JEFFERSON, when he penned the famous Declaration of Independence, which
broke all hope of reconciliation with the motherland and showed England
what the deeply-wronged Colonies of the New World unitedly desired
and would in the last resort fight for, had then just passed his
thirty-third birthday. Who was the man, and what were his upbringings
and status in the then young community, that inspired the writing of
this great historic document--a document that on its adoption gave
these United States an ever-memorable national birthday, and seven years
later, by the Peace of Versailles, wrung from Britain recognition of the
independence of the country and ushered it into the great sisterhood of
Nations? To his contemporaries and a later political age, Jefferson, in
spite of his culture and the aristocratic strain in his blood, is known
as the advocate of popular sovereignty and the champion of democracy in
matters governmental, as United States minister to France between the
years 1784-89, as Secretary of State under Washington, and as U. S.
President from 1801 to 1809. By education and bent of mind, he was,
however, an idealist in politics, a thinker and writer, rather than a
debater and speaker, and one who in his private letters, State papers,
and public documents did much to throw light, in his era, on the origin
and development of American political thought. A man of fine education
and of noble, elevated character, he earned distinction among his
fellows, and though opposed politically by many prominent statesmen of
the day, who, like Washington, Hamilton, and Adams, were in favor of a
strong centralized government, while Jefferson, in the interests of the
masses, feared encroachments on State and individual liberty, he
was nevertheless paid the respect, consideration, and regard of his
generation, as his services have earned the gratitude and his memory the
endearing commendation of posterity.
The illustrious statesman was born April 13, 1743, at "Shadwell," his
father's home in the hill country of central Virginia, about 150 miles
from Williamsburg, once the capital of the State, and the seat of
William and Mary college, where Jefferson received his higher education.
His father, Peter Jefferson, was a planter, owning an estate of about
2,000 acres, cultivated, as was usual in Virginia, by slave labor.
His mother was a Miss Randolph, and well connected; to her the future
President owed his aristocratic blood and refined tastes, and with good
looks a fine, manly presence. By her, Thomas, who was the third of nine
children, was in his childhood's days gently nurtured, though himself
fond of outdoor life and invigorating physical exercise. His father
died when his son was but fourteen, and to him he bequeathed the Roanoke
River estate, afterwards rebuilt and christened "Monticello." His
studies at the time were pursued under a fairly good classical scholar;
and on passing to college he there made diligent use of his time in the
study of history, literature, the sciences, and mathematics.
When he left college Jefferson took up the study of law under the
direction of George Wythe, afterwards Chancellor, then a rising
professional man of high attainments, to whom the youth seems to have
been greatly indebted as mentor and warm, abiding friend. He was also
fortunate in the acquaintance he was able to make among many of the
best people of Virginia, including some historic names, such as Patrick
Henry, Edmund Randolph, and Francis Fauquier, the lieutenant-governor of
the province, a gentleman with strong French proclivities, and a devoted
student of the destructive writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot,
that had much to do in bringing on the French Revolution. By his
father's death, he acquired a modest income, besides his little estate,
and the former he added to by his legal practice when, in 1767, he
obtained his diploma as a lawyer. In 1769, he became a member of the
House of Burgesses along with Washington and other prominent Virginians,
and with the exception of brief intervals he served with distinction
until the outbreak of the Revolution. In 1772, he married a young widow
in good circumstances, and this enabled him to add alike to his income
and to his patrimony. About the time of the meeting of the Colonial
Convention, called in 1775, to choose delegates for the Continental
Congress at Philadelphia, at which Patrick Henry was present, the
youthful Jefferson, now known as an able political writer, wrote his
"Summary View of the Rights of British America"--a trenchant protest
against English taxation of the Colonies, which had considerable
influence in creating public feeling favorable to American Independence.
The effect of this notable utterance was, later on, vastly increased
by the draft he prepared of the Declaration of Independence, the latter
immortal document being somewhat of a transcript of views set forth
by Jefferson in his former paper, as well as of ideas expressed by the
English philosopher, John Locke, in his "Theory of Government," and
by Rousseau, in his "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men;"
though the circumstances of the Colonies at this time were of course
different; while to England and the European nations the Declaration was
a startling revelation of the attitude now assumed by the great leaders
of the movement for separation as well as for freedom and independence.
