The two years were marked by incessant trial
and the severest labor, for the war had reached Virginia soil and the
State was desolated.
More than once the legislature was obliged to flee before the enemy;
Gates was crushed at Camden; Arnold the traitor scourged Richmond with
his raiders; Monticello itself was captured by cavalry, and Jefferson
escaped only by a hair's breadth. His estate was trampled over, his
horses stolen, his barns burned, his crops destroyed and many of his
slaves run off.
He declined a third election, and in the autumn of 1782, to his
inconsolable sorrow, his wife died, leaving three daughters, the
youngest a babe.
In the following November, he took his seat in congress at Annapolis,
and during that session he proposed and caused the adoption of our
present system of decimal currency.
In May, 1784, he was again elected plenipotentiary to France to assist
Franklin and Adams in negotiating commercial treaties with foreign
nations. He arrived in Paris in July, and in May, succeeding, became
sole plenipotentiary to the king of France for three years from March
10, 1785.
Jefferson's residence in France produced a profound impression upon
him and had much to do in crystallizing his ideas of the true form of
government.
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