CHAPTER XXV.

JEFFERSON'S GREAT LOTTERY-SAVED BY HIS FRIENDS-
ENDS QUARREL WITH JOHN ADAMS-PREDICTED
THE CIVIL WAR-"THIS IS THE FOURTH
OF JULY."

T

HE spectacle of a former President of the United States asking a State Legislature to give him permission to conduct a lottery of which he was to be the chief beneficiary would be a novel one in these early days of the Twentieth Century, and one sure to arouse popular opposition. Yet when Thomas Jefferson asked this favor of the Louisiana Legislature it was readily granted, for lotteries had once been very popular in Virginia, and the system had not yet been entirely done away with. At the time Mr. Jefferson was deeply in debt, and he saw no means of relief except through the lottery scheme he proposed, for only in that way would his lands bring a sufficient price to meet his obligations.

The causes of Mr. Jefferson's poverty in his old days were not far to see. Upon his return from the Presidency he was known throughout the land as the "Sage of Monticello," and his home was the Mecca of politicians and curiosity seekers. The result was that the mansion at Monticello much more resembled an hotel than it did the private residence of a private citizen. The people overran the house and grounds, swarmed beneath his trees and on his piazza, and ate and drank much more than his broad acres would produce.

EATEN OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME.

In Randall's "Life of Jefferson" we find this reference to the multitude of his visitors:

"We had persons from abroad, from all the States of the Union, from every part of the State, men, women and children. In short, almost every day for at least eight months of the year brought its contingent of guests. People of wealth, fashion, men in office, professional men, military and civil, lawyers, doctors, Protestant clergymen, Catholic priests, members of Congress, foreign ministers, missionaries Indian agents, tourists, travelers,

artists, strangers, friends. Some came from affection and respect, some from curiosity, some to give or receive advice or instruction, some from idleness, some because others set an example."

Of course no guest ever thought of paying his score. Quite often the housekeeper had to provide as many as fifty beds, and as from thirty-five to forty servants were required to wait upon these guests, few hands were left for service in the fields and the broad acres of Mr. Jefferson remained more or less unproductive. To add to the burden of his debt, Mr. Jefferson had endorsed a note for a considerable amount, for a friend, which obligation he had to pay. In this extremity he evolved his lottery scheme and laid it before the Virginia Legislature.

"By this means," he said, "I can save the house at Monticello and the farm adjoining, to end my days in, and bury my bones. If not, I must sell house and all here and carry my family to Bedford, where I have not even a log hut to put my head into."

It was suggested that the Legislature should make him a loan or a gift from the State Treasury, but to this Mr. Jefferson demurred, saying:

"In any case I wish nothing from the Treasury; the pecuniary compensation which I have received for my services from time to time have been fully to my own satisfaction."

FRIENDS SAVE HIS HOME.

But the lottery scheme was never carried out. As soon as Mr. Jefferson's financial condition became known, voluntary subscriptions poured in upon him from all parts of the country. In some places public meetings were held and collections taken up. These voluntary contributions were gratefully accepted.

"I have spent three times as much money, and given my whole life to my countrymen," said Mr. Jefferson, "and now they come nobly forward in the only way they can, to repay me and save an old servant from being turned, like a dog, out of doors. No cent of this is wrung from the taxpayer; it is the pure and unsolicited offering of love."

During his retirement he took a considerable interest in public affairs, predicted the acquisition of Florida, the annexation of Cuba, and prophetically foresaw the Civil War. Of the latter he said:

"Are we then to see again Athenian and Lacedaemonian confederacies? To wage another Peloponnesian war?" But his prediction of a victory for the South was not verified.

OLD ENEMIES BECOME FRIENDS.

One incident that tended to brighten the latter years of his life was his complete reconciliation with John Adams. No man was less able to continue a feud than Jefferson. Conciliation and forgiveness were his natural attributes. He not only made up his old quarrel with his old antagonist, but was holding a lengthy correspondence with him at the time of his death.