In the passing of this great national charter John Adams, as all know,
was of much service to Jefferson in the debate over it in committee, as
well as in the subsequent ratification of it by the House. Franklin was
also of assistance in its revision in draft form; and most happy was the
result, not only in the ultimate passing of the great historic document,
but in its affirmation of the intelligent stand taken by the Colonies
against England and her monarch, and in its pointed definition of the
theory of democratic government on which the new fabric of popular rule
in the New World was founded and raised.
In the autumn of 1776, Jefferson resigned his seat in Congress, or
rather declined re-election to the Third Continental Congress, and
retired for a time to his Virginia home. He also, at this period,
declined appointment to France on the mission on which Franklin had set
out; nevertheless, we presently find him a member of the legislature
of his own State, taking part in passing measures in which he was
particularly interested. Many of these measures are indicative of the
breadth of mind and large, tolerant views for which Jefferson was noted,
viz.: the repeal in Virginia of the laws of entail; the abolition of
primogeniture and the substitution of equal partition of inheritance;
the affirmation of the rights of conscience and the relief of the people
from taxation for the support of a religion not their own; and the
introduction of a general system of education, so that the people, as
the author of these beneficent acts himself expressed it, "would be
qualified to understand their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise
with intelligence their parts in self-government." Other measures
included the abolition of capital punishment, save for murder and
treason, and an embargo placed on the importation of slaves, though
Jefferson failed in his larger design of freeing all slaves, as he
desired, hoping that this would be done throughout the entire country,
while also beneficently extending to them white aid and protection.
In 1779, Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry in the governorship of
Virginia. This was the period when the English were prosecuting their
campaigns in the South, checked by General Nathaniel Greene--when
South Carolina was being overrun by Cornwallis, and Virginia itself
was invaded by expeditions from New York under Philips and Arnold. As
Jefferson had no military abilities, indeed, was a recluse rather than a
man of action, the administration of his native Province, while able and
efficient, was lacking in the notable incident which the then crisis of
affairs would naturally call forth. Even his own Virginia homestead was
at this time raided by the English cavalry officer, Colonel Tarleton,
and much of his property was either desolated or stolen. This occasioned
bitter resentment against the English in Jefferson's mind; while the
serious illness and early death of his loved wife, which occurred just
then, led him to surrender office and return for a time to the seclusion
of his home.
Meanwhile, thrice was the offer made to the fast-budding statesman to
proceed to France as ambassador; and only on the post being pressed upon
him for the fourth time did he accept its duties and responsibilities
and set out, accompanied by a daughter whom he wished to have educated
abroad, for Paris in the summer of 1784.
In the post now vacated by Franklin, Jefferson remained for five years,
until the meeting of the French Estates-General and the outbreak of
the Revolution against absolute monarchy and the theory of the State in
France upon which it rested. With French society, Jefferson, even more
than his predecessor, was greatly enamored, and was on intimate terms
with the savants of the era, including those who by their writings had
precipitated the French Revolution, with all its excesses and horrors.
The latter, it is true, filled Jefferson with dismay on his return to
America, though dear to him were the principles which the apostles of
revolution advocated and the wellbeing of the people, in spite of the
anarchy that ensued. What diplomatic business was called for during his
holding the post of minister, Jefferson efficiently conducted, and with
the courtesy as well as sagacity which marked all his relations as a
publicist and man of the world. Unlike John Adams, who with Franklin had
been his predecessor as American envoy to France, he was on good terms
with the French minister, Count Vergennes; while he shut his eyes,
which Adams could not do, to the lack of disinterestedness in French
friendliness toward the Colonies and remembered only the practical and
timely service the nation had rendered to his country. Jefferson added
to his services at this era by his efforts to suppress piracy in the
Mediterranean, on the part of corsairs belonging to the Barbary States,
which he further checked, later on, by the bombardment of Tripoli
and the punishment administered to Algiers during the Tripolitan war
(1801-05), for her piratical attacks on neutral commerce.
