UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 310 1471 
 
GIFT OF 
 
 JANE 
 
Thomas Jefferson 
 
 Man of Letters 
 
 LEWIS HENRY BOUTELL 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 Privately Printed 
 i8gi 
 
COPYRIGHT 1891 
 By L. H. BOUTELL 
 
 Press of 
 
 Slason Thompson & Co. 
 Chicago 
 
Read before 
 The Phi Beta Kappa Society 
 
 at 
 
 The Northwestern University, 
 
 Evanston, Illinois, 
 
 June 2jd, i8gi 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 THE visitor at Monticello finds in 
 scribed on the granite obelisk that 
 marks the grave of Thomas Jefferson 
 the following words: "Here was buried 
 Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declara 
 tion of American Independence, of the 
 Statute of Virginia for religious free 
 dom, and Father of the University of 
 Virginia." 
 
 As this epitaph, found among Jeffer 
 son s papers after his death, was com 
 posed by himself, it shows what acts of 
 his life he looked back upon with most 
 pleasure, and deemed most worthy of 
 enduring fame. Pondering these words, 
 we naturally ask ourselves did Jefferson 
 form a correct estimate of himself and 
 
8 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 his work ? The three acts with which he 
 desires his name to be forever associated 
 are those which mark the beginning 
 and the close of his career, and which 
 render him illustrious, not so much as 
 a statesman, as a man of letters. The 
 long period of middle life from 1779 
 to 1809, from the beginning of his term 
 as Governor of Virginia to the close of 
 his eight years presidency, was largely 
 a period of conflict, disappointment and 
 failure alternating with success and grati 
 fied ambition. As to the value of his 
 services during this period men have dif 
 fered greatly ; but his early manhood, 
 and his closing years, the dawn and the 
 setting of his life, form a pleasing pict 
 ure, upon which men will always love to 
 linger. 
 
 In the famous Congress of 1776 Jeffer 
 son was one of the youngest members, 
 being at that time thirty-three years of 
 age. How did it happen that so young 
 
The Man of Letters. 9 
 
 a man was placed on the committee to 
 prepare the Declaration of Independence, 
 and was requested by the other members 
 of that committee, such men as Franklin, 
 Adams, Sherman and Livingston, to write 
 that important document ? It was partly 
 the result of accident. The resolution of 
 the Virginia Legislature, requesting Con 
 gress to declare the American Colonies 
 independent of Great Britain, was pre 
 sented to Congress by Richard H. Lee. 
 From that fact, and from his high reputa 
 tion as a revolutionary orator, Lee would 
 naturally have been placed on the com 
 mittee to prepare the Declaration of In 
 dependence. But being suddenly called 
 home by the sickness of his wife, Jeffer 
 son was selected to represent Virginia on 
 that committee. Being upon the commit 
 tee he was chosen to write the Declaration 
 from the skill he had shown in drawing 
 similar instruments. Let us briefly glance 
 at the training which fitted him for this 
 important task. 
 
io Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 When Jefferson was fourteen years of 
 age his father died. He was a man of 
 great strength of character, and made up 
 for the deficiencies of an early education 
 by devoting his evenings to a diligent 
 study of the best English authors. He 
 took special pains with the physical and 
 mental training of his oldest son, Thomas, 
 and at his death not only left him a 
 handsome property, but provided that he 
 should receive a thorough classical edu 
 cation. The son honored the father s 
 memory by a scholarly diligence, which 
 made him one of the most learned Ameri 
 cans of his time, and which was the source 
 of the purest pleasures of his long and 
 eventful life. He often said "that if he 
 was to decide between the pleasures de 
 rived from the classical education which 
 his father had given him, and the estate 
 left him, he would decide in favor of the 
 former." 
 
 As a scholar he showed equal aptitude 
 
The Man of Letters. 1 1 
 
 for mathematics and the classics. It is a 
 singular fact that his taste for mathemat 
 ics was strongest in his youth, while his 
 taste for the classics was strongest in his 
 old age. He had a passion for all sorts 
 of knowledge. His favorite poets were 
 among the classics, Homer, the Greek 
 dramatists, and Horace; among the mod 
 erns, Tasso, Moliere, Shakspeare, Milton, 
 Dryden, Pope, and the English ballad, 
 pastoral and lyric writers. He had little 
 taste for novels, "Don Quixote" being the 
 only one he ever read a second time, or 
 ever very keenly relished. 
 
 After receiving a thorough preparatory 
 training in Latin, Greek and French, from 
 the clergymen of his neighborhood, he 
 entered the college of William and Mary, 
 at Williamsburg, then the seat of the 
 Colonial Court. Through his mother s 
 relatives, the Randolphs, one of the most 
 influential families in Virginia, he was in 
 troduced at once to the best society of 
 
12 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 the Capital. With a passion for fine hor 
 ses and for playing the violin, to which, 
 for several years, he devoted three hours 
 a day, there was danger that he would 
 become a man of fashion rather than a 
 scholar. From this he was saved by the 
 friendship of Dr. William Small, Professor 
 of Mathematics at William and Mary, and 
 ad interim Professor of Philosophy. Of 
 this teacher, who supplied the place of a 
 father, and was at once " guide, philoso 
 pher and friend, "he said, in afterlife, that 
 it was Dr. Small s instruction and inter 
 course that " probably fixed the destinies 
 of his life." 
 
 Through Dr. Small Jefferson made 
 the acquaintance of George Wythe, one 
 of the leading lawyers of Virginia, and of 
 Gov. Fauquier, whom Jefferson calls "the 
 ablest man who ever filled that office." 
 With these accomplished men Jefferson 
 was accustomed to meet at the table of 
 the Governor. 
 
The Man of Letters. 13 
 
 "At these dinners," Jefferson wrote in 
 1815, "I have heard more good sense, 
 more rational and philosophical conver 
 sation, than in all my life besides. They 
 were truly Attic societies." In this stim 
 ulating intercourse he developed that 
 talent for conversation which, through 
 out his life, was such a chanrfand power, 
 and which perhaps more than compen 
 sated for the gift of oratory which was 
 denied him. 
 
 This delightful social intercourse had 
 one drawback. With all Gov. Fauquier s 
 accomplishments he had some serious 
 faults. He was a reckless gambler and a 
 disciple of Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke. 
 Some have thought that from him Jeffer 
 son derived his skeptical notions. How 
 ever that may be, he managed to escape 
 the vice of gambling on the principle of 
 total abstinence. He never learned to 
 distinguish one card from another, and it 
 is said card playing was never permitted 
 
14 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 in his house. It is a curious fact, in this 
 connection, that in his old age, when bur 
 dened with debt, he should have asked 
 the Legislature of Virginia to pass an act 
 to enable him to dispose of his property 
 by a lottery. 
 
 Soon after leaving college, Jefferson 
 
 commenced the study of law with George 
 
 Wythe, at Williamsburg, and after five 
 
 years of diligent study with this eminent 
 
 jurist, he was admitted to the bar in 1767, 
 
 when he was twenty-four years of age. 
 
 fThe strong anti-slavery principles of Mr. 
 
 jWythe must have exerted no slight in- 
 
 Ifluence on his susceptible pupil, though 
 
 / the pupil did not, like his teacher, eman- 
 
 I cipate his slaves. 
 
 ^ While a law student at Williamsburg, 
 on the 30th of May, 1765, Jefferson, stand 
 ing in the lobby of the House of Burgesses, 
 listened to Patrick Henry s great speech 
 on the Stamp Act. From that time Jef 
 ferson acted with the most advanced of 
 the revolutionary leaders. 
 
