urged the healthiness of the spot, its central position, equally secure from attacks from the east and the west, and that the prisoners themselves would be deprived of those comforts which they had now gathered around them.

A part of this document seems to deserve transcribing, not only for its liberal sentiments, in strict accordance with its author's conduct towards the prisoners, but also for the pleasing picture it exhibits of the efforts made by the troops to beguile the tedium of inaction, and the irksomeness of captivity.

"It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war as much as possible. The practice, therefore, of modern nations of treating captive enemies with politeness and generosity, is not only delightful in contemplation, but really interesting to all the world, friends, foes, and neutrals. Let us apply this: the officers, after considerable hardships, have all procured quarters, comfortable and satisfactory to them. In order to do this, they were obliged, in many instances, to hire houses for a year, certain, and at such exorbitant rents, as were sufficient to tempt independent owners to go out of them, and shift as they could. These houses, in most cases, were much out of repair. They have repaired them at a considerable expense. One of the general officers has taken a place for two years, advanced the rent for the whole time, and been obliged, moreover, to erect additional buildings, for the accommodation of a part of his family, for which there was not room in the house rented. Independent of the brick work, for the carpentry of these additional buildings, I know he is to pay fifteen hundred dollars. The same gentleman, to my knowledge, has paid to one person three thousand six hundred and seventy dollars, for different articles, to fix himself commodiously. They have, generally, laid in their stocks of grain, and other provisions; for it is well known that officers do not live on their rations. They have purchased cows, sheep, &c.; set into farming; prepared their gardens, and have a prospect of quiet and comfort before them. To turn to the soldiers-the environs of the barracks are delightful, the ground cleared, laid off in hundreds of gardens, each inclosed in its separate paling; these well prepared, and

exhibiting a fine appearance. General Reidésel alone laid out upwards of two hundred pounds in garden seeds for the German troops only. Judge what an extent of ground these seeds would cover. There is little doubt, that their own gardens will furnish them with a great abundance of vegetables through the year. Their poultry, pigeons, and other preparations of that kind, present to the mind the idea of a company of farmers, rather than a camp of soldiers. In addition to the barracks built for them by the public, and now very comfortable, they have built great numbers for themselves, in such messes as fancied each other; and the whole corps, both officers and men, seem now happy and satisfied with their situation. Having thus found the art of rendering captivity itself comfortable, and carried it into execution, at their own great expense and labour, their spirits sustained by the prospect of gratifications rising before their eyes, does not every sentiment of humanity revolt against the proposition of stripping them of all this, and removing them into new situations, where, from the advanced season of the year, no preparations can be made for carrying themselves comfortably through the heats of summer; and when it is known that the necessary advances for the conveniences already provided, have exhausted their funds, and left them unable to make the like exertions anew?"

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CHAPTER VI.

Mr. Jefferson elected Governor of Virginia. Difficulties of his situation. George Rogers Clarke. Retaliation on Governor Hamilton and others. Its effects. Claims of Virginia to the Western Territory. Resisted by other States. Her cession of the Territory. Difficulty of providing military supplies and of transporting them. Arnold's predatory incursion. Its success explained. Abortive attempts to capture Arnold. Invasion under Phillips and Arnold. Their operations. Correspondence between the Governor and General Phillips. Meeting of the Legislature. It adjourns to Charlottesville. Lord Cornwallis invades Virginia. The Governor declines a re-election. His motives. Tarlton detached to Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson and the members of Assembly narrowly escape capture.

1779-1781.

BUT Mr. Jefferson was now about to enter on a new field of public service, for some of the duties of which he was little qualified by his previous habits and pursuits. On the 1st of June he was elected Governor of the state; Mr. Henry having served as long as the Constitution allows. It was not, however, an uncontested honour, as his friend, Mr. Page, was his competitor. This gentleman had been a member of the Council of State under the regal government; but as, on the breaking out of the disturbances, he had taken sides with his country, he had thereby acquired great popularity, and the greater, from the contrast which his course presented to that of some of his associates. It is gratifying to know, that the delicate position in which Mr. Jefferson and he were now placed by others, produced no interruption to their friendship.

It was, however, for the time, painful and embarrassing to

both. Mr. Page wrote to Mr. Jefferson on the occasion, in a style suited to his amiable and disinterested character, and Mr. Jefferson, in reply, expressed lively regret that the zeal of their respective friends should have ever placed them "in the situation of competitors;" but he adds, "I am comforted, however, with the reflection that it was their competition, not ours, and that the difference of the numbers which decided between us, was too insignificant to give you a pain, or me a pleasure, had our disposition towards each other been such as to admit those sensations."

Mr. Page was a member of the first Congress, under the new Constitution, and in 1822, succeeded Mr. Munroe, as Governor of Virginia, in which office he continued the constitutional term of three years.

At the age then of thirty-six, Mr. Jefferson, who had already so signalized himself as a legislator and jurist, was about to test his talents for executive duties. The period when he was thus called upon to act was one of peculiar difficulty. In the beginning of the year 1779, there was an evident relaxation, on the part of the states, from their former efforts to carry on the war. This was not owing to any cooling of their ardour in the cause of independence, nor yet to the continued pressure of heavy taxation; but to a too sanguine reliance on the recent treaty with France, as well as the known favourable dispositions of other European powers; and, naturally overrating their results, they considered the war as almost virtually terminated. The evil was not despondence, but too confident security. Congress partook somewhat of the popular languor which was thus produced, and the requisitions of General Washington met with a tardy and inadequate compliance. These untoward circumstances, as the Commander-in-chief had foreseen, were perceived by the enemy, and he determined to avail himself of them by a vigorous campaign in the South.

It was on this occasion that General Washington, in a letter to a friend in Virginia, thus expresses himself: "I have seen, without despondency, even for a moment, the hours which America has styled her gloomy ones; but I have beheld no day,

since the commencement of hostilities, when I have thought her liberties in such imminent danger as at present."

He afterwards adds, "let this voice, my dear sir, call upon you, Jefferson, and others. Do not, from a mistaken opinion, that we are to sit down under our vine, and under our own fig tree, let our hitherto noble struggle end in ignominy. Believe me, when I tell you, there is danger of it. I have pretty good reasons for thinking that the administration, a little while ago, had resolved to give the matter up, and negotiate a peace with us upon almost any terms; but I shall be much mistaken, if they do not now, from the present state of our currency, dissentions, and other circumstances, push matters to the utmost extremity. Nothing, I am sure, will prevent it, but the interruption of Spain, and their disappointed hope from Russia."

The British Commissioners, who conducted the war, having determined to transfer the theatre of its operations to the South, Georgia was accordingly invaded in the latter end of 1778, and reduced to submission. While the British were following up their success by marching into South Carolina, General Matthews made a descent on the south-eastern part of Virginia. But the object of this incursion, being merely plunder and the destruction of stores and shipping, began and ended in the month of May, before Mr. Jefferson's administration commenced. From that time, until 1781, Virginia seems not to have been the scene of active hostilities, and the military duties of the Governor had been limited to the raising and equipping the quota of troops which the state was required to furnish to the general army-duties of no very easy execution, at that period; but in the discharge of which, Governor Jefferson appears to have exhibited the requisité activity, judgment, and decision.

One of the first occasions in which he was called upon to exercise his executive functions, was to retaliate on some British prisoners the cruelties they were said to have stimulated the Indians to perpetrate on the western frontier, and had even practised themselves.

Some time in the previous year, an expedition had been proposed and undertaken by George Rogers Clarke, against a mili