| Episodes |
1) Finally the misogynistic trend which runs through the abstracts from Euripides to Otway is contrary to all we know of Jefferson's character after his marriage. His was certainly a marriage of love. The death of his wife struck him such a blow that he remained for a long time "in a stupor of mind" and "as if dead to the world." When he emerged from it he did not become a hermit. He still enjoyed the society of women. He liked to write letters to them and to received letters from them, as appears.
Gilbert Chinard, Literary Bible 31
2) This affliction in all its acuteness, not for himself, but for those who depended on him, seems to have been the lot of Jefferson. But the philosophy which he had cultivated teaches men to make their own destiny, to be unmoved by prosperous or adverse events, and to bear the ills of life, as incidents to its nature, sent to warn but not to subdue us. He was faithful to these principles, and as success had never disturbed his equanimity, adversity only displayed in him the dignity of misfortune. His descent from power into poverty attested his purity and his devotion to the public service, which in generous minds naturally inspires a disregard of personal interests. He therefore neither desponded nor complained, but prepared with a scrupulous fidelity to surrender his earnings and his patrimony, his chosen home, the scene of his attachments and his enjoyments, and then to retreat to some possession which would still survive the claim of justice, and furnish a last refuge and grave.
Nicholas Biddle
3) James Thompson Callender was a Scotchman by birth; was well educated; and possessed much coarse, vigorous ability. His talents and his previous history attracted a good deal of notice and sympathy from the party in the United States whose interests he so warmly espoused; but his course was steadily downward, owing to habits of inebriety and of consorting with vicious and degraded men. Even his mind seemed to fail rapidly with every succeeding effort, and as he sunk into the brutality he also sunk into the impotence of a common blackguard. He had been made the victim of an oppressive law--his private conduct was unknown to Mr. Jefferson--his increasing newspaper virulence was still of a milder type than that of a host of writers on the other side--and he was one of those pertinacious mendicants who having fastened themselves, by successful appeals to sympathy, on a respectable man, can only be shaken off at the expense of some disgusting quarrel.
Henry S. Randall, Life 18
4) Thomas Jefferson, who began so many things in the early career of the United States, was the first object upon whom the Campaign Liar tried his unpractised talents. The art, indeed, may be said to have been introduced in 1796 to prevent his election to the presidency; but it was in 1800 that it was clearly developed into a distinct species of falsehood. And it must be confessed, that, even amid the heat of the election of 1800, the Campaign Liar was hard put to it, and did not succeed in originating that variety and reckless extravagance of calumny which has crowned his efforts since. Jefferson's life presented to his view a most discouraging monotony of innocent and beneficial actions, --twenty-five years of laborious and unrecompensed public service, relieved by the violin, science, invention, agriculture, the education of his nephews, and the love of his daughters. A life so exceptionally blameless did not give fair scope to talent; since a falsehood, to have its full and lasting effect, must contain a fraction of a grain of truth. Still, the Campaign Liar of 1800 did very well for a beginner.
James Parton 567-68
5) Thus the summer of 1802, which Jefferson's hopes had painted as the term of his complete success, was marked by an outburst of reciprocal invective and slander such as could not be matched in American history. The floodgates of calumny were opened. By a stroke of evil fortune Jefferson further roused against himself the hatred of a man whose vileness made him more formidable than the respectability of New England could ever be. James Thompson Callender [was] a Scotch adventurer compared with whom the Cobbetts, Duanes, Cheethams, and Woods who infested the press were men of moral and pure life.
Henry Adams 321-22
6) The whole culture of Jefferson's youth was least likely to make him support slavery or apologize for it. . . . To both [Dr. William Small and George Wythe] Jefferson confessed the deepest debt for their efforts to strengthen his mind and make his footing firm. Now, of all men in this country at that time, these two were least likely to support pro-slavery theories or tolerate pro-slavery cant.
Andrew D. White 30
7) The moral intrepidity that could prompt him, a new member, and one of the youngest in the House, to rise from his seat, with the composure of a martyr, and propose, amidst a body of inexorable plants, a bill "for the permission of the Emancipation of Slaves," gave an earnest of his future career, too unequivocal to be misunderstood. . . . This was Mr. Jefferson's first measure of reform; and although rendered abortive by the immature state of things, it was but the inception of a long series of efforts, partly successful, partly not, in the same benevolent case.
