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a more annoying loss to the owner, or to the student in our aboriginal philology and history.

Among his casual opinions worth mention, we find a recom mendation of county circulating libraries-his determination (no new one with him) to confine his contributions for literary, charitable and other useful institutions to those in some degree under his supervision, instead of making his gratuities inconsiderable by scattering them over a vast surface--and his severe denunciation of the growing custom of making speeches two or three days long in Congress.

The spring of 1809 had been unusually cold and backward in Virginia. Mr. Jefferson did not succeed in getting in a large breadth of crops, and the season turned out a very unpropitious one. To add to injuries occasioned by weather, his lands, during his residence in Washington, had been, in spite of all his efforts, deteriorating in fertility. Under the evils of absenteeism and overseers, important directions had been neglected, or obeyed in a half-way and slovenly manner. Everything was out of repair. There had been one standing excuse for every short-coming: "The force had been worked as hard as it could be, without disobeying his orders." His directions had always been imperative to overtask his servants under no circumstances-that whatever else suffered, they must not suffer--that where there was a doubt on this subject, they must have the benefit of it. The consequences were, that not much hard work was done at Monticello; and the "sick-list" was reached with a facility which possibly sometimes encouraged deception. In these respects, matters were not materially mended by his return home. He made good economical arrangements on paper, but he could not endure to see sweat flow to secure their performance. His "force" did not perform the amount of labor ordinarily required by good farmers of the most humane dispositions, nor nearly so much as is commonly performed by white hired laborers. He generally went to bed the most tired, if not the only tired man, on his farm. He thus described his habits of life in a letter to Kosciusko (February 26th, 1810):

"My mornings are devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am in my shops, my garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to dark, I give to society and recreation with my neighbors and friends; and from candle

CHAP. VIII.]

JEFFERSON'S PECUNIARY DIFFICULTIES.

323

light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect; and my strength considerably reinforced by the activity of the course I pursue; perhaps it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near sixty-seven years of age. I talk of piougns and har rows, of seeding and harvesting, with my neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve as the rest of my fellow-citizens, and feel, at length. the blessing of being free to say and do what I please, without being responsible for it to any mortal. A part of my occupation, and by no means the least pleasing, is the direction of the studies of such young men as ask it. They place themselves in the neighboring village, and have the use of my library and counsel, and make part of my society. In advising the course of their reading, I endeavor to ker their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom and happines of man. So that coming to bear a share in the councils and government of thei country, they will keep ever in view the sole objects of all legitimate government.

"Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my limited views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of mind never before known to me. Except for this, my happiness would have been perfect. That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may enjoy as many years of life, health and ease as yourself shall wish, is the sincere prayer of your constant and affectiona friend."

In the last paragraph, we have the writer's first particular allusion, in his correspondence, to his pecuniary difficulties, and it is one of the very few he ever uttered. The disastrous sequel of those difficulties is well known, but the causes which led to them have been misunderstood and grossly misrepresented. It is due to him that the public should know whether he was a weak visionary, squandering his property in absurd undertakings, or whether his fortunes sunk as any other man's whose forte was not acquisition would be likely to sink, under similar circumAnd it is now time to enter upon this inquiry.

stances.

His property, patrimonial and acquired, his income in earlier life, and his business habits, have already been stated.' He has been quoted as saying, that the estate inherited by his wife, "after the debts should be paid," about equalled his own "patrimony," by which latter word it was conjectured he meant property. But these debts had to be paid more than once, and they proved a canker to his fortune. It has been seen that his wife's share of the British debt on her father's estate, was £3,749 128., that he made sales of property at three different periods to meet it, and that it ultimately "swept nearly half of his estate."

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1 See vol. i., 65. et seq.

See Col. Randolph's letter to us. ib

The first of these sales took place in 1776. He disposed of lands to the amount of £4,200, and not receiving his pay in hand, offered the bonds to Mr. Evans, the agent of the creditors. They were declined. The creditors, of course, fairly had their option in this, but the result, without proving beneficial to them, was particularly injurious to their debtor. The bonds, by the conditions of the subsequent treaty of peace, would have been payable in gold and silver to British holders, and the makers of them were amply responsible. But, although Mr. Jefferson had sold before the emission of paper money, and at hard money prices, he was compelled to receive his pay in the former when it was worth but about two and a half its nominal value.

per cent. of The State of Virginia, crushed under the calamities of the war, was then calling on her citizens who owed money to British subjects, to bring it into the treasury to be applied to the support of the war-stipulating to become answerable for the British debts. Mr. Jefferson deposited in the treasury the paper money he had received in payment of his bonds. English remittances were generally suspended during the war, owing to the great risk of capture. Subsequently to the war, and before Virginia had determined what action to take in regard to the discharge of her engagements, Mr. Jefferson wrote to his English creditors, from Paris (January 5th, 1787), a letter, from which we take a few extracts:

"I am desirous of arranging with you such just and practicable conditions as will ascertain to you the terms at which you will receive my part of your debt, and give me the satisfaction of knowing that you are contented. What the laws of Virginia are, or may be, will in no wise influence my conduct. Substantial justice is my object, as decided by reason, and not by authority or compulsion."