Concerning Mr. Jefferson's religious views there has been much discussion. His enemies had always tried to create the impression that if he were not an Atheist he was at least an unbeliever. This view is not justified by the facts. Certain it is that he attended church with considerable regularity and his biographer, Mr. Randall, says he was a Christian. In the spring preceding his death he confined his reading to Greek tragedies and the Bible. A triple coincidence attending his death is the most singular thing of its kind in history: That he should die on the Fourth of July, the day of the adoption of his great Declaration; that his last words should be "This is the Fourth of July," and that a few hours later his old antagonist, now his friend, John Adams, should die at Quincy, with these words struggling from his lips: "Thomas Jefferson still survives."

RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE SHOT THAT WAS HEARD AROUND THE WORLDEMERSON'S ATTACK UPON WEBSTER-EULOGY OF LINCOLN AND JOHN BROWN-EPIGRAMS ON ENGLISHMEN "HITCH YOUR WAGON

TO A STAR."

W1

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattl'd farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world."

ITH Emerson's immortal hymn, beginning as above, the monument erected to commemorate the birth of American independence was dedicated. When the first corner-stone of a monument to commemorate the Concord fight was laid in 1825, Ralph Waldo Emerson was present and gave this inspiring toast: "The little bush that marks the spot where Captain Davis fell,-'Tis the burning bush where God spoke for His people."

Eleven years later, when the Concord monument was erected, he gave the world his immortal hymn. At the Centennial anniversary of the Concord fight, when the splendid statue of The Minute-Man was unveiled on the west shore of the Concord River, on the very spot where the "embattled farmers" stood when they "fired the shot heard round the world," Emerson was again present and delivered an oration in which he told the story of the Concord farmer who first suggested the new monument. We give this story in his own words:

THE CONCORD FARMER AND "THE MINUTE-MAN."

"Ebenezer Hubbard, a farmer who inherited the land in the village in which troops committed depredations, and who took deep interest in the history of the raid, erected many years ago a flag-staff on his land, and never

neglected to hoist the Stars and Stripes on the 19th of April and the Fourth of July. It grieved him deeply that yonder monument, erected by the town in 1836, should be built on the ground on which the enemy stood, instead of that which the Americans occupied in the Concord fight; and he bequeathed in his will a sum of money to the town of Concord on condition that a monument should be built on the identical spot occupied by our minute-men and militia on that day; and another sum of money on the condition that the town should build a footbridge across the river, where the old bridge stood in 1775. The town accepted the legacy, built the bridge, and employed Daniel French to prepare a statue to be erected on the specified spot. Meanwhile Congress, at Washington, gave to the town bronze cannons to furnish the artist with material to complete his work. The statue is before you, and to-day it speaks for itself. The sculptor has rightly conceived the proper emblems of the patriot farmer, who at the morning alarm left the plow to grasp his gun. He has built no dome over his work, believing that the blue sky makes the best background."

The love of liberty which inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson to write the Concord hymn was manifest throughout his entire life. He was one of the first to ally himself with the anti-slavery movement, and so intense was his hatred of the institution of slavery that, in 1851, when his fame as a scholar and philosopher was spread throughout the civilized world, he left the quiet of his study to take part in an electional campaign in behalf of a candidate for Governor who had opposed slavery in Congress.

HIS ATTACK UPON WEBSTER.

In this campaign he describes slavery as having captured some of the best forces in the country, not even sparing the great Webster, to whom he pointed as a last instance of how the evil corrupted all it touched. He drew a word picture of the cause of slavery, with "Webster as a leading horse straining to drag on the car." Referring to Webster and others who had agreed to the Great Compromise, he said: "Those who have gone to Congress from us were honest, well-meaning men. I heard congratulations from good men, their friends, when they went to Washington, that they were honest and thoroughly reliable, yes, obstinately honest; yet they voted for this criminal measure with the basest of the populace. I hate and saw not the sneer of the bullies that dupe them with alleged State necessity, because they had no hope, no burning splendor of awe within their own burning breasts."