His violin, a loved companion from boyhood, was little by little neglected. An incident which will show his attachment to it occurred at the burning of his father's house. When he reached the place and found it in ashes, he asked: "Are all the books destroyed?" and an old negro standing near quickly replied, "Yes, massa, dey is, but we's saved de fiddle." The tone of the negro's voice indicated that he felt sure that this news would atone for all other losses to his young master. He studied fifteen hours a day, consequently had little time for recreation. It shows how much the physical development of early years tended to keep him well and strong at this period of his life. 'As soon as he was graduated, he entered upon the study of law, and at twenty-one years of age assumed the management of his father's estate, and gave much time to the improvement of his lands, so that he gained the reputation of being an attentive, zealous, and successful farmer. When he was twenty-four. he was admitted to the bar, and owing to the influential family connections on his father's as well as his mother's side, secured a large and lucrative practice at once. The first year he had sixty-eight cases in the general court of the province, and this number soon increased to five hundred.

Jefferson was not a fluent nor a forcible speaker, and he had a husky voice which was very detrimental to him as an orator. His power lay in his painstaking and attention to business. He entered public life at twenty-six, and made the resolution never, while in public office, to engage in any enterprise for the improvement of his fortune, nor to assume any character other than that of a farmer. This resolution he faithfully carried out, and it always enabled him to consider public questions apart from self-interest.

Before he was thirty he had married the beautiful widow, Mrs. Martha Skelton. He took her to his new home at Monticello a few days after the ceremony. Her father, John Wayles, dying the next year, left her forty thousand acres of

land and one hundred and thirty-five slaves. This doubled Jefferson's estate, and enabled him to devote more time to the improvement of his land. It is said that he domesticated every tree and shrub, native and foreign, which could survive the Virginia cold.

Jefferson had many rivals in love as well as in law. The woman whom he honored by making his wife was very beautiful. She was only twenty years of age, above medium height, auburn-haired, and of a remarkably dignified carriage. She said that Jefferson's love for music and his skill as a violinist gave him precedence of his rivals. He retained a romantic devotion for her throughout his life, and refused many foreign áppointments on account of her failing health. For four years before her death he was never beyond her call, and was insensible from grief many hours after she died. They had five children; two died in infancy; three, Martha, Mary and Lucy grew to womanhood; Lucy never married, and the other two with their families cared for their father after their mother's death. Martha was pronounced by John Randolph to be "the sweetest creature in Virginia," and Mary, "the best-bred lady in the land."

In 1775 Jefferson was elected to Congress, and reached Philadelphia on the very day that Washington was made Commander-in-chief of the army. The news came that Virginia was in favor of declaring for independence, so a committee of five was appointed to draw up the Declaration, and Jefferson, being chairman, was asked to write the document. Congress debated it for three days, July first, second and third, and Jefferson used to laugh and say that the warm weather and a swarm of flies made them adopt it as soon as they did. It was at his suggestion that "E pluribus unum" was accepted as a seal for the paper; it was he who drew up the bill for establishing courts of law in the State; he caused the capital to be removed to Richmond; it was he who advocated a system of public education

in the State; he founded the University of Virginia; he greatly improved William and Mary College; he proposed our present system of currency, dollars, cents and dimes; he was three times Minister to France; was Vice-President under Adams; and at the death of Adams became President of the United States.

After forty-four years of public service, he retired to private life, so impoverished that he feared he would be arrested for debt by his creditors, should he try to leave the capital.

He was eighty-three when he died, and was buried in his yard at Monticello. It is a singular coincidence that his death occurred on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and that John Adams, a former president, died a few hours later on the same day.

When it was discovered that Jefferson had left his daughter penniless, the legislatures of South Carolina and Virginia voted her ten thousand dollars, which gave her an ample support during the rest of her life. Her father's writings were ordered to be published by Congress. These consisted of treatises, essays, selections from his correspondence, official reports, messages, addresses, and his autobiography.

Jefferson held probably more offices under the government than any man before or since, except John Quincy Adams. He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses; he was sent to Congress; he was Governor of Virginia; he was three times Minister to France; he was Secretary of State; he was Vice-President and President of the United States; he was a Democrat, the founder of Democracy, we may say, and maintained that "a government is best which governs least." The most important act of his administration was the "Purchase of Louisiana," which was bought from the French for about fifteen million dollars. This purchase made him very popular in the West, and he was re-elected by an overwhelming majority.

At his own request there was placed upon his tomb this inscription:

"THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia."

Unfriendly criticisms were made about the Declaration of Independence from a literary standpoint; that it lacked originality, that it was bombastic and its language pedantic; but, as Carl Holliday in his History of Southern Literature says, "Suppose Franklin, with his blunt, humorous, earthy way of saying things, had written the document it would never have brought conviction to earnest souls. It is founded on eternal principles; its power can not perish."

Jefferson wrote a set of rules for practical life which it would be well for all to follow:

1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.

2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

3. Never spend your money before you have it.

4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear

to you.

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.

6. We never repent of having eaten too little.

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

8. How much pain have cost us the evils that have never happened.

9. Take things always by their smooth handle.

10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.

Autobiography.

Parliamentary Manual.

Notes on the State of Virginia.

WORKS.

Declaration of Independence.
Hamilton and Adams.

State Papers.