Chapter III: The Philosophy of Old Age (1)

Old people are often accused of being too conservative, and even reactionary. They seem out of step with the younger generations, and very few preserve enough resiliency to keep in touch with the ceaseless changes taking place around them. But a few men who, born in the second half of the eighteenth century, lived well up into the nineteenth, were able to escape this apparently unavoidable law of nature. After witnessing political convulsions, commotions and revolutions, they clung tenaciously to the faith of their younger days. They refused to accept the view that the world was going from bad to worse; they looked untiringly for every symptom of improvement and thought they could distinguish everywhere signs foretelling the dawn of a new era. The growing infirmities of their bodies did not leave them any illusion about their inevitable disappearance from the stage and they were not upheld by any strong belief in personal immortality. But however uncertain and hazy may have been their religious tenets, they had a stanch faith in the unlimited capacity of human nature for improvement and development. They believed in the irresistible power of truth, in the ultimate recognition of natural principles and natural laws, in the religion of progress as it had been formulated by the eighteenth-century philosophers. Thus, rather than follow the precept of the ancient poet and unhitch their aging horses, they had anticipated the advice of the American philosopher by hitching their wagon to a star.

Du Pont de Nemours, experimenting with his sons to develop American industries in order to make America economically independent from Europe; Destutt de Tracy, almost completely blind, dictating his treatise on political economy and appearing in the streets of Paris during the glorious days of 1830; Lafayette, yearning and hoping for the recognition of his ideal of liberty during the Empire and the _Restauration_--all of these were more than survivors of a forgotten age. Even to the younger generations they represented the living embodiment of the political faith of the nineteenth century. It is not a mere coincidence that most of them were friends and admirers of the Sage of Monticello, whose letters they read "as the letters of the Apostles were read in the circle of the early Christians."

Jefferson could complain that "the decays of age had enfeebled the useful energies of the mind",[550] but he kept, practically to his last day, his alertness, his encyclopaedic curiosity and an extraordinary capacity for work. A large part of his time was taken by his correspondence. Turning to his letter list for 1820 he found that he had received no less than "one thousand two hundred and sixty-seven communications, many of them requiring answers of elaborate research, and all of them to be answered with due attention and consideration."[551] I may be permitted to add that a large part of the letters he received as well as those he wrote deserve publication and would greatly contribute to our knowledge of the period.

Among them essays and short treatises on every possible subject under heaven will be found. With Du Pont de Nemours, Jefferson discussed not only questions of political economy, education and government, but the acclimation of the merino sheep, the manufacturing of woolen goods and nails, the construction of gunboats and the organization of the militia. With Madame de Tesse, Lafayette's aged cousin, he resumed the exchange of botanical views, interrupted by his presidency and the continental blockade. He undertook to put together the scraps of paper on which he had scribbled notes during Washington's and Adams' administrations and compiled his famous "Anas"; he wrote his "Autobiography", furnished documents to Girardin for his continuation of Burke's "History of Virginia"; he answered queries on the circumstances under which he had written the Declaration of Independence, the Kentucky Resolution, on his attitude towards France when Secretary of State and President; he criticized quite extensively Marshall's "History of Washington" and one of his last letters, written on May 15, 1826, was to inform one of his friends of the facts concerning "Arnold's invasion and surprise of Richmond, in the winter of 1780-81."[552]

His interest in books was greater than ever; he had scarcely sold his library to Congress when he undertook to collect another, going systematically through the publishers' catalogues, writing to booksellers in Richmond, Philadelphia, New York and even abroad, requesting his European friends to send him the latest publications and asking young Ticknor to procure for him, in France or Germany, the best editions of the Greek and Latin classics. He drew up the plans for the University of Virginia and supervised the construction of the building. Between times he took upon himself the task of rewriting entirely the translation of Destutt de Tracy's "Review of Montesquieu" and directed the printing of his treatise on "Political Economy." After writing letters, regulating the work of the farm, he spent several hours on horseback every day and during the balance of the afternoon read new and old books, played with his grandchildren, walked in the garden to look at his favorite trees, listened to music and, during the fine weather, received the visitors who flocked to Monticello by the dozens. Some were simply idlers coming out of curiosity, many were old friends who stayed for days or weeks; but all were welcomed with the same affable courtesy and the same generous hospitality, according to the best traditions of old Virginia.

They came from all nations, at all times--wrote Doctor Dunglison--and
paid longer or shorter visits. I have known a New England judge bring
a letter of introduction and stay three weeks. The learned abbe
Correa, always a welcome guest, passed some weeks of each year with
us during the whole time of his stay in the country. We had persons
from abroad, from all the States of the Union, from every part of the
State--men, women, and children.... People of wealth, fashion, men in
office, Protestant clergymen, Catholic priests, members of Congress,
foreign ministers, missionaries, Indian agents, tourists, travellers,
artists, strangers, friends.[553]

No sound estimate of the extraordinary influence exerted by Jefferson upon the growth of liberalism can be made at the present time. It would require separate studies, careful investigation and the publication of many letters, safely preserved but too little used, which rest in the Jefferson Papers of the Library of Congress, and with the Massachusetts Historical Society. I have already printed Jefferson's correspondence with Volney, Destutt de Tracy, Lafayette and Du Pont de Nemours; many other letters, no less significant, remain practically unknown. He encouraged his European friends, Correa de Serra, Kosciusko, the Greek Coray, to keep up their courage, to hope against hope. To all of them he preached the same gospel of faith in the ultimate and inevitable recognition throughout the world of the principles of American democracy. This was not done for propaganda's sake, for no man would deserve less than Jefferson the dubious qualification of propagandist. The many letters written to his American friends on the same subject clearly show that this was his profound conviction and almost his only _raison d'etre_. His was not an over-optimistic temperament; he did not fail to notice all "the specks of hurricane on the horizon of the world." Yet, all considered, and in spite of temporary fits of despondency, his conclusion on the future of democracy can be summed up in the words he wrote to John Adams at the end of 1821:

