Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1912 — The Sage of Monticello [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Sage of Monticello

It was at Monticello that Jefferson prepared the draught of instructions for Virginia’s delegation to the congress which met at Philadelphia. His activity in the cause of the colonies brought him into special disfavor with the British and it was planned to capture Jefferson at Monticello through Tarleton’s raiders. Jefferson was warned that the enemy was coming to Monticello, and he sent his family away, and he himself escaped on

horseback. The mansion at Monticel--Ithanks to Tarleton’s orders, escaped serious pillage or damage. Though the house itself was not plundered or burned, the rest of Jefferson’s property suffered severely at the hands of the enemy. All the stock and farm products that might be of service were carried off, -the rest be-., ing wantonly destroyed. When Jefferson resigned from the Washington cabinet in 1704 he returned to Monticello to enjoy a retirement which he intended should last j many years. But this was not to be. j lie was elected 'Vice-president in 1 179G,»ah(l in 1800 he was chosen pres- ! ident. ! In March, ISOO, Jefferson, after a ! nearly continuous public service of forty-four j ears, retired to Monticello and to private life, but he was so seriously impoverished that he was not sure of being allowed to leave Washington without arrest by his creditors, but this, fortunately, he'was I able to prevent. Toward the close of his life, however, he became distressingly embarrassed in his circumstances. In 1814 he sold his library to ! congress for $23,000, but through in- ! dorsing a note for a friend he was . completely ruined, and was in danger of being compelled to surrender Monticello and seek., shelter for his last < days in another abode." But wealthy friends came to his assistance with I a considerable sum of money. “No cent of this,” he wrote, “ wrung from the taxpayer. It is the pure and 1 unsolicited offering of love.” In the last seventeen years of his life Jefferson lived like a patriarch among his admiring friends. “The sage of Monticello” was the most prominent man n private life in the country. Even > the year of his death he was a at moral force in the land. As the former president, the purchaser of Louisiana, the chastiser of the Barbary pirates, the founder of the University of Virginia, as the scholar, the philosopher and the savant, he was known the World over. Every day for at least eight months in the year brought its contingent of guests to Monticello. People of wealth, fashion, men of office, professional men, military and civil, lawyers, doctors, Protestant clergy, Catholic priests, members of congress, foreign ministers,'missionaries, Indian agents, tourists, artists, , strangers, friends. Some came from affection and respect, some from curiosity; some to give or receive advise or instruction, some from idleness, some because others set the example. And everybody who could not visit “tke sage of Monticello” at least, gave thought to the great retired ipan of the nation. Jefferson retained his health nearly to his last days, and had the happiness of living to the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He died at Monticello at 12:40 p. m. on July 4, 1826. He was buried in his own graveyard at Monticello, beneath a stone upon which was engraved an inscription prepared by his own hand: “Here Is buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia, for Religious Liberty and Father of the University of Virginia.” “The sage of Monticello” stands today next to “the father of his country” in the esteem of the United Senates. And this is as it should be, for his wise counsel helped to establish this nation as firmly as did the arms and statesmanship of George Washington.

Where Jefferson Wrote the Declaration of Independence.