His efforts in behalf of the colored people were actuated by his early conviction that the national character of this country could be retrieved only by abolishing the iniquitous traffic in human souls and improving the Negroes.[2] Showing his pity for the downtrodden people of color around him, Jay helped to promote the cause of the abolitionists of New York who established and supported several colored schools in that city.

Such care was exercised in providing for the attendance, maintenance, and supervision of these schools that they soon took rank among the best in the United States.
[Footnote 1: Jay, _Works of John Jay_, vol.i., p.

136; vol.iii, p.
331.] [Footnote 2: _Ibid_., vol.iii., p.

343.] More interesting than the views of any other man of this epoch on the subject of Negro education were those of Thomas Jefferson.

Born of pioneer parentage in the mountains of Virginia, Jefferson never lost his frontier democratic ideals which made him an advocate of simplicity, equality, and universal freedom.