1 64 THOMAS JEFFERSON 



Gouverneur Morris in devising our decimal currency, 

 and suggested the dollar as the unit. He handed to 

 Congress the deed of Virginia ceding the Northwestern 

 Territory to the United States; and he drew up the 

 Ordinance of 1 784, in which he endeavoured to intro- 

 duce the principle of prohibiting all extension of 

 slavery into the national domain, the principle upon 

 which the present Republican party was founded just 

 seventy years later. If Jefferson could have established 

 this principle in 1 784, it would have altered the whole 

 course of American history. As it is, much credit 

 must be given to his initiative in leading to the result 

 which in the Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery 

 north of the Ohio River. In May, 1784, Jefferson's 

 legislative work, so noble and so fruitful, came to an 

 end. He left Congress and was appointed com- 

 missioner to aid Franklin and John Adams in negoti- 

 ating commercial treaties with European nations. 

 He arrived in Paris in August, 1 784. In the following 

 spring the commission was broken up, Adams was 

 appointed minister to Great Britain, Franklin came 

 home, and Jefferson was appointed minister to France. 

 It has been said that " his first diplomatic move was 

 a bon mot, and therefore in France a success. ' You 

 replace M. Franklin, I hear,' remarked the Count de 

 Vergennes at an interview. * I succeed him, your Excel- 

 lency,' he replied promptly; 'no one can refihcehim'* 

 The author of the Declaration of Independence was 

 well received in Paris. His book entitled, u Notes on 

 Virginia," published about this time, was widely read 

 and greatly admired. He soon became a kind of 

 oracle for literary men and political theorizers to con- 



1 Rosenthal, " America and France," p. 128. 



