, as the branches of trees grow in all directions." That
evidences of the existence of man should be found with a superimposed
weight of earth seventy feet in thickness would present to him no
difficulty. If the fact had specially aroused his attention he would
have explained it in some ingenious way as the result of accident.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 8: With how much interest Jefferson watched the progress of
this controversy he showed in his letters from Paris. In February, 1786,
he wrote to Madison: "I thank you for the communication of the
remonstrance against the assessment. Mazzei, who is now in Holland,
promised me to have it published in the _Leyden Gazette_. It will do us
great honor. I wish it may be as much approved by our Assembly as by the
wisest part of Europe." Again, in December of the same year, he says:
"The Virginia Act for religious freedom has been received with infinite
approbation in Europe, and propagated with enthusiasm. I do not mean by
the governments, but by the individuals who compose them. It has been
translated into French and Italian, has been sent to most of the courts
of Europe, and has been the best evidence of the falsehood of those
reports which stated us to be in anarchy. It is inserted in the
_Encyclopedie_, and is appearing in most of the publications respecting
America. In fact, it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at
length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind had been
held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and it is honorable for
us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare
that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own
opinions!" This latter passage is characteristic, and many who do not
like Jefferson will read between the lines the exultation of a man who
was not always careful to draw the line between religious liberty and
irreligious license.]

CHAPTER VI

PUBLIC DISTURBANCES AND ANXIETIES

In February, 1787, Madison again took a seat in Congress. It was an
anxious period. Shays's rebellion in Massachusetts had assumed rather
formidable possibilities, and seemed not unlikely to spread to other
States. Till this storm should blow over, the important business of
Congress was to raise money and troops; in reality, to go to the help of
Massachusetts, if need should be, though the object ostensibly was to
protect a handful of people on the frontier against the Indians. It was
a