CC Introduction

Thomas Jefferson

MARTHA JEFFERSON RANDOLPH, the elder of the President's two daughters, presided at the White House whenever possible during her father's administrations, his wife having died nineteen years before his election. The White House, however, during his terms was practically without a mistress, although at times Mrs. Madison acted also in that capacity. Mrs. Randolph was eminently fitted for such a sphere, but was able to assume its duties only twice. Having received the advantages of foreign education and travel, and of the continual association with men of letters, she was a most brilliant woman, and had her tastes been less domestic she would have shone in society. She gave her father unremitting care when, after his retirement from public life, he settled at his estate, Monticello, where two years after his death her husband also passed away. Monticello was then sold, and the remaining eight years of her life were spent among her children.

JEFFERSON

Thomas Jefferson still lives. The honors heaped upon him by the people were but their gifts to their benefactor, the insignia of his labors, his burdens and his cares. How paltry seems that long catalogue of official designations compared with what he was himself    a man God-gifted and God-armed for the battle of right against wrong    compared to what he did for the people, his, gifts to them. There is not a heart that loves humanity and thrills with noble rage for right and truth and justice; there is not a people on earth who are weary and heavy laden under the burden of oppression; there is not a chancellor who loves equity; there is not a devotee who bows his head in free worship to his Maker; there is not an ingenuous student by the midnight lamp; there is not a toiler by land or sea; yea, there is not an astronomer who reads the stars, nor an humble farmer in his cabin, nor a freeman anywhere who treads the earth with the spirit of the free who does not bless God that Thomas Jefferson lived, and that his life goes marching on!

What did Jefferson do for the people? Rather, what did he not do? He was one of them. He loved them, trusted them, guided them; he cheered them, he comforted them, he led them. So much for generalities.

It is true, as said by the Cicero of Massachusetts, Edward Everett, that there rests on Thomas Jefferson the imperishable renown of having framed the Declaration of Independence. But had he never penned a syllable of it he would be immortal. It is true he raised his hand against the Established Church, threw himself against the great landed proprietors and powerful party leaders and brought forth the first statute of religious freedom that adorned the history of the world. Imperishable renown with that, but without it he would have been immortal.

It is true he negotiated the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon, gaining a kingdom for a song, securing the free navigation of the Mississippi to the countless multitudes who now throng its bank and adding the Great West and Southwest to the Union    the greatest territory ever won by man without a drop of blood. But without all this he would have been immortal. He will be remembered as the most accomplished man America has ever produced.

Jefferson's mind was practical and of the kind which turns things to account. He loved the mathematics, and no superstition could ever lead him from the rock-bed notion that two and two make four, world without end. He was as precise in detail as he was broad and accurate in generalization. His mind was like an elephant's trunk in that it could pick up a pin or knock down a lion. When he was President he went regularly to market, and in his journal he kept a record of the date of the appearance of spring fruits and vegetables. The stately dome of the University of Virginia and the classic lines of the mansion at Monticello bespeak the classic mind that reproduced them.

He founded the Patent Office of the United States, but do you know that he was himself an inventor? While in France, as minister, he wrote his admirable notes on Virginia, and with the Revolution fermenting about him, he invented a hillside plow which won him a medal from the "Royal Agricultural Society" of the Seine. He was also the inventor of the modern revolving office chair. The rice grown in the Southern States to-day is from grain which Jefferson hid in his pockets while in Italy, and distributed ten grains at a time to the farmers on his return. His influence is felt to-day when any important questions are up for discussion.

He was a child of nature, this glorious Jefferson, and with all his wisdom and all his culture he was on the people's side of all questions. An honest son of Mother Earth; a man with a man's faults, but no Pharisee. He had fewer faults and lesser faults than most, and noble and God-like virtues.

He was strong in all courage; yea, in civic courage, the rarest of all forms of bravery. This Jefferson had the quiet, patient, daring superb courage that looks public opinion in the eye, and dares confront and affront it and not flinch the encounter. When he stood for Independence they said "Rebel." When he stood for justice they said "Communist." When he stood for religious freedom they cried "Infidel.' When he aroused the people against monarchy and concentrated power they said "Demagogue." But the common people heard him gladly. They knew their ears, and with one accord they said, "All Hail, Our Friend."

Dying without a penny, his very books, his land, his home were sold away from his inheritors, and fighting successfully every battle but his own, he crowned the people as victor in every battle that he won. If it is right that a man sues for, and if he does not believe that one man is born bridled and saddled, and the other booted and spurred    let him pluck a flower from this good man's life and wear it in his soul forever.

THE  AFRICAN  SLAVE TRADE

One of the considerations which induced all sections to ratify the Constitution was that under it the slave trade would cease in 1808. The trade continued, however, though men caught at it were subject to the penalties for piracy. In 1858 the crew of a vessel which, when captured, had more than 300 Africans aboard, were indicted but acquitted. The laws of the United States could not be enforced against the slave power in South Carolina. In Georgia the captain and crew of a vessel which had landed and distributed 300 Africans, were indicted, prosecuted and acquitted. Again the laws of the United States were powerless. Tiring of the inconvenience of evading the law, lax as its enforcement was, the South at last demanded the reopening of the slave trade, although it imported more slaves during each year that the trade was illegal than during any year when it was allowed. The Federal Government could enforce the Fugitive Slave Law against the sentiment of the North, because in the North Federal officers were loyal to the United States. It could not force its law hi any particular upon the South, because there its agents were loyal to their States, first, last and always.

