Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch Part 10

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE.

Jefferson mingled a great deal with the common people, especially with mechanics.

Often, when President, he would walk down to the Navy Yard early on a summer's morning, and sitting down upon an anchor or spar, would enter into conversation with the surprised and delighted s.h.i.+pwrights. He asked many questions of these artisans, who would take the utmost pains to satisfy his enquiries.

His political opponents believed unjustly that he did this simply for effect. They would say,

"There, see the demagogue!"

"There's long Tom, sinking the dignity of his station to get votes and court the mob."

ARISTOCRACY OF MIND.

Although Jefferson was an ardent democrat, in some sense he was also an aristocrat.

He firmly believed in an aristocracy of mind, and told John Adams that he rejoiced that nature had created such an aristocracy.

He unmistakably gave his preference to men of learning and refinement, at least he put these above other recommendations.

Mr. Jefferson, however, was not consistent with himself, for he frequently called General Was.h.i.+ngton "Your Excellency," during the war, and also when he was a private citizen at Mt. Vernon.

EVIL YOUTHFUL COMPANIONS.

Just after his college days Mr. Jefferson fell into company, as so many young men do, of a most undesirable sort.

According to his own statements it was a source of amazement even to himself that he ever escaped to be worth anything to the world. He realized in later years what a dangerous risk he had run.

READ LITTLE FICTION.

While he was an extensive reader in his early days, going into almost every field of literature, including poetry, he read very little fiction.

In fact, there was comparatively but little fiction then worth the name.

Not from any sentiment of duty or moral impropriety, but from simple aversion he let it alone.

NEITHER ORATOR NOR GOOD TALKER.

Jefferson was neither an orator nor a good talker. He could not make a speech. His voice would sink downwards instead of rising upwards out of his throat.

But as regards legal learning he was in the front rank. No one was more ready than he in ably written opinions and defenses.

It was in what John Adams termed "the divine science of politics" that Jefferson won his immortal and resplendent fame.

SELF-CONTROL.

With all his apparent tolerance and good humor, there was a great deal of the arbitrary and despotic in Mr. Jefferson's nature. Stern principle alone enabled him to keep his native imperiousness within proper bounds.

THE INFLUENCE OF JEFFERSON'S SISTER.

Among those who exerted a marked influence on Jefferson's early years was his oldest and favorite sister Jane. She was three years his senior, and was a woman of superior standing and great elevation of character.

She was his constant companion when he was at home, and a sympathizing friend to whom he unlocked his heart. She was a "singer of uncommon skill and sweetness, and both were particularly fond of the solemn music used by the Church of England in the Psalms." She died in the fall of 1765, at the age of twenty-five. He cherished her memory with the warmest affection to the close of his life.

JEFFERSON A DOCTRINAIRE.

Lewis Henry Boutell, in his "Jefferson as a Man of Letters," says:

"That Jefferson, in justifying the action of the colonists, should have thought more of the metaphysical rights than historical facts, ill.u.s.trates one of the marked features of his character. He was often more of a doctrinaire than a practical statesman. He reminds us of the words which Burke applied on a certain occasion to Chatham: 'For a wise man he seemed to me at that time to be governed too much by general maxims.'"

RECONCILIATION WITH JOHN ADAMS.

For many years the friends.h.i.+p between Jefferson and John Adams had been broken off. Mrs. Adams had become decidedly hostile in feeling towards Jefferson. But through a mutual friend, Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, a reconciliation was fully established between them.

It was a spectacle in which the whole country greatly rejoiced, to see the intimacy restored between the two venerable men, once Presidents of the United States, and brothers in helping secure the independence of their beloved land.

Although they did not see each other face to face again, a continuous, instructive and affectionate correspondence was kept up between them.

Their topics of discourse were those relating to Revolutionary times, but especially to religion.

NEGRO COLONIZATION.

Mr. Jefferson believed in the colonization of negroes to Africa, and the subst.i.tution of free white labor in their place.

He wrote to John Lynch, of Virginia, in 1811, as follows: "Having long ago made up my mind on this subject (colonization), I have no hesitation in saying that I have ever thought it the most desirable measure which could be adopted, for gradually drawing off this part of our population most advantageously for themselves as well as for us.