The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-08-24

error ana become friends-as most OF
them actually did. In fact. Jefferson
united In himself two distinct qualities
ne was a consummate man of the worlc
III his social relations with others, and
at the same time. he fought for his creed
with the stubbornness of a fanatic.
he ned all the reforming zeal Of Lu-
Their. without his brutality; and all the
scholarly polish of Erasmus, without his
tlmidity. He was not content to merely
draw the curtains, drink tea in the IL
brary. and Stay dragons theoretically: not
content to leave his brethren out in the
storm, while he himself lounged, in slip.
pered feet, by the cheerful blaze, welding
never battle AK or lance on any field
carrying 70 weapon heavier than pen.
From the memorable day of Patrick
Henry's speech In the Burgesses, when
JEFFERSON. the college student, had stood
IN the door OF the lobby listening, he had
| been In the very front rank of the fighters
He had written the first resolutions which
declared for independence, at a time
| when Henry and Washington were still
posing as subjects of the king. His Sum
mary View was the bravest paper In all
the literature of that early day and
| tho ablest. 1t put his neck in the halter,
in the event rebellion did not succeed.
Time and again he had come forward
In public bodies with papers that were
rejected for the reason that they were too
bold. Never had a line of his been put
aside because it was too timid Jefferson S
timidity is a biographical product solely
planted by the imaginative, kept alive by
the initiative. and swallowed by the sim
| PIE.
| The ink on the Declaration OF Indepen-
dence was hardly dry when this same
! tfmid Jefferson hurried to Virginia. chal-
lenged the proud, strong aristocracy of
| the Old Dominion to tho field, and un-
! horsed 1t in fair fight. Then he accom-
! plished what French revolutionists found
! It 50 hard to DO, and what Mr.. Gladstone
found 1t so haEd to do in Ireland. and
what no man has been able to do in Eng
| land to this day-he disestabished the
state church.
Not only that He told the whites they
ought to free the Blacks and told the
rich they ought to tax themselves to edu-
cate the poorl More than that, even-he
told old William and Mary college that
they must turn out two ridiculous doc
tors of divinity and otherwise modernize
her antiQuated institution.
Yet SO scholarly a writer as Henry
Cabot Lodge makes tmidity salient
feature of Jefferson's character: and Mr..
Roosevelt continually repeats that he was
weak and vacliating"
The last patent Mr.. Jefferson issued
while he was secretary Of state was to Eli
Whitney for the cotton gin.
Mr.. Whitney was doubtless an original
inventor and was entitled to the patent
he got and the fortune he made: but gust
certainly as there were steam boats
before FuIton's thora was u cotton gin
before Whitney's. Withili q few miles of
where the present writer lives an inven-
tive, enterprising genius Jesse Bull, who
moved into Georgia from Maryland. OPP
Grated a primitive cotton gin with Il pack
ing box run by an iron screw.
The descendants of Jesse Bull were
schoomates of the author, and he has
seen ancient papers preserved in the fam
lily. and mas heard the talk of old citizens
who were conversant with neighborhood
traditions. There Is no doubt that the
cotton gin, like the steam boat. like the
sewing machine. and Ike the breech
loading gun, had entered into the heads
Of Others than the final patentee. Colo
mel Tarleton had breech-loadug gun in
our revolutionary war. and there is one in
the Tower OF London which must be
hundreds Of years old. That the invention
was offered to Napoleon Bonaparte 10y a
Ptussian mechanic is well known. There
fore in the case OF the cotton gin there
is nothing Incredible in the story that
Jesse Bull was using both sin and press
when Whitney was working out his idea
of the gin.
The patent Office had just been estab-
lisLed, and Bull may have known moth
ing Of 1t TIL too late. Whitney was from
the north. was intimate with General
Nathaniel Green, and through his nitro
duction could reach the patent office
with everything in his favor. lie got
the patent, and then used the federal
oo,,rts TO stop Jesse Bull, The cases in
the federal courts never came to a trial,
for reasons which cannot now be known.
CHAPTER MINK.
curing his term in the cabinet MI JET
ferson had been to Monticello for an oc-
casional vacation, but not long enough to
get his affairs in order
rla now found them in bad shape. The
ovarseer. Ii appears, had let everything
90 TO waste There We're one hundred
and ffty-four negro slaves ana three
sheen The fences and buildings We're
dilanldated the mountain slope HeluS
wore washed into gullies and galls.
The yield oil NHcdt SSNHi9 I" 80
do1,,n 70 where it was a case OF nip and
tncx" to get the seed back. The one
cron IN the place which never lalied
was-debts.
when Mr.. jefferson set out for France
ba had left many unpaid accounts De
hind him not including the British IN
o,,,ohrance on the lands. These various
ohligations soon made an interest charge
,,non his resources Of about 5000 per
year.
The. mansion at Monticello had never
haan completed. lie was still at Work
on it. Europe had given him some new
ideas and into his model home some
Of these new ideas must go. Changes mad
to be made, additions planned. perfec-
lions worked out-regardless OF cost
,rha dome had not been put on; some or
.ha walls were not even ready for the
roof. At such tasks slaves We're kept
employed; and, had the everseers been
asked what was the matter with Mr.
Jehersons affairs. they might have re-
n1ied that q good deal of his financial
nhealthlness was due to the everlasting
labor and expense connected with the
huiIding OF the model house.
When Mr. Curtis states that the entire
cost of this building was less than $1,000
he comes almost as near the facts as
woen he says that Washington compelled
Jeffersons resignation from the cabinet.
Martha Jefferson had married Thomas
Mann Randolph February %, $780, and
che now had two children. Mr.. Jeffer-
son was so devoted to his daughter and