I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a
hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance. We have seen
indeed, once within the record of history, the complete eclipse of
the human mind continuing for centuries ... even should the cloud of
barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of
Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and
liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the 4th of July
1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by
the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume
these engines and all who work them.[554]

Jefferson felt such a dislike for unnecessary controversies that he was apt to adopt the tone and the style of his correspondents and apparently to accept their ideas, so that many contradictions can be found in these letters. To a chosen few only he fully revealed his intimate thoughts and without reticence, without fear of being betrayed, communicated his doubts, his hopes and his hatred. The letters he wrote to Short, Priestley, and Thomas Cooper are most remarkable in this respect. But with none of them did he communicate so freely as with his old friend John Adams. The correspondence that passed between them during the last fifteen years of their lives constitutes one of the most striking and illuminating human documents a student of psychology may ever hope to discover. To those who have had the privilege of using the manuscripts to follow month by month the palsied hand of Adams until he had to cease writing himself and dictated his letters to a "female member of his household", it seems unthinkable that the wish expressed by Wirt in 1826,--to see the correspondence between the two great men published in its entirety,--should not have received its fulfillment.

They had been estranged for a long time, and no word had passed between them for more than ten years after Adams' sulky departure from Washington on the morning of March 4, 1801. At the beginning of 1811, Doctor Benjamin Rush made bold to deplore "the discontinuance of friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson." Jefferson answered quite lengthily, giving a long account of his difficulties with Adams, including the letter written by Abigail Adams in 1802, but adding that he would second with pleasure every effort made to bring about a reconciliation. However, he did not entertain much hope that Doctor Rush would succeed, for he knew it was "part of Mr. Adams' character to suspect foul play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his suspicions."[555]

It was not until the end of the same year that Jefferson took up the subject again, having heard that during a conversation Adams had mentioned his name, adding: "I always loved Jefferson, and still love him." This was enough, and it only remained to create an opportunity to resume the correspondence without too much awkwardness; but "from this fusion of sentiments" Mrs. Adams was "of course to be separated", for Jefferson could not believe that the woman wounded in her motherly pride had forgotten anything. This was no insuperable obstacle, however: "It will only be necessary that I never name her" wrote Jefferson.[556]

Adams took the first step, and, knowing how much Jefferson was interested in domestic manufactures, sent him a fine specimen of homespun made in Massachusetts. Jefferson could but acknowledge the peace offering, which he did most gracefully, without mentioning Mrs. Adams.[557] But he was too much of a Southern gentleman to hold a resentment long even against a woman of such a jealous disposition. Two months later he sent for the first time the homage of his respects to Mrs. Adams, after which he never forgot to mention her. On two occasions he even wrote her charming letters, in the same friendly tone as he had used with her twenty-five years earlier, when he used to do shopping for her in Paris. On hearing of her death on November 13, 1818, he sent to his stricken old friend a touching expression of his sympathy:

Will I say more where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort
to us both, that the term is not very distant, at which we are to
deposit in the same cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to
ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have
loved and lost, and whom we shall still love and never lose
again.[558]

Quite naturally, as the circle of his friends grew narrower and one after the other were called by death, Jefferson's thoughts turned to the hereafter. In his youth he had apparently settled the problem once for all; but the solution then found was scarcely more than a temporary expedient. It may behove a young man full of vigor, with a long stretch of years before him, to declare that "the business of life is with matter" and that it serves no purpose to break our heads against a blank wall. There are very few men, if they are thinking at all, who can entirely dismiss from their minds the perplexing and torturing riddle, as the term grows nearer every day. Such an ataraxia may have been obtained by a few sages of old, but it is hardly human, and Jefferson, like Adams, was very human. This is a subject, however, which I cannot approach without some reluctance. Jefferson himself would have highly disapproved of such a discussion. After submitting silently to so many fierce criticisms, after being accused of atheism, materialism, impiety and philosophism by his contemporaries, he hoped that the question would never be broached to him again. With those who tried to revive it, he had absolutely no patience.

One of our fan-coloring biographers--he wrote once--who paint small
men as very great, inquired of me lately, with real affection too,
whether he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion
much spoken of in some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what
had been my religion before, taking for it the word of their priests,
whom I certainly never made the confidants of my creed. My answer
was: "Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself
alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if
that has been _honest and dutiful_ to society, the religion which has
regulated it cannot be a bad one."[559]

Unfortunately the controversy is still going on and at least a few points must be indicated here. The simplest and to some extent the most acceptable treatment of the matter was given a few years after his death by the physician who attended him up to the last minutes:

It is due, also, to that illustrious individual to say, that, in all
my intercourse with him, I never heard an observation that savored,
in the slightest degree, of impiety. His religious belief harmonized
more closely with that of the Unitarians than of any other
denomination, but it was liberal, and untrammelled by sectarian
feelings and prejudices.[560]

But Doctor Dunglison's declaration is somewhat unsatisfactory and misleading, for Jefferson once gave his own definition of Unitarianism. From a letter he wrote to James Smith in 1822 it appears he was not ready to join the Unitarian Church any more than any other:

About Unitarianism, the doctrine of the early ages of Christianity
... the pure and simple unity of the Creator of the universe, is now
all but ascendant in the Eastern States; it is dawning in the West,
and advancing towards the South; and I confidently expect that the
present generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion
of the United States.... I write with freedom, because, while I claim
a right to believe in one God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as
freely to others that of believing in three.[561]

