f the highest and most
important possibilities.

As a delegate to the Second Continental Congress Mr. Jefferson had a
leading share in its deliberations, although that body embraced many of
the most distinguished men of that period. The most important act of
that assembly was the adoption of the Declaration of Independence,
which, as I have already stated, he himself drafted. It is said,
however, that he was most valuable in committee work, because of the
aptness of his sensible and methodical mind, and the ingenuity he
possessed in putting his ideas upon paper, and doing it in such a way
as to create but little, if any, antagonisms. In all of the official
stations in which he was placed by his fellow citizens, by means of his
talents for constructive statesmanship, and his persuasive and
conciliatory spirit, he invariably displayed a remarkable talent for
tact in parliamentary leadership.

Military chieftains often win immortal renown as the result of a single
important battle, and often flash like rush-light stars across the sky
of history. But this is not true of men like Jefferson and others of
his class. They _grow_ into great characters, and they build
monuments to their memories which the tooth of time cannot destroy.
There is nothing ephemeral or evanescent in the makeup of their
records. They build not for a day nor a year, but for the centuries.
Indeed, it may be said that they build for eternity, and thus many of
them have builded wiser than they knew. The following is a summary of
Jefferson's achievements:

1. Jefferson, although eight years at the bar, became a lawyer of
renown, and an acknowledged leader in the profession.

2. For many years he was a member of the House of Burgesses of
Virginia, and possessed therein an influence almost supreme.

3. He was a member of different conventions, selected by the people of
Virginia, to consider the state of the colony, to provide against
taxation without representation, and to secure greater liberties for
the people, and was a leader in them all.

4. He was chairman of the three committees appointed in 1774 by the
Virginia Convention, (1) to provide for the better education of the
people; (2), for the arming of the militia of the colony; and (3), to
draw up a statement of the causes which had impelled the colonies to
take up arms against the mother country.

5. He was a member of the Continental Congress which adopted the
Declaration of American Ind