American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-11-11
GREAT AMERICANS LOVE.
How Some of Our Tiustrioias Men Be-
| came Victims OF the Tender Passion
| Thomas Jefferson's Courtship.


From the Detroit Free Press.l
There was another sictim to the ten
der passion in those days, who after
wards grew famous young gentle
man who eventually became President
of the United States, 'sapostle of De-
mocracy" and Usage of Monticello
Mr.. Thomas jefferson. 1t is hard to
Contemplate this calm, collected, rinex
citable man of politics and scientist in
the light of a lover; but Jefferson was,
in, his early years, very inf1ammable
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 student at
William and Mary College. Nothing
more rollicking, gay, even extravaganza
tain passages in these epistles notably
that in which he describes at length and
in detail how Satan came through a
hole in the roof while he was asleep and
taking the form of a rat stole his ttgem-
my worked garters." His fair enslaver
Ito whom he constantly refers in these
letters Miss Rebecca Burwell, the
daughter of 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 name ex-
tracted from the dictionary of love,
Belinda. Every fair one then was
Chloe, or Daphne, or Florella; 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-im
die" Bell-in-Day!" Greek letters were
also occasionally employed to wrap up
from profane Chances the dear ones
| name, and it was even written back
ward in Greek, and becomes Adnileb
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 'tapos-
tie of Democracy great deal nearer
to us. He is man like ourselves, not
mere historic figure. He is not writ
ing Presidential messages yet, but
'sdanciDg with Belinda in the Apollo''
E. ~ D,1o s<rk To
ern where the youth grown to manhood
was to organize, through the committee
of correspondence, resistance to the
British crown. He is boy, and is in
disputably in love in this good year of
1853, and he courts and signs, and tries
to capture his pretty little sweetheart
as pious, it is said, as 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 pper"-sending 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 re-
turn "through the British provinces to
the northward" and proposing schemes
for the future, unconnected with his
dear "Compana-in diei'' 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, was united to
Mr.. Edward Amber, brother of the
gentleman who married Miss Rebecca
Burwell, who discarded jefferson! The
dit nlajores of that epoch were unfor-
tunate, and seem to have been taught,
by the saddest experiences, that "kiss-
ing goes by favor"
Another coincidence between the
matrimonial fates of Washington and
jefferson was to present itself. Reject
ed by Belinda, Tom Jefferson, as he
was called by his friends, betook him.
self to law and politics, seeking in dus-
ty tones and political aspiration some
salvc for his grievous wound. The day
came, however, when Cupid again assert
ed his sway. Jefferson made the ac-
quaintance of a beautiful young widow
Mr. Jefferson's Sc friend" being GER
tain Martha Shelton (the Martha being
an additional coincidence), wealthy
young dame of The Forest in Charles
City. This young heiress he bore off
from every competitor. All his accom-
plishments were used to that end, his
wit, badinage, fiddle-playing and low
er-like ardor. At last he succeeded,
and great wedding took place at
&c The Forest" on night of winter, the
huge log fires driving away with their
blaze the chill of January, the same
month in which Washington had mar
ried his fair widow, Martha. On the
next day the groom and his bride set
out in their coach for Monticello. then
in process of erection on a spur of the
Blue Ridge. At Blenheim," the
house of Col. Carter, near the
they were caught
by snow-storm, forced to
cave their coach and compelled to con-
,inue their journey on horseback,
through deep snow-drifts.
Jefferson was in despair, but the bride
vas in the highest spirits. They strug
,led out up the mountain roads for
Eight weary miles, through a snow
hrouded landscape, and only arrived
flor pirht tn find all cold dark and