THE WRITINGS OF



THOMAS JEFFERSON





Definitive Edition



CONTAINING HIS



AUTOBIOGRAPHY, NOTES ON VIRGINIA, PARLIAMENTARY MANUAL, OFFICIAL PAPERS,

MESSAGES AND ADDRESSES, AND OTHER

WRITINGS, OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE,

NOW COLLECTED AND



PUBLISHED IN THEIR ENTIRETY FOR THE FIRST TIME



INCLUDING



ALL OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS, DEPOSITED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND
PUBLISHED IN 1853 BY ORDER OF THE

JOINT COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS



WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

AND

A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYTICAL INDEX







ALBERT ELLERY BERCH

EDITOR





VOl. II.











ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF

THE THOMAS JEFFERSON MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION



OF THE UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON, D. C.

1907

COPYRIGHT, 1905,



BY



THE THOMAS JEFFERSON MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION









THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

AND

THOMAS JEFFERSON, ITS FATHER.(1)





The lives of institutions, like those of human beings, have their vicissitudes.
This University in whose honor we are gathered together to-day, has not been an
exception. It had a long struggle even for existence. Joy and triumph followed
when, eighty years ago, its first corner-stone was laid with pomp and ceremony
in the presence of a distinguished company which included three illustrious men
who had filled the office of President of the United States. A long succeeding
period of growth, prosperity and happiness was rudely interrupted by the
desolating storm of war-war raging with fury around its own temples, and
driving even its own peaceful children into the grim work of destruction and
slaughter. But even war, which spares almost nothing, yet spared the walls with
their precious contents. The heart of the soldier will sill melt before the sad
pleading of the Muse.

__________



[(1) An Address delivered by James C. Carter, LL. D., upon the occasion of the
Dedication of the new Buildings of the University; June 14, 1898.]

__________



iv The University of Virginia, and



"Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower: The great Emathian conqueror bid
spare The house of Pindarus, when temple and tow'r Went to the ground; and the
repeated air

Of sad Electra's poet had the pow'r

To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare."

The dawn of peace found the University weak and exhausted, but not
disheartened. The people of Virginia who had learned to cherish it, its sons
who looked back to it with fond affection, the warmhearted and open-handed
friends of learning in distant places came forward with liberal help. The Muses
returned and re-peopled their haunts, and a new era of prosperity, stimulated
by the new national life, began its course.

But another stroke of adversity awaited it,-this time, not from the hostile
passions of man, but from the rage of the elements, less savage indeed, but not
less unsparing. Its very walls were laid in ruins and their precious treasures
wasted. But if any evidence were needed to show the extent to which the
University had increased in power, in grandeur, in usefulness, and in the
esteem of the people of Virginia and the friends everywhere of the higher
education, it would be found in the undaunted spirit with which this disaster
was faced. There was an immediate resolve that it should rise from its ashes in
yet fairer proportions, more worthy of the spirit in which it was originally
founded, better equipped for the great work to which it was originally
dedicated, and a more glorious monument to the great name forever associated
with it.



Thomas Jefferson, its Father v



This great purpose has now been accomplished,

and we are gathered together to-day to celebrate its completion. The scene
before me and around is the best evidence of the interest of the occasion. The
sons of the University from near and far have returned to the bosom of their
Fair Mother to rejoice together over her happiness. Representatives of other
seats of learning are here to offer their congratulations. The diplomatic
representative of the great empire at the antipodes-an empire in which learning
has for ages been held in honor lends to the occasion the dignity of his
presence. The venerable Commonwealth is here in the person of the Chief
Magistrate and principal officers of state to manifest her own interest in an
institution which her bounty has cherished and which has given back in return
the support upon which alone a free Commonwealth can rest.

It is the custom on such occasions to make provision f or deliberate utterance
of the thoughts which they are calculated to excite, and the authorities of the
University have thought it suitable to invite to this office, not-I have been
made to feel-an entire stranger, but a friend from a distance, whose
opportunities have not been such as to permit a close observation of the
history and fortunes of the institution. Profoundly sensible of the honor thus
conferred upon me, I cannot help feeling how inadequate I am to its due
performance. I cannot speak of the University of Virginia with all the
affection which



vi The University of Virginia, and



the graduate cherishes for his Alma Mater, nor with the full pride which the
Virginian alone can feel; but to those who regard this institution as their
own, who have control over its destinies, or have been reared within its walls,
a view of it, as it appears to outside observers, may not be unwelcome, or
wholly uninteresting. We are sometimes enabled to correct our own conceptions
of ourselves, and qualify ourselves in some degree for the better performance
of our own duties, by learning what is thought of us and what is expected of us
by others.

Let me then occupy your thoughts for a brief hour with a sketch, very rude and
imperfect, of the origin of the University and of its principal features as
they appear to the world at large, to which I may add some allusion to its
illustrious founder, and to the political philosophy the teaching of which he
so ardently desired to promote.

Its origin offers a strong contrast with the beginnings of our principal seats
of learning which preceded it. Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Princeton began as
mere schools for humble colonies, with no prevision of the great destinies
which awaited them. Their majestic proportions have been developed and shaped,
during long periods of time, by many different hands and many varying
influences. But the University of Virginia sprang into life, in full panoply,
from the conception of a single man, like Minerva from the brain of Jove. The
aim of its founder was not to supply merely local and immedi-







Thomas Jefferson, its Father



ate wants, but to make provision for the growth, maintenance and glory of the
new civilization and the new empire with which his visions were filled. No
sketch can even be outlined of the origin and character of this institution
which does not take in as a principal element the figure of this illustrious
man.

The leading feature in the mind and character of Thomas Jefferson was a firm
and undoubting belief in the worth and dignity of human nature, and in the
capacity of man for self government. This was at once the conclusion of his
reason and the passion of his soul. Whence it came to him it is difficult to
discover; it was not from the sense of subjection and oppression felt by an
inferior class in society towards those above it, for he belonged to the class
of well to do, if not wealthy, Virginia land-holders; not from the venerable
college of William and Mary, in which he was bred, for his opinions were not
the cherished sentiments of that institution; not from his early and familiar
acquaintance, to which he has acknowledged his great indebtedness, with Dr.
Small, the President of that College, George Wythe and Gov. Fauquier, f or
their tendencies were towards very conservative views; not even from the fiery
eloquence of Patrick Henry, to which he had often listened with
admiration,-that may have fanned the flame in his bosom-but indignation at the
Stamp Act would scarcely have nerved him to his early effort in the House of
Burgesses to facilitate the manumission of slaves. It seems to have been



viii The University of Virginia, and



inborn; but whether inborn or communicated, it ruled his life; it burst from
him like the peal of an anthem when he came to pen the immortal Declaration ;
his long residence in Europe only confirmed it the excesses of the French.
Revolution had no effect to abate it, and it breathes through every line of his
public utterances from his seat as President of the United States; it was the
foundation of his virtues and the source of his errors ; and not only the
source of these, but the cause of the false imputation to him of errors he
never committed ; his friendships and his enmities were alike due to it ; he
distrusted all who were not in full sympathy with it, and they distrusted him.
Taught by bitter experience that the principles of true democracy are often as
distasteful to the multitude as they are to the possessors of wealth and
privilege, that the masses of men, fascinated by the splendors and force of
concentrated power, may easily be persuaded, sometimes, to surrender in
exchange for them the sense of individual freedom, even this did not dishearten
him, and after filling, for eight years, the highest office in the gift of his
countrymen with undeviating fidelity to the principles of popular government,
he retired to the rest and repose of his beloved Monticello, carrying thither
convictions of the worth and dignity of human nature, and ideals of government
by the people, as distinct and fresh as those which animated him in the morning
of his life.

Men have forever been prone to cast either a



Thomas Jefferson, its Father



doubt or a sneer upon the apparently beneficent deeds of those whose principles
they reject and whose influence they fear. . A large part, at least, of the
acts of Mr. Jefferson's official life still remain and will, perhaps, forever
remain, the subjects of dispute ; but he himself has happily singled out, to be
engraven upon his tomb, three particular achievements with which he wished his
name to be associated, by friend or stranger, in all future time. The latest
generation of his countrymen will not question the justice of his claim, nor
withhold any part of the full tribute of honor and glory which belongs to the

" author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of
Virginia for Religious Freedom, and to the Father of the University of
Virginia."(1)

Mr. Jefferson, at his retirement, was sixty-six years of age. His intellectual
faculties were unimpaired, his bodily strength was well preserved, and he was
still conscious of the possession of a large capacity for usefulness to his
countrymen and to mankind. His ambition for public office, never very deeply
cherished, had been fully satisfied, and he was inwardly resolved never again
to seek it. He had cherished through life a passion for the acquisition of
knowledge, and was one of the best educated men, if not the best educated man,
of his country and time, and he could. have filled the remainder of his days
with a serene and tranquil enjoyment of the pleasures of literature and
science; but such a life



__________



(1) From the inscription on his tomb

.__________



The University of Virginia, and



was not possible for him, nor was any life possible for him the strength of
which was not devoted to the advancement of the liberty and happiness of men.
He had in early manhood formed a scheme of public education, which, from time
to time, had pressed itself on his attention throughout even the busiest years
of his public life. It was part of his political philosophy. Lover of liberty
as he was, firmly as he believed that popular government was the only form of
public authority consistent with the highest happiness of men, he yet did not
believe that any nation or community could permanently retain this blessing
without the benefit of the lessons of truth, and the discipline of virtue to be
derived only from the intellectual and moral education of the whole people.

His general scheme appears to have embraced three branches : ( 1 ) the division
of the whole state into districts, or wards, and the establishment in each of a
primary school in which the rudiments of knowledge should be taught to all; (2)
the establishment of a sufficient number of higher academies or colleges, in
which those exhibiting in the primary schools superior intellectual endowments
might acquire, gratis, a further and higher education; and (3) a State
University, in which each science should " be taught in the highest degree it
has yet attained."'

The length of time during which, and the intensity with which Mr. Jefferson had
devoted himself to this great object, is well manifested by an extract from a

__________



(1) See Jefferson's Autobiography; vol. 1, p, 47.

__________



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xi

letter written by him in 1818, some ten years after his retirement from the
presidency. "A system " says he, " of general instruction which shall reach
every description of our citizens, from the highest to the poorest, as it was
the earliest, so will it be the latest, of all the public concerns in which I
shall permit myself to take an interest." (1)

The two branches of his scheme relating respectively to the primary schools and
the higher academies encountered obstacles which it was impossible for him to
surmount, and they are not those features which chiefly concern us to-day ; but
I cannot resist the temptation to read before this audience his statement of
the objects of primary education contained in the celebrated report prepared by
him for the Commission appointed by the Governor of Virginia under an act of
the General Assembly and which met in 1818 at the unpretending tavern at
Rockfish Gap in the Blue Ridge. There have been held since that day, in many
parts of the United States, conventions and conferences of teachers, educators
and friends and patrons of learning more numerously attended, favored with more
abundant information, and with other advantages for the consideration and
discussion of educational questions ; but none, certainly, more distinguished
for the dignity and ability of its members.. Besides senators and judges, there
were among those who assembled on that occasion, James Monroe, then President
of the United States,



__________



(1) Correspondence of Jefferson and Cabell; p. 106.

__________



xii The University of Virginia, and



and his two predecessors, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. And, certainly,
we may look in vain for any public statement before that time or since, of the
objects of public education so concise so comprehensive and so just as that
contained in the report of this Commission written by Jefferson. He thus
defined the objects of primary education:

" 1. To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of
his own business.

" 2. To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his
ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing

" 3. To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties.

" 4. To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge
with competence the functions confided to him by either.

" 5. To know his rights ; to exercise with order and justice those he retains;
to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates ; and to notice
their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment.

" 6. And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the
social relations under which he shall be placed."'

This statement of the objects of primary education will never be improved. It
ought to be written in letters of gold and hung in every primary school
throughout the land and be known by heart to every teacher and child therein.
It is, indeed, more than

__________



(1) U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular No. 1

__________

P. 33.

Thomas Jefferson, its Father xiii



a statement of the elements of rudimentary education. It is an enumeration of
the duties of every good citizen under a popular government.