The Man of Letters. 1 5 
 
 Among those who exerted a marked in 
 fluence on Jefferson s early years was his 
 oldest and favorite sister Jane. She was 
 three years his senior, and was a woman 
 of superior understanding and great ele 
 vation of character. She was his constant 
 companion when he was at home, and a 
 sympathizing friend to whom he unlocked 
 his heart. She was a "singer of uncom 
 mon skill and sweetness, and both were 
 particularly fond of the solemn music used 
 by the Church of England in the Psalms." 
 She died in the fall of 1765, at the age of 
 twenty-five. He cherished her memory 
 with the warmest affection to the close of 
 life. 
 
 For seven years Jefferson continued in 
 the successful practice of the law. Owing 
 partly to a defect in his voice, a tend 
 ency to become husky when speaking 
 above the ordinary tone of conversation, 
 and partly to a dislike of controversy, 
 he never became an advocate, but devoted 
 
1 6 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 himself mostly to chamber practice. Iis 
 writings display great familiarity with the 
 history of the law, and a strong taste for 
 its antiquities. 
 
 To a young man of Jefferson s tastes, 
 with the revolutionary eloquence of Pat 
 rick Henry ringing in his ears, the law was 
 but a stepping-stone to a political career. 
 Two years after his admission to the bar 
 he was chosen a member of the House of 
 Burgesses. He signalized his entrance Tl 
 upon political life by introducing a bill j 
 giving owners the right to emancipate ( 
 their slaves. The bill was defeated, and f 
 the right was not given until 1782. 
 
 In the summer of 1774, Jefferson was 
 elected a member of the convention at 
 Williamsburg, which was to choose dele 
 gates to a general congress of all the 
 Colonies. While on his way to this con 
 vention he was taken ill, but before leav 
 ing home he had prepared a draft of 
 instructions to the delegates, which he 
 
The Man of Letters. 17 
 
 now forwarded to the convention. It 
 was a long document, giving, in great 
 detail, a history of the relation of the Col 
 onies to Great Britain, setting forth the 
 acts of oppression of the King and Parlia 
 ment, and containing an elaborate legal 
 argument on the rights of the Colonies, 
 especially emphasizing the point that the 
 Colonies, while subject to the King, were 
 independent of Parliament. The conven 
 tion did not adopt this document, but 
 ordered it to be printed. It immediately 
 attracted attention in this country and 
 in England, and the English Whigs pub 
 lished it with some alterations, under the. 
 title of "A Summary View of the Rights^ 
 of British America." 
 
 This paper at once brought Jefferson 
 into notice as a political writer. It also 
 secured for him the honor of being 1 in 
 cluded in a bill of attainder with such men 
 as Hancock, the two Adamses, Patrick 
 Henry and Peyton Randolph. 
 
1 8 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 On the ist of June, 1775, the Governor 
 of Virginia convened the House of Bur 
 gesses to take into consideration Lord 
 North s conciliatory proposition. As the 
 assembling of the House of Burgesses 
 withdrew Peyton Randolph, the Speaker 
 of the House, from Congress, Jefferson 
 was chosen to succeed him. But before 
 he left, he was selected to prepare the 
 reply of Virginia to this proposition. On 
 the 2 ist of June, 1775, he took his seat in 
 Congress, bringing with him this reply. 
 
 Of Jefferson s arrival in Congress, John 
 Adams says : " Mr. Jefferson came into 
 Congress in June, 1775, and brought with 
 him a reputation for literature, science, 
 and a happy talent of composition. Writ 
 ings of his were handed about, remarkable 
 for the peculiar felicity of expression." 
 The writings thus referred to were the 
 " Summary View of the Rights of British 
 America," and the reply to Lord North s 
 proposition. 
 
The Man of Letters. 19 
 
 Five days after Jefferson took his seat 
 in Congress he was placed on a commit 
 tee to prepare a declaration of the causes 
 of taking up arms. He prepared a draft 
 which proved unsatisfactory to Mr. Dick 
 inson, a prominent member of the com 
 mittee. So Mr. Dickinson prepared a 
 draft, which was recommended by the 
 committee, and adopted by Congress. 
 
 On the 22nd of July, 1775, Jefferson 
 was put on the committee to report on 
 Lord North s conciliatory proposition. 
 At the request of his colleagues, Franklin, 
 Adams and R. H. Lee, he prepared the 
 report, which was substantially like the 
 one he had prepared for Virginia, and 
 which was adopted by Congress July 3ist, 
 
 1775- 
 
 So that when the time came to prepare 
 the Declaration of Independence, Jeffer 
 son \vas a practiced revolutionary writer. 
 No member of Congress had a higher rep 
 utation than he for that kind of literary 
 work. 
 
2O Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 The Declaration, as drawn by Jefferson, 
 was very considerably modified by Con 
 gress. Not only were words and sen 
 tences changed, but about one-fourth of 
 the entire matter was stricken out. These 
 changes generally improved the paper, 
 making it not only briefer, but simpler, 
 more exact, and more dignified. 
 
 One of the most important changes was 
 /striking out the paragraph relating to the 
 slave trade. As some of the Colonies had 
 been very glad to receive the slaves, and 
 others had themselves engaged in the 
 slave trade, the fact that England had 
 brought slaves here hardly seemed to jus 
 tify rebellion against the mother country. 
 
 Another important passage which was 
 stricken out was that in which, while rec 
 ognizing our allegiance to the King of 
 England, it was denied that Parliament 
 had any power over us. In his autobiog 
 raphy Jefferson claims that he had enter 
 tained this view from the first, and that 
 
The Man of Letters. 21 
 
 Mr. Wythe was the only person who 
 agreed with him. It seems strange that 
 Jefferson should have fallen into the error 
 of supposing this view peculiar to himself. 
 When Parliament, after the peace of 1763, 
 set up the claim to unlimited power over 
 the Colonies, it was met by the counter 
 claim that the Colonies were independent 
 of Parliament. But while this view, as a 
 theoretical speculation, was held by many 
 leading men in the country, the histori 
 cal fact was also clearly recognized that, 
 from the first, Parliament had exercised a 
 control over the Colonies in commercial 
 matters. Though the manner in which 
 this control was exercised was at times 
 complained of as oppressive, the right to 
 exercise it was admitted in all the state 
 papers put forth by the colonial con 
 gresses of 1765, 1774 and 1775. In these 
 famous documents, in which the rights 
 and the grievances of the Colonies were 
 so ably stated, the colonists, with true 
 
22 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 English instinct, placed themselves, as 
 their ancestors in England had done be 
 fore them in their struggles for liberty, 
 on historical ground. They rebelled, not 
 because of the commercial restrictions to 
 which they had always submitted, but 
 because Parliament had undertaken to 
 exercise a new power over them, to tax 
 them without their consent. They re 
 belled, not because Parliament had inter 
 fered with their natural rights as men, 
 but because it had interfered with their 
 historical rights as Englishmen. To have 
 retained in the Declaration of Independ 
 ence Jefferson s statement that the Colo 
 nies were independent of Parliament, 
 would have been to contradict the most 
 solemn declarations of Congress for the 
 two preceding years. 
 
