Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-07-21
INDEPENDENCE, IOWA, FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1876.

may have the pleasure of sailing up
the river again in full-rigged fat?
You must know that as soon as the
Rebecca (the name I intend to give
the vessel above mentioned) is COM
plctely finished, I intend to hoist sail
and away. I shall visit particularly
England, Holland, France, Spain,
Italy (wherc I would buy a good fid-
dle), and Egypt, and return through
the British Provinces to the north
ward homo. This, to be sure, would
take us two or three years, and if we
should not both be cured of love in
that time, think the devil would be
in it." In this manner does the down.
cast lover attempt to hide his "fear
of the event." and jests upon the fid-
die to be purchased in his love-lorn
exile, and about sailing up the river
or as we now say, Salt River-in
full-rigged .taat. His fears were
prophetic. Whether the Rebecco
yacht was ever completely finished"
it is impossible to say; but that, in-
stead of staying at home and doing
nothing, he went down and did less,
is quite plain. After while he
writes: "With regard to the scheme
which I proposed to you some time
since, l am sorry to tell you it is
totally frustrated by Miss r. BIS
marriage with Jacquelin Amber,
which the people here tell me they
daily expect. Well, the Lord bless
her, 1 say" So it ended-the young
lady objecting to a union with a gen
tleman whose fame in time was to
extend throughout the world as the
author of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. And it is somewhat sim
gular that Miss Burwell married Jac-
quelin Amber, the Treasurer of Vir-
gina, whose brother Edward married
Miss Cary, who discarded Washing
ton, if we are to credit Tradition
The famous men were unfortunate.
1t is not to be concluded from
what is above written, that Jefferson
was mere "lovcr of ladies'" and
idler. At Williamsburg he studies,
for part of his course, at least, no
less than Is hours day. Here, as
throughout life, he appears to have
been possessed by that quenchless
thirst for knowledge, knowledge,
knowledge, which kept his energetic
mind eternally OH the watch, and un-
der the spur for the means of graft
flying it. 1t may have been that the
youth, even then, was filled with am
bition, and aimed at making a great
career for himself; but the more prob
able hypothesis is that knowledge
was sought by him for it's own sake
alone. His fertile and excitable in
tellect could never rest during the
life of its master. Everything inter-
ested him. In every department of
human knowledge he was a restless
and determined explorer. The read
er familiar with his lite will recall,
as an extraordinary instance of this,
the regular tables which he kept of
the Washington markets. During a
stormy political period, when his
friends and enemies were waging a
war of giants for and against him, he
regularly and systematically set down
in his note book the dates of the ap-
pearance and disappearance of every
vegetable IN the market. For the
eight years of his presidency, under
all the tolls and heart burnings of his
position, the appearance of lettuce
and asparagus and pease seemed as
important matter as the fate of the
nation.
Jefferson was an excellent perform
er on the violin, and every week q
party of musical amateurs, of whom
he was one, assembled at Fauquier's
palace to play. His fondness tor
the instrument lasted very nearly
throughout his life, and, in spite Of
the maxim of Lord Chesterfield, that
no gentleman should play the fiddle,
he remained its faithful votary. 1t
consoled him in the weary hours of
age, as it had amused him in the
bright days of his youth.
at this time, as afterward, he read
extensively in the various depart.
ments of bellies lettres-though rarely
q novel. Sterne, Fielding, Smollett,
Marmontel, LaSage, and Ccrvantes
exhausted his romantic reading. Don
Quixote he read twice in his life, and
greatly admired, but books of this
class were never favorites with him.
He laughed at Mrs. Radcliffe later in
lite, and clung to the classics, IN all
languages, with immovable tenaclty.
The great Greek and Latin writer's,
with Tasso, Metastaslo, and the minor
Italian poets, were his preference;
and in his college days he loved
Shenstonc, scraps of whose poems
were found scribbled over many of
his early manuscripts. But while he
was at Williamsburg the hod of his
literary idolatary was Osslan, then
just given to the world. He read
and studied the eloquent rawlings of
Macpherson with vivid admiration
So great was this passion at the time
that he resolved to make himself
master of the Gaelic tongue, in order
to read the poems in the original;
and actually wrote to a relative OF
Macpherson in Scotland, once resi-
dent of Virginia, to procure him a
Gaelic grammar and dictionary, and
have a copy of the original manu-
scripts taken and sent to him. "The
cost need be no obstacle" he wrote,
"thc glow of one warm thought" be-
ing "worth more than money" ale
was not ashamed" he added, 'to own
that he thought this rude bard OF the
North the greatest poet that had ever
existed. AS late as April, 1882, in
his fortieth year, he and the Marquis
de Chastcllux, with a punch bowl be-
tween them at Monticello, contend
ing which should repeat to the other
their favorite passages. We may
easily fancy with what ardor and en-
thusiasm the young man insisted, at
William and Mary, upon converting
his fellow student to his faith in the
crude bard of the North"
As personal and familiar details
are the object of the present paper,
let us pass over some years to the
circumstances attending the marriage