B. L. Rayner 34-35
8) The words which we have chosen for this memorial speak Jefferson's noblest and most urgent meaning, and we are proud indeed to understand and share: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
"Address by Roosevelt"
9) Young Tom Jefferson, student at "Devilsburg," performer on the violin, and courtier of ladies, was a very different person from his excellency Thomas Jefferson, "Apostle of Democracy," and President of the United States. Yet they were the same. And, if the student-and-courtier phase was as much a part of the man's individuality as the public presidential phase, why not consider it and delineate it? There is a false, and even a little mean, philosophy on this subject. History has become so "dignified" that she protests against familiar details of the lives and characters of her famous names as derogatory to them. They must stand, as statues, with folded arms, wrapped in Roman togas or voluminous cloaks. They must not eat, or laugh, or jest, or lower their lordly eyes to the everyday life around them.
John Esten Cooke 230
10) To return to the immediate subject of my letter. Few persons better than myself can appreciate your just estimate of Mr. Jefferson's private character. I grew up under his eye, was the hourly witness of his every-day life, and felt to the full extent the beneficial influence of his home virtues. A being more free from defect in the domestic relations of life, it has never been my fortune to know; and it is no exaggerated panegyric, but a simple truth, when I declare that I cannot recollect, in my whole intercourse with him, nor in what I know of his intercourse with others, one instance of injustice or unkindness, nor one neglected opportunity of contributing to the happiness of those in immediate connection with himself. His grandchildren, from the age when they climbed lovingly on his knee, to the time when they became his friends and favorite companions, felt for him the utmost degree of affection, reverence, and admiration which it is in the human heart to feel. His friends and neighbors looked up to him with warm attachment and unbounded respect, and his slaves regarded him with the loyal devotion of faithful subjects. Several among them knew that at his death they were to become free. He had promised it to those among them who, possessing a trade by which they could support themselves, ran no risk of falling burdens on the community, or of being reduced to unlawful means of living. Yet these men, far from wishing to hasten the hour of their liberation, were the most afflicted at his death. His own servant, a man who had waited on him with the most faithful affection during the last seventeen years of his life, was of this number.
Ellen Coolidge, qtd. in "Jefferson's Private Character" 113-14
11) Despite his dread of embroilments, Jefferson never shirked the responsibilities imposed upon him by such strong convictions; and Callender now had the advantage of the President's courage, as before of his liberality. But a nature more greedy than grateful only hungered for additional favors. The liberated man hastened to urge the President to remove the postmaster at Richmond and give him the office. The postmaster was a Federalist editor, but Jefferson very honorably refused to displace him. For this behavior he speedily suffered in a fashion which certainly hardly encourages men in public life to be scrupulously upright.
John T. Morse, Jr. 202
12) It was from this source that originated, among other things, the story of Jefferson's attempt to seduce a neighbor's wife, and of his semi-African concubine--by the father's side a sister, it was said, of his more lawful spouse, and the mother, by him, of a large family of unrecognized colored children--stories told with minute circumstances, never contradicted, and which, acquiring general credit, formed the sting of many a political pasquinade.
Richard Hildreth, History of the United States 454-55
13) He was probably no more immoral than Franklin, Washington, Hamilton, and other men of his time. He was neither a St. Anthony nor a Don Juan. Judged by the standard of his generation, his vices were those of a gentleman, and such as did not deprive him of the respect and confidence of the community.