 Edmund Burke, in his great speech on 
 American Taxation, showed that he un 
 derstood the Americans perfectly when 
 he pointed out that they were contending 
 
The Man of Letters. 23 
 
 for liberties based, not on metaphysical 
 speculations, but historical facts. "Again 
 and again," he said in his appeal to Parlia 
 ment, "revert to your old principles, 
 seek peace and ensue it, leave America, 
 if she has taxable matter in her, to tax 
 herself. I am not here going into the 
 distinction of rights, nor attempting to 
 mark their boundaries. I do not enter 
 into these metaphysical distinctions ; I 
 hate the very sound of them. Leave the 
 Americans as they anciently stood, and 
 these distinctions, born of our unhappy 
 contest, will die along with it. They and 
 we, and their and our ancestors, have 
 been happy under that system. Let the 
 memory of all actions in contradiction to 
 that good old mode, on both sides, be 
 extinguished forever. Be content to bind 
 America by laws of trade. You have al 
 ways done it. Let this be your reason 
 for binding their trade. Do not burden 
 them by taxes you were not used to 
 
24 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 do so from the beginning. Let this be 
 your reason for not taxing. These are 
 the arguments of states and kingdoms. 
 Leave the rest to the schools, for there 
 only they may be discussed with safety." 
 Eight years before this famous speech 
 of Burke s, Benjaman Franklin had ex 
 pressed substantially the same views, in 
 his examination before the House of 
 Commons, in reference to the repeal of 
 the Stamp Act. 
 
 /- /That Jefferson, in justifying the action 
 if the colonists, should have thought 
 more of metaphysical rights than histori- 
 /cal facts, illustrates one of the marked 
 
 4 ^. .... 
 
 / features of his character. He was often 
 
 I 
 
 more of a doctrinaire than a practical 
 statesman. He reminds us of the words 
 which Burke applied on a certain occa 
 sion to Chatham: "For a wise man he 
 seemed to me at that time to be gov 
 erned too much by general maxims." 
 It is, however, undoubtedly true, that 
 
The Man of Letters. 25 
 
 the attractive part of the Declaration, to 
 men of post-revolutionary times, has been, 
 not the recital of the wrongs of the Col 
 onies, but the statement with which the 
 Declaration opens, of the rights of men 
 in civil societies, and the violation of 
 those rights which justify rebellion. 
 
 There is barely time, in this connection, 
 to refer to that curiosity of literature 
 known as the Mecklenburg Declaration 
 of Independence. On the 3Oth of April, 
 1819, some forty-three years after Jeffer 
 son s Declaration was written, there ap 
 peared in the Raleigh (N. C.) Register 
 what purported to be a Declaration of 
 Independence, drawn up by the citizens 
 of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 
 on May 2Oth, 1775. As this was nearly 
 fourteen months before the Colonies de 
 clared their independence, and as many 
 of the expressions in the Mecklenburg 
 paper bore a striking resemblance to 
 Jefferson s expressions, it excited a good 
 
26 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 deal of curiosity, and led to a discussion 
 which has been continued to the present 
 day. Those desirous of seeing the argu 
 ments pro and con, put in their latest and 
 best form, will find them in two articles 
 in the Magazine of American History, in 
 the January and March numbers of 1889. 
 It is sufficient here to say that there was 
 found among the British State papers, as 
 well as in contemporaneous newspapers 
 in this country, the original Mecklenburg 
 paper, which was not a Declaration of 
 Independence at all, but simply patriotic 
 resolutions similar to those which were 
 published in most of the Colonies at that 
 time. And so the Mecklenburg Declara 
 tion takes its place with the stories of 
 Pocahontas and of William Tell. 
 
 The Statute of Virginia for religious 
 
 freedom formed only one of a body of 
 
 laws drawn up by a committee for revis- 
 
 ^ ing the laws of Virginia, composed of Jef- 
 
 ~ferson, George Wythe and Edmund Pen- 
 
The Man of Letters. 27 
 
 dleton. It was not more important than 
 many other laws of a reformatory charac 
 ter introduced by Jefferson in the Virginia 
 Legislature./ But Jefferson always prided 
 himself on the liberality of his religious 
 views. Religion, he was accustomed to 
 say, was a matter simply between man 
 and his Maker, with which others should 
 not interfere. 
 
 To such an extent did he carry these 
 views that he would not attempt to in 
 fluence the religious belief of his own 
 children. They did not know, till late in 
 life, what was the religious belief of their 
 father. Then they discovered that he was 
 what would be called to-day a radical Uni 
 tarian. An amusing illustration of the 
 inconsistency which Jefferson so often ex 
 hibited between theory and practice oc 
 curred in reference to his oldest daughter. 
 When he went to Paris, he placed her at 
 school in a convent. After a time, she 
 wrote to him of her desire to become a 
 
28 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 nun. The only reply he made was to 
 take her from school, and put her in the 
 midst of the gay society of the Court, 
 where she soon forgot her desire to lead 
 5 the life of a religious recluse. 
 
 From 1779 to 1809 Jefferson filled by 
 turns the offices of Governor of Virginia, 
 Member of Congress, Minister to France, 
 Secretary of State, Vice-President and 
 President. His two years as Governor 
 of Virginia were the most mortifying and 
 unfortunate years of his life. It was at a 
 time when Virginia, weakened by her ef 
 forts to supply the continental troops, was 
 overrun by an invading army. Jefferson 
 had not a single qualification for such an 
 emergency. He tried to do his best, but 
 in the end, Governor and Legislature were 
 obliged to seek safety in flight. At the 
 close of his term of service, an inquiry 
 into his conduct was demanded. Nothing 
 came of it, and the Legislature of Virginia 
 subsequently passed resolutions of com- 
 
The Man of Letters. 29 
 
 mendation for his services. It took him, 
 however, a long time to recover from this 
 blow to his self-esteem. It was during the 
 retirement following his governorship of 
 Virginia that he wrote his " Notes on Vir 
 ginia," a book which added greatly to his 
 reputation as a scientific man while he was 
 in Paris, where it was first published. 
 
 His five years as Minister to France, 
 from 1784 to 1789, formed a bright con 
 trast to the two years of his governorship. 
 He was able to accomplish but little in 
 regard to the object of his mission, but he 
 made no mistakes, and he enjoyed the so 
 ciety of the most cultivated men of Paris, 
 and witnessed the opening scenes of the 
 French Revolution. 
 
 On his return to this country, to enter 
 upon the duties of Secretary of State, he 
 began that career of practical politics in 
 which he exerted the most marked influ 
 ence on the destinies of his country. He 
 organized a great political party, the fun- 
 
3O Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 damental principle of which was to set the 
 narrowest possible limit to the powers of 
 the general Government. It was at all 
 times the party favoring a strict construc 
 tion of the provisions of the Constitution. 
 Here it occupied legitimate constitutional 
 ground. But in its advocacy of State 
 Rights, it began with the nullification 
 resolutions of Kentucky, and ended with 
 secession and civil war. 
 
 Jefferson has been called the Father of 
 American Democracy. In organizing the 
 democratic party, however, he was a fol 
 lower rather than a leader of public senti 
 ment. The fact is, that when the Consti 
 tution was adopted, the opposition to it 
 was so strong that it was believed that a 
 majority of the people were not in favor 
 of it. In Virginia especially this oppo 
 sition was very decided, and that state 
 would probably have rejected the Con 
 stitution but for the personal influence of 
 Washington. When Jefferson returned to 
 
The Man of Letters. 31 
 
 this country from his French mission, he 
 saw at a glance that the trend of public 
 sentiment was toward State Rights, and 
 a strict construction of the Constitution. 
 These views undoubtedly accorded with 
 his own tendencies, for, as he said of him 
 self, he was "not a friend to a very ener 
 getic government." Indeed some of his 
 expressions on this point have a touch 
 of extravagance that would seem comic 
 if Jefferson had possessed any sense of 
 humor. For instance, in speaking of the 
 North American Indian, he said : " The 
 only condition on earth to be compared 
 with ours, in my opinion, is that of the 
 Indians, where they have still less law 
 than we." On another occasion he says: 
 " Were it left to me to decide whether we 
 should have a government without news 
 papers, or newspapers without a govern 
 ment, I should not hesitate a moment to 
 prefer the latter." 
 