On the other hand, one might easily be misled by some declarations of Jefferson to his more intimate friends. "I am a materialist--I am an Epicurian," he wrote on several instances to John Adams, Thomas Cooper and Short, with whom he felt that he could discuss religious questions more freely than with any others. Rejecting the famous _Cogito ergo sum_ of Descartes, he fell back when in doubt on his "habitual anodyne": "I feel therefore I exist." This in his opinion did not imply the sole existence of matter, but simply that he could not "conceive _thought_ to be an action of a particular organisation of matter, formed for the purpose by its Creator, as well as that attraction is an action of matter, or magnetism of loadstone." Then he added: "I am supported in my creed of materialism by the Lockes, the Tracys and the Stewarts. At what age of the Christian Church this heresy of immaterialism or masked atheism, crept in, I do not exactly know. But a heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it."[562]

In the same sense he could write to Judge Augustus S. Woodward: "Jesus himself, the Founder of our religion, was unquestionably a Materialist as to man. In all His doctrines of the resurrection, he teaches expressly that the body is to rise in substances."[563]

His definition of Epicurism would seem equally remote from the popular acceptation, and certainly Jefferson was never of those who could deserve the old appellation of _Epicuri de grege porcus_; for his Epicurus is the philosopher "whose doctrines contain everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us."[564]

All through the year 1813 and on many occasions after that date, Adams tried to draw him out on the question of religion. "For," as he said, "these things are to me, at present, the marbles and nine-pins of old age; I will not say beads and prayer books." But Jefferson could not have declared, as did his old friend: "For more than sixty years I have been attentive to this great subject. Controversies between Calvinists and Arminians, Trinitarians and Unitarians, Deists and Christians, Atheists and both, have attracted my attention, whenever the singular life I have led would admit, to all these questions."[565]

Not so with Jefferson, who felt a real abhorrence for theological discussions and considered them as a sheer waste of time. They belonged to a past age and were to be buried in oblivion lest they create again an atmosphere of fanaticism and intolerance; at best, they could be left to the clergy. But tolerant as he was, there were certain doctrines against which Jefferson revolted even in later life, as he probably did when a student at William and Mary:

I can never join Calvin in addressing _his God_. He was indeed an
atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was daemonism.
If ever man worshipped a false God, he did. The God described in his
five points, is not the God whom you acknowledge and adore, the
Creator and benevolent Governor of the world; but a daemon of
malignant spirit.

But right after this virulent denunciation comes a most interesting admission. If Jefferson's God was not the God of Calvin, he was just as remote from the mechanistic materialism of D'Holbach and La Mettrie as he was from Calvinism and predestination. Leaving aside all questions of dogmas and revelation he held that:

When we take a view of the universe, in its parts, general or
particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and
feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power
in every atom of its composition. So irresistible are these evidences
of an intelligent and powerful Agent, that of the infinite numbers of
men who have existed through all time, they have believed, in the
proportion of a million at least to a unit, in the hypothesis of an
eternal pre-existence of a Creator, rather than in that of a self
existing universe.[566]

From this passage, it would seem that Jefferson founded his belief in the existence of God on the two well-known arguments: the order of the Universe and the general consensus of opinion. If it were so, he would follow close on the steps of the English deists of the school of Pope. But religion to him was something more than the mere "acknowledgement" and "adoration of the benevolent Governor of the world";

It is more than an inner conviction of the existence of the Creator;
true religion is morality. If by _religion_ we are to understand
_sectarian dogmas_, in which no two of them agree, then your
exclamation on that hypothesis is just, "that this would be the best
possible of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."
But if the moral precepts, innate in man, and made a part of his
physical constitution, as necessary for a social being, if the
sublime doctrines of philanthropism and deism taught us by Jesus of
Nazareth, in which we all agree, constitute true religion, then,
without it, this would be, as you again say, "something not fit to be
named even, indeed, a hell."[567]

On this point as on so many others Jefferson is distinctly an eighteenth-century man. One of the pet schemes of the philosophers was to prove that there is no necessary connection between religion and morality. It was an essential article of the philosophical creed from Pierre Bayle to Jefferson, and long before them, Montaigne had filled his "Essays" with countless anecdotes and examples tending to prove this point. But Jefferson went one step farther than most of the French philosophers, with the exception of Rousseau. Morality is not founded on a religious basis; religion is morality. This being accepted, it remains to determine the foundation of morality. In a letter written to Thomas Law during the summer of 1814, Jefferson examined the different solutions proposed by theologians and philosophers and clearly indicated his preference.

"It was vain to say that it was truth; for truth is elusive, unattainable, and there is no certain criticism of it." It is not either the "love of God", for an atheist may have morality, and "Diderot, d'Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been the most virtuous of men." It is not either the _to kalon_, for many men are deprived of any aesthetic sense. Self-interest is more satisfactory, but even the demonstration given by Helvetius is not perfectly convincing. All these explanations are one step short of the ultimate question.

The truth of the matter is, that Nature has implanted in our breasts
a love of others, a sense of duty to them, a moral instinct, in
short, which prompts us irresistibly to feel and succour their
distresses. It is true that these social dispositions are not
implanted in every man, because there is no rule without exceptions;
but it is false reasoning which converts exceptions into the general
rule. Some men are born without the organs of sight, or of hearing,
or without hands. Yet it would be wrong to say that man is born
without these faculties. When the moral sense is wanting, we endeavor
to supply the defect by education; by appeals to reason and
calculation, by presenting to the being so unhappily conformed other
motives to do good. But nature has constituted utility to man the
social test of virtue. The same act may be useful and consequently
virtuous in a country which is injurious and vicious in another
differently circumstanced. I sincerely then believe, with you, in the
general existence of a moral instinct. I think it is the brightest
gem with which the human character is studded, and the want of it is
more degrading than the most hideous of the bodily deformities.[568]

The test of morality then becomes, not self-interest, as Helvetius had maintained (and Jefferson reproved Destutt de Tracy for having accepted this theory), but general interest and social utility. This is almost the criterium of Kant and one would be tempted to press this parallelism, if there was any reason to believe that the Philosopher of Monticello had ever heard the name of the author of "Practical Reason." On this point, as on so many others, Jefferson differs radically from Rousseau, who admitted also a benevolent governor of the world and the existence of a moral instinct, but who would have strenuously denied that this moral instinct was nothing but the social instinct. Jefferson, on the contrary, is led to recognize the existence of morality, chiefly because, man being a social being, society cannot be organized and subsist if it is not composed of moral beings.

Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of
society require the observation of those moral precepts in which all
religions agree, (for all forbid us to murder, steal, plunder or bear
false witness,) and that we should not intermeddle with the
particular dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are
totally unconnected with morality. In all of them we see good men,
and as many in one as another. The varieties of structures of action
of the human mind as in those in the body, are the work of our
Creator, against which it cannot be a religious duty to erect the
standard of uniformity. The practice of morality being necessary for
the well-being of society, he has taken care to impress its precepts
so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the
subtleties of our brain.[569]

This was stated more humorously by John Adams after they had treated the subject exhaustively in a series of letters: "Vain man, mind your own business. Do no wrong--; do all the good you can. Eat your canvasback ducks, drink your Burgundy. Sleep your siesta when necessary, and TRUST IN GOD."[570]

This being the case, it remained to determine whether man could not find somewhere a code of morality that would express the precepts impressed in our hearts. In his youth, Jefferson had copied and accepted as a matter of course the statement of Bolingbroke that:

It is not true that Christ revealed an entire body of ethics, proved
to be the law of nature from principles of reason and reaching all
duties of life.... A system thus collected from the writings of the
ancient heathen moralists, of Tully, of Seneca, of Epictetus, and
others, would be more full, more entire, more coherent, and more
clearly deduced from unquestionable principles of knowledge.[571]

In order to realize how far away Jefferson had drawn from his radicalism, it is only necessary to go back to his "Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus, compared with those of others", written for Benjamin Rush, in 1803, after reading Doctor Priestley's little treatise "Of Socrates and Jesus compared."[572] There he had declared that

His moral doctrines relating to kindred and friends, were more pure
and perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers, and
... they went far in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to
kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind,
gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity,
peace, common wants and common aids. A development of this head will
evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all
others.

Jefferson had been won over to Christianity by the superior social value of the morals of Jesus. In that sense, he could already say, "I am a Christian, in the only sense in which He wished any one to be, sincerely attached to His doctrines, in preference to all others."

This profession of faith made publicly might have assuaged some of the fierce attacks directed against Jefferson on the ground of his "infidelity", and yet even at that time he emphatically begged Doctor Rush not to make it public, for "it behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself ... to give no example of concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by answering questions of faith, which the laws have left between God and himself." To a certain extent, however, his famous "Life and Morals of Jesus", compiled during the last ten years of his life[573] may well be considered an indirect and yet categorical recantation of Bolingbroke's haughty dogmatism. Age, experience, observation had mellowed the Stoic. He was not yet ready to accept as a whole the dogmas of Christianity, but the superiority of the morals of Jesus over the tenets of the "heathen moralists" did not any longer leave any doubt in his mind.

Whether after the death of the body something of man survived, was an entirely different question--one that human reason could not answer satisfactorily. It cannot even be stated with certainty that he would have agreed with John Adams when the latter wrote: "_Il faut trancher le mot._ What is there in life to attach us to it but the hope of a future and a better? It is a cracker, a rocket, a fire-work at best."[574]

He never denied categorically the existence of a future life, but this life was a thing in itself, and after all, it was worth living. Altogether this world was a pretty good place, and when John Adams asked him whether he would agree to live his seventy-three years over again, he answered energetically: "Yea.--I think with you," he added, "that it is a good world on the whole; that it has been framed on a principle of benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt to us.... My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail, but not oftener than the foreboding of the gloomy."[575] His old friend was far from attaining such an equanimity and could not help envying the Sage of Monticello sailing his bark "Hope with her gay ensigns displayed at the prow, Fear with her hobgoblins behind the stern. Hope springs eternal and all is that endures...." But Jefferson was bolstered up in his confident attitude by the intimate conviction that he had done good work, that he had contributed his best to the most worthy cause and that he had not labored in vain.

This was not only a good world, but it was already much better than when he had entered it. He had

... observed the march of civilization advancing from the sea coast,
passing over us like a cloud of light, increasing our knowledge and
improving our condition, insomuch as that we are at that time more
advanced in civilization here than the seaports were when I was a
boy. And where this progress will stop no one can say. Barbarism has,
in the meantime, been receding before the steady step of
amelioration; and will in time, I trust, disappear from the
earth.[576]

Scarcely two weeks before he died--and this is practically his last important utterance--he recalled in a letter to the citizens of the city of Washington who had invited him to attend the celebration held for the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, how proud he was that his fellow citizens, after fifty years, continued to approve the choice made when the Declaration was adopted. "May it be to the world," he added, "what I believe it will (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government."[577]

This faith in the ultimate recognition of the ideals, which he had defined with such a felicity of expression half a century earlier, was, even more than any belief in personal immortality, "the rocket" that John Adams thought so necessary to attach us to this life. It was a real religion, the religion of progress, of the eighteenth century which had its devotees and with Condorcet its martyr. Strengthened by the intimate conviction that he would be judged from his acts and not "from his words", he saw the approach of Death without any qualms, and he turned back to his old friends of Greece and Rome, for "the classic pages fill up the vacuum of _ennui_, and become sweet composers to that rest of the grave into which we are sooner or later to descend."[578] On many occasions he expressed his readiness to depart: "I enjoy good health," he wrote once to John Adams; "I am happy in what is around me, yet I assure you I am ripe for leaving all, this year, this day, this hour."[579] It took almost ten years after these lines were written for the call to come. Most of his biographers have dealt extensively with the remarkable vigor preserved by Jefferson even to his last day. For several years after his retirement he remained a hale and robust old man. But he felt none the less the approaching dissolution and watched anxiously the slow progress of his physical limitations. His letters do not completely bear out on this point the statement made by Mrs. Sarah Randolph in her "Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson."

