Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1905-03-23
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Letters Recently Discovered Throw
New Light upon the Character.
Motives and Career Of
the Grcnt statesman.

There are more than 5000 manuscripts
in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson
in the congressional library, most of them
being copies of private letters and public
documents made with his own hand and
filed away for his protection or refer
encc in the future writes William II.
Curtis in the Chicago Record-iteralf.
The papers were obtained by purchase
on two occasions from his family. The
first collection included only his public
papers; the second embraced IA large
amount of private correspondence. chiefly
upon politics and other topics of public
interest. The remainder of Mr.. Jeffer-
sons volumnous archives were acquired
by his grandson. Thomas Jefferson Cool
idge, OF Boston, who is having them care
fully examined. Those which have any
public or family interest are being pre-
served and will DO published; those pure
~ personal and without permanent in
tcrest are being destroyed.
Probably no man ever used "A pen more
freely that Mr. Jefferson. lie was scru-
pulous in preserving copies of everything
he wrote. and to enable him to do 50
with the least possible labor he invented
the screw letter press. which is now used
letter press ever made was presented by
him to John Adams. then minister Of the
United States in London. Before he de-
signed that contrvance Mr.. Jefferson
used what he called polygraph. the
original Of which is now preserved in
the nluscum of the University of Vir-
ginia Two pens are connected at an in
variable distance by a system of wood
movement is communicated tn one per
will be duplicated by the other. Hence
if one pen traces letters or figures upor
Ia sheet it's companion makes the sam,
marks upon another sheet. and the writ
,er can produce two identical pages a.
the same time
| Before he invented this machine Mr.
jefferson copied all of his letters Will
his own hand before mailing them. Hi.
penmanship is perfect. Every letter i
perfectly formed. His diary AMI some O
his account books are kept in min
ute Il hand that some of the entries can
mot he read without ma snifying glass
He was ambidextrous. He could writ,
equally we'll with either hand 1t woul,
have been impossible for him TO do :,
much writing if he had been dcpenden
upon one hand alone.
SOME INTERESTING DISCOVERIES
Worthinston G. Ford. chief Of the divi
, Ision of manuscripts in the congressiona
library. has charge of the Jefferson pa
, pcrs and is now engaged in preparing
them for publication. tie has made som
interesting discoveries and has found let
, tiers which throw new light upon tn
T character and motives of jefferson.
"Three men stand out in the RcvOll
tion distinguished for their silence--Wasli
ngton. Franklin and jefferson" said NJ,
!, Ford the other day. NO long address
or speech is recorded from any of then
: Washington never wrote for newspa
. per, unless advertisements concernn
2 land can be counted as literary contribr
0 tions. Franklin was essentially il news
t paper man and wrote columns of preciou
paragraphs, but nothing of length. JET
fersOn was the most voluminous writ,
= in our history, but we have no grei
, papers from his pen. lie was a believe
in the use of campaign literature. and
April, 1900. when his contest for the pres
dency was at its height. he sent eigl
c dozen copies of ii pamphlet by Coope
q containing some political principles wit