Thomas Jefferson's Autobiography The Virginia Legislature
by Thomas Jefferson
These articles reported July 12. 76 were debated from day to
day, & time to time for two years, were ratified July 9, '78, by 10
states, by N. Jersey on the 26th. of Nov. of the same year, and by
Delaware on the 23d. of Feb. following. Maryland alone held off 2
years more, acceding to them Mar 1, 81. and thus closing the
obligation.
Our delegation had been renewed for the ensuing year commencing
Aug. 11. but the new government was now organized, a meeting of the
legislature was to be held in Oct. and I had been elected a member by
my county. I knew that our legislation under the regal government
had many very vicious points which urgently required reformation, and
I thought I could be of more use in forwarding that work. I
therefore retired from my seat in Congress on the 2d. of Sep.
resigned it, and took my place in the legislature of my state, on the
7th. of October.
On the 11th. I moved for leave to bring in a bill for the
establishmt of courts of justice, the organization of which was of
importance; I drew the bill it was approved by the commee, reported
and passed after going thro' it's due course.
On the 12th. I obtained leave to bring in a bill declaring
tenants in tail to hold their lands in fee simple. In the earlier
times of the colony when lands were to be obtained for little or
nothing, some provident individuals procured large grants, and,
desirous of founding great families for themselves, settled them on
their descendants in fee-tail. The transmission of this property
from generation to generation in the same name raised up a distinct
set of families who, being privileged by law in the perpetuation of
their wealth were thus formed into a Patrician order, distinguished
by the splendor and luxury of their establishments. From this order
too the king habitually selected his Counsellors of State, the hope
of which distinction devoted the whole corps to the interests & will
of the crown. To annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy
of wealth, of more harm and danger, than benefit, to society, to make
an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has
wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, &
scattered with equal hand through all it's conditions, was deemed
essential to a well ordered republic. To effect it no violence was
necessary, no deprivation of natural right, but rather an enlargement
of it by a repeal of the law. For this would authorize the present
holder to divide the property among his children equally, as his
affections were divided; and would place them, by natural generation
on the level of their fellow citizens. But this repeal was strongly
opposed by Mr. Pendleton, who was zealously attached to ancient
establishments; and who, taken all in all, was the ablest man in
debate I have ever met with. He had not indeed the poetical fancy of
Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and overwhelming
diction; but he was cool, smooth and persuasive; his language
flowing, chaste & embellished, his conceptions quick, acute and full
of resource; never vanquished; for if he lost the main battle, he
returned upon you, and regained so much of it as to make it a drawn
one, by dexterous manoeuvres, skirmishes in detail, and the recovery
of small advantages which, little singly, were important altogether.
You never knew when you were clear of him, but were harassed by his
perseverance until the patience was worn down of all who had less of
it than himself. Add to this that he was one of the most virtuous &
benevolent of men, the kindest friend, the most amiable & pleasant of
companions, which ensured a favorable reception to whatever came from
him. Finding that the general principle of entails could not be
maintained, he took his stand on an amendment which he proposed,
instead of an absolute abolition, to permit the tenant in tail to
convey in fee simple, if he chose it: and he was within a few votes
of saving so much of the old law. But the bill passed finally for
entire abolition.
In that one of the bills for organizing our judiciary system
which proposed a court of chancery, I had provided for a trial by
jury of all matters of fact in that as well as in the courts of law.
He defeated it by the introduction of 4. words only, "if either
party chuse." The consequence has been that as no suitor will say to
his judge, "Sir, I distrust you, give me a jury" juries are rarely, I
might say perhaps never seen in that court, but when called for by
the Chancellor of his own accord.
The first establishment in Virginia which became permanent was
made in 1607. I have found no mention of negroes in the colony until
about 1650. The first brought here as slaves were by a Dutch ship;
after which the English commenced the trade and continued it until
the revolutionary war. That suspended, ipso facto, their further
importation for the present, and the business of the war pressing
constantly on the legislature, this subject was not acted on finally
until the year 78. when I brought in a bill to prevent their further
importation. This passed without opposition, and stopped the
increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its
final eradication.