 The most fantastic notion of Jefferson s, 
 
32 Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 which can only be called a craze, was that 
 one generation cannot contract obliga 
 tions which shall be binding on the next. 
 Even Madison, with his keen logic, could 
 not drive this crotchet from his head. 
 Almost as absurd was Jefferson s plan for 
 a constitutional amendment to prevent 
 the general Government from borrowing 
 money. 
 
 Fortunately the possession of power 
 developed in Jefferson, as it has so often 
 done in others, the saner and more con 
 servative qualities of character. As Presi 
 dent the power of the general Government 
 was not only preserved unimpaired, but 
 in the purchase of Louisiana, the wisest 
 act of his administration, was stretched 
 beyond all former limits. This measure 
 was carried through, in spite of the fact 
 that Jefferson declared that he thought 
 it unconstitutional, and that an amend 
 ment of the Constitution should be made 
 to ratify it. 
 
The Man of Letters. 33 
 
 The contrast between the radical utter 
 ances of Jefferson at one time, and his 
 conservative action at another, has made 
 his character a very difficult one to under 
 stand. While his actions were often wiser 
 than his words, in some cases his words 
 were wiser and better than his actions. 
 
 This was especially the case in refer 
 ence to slavery. No man denounced this 
 institution more strongly than did Jeffer 
 son, and yet he opposed the Missouri Com 
 promise, because it attempted to check 
 the spread of slavery, claiming that the 
 carrying of slaves to new territories would 
 ameliorate their condition. He could see 
 nothing in those who attempted to pre 
 vent slavery from spreading into the new 
 territories but a selfish and sectional spirit. 
 
 From the close of his second presiden 
 tial term in 1809, to the end of his life, in 
 1826, Jefferson lived in retirement, devot 
 ing himself principally to educational mat 
 ters, and especially to the founding of the 
 University of Virginia. 
 
34 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 The seventeen years spent by Jefferson 
 in retirement at Monticello were among 
 the happiest of his life. They were cer 
 tainly not the least useful. Here he gave 
 himself up to those pleasures for which 
 through life he had so ardently longed, 
 the cultivation of his farm and garden, 
 the freshness and freedom of the woods, 
 the mountains and the fields. Here, with 
 a more than Virginian hospitality, he en 
 tertained all comers. He welcomed to his 
 table La Fayette and Webster and Tick- 
 nor. He corresponded with the most 
 eminent men in literature and science at 
 home and abroad. Here he mingled in 
 the sports of his grandchildren, or mused 
 on the tale of Troy divine. From this 
 mountain home he looked out upon a 
 landscape of surpassing loveliness, the 
 summits of the Blue Ridge, the Rivanna 
 flowing past the home of his childhood, 
 the broad plain to the south and east, 
 which stretches on and on to the sea, 
 
The Man of Letters. 35 
 
 the solitary mountain, in shape and size 
 like the great pyramid of Egypt, which 
 rises from the midst of the plain forty 
 miles away. To the west he looked 
 down upon the city of Charlottesville, by 
 the side of which he was at last permitted 
 to behold the pavilions and colonnades of 
 the University, and, towering above them 
 all, the Pantheon-like dome of the library 
 beneath which, in after years, was to stand 
 a statuex)f himself, as the presiding gen 
 ius of the place. 
 
 These years at Montjcello, though hap 
 py, were by no means idle. In a letter 
 to Dr. Utley, he says: "I was a hard 
 student until I entered on the business 
 of life, the duties of which leave no idle 
 time to those disposed to fulfill them; and 
 now retired at the age of seventy-six, 
 I am again a hard student. * * * I 
 am not so regular in my sleep as the Doc 
 tor (Rush) says he was, devoting to it 
 from five to eight hours, according as my 
 
36 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 company or the book I am reading inter 
 ests me ; and I never go to bed without 
 an hour or half an hour s previous read 
 ing of something moral, whereon to ru 
 minate in the intervals of sleep. But 
 whether I retire to bed early or late, I 
 rise with the sun." The moral reading 
 of which he was fondest was a volume of 
 extracts, made by himself, from the gos 
 pels, of the words of Jesus. 
 
 Jefferson was parsimonious of his time. 
 " No person," he said, "_will have occasion 
 to complain of the want of time who never 
 loses any. It is wonderful how much may 
 be done if we are always doing." 
 
 It was in these last years that he re 
 newed his friendship with John Adams, 
 and carried on a correspondence with him 
 of remarkable interest. His letter on the 
 true method of Greek pronunciation, giv 
 ing his reasons for believing that the pro 
 nunciation of the modern Greeks is in the 
 main the nearest approach to the pronun- 
 
The Man of Letters. 37 
 
 elation of the ancient Greeks that we can 
 ever hope to make, is very ingenious and 
 scholarly. Other letters, especially those 
 to Edward Everett, on grammar and style 
 and the ablative case in Greek, show how 
 strong was the scholarly instinct in him 
 to the close of his life. In one of his 
 charmingly garrulous letters to Adams 
 he writes : " I have given up newspapers 
 in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, 
 for Newton and Euclid, and I find myself 
 much the happier." 
 
 One work which he looked forward to 
 with interest, on his retirement from pub 
 lic life, was the publication of his Indian 
 vocabularies which he hoped would prove 
 a valuable contribution to the science of 
 ethnology. "I have long considered," he 
 wrote to Prof. Vater, at Konigsberg, " the 
 filiation of languages is the best proof we 
 can ever obtain of the filiation of nations." 
 The origin of the North American Indians, 
 their connection, if any, with other na- 
 
38 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 tions, and with one another, were questions 
 in which he always took a lively interest. 
 "Very early in life," he writes, "I formed 
 a vocabulary of such objects as, being 
 present everywhere, would probably have 
 a name in every language; and my course 
 of life having given me opportunity of 
 obtaining vocabularies of many Indian 
 tribes I have done so on my original plan." 
 In the course of thirty years he had col 
 lected fifty such vocabularies. It was his 
 intention, he said, " on retiring from public 
 business, to have digested these into some 
 order so as to show not only what rela 
 tions of language existed among our own 
 aborigines, but by a collation with the 
 great Russian vocabulary of Europe and 
 Asia, whether there were any between 
 them and the other nations of the con 
 tinent." Unfortunately on his removal 
 from Washington, in 1809, the package in 
 which this collection was sent by water 
 was stolen and destroyed. 
 
The Man of Letters. 39 
 
 The fact that on his retirement from 
 public life he returned, in his old age, 
 with all the enthusiasm of youth to the 
 reading of the classic authors, and that in 
 the last years of his life the books most 
 often in his hands were Homer and the 
 Greek tragedians, shows the estimate he 
 placed on classical learning. But in a let 
 ter to John Brazier, written in 1819, his 
 views on this subject are set forth at 
 length. 
 
 " You ask my opinion," he writes, " on 
 the extent to which classical learning 
 should be carried in our country. * * 
 * The utilities we derive from the re 
 mains of the Greek and Latin languages 
 are, first, as models of pure taste in writ 
 ing. To these we are certainly indebted 
 for the rational and chaste style of modern 
 composition which so much distinguishes 
 the nations to whom these languages are 
 familiar. Without these models we should 
 probably have continued the inflated style 
 
4O Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 of our Northern ancestors, or the hyper 
 bolical and vague one of the East. Second: 
 among the values of classical learning I 
 estimate the luxury of reading the Greek 
 and Roman authors in all the beauties 
 of their originals. And why should not 
 this innocent and elegant luxury take its 
 preeminent stand ahead of all those ad 
 dressed merely to the senses? I think 
 myself more indebted to my father for 
 this than for all the other luxuries his 
 care and affection have placed within my 
 reach ; and more now than when younger, 
 and more susceptible of the delights from 
 other sources. When the decays of age 
 have enfeebled the useful energies of the 
 mind, the classic pages fill up the vacuum 
 of ennui and become sweet composers to 
 that rest of the grave into which we are 
 all sooner or later to descend. A third 
 value is in the stores of real science, de 
 posited and transmitted us in these lan 
 guages, to wit: in history, ethics, arith- 
 
The Man of Letters. 41 
 
 metic, geometry, astronomy, natural his 
 tory, etc. 
 