William Eleroy Curtis 312
14) Indignant at Jefferson's ingratitude, he [Callender] instantly began to turn the arms he had wielded with such effect under his eye, and with his approbation, against him; --he lashed his former whipper-in with all the merciless coarseness that, to Jefferson's intense satisfaction, he had employed against John Adams: and he raked up out of the gossip of the neighbourhood of Monticello, stories which exhibited the sage philosopher as the worthy counterpart of Burr and Hamilton in profligacy, nay, as worse, for neither of them took advantage of the ownership of slave-women for purposes of lust; and this--the hireling lampooner of Washington, Adams, Pinckney, and every other Federalist leader who had stood in the way of his patron and friend, this, he held up Thomas Jefferson as doing; his concubine-by-compulsion having also his own wife's blood in her veins, and their offspring being reckoned amongst the profits of the estate. Never was retribution more terrible or complete; and the fatal circumstance for Jefferson was, that whilst he never even pretended to substantiate the most infamous slanders which had been forged, and circulated under his auspices, against others, the evidence of the truth of the worst now put in circulation against himself was but too complete.
W.H. Bartlett "History of the United States of North America" 349-50
15) What he contributed to his generation and transmitted to posterity was a faith. The policies that he pursued cannot be separated from their times and circumstances; the timeless element in his contribution to his country and to mankind is to be found in the values that he recognized and proclaimed. What he most prized was the free life of the human spirit; the tyrannies that he attacked were those that seemed most menacing in his own day; and the opportunities that he coveted for individuals were not contingent on rank or fortune.
Dumas Malone, "The Jefferson Faith" 6
16) So lived and died Thomas Jefferson, a name illustrious in our day and destined to an enduring fame hereafter.
Nicholas Biddle
17) The post-office at Richmond (worth about $1,500 a year) refused to Callender, was held by a Federal editor. On receiving this refusal, the former thereupon connected himself with the Richmond Recorder, and commenced a foul outpouring of personal calumnies on the President. Every enemy the latter had in Virginia ready to descend to such employment, emptied into this ready conduit all the' old gossip, exploded calumnies and base suspicions which can be picked up among low neighbors and unscrupulous enemies in regard to any prominent man; and they swelled the putrid stream with such new and monstrous fabrications as they chose--for the fear of libel prosecutions was no longer a " hangman's whip" to "haud" this class of persons " in order." Nearly every people have had a class who subsist by levying "black mail" on those ready to buy exemption for themselves or their families from dirty slanders, and by catering to the appetite for scandal in those who are beneath attack. The assailant is below contradiction; he is below the punishment of law. Personal chastisement he would delight in, because it would advertise him in his trade, and because he would gladly take kicks which could be coined into pence in an action for "assault and battery." Callender sunk into this avocation. When he demanded the Richmond post-office, the President acted the part of Charicles instead of Nicias, and he took the consequences.
Henry S. Randall, Life 20
18) That Monticello swarmed with yellow Jeffersons was the natural conjecture of a party who recognized as their chief the paramour of a Reynolds. "Mr. Jefferson's Congo Harem" was a party cry. There were allusions to a certain "Dusky Sally," otherwise Sally Henings [sic], whose children were said to resemble the, master of Monticello in their features and the color of their hair. In this particular Campaign Lie, there was just that fractional portion of truth which was necessary to preserve it fresh and vigorous to this day. There is even a respectable Madison Henings, now living in Ohio, who supposes that Thomas Jefferson was his father. Mr. Henings has been misinformed. The record of Mr. Jefferson's every day and hour, contained in his pocket memorandum books, compared with the record of his slaves' birth, proves the impossibility of his having been the father of Madison Henings. So I am informed by Mr. Randall, who examined the records in the possession of the family. The father of those children was a near relation of the Jeffersons, who need not be named.
James Parton 568-69
19) Jefferson's nature was feminine; he was more refined than many women in the delicacy of his private relations, and even men as shameless as Callender himself winced under attacks of such a sort. He was sensitive, affectionate, and, in his own eyes, heroic. He yearned for love and praise as no other great American ever did. He hated the clergy chiefly because he knew that from them he could expect neither love nor praise, perhaps not even forbearance. He had befriended Callender against his own better judgment, as every party leader befriended party hacks, not because the leaders approved them, but because they were necessary for the press.