At seventy-three he was still remarkably robust and, with the minuteness of a physician, described his case in a letter to his old friend Charles Thomson:

I retain good health, am rather feeble to walk much, but ride with
ease, passing two or three hours a day on horseback.... My eyes need
the aid of glasses by night, and with small print in the day also; my
hearing is not quite so sensible as it used to be; no tooth shaking
yet, but shivering and shrinking in body from the cold we now
experience; my thermometer having been as low as 12 deg. this morning. My
greatest oppression is a correspondence afflictingly laborious, the
extent of which I have been long endeavoring to curtail. Could I
reduce this epistolary corvee within the limits of my friends and
affairs ... my life would be as happy as the infirmities of age would
admit, and I should look on its consummation with the composure of
one "_qui summum nec metuit diem nec optat_."[580]

This remarkable preservation of his faculties he attributed largely to his abstemious diet. For years he had eaten little animal food, and that "not as an aliment so much as a condiment for the vegetables", which constituted his principal diet. "I double however the Doctor's glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend, but halve its effects by drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I cannot drink, nor do I use ardent spirits in any form."[581]

Yet he had to admit to Mrs. Trist in 1814 that he was only "an old half-strung fiddle",[582] and as he advanced in age the "machine" gave evident signs of wearing out. The recurrence of the suffering caused by his broken wrist, badly set in Paris by the famous Louis,[583] and still worse the very painful "disury" with which he was afflicted[584] gave him many unhappy hours. To die was nothing, for as he wrote then in his old "Commonplace Book", "I do not worry about the hereafter, even if now the doom of death stands at my feet, for we are men and cannot live forever. To all of us death must happen."[585] But "bodily decay" was "gloomy in prospect, for of all human contemplation the most abhorrent is a body without mind. To be a doting old man, to repeat four times over the same story in one hour", if this was life, it was "at most the life of a cabbage."[586] He was spared this affliction he dreaded so much, and when Lafayette visited him in November, 1824, the Marquis found him "much aged without doubt, after a separation of thirty-five years, but bearing marvelously well under his eighty-one years of age, in full possession of all the vigor of his mind and heart."[587] Six months later, when Lafayette took his final leave, Jefferson was weaker and confined to his house, suffering much "with one foot in the grave and the other one uplifted to follow it."

Death was slowly approaching, without any particular disease being noticeable; after running for eighty-three years "the machine" was about to "surcease motion." The end has been told by several contemporaries and friends. No account is more simple and more touching in its simplicity than the relation written by his attending physician, Doctor Dunglison:

Until the 2d. and 3d. of July he spoke freely of his approaching
death; made all arrangements with his grandson, Mr. Randolph, in
regard to his private affairs; and expressed his anxiety for the
prosperity of the University and his confidence in the exertion in
its behalf of Mr. Madison and the other visitors. He repeatedly, too,
mentioned his obligation to me for my attention to him. During the
last week of his existence I remained at Monticello; and one of the
last remarks he made was to me. In the course of the day and night of
the 2d of July he was affected with stupor, with intervals of
wakefulness and consciousness; but on the 3d the stupor became
almost permanent. About seven o'clock of the evening of that day he
awoke and, seeing me staying at his bedside, exclaimed, "Ah, Doctor,
are you still there?" in a voice, however, that was husky and
indistinct. He then asked, "Is it the Fourth?" to which I replied,
"It will soon be." These were the last words I heard him utter.

Until towards the middle of the day--the 4th--he remained in the same
state, or nearly so, wholly unconscious to everything that was
passing around him. His circulation, however, was gradually becoming
more languid; and for some time prior to dissolution the pulse at the
wrist was imperceptible. About one o'clock he ceased to exist.[588]

A few days before he had taken his final dispositions and seen all the members of his family. He was not a man to indulge in a painful display of emotions, but he told his dear daughter Martha that "in a certain drawer in an old pocket book she would find something for her." It was a piece of paper on which he had written eight lines "A death bed adieu from Th. J. to M. R." There was no philosophism nor classical reminiscence in it; it was the simple expression of his last hope that on the shore

"_Which crowns all my hopes, or which buries my care_" he would find awaiting him "two seraphs long shrouded in death", his beloved wife and his young daughter Maria.

He was buried by their side in the family plot of Monticello. According to his wishes no invitations were issued and no notice of the hour given. "His body was borne privately from his dwelling by his family and servants, but his neighbors and friends, anxious to pay the last tribute of respect to one they had loved and honored, waited for it in crowds at the grave." A typically American scene, without parade, without speeches and long ceremonies--almost a pioneer burial in a piece of land reclaimed from the wilderness.

INDEX

Absolutism, evils of, 203

Adams, Abigail, Jefferson shops for, 160;
the "New England Juno", 323;
and Jefferson, 382, 383, 386, 518, 519

Adams, Henry, his criticism of Jefferson's conduct of foreign
affairs, 409, 440, 441, 453, 459, 460, 464

Adams, John, Jefferson's correspondence with, 23, 482, 490, 503, 512,
517, 521, 526, 529;
his first impression of Jefferson, 59;
on committee of Continental Congress appointed to answer Lord
North's "Conciliatory Proposition", 62;
assists in framing resolution instructing colonies to form
governments, 66;
his part in Declaration of Independence, 69, 70;
on committee to suggest United States seal, 86;
appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to negotiate treaties of Commerce
with foreign nations, 152, 162;
his wines, 160;
in favor of loose association of States, 196;
and the Barbary pirates, 206;
Jefferson gives estimate of, 248;
his quarrel with Jefferson, 259-261;
reelection of, as Vice-President, 273;
elected President, 319;
attempts reconciliation with Jefferson, 321, 322, 325;
inaugural address, 321, 322;
not a party man or party leader, 323;
a complicated and contradictory figure, 323;
action in XYZ case, 325, 331, 336-338, 348, 355;
nominated for Presidency in 1800, 362;
changes in his Cabinet, 368;
in election of 1800, 367-369;
"midnight" appointments, 373, 374;
refuses to welcome successor, 375;
reconciliation with Jefferson, 518, 519;
his study of religious controversies, 522;
on life, 527