 "But to whom are these things useful? 
 Certainly not to all men. There are con 
 ditions of life to which they must be for 
 ever estranged, and there are epochs of 
 life, too, after which the endeavor to attain 
 them would be a great misemployment of 
 time. Their acquisition should be the 
 occupation of our early years only, when 
 the memory is susceptible of deep and 
 lasting impressions, and reason and judg 
 ment are not yet strong enough for ab 
 stract speculation." 
 
 After pointing out the usefulness of the 
 classics to professional men, and the fact 
 that to the merchant, the agriculturist, 
 and the mechanic the ancient languages 
 are not necessary, and are but an orna 
 ment and comfort, he closes with these 
 words : " To sum the whole, therefore, it 
 may truly be said that the classical lan 
 guages are a solid basis for most and an 
 ornament to all the sciences." 
 
42 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 In the destruction of the public build 
 ings at Washington by the British troops, 
 on the 24th of August, 1814, the congres 
 sional library was burned. Jefferson im 
 mediately offered his own library to Con 
 gress, leaving them to fix the price. In 
 his letter to Samuel H. Smith making this 
 offer he says of his collection of books : 
 " I have been fifty years making it, and 
 have spared no pains, opportunity or ex 
 pense to make it what it is. While resid 
 ing in Paris I devoted every afternoon I 
 was disengaged, for a summer or two, in 
 examining all the principal book-stores, 
 turning over every book with my own 
 hand, and putting by everything which 
 related to America, and indeed whatever 
 was rare and valuable in every science. 
 Besides this I had standing orders, during 
 the whole time I was in Europe, on its 
 principal marts, particularly Amsterdam, 
 Frankfort, Madrid and London, for such 
 works relating to America as could not be 
 
The Man of Letters. 43 
 
 found in Paris. So that, in that depart 
 ment particularly, such a collection was 
 made as probably can never again be ef 
 fected, because it is hardly probable that 
 the same opportunities, the same time, 
 industry, perseverance and expense, with 
 some knowledge of the bibliography of 
 the subject would again happen to be in 
 concurrence. During the same period, and 
 after my return to America, I was led to 
 procure also whatever related to the duties 
 of those in the high concerns of the nation; 
 so that the collection, which I suppose is 
 of between nine and ten thousand vol 
 umes, while it includes what is chiefly 
 valuable in science and literature gener 
 ally, extends more particularly to what 
 ever belongs to the American statesman. 
 In the diplomatic and parliamentary 
 branches it is particularly full. * * * 
 Nearly the whole are well bound ; abun 
 dance of them elegantly ; and of the 
 choicest editions existing. * 
 
44 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 Congress accepted this handsome offer, 
 and paid Jefferson about twenty-four 
 thousand dollars for the library. Al 
 though this was only about one-half of 
 the original cost of the books, the price 
 was made to conform to Jefferson s wishes. 
 
 Jefferson began his efforts for the im- *\ 
 provement of education in his native state 
 in 1779, when he introduced into the Gen 
 eral Assembly of Virginia a bill for the 
 more general diffusion of knowledge. In 
 that bill he provided for elementary, sec 
 ondary, and higher education. For the 
 first, the state was divided into town 
 ships or hundreds, and all the poor chil 
 dren were to have free instruction for 
 three years in reading, writing and arith 
 metic. Two things are noticeable in this 
 provision for common schools. Girls as 
 well as boys were to be admitted to these 
 schools, in which provision he was so far 
 in advance of his time, that even Boston 
 did not permit girls to attend her public 
 
The Man of Letters. 45 
 
 schools until ten years after that date. 
 Another striking provision in reference to 
 these schools was that reading should be 
 made the vehicle for historical instruction. 
 The bill enjoins that " the books which 
 shall be used therein for instructing the 
 children to read shall be such as will at 
 the same time make them acquainted 
 with Grecian, Roman, English and Am 
 erican history." 
 
 For the secondary education, the bill 
 provided that academies or colleges should 
 be established in every three or five coun 
 ties throughout the state, where the in 
 struction should be such as would prepare 
 the students for entrance to the state 
 university. A novel provision for the 
 education of poor but promising boys 
 was this : The overseers of the common 
 schools were to select annually the best 
 and most promising genius, whose parents 
 were unable to afford him further edu 
 cation, and this boy was to be sent to 
 
46 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 the nearest grammar school to be edu 
 cated gratis for one or two years. At an 
 annual visitation, one-third of the least 
 promising of these public foundationers 
 were to be dismissed after one year s in 
 struction ; the rest were to remain for a 
 second year at public cost, and then all 
 were to be dismissed, or thrown on their 
 own resources, save one only, the best in 
 genius and disposition, who should be at 
 liberty to continue there four years longer 
 on the public foundation, and should 
 thenceforward be deemed a senior. After 
 six years public training, one-half of this 
 picked number was to be dismissed for 
 the supply of Latin school teachers, and 
 the other half of superior genius were to 
 proceed to William and Mary College for 
 three years specialization in such sciences 
 as they might select. By this ingenious 
 process of selection, Jefferson would have 
 provided for the highest education of the 
 poorest boys who exhibited the requisite 
 talents and industry. 
 
The Man of Letters. 47 
 
 These plans were never realized. But 
 Jefferson succeeded, after years of toil 
 some effort and patient waiting, in estab 
 lishing a state university, in which his 
 favorite ideas in reference to higher edu 
 cation were fully realized, and which 
 remains, and will remain through all 
 coming time, the noblest monument to 
 his genius and character. 
 
 At first Jefferson thought that by modi 
 fying the constitution of his Alma Mater, 
 William and Mary College, it might be 
 made into a state university such as he 
 desired. But this idea was soon aban 
 doned. That college was in an unhealthy 
 location, far removed from the center of 
 population, and was too thoroughly under 
 the influence of the Episcopal church to 
 suit Jefferson s tastes. Charlottesville had 
 the advantage of being in a healthy and 
 beautiful location, and near the center of 
 population. It met with strong competi 
 tors in Staunton, and in Lexington, where 
 
48 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 Washington College was located. But the 
 personal influence of Jefferson and the 
 indefatigable labors of his friend, Joseph 
 Carrington Cabell, carried the day in 
 favor of Charlottesville. 
 