Henry Adams 323-24
20) Jefferson is one of these historic figures; and we are apt to fancy him forever writing Declarations of Independence, or receiving, with an air of august dignity, at the front-door of Monticello, the pilgrim-visitors from every nation. It is either the great champion of the democratic idea, or the President, or the gray-haired celebrity, that we see in our imaginations. . . . And yet Jefferson was not in the least a man of bronze. He was one of the gayest, the most familiar, the most unpretending people that ever lived. . . . His excellency was, in fact, the least "heroic" or "dignified" of men; and, in his early years, he was the gayest, most rollicksome, and most scampish of the students at the college at Williamsburg, a place which he habitually spoke and wrote of as "Devilsburg."
John Esten Cooke 230
21) Such, Sir, are the answers I can make to the questions you have addressed to me. But after all, the true answer to the accusations of Mr. Jefferson's enemies, and perhaps the more dangerous assertions of his pretended friends, is to be found in the whole tenor of a life passed in the exercise of every Christian virtue, and devoted to the service of his fellow-men. A distinction which he liked to draw between the lessons of Heathen philosophy and the teachings of Jesus was, that, by the first, men were taught to take care of their own happiness; by the last, to think more of the happiness of others. And if all were not happy who came within the sphere of his influence, it was not for want of the most earnest desire and constant efforts on his part to make them so. In small things and in great the same wish to do good, and to give innocent pleasure formed the spring of his actions. His charities, beginning at home, extended themselves in circles to the utmost limit of his power. At home he had been the best husband, and was the best father and grandfather, the kindest master, the most faithful and active friend, the most useful neighbor! He was loved best where best known. Those who approached him nearest were the most devoted in their affection and veneration, and it was as men receded from him that they lost sight of the true proportions of his character, which became distorted to their eyes through the mists of prejudice and misconception. I repeat again my firm belief, that such a character as my dear grandfather's could have been formed under no influences but those of the Gospel; that there is in this world but one good tree capable of bearing such fruit.
Ellen Coolidge, qtd. in "Jefferson's Private Character" 118
22) Jefferson never undertook to deny any of these narratives; and Federalist historians, from whom a fairer judgment might have been expected, have seen fit to treat this silence as evidence of guilt. Obviously it was not so. The President of the United States could hardly stoop to give the lie to a fellow like Callender, especially in such a department of calumny.|
John T. Morse, Jr. 203-4
23) Jefferson does not appear to have taken notice of these scandals, except in a single instance. During the campaign of 1804 a respectable mulatto living in Ohio, named Madison Henings [sic], boasted that he was a son of the President and Sally Henings, who was one of his slaves, and Jefferson invoked his carefully kept record of vital statistics at Monticello to prove an alibi.
William Eleroy Curtis 313
24) Callender, elated by his success and provided with new means, plunged deeper in debauchery. Bloated and noisome, he reeled from one den of infamy to another when not engaged in collating or concocting attacks on Mr. Jefferson. This continued until he was drowned in the James River, into which he had gone to bathe in a state of intoxication.
Henry S. Randall, Life 21
25) Disproof of these charges [by Callender] was impossible. That which concerned Black Sally, as she was called, seems to have rested on a confusion of persons which could not be cleared up; that relating to Mrs. Walker had a foundation of truth, although the parties were afterward reconciled; that regarding the payment of debt was true in one sense, and false only in the sense which Callender gave it; while that which referred to "The Prospect before us" was true enough to be serious. All these charges were welcomed by the Federalist press, reprinted even in the New York "Evening Post," and scattered broadcast over New England. There men's minds were ready to welcome any tale of villainy that bore out their theory of Jefferson's character.
