The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-08-30
THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Magazine has very interesting a
count of "Thomas Jefferson and Fan
ily,' being a synopsis of biograph
of Jefferson recently published by til
Harpers. We abridge the sketch i
order to bring it within the compass {
a newspaper article: -
Five miles from Char1ottesvill
Virginia, in the midst of solitar
pasture, stands the remains of a grow
of bcusts and sycamores planted b
Jefferson on his twenty first birthday
Upon the spot where they stand b
was born April 13, 1743. -Four mile
distant is Monticello, his home fo
fifty-six years. The house is now il
very dilapidated condition. No
very far distant is the graveyard il
which his body was laid in 1856, thi
very cemetery having been laid out b.
him almost sixty years before. Th'
first body deposited there was that o
his schoolmate Donbey Carr, after
ward his brother-in-law. A grea
oak tree stood on the hight beneath
which the boys were won't to study
and one Of their youthful agreement.
was that whichever died first sho ulc
be buried by the survivor beneath thai
tree.
Jefferson has been greatly misrepre
sented and misunderstood. Partisan
detraction in his day went to lengths
at present inconceivable. He was sci
forth as asdemagogue, a gambler, an
infdel, and a libertine. To put al
rest these calumnies his great grand
daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph,
has published a delightful volume,
The Domestic Life of Thomas Jeffer.
son." made up mainly from his cor
respondence.
HIS EARLY YEARS.
Thomas Jefferson was early sent TO
the best schools which the country af.
forded, and afterward to William and
Mary College. From The first he was
a diligent student. When he left col
lege he had become good mathemati-
clan, an excellent musician, fine clas-
sical scholar, and had acquired French,
Spanish and italian. Before he had
reached his thirtieth year he WAS, be-
yond doubt, the best read man in
America, and we doubt it even Burke
him in extent and variety
of knowledge.
He was admitted to the bar at the
age of twenty-four, and soon acquired
an extensive practice. His account
books show that during the eight years
of his life as lawyer he was engaged
in 948 cases. An old man, who had
in his youth often heard Jefferson at
the bar, was asked how he ranked as a
speaker ''It's hard to tell,' was the
reply, because he always took the
right side
He invested all his spare money in
lands, and in few years had an es-
tate of five thousand acres. He was
very fond of blooded horses, and very
scrupulous as to the care they received.
The grooming of them was required
to be so perfect that if a white CAM
brio handkerchief was soiled by being
rubbed over one of them he would re-
Iuse to mount it, and send it back to
the stable. Although in those days
high play and hard drinking were the
rules, yet he never gave way to them,
lid not know one card from another,
and never permitted card playing in
his house. To the end of his life he
vas very abstemious, drinking only
sparingly of light wines, and never of
'piritous liquors.
JEFFERSON'S MARRIED LIFE,
Which lasted ten years, was ss happy
Is that of man could be, saving that
IF six children-all daughters-born
20 him only two survived infancy and
childhood. After his death drawer
vas found in his room containing pack
lges with locks of hair. One, labeled
"A lock of our first Lucks hair, with
some of my dear, dear wife's writing
contains a few threads of soft hair
cut from the head of an in
ant. Another marked Lucy" con-
aims a beautiful golden curl. 1t had
,een cut from the head of a daughter
Who, dying at the age of five, had pre-
.eded him by forty years into the ST.,
ent Land. The two daughters who
rev up to wcmanhood were Martha,
Ifterward the wife of Thomas Mann
and Mary, usually called
Maria, the wife of John W. Eppes.-
The correspondence between the father
nd those daughters forms a conf ler-
BILE part of Mrs. Randolph's volume;
nd we venture the affirmation that
'etter letters were never interchanged
etween father and children. Both
daughters were strikingly beautiful.
ENTRY INTO PURLIC LIFE.
Jefferson entered rather early into
ublic life, at about the age of twenty !
tx, he was elected to the Virginia !
1ouse of Burgesses, in which he took |
prominent part for five years. 1t
Tas almost by accident that he became
member of the first American Con
ress of 1755. He had been appoint
j as alternate for Peyton Randolph !
-one of the three whom had proposed
} himself as mo6els-who might not
e able TO attend, being President OF
lie Virginia House of Burgesses. A
leeting was called by the Governor;
was obliged to be present,
nd SO Jefferson went to Philadelphia,
here the Congress met. His "repu'
!tion as having masterl y pen" had
receeded him, and at the next session
E was appointed as chairman of the
,mmittee to draw up a Declaration
Independence" His draft was
lopted with many alterations.
Iu 1879 Jefferson was elected
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.
A post he two years afterwards .
signed in consequence of the feeble
'alth Of his wife, promising that he
ould never again leave her to accept 1