or used duplicity, and he contemned it in others—no end, with him, could sanctify falsehood.

In his contemplative moments, his mind turned to religion, which he studied thoroughly. He had seen and read much of the abuses and perversions of Christianity; he abhorred those abuses and their authors, and denounced them without reserve. He was regular in his attendance on church, taking his prayerbook with him. He drew the plan of the Episcopal Church in Charlottesville-was one of the largest contributors to its erection, and contributed regularly to the support of its minister. I paid, after his death, his subscription of $200 to the erection of the Presbyterian church in the same village. A gentleman of some distinction calling on him, and expressing his disbelief in the truths of the Bible, his reply was, “Then, sir, you have studied it to little purpose." He was guilty of no profanity himself, and did not tolerate it in others-he detested impiety, and his favorite quotation for his young friends as a basis for their morals, was the xv. psalm of David. He did not permit cards in his house-he knew no game with them. Of his peculiar religious opinions, his family know no more than the world. If asked by one of them, his opinion on any religious subject, his uniform reply was, that it was a subject each was bound to study assiduously for himself, unbiased by the opinions of others-it was a matter solely of conscience; after thorough investigation, they were responsible for the righteousness, but not the rightfulness of their opinions; that the expression of his opinion might influence theirs, and he would not give it! He held it to be an invasion of the freedom of religious opinion, to attempt to subject the opinions of any man to the ordeal of public judgment; he would not submit to it in his own case, nor sanction it in another-he considered that religious opinions should be judged by the fruits they produced—if they produced good men, they must be good. My mother was educated in a convent-the best school of the day-in Paris; she took up a girlish desire to join the Catholic church, and wrote to her father to ask his permission. He called for her, took her home, and placed her in the gay society of the court of Louis XVI., where all such thoughts quickly vanished. His calling for her was the only intimation she ever had of the receipt of her letter, the subject was never alluded to by him.

His codification of the Morals of Jesus was not known to his family before his death, and they learnt from a letter addressed to a friend, that he was in the habit of reading nightly from it, before going to bed. His report as Rector of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, to the Legislature, places in its proper view, his sense of the importance of religious instruction.

[Here follows this report as given in this volume, commencing at page 468.] His family, by whom he was surrounded, and who saw him in all the unguarded privacy of private life, believed him to be the purest of men. His precepts were those of truth and virtue. "Be just, be true, love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself," were among his favorite maxims, and they recognized in him a truthful exemplar of the precepts he taught. He said he had left the government of his country "with hands as clean as they were empty." His family circle knew that with calm serenity he had left the theatre of life, with a conscience as unsullied as his life had been just and upright. The beauty of his character was exhibited in the bosom of his family, where he delighted to indulge in all the fervor and delicacy of feminine feeling. Upon his death, there were found carefully preserved in a little sanctum sanctorum, locks of hair and other memorials of his wife and the children he had lost, with words of fond endearment written in his own hand upon the envelopes of the little mementoes. Before he lost his taste for the violin,

inter evenings, he would play on it, having his grandchildren dancing around In summer he would station them for their little races on the lawn-give the al for the start-be the arbiter of the contest, and award the prizes.

lis manner was dignified, reserved with strangers, but frank and cordial with riends; his conversation cheerful, often sportive, and illustrated by anecdotes. poke only of the good qualities of men, which induced the belief that he knew of them, but no one knew them better. I had formed this opinion, and on ng him speak very favorably of men with defects known to myself, stated them m, when he asked if I supposed he had not observed them, adding others not 1 by me, and evincing much more accurate knowledge of the individual charachan I possessed, observing, "My habit is to speak only of men's good ties." When he believed that either men or measures were adverse to Repubinstitutions, he spoke of them with open and unqualified condemnation. tanding himself on an elevated position, from his talents, education, fortune political station, he was emphatically the friend of the working-man. On ng the home of a neighbor (Mr. Jesse Lewis), a blacksmith, remarkable for his ty, his integrity and his industry, and too wise, when past the meridian of life, ashamed to work at the trade that had made his fortune, he often remarked m, "it is such men as that who constitute the wealth of a nation, not naires."

