The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1871-09-28

AIe swept the bruised leaves.
And yet oh poet in thy homely fashion
Thy work thou loSt fulfill;
For in the turbd current of his passion
Thy face is shining still
Thomas Jefferson.
AN INTERESTING SKETCH OF MS LIFE.
Five miles from Charlottesville, Virgin
ia, in the midst of q solitary pasture,
stands the remains of a grove Of locuSts
and svcamores, planted by Jefferson on
his twenty-rst Birthday Upon the spot
on which they stand, he was born April
18th, 17l3. -Four miles distant is Monti
cello, his home for iitty-siN years The
house is now in Il very dilapidatcd condi-
dion Not very far distant is the grave
yard in which his body was laid in 1926,
this very cemetery having been laid out by
him almost fifty years before The first
| body there deposited was that OF his
1 schoolmatc, Dahney Carr. aiterWard hls
brother-in-l a great oak tree stood on
/ the height beneath which the boys We're
wont to study, and one Of their youthful
agreements was that whichever died first
should he buried by the survivor beneath
/ that tree.
/ Jefferson has been greatly misrepresent-
/ ed and misunderstood. Partisan detrac-
tion in his day went to lengths at present
! inconceivable lie was set forth as It
I demagogue, II gambler, an inlltlel and
! libcrtinc. TO put at rest these calumnics
his great granddaughter, Martha jeller-
son Randolph has published 4 delightful
volume, The Domestic Life of Thomas
Jefferson" made mp mainly from his cor
fespondence.
HIS EAEIN YEARS.
Thomas jefferson was early sent to the
best schools which the country afforded,
and alterward to William and Mary Col
lenc From the first he was 4 dili@ent
student. When he left college he had be
come Il good mathematician and excellent
musician, a fine classical scholar, and had
acquired French. Spanish and Italian.
Before he had reached his thirtieth year
/ he was, beyond doubt, the best read man
in America. and we doubt if even Burke
surpassed him in eXtcrt ana variety OF
| knowledge.
| He was admitted to The bar at the age
of twenty-fonr, and soon acquired an eN-
I tensivc practice. His account books show
/ tiitu Nutlll0 lllc t!ll NttiA oi ms IIit Us u
| lawyer he was engaged in 9iS cases An
old man. who had in his youth often
| heard of Jefferson at the bar, was asked
how he ranked as speaker. Its hard to
tell,n was the reply. ''bccause he always
took the right side
/ lie invested all his spare money in
lands, and in few years had an estate of
five thousand acres. He WAS very fond
/ Of blooled horses. and very scrupulous as
to the care they received. The grooming
f. of them was required to be 50 perfect that
if 4 white cambric handkerchief was soil
/ ed by being rubbed over one of Them he
would refuse to mount it and send it back
10 the stable. Although in those days
high play and hard drinking were the
rule, yet he never gave way to them, did
not know one card from another, and
never permitted card playing in his house.
To the end of his life he was very alb
stemious, drinking sparingly of light
wines and never Of spirituous liquors.
JEFrEEsoN's MARRIED LIFE.
Which lasted ten years, was rs happy as
that of man could well be, saying that of
the six children-all daughters-born to
him, only two survived infancy and child
hood. After his DEATH Il drawer was
found in his room containing packages
with locks of hair One labeled "A lock
of our first Lucy's hair with some OF my
dear, dear wife's writing" contains few
threads of soft hair, evidently cut from
the head of an infant Another marked
'Lucy,n contains Il beautiful golden curl.
1t had been cut from the head of daugh-
ter who, dying at the age of five, had
preceded him by forty Years into the 81
lent Land. The two daughters who
grew up to womanhood were Martha, af-
forwards the wife of Thomas Mann Ran
dolph, and Mary. usually called Maria,
the wife of John w. Eppes. The cores
pondence between the father and these
daughters forms y considerable part OF
Mrs Randolph's volume; and we ven
turc the affirmation that better letters
were never intCrchanged between father
and children. Both daughters We're strik-
ingly beautiful.
ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE.
Jefferson entered rather early into pub
lie life. In 1863, at the age of twenty
six, he was elected to the Virginia House
of Burgcsses, in which he took a promi-
ncnt part for five years. 1t was almost
by accident that he became Il member OF
the first American Congress of l775. He
had been appointed as alternate tor Pey-
ton Randolph-one Of three whom he had
proposed TO himself rs models : who
: might not he able to attend being Prcsi
dent of the Virginia House of Burgesses
A meeting of the House was called by
; the Governor; Randolph was obliged tC
Philadelphia, where the Congress met
, ho,- cfp,l Ii
pen" had preceded him, and at the next
session he was appointed chairman of tho
committee to draw up a ''Dcclaration OF
with many alterations.
i In 1919 jefferson was elected
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA,
f A post he two years afterwards resigned
: in consequence of the feeble health OF his
, wife, promising that he would never
again leave her to accept any public of
flee. A fall from his horse about thi
> time disabled him for few weeks, whicl
,, he employed in writing his ''Notes Oh
Virginia." The Marquis de ChastelluX
who visited him at this period, write
thus concerning him:
: HIS PERSONNEL.
Y Let me describe TO you man not ye
= forty, tall, and with mild and pleasing
Y countenance, but whose mind and under
e standing are ample substitutes for ever,
4 exterior grace. An American, who with
: out ever having quilted his own country
+ is at once musician, skilled in drawing
4 a geometrician, an astronomer a natull
philosopher legislator and statesman. !
mild and amiable wife, charming children
of whose education he himself take
/ charge, Il house to embellish great pro
y visions to improve, and the arts an,
! sciences to cultivate-these are what re
+ main to Mr.. Jefferson after having play
/ ed principal character on the theatre Q
G the New World, and which he preferre,
70 +ho Lopn,a h1a commission of M;n;,+o