THOMAS JEFFERSON.
(1743-1826.)
Two terms, 1801-1809.
Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, April 2, 1743. His father, a wealthy planter, died when his son was fourteen years old, and he entered William and Mary College, where he was the most assiduous student in the institution. Jefferson was as fond as Washington of athletic sports, and, though he was of less massive build, he attained the same stature, six feet two inches. In college, he was an awkward, freckle-faced, sandy haired youth, who, but for his superior mental attainments, would have commanded little respect. Except for his fondness for hunting and horseback riding, he never could have acquired the physique which allowed him to spend ten, twelve, and sixteen hours of every twenty-four in hard study.
Jefferson was undoubtedly the most learned of all our Presidents. He was not only a fine mathematician, but a master of Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian. He was an exquisite performer on the violin, and it was said of him, by one of the most noted European musicians, that he never heard an amateur play the king of instruments as well as the slim Virginian.
Jefferson married a wealthy lady and named his attractive home Monticello. His great ability caused his election to the Virginia Legislature while a young man, and he was soon afterward sent to Congress. Lacking the gifts of oratory, he had no superior as a writer of fine, classical, forceful English. Among the many excellent laws he secured for Virginia was the separation of Church and State. He was the author of a parliamentary manual for the government of the United States Senate, which is still an authority, and of our present system of decimal currency; but the reader does not need to be reminded that his fame will go down to posterity chiefly as the writer of the Declaration of Independence; but Jefferson felt almost equally proud of the fact that he was founder of the University of Virginia, which, abandoning the old system, introduced the "free system of independent schools." He also proposed for his State a comprehensive system of free public schools.
Although wealthy, he went almost to the extreme of simplicity. His dress was as plain as that of the Quakers; he wore leathern shoestrings instead of the fashionable silver buckles; and strove to keep his birthday a secret, because some of his friends wished to celebrate it. He was opposed to all pomp, ceremony, and titles. He is universally regarded as the founder of the Democracy of the present day, and was undeniably one of the greatest Presidents we have had.
WELCOME LEGISLATION.
The administration of Jefferson proved among the most important in the history of our country. Congress promptly abolished the tax on distilled spirits and a number of other manufactures, a step which enabled the President to dismiss a large number of revenue collectors, whose unwelcome duties had entailed considerable expense upon the country. The obnoxious Sedition Law was repealed, and the Alien Law so modified that it was shorn of its disagreeable features.
ADMISSION OF OHIO.