After traveling considerably through Europe and informing himself as
to the character and condition of the people in the several countries
visited, Jefferson returned to America just at the time when Washington
was elected to the Presidency. In his absence, the Federal Convention
had met at Philadelphia, the Constitution of the United States had been
adopted and ratified, and the government had been organized with its
executive departments, then limited to five, viz.: The State Department,
the Treasury, the War Department, the Department of Justice, and the
Post-office. The Judiciary had also been organized and the Supreme Court
founded. With these organizations of the machinery of government came
presently the founding of parties, especially the rise of the Republican
or Democratic party, as it was subsequently called, in opposition to
the Federalist party, then led by Hamilton, Jay, and Morris. At this
juncture, on the return of Jefferson from the French mission, and after
a visit to his home in Virginia, Washington offered him the post of
Secretary of State, which he accepted, and entered upon the duties
of that office in New York in March, 1791. His chief colleague in
the Cabinet, soon now to become his political opponent, was Alexander
Hamilton, who had charge of the finances, as head of the Treasury
department. Between these two men, as chiefs of the principal
departments of government, President Washington had an anxious time of
it in keeping the peace, for each was insistently arrayed against the
other, not only in their respective attitudes toward England and in the
policy of the administration in the then threatening war with France,
but also as to the powers the National Government should be entrusted
with in relation to the legislatures of the separate states. What
Jefferson specially feared, with his firmly held views as to the
independence of public opinion, and especially his hatred of monarchy
and all its ways, was that the conservative and aristocratic influences
of the environment of New York, hardly as yet escaped from the era
of royal and Tory dominion and submission to the English Crown, might
fashion the newly federated nation upon English models and give it a
complexion far removed, socially as well as politically, from Republican
simplicity, coupled with a disposition to aggress upon and dictate to
the individual states of the Union, to their nullification and practical
effacement.
For this apparent tendency, Jefferson specially blamed Hamilton, since
his tastes as well as his sympathies were known to be aristocratic, as
indeed were Washington's, in his fondness for courtly dignity and the
trappings and ceremonies of high office. But his antagonism to Hamilton
was specially called forth by the latter's creation of a National Bank,
with its tendency to aggrandize power and coerce or control votes at
the expense of the separate States. He further was opposed to the great
financier and aristocrat for his leanings toward England and against
France, in the war that had then broken out between these nations, and
for his sharp criticism of the draft of the message to Congress on the
relations of France and England, which Jefferson had penned, and
which was afterwards to influence Washington in issuing the Neutrality
Proclamation of 1793. In this attitude toward Hamilton and the
administration, of which both men were members, Jefferson was neither
selfish nor scheming, but, on the contrary, was discreet and patriotic,
as well as just and high-minded. "What he desired supremely," as has
been well stated by a writer, "was the triumph of democratic principles,
since he saw in this triumph the welfare of the country--the interests
of the many against the ascendancy of the few--the real reign of the
people, instead of the reign of an aristocracy of money or birth." In
this opposition to his chief and able colleague, and feeling strongly
on the matters which constantly brought him into collision with the
centralizing designs of the President and the preponderating influence
in the Cabinet hostile to his views, Jefferson resigned his post in
December, 1793, and retired for a time to his estate at Monticello.
Jefferson always relished the period of his brief retirements to his
Virginia home, where he could enjoy his library, entertain his friends,
and overlook his estates. There, too, he took a lively interest in
popular and higher education, varied by outlooks on the National
situation, not always pleasing to him, as in the case of Jay's treaty
with England (1794-95), which shortly afterwards proved fatal to that
statesman's candidature for the Presidential office. Meanwhile, the
contentions and rivalries of the political parties grew apace; and
in 1797, just before the retirement of Washington at the close of his
second administration, the struggle between Democrats and Federalists
became focussed on the prize of the Presidency--the "Father of his
Country" having declined to stand for a third term. The candidates,
we need hardly say, were John Adams, who had been Vice President in
Washington's administration, and Thomas Jefferson, the former being the
standard-bearer of the Federalists, and the latter the candidate of
the anti-Federal Republicans. The contest ended by Adams securing the
Presidency by three votes (71 to 68) over Jefferson, who thus, according
to the usage of the time, became Vice-President.
The Adams' Administration, though checkered by divided counsels and by
the machinations of party, was on the whole beneficial to the country.
