Part 16

"And so the Mecklenburg Declaration takes its place with the stories of Pocahontas and of William Tell."--Boutell.

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE.

In effecting the purchase of Louisiana, Mr. Jefferson has thus been eulogized by James G. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years of Congress:"

"Mr. Jefferson made the largest conquest ever peacefully achieved, at a cost so small that the sum expended for the entire territory does not equal the revenue which has since been collected on its soil in a single month, in time of great public peril."

JEFFERSON AND BENEDICT ARNOLD.

Benedict Arnold, with the British troops, had entered the Chesapeake in January, 1781, and sailed up the James River. He captured Richmond, the capital, then a town of less than two thousand people, and destroyed everything upon which he could lay his hands.

Jefferson summoned the militia, who came by thousands to oppose the traitor. Arnold, however, sailed down to Portsmouth and escaped.

Jefferson then urged upon General Muhlenburg the importance of picking out a few of the best men in his command "to seize and bring off the greatest of all traitors."

"I will undertake," he said, "if they are successful in bringing him off alive, that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them."

The effort was not made.

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE.

Jefferson mingled a great deal with the common people, especially with mechanics.

Often, when President, he would walk down to the Navy Yard early on a summer's morning, and sitting down upon an anchor or spar, would enter into conversation with the surprised and delighted shipwrights. He asked many questions of these artisans, who would take the utmost pains to satisfy his enquiries.

His political opponents believed unjustly that he did this simply for effect. They would say,

"There, see the demagogue!"

"There's long Tom, sinking the dignity of his station to get votes and court the mob."

ARISTOCRACY OF MIND.

Although Jefferson was an ardent democrat, in some sense he was also an aristocrat.

He firmly believed in an aristocracy of mind, and told John Adams that he rejoiced that nature had created such an aristocracy.

He unmistakably gave his preference to men of learning and refinement, at least he put these above other recommendations.

Mr. Jefferson, however, was not consistent with himself, for he frequently called General Washington "Your Excellency," during the war, and also when he was a private citizen at Mt. Vernon.

EVIL YOUTHFUL COMPANIONS.

Just after his college days Mr. Jefferson fell into company, as so many young men do, of a most undesirable sort.

According to his own statements it was a source of amazement even to himself that he ever escaped to be worth anything to the world. He realized in later years what a dangerous risk he had run.

READ LITTLE FICTION.

While he was an extensive reader in his early days, going into almost every field of literature, including poetry, he read very little fiction.

In fact, there was comparatively but little fiction then worth the name. Not from any sentiment of duty or moral impropriety, but from simple aversion he let it alone.

NEITHER ORATOR NOR GOOD TALKER.