Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1858-11-03
The Life of Thomas Jefferson, By Thorn
as Randall, L. L. D.

The Life of Thomas Jefferson, By Thorn
as Randall, l.. L. D.
The appearance of the history Of
The life of the author of the Dec
laItion of independence, written by
a nan fully competent to do justice to
the subject. and having at his command
ample materials. will be warmly greet
ed by the American Public. The time
has long since passed when The mist of
party prejudice partially Obscured the
brightness OF the halo that surrounds his
name, and the Nation, in the formation
of whose government, he acted so i'm
portant a part, is ready to 10 him justice;
ready, fairly, to weigh his great services
and estimate his talents.
We have examined these v~oluries with
great care, and although we have at
times, thought there was some effort Oh
the part of the historian, SO to color some
parts of tie history as TO make it seem
that Mr.. jefferson was an advocate of.
or an apologist for the system of slavery;
still, if this is the case at all, he has been
unsuccessful. We cannot agree with
the writer on many points, but we like
the work, because 1t gives not only the
public life of this great man, but il f1rn-
ishes an insight into his every day life,
from his boyhood until Tie day of his
death. His journals, memoranda, pri
yate letters, and accounts, we're in the
possession of Mr.. Randall, he was per-
s%onally intimate with the family and de-
scendants of Mr.. Jefferson, and therefore
possessed abundantmesns to successfully
and fairly to accomplish his work.
The Philadelphia Press (FOrney's pa.
peri says:
This life of Jefferson exhibits the pub
lie and private character Of its illustrious
subject with as much fairness as fullness.
1t is a political as well as personal work
not alone the biography of an individ
ual, however eminent and illustrious,
but a history of the nation to which he
belonged, during the whole period of his
pubic career. 1t is earnest and Impair
lial. and deserves 20 be regarded, con
suited, and relied upon as authentic in
its various statements. The immense
quantity of materials out of which Mr..
Randall has constructed this work-the
noblest monument over Jefferson-sup
Piled authentic information; but very few.
who read the work itself. a form any
adequate idea of the vast amount of labor
requisite to bring order out of thut chaos
of information. Mr.. Randall has reduc
ed the whole into a lucid narrative, and
judiciously put the sell upon his self
imposed and ably executed task, Sy ap-
pending what American books so rarely
have a general analytic double-cGlumn
index of fifty octave pages 4 i
The result is a view of Thomas Jeffer
son, the man, almost as satisfactory as
that of Johnson, given BY Boswell. or Of
Scott, as drawn with felicitous skill by
Lockhart. The impression which Mr..
Randall's 'tlabor of love" has left upon
our mind is that, through him. we now
have a more intimate acquaintance tran
with any other of our great men of The
Revolution with the exception. perhaps,
of Benjamin Franklin. whose Auto biog
rsphy (eyen with the defect and misfor-
tune OF closing The narrative nineteen
gears before The Declaration of Indepen
dencel has made the world familiar with
him.
Subscriptions for the work, received
at George Adams Book Store.