be but each generation must advance the knowledge and well-being of mankind, not infinitely as some have said, but indefinitely and to a term which no man can fix and foresee."

To the end of his days Jefferson maintained his faith in the essential accuracy and justice of the judgment of the mass of the "common people." For him the people were not an object for government to play upon, as it were, but government itself was a function of the people. Liberty was not a privilege granted by the government, but government was a responsibility delegated to its officers by the people. On this distinction hangs all the philosophy of democracy. The last letter penned by Jefferson's aged and trembling hand was a summons to his countrymen to renew with "undiminished devotion" their faith in the rights of man and the blessings of self-government. The last word and gesture of his ebbing life was a hand raised feebly and the murmur: "Warn the committee to be on the alert." He died as he had lived, under the inspiring compulsion of a single great aim-human freedom. Freedom was the text of his life: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.' Freedom was the burden of his labors: "I endeavor to keep attention fixed on the main object of all science, the freedom and happiness of man." Freedom was the legacy for which alone he wished to

be remembered by his countrymen-freedom in government, freedom in creed, freedom in intellect. And so he wrote the epitaph which is inscribed upon the shaft that stands above his grave:

HERE WAS BURIED

THOMAS JEFFERSON

AUTHOR

OF THE DECLARATION OF

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA

FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND

FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Thomas Jefferson was not perfect. Who of mortals is? We can find flaws in his nature and faults in his character, errors of judgment and inconsistencies of behavior. He was not endowed with a sense of humor, which would have saved him in many a humiliating situation. His passion for humanitarian philosophy and radical democracy blinded him sometimes to the honesty of purpose and character of excellent men who differed from him. He had a congenital and unconquerable aversion to combativeness which his unfavorable critics have usually called "weakness" or "cowardice." At the same time his conviction of the necessity of having the political battles fought kept him urging

others to the fray-a policy of indirection which has brought on him the charge of hypocrisy and finesse, of shielding himself behind his agents, and employing his friends as catspaws to pull his hot political chestnuts from the fire. The man of speech who stands up in the battle of debate, giving and taking hard blows, looks a little askance on the man of the pen who carries on his campaign by private letters and quiet interviews, as if he must be engaged in "shady" dealings. And yet a private letter may be as honest as a harangue on the floor of Congress, and an after-dinner conversation as guileless as a campaign speech. The voluminous correspondence of Jefferson is naturally not free from the regrettable expressions in which a man, whose political creed is as sacred to him as a religious faith, pours out his soul to a friend against the wickedness of his adversaries. The Mazzei letter and the Anas would better not have been written. And yet these instances are few. The sixteen thousand letters of < Jefferson that have been preserved to us are a precious heritage. They give us the portrait of a man of just mind and spotless honor, a kindly, generous, sagacious, patient man, marvellously gifted, tirelessly active, holding the faith in democracy through good and evil days, persevering and noble in his aims, and all his ends his country's and mankind's.

Shortly after noon on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,

Jefferson died peacefully at Monticello, surrounded by an adoring family. Far away to the north, in the little town of Quincy, Massachusetts, another great American patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence lay on his death-bed that same day. John Adams lingered till sunset. The last whispered words of his failing breath were: "Thomas Jefferson still lives." Thomas Jefferson had already passed away from earth, but John Adams's words were true, and will be true so long as men shall strive for peace, fraternity, and freedom.

INDEX