 One great source of Jefferson s power 
 was the fascinating influence he exerted 
 over young men. This influence was 
 never exerted to better purpose than 
 when he enlisted the services of Cabell in 
 the cause of higher education in his native 
 state. This accomplished young man was 
 a graduate of William and Mary College 
 in 1798, and afterward studied at Will- 
 iamsburg with Judge Tucker. He went 
 to Europe in 1803 for his health. For 
 three years he devoted himself to study 
 at the leading universities of Europe, 
 Paris, Rome, Naples, Padua, Leyden, 
 Cambridge and Oxford. Educational 
 methods were the principal object of his 
 inquiry. In 1806, then twenty-eight years 
 old, he arrived in Washington with let- 
 
The Man of Letters. 49 
 
 ters of introduction to President Jefferson. 
 The President was so much pleased with 
 him that he offered him various positions 
 in the civil and in the diplomatic service. 
 Cabell declined them, as he preferred to 
 identify himself with the interests of 
 his native state. Becoming interested in 
 a project for establishing a museum of 
 natural history at William and Mary, he 
 wrote to Jefferson for aid. The reply, writ 
 ten by Jefferson s private secretary but 
 doubtless inspired by Jefferson, contained 
 a passage which determined his future 
 course. " If the amelioration of educa 
 tion and the diffusion of knowledge be 
 the favorite objects of your life, avail 
 yourself of the favorable dispositions of 
 your countrymen, and consent to go into 
 our legislative body. Instead of wasting 
 your time in attempting to patch up a 
 decaying institution, direct your efforts 
 to a higher and more valuable object: 
 found a new one which shall be worthy 
 
50 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 of the first state in the Union. This 
 may, this certainly will, one day be done, 
 and why not now ? You may not succeed 
 in one session, or in two, but you will suc 
 ceed at last." 
 
 Guided and inspired by these words, 
 Cabell entered Virginia politics, became 
 a member of the House of Delegates in 
 1809, and two years later was elected to 
 the State Senate where he remained 
 nutil 1829. With a tact and energy and 
 zeal that overcame all obstacles, he car 
 ried through the legislation necessary to 
 the successful establishment of the uni 
 versity. The cause of higher education 
 in Virginia never had a more intelligent 
 or devoted friend. 
 
 It would have been impossible, at that 
 time, to establish the University of Vir 
 ginia without state aid. Fortunately a 
 bill was passed in 1810 appropriating cer 
 tain escheats, penalties and forfeitures to 
 the encouragement of learning. Thus 
 
The Man of Letters. 5 1 
 
 was created what was called the literary 
 fund. This fund was a few years after 
 ward increased by adding to it the debt 
 due to Virginia from the Government of 
 the United States for expenses incurred 
 in the War of 1812. So that when the 
 time arrived for erecting the building of 
 the university this literary fund amounted 
 to quite a large sum. The difficulty v/as 
 to get this fund appropriated to building 
 up a university. It was thought by 
 many then, and the idea has by no means 
 died out yet, that such a use of state 
 monies was undemocratic. The money 
 of the state, it was said, should only be 
 used for the support of common schools, 
 and those who desired the benefits of the 
 higher education should pay for it. But 
 Jefferson had the good sense to perceive, 
 and the manliness to point out, the fal 
 lacy of those so-called Democratic notions. 
 He told the men of Virginia that com- / 
 mon schools should be supported by local 
 
52 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 taxes, that state aid would only pauperize 
 and degrade them ; but that a university 
 could never be sustained by the fees of 
 the students. As an educated class was 
 essential to the welfare and prosperity of 
 the state, it w r as proper that the state 
 should give its aid to those institutions 
 by which alone that education could be 
 provided. 
 
 / In a report to the Virginia Legisla_ 
 / ture, Jefferson said: " Some good men, 
 and men of respectable information, con 
 sider the learned sciences as useless re 
 quirements; some think that they do not 
 better the condition of man ; and others 
 that education, like private and individual 
 concerns, should be left to private indi 
 vidual efforts, not reflecting that an estab 
 lishment embracing all the sciences which 
 may be useful and even necessary in the 
 various vocations of life, with the build 
 ings and apparatus belonging to each, are 
 far beyond the reach of individual means, 
 
The Man of Letters. 53 
 
 and must either derive existence from 
 public patronage, or not exist at all. This 
 would leave us then without those callings 
 which depend on education, or send us 
 to other countries to seek the instruction 
 they require." 
 
 Slowly but steadily these views pre 
 vailed. On the 25th of January, 1819, 
 the bill passed for the establishment of 
 the University of Virginia. The manage 
 ment of its affairs was in a board of seven 
 Visitors, appointed by the Governor for 
 four years. The Visitors were to choose 
 one of their own members as Rector. 
 Jefferson held this office during his life. 
 Among his first associates were James 
 Madison and Joseph C. Cabell. Six years 
 were devoted to the construction of the 
 buildings of which Jefferson was both 
 architect and superintendent of construc 
 tion. After an expenditure of about 
 $4.00,000 for land and buildings, the uni 
 versity was open for the reception of 
 students, April 1st, 1825. 
 
54 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 From that day to this the university 
 has been conducted substantially on the 
 lines marked out by Jefferson. It was 
 to be a university in the European sense 
 of the word, and not an American col 
 lege. There was, therefore, no curri 
 culum, no course of study prescribed. 
 Each student selected such studies as he 
 wished to pursue, and continued those 
 studies for as long or short a time as he 
 pleased. At the end of his studies, he 
 received a certificate of proficiency in the 
 studies he had pursued, if he passed the 
 requisite examination. As a result of this 
 system the university was made up of a 
 group of schools, each independent of the 
 other ; at first there were eight schools ; 
 there are now nineteen, at which are 
 taught not only the studies of an aca 
 demic or scientific course, but the profes 
 sional studies of law, medicine, civil en 
 gineering and agriculture. There is no 
 school of theology. 
 
The Man of Letters. 55 
 
 For the first seven years there were no 
 religious services in the university. But, 
 as I learned from Dr. John B. Minor, the 
 venerable senior professor in the law 
 school, the chaplaincy was instituted in 
 1832, when he was a student in the col 
 lege. It originated in the feeling on the 
 part of both the faculty and the students 
 that the university should have religious 
 services of its own. Since 1832 there has 
 been preaching at the university twice 
 every Sunday, and since 1847, daily morn 
 ing prayers. The attendance of the stu 
 dents is voluntary. The salary of the 
 chaplain, varying from fifteen hundred 
 to tw r o thousand dollars a year, is princi 
 pally derived from the voluntary contri 
 butions of the students. The chaplain is 
 chosen every two years, by the faculty, 
 from one of the four principal denomin 
 ations of the state the Episcopal, Pres 
 byterian, Methodist and Baptist in reg 
 ular rotation. Prof. Minor, as I was 
 
56 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 informed by one of his former pupils, 
 has a Bible-class in his lecture-room every 
 Sunday, conducted with the same thor 
 oughness with which he conducts his law 
 lectures on the other days of the week. 
 
 A Young Men s Christian Association 
 was established at the university in 1858. 
 It is the oldest of the college associations. 
 Several mission schools in the neighbor 
 hood of the university are under its man 
 agement. A beautiful stone chapel has 
 recently been erected near the rotunda, 
 through the efforts of the wives of the 
 professors. 
 
 At first no degrees were conferred, but 
 that has been changed, and degrees of 
 various kinds for proficiency in certain 
 studies are given. But no honorary de 
 gree is ever conferred. 
 
 Of course such a system was only 
 adapted to students sufficiently mature 
 to be able to decide for themselves the 
 course they wished to pursue. It has 
 
The Man of Letters. 57 
 
 worked well in this university, as the 
 average age of the students who enter 
 the academic course is nineteen ; and of 
 the students entering the professional 
 schools, it is twenty-one. 
 
 The faculty meet together to decide on 
 matters of common interest, but each pro 
 fessor has the entire control of the meth 
 ods of study in his own school. Each 
 year the Board of Visitors select from the 
 faculty one to act as Chairman. At first 
 the professors were paid a small salary 
 and were allowed, in addition, tuition fees, 
 as the students were to pay separate tui 
 tion fees for each school with which they 
 were connected. This system has been 
 abandoned and the professors are now 
 paid a fixed salary of $3,000 each. 
 
 In selecting the first professors great 
 pains were taken to get the ablest men 
 in their several departments. Five were 
 brought from England, some of them of 
 such eminence that in a few years they 
 were recalled to English universities. 
 
