743. Though his father died when he was fourteen years old. he was thoroughly trained by private tutors, and spent two years (1760-1762) at William and Mary College. He then studied law for five years under Chancellor Wythe, in Wil- liamsburg, and was admitted to the bar when twenty-four years old. In 1769 he was elected to the house of burgesses from Albe- marle, and became at once one of the group of new men who took the lead in public af- fairs. In 1773 he assisted in establishing committees of correspondence between the colonies, the first step towards Union. In 1774 he drafted instructions for the Virginia delegates to the first Congress, assuming the extreme ground taken by Dland in 1766. and summing up, with trenchant pen. that easily gave him the first place among American writers, the rights and wrongs of the con- tinent. This magnificent paper contained every idea in the Declaration of Independ- ence except the explicit statement of sepa-

ration. It was published in pamphlet form under the title of "a Summary View of the Rights of British America."

Political events absorbed his attention, and he relinquished his law practice, which was very extensive. He was a member of the Virginia convention of March. 1775. and when Patrick Henry made his motion to or- ganize the militia. Jefferson argued "closely, profoundly, and warmly on the same side." In the house of burgesses. June, 1775, he prepared a masterly reply to Lord North's ^'Conciliatory Proposition." and soon after, in the second Congress, to which he was elected June 20. 1775. on the retirement of Peyton Randolph, he prepared a similar paper as the answer of that body. He at- tended the third Congress, which met in Philadelphia, September 25, 1775, but left before it adjourned, and did not again pre- sent himself till May 13. 1776. Then, as chairman of a committee, he drafted the Declaration of Independence, which has im- mortalized him. On September 2. 1776. he resigned from Congress and returned home, but Congress, unwilling to dispense with his services.' as.sociated him with Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane to negotiate treaties of al- liance and commerce with France. This ap- pointment he declined on account of his wife's declining health, and in October he took his seat in the house of delegates of Virginia, and applied himself to reforming the Virgrinia code. The great series of bills which he prepared, and which in great part were adopted, concerning the descent of lands, religion, education and slavery, con- stitutes a great monument to his ability and patriotism. In January. 1779. he succeeded Patrick Henry as governor, and was re-

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