political neglect, in the series of letters vindicating his course, which he published in the "Boston Patriot;" while he occasionally revived for himself and the eye of posterity, past scenes of his history in an Autobiography. In 1818, in his eighty-third year, his wife, his "dearest friend," the gentle and accomplished, one of the mothers of America, full of the sweetest and grandest memories of the past, was taken from him. His last public service was in occasional attendance at the Convention of Massachusetts for the formation of a new Constitution, when he was eighty-five. He was not able to say, but he made his wish known, that the new instrument should express perfect religious tolerance. It was the liberal creed of his youth; it had been grow ing stronger with his age. Returning to his early friendship, he corresponded with Jefferson. The two venerable fathers of the Republic, Jefferson at the age of eighty-three, John Adams at that of ninety, died together on the birthday of the nation, July 4th, 1826. A few days before his death, the orator of his native town of Quincy, where he lay in his home, called upon Adams for a toast, to be presented at the approaching anniversary. "Independence for ever!" was the reply. As the sentiment was delivered at the banquet, amidst ringing plaudits, the soul of the dying patriot was passing from earth to eternity. We have brought the long and busy life to a close, from boyhood to fourscore and ten. A nation has been born in that time, and one of its founders, after reaching its summit of authority, has seen his son at its head. We have the fullest revelations of this man. It was his passion not only to be employed in great events, but to write down the least of himself. We have his books, learned tomes, his official and personal Correspondence, his Reminis cences, his Diary, his Autobiography, the domestic letters of his wife. He was bent upon declaring himself in every form. What is the impression? Upon the whole, of a man of active conscientious mind, employed from youth in study and thought; diligent in affairs; lacking some of the judicious arts of the writer and statesman, which might have better set off his fair fame with the world. The formative period of his life, his early professional training, has a better lesson for the youth of his country than that of Franklin, for it has fewer errata. Egotism is sometimes apparent, but it led him to know as well as proclaim himself. His sensibility may occasionally be taken for vanity, but it is oftener the indication of true feeling. Had he been more cautious, he might have possessed less heart. He had his weaknesses. He was passionate, we are told, but forgiving; serious in manner, but capable of genial relaxation; of a disposition answering to his frame and look, with more of solidity than elevation; something of the sensual, relieved by a touch of humor, about him; nothing of the idealist: a broad, capacious head, capable of assertion and action. THOMAS JEFFERSON. In his Autobiography, written to- | World. The particular account of the wards the close of his life, the author family begins with the grandfather of of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, who owned some thinking doubtless his new political lands in Chesterfield County. His career a better passport to fame with third son, Peter, established himself as posterity than any conditions of an- a planter on certain lands which he had cestry in the old society which he had "patented," or come into possession of superseded, while he could not be in- by purchase, in Albemarle County, in sensible to the worth of a respectable the vicinity of Carter's Mountain, where family history, says of the Randolphs, the Rivanna makes its way through the from whom he was descended on the Range; and about the time of his mother's side, "they trace their pedi- settlement married Jane, daughter of gree far back in England and Scotland, Isham Randolph, of Dungeness, in to which let every one ascribe the faith Goochland County, of the eminent old and merit he chooses." Whatever Virginia race, to which allusion has value may be set by his biographers already been made, a stock which has upon an ancient lineage, they cannot extended its branches through every overlook the fact-most important in department of worth and excellence in its influence upon his future history- the State. Isham Randolph was a man that he was introduced by his family of talent and education, as well as relationships at birth into a sphere of noted for the hospitality practised by life in Virginia, which gave him many every gentleman of his wealthy posi social advantages. The leveller of the tion. His memory is gratefully preold aristocracy was by no means a self-served in the correspondence of the made man of the people, struggling up- naturalists, Collinson and Bartram. ward through difficulty and adversity. The latter was commended to his care His father, Peter Jefferson, belonged to in one of his scientific tours, and ena family originally from Wales, which joyed his hearty welcome. His daughhad been among the first settlers of the ter, Jane, we are told, "possessed a colony. In 1619, one of the name was most amiable and affectionate disposi seated in the Assembly at Jamestown, tion, a lively, cheerful temper, and a the first legislative body of Europeans, great fund of humor," qualities which it is said, that ever met in the New had their influence upon her son's char acter. Her marriage to Peter Jefferson took place at the age of nineteen, and the fruit of this union, the third child and first son, was Thomas, the subject of this sketch. He was born at the new family location at Shadwell, April 2 (old style), 1743. ceived, were resumed under the excellent instruction of the Rev. James Maury, at his residence, and thence, in 1760, the pupil passed to William and Mary College. He was now in his eighteenth year, a tall, thin youth, of a ruddy complexion, his hair inclining to red, an adept in manly and rural sports, a good dancer, something of a musician, full of vivacity. It is worth noticing, that the youth of Jefferson was of a hearty, joyous character. Williamsburg, also, the seat of the college, was then anything but a scholastic hermitage for the mortification of Peter Jefferson, the father, was a model man for a frontier settlement, tall in stature, of extraordinary strength of body, capable of enduring any fatigue in the wilderness, with corresponding health and vigor of mind. He was educated as a surveyor, and in this capacity engaged in a government commission to draw the boundary youth. In winter, during the session line between Virginia and North Caro- of the court and the sittings of the lina. Two years before his death, colonial legislature, it was the focus of which occurred suddenly in his fiftieth provincial fashion and gaiety; and year, in 1757, he was chosen a member between study and dissipation the of the House of Burgesses. His son ardent young Jefferson had before him was then only fourteen, but he had the old problem of good and evil not already derived many impressions from always leading to the choice of virtue. the instructions and example of his It is to the credit of his manly percep father, and considerable resemblance is tions and healthy tastes, even then, traced between them. Mr. Randall, in that while he freely partook of the his biography, notices the inheritance amusements incidental to his station steadof physical strength, of a certain plain- and time of life, he kept his ness of manners, and honest love of ily on loftier things. "It was my great independence, even of a fondness for good fortune," he says in his Autobioreading for the stalwart surveyor was graphy, "and what probably fixed the accustomed to solace his leisure with destinies of my life, that Dr. William his Spectator and his Shakspeare. Small, of Scotland, was then professor of mathematics, a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners, and an enlarged and liberal mind." instructions, communicated not only in college hours, but in familiar personal intimacy, warmed the young student with his first, as it became his constant, The son was early sent to school, and, before his father's death, was instructed in the clements of Greek, and Latin, and French, by Mr. Douglass, a Scottish clergyman. It was his parent's dying wish that he should receive a good classical education; and the seed proved to be sown in a good soil. The les sons which the youth had already re eye His |