always been ruled by a few political leaders,—­more influential and perhaps more accomplished than any corresponding class at the North.  Certainly they have made more pretensions, being more independent in their circumstances, and many of them educated abroad, as are the leaders in South American States at the present day.  The heir to ten thousand or twenty thousand acres, with two hundred negroes, in the last century, naturally cultivated those sentiments which were common to great landed proprietors in England, especially pride of birth.

It is remarkable that Jefferson, with his surroundings, should have been so early and so far advanced in his opinions about the rights of man and political equality; but then he was by birth only halfway between the poor whites and the patrician planters; moreover, he was steeped in the philosophy of Rousseau, having sentimental proclivities, and a leaning to humanitarian theories, both political and social.

Jefferson was admitted to the bar in 1767, after five years in Wythe’s office.  He commenced his practice at a favorable time for a lawyer, in a period of great financial embarrassments on the part of the planters, arising from their extravagant and ostentatious way of living.  They lived on their capital rather than on their earnings, and even their broad domains were nearly exhausted by the culture of tobacco,—­the chief staple of Virginia, which also had declined in value.  It was almost impossible for an ordinary planter to make two ends meet, no matter how many acres he cultivated and how many slaves he possessed; for he had inherited expensive tastes, a liking for big houses and costly furniture and blooded horses, and he knew not where to retrench.  His pride prevented him from economy, since he was socially compelled to keep tavern for visitors and poor relations, without compensation.  Hence, nearly all the plantations were heavily encumbered, whether great or small.  The planter disdained manual labor, however poor he might be, and every year added to his debts.  He lived in comparative idleness, amusing himself with horse-races, hunting, and other “manly sports,” such as became country gentlemen in the “olden time.”  The real poverty of Virginia was seen in the extreme difficulty of raising troops for State or national defence in times of greatest peril.  The calls of patriotism were not unheeded by the “chivalry” of the South; but what could patriotic gentlemen do when their estates were wasting away by litigation and unsuccessful farming?

It was amid such surroundings that Jefferson began his career.  Although he could not make a speech, could hardly address a jury, he had sixty-eight cases the first year of his practice, one hundred and fifteen the second, one hundred and ninety-eight the third.  He was, doubtless, a good lawyer, but not a remarkable one, law business not being to his taste.  When he had practised seven years in the general court his cases had dropped to twenty-nine, but his office