Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/152

 118 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS proceedings had their effect. Before many months had passed the governor summoned the assembly and greeted them with the news that parliament had abandoned the system of taxing the colonies a delusive statement, which he, however, fully be lieved himself authorized to make. Amid the joy too brief of this supposed change of policy, Jefferson made his first important speech in the house, in which he advocated the repeal of the law that obliged a master who wished to free his slaves to send them out of the colony. The motion was promptly rejected, and the mover, Mr. Bland, was denounced as an enemy to his country. On January 1, 1772, Jefferson married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a beautiful and childless young widow, daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer in large practice at the Williamsburg bar. His new house at Monticello was then just habitable, and he took his wife home to it a few days after the ceremony. Next year the death of his wife s father brought them a great increase of fortune 40,000 acres of land and 135 slaves, which, when the encumbrances were discharged, doubled Jefferson s estate. He was now a fortunate man indeed; opulent in his circumstances, happily married, and soon a father. We see him busied in the most pleasing kinds of agriculture, laying out gardens, introducing new products, arranging his farms, completing and furnishing his house, and making every effort to