Jefferson, the Virginian by Malone Dumas 1892-1986

Author:Malone, Dumas, 1892-1986
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Biography / Autobiography, Biography/Autobiography, Historical - U.S., Presidents & Heads of State, History / General, 1743-1826, Biography, Jefferson, Thomas, , Presidents, United States, Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
Publisher: Boston : Little, Brown
Published: 1967-03-15T05:00:00+00:00

recommended that representation be based on the distribution of voters, that is, practically on the population, and not on the county-unit system which was continued. His desire to bring about a more equitable system of representation may be explained in part by his residence in the growing Piedmont region, which was discriminated against, but it was rooted in the conviction that the overrepresented Tidewater was the seat of privilege and unjust power.

Jefferson took little pride in his proposals to this convention, for these afterwards seemed conservative and he doubted if he himself had penetrated to the true republican principle at the time. But no other leader in Virginia then went so far as he in the advocacv of popular representative government. Until the eve of the Civil War the constitutional struggles in the Commonwealth centered in the questions of the suffrage and the basis of representation, and at the very outset he ranged himself on the democratic side. Also, he proposed that the importation of slaves should cease, and he saw no place for an Established Church in a free society.

George Wythe said the system that was set up in Jefferson's absence required reformation and that he was the man who must effect it. T What was established was in reality an aristocratic republic, bottomed on inheritance. It is true that Patrick Henry, the popular idol who was still regarded as an upstart by some of the wealthiest planters, was elected governor, but the ruling group as a whole viewed him without alarm. 8 To say that he had been a radical in imperial relations would be to beg the question. His personal power lay chiefly in the realm of the emotions and, although he had a keen sense of public opinion, he had no domestic program worthy of the name. Furthermore, he \\ ;is indolent by nature and during the year 1776 his health was bad. His physical incapacity threw an added burden on John Page, who received the highest vote for the Council of State and became its president. The latter could be counted on to remain an agreeable gentleman while dealing with vexatious routine, but unlike his friend Jefferson he had not wholly emancipated his mind from his inherited privilege. In domestic matters he must be characterized as a conservative

The supremely important legislative department hid nor been organized as yet, but anvone could have predicted that Edmund Pendleton, who had fallen heir to the position formerly occupied by Peyton Randolph, would be elected speaker of the new I louse of Delegates when it assembled in the fall. No one symbolized better than he the

7 To Jefferson, July 27, 1776 (LC, 2:284).

8 His election has'been attributed to a tacit alliance with the conservatives Abemethy, Western Lands, p. 158.

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