fined and turbulent, at the same time that he could not tolerate the presence of the mob, and dreaded opposition and force.

Edmund Bacon, who was long manager of Mr. Jefferson's farms, and who visited him at Washington, said:

"Mr. Jefferson often told me that the office of Vice-President was far preferable to that of President. He was perfectly tired out with company. He had a very long dining-room, and his table was chock full every one of the sixteen days I was there. There were Congressmen, foreigners, and all sorts of people, to dine with him. He dined at four o'clock, and they generally sat and talked until night. It used to worry me to sit so long; and I finally quit when I got through eating, and went off and left them. The first thing in the morning there was to go to market. Mr. Jefferson's steward was a very smart man, well educated, and as much of a gentleman in his appearance as any man. His carriage-driver would get out the wagon early in the morning, and Lamar would go with him to Georgetown to market. I have all my life been in the habit of getting up about four o'clock in the morning, and I went with them very often. Lamar told me that it often took fifty dollars to pay for what marketing they would use in a day."

It is related with seeming pride, and as an exceptional grace, that Mr. Jefferson attended his wife in her last illness with great attentiveness, often not leaving her side for days during the four long months of "dreadful suspense " which preceded her death. But the reverse would have been the exception. He only practiced a common virtue. No men of heart or character do, or could do otherwise. Who could be so sympathizing as the husband, and whose attentions so consoling? Who else could be expected to have heart and soul in every thing concerning the dying wife? Could any one claim as a mark of greatness,

indifference to the wants, sufferings, heart yearnings, especially of her whose life has, in some sense, become identical with his own? Such indifference could certainly form no part of Mr. Jefferson's life or nature or style of greatness.

Of his habits and character Edmund Bacon, his faithful friend, wrote:

"Mr. Jefferson was the most industrious person I ever saw in my life. All the time I was with him I had full permission to visit his room whenever I thought it necessary to see him on business. I knew how to get into his room at any time of day or night. I have sometimes gone into his room when he was in bed; but aside from that, I never went into it but twice, in the whole twenty years I was with him, that I did not find him employed. I never saw him sitting idle in his room but twice. Once he was suffering with the toothache; and once, in returning from his Bedford farm, he had slept in a room where some of the glass had been broken out of the window, and the wind had blown upon him and given him a kind of neuralgia. At all other times he was either reading, writing, talking, working upon some model, or doing something else. Mrs. Randolph was just like her father, in this respect. She was always busy. If she wasn't reading or writing, she was always doing something. She used to sit in Mr. Jefferson's room a great deal, and sew, or read, or talk, as he would be busy about something else. As her daughters grew up, she taught them to be industrious like herself."

Daniel Webster visited Mr. Jefferson at Monticello in 1824, and wrote of him as follows:

"Mr. Jefferson is now between eighty-one and eighty-two, above six feet high, of an ample, long frame, rather thin and spare. His head, which is not peculiar in shape, is set rather forward on his shoulders; and his neck being long there is, when he is walking or conversing, an habitual protrusion of it. It is still well covered with hair, which having been once red, and now turning gray, is of an indistinct sandy color. His eyes are small, very light, and now neither brilliant nor striking. His chin is rather long, but not pointed. His nose small, regular in its outline, and the nostrils a little elevated. His mouth is well formed,

and still filled with teeth; it is strongly compressed, bearing an expression of contentment and benevolence. His complexion, formerly light and freckled, now bears the marks of age and cutaneous affection. His limbs are uncommonly long, his hands and feet very large, and his wrists of an extraordinary size. His walk is not precise and military, but easy and swinging. He stoops a little, not so much from age, as from natural formation. When sitting, he appears short, partly from a rather lounging habit of sitting, and partly from the disproportionate length of his limbs.

"His dress, when in the house, is a gray surtout coat, kerseymere-stuff waistcoat, with an under one faced with some material of a dingy red. His pantaloons are very long and loose, and of the same color as his coat. His stockings are woolen, either white or gray; and his shoes of the kind that bear his name. His whole dress is very much neglected, but not slovenly. He wears a common round hat. His dress, when on horseback, is a gray straight-bodied coat, and a spencer of the same material, both fastened with large pearl buttons. When we first saw him, he was riding; and, in addition to the above articles of apparel, wore around his throat a knit white woolen tippet, in the place of a cravat, and black velvet gaiters under his pantaloons. His general appearance indicates an extraordinary degree of health, vivacity, and spirit. His sight is still good, for he needs glasses

only in the evening. His hearing is generally good, but a number of voices in animated conversation confuses it.

"Mr. Jefferson rises in the morning as soon as he can see the hands of his clock, which is directly opposite his bed, and examines his thermometer immediately, as he keeps a regular meteorological diary. He employs himself chiefly in writing till breakfast, which is at nine. From that time till dinner he is in his library, excepting that in fair weather he rides on horseback from seven to fourteen miles. Dines at four, returns to the drawing-room at six, when coffee is brought in, and passes the evening until nine in conversation. His habit of retiring at that hour is so strong, that it has become essential to his health and comfort. His diet is simple, but he seems restrained only by his taste. His breakfast is always tea and coffee, bread always fresh from the oven, of which he does not seem afraid, with sometimes a slight accompaniment of cold meat. He enjoys his dinner well, taking with his meat a large proportion of vegetables. He has a

strong preference for the wines of the Continent, of which he has many sorts of excellent quality, having been more than commonly successful in his mode of importing and preserving them. Dinner is served in half Virginia and half French style, in good taste and abundance. No wine is put on the table till the cloth is removed.

"In conversation Mr. Jefferson is easy and natural, and apparently not ambitious; it is not loud, as challenging general attention, but usually addressed to the person next him. The topics, when not selected to suit the character and feelings of his auditor, are those subjects with which his mind seems particularly occupied; and these at present may be said to be science and letters, and especially the University of Virginia. When we were with him his favorite subjects were Greek and Anglo-Saxon, historical recollections of the times and events of the Revolution, and of his residence in France from 1784 to 1789."

In December, 1823 or 1824, Mr. Jefferson wrote to W. B. Giles that his memory was almost a blank. And yet he lived on to the end hating alike Federalists, Calvinists, and priests, and believing that Unitarians, Democrats (whom he still called Republicans), and Quakers were the only right-minded people in the world. He hated with almost equal intensity metaphysical and spiritual-minded people, and said that he had no idea of any thing but matter, and did not think any other man could have. He boasted of being a materialist, and held that the Apocalypse was written by a madman or a fool, and yet Mr. Jefferson was generous enough to say that he had one rule by which he judged all men irrespective of their creeds; that was, by their fruits.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE MAN, HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE, HIS PLACE THE METRIC SYSTEM-AN ADVERSE VIEW.

W1

HILE what is commonly called fortune or good

luck had little to do, as has been shown, with the life of John Adams, it would be a difficult feat to maintain the same position as to Mr. Jefferson. It is unnecessary here to retrace his steps from Shadwell and William and Mary College, or indeed, to make any especial effort to set forth Mr. Jefferson's great good fortune at any period of his life. But it has long been well known that more to his Southern origin than to the power of his tongue and pen was Mr. Jefferson put forward in the Continental Congress. It is easy to see that had he come from the east side of the Hudson he never would have written the Declaration of Independence; and until long after his Presidency the same spirit and principle which were important elements in his Revolutionary successes were dominant in the political policy of the country.

In view of the fact that Mr. Jefferson was timid and distrustful of himself in public exhibition, was unable to maintain himself in debate, shrank from positions where he would be obliged to stand forward as a speaker and actor before the public; and in view of the fact that this defect caused him, to some extent, to prefer others to himself, from the day he entered