THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMER 157 



is arraigned at the bar of public opinion as a violator 

 of chartered rights, a sovereign who by breaking the 

 law has forfeited the allegiance of his American sub- 

 jects. There is something very happy in the skill with 

 which any explicit mention of Parliament is avoided. 

 " He has combined with OTHERS to subject us to a 

 jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknow- 

 ledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of 

 pretended legislation," etc. It is only in this way that 

 allusion was made to Parliament, and it would have 

 been impossible to state with more consummate skill 

 the American view of the position based upon solid 

 American precedent. In every clause is wrapped up 

 a genuine historic pearl. There is not one that 

 appears as an inference from the philosophic preamble, 

 which indeed might have been omitted without alter- 

 ing the practical effect of the document. Nothing 

 could more clearly show what a skin-deep affair Jeffer- 

 son's Gallicism really was. 



In the summer of 1776 Jefferson was ree'lected to 

 the Continental Congress, but declined to serve. It 

 was with him as with many other public men at that 

 time. Important changes were going on in the several 

 state constitutions, which made the services of the 

 ablest men needed at home. In Virginia there was a 

 great work to be done, and Jefferson went into it with 

 wonderful vigour, ably assisted by his old teacher, 

 George Wythe, and by Colonel George Mason and the 

 youthful James Madison. It was on the 7th of October, 

 1776, that Jefferson again took his seat in the Virginia 

 legislature. One week from that day he reported a 

 bill abolishing the whole system of entail. That 

 ancient abuse was deeply rooted in the affections o 



