Thomas Jefferson

His interests were wide and intense, ranging from Anglo-Saxon roots to architectural designs, from fiddling to philosophy, from potatoes to politics, from rice to religion. In all these things, and in many more besides, he took the keenest interest; but in nothing, perhaps, did he display throughout his life a more unfaltering zeal than in the cause of education.

"A system of general instruction," said he in 1818, "which shall reach every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so it will be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest."

From first to last Jefferson's aim was to establish, in organic union and harmonious co-operation, a system of educational institutions consisting of (1) primary schools, to be supported by local taxation; (2) grammar schools, classical academies or local colleges; and (3) a State University, as roof and spire of the whole edifice.

He did not succeed in realizing the whole of his scheme, but he did finally succeed in inducing the Legislature to pass an act in the year 1819 by which the State accepted the gift of Central College (a corporation based upon private subscriptions due to Jefferson's efforts), and converted it into the University of Virginia.

This action was taken on the report of a commission previously appointed, which had met at Rockfish Gap, in the Blue Ridge Mountains — a commission composed probably of more eminent men than had ever before presided over the birth of a university. Three of these men, who met together in that unpretentious inn, were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe (then President of the United States).

Yet it was remarked by the lookers-on that Mr. Jefferson was the principal object of regard both to the members and spectators; that he seemed to be the chief mover of the body—the soul that animated it; and some who were present, struck by their manifestations of deference, conceived a more exalted idea of him on this simple and unpretending occasion than they had ever previously entertained.—R. H. Dabney.

THE FINANCIAL DIARY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Thomas Jefferson kept a financial diary and account book from January 1st 1791, to December 28th, 1803, embracing the last three years of his service as Secretary of State under Washington, the four years of his Vice- Presidency under John Adams, and the first three years following his own election to the Presidency.

This diary was one of the most valuable treasures in the library of the late Mr. Tilden.

Among the items enumerated in the very fine, but neat and legible hand of Mr. Jefferson, is the following:

"Gave J. Madison ord. on bank for 9625 D."

The modern symbol of the dollar was not then in use. Jefferson uniformly used a capital D to denote this unit of our Federal currency.

Madison was Jefferson's most intimate friend, and was a member of congress at the time the above entry was made Jan. 8, 1791, at Philadelphia.

Whenever Jefferson went home to Monticello or returned thence to his duties, he frequently stopped with Mr. Madison.

While they were in the public service together, it appears by this diary, that they traveled together to and from their posts of duty. It also seems that one or the other generally acted as paymaster.

The inadequate salary of $3,500 which Jefferson received as Secretary of State, was $500 more than that of any other cabinet officer.

HORSE BACK RIDING TO INAUGURATION.

It would seem on the authority of Mrs. Randolph, the great-granddaughter of Mr. Jefferson, in her work, "The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson," that the President rode "the magnificent Wildair" to the capitol, and hitched to the palisades while he went in to deliver his inaugural. The truth of the incident, however, is not established.

In Jefferson's diary we have this entry:

Feb'y 3, 1801, Rec'd from Col. John Hoomes of the Bowling Green a bay horse Wildair, 7 yr. old, 16 hands high, for which I am to pay him 300 D May 1.

There were no pavements, sidewalks nor railroads then in Washington. There were not even wagon roads. There was no getting about, therefore, for either men or women without horses.

COST OF SERVANTS, ETC.

Jefferson estimated the cost of his ten servants per week, $28.70, or $2.87 per head.

Jefferson managed to pay off many of his small debts with his first year's salary as President. It seems never to have occurred to him to lay by anything out of his receipts.

He thought that at the end of the second year he had about $300 in hand.

It is interesting to know in these temperance days that the wine bill of Jefferson was $1,356.00 per year.

Mr. Jefferson, judging by his diary, was an inveterate buyer of books and pamphlets. He also apparently never missed an opportunity of seeing a show of any kind.

There are items for seeing a lion, a small seal, an elephant, an elk, Caleb Phillips a dwarf, a painting, etc., with the prices charged. It cost him 11 1/2 d for seeing the lion, and 25 cents the dwarf.

WOULD TAKE NO PRESENTS.

The Rev. Mr. Leland sent him a great cheese, presumably as a present. Mr. Jefferson was not in the habit "of deadheading at hotels," nor of receiving presents, however inconsiderable in value, which would place him under any obligation to the donor. The diary contains the following minute regarding the cheese:

1802. Gave Rev'd Mr. Leland, bearer of the cheese of 1235 Ibs weight, 200 D.

So the monster article cost the President sixteen cents a pound.

It will be a surprise to those who have been educated to associate Mr. Jefferson's name with indifference, if not open hostility, to revealed religion, to find among his expenses—some entered as charity, but most of them, exclusive of what is reported under the charity rubric— entries like the following:

1792

Nov 27 Pd Mr B a Subscription for missionaries 15 D.

1798 Feby 26 pd 5D in part of 20D Subscription for a hot-press bible

1801

June 25 Gave order on J Barnes for 25D towards fitting up a chapel.

Sept 23 pd Contribution at a Sermon 7.20

1802

April 7 Gave order on J Barnes for 50D charity in favor of the Revd Mr Parkinson towards a Baptist meeting house.

9 Gave order on J. Barnes in favr the Revd Doctr Smith towards rebuilding Princeton College 100D

1802

July 11 Subscribed to the Wilmington Academy 100D

1803

Feby 25 Gave Hamilton & Campbell ord. on J. Barnes for 100D charity to Carlisle College.

  " 28 Gave Genl Winn ord. on J. Barnes for 100D charity to Jefferson Monticello Academy in S. Carolina.