It had, however, to face new complications with France, then under the
Directory. These complications arose, in part, from soreness over the
passing of the Jay treaty with England, and in part because America
could not be bled for money through its envoys, at the bidding of
unscrupulous members of the Directory. The situation was for a time
so grave as to incite to war preparations in the United States, and
to threatened naval demonstrations against France. Nor were matters
improved by the enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798),
directed against those deemed dangerous to the peace and safety of the
country, or who, like the more violent members of the Press, published
libels on the Government. The storm which these obnoxious Acts evoked
led to their speedy repeal, though not before Jefferson and Madison
had denounced them as fetters on the freedom of public speech and
infringements of the rights of the people. They were moreover resented
as not being in harmony with the Constitution, as a compact to which
the individual States of the Union were parties, and which Jefferson
especially deemed to be in jeopardy from Federalist legislation.
The result of these agitations of the period, and of breaches, which had
now come about, between the Adams and Hamilton wings of the Federalist
party, showed itself in the Presidential campaign of 1800. Washington,
by this time, had passed from earthly scenes, and the coming nineteenth
century was to bring such changes and developments in the young nation
as few then foresaw or even dreamed of. At this era, when the Adams
Administration was about to close, Jefferson, in spite of his known
liberal, democratic views, was one of the most popular of political
leaders, save with the Federalists, now dwindling in numbers and
influence. He it was who was put forward on the Republican side for the
Presidency, while Adams, still favored by the Federalists and himself
desiring a second term of office, became the Federalist candidate.
Associated with the latter in the contest was Charles C. Pinckney,
of South Carolina, who was named for the Vice-Presidency; while the
Republican candidate for the minor post was Aaron Burr, an able but
unscrupulous politician of New York. When the electoral votes
were counted, Jefferson and Burr, it was found, had each received
seventy-three votes; while Adams secured sixty-five and Pinckney
sixty-four votes. The tie between Jefferson and Burr caused the election
to be thrown into the House of Representatives, where the Federalists
were still strong, and who, in their dislike of Jefferson, reckoned
on finally giving the Presidency to Burr. To this, Hamilton,
however, magnanimously objected, and in the end Jefferson secured the
Presidential prize, while to Burr fell the Vice-Presidency.
For the next eight years, until the coming of Madison's Administration,
Jefferson was at the helm of national affairs, assisted by an able
Cabinet, the chief members of which were James Madison, Secretary
of State, and the Swiss financier, Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the
Treasury. Aaron Burr, as we have recorded, was Vice-President, though
the relations of Jefferson with him were far from cordial, owing to his
political intrigues, which led the President ultimately to eschew him
and distrust his character. Jefferson's attitude toward the man was
later on shown to be well justified, as the result of Burr's hateful
quarrel with Alexander Hamilton, and his mortally wounding that eminent
statesman in a duel, which doomed him to political and social ostracism.
It was still further intensified by Burr's treasonable attempt to
seduce the West out of the Union and to found with it and Mexico a rival
Republic, with the looked-for aid of Britain. These unscrupulous acts
occurred in Jefferson's second term; and, failing in his conspiracy,
Burr deservedly brought upon himself national obloquy, as well as
prosecution for treason, though nothing came of the latter.
Some two years after Jefferson's assumption of office, Ohio was admitted
as a State into the Union. The next year (1803) saw, however, an
enormous extension of the national domain, thanks to the President's
far-seeing, if at the time unconstitutional, policy. This was the
purchase from France, at the cost of $15,000,000, of Louisiana, a vast
territory lying between the Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, and the
Rio Grande, which had been originally settled by the French, and by
their government ceded in 1763 to Spain as a set-off for Florida, while
the French King at the same time ceded his other possessions on this
continent to England. In 1800, Napoleon had forced Spain to re-cede
Louisiana to France, as the price of the First Consul's uncertain
goodwill and other intangible or elusive favors. At this period, France
desired to occupy the country, or at least to form a great seaport at
New Orleans, the entrepot of the Mississippi, that might be of use to
her against English warships in the region of the West Indies. When news
of the transfer of Louisiana to France reached this side of the water,
Jefferson was greatly exercised over it, and had notions of off-setting
it by some joint action with Great Britain. His inducement to this
unwonted course, considering his hatred of England and love for France,
was his knowledge of the fact that French occupation of Louisiana meant
the closing of the Mississippi to American commerce.