e never indulged in controversial conversation, because it often excited unant feeling, and illustrated its inutility by the anecdote of two men who sat candidly to discuss a subject, and each converted the other. His maxim was, very man had a right to his own opinion on all subjects, and others were bound pect that right; hence, in conversation, if any one expressed a decided opinion ing from his own, he made no reply, but changed the subject; he believed could always find subjects enough to converse on, in which they agreed in on, omitting those upon which they differed; unreserved and candid himself, s a listener, encouraging others to converse. His tact in the management of was great; he inquiringly followed out adverse opinions to their results, g it to their friends to note the error into which it led them, taking up their s as important suggestions, never permitting a person to place himself upon efensive, or if he did, changing the subject, so as not to fix him in a wrong n by controverting it. With men of fertile and ingenious minds, fond of sugg objections to propositions stated, he would sometimes suggest the opposite conclusion to which he desired them to come, then assent to the force of their ions, and thus lead them to convert themselves. If information was sought, ve it freely; if doubts were suggested, he explained them without reserve, objecting to the scrutiny or canvass of his own opinions. As a public man, ends complained that he spoke too freely, communicating more than they t prudent. His powers of conversation were great, yet he always turned it jects most familiar to those with whom he conversed, whether laborer, nic or other; and if they displayed sound judgment and a knowledge of the t, entered the information they gave, under appropriate heads, for reference, ying thus a mass of facts upon the practical details of every-day life. His ty to acquire knowledge was of the highest order; his application intense tiring-his system and arrangement for the preservation of, and reference to urces of his acquirements, most methodical and exact. The Hon. Littleton Tazewell told me, that when a young man, his father being in the Senate, r. Jefferson Vice-President, some case of impeachment coming on, he was sent . III.-43

with a note to Mr. Jefferson, asking some references to authorities on the subject. On the delivery of the note, he took a note-book from a drawer and instantly copied the references. On delivering them to his father, the latter observed he believed he had sent him chapter and verse for everything written on the subject. Of his voluminous correspondence, embracing upwards of forty thousand letters, written and received, and the private and public accounts of his whole life, he could in a moment lay his hand on any letter or receipt. Shortly after his death, Mr. Madison expressed to me the opinion, that Mr. Jefferson would be found to be the most learned man that had ever devoted so much time to public life. He was economical, exact, and methodical in his expenses and accounts. The account books, now in my possession, of his Maître d'Hotel, at Paris and Washington, show the minutest details of household expenditure, and notes and figures in his own hand-writing, exhibit the closest personal inspection by himself, and a monthly analysis in a tabularized form of the expenditures in each item. His own numerous account books show the entry at the time, in his own hand, of each expenditure, however minute.

His manners were of that polished school of the Colonial Government, so remarkable in its day-under no circumstances violating any of those minor conventional observances which constitute the well-bred gentleman, courteous and considerate to all persons. On riding out with him, when a lad, we met a negro who bowed to us; he returned his bow, I did not; turning to me he asked, "do you permit a negro to be more of a gentleman than yourself?"

There was a little emulation endeavored to be excited among the older gentlemen of the neighborhood, in their gardening; and he who had peas first, announced his success by an invitation to the others to dine with him. A wealthy neighbor, without children, and fond of horticulture, generally triumphed. Mr. Jefferson, on one occasion had them first, and when his family reminded him that it was his right to invite the company, he replied "No, say nothing about it, it will be more agreeable to our friend to think that he never fails." In his person he was neat in the extreme. In early life, his dress, equipage, and appointments were fastidiously appropriate to his rank. As he grew old, although preserving his extreme neatness, his dress was plainer, and he was more indifferent to the appearance of his equipage. When at Paris, Philadelphia, and Washington, his furniture, table, servants, equipage and the tout ensemble of his establishment, were deemed highly appropriate to the position he held. He was a gentleman everywhere. On entering the Presidency, he determined not to have weekly levees, like his predecessors, and so announced. His political opponents determined that he should continue the custom. On the first levee day, he rode out at his usual hour of one o'clock, returning at three, and on entering the President's house, booted, whip in hand, soiled with his ride, found himself in a crowd of ladies and gentlemen, fashionably dressed for the occasion. He greeted them with all the ease and courtesy of expected guests that he had been prepared to receive, exhibiting not the slightest indication of annoyance. They never again tried the experiment. At home, he desired to live like his neighbors, in the plain hospitality of a Virginia gentleman. It was a source of continued and deep regret to him, that the number of strangers who visited him, kept his neigh bors from him; he said, "he had to exchange the society of his friends and neighbors for those whom he had never seen before, and never expected to see again."

Mr. Jefferson's hair, when young, was of a reddish cast, sandy as he advanced in years his eye, hazel-dying in his 84th year, he had not lost a tooth, or had one defective; his skin, thin, peeling from his face on exposure to the sun, and giving it a tettered appearance; the superficial veins so weak, as upon the slightest blow,

