Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-20
ACQUIRES
| JEFFERSON NOTES
Disgust for Manners and
/ Morals of Europe Found
in Old Letters.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Hitherto unknown letters of Thomas
Jefferson, written while he was Ameri-
can Ambassador to France, have been
found in large collection of family
papers just acquired by the Library OF
Congress.
These are the early correspondence of
the Shipper family of Philadelphia dur
ing and Immediately after the Revo-
luton, which came as a deposit from
DR.. and Mrs. Lloyd P. Shipper of
Washington. They are considered one
of the most notable deposits of Revolu-
tionary material which the library has
received in recent years.
Disguised at European Customs.
The Jefferson letters show the author
Of the Declaration of Independence in
q new role, that of a Puritan disguised
with the manners and morals OF the
upper crust Of European society, with
whom he was forced to associate, and
longing for the more moral atmosphere
of America. They were written to
Thomas Lee Shipper, who was plan
ming to attend college somewhere in
Europe.
The papers contain many letters to
Shipper from his uncle, Richard Henry
Lee, describing the tangled affairs of
Congress, then meeting in New York,
and the proposals to transfer the seat
of Government to Potomac" afterward
Washington. Lee, writing as an old
man, was disguised with the rising
tide of radicalism in the world, espe--
cially in France, and proposed several
changes in the American Constitution
to safeguard the liberties of the people.
He considered that the Office of Vice
President should be done away with,
so as to keep the executive and legisla-
tive branches entirely separate.
Despite JefferSon'S disgust with Eu-
Yopean morals, he took the trouble to
write out for young Shipper a guide
book'-perhaps the first ever prepared
for an American tourist-outlining a
tour through France, Germany and
italy, with brief notes on the places of
interest, the condition and rates of the
taverns and the temper of the people.
u. S. Education Praised.
Perhaps the most interesting of the
new jefferson letters is the one in
which he advises American young men
to stay at home, which reads, in part.
as follows:
'Why send American youth to Europe
for an education? What are the objects
of useful American education-classi-
cal knowledge, modern languages, math-
eInatics, natural philosophy, natural
history, civil history and ethics. In
natural philosophy I mean to include
chemistry and agriculture, and in nat
ural history botany. The habit of
speaking the modern languages cannot
be acquired in America, but every other
article can as well be acquired at Will
liam and Mary College as at any place
In Europe.
when college education is done with
and young man is to prepare himself
fog public life he must cast his eyes
(for America) either on law or physic
For the former, where can be apply so
advantageously as TO Mr. Wythc? For
the latter he must come to Europe
The medical class of student, therefore,
is the only one which need come to
Europe.
Disadvantages Are Listed.
"But let us view the disadvantages of
sending a youth to Europe. To enumer-
ate them all would require volume. 1
will select few. If he goes to Eng
land, he learns drinking, horse racing
and boxing. These are the peculiari-
ties Of English education. The follow
ing circumstances of education are COM
mon to that and other countries of
Europe. He acquires fondness for
european luxury and displays con-
tempt for the simplicity of his own
country. He Is fascinated with the
privileged people of Europe, and sees
with adherence the lovely equality
which the poor enjoy with the rich in
MS own country. He contracts a par
0altty for aristocracy or monarchy.
He forms foreign friendships which
VIII never be useful to him, and loses
the season Of life for forming in his
own country those friendships which
OF all others are the most faithful and
permanent. He is led by the strongest
OF all human passions into a spirit for
female intrigue, destructive of his own
and others happiness, and he learns to
consider floelity in marriage as an un-
gentlemanly practice inconsistent with
happiness. He recalls the voluptuous
0reSS and arts of European women and
pitleS and despiSes the pure affections
and simplicity Of his own country
women. He retains through life a fond
recollection and laundering for those
places and scenes Of his first intrigues.
He returns to his own country a for
elgner, unacquainted with the practices
OF domestic economy necessary to pre-
serve him from ruin, and speaking and
writing his native tongue as a for
eigner, and thus unqualified to attain
those distinctions which elouuence of
the pen and tongue insures in a free
country.
Il would observe to you that what is
calieo style in writing and speaking is
formed very early in life. while the
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