58 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 The system of self-government among 
 the students was adopted from the first 
 and has on the whole proved very suc 
 cessful. There are two examinations a 
 year. Each student appends to his ex 
 amination paper a pledge that he has 
 neither given nor received any assistance 
 during the examination, which pledge is 
 most rigidly observed, as a point of honor, 
 by all the students. Prof. J. M. Garnett 
 says : " I have never known personally 
 of but one violation of this pledge, and 
 in that case a committee of his fellow- 
 students waited upon the offender and 
 informed him that he must leave the 
 university, which he did forthwith. I 
 have heard that a few similar cases have 
 occured in the history of the university 
 which were similarly treated. 
 
 The statistics of the university show 
 that one-half of the students remain for 
 only one year, and over one-fourth re 
 main for only two years. But the uni- 
 
The Man of Letters. 59 
 
 versity has been of inestimable advantage 
 to Virginia, and to the South in general, 
 in keeping a high standard of scholarship 
 before their young men. Besides its 
 training of professional men it has also 
 done a great deal for the cause of second 
 ary education, in furnishing competent 
 teachers for the academies of the South. 
 
 The session of the university extends 
 from the first day of October to the Wed 
 nesday before the fourth day of July, 
 with only a recess of one day at Christ 
 mas. Sundays excepted, every day in the 
 week, including Saturdays, is a working 
 day. So that there are about two hun 
 dred and thirty-two working days in each 
 session, which exceeds, it is believed, the 
 number of working days in any college 
 in the world. 
 
 The university reached its highest 
 prosperity in the ten years from 1850 to 
 1860, w 7 hen there were six hundred stu 
 dents in attendance at its various schools. 
 
60 Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 It suffered greatly during the Civil War; 
 but since then it has received large gifts 
 from Northern men, notably its observa 
 tory and telescope from Leander J. Mc- 
 Cormick of Chicago, a native of Virginia. 
 The present number of students is four 
 hundred and seventy-two. 
 
 In introducing the study of Anglo- 
 Saxon, Jefferson was greatly in advance 
 of his times. In attempting to guard 
 against the teaching of any political doc 
 trines at variance with his own, he showed 
 a narrowness strongly in contrast with the 
 
 %3ft>* 
 
 liberality of his views on other topics. 
 
 Jefferson lived but little over a year 
 after the opening of his university, but 
 the dream of his youth was at last real 
 ized. Whatever else might happen to his 
 fame, here was a monument that would 
 endure. In the few months of life that 
 remained to him Jefferson watched over 
 the university with a fatherly interest. 
 He was a constant visitor at its halls, and 
 
The Man of Letters. 6r 
 
 to it, as to a sacred shrine, he conducted 
 his most distinguished guests. In the 
 rotunda of the library was given the fare 
 well banquet to La Fayette. Three times 
 a week the professors were invited to Mon- 
 ticello. Once every week a party of stu 
 dents were his guests. To have spent an 
 evening in that gracious presence, listen 
 ing to that charming conversation ; to 
 have grasped the hand of that venerable 
 man, laden with all the honors his coun 
 try could bestow, yet seeming to prefer 
 the scholar s wreath to all civic crowns, 
 this of itself was a liberal education. 
 
 Fortunate in his death, as in his life, 
 the spirit of Jefferson passed away on 
 the Fourth of July, 1826, as millions of 
 freemen, all over the land, were greeting 
 with exultant shouts the words of the 
 Declaration of Independence, and the 
 name of its illustrious author. If any 
 sounds could have been dearer to him, 
 they would have been the voices of 
 
62 Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 the young students, greeting him as the 
 Father of the University of Virginia, as 
 they bade him hail and farewell.? 
 
NOTES. 
 I. 
 
 JEFFERSON S MONUMENT. 
 
 In the " Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson," 
 by Sarah N. Randolph, his great-granddaughter, 
 we are told : 
 
 " Among his papers there were found, written 
 on the torn back of an old letter, the following 
 directions for his monument and its inscription : 
 Could the dead feel any interest in monu 
 ments or other remembrances of them, when, as 
 Anacreon says : 
 
 de 
 
 the following would be to my manes the most 
 gratifying : on the grave a plain die or cube of 
 three feet, without any mouldings, surmounted 
 by an obelisk of six feet in height, each of a 
 
64 Notes. 
 
 single stone ; on the faces of the obelisk the fol 
 lowing inscription, and not a word more : 
 
 HERE WAS BURIED 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN 
 
 INDEPENDENCE, 
 OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS 
 
 FREEDOM, 
 
 AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 VIRGINIA ; 
 
 because by these, as testimonials that I have 
 lived, I wish most to be remembered. [It] to 
 be of the coarse stone of which my columns 
 are made, that no one may be tempted here 
 after to destroy it for the value of the materials. 
 My bust by Ceracchi, with the pedestal and 
 truncated column on which it stands, might be 
 given to the University, if they would place it in 
 the dome-room of the rotunda. On the die of 
 the obelisk might be engraved : 
 
 BORN, APRIL 2, 1743, - s - 
 DIED, . " 
 
 II 
 
 AUTHORSHIP OF THE DECLARATION OF 1775. 
 
 Until the publication of the memoirs, etc., of 
 Thomas Jefferson in 1829, eleven years after the 
 
Notes. 65 
 
 death of John Dickinson, it had never been dis 
 puted that Dickinson was the author of the 
 Declaration of the causes of taking up arms. 
 In 1801 two volumes of Mr. Dickinson s political 
 writings, including this Declaration, were pub 
 lished at Wilmington, Del., where Mr. Dickinson 
 resided. In 1804, in a letter in reply to the mis 
 taken assertion of Judge Marshall that the first 
 petition to the king was written by Mr. Lee, Mr. 
 Dickinson said of his published writings: 
 
 "This publication being made in the town where 
 I reside, no person of understanding can doubt 
 that I must be acquainted with the contents. 
 Of course I must be guilty of the greatest base 
 ness if, for my credit, I knowingly permitted 
 writings which I had not composed to be pub 
 licly imputed to me, without a positive and 
 public contradiction of the imputation. This 
 contradiction I never have made, and never 
 shall make, conscious as I am that every one of 
 those writings was composed by me." 
 
 In the autobiography of Jefferson, which was 
 begun, as he tells us, when he was seventy-seven 
 years of age, Jefferson states that he prepared a 
 draft of a declaration of the causes of taking up 
 arms which was too strong for Mr. Dickinson. 
 
66 Notes. 
 
 "We therefore," he says, "requested him to take 
 the paper and put it into a form he could 
 approve. He did so, preparing an entire new 
 statement, and preserving of the former only the 
 last four paragraphs and half of the preceding 
 one." 
 
 This statement has been accepted as true until 
 Mr. George H. Moore, superintendent of the 
 Lenox Library, delivered his address on this 
 subject before the New York Historical Society, 
 on June 6th, 1882. In that address he stated 
 that the original draft of this Declaration was 
 found in the manuscript collection of that soci 
 ety. It is not only in the handwriting of Mr. 
 Dickinson, but, as Mr. Moore says, the "cor 
 rections, additions, interlineations, revisions, in 
 mumber, extent, position and character, forbid 
 the supposition that he copied any portion of 
 this paper from a draft by Mr. Jefferson or any 
 other person. It is the original first draft of the 
 whole, and the proof of it is in no portion of the 
 whole more conspicuous than in the last four 
 paragraphs, and half of the preceding one, 
 claimed as his own by Mr. Jefferson, in his old 
 age, and accorded to him without doubt or 
 hesitation ever since." 
 
