Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/87

 JEFFERSON

JEFFERSON

away the stock and slaves. While Jefferson was governur he was elected a visitor of tiie College of William and Mary, and he effected a change in the organization of the faculty and course of study by abolishing the grammar scliool and the chairs of divinity and oriental languages and substituting a chair of law and politics, one of anatomy, medicine and chemistry, and one of modern languages, and adding to the duties of the professor of moral philosophy the branches of the law of nations and the law of nature ; to those of tlie professor of moral philosophy the additional duties as professor of fine arts, and to the work of the professor of natural pliilosophy and mathematics the branch of natural history.

Led to a study

CAPITOL, *'

■•"«""* of the subject of education, he reported to the bly of Virginia in 1779 three bills for the es- ^ tablishment of a general system of education for the state. The first bill provided for three years' free in- struction in reading, writing and arithmetic to all the boys and girls of the state, rich and poor alike, for schoolhouses to be built on every five or six square miles of the territory of the state, and for the establishment of ten or twelve colleges for the intermediate degree of instruction for the benefit of students in easy circumstances and for those intending to enter the university. The second bill provided for a university with a view of the enlargement of the College of Wil- liam and Mary for the purpose ; and the third bill provided for a state library. The first sec- tion of the first bill was partially adopted by the legislature in 1796; the differences between the Church of England, which controlled the College of William and Mary, and the Presby- terians, prevented the adoption of the second bill, and the third was thought premature. Gov- ernor Jefferson, in order to place the civil and military authority of the state under one control, declined re-nomination and advised the selection of Gen. Thomas Nelson, who was commander-in-chief of the state militia, for the office of governor, and he was elected. Mrs. Jefferson died Sept. 6. 17S2, and the event so af- fected the mind of Jefferson as to render him for a time incapable of directing his personal affairs or taking part in the public events then pending. Anxious for the future of the statesman, congress unanimously urged upon him the commissioner- ship to France to treat for peace, trusting that a seavoyage would restore his health. He very re- luctantly and with many forebodings accepted
 * general assem-

the commission, but before he was ready to sail

the preliminary treaty was concluded. In June,

1783, he was returned to the Continental congress,

and he took ])art in the deliberations of that body

in its ninth session at Annapolis, Md., from Nov.

2G, 1783, to

OLP STATE HOUSE.'

AT A/MAIAP0UI5.

1783 -1734.

June 3, 17- 84. He was appointed chairman of the commit- tee on the currency and intro- duced the decimal cur- rency sug- gested b}- Gover nor Morris. Con-

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gress elected (5^-*^^1^4ii^ig^^.^,:,..r him, on May

7, 1784, a commissioner to France to aid Franklin and Adams in concluding commercial treaties with the European powers, and he sailed from Boston, July 5, 1784, accompanied by his daugh- ters Martha and Marie, reaching Pai'is in August, where he joined the other commissioners. He was appointed sole minister plenipotentiary to the king of France, under the confederation by the 11th Continental congress, and he received his commission. May 2, 1785, dated March 10, 1785. He made a careful study of the industries of the old world, the condition of the people, the plans and results of educational methods and the political necessities of the citizens viewed from a Republican standpoint. He also made valuable selections of trees, seeds, plants and live stock intended for distribution for propagation in the United States, and he visited the universities in order better to carry out his long-cherished plan of a great national universit}' to be located within the borders of his native state and near the na- tional capital. He labored also in the interests of science, literature and the arts, and carried home with hini many valuable examples in each field of research, intended to enrich the libraries and scientific collections of the new world. While abroad he received, in 1787, from his friend James Madison, a copy of the federal constitution as adopted by the states. He was disappointed in the instrument because the tenure of office of the President had not been fixed at seven years, making the incumbent ineligible for a second term, and because of the absence of a bill of rights. He approved the central government and the separation of the judiciary from tlia legislative powers, and the provision of an upper and lower house of congress. He also expressed