Henry Adams 323
26) A stern and unshrinking revolutionnaire, fighting for religious toleration, political freedom, and the equality of man; a determined politician, battling against Hamilton in the Cabinet of Washington for State rights; an immensely popular and powerful chief magistrate, with a party at his back to whom his will was law; an old man in the country, controlling public affairs by his private letters; and last a broken-down invalid, wandering slowly about the grounds of Monticello, where he and his bride sang so gayly that winter night--these successive phases of Jefferson are well known to everybody. That earlier likeness of the individual as a merry college student and "lover of the ladies" is probably not so familiar; and yet it is necessary to a full understanding of Jefferson's character. Under the reserve and reticence of the astute politician and statesman of commanding genius, competent to direct the affairs of nations with the surest and steadiest of hands, was always the hidden and steadiest of hands, was always the hidden spirit of mirth and frolic, and he kept it to the last. It was a hearty, healthy element in a man of remarkable character, and is another proof that great men have nearly always a fondness for humor
John Esten Cooke 232
27) He will probably always be thought of as a man who carried licentiousness far beyond the limit which a grateful nation has tried hard to condone in the cases of Franklin, Hamilton, and many another among the sages and patriots even of those virtuous and simple days. Nevertheless there is no sufficient and unquestionable proof that Jefferson was one whit worse than the majority of his compeers. Nor is it probable that any one would ever have thought him so, if he could have brought himself to make a political removal and appointment such as in our own days would be regarded as matter of course.
John T. Morse, Jr. 204
28) In early days, and up to a recent period, nearly every mulatto by the name of Jefferson in Albemarle County, and they were numerous, claimed descent from the Sage of Monticello, which gratified their pride but seriously damaged his reputation.
William Eleroy Curtis 313
29) Mr. Jefferson's oldest daughter, Mrs. Gov. Randolph, took the Dusky Sally stories much to heart. But she never spoke to her sons but once on the subject. Not long before her death she called two of them--the Colonel and George Wythe Randolph--to her. She asked the Colonel if he remembered when "--Henings [sic] (the slave who most resembled Mr. Jefferson) was born." He said he could answer by referring to the book containing the list of slaves. He turned to the book and found that the slave was born at the time supposed by Mrs. Randolph. She then directed her sons attention to the fact that Mr. Jefferson and Sally Henings could not have met--were far distant from each other--for fifteen months prior to such birth. She bade her sons remember this fact, and always to defend the character of their grandfather.
Henry S. Randall, Letter 237
30) Callender was neither the first nor the last to take advantage of what John Randolph called the "easy credulity" of Jefferson's temper.
Henry Adams 326
31) In private society he seldom or never gave offence to any one. He was uniformly kind, considerate, considerate, and thoughtful of the wishes of others, too courteous to give pain even in trifles, too just not to render to each man his due, and too benevolent not to contribute all in his power to the comfort and satisfaction of all who came within his reach. His powers of conversation were considerable. He was frank, open, and not in the smallest degree overbearing. Young and old took pleasure in his society; and with young and old he conversed readily, cheerfully, and with a most sympathetic spirit; entering into their habits of thought, answering their questions, and putting them completely at their ease, except when inveterate prejudice, or preconceived and stubborn opinion, refused to unbend or to believe.
Ellen Coolidge, qtd. in "Jefferson's Private Character" 115
32) At first Jefferson esteemed him [Callender] an able and useful writer; for his assaults, though coarse, were forcible; and he was willing to say vigorously things which persons of higher position were not unwilling to have said by others on their behalf. Morally he was a thoroughly low and contemptible creature, utterly devoid of any restraints of honor or decency. It was he who first got upon the scent of Hamilton's amour with Mrs. Reynolds, and at once published the evidence which he had dishonorably secured; and it was he who wrote the most infamous of those attacks upon Washington which were, in the opinion not only of contemporaries but of posterity, the preeminently unjustifiable and unpardonable offense of the new party. As his scurrility increased, his ability diminished; while of discretion he was utterly void. Soon his diatribes degenerated to the low level to be expected from a political hack-writer who was also an habitual drunkard.
John T. Morse, Jr. 200-201
33) Two hundred years after his birth, the fame of Thomas Jefferson in his native land is unquestionably greater than it has been before in this generation, and is probably greater than it has been at any time since his death. The memorial to him in the national capital, which was dedicated on April 13, signifies in a tangible way his recognition as a member of our Trinity of immortals, with Washington and Lincoln whose claims have long been indisputable. He cannot challenge the unique position of Washington, who for more than a century and a half has been the recognized symbol of the independent Republic itself. To most people, however, the Father of his Country seems a silent statue, while Jefferson appears to have the gift of eternal speech. His words are probably quoted even more often than those of Lincoln, but he is less beloved and as a personality he is more elusive and remote. There is pretty general agreement, however, that he surpasses all our major heroes, except possibly Benjamin Franklin, in the rich diversity of his talent. A great many people besides scholars now know that he was not only a towering figure in political history, but also an educational statesman, a naturalist, an inventor, an architect, a bibliophile, and the most noted patron of learning and the arts in his generation. No other great American has conspicuously served his countrymen and posterity in so many different ways.
