The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-07-12
GATH"
Visits the Tomb of Thomas Jefferson.
MosualESrs OF OTHER srArEsMEs.

Enquirer concerning the tombs of some of
the Virginia statesmen. He says that jeff
eFson was as much of theoffsI about his
r residence and grave as about government.
While an Industrious aud, to some extent, a
systematic man, he did not belong to the
:, first rank of men by any means His poll
z tics were reflex from Rousseau, Franklin
a and the scientific spirit Of the eighteenth
century. He was great reader, and con-
siderably in advance of American public
men of his day in his reading. Most ofthe
old statesmen of the country had been read
/ | ing the classics, while Jefferson, having
newspaper head on his shoulders, kept
abreast of the rising matters of art, science
and revolution. He was therefore able,
} when on committee in Congress, TO put a
modern twang on the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. He was unquestionably a very
shrewd politician, but whether his method
of working would avail him in our day is
doubted. He did many things secretly,
and he was not bold man in any respect.
The celebrated resolutions of '99 were COM
posed by him, shipped privately to Ken
tucky, and passed in that State by little
group of his adherents, and then came back
to Virginia so that they could be adopted
as an echo and not be traced 10 Mr.. Jeffer-
son. While he was Governor of Virginia
Tarlton raided through the State, and JEFF
erson showed 50 little military spirit or
personal courage that he came very near
retiring from public life At that time he
lived where he is buried, at Monticello a
conical mountain three or four miles from
Charlottesville.
WHERE THE TOMB IS.
Charlottesville was in the vicinity of JEFF
erson's parentage aud beginning 1t has a
romantic position among the Tavelings of
the Blue Ridge, on the swift river of
Riyanna. General Jefferson married
widow, and found himself we'll fixed in
slaves and money. He began to build a
house on the top of this hill, and it is of
| brick, where the musty and damp Virginia |
portico of classical columns with wings, |
| with dome on the top, with theoretical |
bedrooms, preposterous dancing-hall, and |
a circle of stables and domestic apartments |
sweeping around in the rear-the whole |
| occupying a large portion Of the hattish |
summit Of the mountain. He never had a |
| good road up this mountain, and it must |
have been with pain and difficulty-that ne
went up and came down SO frequently, |
because huge rocks cross the road, and some
| times your carriage has to climb up as if it
| were going up the steps of a staircase. The
| ascent of the mountain is probably five
| hundred feet, or more, and the road from
Il /
circle through a thick woods. About two
thirds of the way up you come to Jefferson's
tomb, at the roadside-something of an imi-
tation of Washington's tomb at Mount Yer
non, though on a larger scale. 1t consists
OF brick wall built to the hight of eight or
ten feet, inclosing g space, as l remember it,
about thirty to fifty feet square. The front
wall is opened, and tall rail is set in it so
as to allow the people to look through at
the tomb.
WHAT 1T LOOKS LIKE.
The tomb looks like couple of big Druid
stones, hammered and injured by man and
time. The boys from the University which
Jefferson established in the town beneath
have concluded that the best way to show
their affection and admiration of Jefferson is I
to give clip to the stone every time they
drop tear upon it. In this way they very /
nearly reproduce Jefferson's own system of i
making our institutions He split and :
hammered away at the old Federal fabric
till ne got the edges jagged and displeasing,
and tolerably illegible but fortunately the
big stones put in by Madison, Hamilton, {
Livingston and Jay, were allowed to stand. !
The inscription on this tomb was originally Z
well chosen, though it is a eulogy of a I
second rate man of great success on HIM :
self He sets down the three things he did, !
which he thinks will most recommend him /
to posterity-drafting the Declaration of
Independence, though he calls himself the Z
author of the Declaration, which was the /
concurrent work of the Continental Con- !
gress and the people the second thing is ;
very creditable to him, namely, destroying {
the old English Church system in Virginia.
which he did during the Revolutionary
War itself, while the people were hot
against England thirdly, he speaks of him !
self as the father of the University of Vir-
ginia, which is true, though the money I
came from many source, and from public /
sources, too. '
THE PHILIsTINE GRoWLS.
As stood by this monument, knowing e
that the statesman wrote the inscription a
himself, l thought of the inscription on t
Shakespeare's tomb. He did not say o
civilian Shakespeare, the Most Successful t
Manager of His Time Author of Ham
let ; Creator of the British Stage and Lit i
erature." He absorbed himself into the
simple life of man, and merely asked that
his bones be left alone. The Virginia
Shakespeare, as he may be called by some,
wrote out his own glories, and had them
set into the stone it has been years since
anybody could read the record, as the boys
of his creation had so vandalized the tomb i
and they kept chip-chip-chipping at it till
chipping got to be the order of the day, and d
Virginia Clipped in with the rebellion and e
lost her entire wealth, which was in negroes. Il
The tomb of Shakespeare remains as it was v
made. The bones in it are protected. But 7
the bones of Mr.. Jefferson are as boldly de- n
manded for a speculation in q cemetery COM (
pany as if it was nobody's interest to pre- II
serve them in Virginia. Not long ago, if Il
| mistake not, Congress was asked to put up
tomb to Jeffers0n-a matter certainly be- o.
longing to the State of Virginia, if it is so "
particular on the subject. We have not u
forgotten the disgraceful speculation that z
went on in Washington's bones for years by Il
his successors at Mount Vernon. How they t
were refused to the United States Capitol,
which was originally built with the idea of u
receiving them because they afforded an in Ia
come to the proprietor, and almost every Il
thing belonging to Washington was rased al
up aud sold in different batches a
OTHER FoMBs.
have been to the tombs of many of the i
Virginia statesmen. Madison has, on the Il
whole, the most respectable. His tomb is a 4
small monument, containing merely the =
word madison 1t stands in his fathers
burial place, in a field of the great lawn con- h
fronting Montpelier. When Jefferson died :,
he was very poor in money, though he was =
very sensitive to his posthumous fame and
the book called ssAnas," which he printed !,
late in life, was tolerably small act of re- 81
sentiment for an old man, who, though his =
party had retained possession of the coun- 81
try so long, never felt satisfied that the prin-
ciples of Hsmilton would not some day arise n
and smile upon his long-lived rival. The T,
tomb of Washington at Mount Vernon, :,
when saw it last, contained the name of :,
some private marble-cutter, who had given y
the marble coffin, cut upon it in raised let :,
ters, as conspicuous as if the stone-cutter -
were Washington himself 81
An Arkansas Snake Charmer. n
Union County Times.
Mr.. Rlack. Who resides in Hillsboro. =