the President relating to the international code of mankind. Chas- CHAPTER XIV. His retirement. His principal objects of employment. His Relative Powers of the General and State governments-On the Epitaph by himself, pp. THOMAS LIFE OF JEFFERSON. CHAPTER I. THOMAS JEFFERSON was born April 2d, 1743, on the farm called Shadwell, adjoining Monticello, in the county of Albermarle, Virginia. The date of his nativity was unknown to the public until after his decease. Repeated attempts had been made to ascertain it, by formal applications to him on various occasions, both by individuals and public bodies; but from scruples of a patriotic nature, he always declined revealing it, and enjoined the same privacy upon his family. The principles which determined him on this subject, were the great indelicacy and impropriety of permitting himself to be made the recipient of a homage, so incompatible with the true dignity and independence of the republican character; and the still greater repugnance which he should feel, at seeing the birth-day honors of the Republic transferred, in any เ degree, to any individual. Soon after his inauguration in 1801, he was waited on by the Mayor and Corporation of the city of Washington, with the request that he would communicate the anniversary of his birth, as they were desirous of commemorating an event which had conferred such distinguished glory upon their country. He replied, The only birth-day which I recognize, is that of my country's liberties.' In August, 1803, he received a similar communication from Levi Lincoln, in behalf of a certain association in Boston; to which he replied: 'Disapproving myself of transferring the honors and veneration for the great birth-day of our Republic, to any individual, or of dividing them with individuals, I have declined letting my own birth-day be known, and have engaged my family not to communicate it.' This has been the uniform answer to every application of the kind. On the paternal side, Mr Jefferson could number no titles to high or ancient lineage. His ancestors, however, were of solid respectability, and among the first settlers of Virginia. They emigrated to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowden. His grandfather was the first of whom we have any particular information. He had three sons; Thomas, who died young; Field, who resided on the waters of the Roanoke, and left numerous descendants; and Peter, the father of the subject of these memoirs, who settled in Albemarle county, on the lands called Shadwell. He was the third or fourth settler in that region of the country. They were all gentlemen of property and influence in the col ony. But the chief glory of Mr Jefferson's genealogy was the sturdy contempt of hereditary honors and distinctions, with which the whole race was imbued. It was a strong genealogical feature, pervading all the branches of the primitive stock, and forming a remarkable head and concentration in the individual who was destined to confer immortality upon the name. With him, indeed, if there was any one sentiment which predominated in early life, and which lost none of its rightful ascendency through a long career of enlightened and philanthropic effort, it was that of the natural equality of all men in their rights and wants; and of the nothingness of those pretensions which are gained without merit and forfeited without crime.' The boldness with which, on his first entrance into manhood, he attacked and overthrew the deep rooted institutions of Primogeniture and Entails, forms a striking commentary upon this attribute of his character.. An anecdote is related by Mr Madison, which is no less apposite and striking. During the infant stages of our separate sovereignty, the slowness with which the wheels, of government moved, and the awkwardness of its forms, were everywhere the prominent topics of conversation. On one occasion, at which Mr Jefferson was present, a question being started concerning the best mode of providing the executive chief, it was among other opinions, gravely advanced that an hereditary designation was preferable to any elective process that could be devised. At the close of an eloquent effusion against the agitations and animosities of a popular choice, and in favor of birth, as on the whole affording a better chance for a suitable head of the government, Mr Jefferson with a smile remarked, that he had heard of a University somewhere, in which the Professorship of Mathematics was hereditary! His father, Peter Jefferson, was born February 29th, 1707-3; and intermarried in 1739 with Jane Randolph of the age of 19, daughter of Isham Randolph, one of the seven sons of that name and family settled at Dungeoness in Goochland county, who trace their pedigree far back in England and Scotland; 'to which,' says Mr Jefferson, let every one ascribe the faith and merit he chooses.' He was a self-educated man; but rose steadily by his own exertions, and acquired considerable distinction. He was commissioned, jointly with Joshua Fry, professor of mathema.ics in William and Mary College, |