Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/153

THOMAS JEFFERSON 119 convert his little mountain, covered with primeval forest, into an agreeable and accessible park. After numerous experiments he domesticated almost every tree and shrub, native and foreign, that could survive the severe Virginia winter. The contest with the king was soon renewed, and the decisive year, 1774, opened. It found Thomas Jefferson a thriving and busy young law yer and farmer, not known beyond Virginia; but when it closed he was a person of note among the patriots of America, and was proscribed in Eng land. It was he who prepared the "Draught of Instructions" for Virginia s Delegation to the Congress which met at Philadelphia in September. That congress, he thought, should unite in a solemn address to the king; but they should speak to him in a frank and manly way, informing him, as the chief magistrate of an empire governed by many legislatures, that one of those legislatures namely, the British parliament had encroached upon the rights of thirteen others. They were also to say to the king that he was no more than the chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws and circumscribed with definite powers. He also spoke, in this very radical draught, of "the late deposition of his majesty, King Charles, by the Common wealth of England" as a thing obviously right. He maintained that the parliament of Virginia had as much right to pass laws for the government of