cause extensive suffusions of blood, in early life, upon standing to write for any gth of time, bursting beneath the skin: it, however, gave him no inconvenience. countenance was mild and benignant, and attractive to strangers. While Presit, returning on horseback from court, with company whom he had invited to ner, and who were, all but one or two, riding ahead of him, on reaching a stream r which there was no bridge, a man asked him to take him up behind and carry over. The gentlemen in the rear coming up just as Mr. Jefferson had put him n and rode on, asked the man how it happened that he had permitted the others pass without asking them? He replied, "From their looks I did not like to ask n-the old gentleman looked as if he would do it, and I asked him." He was y much surprised to hear that he had ridden behind the President of the United es. Mr. Jefferson's stature was commanding, six feet two and a half inches in ht, well formed, indicating strength, activity, and robust health; his carriage, t; step firm and elastic, which he preserved to his death; his temper, naturally ng, under perfect control-his courage, cool and impassive-no one ever knew exhibit trepidation-his moral courage of the highest order—his will, firm and xible—it was remarked of him that he never abandoned a plan, a principle, or a d. A bold and fearless rider, you saw at a glance, from his easy and confident that he was master of his horse, which was usually the fine blood horse of Vir1. The only impatience of temper he ever exhibited, was with his horse, which abdued to his will by a fearless application of the whip, on the slightest manifestaof restiveness. He retained to the last his fondness for riding on horseback; he within three weeks of his death, when from disease, debility and age, he nted with difficulty. He rode with confidence, and never permitted a servant company him; he was fond of solitary rides and musing, and said that the pree of a servant annoyed him. He held in little esteem the education that made ignorant and helpless as to the common necessities of life; and he exemplified an incident which occurred to a young gentleman returned from Europe, where d been educated. On riding out with his companions, the strap of his girth , at the hole of the buckle; and they, perceiving it an accident easily remedied, on and left him. A plain man coming up and seeing that his horse had made cular path in the road in his impatience to get on, asked if he could aid him? sir," replied the young man, "if you could only assist me to get it up to the hole." 'Suppose you let it out a hole or two on the other side," said the

is habits were regular and systematic. He was a miser of his time, rose s at dawn, wrote and read until breakfast, breakfasted early, and dined from to four-after breakfast read for half an hour in his public rooms or portico, îmer—visited his garden and workshops-returned to his writing and reading e, when he rode on horseback to three or half past dined, and gave the g to his family and company-retired at nine, and to bed from ten to eleven. d in his last illness, that the sun had not caught him in bed for fifty years. ways made his own fire. He drank water but once a day, a single glass, when urned from his ride. He ate heartily, and much vegetable food, preferring 1 cookery, because it made the meats more tender. He never drank ardent or strong wines-such was his aversion to ardent spirits that when, in his ess, his physician desired him to use brandy as an astringent, he could not him to take it strong enough.

inherited from his father 1,900 acres of land, and some negroes. He comd the practice of the law soon after he came of age. When he riarried, in his

29th year, he had increased his estate to 5,000 acres, all paid for. His accounts show a receipt of $3,000 a year from his practice at the bar, and $2,000 from his farms, a large income at that day. The death of his father-in-law ensuing soon after his marriage, he acquired a large addition to his estate, but the share of debt which fell to him was £3,749 12s. He sold property immediately to pay it. The payments for this property were made in paper money, which he deposited in the loan office, and received it back again at a depreciation out to him, of one for forty. He sold again in 1785 and 1792, to discharge the debt, with its accumulated interest. This swept nearly half of his estate. He was absent from his estate, as Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice-President and President from 1782 to 1809-27 years, with the exception of four years, from 1793 to 1797, which he devoted to his farms. He returned in his old age to be hunted down by the reputation he had won in the service of his country. Twelve years before his death, he remarked to me, in conversation, that if he lived long enough he would beggar his family that the number of persons he was compelled to entertain would devour his estate; many bringing letters from his ancient friends, and all coming with respectful feelings, he could not shut his door in their faces. A heavy loss by indorsing for a friend in 1819, and the extreme depression in the value of property, when it became necessary to bring his into market, completed the catastrophe, and verified his anticipations.

[Here follows the account of Mr. Jefferson's last illness and death, commencing at page 543 of this volume, and it comprises the entire remaining portion of the letter.]

Very respectfully,

TH. J. RANDOLPH.

APPENDIX NO. XXXVII. VOL. III. p. 564.

The Albemarle Resolutions vindicating Mr. Jefferson from Posthumous Slanders.

A distinguished clergyman of the Episcopal Church visited Charlottesville, in the spring of 1840, and circumstances threw him among the coterie, named in the text, so hostile to Mr. Jefferson.

He heard all the exploded tales of a life-time, brought out fresh-reaffirmed"told with a cirumstance against the latter. Accordingly, in a letter which was published in the Episcopal Recorder, in Philadelphia, he stated, in substance, that he found Mr. Jefferson's character was held in aversion in the neighborhood in which he lived and died-that he there heard more against it than he had ever heard before.

This publication found its way back to Charlottesville. The editor of the Whig paper (opposed to the party with which Mr. Jefferson had acted in politics) called public attention to it, and we think it was he who first suggested that a meeting of the citizens of the county be held on the subject. The proposal at once met favor. The high-minded men of the Whig party felt that it was time to vindicate their party, their county, and themselves from all suspicion of countenancing assaults on Mr. Jefferson's memory, which, howeyer easily disproved, and contemptible where they were made, acquired a degree of importance in other places, because they purportod to have the sanction of Mr. Jefferson's former neighbors. And it is for