erudition, and probity would make a powerful impression upon those whom
it was so much to our interest to attach to us, Congress had, on the 7th
day of May, 1784, appointed him Minister Plenipotentiary for the
negotiation of foreign commercial treaties. Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams,
his co-workers, were already eagerly awaiting him in Paris.

But, great as was Mr. Jefferson's patriotic interest in the cause he was
to represent at the court of Louis XVI., his exile from Monticello was
very painful to him. The recent death of his wife there, and the youth
of the two children he was to leave, bound him to the place. Having also
very clearly in mind Mr. Jay's and Dr. Franklin's disappointments and
bickerings in London in the same cause of commercial treaties, he looked
forward with growing distaste to the difficulties and diplomatic
struggles before him; for Mr. Jefferson was always more ready to lead
than to combat. Perhaps, too, he did not relish the idea that although
in his own country no one was more generally famed for talents and
learning than himself, in Paris, amid that brilliant throng of _savants_
and courtiers, he would be but a simple Virginia gentleman without
prestige or reputation. And, moreover, he feared that his plain,
democratic manners and principles--which he scorned to alter for
anyone--would be but ill-suited to the courtly life of Versailles. For
it must be owned that Mr. Jefferson's democracy, like his learning, was
a trifle ostentatious, and became more so as he grew older. Surely,
though, such blemishes are not incompatible with greatness of character,
but only serve to make a great man more lovable and human. And as for
Mr. Jefferson, if he had not been blessed with some such harmless
frailties, he had seemed almost more than mortal with his great
learning, his profound, if often impracticable, philosophy, and his
deathless patriotism. Such as he was, Mr. Jefferson was greatly beloved,
and many of his warmest friends and admirers foregathered at Monticello