The purchase of Louisiana, which at one stroke more than doubled the
existing area of the nation, was at first hotly opposed, especially by
the Federalists. It was deemed by them an unwarrantable stretch of the
Constitution on Jefferson's part, both in negotiating for it as a then
foreign possession without authority from Congress, and in pledging
the country's resources in its acquisition. The President was, however,
sustained in his act, not only by the Senate, which ratified the
purchase, but by the hearty approval and acclaim of the people. Happily
at this time the nation was ready for the acquisition and in good shape
financially to pay for it, since the country was prospering, and its
finances, thanks to the President's policy of economy and retrenchment,
were adequate to assume the burden involved in the purchase. The
national debt at this period was being materially reduced, and with its
reduction came, of course, the saving on the interest charge; while
the national income and credit were encouragingly rising. Though the
economical condition of the United States was thus favorable at
this era, the state of trade, hampered by the policy of commercial
restriction against foreign commerce, then prevailing, was not as
satisfactory as the shippers of the East and the commercial classes
desired. The reason of this was the unsettled relations of the United
States with foreign countries, and especially with England, whose policy
had been and still was to thwart the New World republic and harass its
commerce and trade. To this England was incited by the bitter memories
of the Revolutionary war and her opposition to rivalry as mistress
of the seas. Hence followed, on the part of the United States, the
non-Importation Act, the Embargo Act of 1807-08, and other retaliatory
measures of Jefferson's administration, coupled with reprisals at sea
and other expedients to offset British empressment of American sailors
and the right of search, so ruthlessly and annoyingly put in force
against the newborn nation and her maritime people. The English people
themselves, or a large proportion of them at least, were as strongly
opposed to these aggressions of their government as were Americans, and
while their voice effected little in the way of amelioration, it brought
the two peoples once more distinctly nearer to the resort to war.
Meanwhile, the Embargo Act had become so irritating to our own people
that the Jefferson administration was compelled to repeal it, though
saving its face, for the time being, by the enforcement of the
non-intercourse law, which imposed stringent restrictions upon British
and French ships entering American harbors.
Such are the principal features of the Jefferson administration and the
more important questions with which it had to deal. Among other matters
which we have not noted were the organization of the United States
Courts; the removal of the seat of government from Philadelphia to
Washington; the party complexion of Jefferson's appointments to the
civil service, in spite of his expressed design to be non-partisan
in the selection to office; and the naming of men for the foreign
embassies, such as James Monroe as plenipotentiary to France, assisted
at the French Court by Robert R. Livingstone, and at the Spanish Court
by Charles C. Pinckney. Other matters to which Jefferson gave interested
attention include the dispatch of the explorers, Lewis and Clarke, to
report on the features of the Far Western country, then in reality a
wilderness, and to reclaim the vast unknown region for civilization. The
details of this notable expedition up the Missouri to its source, then
on through the Indian country across the Rockies to the Pacific, need
not detain us, since the story is familiar to all. With the Louisiana
purchase, it opened up great tracts of the continent, later on to become
habitable and settled areas, and make a great and important addition to
the public domain. In the appointment of the expedition and the interest
taken in it, Jefferson showed his intelligent appreciation of what was
to become of high value to the country, and ere long result in a land of
beautiful homes to future generations of its hardy people.