The first settlers of this colony were Englishmen, loyal
subjects to their king and church, and the grant to Sr. Walter
Raleigh contained an express Proviso that their laws "should not be
against the true Christian faith, now professed in the church of
England." As soon as the state of the colony admitted, it was divided
into parishes, in each of which was established a minister of the
Anglican church, endowed with a fixed salary, in tobacco, a glebe
house and land with the other necessary appendages. To meet these
expenses all the inhabitants of the parishes were assessed, whether
they were or not, members of the established church. Towards Quakers
who came here they were most cruelly intolerant, driving them from
the colony by the severest penalties. In process of time however,
other sectarisms were introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian family;
and the established clergy, secure for life in their glebes and
salaries, adding to these generally the emoluments of a classical
school, found employment enough, in their farms and schoolrooms for
the rest of the week, and devoted Sunday only to the edification of
their flock, by service, and a sermon at their parish church. Their
other pastoral functions were little attended to. Against this
inactivity the zeal and industry of sectarian preachers had an open
and undisputed field; and by the time of the revolution, a majority
of the inhabitants had become dissenters from the established church,
but were still obliged to pay contributions to support the Pastors of
the minority. This unrighteous compulsion to maintain teachers of
what they deemed religious errors was grievously felt during the
regal government, and without a hope of relief. But the first
republican legislature which met in 76. was crowded with petitions to
abolish this spiritual tyranny. These brought on the severest
contests in which I have ever been engaged. Our great opponents were
Mr. Pendleton & Robert Carter Nicholas, honest men, but zealous
churchmen. The petitions were referred to the commee of the whole
house on the state of the country; and after desperate contests in
that committee, almost daily from the 11th of Octob. to the 5th of
December, we prevailed so far only as to repeal the laws which
rendered criminal the maintenance of any religious opinions, the
forbearance of repairing to church, or the exercise of any mode of
worship: and further, to exempt dissenters from contributions to the
support of the established church; and to suspend, only until the
next session levies on the members of that church for the salaries of
their own incumbents. For although the majority of our citizens were
dissenters, as has been observed, a majority of the legislature were
churchmen. Among these however were some reasonable and liberal men,
who enabled us, on some points, to obtain feeble majorities. But our
opponents carried in the general resolutions of the commee of Nov.
19. a declaration that religious assemblies ought to be regulated,
and that provision ought to be made for continuing the succession of
the clergy, and superintending their conduct. And in the bill now
passed was inserted an express reservation of the question Whether a
general assessment should not be established by law, on every one, to
the support of the pastor of his choice; or whether all should be
left to voluntary contributions; and on this question, debated at
every session from 76 to 79 (some of our dissenting allies, having
now secured their particular object, going over to the advocates of a
general assessment) we could only obtain a suspension from session to
session until 79. when the question against a general assessment was
finally carried, and the establishment of the Anglican church
entirely put down. In justice to the two honest but zealous
opponents, who have been named I must add that altho', from their
natural temperaments, they were more disposed generally to acquiesce
in things as they are, than to risk innovations, yet whenever the
public will had once decided, none were more faithful or exact in
their obedience to it.
The seat of our government had been originally fixed in the
peninsula of Jamestown, the first settlement of the colonists; and
had been afterwards removed a few miles inland to Williamsburg. But
this was at a time when our settlements had not extended beyond the
tide water. Now they had crossed the Alleghany; and the center of
population was very far removed from what it had been. Yet
Williamsburg was still the depository of our archives, the habitual
residence of the Governor & many other of the public functionaries,
the established place for the sessions of the legislature, and the
magazine of our military stores: and it's situation was so exposed
that it might be taken at any time in war, and, at this time
particularly, an enemy might in the night run up either of the rivers
between which it lies, land a force above, and take possession of the
place, without the possibility of saving either persons or things. I
had proposed it's removal so early as Octob. 76. but it did not
prevail until the session of May. '79.
Early in the session of May 79. I prepared, and obtained leave
to bring in a bill declaring who should be deemed citizens, asserting
the natural right of expatriation, and prescribing the mode of
exercising it. This, when I withdrew from the house on the 1st of
June following, I left in the hands of George Mason and it was passed
on the 26th of that month.
In giving this account of the laws of which I was myself the
mover & draughtsman, I by no means mean to claim to myself the merit
of obtaining their passage. I had many occasional and strenuous
coadjutors in debate, and one most steadfast, able, and zealous; who
was himself a host. This was George Mason, a man of the first order
of wisdom among those who acted on the theatre of the revolution, of
expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the
lore of our former constitution, and earnest for the republican
change on democratic principles. His elocution was neither flowing
nor smooth, but his language was strong, his manner most impressive,
and strengthened by a dash of biting cynicism when provocation made
it seasonable.
Mr. Wythe, while speaker in the two sessions of 1777. between
his return from Congress and his appointment to the Chancery, was an
able and constant associate in whatever was before a committee of the
whole. His pure integrity, judgment and reasoning powers gave him
great weight. Of him see more in some notes inclosed in my letter of
August 31. 1821, to Mr. John Saunderson.
Mr. Madison came into the House in 1776. a new member and
young; which circumstances, concurring with his extreme modesty,
prevented his venturing himself in debate before his removal to the
Council of State in Nov. 77. From thence he went to Congress, then
consisting of few members. Trained in these successive schools, he
acquired a habit of self-possession which placed at ready command the
rich resources of his luminous and discriminating mind, & of his
extensive information, and rendered him the first of every assembly
afterwards of which he became a member. Never wandering from his
subject into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely in language
pure, classical, and copious, soothing always the feelings of his
adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, he rose to the
eminent station which he held in the great National convention of
1787. and in that of Virginia which followed, he sustained the new
constitution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logic
of George Mason, and the fervid declamation of Mr. Henry. With these
consummate powers were united a pure and spotless virtue which no
calumny has ever attempted to sully. Of the powers and polish of his
pen, and of the wisdom of his administration in the highest office of
the nation, I need say nothing. They have spoken, and will forever
speak for themselves.