Notes. 67 
 
 This address was printed in 1890, with a fac 
 simile of the original draft of the Declaration. 
 A careful study of this original draft makes it 
 clear that the entire paper is the composition of 
 the person in whose handwriting it is found. 
 Until Mr. Jefferson s draft is produced, his state 
 ment as to the authorship of the closing portion 
 of the Declaration of 1775 must be put to the 
 account of the mistakes of old age. 
 
 III. 
 
 JEFFERSON AS A LAWYER AND LAW 
 REFORMER. 
 
 The following extracts from a letter which I 
 have recently received from Prof. John B. Minor, 
 of the University of Virginia, the distinguished 
 author of the " Institutes of Common and Statute 
 Law," will be read with interest : 
 
 "As a practitioner of the law Mr. Jefferson 
 had hardly time to make a distinguished figure, 
 but from the manner in which he acquitted him 
 self as a law-giver, I conceive that he must have 
 mastered the elementary principles of juridical 
 science with extraordinary proficiency and with 
 philosophic appreciation. 
 
68 Notes. 
 
 "The independence of Virginia having been 
 declared by the convention-legislature on the 
 29th of June, 1776, in October of the same year 
 an act was passed, chiefly, it would seem, at the 
 instigation of Mr. Jefferson, for a general re- 
 visal of the whole code of law, at the head of 
 which, at the age of thirty-three, and when he 
 had been only nine years at the bar, he was 
 placed. The commission consisted of Thomas 
 Jefferson, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, 
 George Mason and Thomas Ludwell Lee ; and 
 its president has preserved a brief but interesting 
 memorial of its deliberations and actions." 
 
 Then follows the account given by Jefferson 
 in his memoirs of the plan of work agreed upon 
 by the commission, the retirement of Mr. Mason 
 and Mr. Lee, and the division of the work among 
 the three remaining members. The common law 
 and statutes to the 4 James I, when the Virginia 
 Legislature was established, were assigned to 
 Jefferson; the British statutes since that time 
 to Mr. Wythe ; the Virginia Colonial laws to 
 Mr. Pendleton. The committee made their re 
 port to the General Assembly, June i8th, 1779, 
 consisting of one-hundred and twenty-six bills, 
 and making a printed folio of ninety pages only. 
 
Notes, 69 
 
 Some of the bills were taken up and passed from 
 time to time, but the main body of the work was 
 not taken up till 1785, when through the efforts 
 of Mr. Madison most of the bills were passed 
 with little alteration. 
 
 " Amongst these bills were four to which Mr. 
 Jefferson attached special importance, namely: 
 
 1. The bill to repeal the law of entail and to 
 convert every estate-tail then existing, or which 
 should be thereafter created, into a fee simple. 
 
 2. The bill to abolish the law of primogeni 
 ture, and to distribute an intestates estate of 
 inheritance equally among his heirs, without 
 regard to age or sex. 
 
 3. The bill to establish an unrestricted free 
 dom of religious belief; and, 
 
 4. The bill for the general education of the 
 people, namely : 
 
 First, Elementary schools for all children 
 generally, rich and poor. 
 
 Second, Colleges for a middle degree of in 
 struction ; and, 
 
 Third, An university for teaching the scien 
 ces generally, and in their highest degree. 
 
 " He himself says : I considered four of these 
 bills, passed or reported, as forming a system by 
 
7O Notes. 
 
 which every fibre would be eradicated of ancient 
 or future aristocracy, and a foundation laid for 
 a government truly republican. 
 - " No bill for the emancipation of slaves was 
 \ proposed by the revisers, deeming it better that it 
 should be attempted only byway of amendment 
 whenever the digest of the laws on the subject 
 should be brought up. The principles of the 
 amendment, however, says he, were agreed on ; 
 that is to say, the freedom of all born after a 
 certain day, and deportation at a proper age. But 
 it was found that the public mind would not yet 
 bear the proposition, nor will it bear it even at 
 this day ; yet the day is not distant when it must 
 bear and adopt it, or worse will follow. Nothing 
 is more certainly written in the book of fate 
 than that these people are to be free ; nor is it 
 less certain that the two races, equally free, can 
 not live in the same government. Nature, habit, 
 opinion have drawn indelible lines of distinction 
 between them. 
 
 " This subject had engaged the anxious atten 
 tion of the General Assembly ever since 1699. 
 Then was commenced the series of prohibitory 
 acts (as many as twenty-six in all), whereby it 
 was sought to avert or discourage the further 
 
Notes. 71 
 
 introduction of slaves, to which the King of 
 England, or his governors, opposed the royal 
 negative, at the instance of those who were 
 profitably concerned in the traffic. 
 
 "The last of these acts in 1772 was accom 
 panied by an earnest petition to the Throne to 
 
 remove all restraint which inhibited his Maj- * 
 
 I 
 esty s governors assenting to such laws as might " -- 
 
 check so very pernicious a commerce as that of 
 slavery. This petition like its predecessors was 
 disregarded, and it seems to show the depth 
 of the general sentiment upon the subject, that 
 the preamble to the State Constitution of 1776 
 (which has also been the preamble of every suc 
 ceeding constitution, as it is to the present one) 
 complains of it as one of the acts of detestible 
 and insupportable tyranny of the King of Great 
 Britain, that he had prompted our negroes to 
 rise in arms among us, those very negroes 
 whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he 
 had refused us permission to exclude by law. 
 
 "And it is worthy of note that within two 
 years after Virginia had become an independent 
 state, whilst the War of the Revolution was yet 
 flagrant, at the instance of Mr. Jefferson, who, 
 as he tells us, introduced the bill, an act was 
 
72 Notes. 
 
 passed forbidding the further importation of 
 slaves under heavy penalties; a policy, be it 
 remembered, in which Virginia, under the guid 
 ance of Mr. Jefferson, anticipated Great Britain 
 and the United States by almost thirty years. 
 
 "Thus, under Mr. Jefferson s auspices, the fol 
 lowing achievements in legislation were wrought. 
 
 1. The abolition of the African slave trade in 
 Virginia. 
 
 2. The prohibition of all restraints upon the 
 freedom of religious opinion. 
 
 3. The abolition of the law of entails. 
 
 4. The abolition of the law of primogeniture, 
 and of all distinctions of age or sex in the dis 
 tribution of the lands of an intestate decedent. 
 
 5. The origination of the policy of a general 
 education of the people, which, as to university 
 instruction, found its consummation in his life 
 time by the creation and endowment by the 
 state, in 1819, under his personal influence, of 
 the University of Virginia, which began its oper 
 ation in 1825; and, as to an effective system of 
 primary education, was carried into successful 
 operation in 1870. 
 
 6. The mitigation of the penal laws by pro 
 posing to confine the death penalty to treason 
 
Notes. 73 
 
 and murder, and to punish the lesser felonies by 
 hard labor upon the public works, which he was 
 afterward satisfied should be substituted by soli 
 tary confinement and labor in prison, so that 
 indirectly, under his influence, the penitentiary 
 system was inaugurated in 1796. 
 
 " His marvellous success in the framing of 
 laws is illustrated in the law of descents. That 
 statute abrogated wholly the common law canons 
 of descent, and substituted therefor an entirely 
 new system applicable to every possible case that 
 can happen, and controlled by new analogies, 
 and yet so clear was its framer s perception of 
 his own scheme, and so lucid his language, that, 
 after the lapse of more than a hundred years, 
 only one serious controversy as to its mean 
 ing has arisen, and probably none other will 
 ever arise ; whilst, as if to be a foil to Mr. Jef 
 ferson s perfection of thought and expression, 
 two additional sections incorporated in 1792, by 
 a less skillful hand, have provoked repeated 
 litigation." 
 

 
 
 HOV I < JSL