Yesterday I attended the funeral solemnities in Faneuil Hall in honour of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The oration of Mr. Webster was worthy of his fame, and what is much more, was worthy of the august occasion.
... that death which leaves a deep impression, is my venerable friend’s of Monticello – Although prepared for it from his age & infirmities, yet I was most sensible to the shock when it did arrive – This indeed I now consider as one of those struggles of nature against...
Charlottesville—82 miles from Richmond, is celebrated as the Seat of Jefferson College or the University of Virginia. This institution owes its origin to the Late Thos Jefferson former president of the U. St. who devoted the latter part of his ever active life, towards the promotion of Science ...
I am obliged candidly to own that thus far it has fallen far below my expectations—And I fear that the apprehension (which I always felt to a certain degree, that when its master & creative spirit was gone, it would languish dwindle & decay,) has begun already to be realized. Indeed it...
I have frequently heard Mr Jefferson say that this germ of a fondness for building, was developed in him by the accidental circumstance of his purchasing a book on Architecture, when at College from an old drunken Cabinetmaker who still resided near the College gate in my time & whom I...
I made a trip to Washington, almost entirely to converse with Mr. Jefferson on the subject. Sometime in January, 1809, I called on him in company with Wm. Kirkpatrick, Esq. of Salina, then Member of Congress, who introduced me, and informed him, that in view of his proposal to expend the surplus...
Passed the day in reading Jefferson’s letters. I cannot say but the perusal of this book has elevated the man in my estimation. He discovers an equanimity of temper, and a philosophical tone of mind, that are admirable. Some of his remarks are of the first order, and nothing can be better than...
It is not, I assure you, possible that any one can cherish a higher respect for the memory of Mr Jefferson or be more sincerely disposed to do it honor than myself. He was the undisputed founder of our political School; & whilst we sincerely respect his principles & in good faith,...
The appalling weight of responsibility of those who serve their country in such an expedition, is strikingly illustrated by the instructions given to Lewis and Clarke, in 1803, by President Jefferson ... The sage, who had conceived and matured the plan of the expedition to the far west, in his...
It is with no little astonishment that we have seen Dr. Hawks accused of illiberality in his few remarks upon “that noble monument of liberty,” the Act for the Establishment of Religious Freedom. If there is any thing beyond simple justice in his observations we, for our own parts, cannot...
Although Sir Augustus Foster in his notes lately published ... candidly says, he believed his careless toilette and unceremonious manners to be mere affectation, assumed to win popularity. The picture this gentleman has drawn of Mr. Jefferson is a mere characature, in which those who personally...
I regret extremely that I should be thus deprived of the opportunity to pay a tribute to the revered memory of him to whom I was united not only by a conformity of political principles, but by the ties of gratitude and of a personal friendship which during a period of thirty years was never...
Mr. William Kirkland ... has written much for the magazines ... A valuable essay on “The Tyranny of Public Opinion in the United States,” (published in “The Columbian” for December, 1845,) demonstrates the truth of Jefferson’s assertion, that in this country, which has set the world an example of...
He kept three fiddles: played in the arternoons & sometimes arter supper. This was in his early time: When he begin to git so old he didn’t play … Mr. Jefferson always singing when ridin or walkin: hardly see him anywhar out doors but what he was a-singin: Had a fine clear voice: sung minnits...
Mr. Jefferson was a tall strait-bodied man as ever you see, right square-shouldered: Nary a man in this town walked so straight as my old master: neat a built man as ever was seen in Vaginny, I reckon or any place—a straight-up man: long face, high nose.
He was a man of easy and ingratiating manners ... Mr. Jefferson never would discuss any proposition if you differed with him, for he said he thought discussion rather rivetted opinions than changed them.
Mr. Jefferson was not a man who could be regarded as an eminent conversationalist. He was rather reserved; and did not often enter into great questions—political or moral—in my presence.
You are surprised to learn that I have not a high opinion of Mr. Jefferson and I am a little surprised at your surprise ... I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty, or civilisation, or both ... Thinking thus, of course, I cannot reckon...
The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society ... This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it. All honor...
I have rode over the plantation, I reckon, a thousand times with Mr. Jefferson, and when he was not talking he was nearly always humming some tune, or singing in a low tone to himself.