The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-01
ARE ALL NEW TO THE WORLD
Thousands of Letters and Many Diar.
les and Manuscripts Now to
Be Sold.

tive of the descendant of the Sage of Month
cello, who now owns them and would like
to sell them. The big collection, which
has not yet been given to the world, may
or may not become famous feature of the
| Sutro Library, but Mr.. Sutro can have it
| if he will buy it, and the collection is held
to be dirt cheap at $4,000
| These papers, which would make many
published volumes, passed to the posses
sion of Jefferson's descendants in a cedar
chest in which they were carefully packed
| by himself, and for a generation or two
| they have been in the possession of the
family at the old homestead and birth
place of Jefferson, at Edgehill five miles
| from Charlottesville, Va. The two living
| direct descendants of Thomas Jefferson
are his great-grandchildren @. r. Ran
dolph, physician Of Charlottesville, and
Miss c. r. Randolph, who now owns the
| papers and the ancient homestead. Month
cello was sold long ago.
Jefferson's library, once destroyed, with
about everything else, at Monticello by the
| British under CORVALLIS during the Revo-
| luton, was sold as it existed at the time of
his death to the Government and it was
one of the first purchases for the present
National library. His public papers were
sold to the State Department many years
| ago and are now preserved as the property
| OF the Nation.
But the private papers have slumber
| for these generations and but little from
! them has seen the light. Two or three
biographers of Jefferson have hastily gath
| cred scraps of information from these dur-
| ing visits of a few hours duration and
some extracts from the private letters were
| published some years ago in THE Domes-
tic Life Of Thomas Jefferson" by Sarah
Randolph, the deceased sister OF the pres
ent possessor OF the papers. But an al
| most intinitesimal fraction of the collec-
ton has yet been given to the world.
| Some time ago an effort to sell the collec-
ton to the Government was begun. Lii
brarian Spofford was enthusiastically in
| favor OF the purchase at $40, 1000, and mem
bers of the Cabinet were especially inter-
ested, but official redtape, Secretary Ores
hams death, the paucity of department
| funds that could be used for such pur-
pose and other things have stood i'll the
way. If the Government secures the
priceless collection for the National library,
where it properly belongs, it will undoubt-
edly be by an appropriation by Congress,
and Senator Martin of Virginia will likely
move to that end during the next session
of Congress if the collection is not sold
before
Alexander Meade of the Weather Bu-
reau who is now here, married into the
family, and his wedding occurred at the
he and DR.. Randolph made efforts to sell
the collection or parts of it to the State
| and Agricultural departments. Jefferson's
Farm Book" and his Garden Book"
which contain almost daily entries of &C
counts and all sorts of observations and
| memoranda i'll Jefferson's exceedingly fine
hand and methodical style and continued
over great number of years, were taken
| by Mr.. McAdie to Secretary Morton, who
was greatly interested in them and who
afterward CORE ponded with Mr.. Meade
| about them
Secretary Morton passed them to Secre-
| tary Gresham last May, and the two books
were the subject OF long and interested in
| spection and discussion at Cabinet meet
! ing just before Gresham's illness
Gresham's sickness and death interrupted
| pending negotiations with the State De-
partment and since then nothing has been
! done, except to recently sell to the Smith
sonian Institution "The Morals and Life of
Jesus of Nazareth" book compiled by
Jefferson and made up of extracts cut by
him out of printed copies of Greek, Latin,
| French and English Testaments and pasted
In blank book indexed in the compiler's
| own hand, and handsomely bound.
There are 1850 letters written by Jefferson
to great many different people; some
famous, some forgotten and many men,
! bers of his family. These letters touch on
a great variety of topics; those on political
| events being of intense interest. Some,
for instance, to his son-in-law describe the
progress of legislation at the time of the
passage of the alien and sedition laws and
during the dispute as to whether he or
| Burr should be declared President.
There are about 5000 letters received by
Jefferson and large proportion of them
! are from such men as Jay, Lafayette,
Rosciusco, Marshal Grouchey, George
Rogers Clark and others OF the most dis
tinguished men of his day in both hemi-
spheres.
At the recent request of a Boston pub
| fishing house these letters are now being
catalogued that the nature and volume of
the collection may be estimated. If the
| letters are not soon sold along with the
rest of the collection of papers they will
| likely be published as commercial enter
! prise upon some terms.
Among the features of the collection are !:
| parliamentary Pocket Book" with its
closely written pages; bound catalogue
| of his library, which was classified accord
| ing to the faculties, memory, reason and
imagination; a book of his law cases; two
| books of his household accounts while in
Paris; several pocket diaries full of in
teresting entries; a manuscript partial
translation of ''Volney's Ruins" and other
books containing notes. opinions, etc., on
great variety of subjects, including men,
oranda from his 'NoIes on Virginia"
ideas about the cession of the Northwest
Territory by Virginia, and personal ac-
counts, meteorological memoranda, etc,
made during his residence at Paris, Month
cello and Washington.
Then there is a tin case containing
diplomas, commissions, credentials and
certificates of membership OF different sci
entifc and other societies and institutions
OF America and Europe This case, made
to his own oruer, holds his appointment as
Secretary of State, signed by Washington,
the letter from Adams announcing Jeffer-
sons election to the Vice Presidency, etc.
While many books are filled with the
authors notes of daily private life proba-
bly, the most interesting are the farm and
garden books. They reveal the inner life
of one of the immortal figures in American
history.
Jefferson's meteorological observations
were taken persistently and Systematically
for thirty years or SO, wherever he was,
even at roadside inns, in France and
| America, and his were among the first
meteorological observations made in this
country. Mr.. McAdie is naturally es-
pecially interested in them, and it is one
of his ambitions to compile and edit them
Last summer Meade discovered and
Tnffa l.