The apparent impossibility, at the time he began his effort, of impressing upon
the Commonwealth his sense of the necessity of a universal provision f or
primary education, moved Mr. Jefferson to turn his attention to the third
branch of his scheme, that which embraced a State University. This, although
not, in his democratic view, the part of his plan which promised results of the
widest utility, was the one which offered to him the most congenial field of
effort, and held out to his hopes a better promise of success.

His conception in its main elements had been in his mind from early manhood. He
had never dismissed it from his thoughts. He cherished it during the gloomy
years of the Revolution. He improved it during his long sojourn in France. He
recurred to it again and again in the midst of the perplexities which
distracted him during both his presidential terms, and he brought it gradually
to a completion after his retirement. He sought every aid which he could derive
from independent study, from unceasing correspondence with men of learning
familiar with university education and from personal intercourse with those
interested in his project whom he could attract to his own hospitable roof.



I have no time to recount the successive steps by which his plan proceeded
towards its realization ; its partial embodiment in the Albemarle Academy, its



xiv The University of Virginia, and



fuller development in the Central College, under which name the corner-stone of
the future University was laid, and its final establishment in fact and in name
by the passage through the General Assembly, on the 25th of January, 1819, of
the bill uniting the Central College and the University of Virginia.

It would be no disparagement of the glory to which Mr. Jefferson is entitled
for this great achievement to say that he could never have accomplished the
work without the aid of others. The assent of the Legislature was needed, and
for this a favoring public sentiment was necessary ; but it was here that Mr.
Jefferson's task began. For forty years he had been laboring in every form in
which public sentiment could be reached, through the press, and by
correspondence and personal influence with leading public men, to create, and
he finally created, a conviction of the importance and necessity of the work.
But, however conspicuous the place which may be assigned to him, there was one
coadjutor whose devoted labor and effective aid can never be forgotten. The
right arm upon which he relied in later years, and without which it may well be
doubted whether this audience would be gathered together to-day, was Joseph C.
Cabell. The alumni and friends of the University of Virginia may be trusted to
take care that that name shall not perish from the grateful memory of men.

The whole work, however, was as yet by no means accomplished. I have just said
that the University



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xv



had become established in f act and in name ; but the fact was only the
legislative fiat, and the name as yet but a name. The conception of a
University embraces noble buildings which contain its libraries, its
collections, its halls of instruction, and which, in most instances prior to
this time, had been the contributions of successive generations. Of these there
were as yet none ; and in nothing does this institution more clearly appear as
the creation of Mr. Jefferson's mind than in its material structures and their
situation.

In respect to the situation, the presence of a selfish interest may be
recognized and excused. Among the motives which stimulated his zeal was
undoubtedly a desire, of which we have more than one example among democratic
statesmen, to spend the years of retirement in the congenial neighborhood of a
great institution of learning and science ; and it was the longing of his heart
that the University should have her permanent seat, " her arms and her chariot,
in the neighborhood of his own Monticello. To this end he employed every
resource of argument, and when this failed, of art, to persuade the body of
which he was himself a member, of the superior claims of this locality. They
were obliged to admit that healthiness and centrality ought to be the
predominating considerations ; but, admitting this, they could hardly resist
the argument afforded by Mr. Jefferson's " imposing array of octogenarians "
then still living in this region ; and, as to centrality, he was ready with a
demonstration that on whatever



xvi The University of Virginia, and



theory the lines might be run " they would be found to pass close to
Charlottesville:"(1)

The form, the architecture, and the arrangement of the material structures seem
to have been altogether his own ; and here he did not allow the simplicity and
frugality of his political philosophy to lead him astray. His vision was of a
University which would appeal to the sentiments, and thus attract to itself the
most famous teachers, with crowds of scholars. He knew the Muses could not be
enticed to take up their abode in mean and squalid habitations. He wrote to his
efficient helper, Cabell :

" The great object of our aim from the beginning has been to make the
establishment the most eminent in the United States in order to draw to it the
youth of every State, but especially of the South and West. We have proposed,
therefore, to call to it characters of the first order of science from Europe,
as well as our own country, and not only by the salaries and the comforts of
their situation, but by the distinguished scale of its structure and
preparation, and the promise of future eminence which these would hold up, to
induce them to commit their reputation to its future fortunes. Had we built a
barn for a college and log huts for accommodations, should we ever have had the
assurance to propose to an European professor of character to come to it ? "(2)
He sought, therefore, to reproduce on the American frontier a



__________



1 U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular No. 1,1888, p. 37. 2 Correspondence of
Jefferson and Cabell; p. 260.

__________



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xvii



vision of the architecture and art of Greece and Rome. He seems to have been
his own architect and almost his own builder. It would be strange, indeed, if
the results had altogether escaped criticism, or if personal vanity had not, to
some extent, usurped the place of knowledge ; but it is no mean tribute to the
merit of the original design that it has been, after the lapse of
three-quarters of a century, reproduced and perpetuated in the principal
restoration which we dedicate to-day.

On the 7th of March, 1825, the University was thrown open for the reception of
students, and its actual career began. It must have been a day of unspeakable
satisfaction to Mr. Jefferson. A long life filled with public service and
public cares had been at last crowned by what he regarded as its most useful
achievement, at the very moment when he had reached the boundary which limits
human endeavor; but if he was capable of no further effort there was no further
effort which he was called upon to make. It was the very point at which, as he
had many times declared, he could with happiness pronounce his " nunc
dimittis," and the moment was not long deferred. On the 4th day of July of the
succeeding year, just half a century after the American Colonies had rung out
to the world in his own immortal language their declaration of nationality, he
closed his career on earth.

This is not the time, had I the ability, to make any attempt to assign the
place to which this illustrious



xviii The University of Virginia, and



man is entitled on the roll of philanthropists. Coming as he did upon the
theatre of conspicuous life at a period when the fundamental principles of
government were the subjects of universal discussion, subjects upon which
freemen are at all times inclined to array themselves on one or the other of
two opposing sides,-one dreading the effects of popular ignorance, the other
fearing the selfishness of the enlightened,-one looking back to the supposed
wisdom and virtue of the past, and the other looking forward with confidence to
the possibilities and promise of the future,-plunging, as he did, into these
conflicts with all the earnestness of long cherished and positive convictions,
he could hardly f ail to encounter hostilities which would stop at no methods
by which his principles or his character could be discredited. By some irony of
fate the great apostle of democracy was made to suffer in his own person all
the injustice which democratic societies can perpetrate. The great defender of
the liberty of speech and the press was rewarded by an outpouring from the
press and the pulpit of calumny and detraction unparalleled before or since;
and the foremost champion of popular principles, faithful to them in every act
of his life, retired from the high office of President under a load of
unpopularity.

But,



"Time! the corrector where our judgments err,

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Time, the avenger!"



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xix ,



has dispelled the clouds of detraction and the mists of prejudice and revealed
in clearer light the true image of the statesman and the patriot. Looking at
the denunciation poured out upon him by his contemporaries and the applause
with which posterity has hailed his name, we are moved to think with the great
English orator " that obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the composition of
all true glory," and that " it was not only in the Roman customs, but it is in
the nature and constitution of things that calumny and abuse are essential
parts of a triumph."

He had, indeed, few of the qualities which mark the great military chieftain,
the conqueror, or the dictator, but what figure in the gallery of American
renown can point to such a catalogue of pacific achievement ?-the abolition in
his native State of the laws of primogeniture and entail-the Virginia Statute
of religious freedom-the Declaration of Independence-the kind and peaceful
removal of the Indian tribes to the west of the Mississippi-the near extinction
of the national debt-the acquisition of Louisiana-the University of
Virginia-where are the crimes or the vices which dim the lustre of these deeds?
Those whose ideal of the duty and destiny of the Republic is that of a
conquering nation ready at any moment for the grim business of war, eager to
avenge an insult real or supposed, greedy of military and naval renown,
inclined to erect its own will into law, and enforce it against all opposition,
to strike first and reason afterwards-these will find.



xx The University of Virginia, and



little to admire in the career of Mr. Jefferson. He knew too well the lessons
of history. He knew what visions of empire had dazzled the ambition of Rome,
while Rome was yet free,



"Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento; Hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque
imponere morem, Parcere subjectis, et debellare suberpos."

And he knew also the terrible penalty to Rome and the world which an indulgence
of those visions cost. He had lived in the midst of the interesting scenes
which ushered in the emancipation of France, and had afterwards shuddered to
see how ruthlessly the passion for extended empire and military glory would
trample upon true liberty. He was a pacific ruler. War, except in self-defence,
and as a last alternative; he held in detestation, as the enemy both of
civilization and liberty. His patriotism expanded into philanthropy, and
permitted no other ambitions respecting foreign nations than those of
cultivating the peaceful relations of trade and commerce with the whole family_
of man.

Whatever abatement we may be required or disposed to make from his credit as a
practical statesman, the sum of his achievements was hardly equalled by any of
his contemporaries, save one alone, and the general features of his political
philosophy still remain as the nominal creed at least of the great body of his
countrymen.

But what, if any, was the particular conception of university education which
he enshrined within these



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xxi



walls? Is it still cherished here, and will it be a worthy guide in training
the intellect and directing the aspirations of the future generations who are
to flock hither? These are questions which more immediately concern us on this
occasion.

I suppose most men who have given great attention to the subject of education
have not thought it appropriate to inquire for what it was useful ; they would
deem it useful in itself, as being the development of the faculties of man, or,
if required to assign an ulterior object to which it should be held
subservient, they would point to nothing less general, or less absolute, than
human happiness.

This, however, was not Mr. Jefferson's view. Lover as he was of the sciences,
and of all learning for their own sake, happy as he had always been made while
cultivating them, he yet would never have expended so many years of his life in
founding this institution, if he had had no hopes other than those of
establishing a university on the ordinary model, even though there were a
promise of rivaling the fame of Oxf ord or Bologna. With him, university
education was important as being a part of general education, and this was
important because necessary to the development and preservation of that civil
and political liberty which he deemed essential to the progress and happiness
of man.

His idea of university education was, therefore, a part of his political
philosophy. He believed that there was a system of government founded upon the



xxii The University of Virginia, and



principles of human nature under which the largest liberty and happiness were
attainable, but only upon the condition of a wide-a universal-diffusion of
popular education, and that such education embraced the cultivation in the
highest degree of those selected minds exhibiting the highest order of genius.
It was by means of a systematic cultivation of the best natural geniuses in the
land that he hoped to carry all the sciences to the highest degree of
cultivation, and among them especially, the science of free government.

The animating principle of his political philosophy was a jealousy of all
governmental power in whomsoever vested. Such power is, of necessity, to be
exercised by some over others. It may be wrongfully usurped, or voluntarily
entrusted, but, in either case is liable to be abused; and, in Jefferson's
view, the best guaranty against abuse consisted in preventing usurpation and
withholding delegation. He knew, indeed, that government to a certain extent
was necessary, and, therefore, that it was necessary to delegate and entrust
power; but this he would do with stingy parsimony, measuring the amounts doled
out by the rule of rigid necessity. This was the ground of his animosity
towards any concentration of power in the hands of one, or a few; because
concentrated power is a common form and fruit of usurped or delegated power.
Nor did his democracy assume that socialistic form which would merge the
liberty of the individual in the equality of the



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xxiii



masses. It was the natural, original freedom of man which he sought to
preserve. He was the apostle of individualism. He lost no opportunity of
inculcating his favorite principle, and a question as to whether primary
schools should be supported and managed by counties, or each by the particular
district in which it was situated, led him into a very concise' and excellent
statement of his whole theory :

"No, my friend," said he, "the way to have good and safe government is not to
trust it all to one; but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one
exactly the functions he is competent to. Let the National government be
entrusted with the defence of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations
; the State government with the civil rights, laws, police and administration
of what concerns the State generally ; the counties with the local concerns of
the counties and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by
dividing and subdividing these republics, from the great national one down
through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every
man's farm and affairs by himself ; by placing under every one what his own eye
may superintend, that all will be done for the best. What has destroyed liberty
and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun
? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body, no
matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a
Venetian Senate. And I do believe, that if



xxiv The University of Virginia, and



the Almighty has not decreed that man shall never be free(and it is blasphemy
to believe it) the secret will be found in the making himself the depository of
the powers respecting, himself so far as he is competent to them, and
delegating only. what is beyond his competency by a synthetical process to
higher and higher orders of functionaries, so as to trust fewer and fewer
powers, in proportion. as the trustees become more and more oligarchical." (1)

At the present day we are so familiar with these ideas that it is difficult to
imagine that they were ever novel; but in Mr. Jefferson's time it was far
otherwise. Not all of those who espoused the side of the colonies against Great
Britain and joined in the struggle for independence were believers in popular
government, and many even of those who supported the new constitution had but
feeble faith in democratic principles. Many even preferred monarchical
government, and many more what they called a strong government, that is, a
government strong enough to maintain itself even against the popular will.

