The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-11-09
GREA AMERICANS IN LOVE.
How some Of Our Iilustrious Men he
came Victims OF the Tender Passion
Thomas Jefferson's Courtship.

How Some OF Our IIIustrious Men ne
came Victims OF the Tender Passion
Thomas JeIerson's Co%urtship.
Iron the Detroit Free Press.l
There was another victim to the ten.
der passion in those days, who after
wards grew famous-a young gentle
man who eventually became President
of the United States, "apostle Of De-
mocracy" and ''sage Of Monticello
Mr.. Thomas jefferson. 1t is hard to
contemplate this calm, collected, unex.
citable man of politics and scientist in
the light of a lover; but Jefferson was,
in his carly years, u very inilammable
young gentleman. We are not left to
conjecture On this subject. We have
under his own hand-in his letters pub
lished by his literary executor in his
''life"-a most amusing account of his
love affairs when he was a student at
William and Mary College. Nothing
more rollicking, gay, even extravaganza
ly comic could be imagined than GER
tain passages in these epistles-notably
that in which he describes at length and
in detail how Satan came through n
hole in the roof while he was asleep and
taking the form of a rat stole his ''gem-
my worked garters." His fair enslaver
to whom he constantly refers in these
letters-was Miss Rebecca Burwell, the
daughter of II gentleman of Gloucester.
He writes about her to his friend, John
Page, Esq, afterwards Governor Of
Virginia, which Office he too was to
hold. He is ~nervously fearful that
somebody will discover who his sweet.
heart is; so, after the fashion of the
time, he bestows upon her a name ex-
tracted from the dictionary of love,
Belinda. Every fair one then vas
Chloe, or Daphne, or Florclla Miss Bur-
well was Belinda. But Belinda, the
sutton fears, is far too plain. His Sc
crets will be penetrated, his movements
watched, his love discovered. There
fore he translates Belinda into Latin,
and calls the young lady Campana-tn
lie" -Day!" Greek letters were
also occasionally employed to wrap up
from profane glances the dear ones
name, and it was even written back
ward in Greek, and becomes AdnileU
We read of these follies Of the after
wards famous man with a certain
amused interest, and they seem to
bring the Sage of Monticello and ''apos-
tie of Democracy" q great deal nearer
TO US. lie is a man like ourselves, not
a mere historic figure. He is not writ
ing Presidential messages yet, bnt
"dancing with Belinda in the Apollo"
that famous room in the Raleigh Tav-
ern where the youth grown to manhood
was to organize, through the committee
of correspondence, resistance to the
British crown. He is Il boy, and is in
disputably in love in this good year of
1863, and he courts and signs, and tries
to capture his pretty little sweetheart
as pious, it is said, rs she was beautiful
and, like his friend George Washing
ton, fails. The young lady will not be
captured. There is much reason to
conclude that she gave Mr.. Thomas
Jefferson 'the slipper"-sonding him
adrift the most unhappy of lovers-for
we soon find him writing in the saddest
strain about his prospects; planning a
sail-boat voyage to Europe, and IA re-
turn Through the British provinces &c
the northward" and proposing schemes
for the future, unconnected with his
dear "Compana-in die" This lady
afterwards married Mr.. Jacquelin Am
bier, the beloved and respected Treas
urer of Virginia, and it is a somewhat
notable fact that Miss Mary Cary, who
discarded Washington, vas united to
Mr.. Edward Amber, brother of the
gentleman who married Miss ltebecca
Burwell, who discarded Jefferson! The
dii DidjoreS of that epoch were unfor
tunate, and seem to have been taught
by the saddest experiences, that "kiss
ing goes by favor"
Another coincidence betweeA tn,
matrimonial fates of Washington ant
Jefferson was to present itself. Reject
= ed by Belinda, Tom Jefferson, as h
: was called by his friends, betook him
self to law and politics, seeking in dus
ty tones and political aspiration som
8 salve for his g~rievous wound. The da
1 came, however, when Cupid again assert
5 ed his sway. jefferson made the at
s q~uaintance of a beautiful young wido'
l Mr.. Jefferson's friend" being a Gel
tain Martha SHELTON (thc Martha bein
0 an additional coincidence), a wealth
l young dame of "The Forest" in Charlie
: City. This young heiress he bore o
from every competitor. All his accom-
plishments were used to that end, hi
wit, badinage, Anticipating and 10y
, er-like ardor. At last he succeeded
and a great wedding took place t
"The Forest" on a night of winter, tn
huge log fires driving away with the
blaze the chill of January, the sam
month in which Washington had ma
ried his fair widow, Martha. On tn
next day the groom and his bride S,
out in their coach for Monticello, the
Il in process of erection on a spur of ii
Blue Ridge. At "Blenheim," ii
house of Col. Carter, near tn
mountain, they were caugl
by snow-storm, forced
leave their coach and compelled to col
tinue their journey on horsebacI
d laundering through deep snow-drift
y Jefferson was in despair, but the brio
was in the highest spirits. They stru
Ie gled out up the mountain roads f
eight weary miles, through a sno,
u shrouded landscape, and only arriv,
after night to find all cold, dark al
cheerless. But this did not abate d