Dumas Malone, "The Jefferson Faith" 4
34) Col. Randolph informed me that Sally Henings [sic] was the mistress of Peter, and her sister Betsey the mistress of Samuel--and from these connections sprang the progeny which resembled Mr. Jefferson. Both the Henings girls were light colored and decidedly goodlooking. The Colonel said their connexion with the Carrs was perfectly notorious at Monticello , and scarcely disguised by the latter--never disavowed by them. Samuel's proceedings were particularly open.
Henry S. Randall, Letter 236-37
35) So much for this poor Campaign Lie, which has been current in the world for seventy-four years, and will, doubtless, walk the earth as long as weak mortals need high examples of folly to keep them on endurable terms with themselves.
James Parton 570
36) I make no apology for such praise given to so near a relative. Mr. Jefferson has ceased to belong exclusively to his family, --he belongs to mankind,-- and we of his blood should consider ourselves as holding in trust for the use of others that knowledge of his true character which our near approach to him enabled us to become possessed of. His name is often heard, but how few there are who know how much of excellence that name implies.
Ellen Coolidge, qtd. in "Jefferson's Private Character" 118
37) Col. Randolph informed me that there was not the shadow of suspicion that Mr. Jefferson in this or any other instance ever had commerce with his female slaves. At the periods when these Carr children were born, he, Col. Randolph, had charge of Monticello. He gave all the general directions, gave out their clothes to the slaves, etc., etc. He said Sally Henings was treated, dressed, etc., exactly like the rest. He said Mr. Jefferson never locked the door of his room by day: and that he (Col. R.) slept within sound of his breathing at night. He said he had never seen a motion, or a look, or a circumstance which led him to suspect for an instant that there was a particle more of familiarity between Mr. Jefferson and Sally Henings [sic] than between him and the most repulsive servant in the establishment--and that no person ever living at Monticello dreamed of such a thing.
Henry S. Randall, Letter 237
38) In 1782 he [Jefferson] gave forth the "Notes on Virginia." His opposition to slavery is as fierce here as of old, but it takes various phases,-- sometimes sweeping against the hated system with a torrent of facts--sometimes battering it with a hard, cold logic,-- sometimes piercing it with deadly queries and suggestions,-- and sometimes, with his blazing hate of all oppression, biting and burning through every pro-slavery theory.
Andrew D. White 33
39) The penalty of his refusal [to answer Callender] was the publication of a series of the most revolting stories about his private life, which were copied by the Federalist newspapers of the Northern States with what President Cleveland called "ghoulish glee." Some of these stories were based upon local gossip at Charlottesville, and doubtless had a slender vein of truth, a meager excuse for existence, but Callender's vulgar and malicious mind magnified and distorted them.
William Eleroy Curtis 311-12
40) Col. Randolph said that he had spent a good share of his life closely about Mr. Jefferson--at home and on journeys--in all sorts of circumstances and he fully believed him chaste and pure--as "immaculate a man as God ever created."
Henry S. Randall, Letter 237
41) Assisted with information from Jefferson's Federal neighbors, he [Callender] entered into the history of his [Jefferson's] private life; and it is a striking instance of retributive justice that the very man who had been instigated and assisted, if not by Jefferson himself, by some one or other of the Virginia clique, to bring before the public the amours of Hamilton, should now, to Jefferson's infinite annoyance--for his temperament was so sensitive that he blushed like a woman at any such allusions--have done the same kind office for him.
Richard Hildreth, History of the United States 454
42) Today in the midst of a great war for freedom we dedicate a shrine to freedom. To Thomas Jefferson, apostle of freedom, we are paying a debt long overdue.
