226 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



that its final adoption was hastened by the heat and the swarms 

 of flies from a nearby stable that literally drove the delegates 

 from the room. He was on the committee that suggested the 

 "E pluribus unum" motto for the newly founded federation. 



After the declaration he returned to Virginia where he actively 

 set about the reforms necessary to make that colony conform 

 to the spirit of the July 4th document. He refused a commis- 

 sionership to Paris in company with FRANKLIN and DEANE, in 

 order to prosecute this work. As a legislator he secured the 

 laws holding Virginia lands in fee simple and permitting their 

 sale for debt and he divorced the church and state, declaring 

 the "government has nothing to do with opinion," and "it is 

 error alone which needs the support of government; truth can 

 stand by itself." He devised the system of courts of law and 

 prescribed their powers and methods; he caused the removal 

 of the capitol to Richmond; he extirpated the law of primogeni- 

 ture; he abolished the cruel punishments of the ancient code; 

 and he made the beginnings of a system of public education. 

 In 1779 he was elected Governor and managed the colony during 

 the difficult days of the GATES and CORNWALLIS campaigns. 



In 1783 he was elected to Congress where he assisted in the 

 adoption of the decimal system for currency. The following 

 year he was sent to Paris and in 1785 succeeded FRANKLIN as 

 chief plenipotentiary. The^ wrongs of the French peasants bore 

 bitterly into his heart and made him ever thereafter an unswerv- 

 ing democrat. He successfully endeavored to break the French 

 protective tariff and open up her markets to American agricul- 

 tural products, and he sent to America seeds, roots, nuts, and 

 information of agricultural importance. He became acquainted 

 with the naturalist BUFFON, and supplied him with American 

 zoological specimens, at the same time developing a facility in 

 osteology and palaeontology that made him a real contributor 

 to the science of fossils on his return to America. 



