60S 



JEAN I. 



JEFFERSON", THOMAS. 



606 





now and very accurate edition, with notes and a Latin translation, 

 edited by Lassen, was published at Bonn, 1836. 



JEAN I., a posthumous son of Louis X. (Hutin), was born in 1316, 

 and lived only eight days, but is numbered in the chronological order 

 of kings. At his death his uncle and regent Philippe le Long assumed 

 the title of Philippe V. 



JEAN II., son of Philippe de Valoia and of Jeanne of Burgundy, 

 ascended the throne upon his father's death in 1350. At the beginning 

 of his reign he caused Raoul, high constable of France, to be beheaded 

 without trial, on a suspicion of treason, and he afterwards invited King 

 Charles of Navarre, with whom he had some differences, to an interview 

 at Uouen, and there arrested him and put to death several lords of his 

 suite. The brother of the King of Navarre and the relatives of the 

 murdered lords applied to Edward III. of England for assistance. In 

 1355, Edward sent his son tbe Black Prince into France at the head of 

 an army. After ravaging several provinces the Black Prince was met 

 by King Jean near Poitiers, who with 80,000 men attacked the English, 

 10,000 in number, on the 19th of September 1356: the French were 

 completely defeated, and Jean, after displaying much personal bravery 

 and being wounded, was taken prisoner and conducted to London, 

 where h 1 * was received by King Edward with great honour. Negocia- 

 tions followed : Edward offered to renounce his assumed claim to the 

 French crown on condition of being acknowledged as absolute sovereign 

 of NormanHy, Guienne, Calais, and other lands which had been held 

 in fief by the former kings of England. Jean wanted to gain time, 

 but meanwhile his own country fell into a stnte of horrible anarchy. 

 The citizens of Paris revolted against the Dauphin Charles, and drove 

 him out of Paris, and soon after the peasants or serfs, so long oppressed 

 and brutalised by the feudal nobility, broke out into insurrection, 

 plundered and burnt the castles of the nobles, and massacred all within 

 them, men, women, and children, with circumstances of frightful 

 atrocity. This servile war, called La Jacquerie, from Jacques Bon- 

 homme, the nickname given in derision to the French peasantry, lasted 

 during the years 1357 and 1358, until the Dauphin and other great 

 lords, having collected their forces, fell upon the peasants and massa- 

 cred them by thousands, without giving any quarter. In May 1360, 

 peace was concluded at Bretigny between France and England, Edward 

 giving up hU claims to Normandy and France, and assuming the title 

 of sovereign Lord of Aquitaine, with the consent of the Dauphin, who 

 promised to pay a large ransom for his father. Jean was then restored 

 to liberty, but he found so great an opposition among his nobles to 

 the fulfilment of the conditions of the treaty, and was perhaps also 

 made so uncomfortable by the confusion and wretchedness which 

 prevailed in France, that he resolved, to the great astonishment of his 

 courtiers, to return to England, to confer with Edward upon what was 

 to be done. On arriving in London he took up his old quarters in the 

 Savoy, and was received in the most friendly manner by Edward. He 

 soon after fell dangerously ill, and died in London, hi April, 1364. 

 He was succeeded in France by his son Charles V. 



JEFFERSON, THOMAS, was born April 2, 1743, at Shadwell.now 

 in the county of Albemarle, in Virginia. He was educated at the 

 college of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, then the capital of the 

 colony, where, under Dr. Small, a native of Scotland, who was pro- 

 fessor of mathematics in the college, he studied mathematics, ethics, 

 and other branches of knowledge, and in addition to his general acquire- 

 ments, he made himself well acquainted with the best Greek and Latin 

 writers, and to the end of his long life retained his ability to read 

 them. Mr. Jefferson studied law under Mr. Wythe, then a lawyer of 

 eminence. He made his first appearance at the bar of tbe General 

 Court in 1767, at the age of twenty-four, about two years after the 

 misunderstanding between Great Britain and the colonies had com- 

 menced. He practised for seven or eight years in the General Court, 

 and was gradually rising to the first rank as an accurate and able 

 lawyer, when he was called away to more important duties by the 

 political events that preceded the American Revolution. In 1769 he 

 was elected a member of the House of Burgesses for the county of 

 Albemarle. In the session of this spring the house unanimously came 

 to resolutions in opposition to those which bad been lately passed in 

 England by both houses of parliament on the affairs of Massachusetts. 

 This measure, which was accompanied with the declaration that the 

 right of laying taxes in Virginia was exclusively vested in its own 

 legislature, and others of a like tendency, induced the governor, Lord 

 Botetourt, abruptly to dissolve the assembly. The next day the 

 members met at the Raleigh Tavern, and entered into articles of 

 agreement, drawn up by Washington, by which they bound themselves 

 not to import or purchase certain specified kinds of British merchan- 

 dise, till the Act of parliament for raising a revenue in America was 

 repealed ; and they recommended this agreement to be adopted by 

 their constituents. Eighty-eight members signed the agreement, 

 among whom were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick 

 Henry, and others, who afterwards took a distinguished part in public 

 affairs. 



In 1773, on the meeting of the Virginia Assembly in the spring, 

 Mr. Jefferson was an active member in organising the Standing "Com- 

 mittee of Correspondence and Inquiry, the main objects of which were 

 to procure early intelligence of the proceedings of the British Parlia- 

 ment, and to maintain a constant communication among all the colonies. 

