of the Oligarchs is Jefferson the Democrat. Let us, by the simplest
and fairest process possible, try to come at his real opinions on
Slavery,--just as they grew when he did so much to found the
Republic,--just as they flourished when he did so much to build the
Republic,--just as they were re-wrought and polished when he did so much
to brace the Republic.

The whole culture of Jefferson's youth was, of all things in the world,
least likely to make him support slavery or apologize for it. The man who
did most to work into his mind ideas of moral and political science was
Dr. William Small, a liberal Scotchman; the man who did most to direct his
studies in law, and his grappling with social problems, was George Wythe.
To both of these Jefferson confessed the deepest debt for their efforts to
strengthen his mind and make his footing firm. Now, of all men in this
country at that time, these two were least likely to support pro-slavery
theories or tolerate pro-slavery cant. For while to Small's soundness
there is abundance of general testimony, there is to Wythe's soundness
testimony the most pointed. We have but to take the first volume of
Jefferson's Works, published by order of Congress, and we find Jefferson's
anti-slavery letter to Dr. Price, written in 1785, urging the Doctor to
work against pro-slavery ideas in the young men, and to exhort the young
men of Virginia to the "redress of the enormity." Incidentally he speaks
of Mr. Wythe as already doing great good in this direction among these
same young men, and declares him "one of the most virtuous of characters,
and whose sentiments on the subject of slavery are unequivocal."

So much for the _direct_ influences on Jefferson's early culture.

Studying, next, the _indirect_ influences on his early culture, we see
that the reform literature of that time was coming almost entirely from
France. Active, earnest men everywhere were grasping the theories and
phrases of Voltaire and Rousseau and Montesquieu, to wield them against
every tyranny. Terrible weapons these,--often searing and scarring
frightfully those who brandished them,--yet there was not one chance in a
thousand that any man who had once made any considerable number of these
ideas his own could ever support slavery. Whoever, at that time, studied
the "Contrat Social," or the defence of Jean Calas, whatever other sins he
might commit, was no more likely to advocate systematic oppression than
are they who now