business had increased so as to give him an income of L400 from his profession, and he received as much more from his estate, which had swelled to nearly two thousand acres.  His industry, his temperance, his methodical ways, his frugality, and his legal research, had been well rewarded.  While not a great lawyer, he must have been a studious one, for his legal learning was a large element in his future success.  At the age of thirty-one he was a prominent citizen, a good office lawyer, and a rising man, with the confidence and respect of every one who knew him,—­and withal, exceedingly popular from his plain manners, his modest pretensions, and patriotic zeal.  He was not then a particularly marked man, but was on the road to distinction, since a new field was open to him,—­that of politics, for which he had undoubted genius.  The distracted state of the country, on the verge of war with Great Britain, called out his best energies.  While yet but a boy in college he became deeply interested in the murmurings of Virginia gentlemen against English misgovernment in the Colonies, and early became known as a vigorous thinker and writer with republican tendencies.  William Wirt wrote of him that “he was a republican and a philanthropist from the earliest dawn of his character.”  He entered upon the stormy scene of politics with remarkable zeal, and his great abilities for this arena were rapidly developed.

Jefferson’s political career really dates from 1769, when he entered the House of Burgesses as member for Albermarle County in the second year of his practice as a lawyer, after a personal canvass of nearly every voter in the county, and supplying to the voters, as was the custom, an unlimited quantity of punch and lunch for three days.  The Assembly was composed of about one hundred members, “gentlemen” of course, among whom was Colonel George Washington.  The Speaker was Peyton Randolph, a most courteous aristocrat, with great ability for the duties of a presiding officer.  Among other prominent members were Mr. Pendleton, Colonel Bland, and Mr. Nicholas, leading lawyers of the province.  Mr. Jefferson, though still a young man, was put upon important committees, for he had a good business head, and was ready with his pen.

In 1772 Mr. Jefferson married a rich widow, who brought him forty thousand acres and one hundred and thirty-five slaves, so that he now took his place among the wealthy planters, although, like Washington, he was only a yeoman by birth.  With increase of fortune he built “Monticello,” on the site of “Shadwell,” which had been burned.  It was on the summit of a hill five hundred feet high, about three miles from Charlottesville; but it was only by twenty-five years’ ceaseless nursing and improvement that this mansion became the finest residence in Virginia, with its lawns, its flower-beds, its walks, and its groves, adorned with perhaps the finest private library in America.  No wonder he loved this enchanting abode, where he led the life of a philosopher.