"Address by Roosevelt"
43) Colonel Randolph said that a visitor at Monticello dropped a newspaper from his pocket or accidentally left it. After he was gone, he (Colonel R.) opened the paper and found some very insulting remarks about Mr. Jefferson's Mulatto Children. The Col. said he felt provoked. Peter and Sam Carr were lying not far off under a shade tree. He took the paper and put it in Peters hands, pointing out the article. Peter read it, tears coursing down his cheeks, and then handed it to Sam. Sam also shed tears. Peter exclaimed, "arnt you and I a couple of pretty fellows to bring this disgrace on poor old uncle who has always fed us! We ought to be -- by -- !" I could give fifty more facts were there time, and were there any need of it, to show Mr. Jefferson's innocence of this and all similar offenses against propriety.
Henry S. Randall, Letter 238
44) In return for kindness and encouragement, Callender attempted an act of dastardly assassination, which the whole Federalist press cheered. That a large part of the community, and the part socially uppermost, should believe this drunken ruffian, and should laugh while he bespattered their President with his filth, was a mortification which cut deep into Jefferson's heart.
Henry Adams 324
45) Some details of his [Jefferson's] "love-affairs" there [Williamsburg], and of his marriage, may amuse the reader, and even add some fresh and characteristic touches to his portrait--worth drawing accurately, if it be worth drawing at all. The writer confesses his personal predilection for tracing this familiar side of distinguished persons. Why deify them? They were only men. Why insist on bombastic eulogy and colorless generalization? They had their faults and failings--their foibles, oddities, eccentricities, humors. They laughed and wept, and played antics sometimes, as naturally as Shakespeare shot deer, and Henry IV rolled on the floor among his children.
John Esten Cooke 230
46) Of this, however, we may be sure: he would continue to regard government as a means to human happiness and not an end in itself; and he would be irrevocably opposed to such nations and such rulers as value power for its own sake. The Jeffersonian emphasis, therefore, is most salutary at the present moment.
Dumas Malone, "The Jefferson Faith" 6
47) Do you wonder that the above explanations were not made by Mr. Jeffersons friends when the old Federal Party were hurling their missiles at him for keeping a Congo Harem! Nobody could have furnished a hint of explanation outside of the family. The secrets of an old Virginia manor house were like the secrets of an Old Norman Castle. Dr. Dungleson, and Professor Tucker had lived years near Mr. Jefferson, in the University, and were often at Monticello. They saw what others saw. But Dr. D told me that neither he nor Professor T. ever heard the subject named in Virginia. An awe and veneration was felt for Mr. Jefferson among his neighbors which in their view rendered it shameful to even talk about his name in such a connexion.
Henry S. Randall, Letter 238-39
48) But his chief topic was Jefferson's private life, and his many tales were scandalous and revolting to the last degree. Naturally these slanders will not bear repetition here; for they were worse than mere charges of simple amours. Apart from the fact that no decent man would have wished to dip his hands in such filth, one would think that the transaction which had instigated Callender to this conduct would have induced any Federalist editor of moderately good feeling to discountenance so base a revenge. At least these gentlemen might have remembered that they had lately stigmatized Callender as a low and untrustworthy liar, when Hamilton and Washington had been his victims. But, to the discredit of the journalists of that period, it must be confessed that their conduct was contrary both to gratitude and to decency. Every Federalist writer hastened to draw for his own use bucketful after bucketful from Callender's foul reservoir, and the gossip about Jefferson's graceless debaucheries was sent into every household in the United States.
John T. Morse, Jr. 203
49) By commerce and corruption still maligned, / By steel and ships of every slander fouled / He shines aloft no less, magnanimous souled, / A fixed star of the mind.
Edgar Lee Masters 21
50) So I am informed by Mr. Randall, who examined the records [regarding the presence of Jefferson at the time of Sally's conceptions] in the possession of the family. . . . [The words] will be valued by those who believe that chastity in man is as precious a treasure as chastity in woman, and not less essential to the happiness, independence, and dignity of his existence.
James Parton 569
51) Almost every scandalous story about Jefferson which is still whispered or believed can be traced to the lies in Callender's book.
James Truslow Adams 315
