Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/168

132 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS to find if they are soft." His letters are full of this subject. He returns again and again to the frightful inequalities of condition, the vulgarity and incapacity of the hereditary rulers, and the hopeless destiny of nineteen twentieths of the people. His compassion for the people of France was the more intense from his strong appreciation of their excellent qualities. Having received a leave of absence for six months, he returned with his daughter to Virginia, landing at Norfolk, November 18, 1789. His re ception was most cordial. The legislature ap pointed a committee of thirteen, with Patrick Henry at their head, to congratulate him on his return, and on the day of his landing he read in a newspaper that President Washington, in settling the new government, had assigned to Thomas Jef ferson the office of secretary of state. "I made light of it," he wrote soon afterward, "supposing I had only to say no, and there would be an end of it." On receiving the official notification of his appointment, he told the president that he pre* f erred to retain the office he held. "But," he added, "it is not for an individual to choose his post. You are to marshal us as may be best for the public good." He finally accepted the appointment, and after witnessing at Monticello, February 23, 1790, the marriage of his eldest daughter, Martha, to Thodnas Mann Randolph, he began his journey to