The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-13

One hundred and siXtyfour years ago
TODAY Thomas Jefferson was born at
Shadwell, Va. Since the time of his
death at Monticello, adjoining Shad~
well, at the age of SO, his birthday
has been celebrated almost every
year. In the last two or three decades
the Jefferson day celebrations have gen
orally taken the form of banquets,
arranged by Democratic political Clubs
and many of them have been the occa-
sion for the launching of 'boom
for some particular candidate, or of
some new policy. II Mr.. Jefferson
wero asked there is little doubt but
that he would frown upon the whole
thing. While he was President friend
asked him: ''What is the date OF your
birth, Mr.. PresidentG" "Of what pos,
sible concern is that to you7' quer1ed
the great Democrat in reply. We
wish TO celebrate it ittingly lhe
President then said "For that reason
/ decline to enlighten YOU, Nothing
rould be more distasteful to me than
what you propose, and, when you al,
dress me, I shall be obliged II You Will
omit the Mr..
Such was the man who left behind
the inscription TO be placed on his
grave stone. ''Here was buried
Thomas Jefferson. author of the
Declaration of independence, of the
Statutes OF Virginia for Religious Free
dom. and Father of the University
of Virginia" The request was com
piled with, and the stone which marks
tho last resting place of this great
American does moi disclose the fact
that be was. twice President of the
United States. that he was Nice-Presi-
dent and Secretary of State, that he
was Governor of Virginia. or that he
had been honored in many other WAYS
by the people of his State. and Of the
new Nation which he helped to found.
No mention is made of the fact that
the man buried there was he who
broke the power of the Barbary
pirates to whom European nations had
paid tribute for years; that it was he
who extended the dominion OF the
United States across the great Missls-
sippi by the Louisiana purchase; that
it was he who claimed the rich Ore
gon country. for the Stars and Stripes
by sending his private secretary. Meri-
wether Lewis. with Capt William
Clark, to explore the great unknown
Northwest; that it was he who opened
up the States of Ohio and Indiana and
Illinois, and others of the Northwest
territory by inducing the quarrehng
States TO cede the territory TO the gem
eral Government Nor does that simple
stone legend record the fact that un.
charter for the first republic of
France. the man who led the
fight against the odious sedition laws
enacted by Congress in a wave of re-
action toward monarchism, and which,
if they had been allowed to stand,
would have cut off the rights of free
speech and free press in the United
States
hair light hazel eyes. an angular face
and a thin, awkward body-Thomas
Jefferson was not a prepossessing man
in appearance, In his habits he was
method incarnate. No public man of
America has left so much in writing of
the history of the times and of the
history Of his own thoughts, Jefferson
seemed TO have been writing all the
time He kept every letter or scrap of
writing that came into his possession,
and he preserved a copy of every letter
he wrote. For many years, especially
while on his mission to France, he
kept copies of his letters by means
of impressions on wet tissue paper, the
ordinary copy-press method. Unfortu
nately most of these impressions are so
faded that they cannot be made out.
Jefferson realized the lnadequacy OF
that method, and therefore betook him
self to the most irksome and laborious
method possible of keeping copies of
the letters he wrote.
He employed what he called "poly-
graph but what is now called pan
tagraph, and is used for copying or
enlarging drawings. This cumbersome
instrument was made of silver and was
working on pivots. There were two
rings for pens. two lnk-stands and
wide table, One pen was filled with
ink and placed in one holder. Then
Jefferson took the other pen. placed III
through the ring and wrote with it,
the first pen making exactly the same
marks as the one he was guiding with
his hand. When it is remembered that
the pens were ouills and had to be
trimmed frequently, and that both pens
had to be kept linked, and that the
weight of the instrument had TO be
moved with every stroke of the pen,
and that Mr.. Jefferson had a stiff right
wrist-then one will have some idea
of what he would endure IN personal
discomfort 1Or rne sake OIL tne HetnOd
which forced him to keep copies of his
letters
When he entered President Washing
ton g cabinet as Secretary OF State, and
there met Alexander Hamilton, Secre-
tary of the Treasury, all through the
battle-royal which ensued between
them he maintained his writing habit.
lie kept notes of what went on at the
cabinet meetings, making them on en-.
velopes and stray bits of paper and
afterward copying them in book. He
kept up that habit until Just before
President TO return TO private life.
These scraps and notes he published
under the title of "The Anas of Thorn
rs jefferson. - fanas'' being mean
ingless word of his own. inventionS The
publication of the notes, giving as they
did the most intimate secrets of the
first sixteen years of Federal admins
tration, caused some bitter controver-
sizes, many of which are not yet set
tied.
Fighting for personal freedom was
L. e H. l.,