 On the dissolution of the assembly, in May 1774, by the governor, Lord 



Dunmore, eighty -nine members met at the Raleigh Tavern, and, among 

 other things, recommended the Committee of Correspondence to com- 

 municate with the committees in the other colonies " on the expe- 

 diency of appointing deputies for the several colonies of British 

 America, to meet in general congress, at such place annually as should 

 be thought most convenient," to consult on their common interests. 

 It was also forthwith agreed that the members who might be elected 

 under the writs at that time issuing in the colony of Virginia should 

 meet in convention at Williamsburg on the 1st of August following, 

 in order to appoint delegates to the congress, if such general congress 

 should be approved by the other colonies. The Convention did meet, 

 and thus formed the first popular assembly in Virginia uncontrolled 

 by governor or council. Mr. Jefferson, who was one of the deputies, 

 prepared instructions for the delegates who might be sent to the con- 

 gress. Being prevented by illness from attending on this occasion, his 

 instructions were laid on the table for perusal, and were generally 

 approved, but thought too bold iu the existing state of affairs. Still 

 the convention printed them, in the form of a pamphlet, under the 

 title of ' A Summary View of the Rights of British America.' The 

 convention drew up another set of instructions, which, though not so 

 strong as Mr. Jefferson's, expressed with great clearness the points at 

 issue between the colonies and the mother-country, and the grievances 

 of which the colonies had to complain. The General Congress, con- 

 sisting of fifty-five members, met at Philadelphia, September 4, 1774. 

 The disputes which had broken out between Lord Dunmore and the 

 Assembly of Virginia were continually increased by fresh causes of 

 mutual irritation ; and the governor at last thought it necessary to 

 remove himself and his family into a British ship of war which was 

 lying at York iu York River. 



On the 21st of June 1775 Mr. Jefferson took his seat in the General 

 Congress as one of the delegates from Virginia, and was appointed one 

 of a committee for preparing a declaration of the cause for taking up 

 arms. A part of the address which he drew up was finally adopted, 

 and no doubt greatly contributed to bring about the more decisive 

 declaration of the following year. In 1776 Mr. Jefferson was again 

 a delegate to Congress, and one of a committee appointed to draw up 

 a declaration of independence. The committee was chosen in the 

 usual way, by ballot, and as Mr. Jefferson had received the greatest 

 number of votes, he was deputed by the other members to make the 

 draught. Before it was shown to the committee a few veibal altera- 

 tions were made iu it by Dr. Franklin and Mr. (afterwards President) 

 Adams. After being curtailed about one-third, and receiving some 

 slight alterations in the part retained, it was agreed to by the House 

 on the 4th of July, and signed by all the members present, except 

 one. Before their adjournment, the Virginia Convention (July 5th) 

 had elected Mr. Jefferson a delegate to Congress for another year ; but 

 he declined the honour on various grounds, among which was his 

 desire to assist in reforming the laws of Virginia, under the new con- 

 stitution, which had just been adopted. Congress also marked their 

 sense of his services by appointing him joint envoy to France, with 

 Dr. Franklin and Silas Deaue ; but domestic considerations induced 

 him to decline this honour also. 



From this time Mr. Jefferson's public life is interwoven with the 

 history of his native state, and with that of the United States. During 

 the war he took no part in military movements. He was governor of 

 Virginia in part of 1779, 1780, and part of 1781, in which year the 

 state Buffered considerably from the incursions of Lord Cornwallis ; 

 and at the close of his period of office he narrowly escaped being 

 taken prisoner by Colonel Tarleton in his own house at Mouticello. 



In May 1784 Mr. Jefferson was appointed by Congress minister to 

 France, where he remained five years, during which he was actively 

 employed in promoting the general interests of his country, and in 

 keeping up an extensive correspondence. His industry and methodical 

 habits enabled him to devote a great deal of his time to the exami- 

 nation of everything that could in any way prove beneficial to his 

 countrymen. His correspondence during this period shows the variety 

 of his pursuits, hig unwearied industry, and his zeal for every improve- 

 ment that could benefit the social condition of man. His remarks on 

 the political troubles of France, of which he witnessed the beginning, 

 are characterised by closeness of observation, and by sanguine antici' 

 pations of the benefit that would result from the people being called to 

 participate in the exercise of the sovereign power. 



He returned to America at the close of 1789, and early in the next 

 year he was appointed secretary of stats by the president, General 

 Washington. He held this office till the end of 1793, when he 

 resigned, and became the leader of the Republican party, or the party 

 in opposition to the government of Washington. After awhile he 

 went into retirement, and remained so till, in 1796, he was elected 

 vice-president of the United States. In 1801 he was chosen president 

 in place of Mr. Adams, by the House of Representatives, on whom the 

 election devolved in consequence of the equal division of the electors' 

 votes between Mr. Jefferson and Colonel Burr. He was elected a 

 second time, and after fulfilling his terra of eight years retired to his 

 favourite residence at Monticello, near the centre of the state of Virginia. 

 On Mr. Jefferson's retirement from the presidency of the United States 

 he received, in the form of a farewell address, the thanks of the General 

 Assembly of his native state, February 9th, 1809. 



In this document, among the advantages for which the nation 



