Edmund Pendleton, the ablest lawyer in the State, who was opposed to the extreme measures of popular reform introduced by Mr. Jefferson. The chief features of the law on this subject, as proposed by Mr. Jefferson, remain in force in Virginia till the present day.

On the 12th October Mr. Jefferson continued his labors by introducing a bill for the abolition of the law of entails in Virginia. This was a measure of much greater importance than the preceding one. It was a desperate and destructive blow struck directly at the aristocratic order in that State. Nowhere else on the continent had the lines of demarcation between the higher and the lower ranks, between the gentle and the vulgar, between the exclusive and the popular, been drawn with so much distinctness as in the Old Dominion. And that distinction was based not simply on differences of education, birth, and breeding; but also on the more unpopular one of the possession of wealth. The State having been settled at an early period by a body of men who had embraced the privileges granted them of taking vast tracts of the free do main of nature-these estates had become immensely valuable with the progress of time; and in accordance with the English law of entail, they had been devised from generation to generation in fee-tail to

the eldest son of the family. This aristocratic transmission of estates had gradually created a body of men who formed a patrician order in the State, whose wealth, luxury, and expensive and ostentatious establishments were little in harmony with the simplicity of republican manners. Together with the possession of the land, this class of men gradually absorbed all the political power, which only increased the evil, and rendered the state of things more obnoxious to the friends of liberty and reform.

If this aristocratic class of the community were useless to the State, the other existing orders of society in Virginia were such, that some of them invited, and others of them demanded, a reformation on this subject. Next below the great landowners, in the social and political scale, were the class known as "half-breeds." These were the descendants of the younger sons and daughters of the aristocrats, who inherited the pride without the wealth or the influence of their ancestors. Below these again were the upstarts, or pretenders, who were usually men of talent, and having obtained wealth by means of their superior enterprise and abilities, were desirous of separating themselves from the class in which they were born and to which they originally belonged, and of imitating the manners and habits of

the aristocracy, and if possible to obtain admission to their society. Below these again were the plain, substantial yeomen, who were industrious, simple, frugal, who knew nothing and cared less about aristocratic splendor, rank, or wealth, and whose whole attention was confined to the cultivation of the small farms which they possessed, or to their mechanical trades. Below all these again, and the vilest of the race, were the class of persons termed "overseers," who tyrannized over the slaves, who were the most cringing of human beings to their superiors, and most the tyrannical to their subordinates and victims.

By abolishing the law of entails in Virginia, Mr. Jefferson destroyed the entire fabric of this social structure; for the whole of it gradually grew up around, and in consequence of that institution. His purpose was also to open the way for an aristocracy of intellect and talent, as being more in accordance with the spirit of a republic. And although this measure was resisted with the utmost violence by the representatives of the aristocratic order in the legislature, led on by men of the highest ability— such as Edmund Pendleton and John Robinson, the measure was finally adopted. Entails were abolished, and a law passed by which real estate, as well as personal property was distributed, on the death

of the possessor in equitable proportions among the whole of his children. Mr. Jefferson also subsequently introduced another bill, which rendered this reform complete, which destroyed the preference given to the male over the female sex, and to the eldest child over the younger children.*

After accomplishing this great republican movement, which gave a new appearance and form to the secular and material interests of the State, Mr. Jef

* Mr. Jefferson describes his labors in reference to this event in the following language:

"On the 12th, I obtained leave to bring in a bill declaring tenants in tail to hold their lands in fee simple. In the earlier times of the colony, when lands were to be obtained for little or nothing, some provident individuals procured large grants; and desirous of founding great families for themselves, settled them on their descendants in fee tail. The transmission of this property from generation to generation, in the same name, raised up a distinct set of families, who being privileged by law in the perpetuation of their wealth, were thus formed into a patrician order, distinguished by the splendor and luxury of their establishments. From this order, too, the king habitually selected his counselors of state; the hope of which distinction devoted the whole corps to the interests and will of the crown. To annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, and scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a wellordered republic. To effect it, no violence was necessary, no deprîvation of natural right, but rather an enlargement of it, by a repeal of the law. For this would authorize the present holder to divide the property among his children equally, as his affections were divided; and would place them, by natural generation, on the level of their fellow-citizens."

ferson directed his attention to the religious relations and interests of the community. He introduced a bill to abolish the church establishment in Virginia, and to place all religious sects on an equal footing.

The establishment of the Church of England in Virginia had taken place at the period of the first immigration thither. The charter granted to Sir Walter Raleigh contained an express clause, which provided that the laws of the new colony to be founded by him, should in no respect militate against the true Christian faith as then professed by the Church of England, and established by law in the realm. At an early day the colony had been divided into parishes, and in each parish a minister had been settled, a church built, a glebe and parsonage assigned, and a support provided for the incumbent from the proceeds of a specified amount of tobacco. Schismatics were severely punished. It was a penal offense in parents to prevent their children from being baptized by the minister of the established church. The assembling of Quakers was forbidden by law; and they had been ordered to leave the State, with the penalty of death if they returned. In 1705, a law had been passed to the effect that he who denied the truth of the Christian religion, or the existence of the trinity, or the inspiration of