The daguerreotype shows a portion of a captured slaver's cargo, emaciated by hunger and dysentery, and beneath the toil for which they were required.

For a discussion of this subject, see the articles entitled " African Slave Trade " and " Slavery," hi the Encyclopedic Index, and turn to the pages thereafter indicated in which occur presidential references to the matter.
 
JOHN PAUL JONES CAPTURES THE "SERAPIS."

The naval exploits of John Paul Jones, commonly known as Paul Jones, the first man to raise the Stars and Stripes on an American battleship, are among the noblest exploits of the War of Independence. In 1778, he captured the English man-of-war, "Drake," in a naval engagement off the coast of Ireland, and Congress rewarded him in 1779 by making him commander of a fleet of five vessels, of which the flagship was the redoubtable "Bonhomme Richard." On September 23, 1779, Jones encountered near the mouth of the Humber a merchant fleet of about forty English vessels, convoyed by the "Serapis," a 44-gun ship, and another English man-of-war. Night fell upon the scene while the "Bonhomme Richard" and the "Serapis" were maneuvering for position, and it was not until seven o'clock in the evening that the darkness was dissipated by the streaks of flame belching forth from the cannon. The two vessels finally lay so close together that their riggings became entangled, and the intrepid American tried to board his enemy, only to be repulsed. Nothing daunted, he redoubled his efforts, until both vessels were riddled with shot and on fire; and the British captain, Pearson, had to capitulate when his mainmast was shot away, and his ship was no longer manageable. Neither ship was able to keep afloat after the battle. Jones was rewarded by a vote of gratitude and a gold medal from Congress, and by a gold sword presented by the French nation. In 1905, the body of the first American commodore was removed from its Paris resting-place to a magnificent crypt in the grounds of the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

WAR WITH  THE  BARBARY PIRATES.

Few facts in recent history are more astounding than the shameful tributes which even the greatest nations of the world yielded to the pirates of the Mediterranean at the end of the eighteenth century. In 1785, these freebooters from the shores of northern Africa captured two American vessels, and in 1793, added eleven more to their list    really leading to the construction of the first American men-of-war built since the War of Independence. The United States followed the example of European countries in granting tributes of some several millions of dollars to the sea-lords of the Mediterranean; but even an annual tribute of $83,000 was not sufficient for the Pacha of Tripoli, who formally declared war against the United States in 1801. It was not until 1803, however, that the American navy meted out severe punishment to the pirates, who were glad to conclude a treaty of peace in 1804. (See Tripolitan War in Encyclopedic Index.)

March 4, 1801, to March 4, 1809

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Va., on April
2 (old style), 1743. He was the oldest son of Peter Jefferson, who died
in 1757. After attending private schools, he entered William and Mary
College in 1760. In 1767 began the practice of the law. In 1769 was
chosen to represent his county in the Virginia house of burgesses, a
station he continued to fill up to the period of the Revolution. He
married Mrs. Martha Skelton in 1772, she being a daughter of John
Wayles, an eminent lawyer of Virginia. On March 12, 1773, was chosen
a member of the first committee of correspondence established by the
Colonial legislature. Was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress
in 1775; was placed on the Committee of Five to prepare the Declaration
of Independence, and at the request of that committee he drafted the
Declaration, which, with slight amendments, was adopted July 4, 1776.
Resigned his seat in Congress and occupied one in the Virginia
legislature in October, 1776. Was elected governor of Virginia by the
legislature on June 1, 1779, to succeed Patrick Henry. Retired to
private life at the end of his term as governor, but was the same year
elected again to the legislature. Was appointed commissioner with others
to negotiate treaties with France in 1776, but declined. In 1782 he was
appointed by Congress minister plenipotentiary to act with others in
Europe in negotiating a treaty of peace with Great Britain. Was again
elected a Delegate to Congress in 1783, and as a member of that body
he advocated and had adopted the dollar as the unit and the present
system of coins and decimals. In May, 1784, was appointed minister
plenipotentiary to Europe to assist John Adams and Benjamin Franklin
in negotiating treaties of commerce. In March, 1785, was appointed by
Congress minister at the French Court to succeed Dr. Franklin, and
remained in France until September, 1789. On his arrival at Norfolk,
November 23, 1789, received a letter from Washington offering him the
appointment of Secretary of State in his Cabinet. Accepted and became
the first Secretary of State under the Constitution. December 31, 1793,
resigned his place in the Cabinet and retired to private life at his
home. In 1796 was brought forward by his friends as a candidate for
President, but Mr. Adams, receiving the highest number of votes, was
elected President, and Jefferson became Vice-President for four years
from March 4, 1797. In 1800 was again voted for by his party for
President. He and Mr. Burr received an equal number of electoral votes,
and under the Constitution the House of Representatives was called upon
to elect. Mr. Jefferson was chosen on the thirty-sixth ballot. Was
reelected in 1804, and retired finally from public life March 4, 1809.
He died on the 4th day of July, 1826, and was buried at Monticello, Va.