1772, he married Mrs. Martha Wayles Skelton, the daughter of an eminent lawyer of that day. She was rich, and his marriage doubled his fortune. His wife's health was wretched for several years, and he refused a number of important offices on that account. At the last, he is said to have sat for weeks at her bedside and to have given all ne cessary medicines and food with his own hands. His eldest daughter wrote : "When she died, he fainted, and remained so long insensible that they feared he would never revive." When the Congress appointed a com mittee of five to prepare a declaration of independence, Mr. Jefferson had one more vote than the other four; John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston, and therefore was made chairman of the committee. When he received Washington's letter appointing him secretary of state he re plied : "You are to marshal us as may be best for the public good." He left Monticello for New York on the first of March in his own carriage, going three miles an hour in the daytime and one mile an hour at night. He stopped on the way, at Philadelphia, to pay a visit to the aged Dr. Benjamin Frank lin. It was during his term as secretary that Jay's treaty with England was made. Washington, claiming that he had been elected by the whole people, tried to make his administration " a no-party adminis tration," and therefore chose his first cabinet from both the Federalist and Republican parties. It, however, did not do, and from the first, the two leaders, Hamilton and Jef ferson, clashed. When the war between England and France began, Hamilton sym pathized with England, and Jefferson with France, and the breach between them grew wider and wider until it was so unpleasant that Mr. Jefferson resigned his place in the cabinet, on the fifth of January, 1794, and re tired to Monticello where he remained until
three years later, when he was elected VicePresident of the United States. When Mr. Jefferson resigned, Washington appointed Edmund Randolph secretary of state. Edmund Jennings Randolph was born August 10, 1753, in Tazewell Hall, near Williamsburg, Virginia. He was descended from the ancient and honorable family of Sir John Randolph of the county of Wilts, England. After a brilliant career at college he studied law with his father in Williams burg and gained easy and early success at the bar. He had a high reputation with the judges and his brother lawyers for legal ac curacy and exact thinking. William Wirt describes him as : " Of a large and portly figure; features uncommonly fine; his dark eyes and his whole countenance lighted up with an expression of the most conciliatory sensibility; his attitude dignified and com manding; his gesture graceful and easy; his voice perfect harmony; and his whole man ner that of an accomplished and engaging gentleman." During the Revolutionary war he was an aide-de-camp to Washington and a member of his military family. He was the first attorney-general of Virginia, with a salary of £200. In 1777 he married Miss Betsey Nicholas, a daughter of Hon. Robert Carter Nicholas, State treasurer of Virginia. The " Gazette " of that time says : " Ed mund Randolph, Esquire, attorney-general of Virginia, to Miss Betsy Nicholas, a young lady of amiable sweetness of disposition, joined with the finest intellectual accom plishments, cannot fail of rendering the wor thy man of her choice completely happy." They were born in the same town, with in twelve hours of each other, and an aunt of Randolph's laughingly predicted that, although the two families were not on speaking terms at the time, these children would unite them by marrying. "His suc cess at the bar," says Grigsby, " was ex traordinary, — clients filled his office and be set him on the way from his office to the