And it is difficult also to understand the partisan hostility and bitterness
engendered by these conflicting views. Each side seemed to believe that the
other was bent upon the destruction of everything valuable in society.
Jefferson and Marshall, two great Virginians, incomparably the first political
geniuses in the land, utterly distrusted each other.

__________



(1) Correspondence of Jefferson and Cabell; p.54

__________







Thomas Jefferson, its Father - xxv



Nor could men be much blamed for withholding

assent from the political ideas of Jefferson. There was but little in the
teachings of history to support them. They were based in large degree upon a
priori conceptions. He was obliged to admit that all previous attempts at
popular government had been failures ; but this was, in his view, because of
special disfavoring conditions ; the long habit of submitting to despotic
authority had enervated the people, or the true principle of popular government
had been violated by delegating and concentrating too much power in the hands
of a few. He saw in the conditions exhibited by the American colonies the first
real opportunity for establishing liberty. For a century these colonies had
been exempt from the dominion of feudalism, from sectarian domination, and from
nearly every form of severe governmental oppression. Here was a virgin soil, an
abundance of land, no degrading poverty, a brave and intelligent people which
had just vindicated its title to independence after a long struggle with the
mightiest of European powers. He could not help thinking that " unless the
Almighty had decreed that man should never be free (and it would be blasphemy
to believe this) " that the golden opportunity was now offered; that here the
free spirit of mankind should " put its last fetters off ; " that here should
be established no bastard, degenerate freedom, no government affecting to be
popular, but really resting upon monarchical or aristocratic contrivances



xxvi The University of Virginia, and



but a freedom in which every man should be master of his own destiny, in which
there should be no usurpation of power, and no delegation of power, unless its
natural possessor was unfitted to exercise it, and consequently no
concentration of power, beyond what rigid necessity required-no great standing
armies-no powerful navies carrying the flag in triumph over every sea,-no
interference with liberty of opinion or speech-no interference with liberty of
action, so long as the public peace and order were not broken-this was
Jefferson's vision of republican freedom.

It would be a gross injustice to impute to him hostility to government itself,
or any indulgence of mere license. Government was in his view the first and
most important of human necessities ; but instead of regarding it, as some
seemed to do, as being in itself the source of good; and therefore presumably
beneficent wherever its power was felt, he looked upon it as beneficial only so
far as it was necessary to prevent one man from encroaching upon the liberty
and rights of another, and as carrying with it great possibilities of mischief
and wrong whenever its interference was pushed beyond its just limits.

Such was Mr. Jefferson's conception of liberty and government which he intended
should be accepted by this University, and be therein defended and propagated.
It was only through the universal adoption of this idea that it seemed to him
possible



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xxvii



for the newly created nation to reach the glorious destiny which the future had
in store for it; and hence the importance he attached to it, and the
unquestioning assent which he demanded for it. By nature the most tolerant of
men, upon this point he was dogmatic, even to bigotry. A thorough believer in
the inherent power of truth to triumph ultimately over error, he was yet
unwilling to subject his favorite dogma to the temporary hazards of a contest.
In one of his communications just before the University was thrown open to
students, he expressed to one of his fellows upon the Board of Visitors his
anxieties in this direction. Said he : " In most public seminaries text-books
are prescribed to each of the several schools as the norma docendi in that
school ; and this is generally done by authority of the trustees. I should not
propose this generally in our University; because I believe none of us are so
much at the heights of science in the several branches as to undertake this;
and, therefore, that it will better be left to the professors, until occasion
of interference shall be given. But there is one branch in which we are the
best judges, in which heresies may be taught, of so interesting a character to
our own State, and to the United States, as to make it a duty in us to lay down
the principles which shall be taught. It is that of government. Mr. Gilmer,
being withdrawn, we know not who his successor may be. He may be a Richmond
lawyer, or one of that school of quondam federalism, now consolidation. It is
our duty to



xxviii The University of Virginia, and



guard against the dissemination of such principles among our youth, and the
diffusion of that poison, by a previous prescription of the texts to be
followed in their discourses."(1)

Of the fidelity heretofore of this University to the political theory thus
entrusted to it, no doubt will be entertained. Its own convictions have
concurred with the sentiments of grateful admiration for its father. Successive
generations of the sons of the South have become deeply imbued with it by
lessons received upon this spot and have greatly aided in making it the
unchallenged popular faith throughout the largest part of the land.

Shall this fidelity be continued into the indefinite future? Shall Jefferson's
theory of Liberty be forever cherished around his tomb ? Has the experience of
a century vindicated its pretensions as the only sure foundation of popular
government, or stamped upon it the discredit of an illusive impracticability ?
These are not uninteresting questions and they deserve my few remaining words.

If an intelligent observer removed from any participation in our political
strifes were to survey the history of our country for a century with the view
of ascertaining how far events had justified the teachings of Mr. Jefferson and
his followers, he would find difficulty in reaching at first, at least, a
favorable verdict. He would impute, perhaps not unjustly, to that peaceful
policy the national humiliations

__________



(1) Correspondence of Jefferson and Cabell; P. 339.

__________



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xxix



which preceded and accompanied the War of 1812 with Great Britain. He would see
one of the supposed conclusions of that political philosophy as originally
drawn and carefully expressed by the great apostle himself in the celebrated
Kentucky resolutions of 1798, and afterwards re-stated and vindicated by
another illustrious son of the South, made the justification for a bold and
deliberate attempt to nullify, throughout the territory of a State, a law of
the United States. He would see this conclusion at a still later period made
the ground for a widespread defiance of the entire national authority, and the
main support of a civil strife which deluged the land with fraternal blood.

Further reflection, however, would probably dispel in part, if not altogether,
the unfavorable impression. Mr. Jefferson's political system was, no doubt,
based upon the assumption of peace. He held in abhorrence large standing armies
and powerful navies, and a nation unprovided with these will sometimes find
itself subjected to humiliation, as we were in the era of 1812, either by
submitting to injury from a consciousness of unreadiness to make good a
defiance, or by being suddenly overwhelmed by an inferior hostile force. But
are nations unprepared for war the only ones likely to be subjected to
humiliations? Was England never humiliated, or France, or Germany ? And what
can be a greater humiliation than that of an unjust aggression upon the rights
of others and the peace of the world so











xxx The University of Virginia, and



likely to be committed by those who think them- selves armed with resistless
power ? And had we always been armed on the land and on the sea in proportion
to our power, should we have gained and held the glory hitherto accorded to us
by civilized mankind of being the promoters everywhere of international law,
and the advocates of peace and justice among nations ? And, even in respect to
power itself, were we called upon to exhibit our strength in a just cause,
could we under a more consolidated government, assemble the overwhelming forces
which the emulation of rival States will now willingly place at the service of
the nation ?

For the theoretical doctrine which supported the claims of nullification and
secession, Mr. Jefferson must, indeed, be held largely accountable; but this
was never any essential part of his philosophy of free government, if indeed it
be consistent with it. It concerned only the interpretation and effect of the
particular constitutional instrument by which the colonies united themselves
together.

I must employ a few words here to make this more plain. In the great political
division which took place soon after the adoption of the constitution, men
arrayed themselves on the one side or the other according as they favored the
advanced doctrines of popular government, or, distrusting the capacity of the
people, inclined towards the principles and methods of a constitutional
monarchy. The impulse of the movement which culminated in the French



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xxxi



Revolution, reaching these shores, stirred the sympathies and passions of both
parties, the one espousing the cause of Democratic France and the other of
monarchical England. The Federal party, alarmed for the public welfare, and
fearful lest the license of the French revolutionists should be repeated on
this side of the water, sought to strengthen authority by those acts of
repressive Federal power, since generally condemned, called the Alien and
Sedition laws. The constitutional validity of these was attacked by Jefferson,
and his argument was formulated in the celebrated Kentucky resolutions, in
which he affirmed the right of each State, under the Constitution, to determine
for itself the validity of any Federal enactment. The main question was not
whether under a Federal government formed to secure the ends which ours had in
view, it would be wise to delegate to the general government the exclusive
right to determine the extent of its own powers, but whether in point of f act
such a delegation was contained in our own constitution. Upon this point it
would be true to say that Mr. Jefferson and his followers had their own way,
until the appearance of the scene, at a later period, of those great
protagonists in constitutional debate, Webster and Calhoun. In what condition
the struggle between these renowned champions left the dispute I will not
undertake to say,-



"Non nostrum tantas componere lites; "



xxxii The University of Virginia, and



but I may hazard the opinion that if the question had been made, not in 1861,
but in 1788, immediately after the adoption of the Constitution, whether the
Union as formed by that instrument could lawfully treat the secession of a
State as a rebellion and suppress it by force, few of those who had
participated in framing that instrument would have answered in the affirmative.

Nor has that question been in any manner settled by the result of that civil
strife which has effected such a profound revolution in the political and
social world of America. I cannot admit the efficacy of force to settle any
question of historic or scientific truth. Truth is eternal and immutable, and
the warfare of those who seek to suppress it will forever be in vain. The
question which the result of that strife did settle, as has been eloquently and
powerfully shown by a distinguished statesman and jurist of the South-shown,
too, in pronouncing a glowing eulogy upon his great teacher and master, Calhoun
was, not whether our Constitution actually created a consolidated
nation-nations cannot be created by agreement-but whether the Federal Union,
composed originally of colonies the people of which had been subjects of the
same sovereign, and which had never occupied the attitude of independent States
before the world, embracing, also, new States created out of territory which
was the common property of all., could-after they had been knit together into a
nation during the life of nearly a century by the



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xxxiii



thousand processes which time and nature employ to cement and consolidate a
people-by trade, by commerce, by railways, by social and business alliances, by
common perils and sufferings in war, by the blessings, hopes and aspirations of
peace, could, after all this, at the will and pleasure of one of its parts, be
instantly and peacefully resolved, not into its original elements, but into
supposed constituent parts, most of which had had no participation in its
original formation. That was a question which from its nature could be settled
only by trial, and the trial has indeed forever settled that, and-strange thing
in human history-neither side would wish the decision to be reversed. Nor
should it be forgotten that, whatever the consequences, in, the form of
disunion or secession, the doctrine of Mr. Jefferson, as propounded in the
Kentucky resolutions, might possibly involve, no such project was ever
suggested, or in any manner countenanced, by him. Whatever discredit may be
attached to any suggestions, in his day, of disunion or secession belongs
altogether to his political opponents.

Are there any other respects in which it may be plausibly suggested that the
political philosophy of Mr. Jefferson has been discredited by the teachings of
experience? Does the General Government now need a larger delegation of power?
Are there any functions hitherto performed by the States which should be
relegated to the central authority ? Do we need a large standing army? Must we
confront



xxxiv The University of Virginia, and



the gigantic naval armaments of the European nations with a corresponding array
? Must we mingle in the ambitions of the great powers of the world ? Must we
extend the area of our territorial dominion ? Must we look on and behold with
unconcern the partitioning of Africa among the European powers, and the
dismemberment of China? Must we assert before the world the might and majesty
of seventy millions of the most energetic and productive people on the globe?
Shall we form alliances with kindred peoples, or remain in calm and forbidding
isolation among the nations? All these questions to which, if proposed in Mr.
Jefferson's time, his teaching would have returned an answer in the negative,
are likely to press themselves, if they are not already pressing themselves,
upon the public attention.

Time, of course, does not permit me to indulge in any consideration of either
of them; but I venture to express my conviction that unless the answer the
American people make to them shall be consistent with those principles of which
Mr. Jefferson has hitherto been regarded as the champion, there will be an end
of true popular government among men. There is-there can be-but one true basis
of liberty, and that lies in constantly cherishing the dispersion rather than
the concentration of power. The individual loses something of his liberty the
moment he clothes another with any power over himself. Nothing can justify the
surrender except



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xxxv



the promise that by making it he better secures the liberty he retains. But
with every new surrender of power there comes a peril. Power entrusted will
sometimes be abused, and the temptation to abuse increases with the extent of
the delegation. Liberty is safe when, and only when, for each delegation of
power which is demanded a necessity is shown.

