360 JEFFERSON COUNTY. 



to the whole committee, when FrankHn and others made some 

 alterations. Some portions of it were omitted by Congress, 

 but the spirit and arrangement remained the same as when 

 reported. As a composition, the merit of it belongs to Mr. 

 Jefferson. In 1777 Mr. Jefferson left Congress, and was 

 employed for two years in revising the laws of Virginia. Im- 

 portant statutes were made to conform to the republican senti- 

 ments which the Revolution had introduced ; and by Mr. Jef- 

 ferson's efforts, many wholesome changes were made in laws 

 which militated against religious liberty. In 1779 he was 

 elected Governor of Virginia. In 1781 he published his Notes 

 on Virginia, a work which increased his fame as a philosopher. 

 The work was written at his summer residence. " Whilst 

 Jefferson was confined," says Tucker, " at Poplar Forest, in 

 consequence of a fall from his horse, and was thereby pre- 

 vented from engaging in any active employment, public or 

 private, he occupied himself with answering the queries which 

 Mons. De Marbois, then Secretary of the French Legation to 

 the United States, had submitted to him respecting the physi- 

 cal and political condition of Virginia, which answers were 

 afterwards published by him under the title of Notes of Vir- 

 ginia. When we consider how difficult it is, even in the pre- 

 sent day, to get an accurate knowledge of such details in our 

 country, and how much greater the difficulty must then have 

 been, we are surprised at the extent of the information which 

 a single individual had thus been enabled to acquire, as to the 

 physical features of the State — the course, length, and depth of 

 its rivers; its zoological and botanical productions; its Indian 

 tribes ; its statistics and laws. After the lapse of more than 

 half of a century, by much the larger part of it still gives us 

 the fullest and the most acurate information we possess of the 

 subjects upon which it treats. Some of its physical theories 

 are, indeed, in the rear of modern science ; but they form a 

 small portion of the book, and its general speculations are 

 marked with that boldness, that utter disregard for received 

 opinions which always characterized him ; and the whole is 

 written in a neat, flowing style — always perspicuous, and often 

 peculiarly apt and felicitous." 



In 1783, Mr. Jefferson was again elected a delegate to Con- 