March 1. Gave in charity to the Revd Mr Chambers of Alexandria for his church an order on J. Barnes for 50D

Nov 18 Gave order on J. Barnes for 100D in favor of Revd Mr Coffin for a college in Tennessee.

We doubt whether since the Presidential salary was doubled any of President Jefferson's successors has contributed as large a percentage of his salary to charitable or religious uses.

INDOLENCE.

In a letter to his daughter Martha, written in March,1787, Jefferson writes:

"Of all the cankers of human happiness, none corrodes with so silent, yet baneful a tooth, as indolence.

"Body and mind both unemployed, our being becomes a burthen, and every object about us loathsome, even the dearest.

"Idleness begets ennui, ennui the hypochondria, and that a diseased body.

"No laborious person was ever yet hysterical.

"Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, health of body and cheerfulness of mind. These make us precious to our friends.

"It is while we are young that the habit of industry is formed. If not then, it never is afterwards.

"The future of our lives, therefore, depends on employing well the short period of youth.

"If at any moment, my dear, you catch yourself in idleness, start from it as you would the precipice of a gulf.

"You are not, however, to consider yourself as unemployed while taking exercise. That is necessary for your health, and health is the first of all objects."

TITLES OF HONOR AND OFFICE.

He wrote to one of his friends concerning this matter as follows:

"The Senate and Representatives differed about the title of President. The former wanted to style him 'His Highness, George Washington, President of the United States, and Protector of their Liberties.' I hope the terms of Excellency, Honor, Worship, Esquire, forever disappear from among us. I wish that of Mr. would follow them."

THE TERM OF THE PRESIDENCY.

Mr. Jefferson was inclined at first to have the President elected for seven years, and be thereafter ineligible. He afterwards modified his views in favor of the present system, allowing only a continuance for eight years.

Regarding a third term, he says in his autobiography: "Should a President consent to be a candidate for a third election, I trust he would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious views."

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AND LAWYERS.

Mr. Jefferson wrote in his autobiography regarding the Continental Congress in 1783:

"Our body was little numerous, but very contentious. Day after day was wasted on the most unimportant questions.

"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing and talk by the hour?

"That one hundred and fifty lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected."

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

George Bancroft, in glowing words, speaks of this great creation of the genius of Jefferson:

"This immortal State paper, which for its composer was the aurora of enduring fame, was 'the genuine effusion of the soul of the country at that time.'

"It was the revelation of its mind, when, in its youth, its enthusiasm, its sublime confronting of danger, it rose to the highest creative powers of which man is capable."—Bancroft's U S., vol. 8, ch. 70.

JEFFERSON AND THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

"On the 30th of April, 1819, some forty-three years after Jefferson's Declaration was written, there appeared 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 20th, 1775. As this was nearly fourteen months before the Colonies declared their independence, and as many of the expressions in the Mecklenburg paper bore a striking resemblance to Jefferson's expressions, it excited a good deal of curiosity, and led to a discussion which has been continued to the present day. Those desirous of seeing the arguments 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 Declaration takes its place with the stories of Pocahontas and of William Tell."— Boutell.

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE.

In effecting the purchase of Louisiana, Mr. Jefferson has thus been eulogized by James G. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years of Congress:"

"Mr. Jefferson made the largest conquest ever peacefully achieved, at a cost so small that the sum expended for the entire territory does not equal the revenue which has since been collected on its soil in a single month, in time of great public peril."

JEFFERSON AND BENEDICT ARNOLD.

Benedict Arnold, with the British troops, had entered the Chesapeake in January, 1781, and sailed up the James River. He captured Richmond, the capital, then a town of less than two thousand people, and destroyed everything upon which he could lay his hands.

Jefferson summoned the militia, who came by thousands to oppose the traitor. Arnold, however, sailed down to Portsmouth and escaped.

Jefferson then urged upon General Muhlenburg the importance of picking out a few of the best men in his command "to seize and bring off the greatest of all traitors."

"I will undertake," he said, "if they are successful in bringing him off alive, that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them."

The effort was not made.

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE.

Jefferson mingled a great deal with the common people, especially with mechanics.

Often, when President, he would walk down to the Navy Yard early on a summer's morning, and sitting down upon an anchor or spar, would enter into conversation with the surprised and delighted shipwrights. He asked many questions of these artisans, who would take the utmost pains to satisfy his enquiries.

His political opponents believed unjustly that he did this simply for effect. They would say,

"There, see the demagogue!"

"There's long Tom, sinking the dignity of his station to get votes and court the mob."

ARISTOCRACY OF MIND.

Although Jefferson was an ardent democrat, in some sense he was also an aristocrat.

He firmly believed in an aristocracy of mind, and told John Adams that he rejoiced that nature had created such an aristocracy.

He unmistakably gave his preference to men of learning and refinement, at least he put these above other recommendations.

Mr. Jefferson, however, was not consistent with himself, for he frequently called General Washington "Your Excellency," during the war, and also when he was a private citizen at Mt. Vernon.

EVIL YOUTHFUL COMPANIONS.

Just after his college days Mr. Jefferson fell into company, as so many young men do, of a most undesirable sort.

According to his own statements it was a source of amazement even to himself that he ever escaped to be worth anything to the world. He realized in later years what a dangerous risk he had run.

READ LITTLE FICTION.

While he was an extensive reader in his early days, going into almost every field of literature, including poetry, he read very little fiction.

In fact, there was comparatively but little fiction then worth the name. Not from any sentiment of duty or moral impropriety, but from simple aversion he let it alone.

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