No; the fundamental political philosophy of Mr. Jefferson has not been
discredited by time or experience. It never will be discredited while men
retain a real love and a true comprehension of civil liberty. And never more
than at the present time has there been a necessity f or studying and teaching
within the walls of universities the true principles of republican liberty and
the practical art of applying them to human affairs. Recreant, indeed, would
this University be to the fame of its founder, to the purposes for which it was
established, and to its own obligations to present and to future times, if it
failed to continue to maintain, not in the spirit of dogmatism, but of devotion
to truth, those great principles upon which free popular government stands.

If anything were needed to impress upon patriotic minds the supreme importance
of cultivating anew these principles and implanting in all hearts the
determination to maintain them, it would be supplied by the extraordinary
spectacle which our country exhibits at the present moment. We have voluntarily
chosen to break the peace of the world



xxxvi The University of Virginia, and

and engage in a war which already imposes a heavy burden upon the industry and
resources of the nation, and which may become enlarged into gigantic
proportions-a war undertaken not to repel aggression, but to check the
disorders and relieve the oppressions to which a neighboring people have been
subjected. It is, indeed, true that nations have their duties not only to
themselves, but to the world ; and these must be performed at whatever hazard.
If we have not the virtue to perform them without sacrificing our own freedom,
we have no right to be a republic. We believe, and have solemnly avowed, that
we have taken this perilous step under the influence of those humane motives
which civilization and humanity enjoin us to obey. For the sincerity of that
avowal we must abide the judgment of civilized nations, and this will largely
depend upon the consistency with that declaration which our future conduct
shall exhibit. Even now the passion for national glory, growing by what it
feeds upon, stimulated by the deeds of naval skill and daring on distant
seas-deeds which reflect undying lustre on the American name and excite the
admiration of the world-is indulging new visions of territorial aggrandizement.

But have a care, Americans ! These national duties which call upon us to raise
an avenging arm arise only in those rare alternatives when all else has proved
to be ineffectual, and when we have good reason to know that such avenging arm
will be



Thomas Jefferson, its Father xxxvii

effectual. Have a care that among your ruling motives no place shall be allowed
to the mere love of military and naval renown. The pathway marked out for the
republic by its fathers was one of peaceful achievement. Its mission is peace.
A free nation can rightfully have no other aspiration. But there are
temptations which come with the possession of power. Men take pride in being
the citizens of powerful nations, and enjoy the consciousness of strength.
These temptations are to be resisted, for we may be sure that f or any undue
indulgence in them the price will be exacted with the certainty of f ate ; and
this price is grinding taxation, the oppression of the poorer classes, the
multiplication of the official corps, the intensifying of the struggle for the
possession of governmental patronage and consequent spread of corruption, the
increasing power of political bosses and chieftains, the decay of public and
civic virtue, and the resulting danger of resorts to revolution. Let not our
future confirm the sad lament of the misanthropic poet, that history has but
one page which reads,



"First Freedom, and then Glory-when that fails, Wealth, vice,
corruption,-barbarism at last."



Here, then, of all places, let the true principles of liberty and free
government, as expounded by Jefferson, be forever studied and taught. Let the
youth of the land who are to resort hither here learn the true objects of
national ambition and the methods by



xxxviii The University of Virginia



which they are to be reached. Let them study here the new problems arising from
the prodigious growth of the nation and its rapid material consolidation. Let
them be taught the true principles of legislation, and by what methods liberty
is best reconciled with order and with law ; and above all let them learn to
prefer for their country that renown among the nations which comes from the
constant display of the love of peace and justice.

And the ancient Commonwealth of Virginia,-to what nobler object can she extend
her favor 'and support than the building up upon this historic spot of a great
university which shall be at once the home of the Sciences and the Arts and the
nursery of political freedom? Outshining all her sister colonies in the
splendor of her contribution to the galaxy of great names which adorns our
Revolutionary history, how can she better perpetuate that glory than by sending
forth from her own soil a new line of patriot statesmen? No jealousies will
attend her efforts to this great end, and her sister States would greet with
delight her re-ascending star once more blazing in the zenith of its own proper
firmament.







CONTENTS.





THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, AND   THOMAS JEF-          PAGE

FERSON, ITS  FATHER. By James C. Carter, LL. D.                         iii

NOTES ON VIRGINIA . ... .. . . . . . .. ...                                    
    1-261

An exact description of the limits and boundaries

of the State of Virginia. . . . . . . . . . . . . .                            
                      1

A notice of its rivers, rivulets, and how far they

are navigable.... . . ... . . .. . ... .                                       
                         3

A notice of the best Seaports of the State, and

size of the vessels they can receive.... . . .                                 
              22

A notice of its Mountains.. . . . . ... . .                                    
                 23

Its Cascades and Caverns.. . . ..                                              
              27

A notice of the mines and other subterraneous

riches; its trees, plants, fruits, etc.... ... .                               
                   33

A notice of all that can increase the progress of

Human Knowledge... .. .. . . . .                                               
              104

The number of its inhabitants.. . . . ... . .                                  
              116

The number and condition of the Militia and

Regular Troops, and their Pay.. . .. . ..                                      
            125

The Marine. .. . . .                                                           
                     127

A description of the Indians established in that

State ......................                                                   
                          127

A notice of the counties, cities, townships, and

villages .... .... . .........                                                 
                          146

The constitution of the State and its several

charters ......... .........                                                   
                         148

The administration of Justice and the descrip-

tion of the laws.... . . ... . .                                               
                      179

The Colleges and Public Establishments, the

Roads, Buildings, etc..                                                        
                  208



Contents



NOTES ON VIRGINIA-continued                                                    
  page

The measures taken with regard to the estates

and possessions of the Rebels, commonly

called Tories.. . ... .                                                        
                      215

The different religions received into Virginia...                              
         217

The particular customs and manners that may

happen to be received in Virginia.. ..... ..                                   
            225

The present state of manufactures, commerce,

interior and exterior trade... ..... . . ...                                   
                228

A notice of the commercial productions par-

ticular to the State, and of those objects

which the inhabitants are obliged to get from

Europe and from other parts of the world...                                    
      230

The weights, measures and the currency of the

hard money. Some details relating to ex-

change with Europe.... ..... .........                                         
                235

The public Income and Expenses..... . . ...                                    
        237

The histories of the State, the memorials pub-

lished in its name in the time of its being a

colony, and the pamphlets relating to its

interior or exterior affairs present or ancient.                               
         244

APPENDIX TO NOTES ON VIRGINIA ............                     263-329

No. I. Observations by Charles Thompson..                                      
 263

No. II. Draft of a fundamental Constitution

for the Commonwealth of Virginia.                                              
       281

No.III. An Act for establishing Religious

Freedom, passed in the Assembly

of Virginia in the beginning of year

1786......................                                                     
                      300

No. IV. An Appendix relative to the Mur-

dering of Logan's Family..... . .                                              
             304

No. V. Extract of a Letter from the Hon.

Judge Innes to Thomas Jefferson..                                              
        307

Logan's speech ....................,.                                          
                 308



Contents



APPENDIX TO NOTES ON VIRGINIA-continued                          page

Affidavit of John Gibson .. . . . . . . . . .                                  
              308

Extract of a letter from Col. Ebenezer Zane to

the Hon. John Brown... . .                                                     
             310

Certificate of William Huston.                                                 
            311

Certificate of Jacob Newland.....                                              
          312

Certificate of John Anderson,..                                                
           312

Deposition of James Chambers...                                                
       313

Certificate of David Reddick...                                                
           315

Certificate of Charles Polke...                                                
             315

Declaration of the Honorable Judge Innes.                                      
    316

Declaration of William Robinson..                                              
         316

Deposition of Col. William M'Kee...                                            
       318

Certificate of James Speed, Jr., and J. H. Dewes.                              
 319

Certificate of Hon. Stevens Thompson Mason..                                  
319

Statement of Andrew Rogers in regard to the

speech of Logan to Lord Dunmore....                                            
     319

Declaration of John Heckewelder....                                            
       320

Historical statement... ...                                                    
                 324

Declaration of John Sappington...                                              
         327

Certificate of Samuel M'Kee, Jr...                                             
         329

MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE..                    331-450

Introduction ...... ..                                                         
                    333

The Importance of Adhering to Rules                                            
     335

Legislature ...... .                                                           
                     338

Privilege........ .......                                                      
                      338

Elections ...... .                                                             
                     346

Qualifications ... . . .. .                                                    
                   347

Quorum.                                                                        
                   349

Call of the House.. . . . ....                                                 
                350

Absence ..... .... ...                                                         
                   350

Speaker....... .......                                                         
                    351

Address.......................                                                 
                    352

Committees... .. .. .. . ...                                                   
                  353

Committee of the Whole.. . .                                                   
           354



xlii Contents



 MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY  PRACTICE-Continued          page

Examination of Witnesses.... . . . . . ...                                     
           357

Arrangement of Business..... ... . ... .'..                                    
           359

Order....                                                                      
                     360

Order Respecting Papers.......                                                 
          360

Order in Debate. . . ..                                                        
               361

Orders of the House. . . .. .                                                  
             369

Motions.. .. . .... .. ..                                                      
                   372

Resolutions .. . ........ . . .. ...                                           
                  373

Bills ......................... ...                                            
                       373

Bills, Leave to Bring in.... . ....... ...                                     
              373

Bills, First Reading....... . .... ... .                                       
                374

Bills, Second Reading.... ... .. .. ... .                                      
            375

Bills, Commitments.. .... .. .,.... .. . .                                     
             375

Report of Committee...... .. . . . . . .                                       
           380

Bill, Re-Commitment.. ... . ... ..                                             
           381

Bill, Report Taken Up... ... .. . ... . ...                                    
           382

Quasi Committee. ... .. .. ...... . ...                                        
            383

Bill, Second Reading in the House.. ...                                        
     385

Reading Papers... . . ... . .... .... ..                                       
             387

Privileged Questions...... .. . .. .. ..                                       
            388

The Previous Question:... . . ... ..... ...                                    
          398

Amendments. 401

Division of the Question .. ..... .. .                                         
           406

Co-existing Questions.... .                                                    
           409

Equivalent Questions.... ... . . .... . ..                                     
            410

The Question..                                                                 
               412

Bill, Third Reading .                                                          
              412

Division of the House                                                          
            415

Title .. . . . . , .... . . .... ..                                            
                      421

Bills Sent to the Other House .... ..... .                                     
        424

Amendments between the Houses.,. ....                                          
 425

Conferences.....                                                               
               428



Contents xliii



MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE-Continued         Page

Messages...... ...........                                                     
                432

Assent............. ..............                                             
                   434

Journals..................                                                     
                   435

Adjournment....... .... . .                                                    
               437

A Session......... .......... . .... .                                         
                 439

Treaties .............................                                         
                   441

Impeachment...... .......... . ..                                              
              444



NOTES ON VIRGINIA.



INTRODUCTORY NOTES.







