Thomas Jefferson Part 6

A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE

Jefferson's second term as President ended March 4, 1809, and during the rest of his life he lived at Monticello, with occasional visits to his more retired estate at Poplar Forest, and to the homes of his friends, but never going beyond the confines of Virginia. Just before leaving Washington, he had written: "Never did a prisoner released from his chains feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political pa.s.sions."

Though no longer in office, Jefferson remained till his death the chief personage in the United States, and his authority continued to be almost supreme among the leaders as well as among the rank and file of the Republican party. Madison first, and Monroe afterward, consulted him in all the most important matters which arose during the sixteen years of their double terms as President. Long and frequent letters pa.s.sed between them; and both Madison and Monroe often visited Jefferson at Monticello.

The Monroe doctrine, as it is called, was first broached by Jefferson. In a letter of August 4, 1820, to William Short, he said: "The day is not far distant, when we may formally require a meridian through the ocean which separates the two hemispheres on the hither side of which no European gun shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other;" and he spoke of "the essential policy of interdicting in the seas and territories of both Americas the ferocious and sanguinary contests of Europe." Later, when applied to by Monroe himself, in October, 1823, Jefferson wrote to him: "Our first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to meddle in cisatlantic affairs." The whole letter, a long one, deserves to be read as the first exposition of what has since become a famous doctrine.

The darling object of Mr. Jefferson's last years was the founding of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. For this purpose he gave $1000; many of his neighbors in Albemarle County joined him with gifts; and through Jefferson's influence, the legislature appropriated considerable sums. But money was the least of Jefferson's endowment of the University.

He gave of the maturity of his judgment and a great part of his time. He was made regent. He drew the plans for the buildings, and overlooked their construction, riding to the University grounds almost every day, a distance of four miles, and back, and watching with paternal solicitude the laying of every brick and stone. His design was the perhaps over-ambitious one of displaying in the University buildings the various leading styles of architecture; and certain practical inconveniences, such as the entire absence of closets from the houses of the professors, marred the result. Some offense also was given to the more religious people of Virginia, by the selection of a Unitarian as the first professor. However, Jefferson's enthusiasm, ingenuity, and thoroughness carried the scheme through with success; and the University still stands as a monument to its founder.

It should be recorded, moreover, that under Jefferson's regency the University of Virginia adopted certain reforms, which even Harvard, the most progressive of eastern universities, did not attain till more than half a century later. These were, an elective system of studies; the abolition of rules and penalties for the preservation of order, and the abolition of compulsory attendance at religious services.

Mr. Jefferson's daily life was simple and methodical. He rose as soon as it was light enough for him to see the hands of a clock which was opposite his bed. Till breakfast time, which was about nine o'clock, he employed himself in writing. The whole morning was devoted to an immense correspondence; the discharge of which was not only mentally, but physically distressing, inasmuch as his crippled hands, each wrist having been fractured, could not be used without pain. In a letter to his old friend, John Adams, he wrote: "I can read by candle-light only, and stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be indulged to me could I by that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o'clock, and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all this to answer letters, in which neither interest nor inclination on my part enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.

Yet writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers." At his death Jefferson left copies of 16,000 letters, being only a part of those written by himself, and 26,000 letters written by others to him.

At one o'clock he set out upon horseback, and was gone for one or two hours,-never attended by a servant, even when he became old and infirm. He continued these rides until he had become so feeble that he had to be lifted to the saddle; and his mount was always a fiery one. Once, in Mr.

Jefferson's old age, news came that a serious accident had happened in the neighboring village to one of his grandsons. Immediately he ordered his horse to be brought round, and though it was night and very dark, he mounted, despite the protests of the household, and, at a run, dashed down the steep ascent by which Monticello is reached. The family held their breath till the tramp of his horse's feet, on the level ground below, could faintly be heard.

