that all the roots of generous power come from the people." On
his father's side Jefferson came from sound yeoman stock, in
which Welsh blood ran. His mother was a Virginia Randolph. Born
in Albemarle County, near the "little
mountain"--Monticello--where he built a mansion for his bride and
where he lies buried, the tall, strong, red-haired, gray-eyed,
gifted boy was reputed the best shot, the best rider, the best
fiddle-player in the county. He studied hard at William and Mary
over his Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish, but he also
frequented the best society of the little capital. He learned to
call himself a Deist and to theorize about ideal commonwealths.
There was already in him that latent radicalism which made him
strike down, as soon as he had the power, two of the fundamental
principles of the society into which he was born, the principle
of entailed property and that of church establishment.

Such was the youth of twenty-two who was thrilled in 1765 by the
Stamp Act. In the ten years of passionate discussion which
followed, two things became clear: first, that there had long
existed among the colonists very radical theoretical notions of
political freedom; and second, that there was everywhere a spirit
of practical conservatism. Jefferson illustrates the union of
these two tendencies.

He took his seat in the Continental Congress in June, 1775. He
was only thirty-two, but he had already written, in the summer of
1774, "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" which had
been published in England by Burke, himself a judge of good
writing and sound politics. Jefferson had also prepared in 1775
the "Address of the Virginia House of Burgesses." For these