Adams, John Quincy, removed from office by Jefferson, 382, 383

Adams, Samuel, 359, 361

Addison, Judge, deposition of, by Senate of Pennsylvania, 384

Albemarle resolutions, 45-47

Alexander I of Russia, 448

Algiers, 206

Alien Bills, 340, 342-347

Aliens, their right to hold real property denied, 151

Allen, Ethan, declaration concerning, drafted by Jefferson, 65

American civilization, underlying ideas of, 85.

American imperialism, 398-400

American public education, first charter of, 95-100

American Revolution, remonstrance in House of Burgesses, 38;
articles of association directed against British merchandise, 38;
as to causes of, 42;
effect of passage of Boston Port Bill, in Virginia, 43, 44;
proposal to form Congress, 44;
declaration of mutual defence, 45;
resolutions adopted by freeholders of Albemarle County, Va., 45-47;
resolutions adopted by Assembly of Fairfax County, 45-47;
regulation of American commerce, 46;
doctrine of expatriation, 47, 50;
first Continental Congress, 54;
second Continental Congress, 59;
Lord North's "Conciliatory Proposition" answered, 62;
independence not at first aimed at, 63-65;
colonies instructed to form governments, 66;
Declaration of Independence, 69-71;
treatment of prisoners in, 109-112.
_See also_ British colonies

Americanism, cardinal principles of, 52, 61;
creed of, formulated by Jefferson, 62, 120;
Jefferson's conception of, when he wrote "Notes on Virginia", 136;
practical idealism a tenet of, 275;
pure, 334, 335;
definition of, 352;
Jefferson's system of, 423, 428, 468

Armstrong, Gen. John, American representative in Paris, 462

Arnold, Benedict, 108

"Arrears of Interest, Report on", Jefferson, 146

Articles of Confederation, discussion of, in Congress, 80;
defects in, 145, 146, 195, 197

"Assumption" of the State debts, 250-255

_Aurora_, journal, 311, 313, 343, 354

Austin, Benjamin, 491

Bache's _Aurora_, 311, 313, 343, 356

Balance of power, 476

Bank Bill, Hamilton's, 255-258

Bannister, J. B., Jr., letter to, 172

Barbary pirates, 205-207, 428, 443

Barbe-Marbois, secretary of French legation in United States, 118, 414

Bastille, capture of, 235

Bayard, James A., nominated plenipotentiary to French Republic, 373,
374

Bellini, letter to, 173

Berlin Decree, 450

Beveridge, Albert J., his "Life of Marshall", 384, 385, 434

Bill for a General Revision of the Laws, Virginia, 90

Bill for Amending the Charter for William and Mary, 98, 99, 105, 106

Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments, Virginia, 93-95

Bill for Religious Freedom, Virginia, 89, 100-103, 106, 365

Bill for the more General Diffusion of Knowledge, Virginia, 95-99,
105, 505, 508

Bill of Rights, 198-201, 204

Bill on the Naturalization of Foreigners, 89

Bill to Abolish Entails, Virginia, 88, 89

Bingham, Mrs., 160

Bishop, Samuel, appointed collector of New Haven, 381

Blennerhasset, Harman, and the Burr conspiracy, 431, 432

Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, his influence on Jefferson, 21, 23,
26, 31

Bollman, and the Burr conspiracy, 432, 433

Bonaparte, his projected invasion of England, 336;
Jefferson's opinion of, 359, 475, 476;
precedent established by, 360

Boston Port Bill, 43

Brazil, 483

Breckenridge, James, on board of visitors of University of
Virginia, 509

Breckenridge, John, letters to, 370, 371, 416

British colonies, contractual theory of government of, 45, 46;
regulation of commerce of, 46, 47;
rights of, 48-53.
_See also_ American Revolution

Brunswick, Duke of, defeat, 273

Buchan, Lord, letter to, 444

Budget, presented by Jefferson, 146

Buffon, G. L. L. de, theory of, concerning
animals in America, 121, 122

Burke, "History of Virginia", 12, 515

Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques, quotation from, 73

Burnaby, English tourist, quoted on Virginia colonists, 42

Burr, Col. Aaron, letters to, 332, 354;
nominated for Vice-Presidency (1800), 362;
in the 1800-election, 369-373;
his presence in government an annoyance to Jefferson, 382;
conspiracy, 429-439;
duel with Hamilton, 431

Burwell, Rebecca, and Jefferson, 16, 17

Cabanis, P. J. G., 161;
letter to, 422

Cabell, Joseph C., 507;
on board of visitors of University of Virginia, 509;
letters to, 512

Cabell, Gov. William H., 451

Cabinet, the President's, in Washington's time, 247;
Adams's, 322, 323, 368;
relation to President, 392

Callender, 356, 427;
employed by Jefferson, 361;
Jefferson's interest in, 363;
his pamphlet, "The Prospect Before Us" ("History of the
Administration of John Adams"), 382

