It is a series of delightful home pictures, which present the hero as he
was familiarly known to his family and his best friends, in his fields,
in his library, at his table, and on the broad verandah at Monticello,
where all the sweetest flavors of his social nature were diffused. His
descendant does not conceal the fact that she is proud of her great
progenitor; but she is ingenious, and leaves his private letters mostly
to speak for themselves. It has been thought that "a king is never a
hero to his valet," and the proverb has been considered undeniable; but
this volume shows that Jefferson, if not exactly the "hero" to whom a
little obscurity is so essential, was at least warmly loved and
enthusiastically esteemed and admired by those who knew him best. The
letters in this volume are full of interest, for they are chiefly
published for the first time now. They show a conscientious gentleman,
not at all given to personal indulgences, quick in both anger and
forgiveness, the greatest American student of his time, excepting the
cold-blooded Hamilton, absolutely without formality, but particular and
exacting in the extreme--just the man who carried his wife to the White
House on the pillion of his gray mare, and showed a British embassador
the door for an offense against good-breeding. --_Chicago Evening Post._
The reader will recognize the calm and philosophic yet earnest spirit of
the thinker, with the tenderness and playful amiability of the father
and friend. The letters can not but shed a favorable light on the
character of perhaps the best-abused man of his time. --_N. Y. Evening
Post._
No attempt is made in this volume to present its subject as a public man
or as a statesman. It is simply sought to picture him as living in the
midst of his domestic circle. And this it is which will invest the book
with interest for all classes of readers, for all who, whatever their
politics, can appreciate the beauty of a pure, loving life. * * * It is
written in an easy, agreeable style, by a most loving hand, and,
perhaps, better than any other biography extant, makes the reader
acquainted with the real character of a man whose public career has
furnished material for so much book-making. --_Philadelphia Inquirer._
The perusal of this interesting volume confirms the impression that
whatever criticisms may be brought to bear upon the official career of
Mr. Jefferson, or his influence upon the politics of this country, there
was a peculiar charm in all the relations of his personal and social
life. In spite of the strength of his convictions, which he certainly
often expressed with an energy amounting to vehemence, he was a man of
rare sunniness of temperament and sweetness of disposition. He had
qualities which called forth the love of his friends no less than the
hatred of his opponents. His most familiar acquaintance cherished the
most ardent admiration of his character. His virtues in the circle of
home won the applause even of his public adversaries. --_N. Y. Tribune._
It lifts up the curtain of his private life, and by numerous letters to
his family allows us to catch a glimpse of his real nature and
character. Many interesting reminiscences have been collected by the
author and are presented to the reader. --_Boston Commercial Bulletin._
These letters show him to have been a loving husband, a tender father,
and a hospitable gentleman. --_Presbyterian._
Jefferson was not only eloquent in state papers, but he was full of
point and clearness amounting to wit in his minor correspondence.
--_Albany Argus._
It is the record of the life of one of the most extraordinary men of any
age or country. --_Richmond Inquirer._
With the public life of Thomas Jefferson the public is familiar, as
without it no adequate knowledge is possible of the history of Virginia
or of the United States. Its guiding principles and great events, as
likewise its smallest details, have long been before the world in the
"Jefferson Papers," and in the laborious history of Randall. But to a
full appreciation of the politician, the statesman, the publicist, and
the thinker, there was still wanting some complete and correct knowledge
of the man and his daily life amidst his family. This want Miss Randolph
has endeavored most successfully to supply. As scarcely one of the
founders of the republic had warmer friends, or exerted a deeper and a
wider influence upon the country, so scarcely one encountered more
bitter animosity or had to live down slander more envenomed. Truth
conquered in the end, and the foul rumors, engendered in partisan
conflicts, against the private life of Jefferson have long shrunk into
silence in the light of his fame. Nevertheless, it is well done of his
descendant thus to place before the world his life as in his letters and
his conversation it appeared from day to day to those nearest and
dearest to him. Nor is it a matter of small value to bring to our sight
the interior life of our ancestors as it is delineated in the letters of
Jefferson, touching incidently on all the subjects of dress, food,
manners, amusements, expenditures, occupations--in brief, neglecting
nothing of what the men of those days were and thought and did. It is of
such materials that consist the pictures of history whose gaunt outlines
of battles, sieges, coronations, dethronements, and parliaments are of
little worth without the living and breathing details of everyday
existence. * * * The author has happily performed her task, never
obtruding her own presence upon the reader, careful only to come forward
when necessary to explain some doubtful point or to connect the events
of different dates. She may be congratulated upon the grace with which
she has both written and forborne to write, never being beguiled by the
vanity of authorship or that too great care which is the besetting sin
of biography. --_Petersburg Daily Index._
It is a highly interesting book, not only as a portraiture of the
domestic life of Jefferson, but as a side view of the parties and
politics of the day, witnessed in our country seventy years ago. The
correspondence of the public characters at that period will be read with
special interest by those who study the early history of our government.
--_Richmond Christian Observer._
In the unrestrained confidence of family correspondence, nature has
always full sway, and the revelations presented in this book of
Mr. Jefferson's real temper and opinions, unrestrained or unmodified by
the caution called for in public documents, make the work not only
valuable but entertaining. --_N. Y. World._
The author has done her work with a loving hand, and has made a most
interesting book. --_N. Y. Commercial Advertiser._
It gives a picture of his private life, which it presents in a most
favorable light, calculated to redeem Jefferson's character from many,
if not all, the aspersions and slanders which, in common with most
public characters, he had to endure while living. --_New Bedford
Standard._
The letters of Jefferson are models of epistolary composition--easy,
graceful, and simple. --_New Bedford Mercury._
The book is a very good picture of the social life not only of himself
but of the age in which he lived. --_Detroit Post._