At half past three or four he dined; and at six he returned to the drawing-room, where coffee was served. The evening was spent in reading or conversation, and at nine he went to bed. "His diet," relates a distinguished visitor, Daniel Webster, "is simple, but he seems restrained only by his taste. His breakfast is tea and coffee, bread always fresh from the oven, of which he does not seem afraid, with at times a slight accompaniment of cold meat. He enjoys his dinner well, taking with his meat a large proportion of vegetables." The fact is that he used meat only as a sort of condiment to vegetables. "He has a strong preference for the wines of the continent, of which he has many sorts of excellent quality.... Dinner is served in half Virginian, half French style, in good taste and abundance. No wine is put on the table till the cloth is removed. In conversation, Mr. Jefferson is easy and natural, and apparently not ambitious; it is not loud as challenging general attention, but usually addressed to the person next him." His health remained good till within a few months of his death, and he never lost a tooth.

Scarcely less burdensome than his correspondence was the throng of visitors at Monticello, of all nationalities, from every State in the Union, some coming from veneration, some from curiosity, some from a desire to obtain free quarters. Groups of people often stood about the house and in the halls to see Jefferson pa.s.s from his study to his dining-room. It is recorded that "a female once punched through a window-pane of the house with her parasol to get a better view of him." As many as fifty guests sometimes lodged in the house. "As a specimen of Virginia life," relates one biographer, "we will mention that a friend from abroad came to Monticello, with a family of six persons, and remained ten months.... Accomplished young kinswomen habitually pa.s.sed two or three of the summer months there, as they would now at a fashionable watering-place. They married the sons of Mr. Jefferson's friends, and then came with their families."

The immense expense entailed by these hospitalities, added to the debt, amounting to $20,000, which Mr. Jefferson owed when he left Washington, crippled him financially. Moreover, Colonel Randolph, who managed his estate for many years, though a good farmer, was a poor man of business.

It was a common saying in the neighborhood that n.o.body raised better crops or got less money for them than Colonel Randolph. The embargo, and the period of depression which followed the war of 1812, went far to impoverish the Virginia planters. Monroe died a bankrupt, and Madison's widow was left almost in want of bread. Jefferson himself wrote in 1814: "What can we raise for the market? Wheat? we can only give it to our horses, as we have been doing since harvest. Tobacco? It is not worth the pipe it is smoked in. Some say whiskey, but all mankind must become drunkards to consume it." Jefferson, also, was so anxious lest his slaves should be overworked, that the amount of labor performed upon his plantation was much less than it should have been. And, to cap the climax of his financial troubles, he lost $20,000 by indorsing to that amount for his intimate friend, Governor Nicholas, an honorable but unfortunate man.

It should be added that Mr. Nicholas, in his last hours, "declared with unspeakable emotion that Mr. Jefferson had never by a word, by a look, or in any other way, made any allusion to his loss by him."

In 1814, Mr. Jefferson sold his library to Congress for $23,950, about one half its cost; and in the very year of his death he requested of the Virginia legislature that a law might be pa.s.sed permitting him to sell some of his farms by means of a lottery,-the times being such that they could be disposed of in no other way. He even published some "Thoughts on Lotteries,"-by way of advancing this project. The legislature granted his request, with reluctance; but in the mean time his necessities became known throughout the country, and subscriptions were made for his relief.

The lottery was suspended, and Jefferson died in the belief that Monticello would be saved as a home for his family.

In March, 1826, Mr. Jefferson's health began to fail; but so late as June 24 he was well enough to write a long letter in reply to an invitation to attend the fiftieth celebration, at Washington, of the 4th of July. During the 3d of July he dozed hour after hour under the influence of opiates, rousing occasionally, and uttering a few words. It was evident that his end was very near. His family and he himself fervently desired that he might live till the 4th of July. At eleven in the evening of July 3 he whispered to Mr. Trist, the husband of one of his granddaughters, who sat by him: "This is the fourth?" Not bearing to disappoint him, Mr. Trist remained silent; and Mr. Jefferson feebly asked a second time: "This is the fourth?" Mr. Trist nodded a.s.sent. "Ah!" he breathed, and sank into a slumber from which he never awoke; but his end did not come till half past twelve in the afternoon of Independence Day. On the same day, at Quincy, died John Adams, his last words being, "Thomas Jefferson still lives!"

The double coincidence made a strong impression upon the imagination of the American people. "When it became known," says Mr. Parton, "that the author of the Declaration and its most powerful defender had both breathed their last on the Fourth of July, the fiftieth since they had set it apart from the roll of common days, it seemed as if Heaven had given its visible and unerring sanction to the work which they had done."