Calonne, Charles Alexandre de, 178, 182

Calvinism, 522

Canning, George, 453

Capital, of United States, seat of, 252, 253

Capitol, at Washington, the new, question of putting inscription
on, 479

Caracas, constitution of, 498

Carleton, Guy, governor of Canada, 111

Carmichael, 198, 211, 226, 263, 276, 288

Carr, Dabney, death, 40, 41

Carr, Peter, 21, 175

Carrington, Edward, letters to, 196, 213, 219

Carthagenes, constitution of, 498

Cary, Col. Archibald, 139

_Ceres_, sailing-vessel, 153, 159

Champion de Cice, Archbishop of Bordeaux, 235

Charlottesville, Va., war prisoners at, 109

Chase, Judge Samuel, impeachment of, 387-389

Chastellux, Chevalier de, friend of Jefferson, 154

_Chesapeake-Leopard_ affair, 451-453

Church, Mrs., 298, 299

Church of England, in Virginia, 90, 103

Cincinnati, Society of the, 152, 306

Clay, Rev. Mr. Charles, subscription for support of, 103-105

Clinton, George, Vice-President, 395, 463, 464

Cocke, J. H., on board of visitors of University of Virginia, 509

Collot, Gen., 402

Colvin, J. B., letter to, 469

Comite du Commerce, 178, 183

Commerce, one of the great causes of war, 83;
Treaty of, 143, 144;
Gallo-American, 181-184;
Report of Jefferson on Privileges and Restrictions of, 302

Commercial monopolies, 151, 152

Commercial treaties, 149-152

Committees of safety, 54

Confederation, Treaty of Commerce, 143, 144;
defects in, 145, 146, 195, 197;
monetary system, 146, 147;
new States, 148; slavery, 148, 149;
hereditary titles, 148, 149;
commercial treaties, 149-152.
_See also_ Articles of Confederation; United States

Congress, first proposal for, 44.
_See also_ Continental Congress

Congressional election, _see_ Election

Congressional Library, destroyed by English, 476

Constitution of United States, 195-202

Continental Congress, First, 54, 83;
Second, 59;
of the Confederation, 143-152

Contraband, 151, 152, 422, 423

Cooper, Thomas, 510; letters to, 492, 512, 521

Coray, Mr., 516

Corny, M. de, 234

Corny, Madame de, 161, 245, 246, 274, 298, 299

Correa de Serra, 484, 516

Coxe, Tench, letters to, 304, 371, 372

Crawford, Dr. John, letter to, 480

Crimes and punishments, in Virginia, 93-95

Cuba, 470, 485

Cutting, letter to, 225

Dalrymple, Sir John, his "Essay Towards a General History of Feudal
Property", 30

Dandridge, Mr., 14

Danville, Duchesse, 274

Deane, Silas,
quoted on Southern delegates to first Continental Congress, 42;
elected commissioner to France, 87

Dearborn, Henry, Secretary of War in Jefferson's Cabinet, 374

Debts of United States, foreign, domestic, and State, 250-255, 258

"Declaration Europeenne des droits de l'homme et du citoyen",
Lafayette, 232-234

Declaration of Independence, the story of, 69-71;
origin of, 71-74, 77;
as literature, 72;
"the pursuit of happiness" in, 75-76;
highest achievement of eighteenth-century philosophy, 76;
suggests tone of Greek tragedy, 77

Declaration of Rights of 1774, 73

Declaration on Violation of Rights, adopted by First Continental
Congress, 83

Dejean, Lieut., 111

_Democrat_, sailing-vessel, 294

Democratic societies, 306, 334

De Moustier, letter to, 254

Destutt de Tracy, A. L. C., meeting with Jefferson, 161;
letter to, 484;
his "Political Economy", 495;
living embodiment of political faith of nineteenth century, 514

Dexter, Samuel, Secretary of War in Adams's Cabinet, 368;
Secretary of the Treasury in Adams's Cabinet, 374

Dickinson, John, in Continental Congress, 60;
letter of, 361

Dictator, proposition for appointment of, 127, 128

Douglas, Dr., clergyman, 5, 20

Duane, William, flogged, 355;
letter to, 475

Dumas, financial agent of the United States at the Hague, 185, 187,
197, 209, 252, 253, 289

Dunbar, William, discussions with Jefferson, 371

Dunglison, Dr., on visitors at Monticello, 516;
on Jefferson's religious belief, 520;
his account of Jefferson's death, 531

Dunmore, John Murray, Earl of, governor of Virginia, 43, 44, 54, 55,
66

Du Pont de Nemours, Pierre S., Jefferson's association with, 215;
his "Plan of a National Education", 358, 506, 507, 512;
theories and practice of, 395;
correspondence with Jefferson, 405-409, 411, 414, 415, 420, 452,
471, 478, 493, 497, 498, 514;
and the Louisiana problem, 407-409, 412-415;
never fully understood Jefferson, 496;
draws up plan of government for the "Equinoctial republics", 498;
living embodiment of political faith of nineteenth century, 513, 514

Edwards, Jonathan, 430

Election, of 1792, 272, 273;
of 1796, 316-319;
of 1800, 363-373;
of 1804, 389, 395

Ellsworth, Oliver, appointed Plenipotentiary to France, 355

Embargo of 1807, 428, 456-462, 470, 471

"Encyclopedie Methodique", 160, 214

English, their monopoly of the American market, 326, 327

Entails, abolished in Virginia, 88, 89

Epicurism, 521

Eppes, Mrs., sister of Mrs. Jefferson, 153

Equinoctial republics, 498

Essex case, 447

Estaing, Admiral d', 206

Euripides, 22, 24

Eustis, Dr. William, letter to, 461

Excise tax, 254, 255, 393;
revolt against (Whisky Insurrection), 305, 306;
Jefferson's bitterness against, 306, 307

Expatriation, doctrine of, 47, 50, 89, 107

Fairfax resolutions, 45-48

Farmers-general, 177-181

Farming taxes, 177-181

Fauquier, Dr., of Floirac, 12

Fauquier, Gov. Francis, his intimacy with Jefferson, 12, 13

Federal Government, prerogatives of, 83

_Federalist_, the, 200

Federalists, their power broken, 355, 362;
in election of 1800, 367-373, 389;
in Jefferson's administration, 380, 381