After mentioning his deposit in the Virginia treasury to the credit of his correspondents, he added :

"Subsequent events have been such, that the State cannot, and ought not, to pay the same nominal sum in gold or silver, which they received in paper; nor is it certain what they will do: my intention being, and having always been, that, whatever the State decides, you shall receive my part of your debt fully. I am ready to remove all difficulty arising from this deposit, to take back to myself the demand against the State, and to consider the deposit as originally made for myself, and not for you."

1 He however stated a variety of considerations, not necessary here to be repeated which ought, he thought, to exempt him from the payment of interest during the war

CHAP. VIII.]

HIS PECUNIARY SACRIFICES.

326

Mr. Jefferson ultimately derived so much from his deposit in the State Treasury, that he was wont, in after years, as he rode past the goodly farm which had been thus sacrificed, to say, smilingly, to some accompanying grandchild: "I owned that once, and sold it for a great-coat!" He was wont, also, to say, that he had a second time paid his British debts to Lord Cornwallis. When that officer plundered and ravaged his estate of Elk Island,' he inflicted direct and necessarily resulting damages, which, according to Mr. Jefferson's estimate, more than equalled the amount of his British debt and its interest during the war. The second and third sales made by Mr. Jef ferson to make his "third payment" of that debt, took place at unfavorable periods, and the final effect on his estate has been

seen.

His remaining property consisted of about ten thousand acres of land, the contents of his house, etc., and about one hundred and fifty slaves. Most of the land was fertile and favorably situated. Well managed, and increased in value by the subsequent rise in property as the country became more thickly settled, it should have made him an independent, and, in our country, and among the rural class, a rich man. There were periods before his death when considerable portions of his estate would have sold for fifty dollars an acre.'

As a member of the Virginia Assembly, as a member of Congress, and as Governor of Virginia, Mr. Jefferson's official salaries had not more than met the extra expenses which the offices occasioned. His salary in France did not meet expenses. As Secretary of State, he had generally lived rather retiredly and plainly, and his salary nearly equalled his expenditures. As Vice-President, he for the first and last time derived some pecuniary advantage from an office. During his Presidency his disbursements exceeded his income-but a portion of them went to the completion of his house, and to the improvement and embellishment of his estate. In none of these offices was his style of living noticed either for parsimony or extravagance; though, as a general thing, he had much of a particular kind of company, in addition to the usual throngs who flutter about

See vol. i., p. 340. et seq.

See his letter to Madison, February 17th, 1826.

But some of these were incurred for valuable articles which continued in his posses sion such as books and pictures.

official mansions. Travellers, learned men, investigators in every department of mind and matter, were drawn to his board as if by a natural affinity.

It is probable that the surplus income of his farms about met the excess of his expenses over his official salaries, in all his public positions except the Presidency-and it would have done so in that office but for the Embargo. When that measure fell with such crushing effect on all who purchased luxuries, Mr. Jefferson made no change in his manner of living, and he consequently left office owing $20,000.

We have given his land-roll for 1794, showing that he then owned 10,647 acres of land, and some city lots. In 1809, he owned 10,004 acres, with the same smaller parcels. The farms were generally the same, except that he had given fifteen hundred acres of his Bedford estate to one of his daughters—and on the other hand, had acquired about eight hundred acres on Buffalo Creek, and one hundred adjoining his Albemarle possessions. He had now a valuable mansion, containing many costly articles, including an expensive library. The number of his servants in Albemarle was one hundred and fourteen, and in Bedford, eighty-six.' His farms had the ordinary complement of "stock," and there was a flouring-mill at Monticello of considerable cost, and several small manufacturing shops. Altogether, the value of his property was probably not far from $200,000.

We do not find that Mr. Jefferson had sold any slaves for the sixteen preceding years. Sixty-six had been included in the marriage settlements of his daughters, and some liberated. Some idea of the mortality among this class of people, may be derived from the following facts. From 1801 to 1810 inclusive, there died in Mr. Jefferson's family-none in 1801, 1802, 1803, or 1804; one in 1805; three in 1807; one in 1808; three in 1809; three in 1810. The deaths were mostly among aged persons and very young children.

2 Some agricultural reader in a different region of the country, may be curious to know what and how much this implies. In the winter of 1809-10, the census of the "store stock"-that is, the stock wintered over after annual sales, putting down provisions, etc.-included (says the farm-book), in Albemarle, 13 work horses, 10 mules, 15 cows, 21 other cattle, 49 sheep, and 118 swine; in Bedford, 11 work horses, 30 cows. 55 other cattle, 46 sheep, and 194 swine.

The mill, including its canal or race, ultimately cost $30,000. Its profits were reduced by the damage occasionally suffered from the floods of the Rivanna. Mr. efferson's memoranda mention that on the 22d of April, 1804, a "fresh" carried the water above the hoppers in the toll-mill-and this wanted six feet of the height of water in a fresh in 1795, and nine feet of that of the "great fresh on the 26th of May. 1771! In February. 1810, three inches of rain fell in an hour, creating a flood which did incredible damage in the abrasion of the sloping plowed lands-but the rise in the stream is not stated. On the 9th and 10th of November, 1810, there fell four and threequarter inches of rain in forty-eight hours; the water entered the mill four feet deep. and swept away so much of the dam that it required a considerable outlay and some months of labor to repair it. On the 29th of July, 1814, twelve and one-eighth inches of rain fell in twenty hours. The Rivanna rose fifteen feet, and “Hardware [creek] was said to have risen thirty-feet perpendicular."

Among the shops we have referred to, was a nailery, where six tons of nails were

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