Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-09-17
snutbe aalehp Gbronels aeleOnesOap September L. 1873
JEFFERsoN's DOMESTIC LIFE.

The great grand daughter of Thomas
Jefferson has done her countrymen great
service in placing fully before them the
domestic life of one of our former Presi
dents. All through that life, as she has
pictured it, is a most remarkable devotion
to his home and life, very rare in men of
state so long in important and trying pub
lie position, rs was Jefferson. This mans
letters to his young daughters, bereaved
in their tenderer years by the loss OF most
devoted mother, are most touching and
beautiful and ought to be read by every
American girl. In the midst of his most
responsible and trying public cares we
find him very regular in his letters to his
daughters. All through them he seems to
have impressed upon them his horror of
iol,eness. In almost every letter he warns
them against it. Here are some of his
many admonitions to them on the subject.
"If at any moment, my dear, you
catch yourself in idleness, start from it
as YOU would from the precipice of gulf"
Again he SAYS: "Of all the cankers of hu-
| man happiness none corrodes with so 81
lent vet so baneful an influence as idleness.
Idleness begets ennui, ennui the hypochon-
driac and that diseased body. 1t is while
we are young that the habit of industry Is
formed If not then, it never IS after
wards.u Jefferson was himself very in
dustrious. His leisure moments were al
ways given to reading. In this way he
accumulated q vast fund of information,
which made him brilliant conversation
alist and q ready writer on any subject.
His letters to his daughters are varied.
We quote a paragraph to his youngest
child, who had been left with her aunt III
Virginia, when Jefferson first wet to Paris,
He was anxious to have this little girl
with him and an elder sister. She was
disinclined to leave her aunt. He writes
to her this letter as an inducement to come.
"When you get here you shall have as
many dolls and play things as you want
for yourself or to send to your cousins.
= You shall be taught to
play on the harpsichord, to draw, to dance,
to read and talk French and such other
| things as will make you more worthy the
love of friends; but above all, by our care
and love of you, we will teach you 10 love
us more than you will do II you stay SO
| far from us. n0PS you -
yery good girl, never tell stories, mind
vonr books: y = remember, too, rs q
Constant charge, not to go out without
your bonnet. because it will make you
very ugly, and then we shall not love you
40 much.i From this letter, so suited to
the COMPREHENSION and tastes OF little
girl: we turn to one to his elder daughter,
which we commend for good Sabbath
reading and reflection Tor the girl readers
of the CHRONICLE: Music, drawing
books. invention and exercise Will be sc
many resources to you against ennul. Bul
there are others which, to this object, add
that of utility. These are the needle ano
domestic economy. In the, life OF Ameri'
cans there are many moments when Wo'
man can have recourse to nothing but hel
needle for employment. MY eX'
pectations from you are high, yet moi
higher than you can attain. Industry ano
resolution are all that are wanting. NO
body in this world can make me so hap
by or so miserable as you. Retirement
from public life will ere long become ne
cessary for me. To your sister and your
self / look, to render the evening of my
life serene and contented. Its morning
has been clouded by loss after loss, until
have nothing left but you. Teach
your sister above all things to be good, be
cause without that we can neither be val
ued by others nor set any value on our
selves Teach her TO be always true. NJ
vice is so mean as the want of truth
Teach her never to be angry, and teach hel
industry, and application to useful pur
suits, Practice these without ceasing. l.
ever YOU fad yourself in difficulty anC
doubt how TO eXtricate yourself, do what il
right