" Notes on Virginia" was written by Jefferson in answer to inquiries propounded
to him by the Marquis de Barbe-Marbois, then Secretary of the French Legation
in Philadelphia. Jefferson had 200 copies privately printed in Paris in 1784
(dated l782) for distribution among his friends in Europe and America. No more
authentic account could be given as to the origin of the "Notes on Virginia"
than the account Jefferson gives us himself in his Autobiography. This account
is as follows:

"Before I had left America, that is to say, in the year of 1781, I had received
a letter from M. de Marbois, of the French legation in Philadelphia, informing
me that he had been instructed by his government to obtain such statistical
accounts of the different States of our Union, as might be useful for their
information; and addressing to me a number of queries relative to the State of
Virginia. I had always made it a practice, whenever an opportunity occurred, of
obtaining any information of our country which might be of use to me in any
station, public or private, to commit it to writing. These memoranda, were on
loose papers, bundled up without order, and difficult of recurrence, when I had
occasion for a particular one. I thought this a good occasion to embody their
substance, which I did in the order of M. Marbois's queries, so as to answer
his wish, and to arrange them for my own use. Some friends, to whom they were
occasionally communicated, wished for copies; but their volume rendering this
too laborious by hand, I proposed to get a few printed for their gratification.
I was asked such a price, however, as exceeded the importance of the object. On
my arrival at Paris, I found it. could be done for a fourth of what I had been
asked here. I, therefore, corrected and enlarged them, and had two hundred
copies printed, under the title of ' Notes on Virginia.' I gave a very few
copies to some particular persons in Europe, and sent the rest to my friends in
America. An European copy, by the death of the owner, got into the hands of a
bookseller, who engaged its translation, and, when ready for the press,
communicated his intentions and manuscript to me, suggesting that I should
correct it without asking any other permission for the publication. I never had
seen so wretched an attempt at translation. Interverted, abridged, mutilated,
and often reversing the sense of the original, I found it a blotch of errors
from



Introductory Notes



beginning to end. I corrected some of the most material, and, in that form, it
was printed in French. A London bookseller, on seeing the translation,
requested me to permit him to print the English original. I thought it best to
do so, to let the world see that it was not really so bad as the French
translation had made it appear. And this is the true history of that
publication."

The English publisher referred to by Jefferson is John Stockdale, who published
an edition of the " Notes on Virginia " in 1787. Jefferson's preface to this
English edition was as follows:

"The following Notes were written in Virginia in the year 1781, and somewhat
corrected and enlarged in the winter of 1782, in answer to queries proposed to
the Author, by a Foreigner of Distinction, then residing among us. The subjects
are all treated imperfectly; some scarcely touched on. To apologize for this by
developing the circumstances of the time and place of their composition, would
be to open wounds which have already bled enough. To these circumstances some
of their imperfections may with truth be ascribed; the great mass to the want.
of information and want of talents in the writer. He had a few copies printed,
which he gave among his friends; and a transition of them has been lately
published in France, but with such alterations as the laws of the press in that
country rendered necessary. They are now offered to the public in their
original form and language."

This edition included three "appendices" that Jefferson added after the
publication of the original edition, and it was the first edition to announce
the name of the author. It was at once reprinted in America, and apparently
without Jefferson's consent. A German translation was issued in 1789. Another
American reprint of the English edition seems to have been made with
Jefferson's consent in 1794. During the years of l797 and 1798 Jefferson wrote
an "Appendix" relative to the murder of Logan's family, which was added to the
edition of l800. All subsequent editions, except that of 1853, are reprints of
the text of 1787, supplemented by the "Appendix" relating to Logan.

Jefferson left at his death a printed copy of his " Notes on Virginia"
containing a revision of the text and many manuscript notes. This copy was
transferred by Jefferson's literary executor, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, to J.
W. Randolph & Co., who based their edition of 1853 on Jefferson's final
revision.

In the preface of this edition the publishers, in contrast to Jefferson's low
estimate of his work, declared that "the beauty of style, the accuracy of
information, and the scientific research displayed in the. `Notes' have made
them a permanent part of our national literature."

JEFFERSON'S WORKS.



 NOTES ON VIRGINIA.







QUERY 1.



An exact description of the limits and boundaries of the State of Virginia?



Virginia is bounded on the east by the Atlantic; on the north by a line of
latitude crossing the eastern shore through Watkin's Point, being about
37degrees 57' north latitude ; from thence by a straight line to Cinquac, near
the mouth of Potomac ; thence by the Potomac, which is common to Virginia and
Maryland, to the first fountain of its northern branch; thence by a meridian
line, passing through that fountain till it intersects a line running east and
west, in latitude 39degrees 43' 42.4" which divides Maryland from Pennsylvania,
and which was marked by Messrs. Mason and Dixon; thence by that line, and a
continuation of it westwardly to the completion of five degrees of longitude
from the eastern boundary of Pennsylvania, in the same latitude, and thence by
a meridian line to the Ohio; on the



 VOL. II-1



Jefferson's Works



west by the Ohio and Mississippi, to latitude 36degrees 30' north, and on the
south by the line of latitude last mentioned. By admeasurement through nearly
the whole of this last line, and supplying the unmeasured parts from good data,
the Atlantic and Mississippi are found in this latitude to be seven hundred and
fifty-eight miles distant, equal to 30degrees 38' of longitude, reckoning
fifty-five miles and three thousand one hundred and forty-four feet to the
degree. This being our comprehension of longitude, that of our latitude, taken
between this and Mason and Dixon's line, is 3degrees 13' 42.4" equal to two
hundred and twenty-three and one-third miles supposing a degree of a great
circle to be sixty-nine miles, eight hundred and sixty-four feet, as computed
by Cassina. These boundaries include an area somewhat triangular of one hundred
and twenty-one thousand five hundred and twenty-five square miles, whereof
seventy-nine thousand six hundred and fifty lie westward of the Alleghany
mountains, and fifty-seven thousand and thirty-four westward of the meridian of
the mouth of the Great Kanhaway. This State is therefore one-third larger than
the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which are reckoned at eighty-eight
thousand three hundred and fifty-seven square miles. These limits result from,
1. The ancient charters from the crown of England. 2. The grant of Maryland to
the Lord Baltimore, and the subsequent determinations of the British court as
to the extent



Notes on Virginia 3



of that grant. 3. The grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn, and a compact
between the general assemblies of the commonwealths of Virginia and
Pennsylvania as to the extent of that grant. 4. The grant of Carolina, and
actual location of its northern boundary, by consent of both parties. 5. The
treaty of Paris of 1763. 6. The confirmation of the charters of the neighboring
States by the convention of Virginia at the time of constituting their
commonwealth. 7. The cession made by Virginia to Congress of all the lands to
which they had title on the north side of the Ohio.







QUERY II.



A notice of its rivers, rivulets, and how far they are navigable?



An inspection of a map of Virginia, will give a better idea of the geography of
its rivers, than any description in writing. Their navigation may be
imperfectly noted. Roanoke, so far as it lies within the State, is nowhere
navigable but for canoes, or light batteaux ; and even for these in such
detached parcels as to have prevented the inhabitants from availing themselves
of it at all. James River, and its waters, afford navigation as follows :



The whole of Elizabeth River, the lowest of those Which run into James River;
is a harbor, and would



4 Jefferson's Works



contain upwards of three hundred ships. The channel is from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred fathoms wide, and at common flood tide affords eighteen
feet water to Norfolk. The Stafford, a sixty gun ship, went there, lightening
herself to cross the bar at Sowel's Point. The Fier Rodrigue, pierced for
sixty-four guns, and carrying fifty, went there without lightening. Craney
Island, at the mouth of this river, commands its channel tolerably well.
Nansemond River is navigable to Sleepy Hole for vessels of two hundred and
fifty tons; to Suffolk for those of one hundred tons; and to Milner's for those
of twenty-five. Pagan Creek affords eight or ten feet water to Smithfield,
which admits vessels of twenty tons. Chickahominy has at its mouth a bar, on
which is only twelve feet water at common flood tide. Vessels passing that, may
go eight miles up the river; those of ten feet draught may go four miles
further, and those of six tons burden twenty miles further. Appomattox may be
navigated as far as Broadways, by any vessel which has crossed Harrison's bar
in James River; it keeps eight or ten feet water a mile or two higher up to
Fisher's bar, and four feet on that and upwards to Petersburg, where all
navigation ceases. James River itself affords a harbor for vessels of any size
in Hampton Road, but not in safety through the whole winter'; and there is
navigable water for



Notes on Virginia 5



them as far as Mulberry Island. A forty gun ship goes to Jamestown, and,
lightening herself, may pass Harrison's bar ; on which there is only fifteen
feet water. Vessels of two hundred and fifty tons may go to Warwick; those of
one hundred and twenty-five go to Rocket's, a mile below Richmond ; from thence
is about seven feet water to Richmond ; and about the centre of the town, four
feet and a half, where the navigation is interrupted by falls, which in a
course of six miles, descend about eighty-eight feet perpendicular ; above
these it is resumed in canoes and batteaux, and is prosecuted safely and
advantageously to within ten miles of the Blue Ridge; and even through the Blue
Ridge a ton weight has been brought; and the expense would not be great, when
compared with its object, to open a tolerable navigation up Jackson's river and
Carpenter's creek, to within twenty-five miles of Howard's creek of Green
Briar, both of which have then water enough to float vessels. into the Great
Kanhaway. In some future state of population I think it possible that its
navigation may also be made to interlock with that of the Potomac, and through
that to communicate by a short portage with the Ohio. It is to be noted that
this river is called in the maps James River, only to its confluence with the
Rivanna ; thence to the Blue Ridge it is called the Fluvanna; and thence to its
source Jackson's river. But in common speech, it is called James River to its
source.



6 Jefferson's Works



The Rivanna, a branch of James River, is navigable for canoes and batteaux to
its intersection with the South-West mountains, which is about twenty-two miles
; and may easily be opened to navigation through these mountains to its fork
above Charlottesville. York River, at Yorktown, affords the best harbor in the
State for vessels of the largest size. The river there narrows to the width of
a mile, and is contained within very high banks, close under which vessels may
ride. It holds four fathom water at high tide for twenty-five miles above York
to the mouth of Poropotank, where the river is a mile and a half wide and the
channel only seventy-five fathom, and passing under a high bank. At the
confluence of Pamunkey and Mattapony, it is reduced to three fathom depth,
which continues up Pamunkey to Cumberland, where the width is one hundred
yards; and up Mattapony to within two miles of Frazier's ferry, where it
becomes two and a half fathom deep, and holds that about five miles. Pamunkey
is then capable of navigation for loaded flats to Brockman's bridge, fifty
miles above Hanover town, and Mattapony to Downer's bridge, seventy miles above
its mouth. Piavckatank, the little rivers making out of Mobjack Bay and those
of the eastern shore, receive only very small vessels, and these can but enter
them. Rappahannock affords four fathom water to Hobb's hole, and two fathom
from thence to Fredericksburg.



Notes on Virginia 7



Potomac is seven and a half miles wide at the mouth ; four and a half at Nomony
bay ; three at Aquia; one and a half at Hallowing point; one and a quarter at
Alexandria. Its soundings are seven fathom at the mouth ; five at St. George's
island ; four and a half at Lower Matchodic ; three at Swan's point, and thence
up to Alexanderia; thence ten feet water to the falls, which are thirteen miles
above Alexandria. These falls are fifteen miles in length, and of very great
descent, and the navigation above them for batteaux and canoes is so much
interrupted as to be little used. It is, however, used in a small degree up the
Cohongoronta branch as far as fort Cumberland, which was at the mouth of Willis
s creek and is capable, at no great expense, of being rendered very
practicable. The Shenandoah branch interlocks with James river about the Blue
Ridge, and may perhaps in future be opened. The Mississippi will be one of the
principal channels of future commerce for the country westward of the
Alleghany. From the mouth of this river to where it receives the Ohio, is one
thousand miles by water, but only five hundred by land, passing through the
Chickasaw country. From the mouth of the Ohio to that of the Missouri, is two
hundred and thirty miles by water, and one hundred and forty by land, from
thence to the mouth of the Illinois river, is about twenty-five miles. The
Mississippi, below the mouth of the Missouri, is always muddy, and abounding
with sand bars, which



8 Jefferson's Works



frequently change their places. However, it carries fifteen feet water to the
mouth of the Ohio, to which place it is from one and a half to two miles wide,
and thence to Kaskaskia from one mile to a mile and a quarter wide. Its current
is so rapid, that it never can be stemmed by the force of the wind alone acting
on sails. Any vessel however, navigated with oars, may come up at any time, and
receive much aid from the wind. A batteau passes from the mouth of Ohio to the
mouth of Mississippi in three weeks, and is from two to three months getting up
again. During its floods, which are periodical as those of the Nile, the
largest vessels may pass down it, if their steerage can be insured. These
floods begin in April, and the river returns into its banks early in August.
The inundation extends further on the western than eastern side, covering the
lands in some places for fifty miles from its banks. Above the mouth of the
Missouri it becomes much such a river as the Ohio, like it clear and gentle in
its current, not quite so wide, the period of its floods nearly the same, but
not rising to so great a height. The streets of the village at Cohoes are not
more than ten feet above the ordinary level of the water, and yet were never
overflowed. Its bed deepens every year. Cohoes, in the memory of many people
now living, was insulated by every flood of the river. What was the eastern
channel has now become a lake, nine miles in length and one in width into which
the river at this day never flows. This