Jefferson's body was buried at Monticello, and on the tombstone is inscribed, as he desired, the following: "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."

Jefferson's expectation that Monticello would remain the property of his descendants was not fulfilled. His debts were paid to the uttermost farthing by his executor and grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph; but Martha Randolph and her family were left homeless and penniless. When this became known, the legislatures of South Carolina and Louisiana each voted to Mrs. Randolph a gift of $10,000. She died suddenly, in 1836, at the age of sixty-three. Monticello pa.s.sed into the hands of strangers.

Jefferson had his faults and defects. As a statesman and ruler, he showed at times irresolution, want of energy and of audacity, and a misunderstanding of human nature; and at times his judgment was clouded by the political prejudices which were common in his day. His att.i.tude in the X Y Z business, his embargo policy, and his policy or want of policy after the failure of the embargo,-in these cases, and perhaps in these alone, his defects are exhibited. It is certain also that although at times frank and outspoken to a fault, he was at other times over-complaisant and insincere. To Aaron Burr, for example, he expressed himself in terms of friendship which he could hardly have felt; and, once, in writing to a minister of the gospel he implied, upon his own part, a belief in revelation which he did not really feel. It seems to be true also that Jefferson had an overweening desire to win the approbation of his fellow-countrymen; and at times, though quite unconsciously to himself, this motive led him into courses which were rather selfish than patriotic.

This was the case, perhaps, in his negotiations with the English minister after the failure of the embargo. It is charged against him, also, that he avoided unpleasant situations; and that he said or did nothing to check the Republican slanders which were cast upon Washington and upon John Adams. But when this much has been said, all has been said. As a citizen, husband, father, friend, and master, Jefferson was almost an ideal character. No man was ever more kind, more amiable, more tender, more just, more generous. To her children, Mrs. Randolph declared that never, never had she witnessed a _particle_ of injustice in her father,-never had she heard him say a word or seen him do an act which she at the time or afterward regretted. He was magnanimous,-as when he frankly forgave John Adams for the injustice of his midnight appointments. Though easily provoked, he never bore malice. In matters of business and in matters of politics he was punctiliously honorable. How many times he paid his British debt has already been related. On one occasion he drew his cheque to pay the duties on certain imported wines which might have come in free,-yet made no merit of the action, for it never came to light until long after his death. In the presidential campaigns when he was a candidate, he never wrote a letter or made a sign to influence the result.

He would not say a word by way of promise in 1801, when a word would have given him the presidency, and when so honorable a man as John Adams thought that he did wrong to withhold it. There was no vanity or smallness in his character. It was he and not d.i.c.kinson who wrote the address to the King, set forth by the Continental Congress of 1775; but d.i.c.kinson enjoyed the fame of it throughout Jefferson's lifetime.

Above all, he was patriotic and conscientious. When he lapsed, it was in some subordinate matter, and because a little self-deception clouded his sight. But in all important matters, in all emergencies, he stood firm as a rock for what he considered to be right, unmoved by the entreaties of his friends or by the jeers, threats, and taunts of his enemies. He shrank with almost feminine repugnance from censure and turmoil, but when the occasion demanded it, he faced even these with perfect courage and resolution. His course as Secretary of State, and his enforcement of the embargo, are examples.

Jefferson's political career was bottomed upon a great principle which he never, for one moment, lost sight of or doubted, no matter how difficult the present, or how dark the future. He believed in the people, in their capacity for self-government, and in their right to enjoy it. This belief shaped his course, and, in spite of minor inconsistencies, made it consistent. It was on account of this belief, and of the faith and courage with which he put it in practice, that he became the idol of his countrymen, and attained a unique position in the history of the world.

FOOTNOTES

1 It is to be remembered that the support of public worship was compulsory in Ma.s.sachusetts-the inhabitants of certain cities excepted-down to the year 1833. An attempt to free the people from this burden, led by Dr. Childs, of Berkshire County, was defeated at the Const.i.tutional Convention of 1820.

2 The father of Miss Catherine Sedgwick was a leading Federalist, and his daughter records that, though a most kind-hearted man, he habitually spoke of the people as "Jacobins" and "miscreants."

3 Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:-"But if the policy of the government upon a vital question affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the moment they are made, the people will cease to be their own masters; having to that extent resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."