Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-07-21
THE WRITER OF THE DECLAR-
ALTON.
A Familiar Sketch.
BY JOHN ELTEN COOKE.

In the winter OF l16O there resided
at Williamsburg, in Virginia, gay
young man of about eighteen, called
by his intimate friends "Tom Jeffer-
SON." He was the son of Peter JEFF
ferson, a respectable planter, and was
born in 1743, at his fathers estate of
"Shadwell." Albemarle county,
whence, after attending one of those
rustic academies called "Old Field
Schools" he had come to William
and Mary College to complete his
education.
In person he was not graceful
He was tall and thin, and his face,
according to an enthusiastic admirer,
"angular and far from beautiful. >
His complexion was sunburnt, his
hair of a sandy red, and his eyes gray
flecked with hazel - an indication
generally of intelligence. 1t will
thus be seen that young Mr.. Tom
Jefferson was far from being an
Adonis, and many persons said he
was ugly; but the animated express
sion of his countenance went far to
redeem him from the charge. The
gray-hazel eyes could fill with elo-
quent and winning light. The angu-
lar face, little hard at first sight,
became in moments of excitement
very mirror of the thought or emo
ton of the brain or heart. The tall,
thin frame, incapable apparently of
graceful movement, was adapted to
every exercise, walking, dancing and
horsemanshlp. He was devoted to
dancing, and even when so old that
he could scarcely drag his steps along,
mounted and controlled with nerve
and skill the most mettlesome thor
oughbred. His manners were easy
and cordial. He dressed some after
the fashion Of beau-fowered waist
coat, silk stockings confined at the
knee by fancifully worked garters,
and used powder. In after years the
statesman and President was severe
black, discarded powder and silk
stockings, and became the apostle in
all things-in costume as in political
principles-of a leveling Democracy.
At Williamsburg in 1850 he dressed
in colors, powdered, carried his fine
laced hat beneath his arm, bowed
low, paid gallant compliments to tho
fair sex, and danced at every "assem-
bly," held in the capital, or the vicin-
ity. In a word, the afterward cele-
bratcd Thomas Jefferson was beau
and "macarnni," had strong prefer
ence apparently for all that was in
conflict with his subsequent social
theories, laughed, jested, made love
to the little bellies Of the little capital,
and was the very last man whom any
one would have regarded as the future
leader of a great political party and
the writer of the Declaration Of In
dependence.
1t is good, 1 think, to have these
glimpses of those distinguished men
as they appeared during their young
years and in their private characters.
The bronze figure of Jefferson in the
Capital square at Richmond is SO
grand and imposing with the folding
arms, the fingers holding the pen, and
the massive head dropped forward
under the weight, as 1t were, of
mighty meditations, that we are apt
to fancy that the real man appeared
thus to his contemporaries. Very far
from it. Young, he was the gayest,
widest, fiightiest of students and
gallants; old, he was the easiest,
most cordial, most familiar of com.
panions, with nothing of the massive
or heroic at all about him. 1t is bet
ter to have the real man before us,
not the gigantic bronze. The revo-
Autaonaire, statesman, ambassador,
cabinet officer, President, apostle of
Democracy, and Usage of Monticello"
was man like ourselves; let us look
at him as he was. When human be-
ings belong to history as Jefferson
does, it is desirable to know the truth
in regard to him, and as much of his
personal and private character as pos
siblc. These go to make the actual
portrait, and it is this, not the tall
figure in the bronze or marble, which
we most desire.
Let us look, therefore, at young
Thos.. Jefferson in his character of
student, good companion, and gallant
lover, as he shows himself to us in
his early letters to his friend Page
and others, and as he Is seen III other
old memorials. The youth and his
surroundings are gay and picturesque
and the details to be given are onter-
tanning. l have collected them from
many sources, and they Gre full of
animation, life, and mlrth, with fine
flavor of the antique days OF old Vir-
ginia about them. As you read them
The present generation disappears;
you float back on the waves OF time.
If you yield yourself without resist
ancc to the stream, you will see pass
before your eyes something like the
gay procession of the brilliant figures
Of other days, when the young men
I1 9, bwo: 1owo1 ooo<c and