Notes on Virginia 9 

river yields turtle of a peculiar kind, perch, trout, gar, pike, mullets,
herrings, carp, spatula-fish of fifty pounds weight, cat-fish of one hundred
pounds weight, buffalo fish, and sturgeon. Alligators or crocodiles have been
seen as high up as the Acansas. It also abounds in herons, cranes, ducks,
brant, geese, and swans. Its passage is commanded by a fort established by this
State, five miles below the mouth of the Ohio, and ten miles above the Carolina
boundary. The Missouri, since the treaty of Paris, the Illinois and northern
branches of the Ohio, since the cession to Congress, are no longer within our
limits. Yet having been so heretofore, and still opening to us channels of
extensive communication with the western and north-western country, they shall
be noted in their order. The Missouri is, in fact, the principal river,
contributing more to the common stream than does the Mississippi, even after
its junction with the Illinois. It is remarkably cold, muddy, and rapid. Its
overflowings are considerable. They happen during the months of June and July.
Their commencement being so much later than those of the Mississippi, would
induce a belief that the sources of the Missouri are northward of those of the
Mississippi, unless we suppose that the cold increases again with the ascent of
the land from the Mississippi westwardly. That this ascent is great, is proved
by the rapidity of the river. Six miles above the mouth,



10 Jefferson's Works



it is brought within the compass of a quarter of a mile's width; yet the
Spanish merchants at Pancore or St. Louis, say they go two thousand miles up
it. It heads far westward of the Rio Norte, or North River. There is, in the
villages of Kaskaskia, Cohoes, and St. Vincennes, no inconsiderable quantity of
plate, said to have been plundered during the last war by the Indians from the
churches and private houses of Santa Fe, on the North river, and brought to the
villages for sale. From the mouth of the Ohio to Sante Fe are forty days
journey, or about one thousand miles. What is the shortest distance between the
navigable waters of the Missouri, and those of the North river, or how far this
is navigable above Sante Fe, I could never learn. From Santa Fe to its mouth in
the Gulf of Mexico is about twelve hundred miles. The road from New Orleans to
Mexico crosses this river at the post of Rio Norte, eight hundred miles below
Santa Fe and from this post to New Orleans is about twelve hundred miles ; thus
making two thousand miles between Santa Fe and New Orleans; passing down the
North river, Red river, and Mississippi; whereas it is two thousand two hundred
and thirty through the Missouri and Mississippi. From the same post of Rio
Norte, passing near the mines of La Sierra and Laiguana, which are between the
North river, and the river Salina to Sartilla, is three hundred and
seventy-five miles, and from thence, passing the mines of Charcas, Zaccatecas,
and Potosi, to the



Notes on Virginia 11



City of Mexico, is three hundred and seventy-five miles; in all, one thousand
five hundred and fifty miles from Santa Fe to the city of Mexico. From New
Orleans to the city of Mexico is about one thousand nine hundred and fifty
miles ; the roads after setting out from the Red river, near Natchitoches,
keeping generally parallel with the coast, and about two hundred miles from it,
till it enters the city of Mexico. The Illinois is a fine river, clear, gentle,
and without rapids; insomuch that it is navigable for batteaux to its source.
From thence is a portage of two miles only to the Chicago, which affords a
batteau navigation of sixteen miles to its entrance into lake Michigan. The
Illinois, about ten miles above its mouth, is three hundred yards wide. The
Kaskaskia is one hundred yards wide at its entrance into the Mississippi, and
preserves that breadth to the Buffalo plains, seventy miles above. So far,
also, it is navigable for loaded batteaux, and perhaps much further. It is not
rapid. The Ohio is the most beautiful river on earth: Its current gentle,
waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids, a single
instance only excepted. It is one-quarter of a mile wide at Fort Pitt, five
hundred yards at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, one mile and twenty-five
poles at Louisville, onequarter of a mile on the rapids three or four miles
below Louisville, half a mile where the low country



12 Jefferson's Works



begins, which is twenty miles above Green river, a mile and a quarter at the
receipt of the Tennessee, and a mile wide at the mouth. Its length, as measured
according to its meanders by Captain Hutchins, is as follows :From Fort Pitt



To Log's Town .. . . . .         18.5 

Big Beaver Creek .. . .        10.75 

Little Beaver Creek .. .         13.5 

Yellow Creek .. . , , , ,        11.75

Two Creeks. . . . . . . .        21.75 

Long Reach .. . . . . . .                53.75 

End Long Reach .,. . .         16.5 

Muskingum .. . . . . . .         25.5 

Little Kanhaway . . . . .        12.25 

Hockhocking. , , , , , ,         16 

Great Kanhaway. . . .                 82.5 

Guiandot.... . .. . . .                 43.75 

Sandy Creek. . . . . .                 14.5 

Sioto .. . . . . . . . .                 48.25



Little Miami .. ... , ,                 126.25 

Licking Creek. . : . , ,         8 

Great Miami ... , , , ,                 26.75 

Big Bones ... . , " ,                 32.5 

Kentucky .. . . . . . .                 44.25 

Rapids. .. . ... . . .                 77.25 

Low Country .. . . . .                 155.75 

Buffalo River. . .. . . .                64.5 

Wabash.. . . . ... . .                 97.25 

Big Cave .... . ... ...                 42.75 

Shawanee River. . . , , .        52.5 

Cherokee River ..                 13

Massac ..                         11 

Mississippi, . , . , ,                 44

                               ---------------

                                1188 



   In common winter and spring tides it affords fifteen feet water to
Louisville, ten feet to Le Tarte's. rapids, forty miles above the mouth of the
great Kanhaway, and a sufficiency at all times for light batteaux and canoes to
Fort Pitt. The rapids are in latitude 38 degrees 8'. The inundatioris of this
river begin about the last of March, and subside in July. During these, a
first-rate man-of-war may be carried from Louisville to New Orleans, if the
sudden turns of the river and the strength of its current will admit a safe
steerage. The rapids at Louisville descend about thirty feet in a length of a
mile and a half.



Notes on Virginia 13



The bed of the river there is a solid rock, and is divided by an island into
two branches, the southern of which is about two hundred yards wide, and is dry
four months in the year. The bed of the northern branch is worn into channels
by the constant course of the water, and attrition of the pebble stones carried
on with that, so as to be passable for batteaux through the greater part of the
year. Yet it is thought that the southern arm may be the most easily opened for
constant navigation. The rise of the waters in these rapids does not exceed ten
or twelve feet. A part of this island is so high as to have been never
overflowed, arid to command the settlement at Louisville, which is opposite to
I t. The fort, however, is situated at the head of the falls. The ground on the
south side rises very gradually. The Tennessee, Cherokee, or Hogohege river, is
six hundred yards wide at its mouth, a quarter of a mile at the mouth of
Holston, and two hundred yards at Chotee, which is twenty miles above Holston,
and three hundred miles above the mouth of the Tennessee. This river crosses
the southern boundary of Virginia, fifty-eight miles from the Mississippi. Its
current is moderate. It is navigable for loaded boats of any burden to the
Muscle shoals, where the river passes through the Cumberland mountain. These
shoals are six or eight miles long, passable downwards for loaded canoes, but
not upwards, unless there be a swell in the river.



14 Jefferson's Works



Above these the navigation for loaded canoes and batteaux continues to the Long
island. This river has its inundations also. Above the Chickamogga towns is a
whirlpool called the Sucking-pot, which takes in trunks of trees or boats, and
throws them out again half a mile below. It is avoided by keeping very close to
the bank, on the south side. There are but a few miles portage between a branch
of this river and the .navigable waters of the river Mobile, which runs into
the Gulf of Mexico. Cumberland, or Shawanee river, intersects the boundary
between Virginia and North Carolina sixty-seven miles from the Mississippi, and
again one hundred and ninety-eight miles from the same river, a little above
the entrance of Obey's river in to the Cumberland. Its Clear fork crosses the
same boundary about three hundred miles from the Mississippi. Cumberland is a
very gentle stream, navigable for loaded batteaux eight hundred miles, without
interruption ; then intervene some rapids of fifteen miles in length, after
which it is again navigable seventy miles upwards, which brings you within ten
miles of the Cumberland mountains. It is about one hundred and twenty yards
wide through its whole course, from the head of its navigation to its mouth.
The Wabash is a very beautiful river, four hundred yards wide at the mouth, and
three hundred at St. Vincennes, which is a post one hundred miles above the
mouth, in a direct line. Within this



Notes on Virginia 15



space there are two small rapids, which give very little obstruction to the
navigation. It is four hundred yards wide at the mouth, and navigable thirty
leagues upwards for canoes and small boats. From the mouth of Maple river to
that of Eel river is about eighty miles in a direct line, the river continuing
navigable, and from one to two hundred yards in width. The Eel river is one
hundred and fifty yards wide, and affords at all times navigation for
periaguas, to within eighteen miles of the Miami of the Lake. The Wabash, from
the mouth of Eel river to Little river, a distance of fifty miles direct, is
interrupted with frequent rapids and shoals, which obstruct the navigation,
except in a swell. Little river affords navigation during a swell to within
three miles of the Miami, which thence affords a similar navigation into Lake
Erie, one hundred miles distant in a direct line. The Wabash overflows
periodically in. correspondence with the Ohio, and in some places two leagues
from its banks. Green River is navigable for loaded batteaux at all times fifty
miles upwards; but it is then interrupted by impassable rapids, above which the
navigation again commences and continues good thirty or forty miles to the
mouth of Barren river. Kentucky River is ninety yards wide at the mouth, and
also at Boonsborough, eighty miles above. It affords a navigation for loaded
batteaux one hundred and eighty miles in a direct line, in the winter tides.



16 Jefferson's Works



The Great Miami of the Ohio, is two hundred yards wide at the mouth. At the
Piccawee towns, seventy-five miles above, it is reduced to thirty yards; it is,
nevertheless, navigable for loaded canoes fifty miles above these towns. The
portage from its western branch into the Miami of Lake Erie, is five miles;
that from its eastern branch into Sandusky river, is of nine miles. Salt River
is at all times navigable for loaded batteaux seventy or eighty miles. It is
eighty yards wide at its mouth, and keeps that width to its fork, twenty-five
miles above. The Little Miami of the Ohio, is sixty or seventy yards wide at
its mouth, sixty miles to its source, and affords no navigation. The Sioto is
two hundred and fifty yards wide at its mouth, which is in latitude 38 degrees
22', and at the Saltlick towns, two hundred miles above the mouth, it is yet
one hundred yards wide. To these towns it is navigable for loaded batteaux, and
its eastern branch affords navigation almost to its source. Great Sandy River
is about sixty yards wide, and navigable sixty miles for loaded batteaux.
Guiandot is about the width of the river last mentioned, but is more rapid. It
may be navigated by. canoes sixty miles. The Great Kanhaway is a river of
considerable note for the fertility of its lands, and still more, as leading
towards the head waters of James river. Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether
its great and



Notes on Virginia 1



numerous rapids will admit a navigation, but at an expense to which it will
require ages to render its inhabitants equal. The great obstacles begin at what
are called the Great Falls, ninety miles above the mouth, below which are only
five or six rapids, and these passable, with some difficulty, even at low
water. From the falls to the mouth of Greenbriar is one hundred miles, and
thence to the lead mines one hundred and twenty. It is two hundred and eighty
yards wide at its mouth. Hockhocking is eighty yards wide at its mouth, and
yields navigation for loaded batteaux to the Press-place, sixty miles above its
mouth. The Little Kanhaway is one hundred and fifty yards wide at the mouth. It
yields a navigation of ten miles only. Perhaps its. northern branch, called
Junius' creek, which interlocks with the western of Monongahela, may one day
admit a shorter passage from the latter into the Ohio. The Muskingum is two
hundred and eighty yards wide at its mouth, and two hundred yards at the lower
Indian towns, one hundred and fifty miles upwards. It is navigable for small
batteaux to within one mile of a navigable part of Cuyahoga river, which runs
into Lake Erie.



At Fort Pitt the river Ohio loses its name, branching into the Monongahela and
Alleghany.



