126 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS who wrought this salutary change, and they were able to effect it because, during the first three years of the war, Virginia was almost exempt from dis turbance. In the spring of 1779, when Burgoyne s army, as prisoners of war, were encamped near Monticello, Jefferson was assiduous in friendly attentions both to the British and the Hessians, throwing open his house and grounds to them, and arranging many agreeable concerts for their enter tainment. A British captain, himself a good violinist, who played duets with Jefferson at this time, told the late Gen. John A. Dix, of New York, that Thomas Jefferson was the best amateur he had ever heard. In January, 1779, the Virginia legislature elected Jefferson governor of the state, to succeed Patrick Henry, whose third term ended on June 1. The two years of his governorship proved to be the severest trial of his life. With slender and fast diminishing resources, he had to keep up the Vir ginia regiments in the army of Washington, and at the same time to send all possible supplies to the support of Gen. Gates in his southern campaign. The western Indians were a source of constant solicitude, and they were held in check by that brave and energetic neighbor of Gov. Jefferson, George Rogers Clarke. The British and Hessian prisoners also had to be supplied and guarded. In the midst of his first anxieties he began the reorganization
