Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 1.djvu/148

1800. dinner they constantly rose to help themselves at the sideboard. A couple of dishes of salted meat and some oyster-soup formed the whole of the dinner."

Such a state of society was picturesque, but not encouraging. An aristocracy so lacking in energy and self-confidence was a mere shell, to be crushed, as one might think, by a single vigorous blow. Never­theless, Jefferson and Madison, after striking it again and again with the full force of Revolutionary vio­lence, were obliged to desist, and turned their reform­ing axes against the Church and hierarchy of New England. There they could do nothing but good, for the society of New England was sound, whatever be­came of the Church or of slavery; but in Virginia the gap which divided gentry from populace was enor­mous; and another gap, which seemed impassable, divided the populace from the slaves. Jefferson's reforms crippled and impoverished the gentry, but did little for the people, and for the slaves nothing.

Nowhere in America existed better human material than in the middle and lower classes of Virginians. As explorers, adventurers, fighters,—wherever cour­age, activity, and force were wanted,—they had no equals; but they had never known discipline, and were beyond measure jealous of restraint. With all their natural virtues and indefinite capacities for good, they were rough and uneducated to a degree that shocked their own native leaders. Jefferson tried in vain to persuade them that they needed schools. Their character was stereotyped, and development