The Monongahela is four hundred yards wide at its mouth. From thence is twelve
or fifteen miles to the mouth of Yohogany, where it is three hundred



VOL. II-2



18 Jefferson's Works



yards wide. Thence to Redstone by water is fifty miles, by land thirty. Then to
the mouth of Cheat river by water forty miles, by land twenty-eight, the width
continuing at three hundred yards, and the navigation good for boats. Thence
the width is about two hundred yards to the western fork, fifty miles higher,
and the navigation frequently interrupted by rapids, which, however, with a
swell of two or three feet, become very passable for boats. It then admits
light boats, except in dry seasons, sixty-five miles. further to the head of
Tygart's valley, presenting only some small rapids and falls of one or two feet
perpendicular, and lessening it its width to twenty yards. The Western fork is
navigable in the winter ten or fifteen miles towards the northern of the Little
Kanhaway, and will admit a good wagon road to it. The Yohogany is the principal
branch of this river. It passes through the Laurel mountain, about thirty miles
from its mouth; is so far from three hundred to one hundred and fifty yards
wide, and the navigation much obstructed in dry weather by rapids and shoals.
In its passage through the mountain it makes very great falls, admitting no
navigation for ten miles to the Turkey Foot. Thence to the Great Crossing,
about twenty miles, it is again navigable, except in dry seasons, and at this
place is two hundred yards wide. The sources of this river are divided from
those of the Potomac by the Alleghany mountain. From the falls, where it
intersects the Laurel mountain, to



Notes on Virginia 19



Fort Cumberland, the head of the navigation on the Potomac, is forty miles of
very mountainous road. Wills' creek, at the mouth of which was Fort Cumberland,
is thirty or forty yards wide, but affords no navigation as yet. Cheat river,
another considerable branch of the Monongahela, is two hundred yards wide at
its mouth, and one hundred yards at the Dunkard's settlement, fifty miles
higher. It is navigable for boats, except in dry seasons. The boundary between
Virginia and Pennsylvania crosses it about three or four miles above its mouth.



The Alleghany river, with a slight swell, affords navigation for light batteaux
to Venango, at the mouth of French Creek, where it is two hundred yards wide,
and is practiced even to Le Boeuf, from whence there is a portage of fifteen
miles to Presque Isle on the Lake Erie. The country watered by the Mississippi
and its eastern branches, constitutes five-eighths of the United States, two of
which five-eighths are occupied by the Ohio and its waters ; the residuary
streams which run into the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, and the St. Lawrence,
water the remaining three-eighths.



Before we quit the subject of the western waters, we will take a view of their
principal connections with the Atlantic. These are three ; the Hudson river,
the Potomac, and the Mississippi itself. Down the last will pass all heavy
commodities. But the navigation through the Gulf of Mexico is so dangerous, and
that up the Mississippi so difficult and tedious,



20 Jefferson's Works



that it is thought probable that European merchandise will not return through
that channel. It is most likely that flour, timber, and other heavy articles
will be floated on rafts, which will themselves be an article for sale as well
as their loading, the navigators returning by land, or in light batteaux. There
will, therefore, be a competition between the Hudson and Potomac rivers for the
residue of the commerce of all the country westward of Lake Erie, on the waters
of the lakes, of the Ohio, and upper parts of the Mississippi. To go to New
York, that part of the trade which comes from the lakes or their waters, must
first be brought into Lake Erie. Between Lake Superior and its waters and
Huron, are the rapids of St. Mary, which will permit boats to pass, but not
larger vessels. Lakes Huron and Michigan afford communication with Lake Erie by
vessels of eight feet draught. That part of the trade which comes from the
waters of the Mississippi must pass from them through some portage into the
waters of the lakes. The portage from the Illinois river into a water of
Michigan is of one mile only. From the Wabash, Miami, Muskingum, or Alleghany,
are portages into the waters of Lake Erie, of from one to fifteen miles. When
the commodities are brought into, and have passed through Lake Erie, there is
between that and Ontario an interruption by the falls of Niagara, where the
portage is of eight miles; and between Ontario and the Hudson river are
portages at the falls of Onondago, a little above



Notes on Virginia 21



Oswego, of a quarter of a mile; from Wood creek to the Mohawks river two miles
; at the little falls of the Mohawks river half a mile; and from Schenectady to
Albany sixteen miles. Besides the increase of expense occasioned by frequent
change of carriage, there is an increased risk of pillage produced by
committing merchandise to a greater number of hands successively. The Potomac
offers itself under the following circumstances: For the trade of the lakes and
their waters westward of Lake Erie, when it shall have entered that lake, it
must coast along its southern shore, on account of the number and excellence of
its harbors ; the northern, though shortest, having few harbors, and these
unsafe. Having reached Cuyahoga, to proceed on to New York it will have eight
hundred and twenty-five miles and five portages; whereas it is but four hundred
and twenty-five miles to Alexandria, its emporium on the Potomac, if it turns
into the Cuyahoga, and passes through that, Big Beaver, Ohio, Yohogany, (or
Monongahela and Cheat,) and Potomac, and there are but two portages ; the first
of which, between Cuyahoga and Beaver, may be removed by uniting the sources of
these waters, which are lakes in the neighborhood of each other, and in a
champaign country; the other from the waters of Ohio to Potomac will be from
fifteen to forty miles, according to the trouble which shall be taken to
approach the two navigations. For the trade of the Ohio, or that which shall
come into it from its own waters



22 Jefferson's Works



or the Mississippi, it is nearer through the Potomac to Alexandria than to New
York by five hundred and eighty miles, and it is interrupted by one portage
only. There is another circumstance of difference, too. The lakes themselves
never freeze, but the communications between them freeze, and the Hudson river
is itself shut up by the ice three months in the year ; whereas the channel to
the Chesapeake leads directly into a warmer climate. The southern parts of it
very rarely freeze at all, and whenever the northern do, it is so near the
sources of the rivers, that the frequent .floods to which they are there
liable, break up the ice immediately, so that vessels may pass through the
whole winter, subject only to accidental and short delays.' Add to all this,
that in case of war with our neighbors, the Anglo-Americans or the Indians, the
route to New York becomes a frontier through almost its whole length, and all
commerce through it ceases from that moment. But the channel to New York is
already known to practice, whereas the' upper waters of the Ohio and the
Potomac, and the great falls of the latter, are yet to be cleared of their
fixed obstructions. See Appendix (A.)







QUERY III.



A notice of the best Seaports of the State, and how big are the vessels they
can receive? Having no ports but our rivers and creeks, this Query has been
answered under the preceding one.



Notes on Virginia 23



 QUERY IV.



A notice of its Mountains?



For the particular geography of our mountains I must refer to Fry and
Jefferson's map of Virginia; and to Evans' analysis of this map of America, for
a more philosophical view of them than is to be found in any other work. It is
worthy of notice, that our mountains are not solitary and scattered confusedly
over the face of the country ; but that they commence at about one hundred and
fifty miles from the sea-coast, are disposed in ridges, one behind another,
running nearly parallel with the sea-coast, though rather approaching it as
they advance northeastwardly. To the south-west, as the tract of country
between the sea-coast and the Mississippi be= comes narrower, the mountains
converge into a single ridge, which, as it approaches the Gulf of Mexico,
subsides into plain country, and gives rise to some of the waters of that gulf,
and particularly to a river called the Apalachicola, probably from the
Apalachies, an Indian nation formerly residing on it. Hence the mountains
giving rise to that river, and seen from its various parts, were called the
Apalachian mountains, being in f act the end or termination only of the great
ridges passing through the continent. European geographers, however, extended
the name northwardly as far as the mountains extended; some giving it, after
their separation into different ridges, to the Blue Ridge, others

Jefferson's Works



to the North Mountain, others to the Alleghany, others to the Laurel Ridge, as
may be seen by their different maps. But the fact I believe is, that none of
these ridges were ever known by that name to the inhabitants, either native or
emigrant, but as they saw them so called in European maps. In the same
direction, generally, are the veins of limestone, coal, and other minerals
hitherto discovered; and. so range the falls of our great rivers. But the
courses of the great rivers are at right angles with these. James and Potomac
penetrate through all the ridges of mountains eastward of the Alleghany; that
is, broken by no water course. It is in fact the spine of the country between
the Atlantic on one side, and the Mississippi and St. Lawrence on the other.
The passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge is, perhaps, one of the most
stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land. On your
right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain an
hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Potomac, in quest of
a passage also. In the moment of their junction, they rush together against the
mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. The first glance of this
scene hurries our senses into the opinion, that this earth has been. created in
time, that the mountains were formed first, that the rivers began to flow
afterwards, that in this place, particularly, they have been dammed up by the
Blue Ridge of mountains, and have formed



Notes on Virginia 25



an ocean which filled the whole valley; that continuing to rise they have at
length broken over at this spot, and have torn the mountain down from its
summit to its base. The piles of rock on each hand, but particularly on the
Shenandoah, the evident marks of their disrupture and avulsion from their beds
by the most powerful agents of nature, corroborate the impression. But the
distant finishing which nature has given to the picture, is of a very different
character. It is a true contrast to the foreground. It is as placid and
delightful as that is wild and tremendous. For the mountain being cloven
asunder, she presents to your eve, through the cleft, a small catch of smooth
blue horizon, at an infinite distance in the plain country, inviting you, as it
were, from the riot and tumult roaring around, to pass through the breach and
participate of the calm below. Here the eye ultimately composes itself ; and
that way, too, the road happens actually to lead. You cross the Potomac above
the junction, pass along its side through the base of the mountain for three
miles, its terrible precipices hanging in fragments over you, and within about
twenty miles reach Fredericktown, and the fine country round that. This scene
is worth a voyage across the Atlantic. Yet here, as in the neighborhood of the
Natural Bridge, are people who have passed their lives within half a dozen
miles, and have never been to survey these monuments of a war between rivers
and mountains, which must have shaken the earth itself to its centre. See
Appendix (B.)



26 Jefferson's Works



The height of our mountains has not yet been estimated with any degree of
exactness. The Alleghany being the great ridge which divides the waters of the
Atlantic from those of the Mississippi, its summit is doubtless more elevated
above the ocean than that of any other mountain. But its relative height,
compared with the base on which it stands, is not so great as that of some
others, the country rising behind the successive ridges like the steps of
stairs. The mountains of the Blue Ridge, and of these the Peaks cf Otter, are
thought to be of a greater height, measured from their base, than any others in
our country, and perhaps in North America. From data, which may found a
tolerable conjecture, we suppose the highest peak to be about four thousand
feet perpendicular, which is not a fifth part of the height of the mountains of
South America, nor one-third of the height which would be necessary in our
latitude to preserve ice in the open air unmelted through the year. The ridge
of mountains next beyond the Blue Ridge, called by us the North mountain; is of
the greatest extent; for which reason they were named by the Indians the
endless mountains. A substance supposed to be Pumice, found floating on the
Mississippi, has induced a conjecture that there is a volcano on some of its
waters; and as these are mostly known to their sources, except the Missouri,
our expectations of verifying the conjecture would of course be led to the
mountains which divide the waters of the Mexican Gulf from those of the



Notes on Virginia 27



South Sea ; but no volcano having ever yet been known at such a distance from
the sea, we must rather suppose that this floating substance has been
erroneously deemed Pumice.







QUERY V.



