father's dying injunction as to exercise. He kept
horses at Williamsburg, but as his love of knowl-
edge increased his rides became shorter and less
frequent, and even his beloved violin was neglected.
There was a time, as he remembered, when he
studied fifteen hours a day. Once a week the
lieutenant-governor, Francis Fauquier, had a musi-
cal party at the " palace," to which the guests, in
the good old style of that century, brought their
instruments. Jefferson was always present at
these parties with his violin, and participated in
the concert, the governor himself being also a
performer. From Fauquier, a man of the world
of the period, he learned much of the social, politi-
cal, and parliamentary life of the Old World.
George Wythe, afterward chancellor, was then a
young lawyer of Williamsburg. He was one of the
highly gifted men that frequented the governor's
table, and contributed essentially to the forming of
Jefferson's mind.
On his graduation, Jefferson entered upon the study of law, under the guidance of George Wythe. As his father's estate was charged with the maintenance of a large family, a profession was necessary to the student, and he entered upon his preparation for the bar with all his energy and resolution. On coming of age, in April, 1764, he assumed the management of the estate, and was appointed to two of his father's offices — justice of the peace and vestryman. He gave much atten- tion to the cultivation of his lands, and remained always an attentive, zealous, and improving farmer. He attached importance all his life to the fact that his legal training was based upon the works of Lord Coke, of whom he said that " a sounder Whig never wrote, nor one of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called British liberties." It was his settled conviction that the early drill of the colonial lawyers in "Coke upon Lyttleton" pre- pared them for the part they took in resisting the unconstitutional acts of the British government. Lawyers formed by Coke, he would say, were all good Whigs ; but from the time that Blackstone became the leading text-book "the profession be- gan to slide into Toryism." His own study of Coke led him to extend his researches into the origins of British law, and led him also to the rejection of the maxim of Sir Matthew Hale, that Christianity is parcel of the laws of England. His youthful treatise on this complex and difficult point shows us at once the minuteness and the extent of his legal studies. While he was a student of law, he was an eye-witness of those memorable scenes in the Virginia legislature which followed the passage of the stamp-act. He was present as a spectator in the house when Patrick Henry read his five resolutions, written upon a blank leaf torn from a "Coke upon Lyttleton," enunciating the principle that Englishmen living in America had all the rights of Englishmen living in England, the chief of which was, that they could only be taxed by their own representatives. When he was an old man, seated at his table at Monticello, he loved to speak of that great day, and to describe the thrill and ecstasy of the moment when the wonderful orator, interrupted by cries of " Treason," uttered the well-known words of defiance : " If this be treason, make the most of it ! " Early in 1767, about his twenty-fourth birthday, Jefferson was admitted to the bar of Virginia, and entered at once upon the practice of his profession. Con- nected through his father with the yeomen of the western counties, and through his mother with the wealthier planters of the eastern, he had not long to wait for business. His first account-book, which still exists, shows that in the first year of his practice he was employed in sixty-eight cases before the general court of the province, besides county and office business. He was an accurate, painstaking, and laborious practitioner, and his business increased until he was employed in nearly five hundred cases in a single year, which yielded an average profit of about one pound sterling each. He was not a fluent nor a forcible speaker, and his voice soon became husky as he proceeded ; but James Madison, who heard him try a cause, reports that he acquitted himself well, and spoke fluently enough for his purpose. He loved the erudition of the law, and attached great importance to the laws of a country as the best source of its history. It was he who suggested and promoted the collec- tion of Virginia laws known as " Henning's Statutes at Large," to which he contributed the most rare and valuable part of the contents. He practised law for nearly eight years, until the Revo- lutionary contest summoned him to other labors. His public life began 11 May, 1769, when he took his seat as a member of the Virginia house of burgesses, Washington being also a member. Jef- ferson was then twenty-six years old. On becom- ing a public man he made a resolution " never to engage, while in public office, in any kind of en- terprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear any other character than that of a farmer." At the close of his public career of nearly half a century he could say that he had kept this resolu- tion, and he often found the benefit of it in being able to consider public questions free from the bias of self-interest. This session of the burgesses was short. On the third day were introduced the fa- mous four resolutions, to the effect that the colo- nies could not be lawfully taxed by a body in which they were not represented, and that they might concur, co-operate, and practically unite in seeking a redress of grievances. On the fifth day of the session the royal governor, Lord Botetourt, dis- solved the house; but the members speedily re- assembled in the great room of the Raleigh tavern, where similar resolutions, with others more point- ed, were passed. The decency and firmness of these 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 colo- nies — a delusive statement, which he, however, fully believed 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 1 Jan., 1772, Jefferson married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a beautiful and childless young widow, daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer In large prac- tice at the Williamsburg bar. His new house at Monticello, a view of which is given on page 419, 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
