US, 4676.80 1 8 8 3 D c c. 22. Mooke Squir Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit: SEAL. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the seventh day of October, in the fifty-first year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1826, T. P. H. LYMAN, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "The Life of Thomas Jefferson, Esq. L. L. D. Late ex. President of the United States: arranged and compiled from original Documents: by TP. H. Lyman. Author of remarks on Italy, lectures on Astronomy, a tour through the western Country," &c. &c. "It is the duty of every man to search diligently after truth: to listen dispas sionately for its sake; and to condemn no man, until he has been fully and charitably heard. Let no one, therefore, pass sentence on this book, until he has read it; nor the subject of it, until his motives, circumstances, and design of the author, have been candidly and impartially considered." In conformity of the Act of the Congress of the United States, intituled, "Au act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;"-And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, "An act, for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL, PREFACE. The present performance was undertaken by the author, for the purpose of placing in the hands of every class of the community, a succinct account of the life of that distinguished statesman, and hero of the revolution, THOMAS JEFFEESON. If the old adage be true," that a great book is a great evil," the author has certainly obviated that defect in the present work. His design has been to give a plain unvarnished narnation, of the most prominent parts of the life of that great and good man, whose recent removal from these shades of mortality by death, has excited in Europe, as well as in every part of America, universal sorrow and regret. And we can scarcely be persuaded that there exists, in any class of society, an individual of a temperament so cold and so lost to a sense of nice and delicate feeling, or possessed of a mind so opposed to all that is grand and elevated in human nature, as not to experience emotions of pleasure, and even a temporary melioration of the heart, on reading or listening to a recital of the virtues, the wisdom, or the glory of his countrymen ; particularly so, when we find them enrolled among that veteran band of faithful patriots, by whose wisdom in the cabinet, our infant country was conducted safely through the storm of the revolution, to independence and peace. By all who are in any degree versed in the knowledge of antiquity, it will be well understood, that, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, no writings were held in higher estimation, or read with greater avidity, by those who could have access to them, than the biographical notices of those men, who had rendered any important service to their country, to science, or to virtue. But it is no easy task to collect even a few materials for biography. This difficulty and the spirit with which these facts are to be treated, is most forcibly expressed, by one of the most profound moralists, and the ablest delineators of characters of the last century.-He says, "The necessity of complying with times, and of sparing persons, is the great impediment of biography: history may be formed from permanent monuments and reords; but lives can only be written from personal knowledge, which is growing every day less, and in a short time is lost for ever; what is known can seldom be immediately told; and when it might be told it is no longer known. The delicate feelings of the mind, the nice discriminations of character, and the minute peculiarites of conduct are soon obliterated; and it is surely better that caprice, obstinacy, frolic and folly, however, they may delight in the description, should be silently forgotten, than that by wanton merriment and unseasonable detection, a pang should be given to a widow, a daughter, a brother, or a friend.' In the following pages I have endeavoured to obey the wholesome injunction, "nor set down aught in malice," and my conscience acquits me of saying any thing with undue severity: It may however be said, that I have erred on the other hand, and have praised too freely: my answer is, that from a long and personal acquaintance with the subject of this memoir, I have always considered him a man, "mighty in intellect," one of heavenly mould, who, like the giants of old, are the offspring of the gods and the daughters of men:" nevertheless, there are many others in the profession, in Philosophy, in Poetry, or in general Literature, that are better for example and instruction; they are nearer the level. of human nature, and every thing which is said of them has a more common application and use. Demi-gods are but few in this world, rising here and there through the long vista of ages. Hercules wandered alone over the face of the earth, * Dr. Johnson. through wonders and perils to glory, and Alexander had no successor who could perpetuate the power he had created; but the good and the virtuous are not rare at any time, or in any country; they abound in every age, in every country, and under every circumstance. The latter like the stars in the milky-way shed a lustre on each other, while the former resemble the comets, which have appeared in the lapse of ages, astonishing the world, portentously blazing and suddenly passing away. Should the reader desire to be made acquainted with the means by which MR. JEFFERSON acquired, that unbounded reputation in literature, politics, and law which he possessed, and of which he has given the most unequivocal demonstrations; we would answer: it was by his habits of close application and unwearied research, which he manifested in every situation in life, from his cradle to his grave. To those who have never learned by experience the value of fleeting moments, nor by observation, what a long course of well regulated and indefatigable exertion can achieve, it might really seem that the amount of what MR. JEFFERSON read, wrote, and actively performed, would be severally the business of an entire life. But to him who never wasted even the fractions of time, but faithfully employed them either in the acquisition or application of knowledge: what to others would have been impossible, became to him practicable and easy; for it was his habits of observation and attention, his high ambition and persevering industry, that gave him his ascendency over most of his contemporaries. Did the world produce more men, equal in assiduity and unwearied research, it would be adorned by more of equal distinction so very true is it-A fact important to all men, but, which ought in a more especial manner, to be zealously inculcated upon the minds of youth-That industry is not only one of the parents of knowledge, but an essential component of human greatness. Without this most important quality, an intellect of the highest order, but resembles a tract of fertile soil defectively cultivated, shooting forth a few luxuriant plants, but overrun with weeds, and not exempt from poisonous productions; while with it, minds much less richly endowed by nature, are converted into gardens, abounding in all that is ornamental and useful. Even Newton himself is known to have declared, that his power of attention and painful research, was the only quality in which he was superior to other men. But heaven, which gave to MR. JEFFERSON this spirit of industry, endowed him also with a genius to give it effect. There were united in him an imagination vivid, but not visionary, a most discriminating judgment, the attentiveness and precision of the Mathematician, and a memory, which, however enlarged and strengthened by exercise, must have been originally powerful and capacious. With these wonderful faculties, which had, from the first dawnings of reason, been employed on subjects most interesting to the human mind, MR. JEFFERSON came to the study of that science, which claims a kindred with every other, the science of the Law. Those who follow this profession from their habits, situation and relations in society, have a marked and unquestionable influence on the moral, civil, and political, affairs of the world. In every country where an altar has been erected to liberty, there has the profession been found, and it has flourished in proportion to the extent and permanency of the freedom of the people. In Greece existed eloquent advocates, orators, and lawyers, to defend the accused, and to prosecute for the rights of the injured and oppressed. orations of Isæus, and the bold, argumentative, and pointed speeches of Demosthenes, have been preserved as models of splendid eloquence, and profound reasoning. It is the prerogative of a free man, to make use of the talents of another in his own cause. He has a right to call to his assist The |