Its Cascades and Caverns? The only remarkable cascade in this country is that
of the Falling Spring in Augusta. It is a water of James' river where it is
called Jackson's river, rising in the warm spring mountains, about twenty miles
southwest of the warm spring, and flowing into that v alley. About
three-quarters of a mile from its source it falls over a rock two hundred feet
into the valley below. The sheet of water is broken in its breadth by the rock,
in two or three places, but not at all in its height. Between the sheet and the
rock, at the bottom, you may walk across dry. This cataract will bear no
comparison with that of Niagara as to the quantity of water composing it; the
sheet being only twelve or fifteen feet wide above and somewhat more spread
below; but it is half as high again, the latter being only one hundred and
fifty-six feet, according to the mensuration made by order of M. Vaudreuil,
Governor of Canada, and one hundred and thirty according to a more recent
account. In the lime-stone country there are many caverns of very considerable
extent. The most noted is called Madison's Cave, and is on the north side of



28 Jefferson's Works



the Blue Ridge, near the intersection of the Rockingham and Augusta line with
the south fork of the southern river of Shenandoah. It is in a hill of about
two hundred feet perpendicular height, the ascent of which, on one side is so
steep that you may pitch a biscuit from its summit into the river which washes
its base. The entrance of the cave is in this side about two-thirds of the way
up. It extends into the earth about three hundred feet, branching into
subordinate caverns, sometimes ascending a little, but more generally
descending, and at length terminates, in two different places, at basons of
water of unknown extent, and which I should judge to be nearly on a level with
the water



Notes on Virginia 29



of the river; however, I do not think they are formed by refluent water from
that, because they are never turbid; because they do not rise and fall in
correspondence with that in times of flood or of drought ; and because the
water is always cool.' It is probably one of the many reservoirs with which the
interior parts of the earth are supposed to abound, and yield supplies to the
fountains of water, distinguished from others only by being accessible. The
vault of this cave is of solid lime-stone, from twenty to forty or fifty feet
high; through which water is continually percolating. This, trickling down the
sides of the cave, has incrusted them over in the form of elegant drapery; and
dripping from the top of the vault generates on that and on the base below,
stalactites of a conical form, some of which have met and formed massive
columns. Another of these caves is near the North mountain, in the county of
Frederic, on the lands of Mr. Zane. The entrance into this is on the top of an
extensive ridge. You descend thirty or forty feet, as into a well, from whence
the cave extends, nearly horizontally, four hundred feet into the earth,
preserving a breadth of from twenty to fifty feet, and a height of from five to
twelve feet. After entering this cave a few feet, the mercury, which in the
open air was 50 degrees, rose to 57 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer,
answering to 11 degrees of Reaumur's, and it continued at that to the remotest
parts of the cave. The uniform temperature of the cellars of the observa-



30 Jefferson's Works



tory of Paris, which are ninety feet deep, and of all subterraneous cavities of
any depth, where no chemical agencies may be supposed to produce a factitious
heat, has been found to be 10 degrees of Reaumur, equal to 54.5 degrees of
Fahrenheit. The temperature of the cave above mentioned so nearly corresponds
with this, that the difference may be ascribed to a difference of instruments.
At the Panther gap, in the ridge which divides the waters of the Crow and the
Calf pasture, is what is called the Blowing Cave. It is in the side of a hill,
is of about one hundred feet diameter, and emits constantly a current of air of
such force as to keep the weeds prostrate to the distance of twenty yards
before it. This current is strongest in dry, frosty weather, and in long spells
of rain weakest. Regular inspirations and expirations of air, by caverns and
fissures, have been probably enough accounted for by supposing them combined
with intermitting fountains; as they must of course inhale air while their
reservoirs are emptying themselves, and again emit it while they are filling.
But a constant issue of air, only varying in its force as the weather is drier
or damper, will require a new hypothesis. There is another blowing cave in the
Cumberland mountain, about a mile from where it crosses the Carolina line. All
we know of this is, that it is not constant, and that a fountain of water
issues from it. The Natural Bridge, the most sublime of nature's works, though
not comprehended under the present



Notes on Virginia 31



head, must not be pretermitted. It is on the ascent of a hill, which seems to
have been cloven through its length by some great convulsion. The fissure, just
at the bridge, is, by some admeasurement, two hundred and seventy feet deep, by
others only two hundred and five. It is about forty-five feet wide at the
bottom and ninety feet at the top ; this of course determines the length of the
bridge, and its. height from the water. Its breadth in the middle is about
sixty feet, but more at the ends, and the thickness of the mass, at the summit
of the arch, about forty feet. A part of this thickness is constituted by a
coat of earth, which gives growth to many large trees. The residue, with the
hill on both sides, is one solid rock of lime-stone. The arch approaches the
semi-elliptical form; but the larger axis of the ellipsis, which would be the
cord of the arch, is many times longer than the transverse. Though the sides of
this bridge are provided in some parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet few
men have resolution to walk to them, and look over into the abyss. You
involuntarily fall on your hands and feet, creep to the parapet, and peep over
it. Looking down from this height about a minute, gave me a violent head-ache.
If the view from the top be painful and intolerable, that from below is
delightful in an equal extreme. It is impossible for the emotions arising from
the sublime to be felt beyond what they are here; so beautiful an arch, so
elevated, so light, and springing as it were up to heaven ! The



32 Jefferson's Works



rapture of the spectator is really indescribable! The fissure continuing
narrow, deep, and straight, for a considerable distance above and below the
bridge, opens a short but very pleasing view of the North mountain on one side
and the Blue Ridge on the other, at the distance each of them of about five
miles. This bridge is in the county of Rockbridge, to which it has given name,
and affords a public and coininodious passage over a valley which cannot be
crossed elsewhere for a considerable distance. The stream passing under it is
called Cedar creek. It is a water of James' river, and sufficient in the driest
seasons to turn a grist-mill, though its fountain is not more than two miles
above.(l)



____________



(1) Don Ulloa mentions a break, similar to this, in the province of Angaraez,
in South America. It is from sixteen to twenty-two feet wide, one hundred and
eleven feet deep, and of 1.3 miles continuance, English measure. Its breadth at
top is not sensibly greater than at bottom. But the following fact is
remarkable, and will furnish some light for conjecturing the probable origin of
our natural bridge. "Esta caxa, 6 cauce esta cortada en pena viva con tanta
precision, que las desigualdades del un lado entrantes, corresponden a las del
otro lado salientes, como si aquella altura se hubiese abierto expresamente,
con sus bueltas y tortuosidades, para darle transito a los aguas por entre los
dos morallones que la forman; siendo tal su igualdad, que si Ilegasen a
juntarse se endentarian uno con otro sin dextar hueco." Not. Amer. ii. º 10.
Don Ulloa inclines to the opinion that this channel has been effected by the
wearing of the water which runs through it, rather than that the mountain
should have been broken open by any convulsion of nature. But if it had been
worn by the running of water, would not the rocks which form the sides, have
been worn plain? or if, meeting in some parts with veins of harder stone, the
water had left prominences on the one side, would not the same cause, have
sometimes, or. perhaps generally, occasioned prominences on the other side
also? Yet Don Ulloa tells us, that on the other side there are always
corresponding cavities, and that these tally with the prominences so per

__________

Notes on Virginia 33



 QUERY VI.



A notice of the mines and other subterraneous riches; its trees, plants,
fruits, etc. I knew a single instance of gold found in this State. It was
interspersed in small specks through a lump of ore of about four pounds weight;
which yielded seventeen pennyweights of gold, of extraordinary ductility. This
ore was found on the north side of Rappahanoc; about four miles below the
falls. I never heard of any other indication of gold in its neighborhood. On
the Great Kanhaway, opposite to the mouth of Cripple creek, and about
twenty-five miles from our southern boundary, in the county of Montgomery, are
mines of lead. The metal is mixed, sometimes with earth, and sometimes with
rock, which requires the force of gunpowder to open it; and is accompanied with
a portion of silver too small to be worth separation under any process hitherto
attempted there. The proportion yielded is from fifty to eighty pounds of pure
metal from ono hun-







___________



fectly, that, were the two sides to come together they would fit in all their
indentures, without leaving any void. I think that this does not resemble the
effect of running water, but looks rather as if the two sides had parted
asunder. The sides of the break, over which is the natural bridge of Virginia,
consisting of a veiny rock which yields to time, the correspondence between the
salient and re-entering inequalities, if it existed at all, has now
disappeared. This break has the advantage of the one described by Don Ulloa in
its finest circumstance; no portion in that instance having held together,
during the separation of the other parts, so as to form a bridge over the
abyss.

__________



VOL. II-3



34 Jefferson's Works



dred pounds of washed ore. The most common is that of sixty to one hundred
pounds. The veins are sometimes most flattering, at others they disappear
suddenly and totally. They enter the side of the hill and proceed horizontally.
Two of them are wrought at present by the public, the best of which is one
hundred yards under the hill. These would employ about fifty laborers to
advantage. We have not, however, more than thirty generally, and these
cultivate their own corn. They have produced sixty tons of lead in the year;
but the general quantity is from twenty to twenty-five tons. The present
furnace is a mile from the ore bank and on the opposite side of the river. The
ore is first wagoned to the river, a quarter of a mile, then laden on board of
canoes and carried across the river, which is there about two hundred yards
wide, and then again taken into wagons and carried to the furnace. This mode
was originally adopted that they might avail themselves of a good situation on
a creek for a pounding mill; but it would be easy to have the furnace and
pounding mill on the same side of the river, which would yield water, without
any dam, by a canal of about half a mile in length. From the furnace the lead
is .,transported one hundred and thirty miles along a good road, leading
through the peaks of Otter to Lynch's ferry, or Winston's on James' river, from
whenee it is carried by water about the same distance to Westham. This land
carriage may be greatly shortened, by delivering the



Notes on Virginia 35



lead on James' river, above the Blue Ridge, from whence a ton weight has been
brought on two canoes. The Great Kanhaway has considerable falls in the
neighborhood of the mines. About seven miles below are three falls, of three or
four feet perpendicular each; and three miles above is a rapid of three miles
continuance, which has been compared in its descent to the great falls of
James' river. Yet it is the opinion, that they may be laid open for useful
navigation, so as to reduce very much the portage between the Kanhaway and
James' river. A valuable lead mine is said to have been lately discovered in
Cumberland, below the mouth of Red river. The greatest, however, known in the
western country, are on the Mississippi, extending from the mouth of Rock river
one hundred and fifty miles upwards. These are not wrought, the lead used in
that country being from the banks on the Spanish side of the Mississippi,
opposite to Kaskaskia. A mine of copper was once opened in the county of
Amherst, on the north side of James' river, and another in the opposite
country, on the south side. However, either from bad management or the poverty
of the veins, they were discontinued. We are told of a rich mine of native
copper on the Ouabache, below the upper Wiaw. The mines of iron worked at
present are Callaway's, Ross's, and Ballendine's, on the south side of James'
river; Old's on the north side, in Albe- marle; Miller's in Augusta, and Zane's
in Frederic.



36 Jefferson's Works



These two last are in the valley between the Blue Ridge and North mountain.
Callaway's, Ross's, Miller's, and Zane's make about one hundred and fifty tons
of bar iron each, in the year. Ross's makes also about sixteen hundred tons. of
pig iron annually; Ballendine's one thousand; Callaway's, Miller's, and Zane's,
about six hundred each. Besides these, a forge of Mr. Hunter's, at
Fredericksburg, makes about three hundred tons a year of bar iron, from pigs
imported from Maryland; and Taylor's forge on Neapsco of Potomac, works in the
same way, but to what extent I am not informed. The indications of iron in
other places are numerous, and dispersed through all the middle country. The
toughness of the cast iron of Ross's and Zane's furnaces is very remarkable.
Pots and other utensils, cast thinner than usual, of this iron, may be safely
thrown into, or out of the wagons in which they are transported. Salt-pans made
of the same, and no longer wanted for that purpose, cannot be broken up, in
order to be melted again, unless previously drilled in many parts. In the
western country, we are told of iron mines between the Muskingum and Ohio ; of
others on Kentucky, between the Cumberland and Barren rivers, between
Cumberland and Tennessee, on Reedy creek, near the Long Island, and on Chestnut
creek, a branch of the Great Kanhaway, near where it crosses the Carolina line.
What are called the iron banks, on the Mississippi, are believed, by a



Notes on Virginia 37



good judge, to have no iron in them. In general, from what is hitherto known of
that country, it seems to want iron. Considerable quantities of black lead are
taken occasionally for use from Winterham in the county of Amelia. I am not
able, however, to give a particular state of the mine. There is no work
established at it; those who want, going and procuring it for themselves. The
country on James' river, from fifteen to twenty miles above Richmond, and for
several miles northward and southward, is replete with mineral coal of a very
excellent quality. Being in the hands of many proprietors, pits have been
opened, and, before the interruption of our commerce, were worked to an extent
equal to the demand. In the western country coal is known to be in so many
places, as to have induced an opinion, that the whole tract between the Laurel
mountain, Mississippi, and Ohio, yields coal. It is also known in many places
on the north side of the Ohio. The coal at Pittsburg is of very superior
quality. A bed of it at that place has been a-fire since the year 1765. Another
coal-hill on the Pike-run of Monongahela has been a-fire ten years; yet it has
burnt away about twenty yards only. I have known one instance