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Of Mr. Hancock I can say nothing, having known him only in the chair of Congress. Having myself been the youngest man, but one, in that body, the disparity of age prevented any particular intimacy. But of him there can be no difficulty in obtaining full information in the North.
I salute you, Sir, with sentiments of great respect.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Notes, for the Biography of George Wythe.
George Wythe was born about the year 1727, or 1728, of a re spectable family in the county of Elizabeth City, on the shores of the Chesapeake. He inherited, from his father, a fortune suffi cient for independence and ease. He had not the benefit of a regular education in the schools, but acquired a good one of him self, and without assistance ; insomuch, as to become the best Latin and Greek scholar in the state. It is said, that while reading the Greek Testament, his mother held an English one, to aid him in rendering the Greek text conformably with that. He also acquir ed, by his own reading, a good knowledge of Mathematics, and of Natural and Moral Philosophy. He engaged in the study of the law under the direction of a Mr. Lewis, of that profession, and went early to the bar of the General Court, then occupied by men of great ability, learning and dignity in their profession. He soon became eminent among them, and, in process of time, the first at the bar, taking into consideration his superior learning, correct elocution, and logical style of reasoning ; for in pleading he never indulged himself with an useless or declamatory thought or word ; and became as distinguished by correctness and purity of conduct in his profession, as he was by his industry and fidelity to those who employed him. He was early elected to the House of Re presentatives, then called the House of Burgesses, and continued in it until the Revolution. On the first dawn of that, instead of hig gling on half-way principles, as others did who feared to follow their reason, he took his stand on the solid ground, that the only link of political union between us and Great Britain, was the iden tity of our Executive ; that that nation and its Parliament had no more authority over us, than we had over them, and that we were co-ordinate nations with Great Britain and Hanover.
In 1774, he was a member of a Committee of the House of Burgesses, appointed to prepare a Petition to the King, a Memorial to the House of Lords, and a Remonstrance to the House of Com mons, on the subject of the proposed Stamp Act. He was made draughtsman of the last, and, following his own principles, he so