Feudal system, abolishment of, in Virginia, 88, 89

Fleming, William, letters to, 78, 79;
on committee on religion, 89

Florida, Western and Eastern, 445, 446

Foster, Dwight, Senator, makes offer to Jefferson, 373

Fox blockade, 450

France, educational system of, 98;
colonizing designs of, feared, 207;
difficulties with, 288, 323-325, 331-342, 440, 447-462.
_See also_ French Revolution

Franklin, Benjamin, on committee of Continental Congress appointed
to answer Lord North's "Conciliatory Proposition", 62;
his part in Declaration of Independence, 69, 70;
on committee to suggest United States seal, 86;
elected commissioner to France, 87;
Jefferson's view of, 122;
appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to negotiate treaties of
commerce, 152, 162;
interview with Jefferson, 247

Franklin, William Temple, papers entrusted to, by Benjamin Franklin,
247

Free ports, 182

Freedom of speech, 427

Freedom of the press, importance of, 203, 427

Freedom of thought, Jefferson's understanding of, 103

Freeholders, rights of, 52

French constitution, 143

French debt, of United States, 176, 177, 181, 182, 184-193

French Revolution, Declaration of June 23, 1793, 76;
Declaration of May 29, 1793, 82;
Assembly of the Notables, 219-222, 225;
convocation of States-General, 227, 229;
National Assembly, 231, 232;
capture of the Bastille, 235;
defeat of Duke of Brunswick, 273;
becomes international issue, 279;
flight of king, 282;
execution of king, 287

Freneau, Philip, his paper, the _National Gazette_, 261-263, 269

Fry, Joshua, professor in William and Mary College, 5

Gallatin, Albert, defies excise law, 305;
speech of, 311;
letter to, 480

Gates, Horatio, letters to, 416, 445

_Gazette of the United States_, attacks Jefferson, 268, 269

Geismer, Baron de, 110, 163

Generations of men, rights of, 234

Genet, Citizen Edmond C., the case of, 288-297

Gerry, Elbridge, letters to, 325, 351-353;
appointed envoy extraordinary to France, 333

Ghent, Treaty of, 485

Giles, William B., and Jefferson, 311;
letters to, 307, 309, 436

Gilmer, Francis Walker, and Jefferson, 253;
sent to England to recruit faculty for University of Virginia, 511

"Government by the people", 237

Granger, Gideon, letter to, 363

Great Britain, United States debt to, 186-193;
her hatred of United States, 208, 209;
and France, war between, 288, 440, 447-462;
her navy, policies of, in regard to contraband and impressment,
422, 423

Greene, William, letter to, 356

Hamilton, Alexander,
quarrel with Jefferson, 127, 255-258, 263, 265, 266, 268-271;
Secretary of the Treasury, 247;
Jefferson gives estimate of, 248;
Reports of, 249;
his Bank Bill, 255-257;
his actions supported by Washington, 271;
attitude toward England, 290;
and Whisky Insurrection, 306;
would encourage American manufactures, 327, 443;
his plans of administrative reorganization, 349, 350;
in election campaign of 1800, 367, 368;
duel with Burr, 431

Hamilton, Gov., of Kaskakias, 111

Hammond, George, British minister to United States, 291, 292

Hardy, Samuel, delegate to Congress from Virginia, 140

Harrison, Gov., letters to, 145, 415

Hawkesbury, Lord, 402, 404

Hawkins, Col. Benjamin, discussions with Jefferson, 358;
letter to, 364

Hay, George, 436

Helvetius, Madame, 161, 215

Henry, Patrick, and Jefferson, 14, 15, 26, 27, 37, 63;
his study of the law, 28;
after passage of Boston Port Bill, 43;
and Jefferson's "Summary View", 47;
speech at second Virginia Convention, 54;
opposes Bill to Abolish Entails, 89;
seconds motion for appointment of dictator, 127;
appointed Plenipotentiary to France, 355

Hereditary titles, in the Confederation, 148, 149

Hervey, John, guardian of Jefferson, 8

Hobbes, Thomas, 82

Holland, United States debt to, 187-193

Hopkinson, Francis, 200

Hopkinson, Mrs., 153

Houdetot, Madame d', 161, 274

Howe, Lord, negotiations of Franklin with, 247

Howick, Lord, 450

Humboldt, Baron Alexander von, letter to, 481

Humphreys, Col. David, secretary of legation in Paris, 153, 159, 223,
228

Immigration, Jefferson's views of, 123-125

Impeachment, the Republican understanding of, 385, 387

"Implied powers", doctrine of, 256

Impressment, of British sailors on neutral vessels, 423;
an issue of the War of 1812, 478

Income tax, 494

Indians, 7;
study of customs and languages of, 99;
atrocities of, in American Revolution, 111;
eloquence of, 121;
affairs of, treated in Jefferson's second inaugural, 425-427

Industrialism, dangers of, 492

Isham, Mary, 3

Jackson, Andrew, 431

Jacobins, _see_ Republicans

Jay, John, letters to, 223, 224, 231, 234, 236, 239.
_See also_ Jay treaty

Jay, Gov. John, letter to, 491

Jay treaty, 305, 307, 308, 316, 324

Jefferson, Lucy Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Jefferson, 139;
death, 163

Jefferson, Martha, daughter of Thomas Jefferson,
her account of Mrs. Jefferson's death, 138;
date of birth, 139;
accompanies father to Europe, 153, 159;
marriage, 246;
at Monticello, 300;
Jefferson's farewell message to, 532

Jefferson, Mary, daughter of Thomas Jefferson, 139, 161;
joins father in Paris, 163

Jefferson, Peter, father of Thomas Jefferson, 4, 5

Jefferson, Mrs. Peter, _see_ Randolph, Jane