th
his usual good sense and _sang froid_, ... seen that, though some bad
things had passed through it to the public, yet the good have predominated
immensely."

In the spring of 1792, Jefferson, who had now been two years in office,
was extremely anxious to retire, not only because his situation at
Washington was unpleasant, but because his affairs at home had been so
neglected during his long absences that he was in danger of bankruptcy.
His estate was large, but it was incumbered by a debt to English creditors
of $13,000. Some years before he had sold for cash a farm near Monticello
in order to discharge this debt; but at that time the Revolutionary war
had begun, and the Virginia legislature passed an act inviting all men
owing money to English creditors to deposit the same in the state
treasury, the State agreeing to pay it over to the English creditors after
the war. Jefferson accordingly deposited the $13,000 in gold which he had
just received. Later, however, this law was rescinded, and the money
received under it was paid back, not in gold, but in paper money of the
State, which was then so depreciated as to be almost worthless. In riding
by the farm thus disposed of, Jefferson in after years would sometimes
point to it and say: "That farm I once sold for an overcoat;"--the price of
the overcoat having been the $13,000 in paper money. Cornwallis, as we
have seen, destroyed Jefferson's property to an amount more than double
this debt, which might be considered as a second payment of it; but
Jefferson finally paid it the third time,--and this time into the hands of
the actual creditor. Meanwhile, he wrote: "The torment of mind I endure
till the moment shall arrive when I shall not owe a shilling on earth is
such really as to render life of little value."

Urged by all these motives, Jefferson had resolved to resign his office in
1792, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Washington; but the attacks
made upon him by the Federalists, especially those made in the newspapers,
were so violent that a retirement at that time would have given the public
cause to believe that he had been driven from office by his enemies.
Jefferson, therefore, concluded to remain Secretary of State a few months
longer; and those few, as it happened, were the most important of the
whole term.

On January 21, 1793, King Louis of France was executed, and within a week
thereafter England was at war with the new rulers of the French. Difficul