At the close of his second term in the Presidential chair (1809)
Jefferson retired once more, and finally, to "Monticello," after over
forty years of almost continuous public service. His career in this high
office was entirely worthy of the man, being that of an honorable and
public-spirited, as well as an able and patriotic, statesman. If not so
astute and sagacious as some who have held the presidency, especially in
failing to see where his political principles, if carried out to their
logical conclusions, would lead, his conscientiousness and liberality
of mind prevented him from falling gravely into error or making any very
fatal mistakes. Though far from orthodox,--indeed, a freethinker he may
be termed, in matters of religious belief, his personal life was
most exemplary, and his relations with his fellowmen were ever just,
honorable, and upright. He had no gifts as a speaker, but was endowed
highly as a writer and thinker; and, generally, was a man of broad
intelligence, unusual culture for his time, and possessed a most alert
and enlightened mind. His interest in education and the liberal arts was
great, and with his consideration for the deserving poor and those
in class servitude, was indulged in at no inconsiderable cost to
his pocket. His hospitality was almost a reproach to him, as his
impoverished estates and diminished fortunes in the latter part of
his life attest. His faith in democracy as a form of government was
unbounded, as was his loyalty to that beneficent political creed summed
up in the motto--"Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." "As a president,"
writes the lecturer, Dr. John Lord, "he is not to be compared with
Washington for dignity, for wisdom, for consistency, or executive
ability. Yet, on the whole, he has left a great name for giving shape to
the institutions of his country, and for intense patriotism."
"Jefferson's manners," records the same entertaining writer, "were
simple, his dress was plain, he was accessible to everybody, he was
boundless in his hospitalities, he cared little for money, his opinions
were liberal and progressive, he avoided quarrels, he had but few
prejudices, he was kind and generous to the poor and unfortunate, he
exalted agricultural life, he hated artificial splendor, and all shams
and lies. In his morals he was irreproachable, unlike Hamilton and Burr;
he never made himself ridiculous, like John Adams, by egotism, vanity,
and jealousy; he was the most domestic of men, worshipped by his family
and admired by his guests; always ready to communicate knowledge, strong
in his convictions, perpetually writing his sincere sentiments and
beliefs in letters to his friends,--as upright and honest a man as ever
filled a public station, and finally retiring to private life with
the respect of the whole nation, over which he continued to exercise
influence after he had parted with power. And when he found himself poor
and embarrassed in consequence of his unwise hospitality, he sold his
library, the best in the country, to pay his debts, as well as the
most valuable part of his estate, yet keeping up his cheerfulness and
serenity of temper, and rejoicing in the general prosperity,--which
was produced by the ever-expanding energies and resources of a great
country, rather than by the political theories which he advocated with
so much ability."
In Jefferson's own mind, just what was the essence of his political
gospel we ascertain from a succinct yet comprehensive passage in his
able First Inaugural Address. In that address President Jefferson
sets forth instructively what he terms the essential principles
of government, and those upon which, as he conceives, his own
administration was founded and by which it was guided. The governing
principles it affirms are:-- "Equal and exact justice to all men, of
whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce,
and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none;
the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most
competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest
bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of
the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the
sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care
of the right of election by the people; a mild and safe corrective of
abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable
remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the
majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal
but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a
well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first
moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the
civil over the military authority--economy in the public expenditure,
that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts, and
sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture,
and of commerce as its handmaiden; the diffusion of information and
arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom
of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person, under the
protection of the Habeas Corpus; and trial by juries impartially
selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has
gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and
reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have
been devoted to their attainment; they should be the creed of our
political faith; the text of civic instruction; the touchstone by which
to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them
in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and
regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety."
Jefferson had completed his sixty-sixth year when he relinquished the
presidency to his friend and pupil, James Madison, and retired to his
loved Virginia home. There he lived on for seventeen years, enjoying
the esteem and respect of the nation, and taking active interest in
his favorite schemes on behalf of education in his native state and his
helpful work in founding the college which was afterwards expanded into
the University of Virginia. His interest in national affairs, up to the
last, remained keen and fervid, as the vast collection of his published
correspondence show, as well as his many visiting contemporaries attest.
In the winter of 1825-6, his health began to fail, and in the following
spring he made his will and prepared for posterity the original draft of
his great historic achievement as a writer and patriot--the Declaration
of Independence. As the year (1826) wore on, he expressed a wish to
live until the fiftieth anniversary of the nation's independence, a wish
that, as in the case of his distinguished contemporary, John Adams, was
granted by the favor of Heaven, and he died on the 4th of July, mourned
by the whole country. In numberless quarters, funeral honors were paid
to his memory, the more memorable orations being that of Daniel Webster,
delivered in Boston. To his tomb still come annually many reverent
worshippers; while, among the historic shrines of the nation, his home
at Monticello attracts ever-increasing hosts of loving and admiring
pilgrims.