The following year the Declaration of Independence was proposed. Mr. Jefferson was appointed chairman of the committee to prepare this momentous document. The work was assigned to him by his colleagues. He performed the task with a boldness of design and beauty of execution before unknown and yet unrivalled. The substantial result of his labor has long been before the world. Admiring nations have united in bestowing the highest encomiums upon this sacred instrument. As a masterpiece of composition--a lucid exposition of the rights of man--the principles of a free government--the sufferings of an oppressed people--the abuses of a corrupt ministry and the effects of monarchy upon the destinies of man--it stands unequalled. Pure in its origin--graphic in its delineations--benign in its influence and salutary in its results--it has become the chart of patriots over the civilized world. It is the _ne plus ultra_ [nothing more beyond] of a gigantic mind raised to its loftiest elevation by the finest touches of creative Power--displaying its noblest efforts--brightest conceptions--holiest zeal--purest desires--happiest conclusions. It combines the attributes of justice--the flowers of eloquence--the force of logic--the soul of wisdom. It is the grand palladium of equal rights--the polar star of rational LIBERTY--the Magna Charta of universal FREEDOM and has crowned its author with laurels of enduring fame. In the autumn of 1776 Mr. Jefferson was appointed a commissioner to the court of France in conjunction with Messrs. Franklin and Deane for the purpose of forming a treaty of alliance. Ill health of himself and family and an urgent necessity for his services in his native state, induced him to decline the proffered honor and resign his seat in Congress.