He became a lawyer in his twenty-fourth year, and was successful from
the first, his practice soon growing to nearly five hundred cases
annually, which yielded an income that would be a godsend to the
majority of lawyers in these days.

Ere long, the mutterings of the coming Revolution drew Jefferson aside
into the service of his country.

At the age of twenty-six (May 11, 1769), he took his seat in the House
of Burgesses, of which Washington was a member. On the threshold of his
public career, he made the resolution which was not once violated during
his life, "never to engage, while in public office, in any kind of
enterprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear any other
character than that of a farmer." Thus, during his career of nearly half
a century, he was impartial in his consideration of questions of public
interest.

His first important speech was in favor of the repeal of the law that
compelled a master when he freed his slaves to send them out of the
colony. The measure was overwhelmingly defeated, and its mover denounced
as an enemy of his country.

It was about this time that Jefferson became interested in Mrs. Martha
Wayles Skelton, a childless widow, beautiful and accomplished and a
daughter of John Wayles, a prominent member of the Williamsburg bar. She
was under twenty years of age, when she lost her first husband, rather
tall, with luxuriant auburn hair and an exceedingly graceful manner.

She had many suitors, but showed no haste to lay aside her weeds. The