MEMOIR

OF THE

Life, Character, and Writings

OF

THOMAS JEFFERSON;

DELIVERED IN THE CAPITOL,

BEFORE THE COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE,

ON THE SIXTH OF JANUARY, 1827,

AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,

BY SAMUEL HARRISON SMITH.

City of Washington:

S. A. ELLIOT, PRINTER, ELEVENTH STREET,

NEAR PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE.

MEMOIR

OF

The Life, Character, and Writings

OF

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Mr. President, and

Gentlemen of the Institute:

THE indignant sarcasm of the poet, that, "This world was made for Cæsar," is not founded in truth. The political redemption, achieved by our Revolution, has substituted right for might. And if it be true, that the world is yet in its infancy, those scenes of barbarous violence, which have heretofore given to human affairs their predominant hue, can only be justly viewed as the effect of the imperfect degrees of knowledge incident to the early stages of our being. Such is, indeed, the inscrutable connexion between good and evil, that it may be to these very scenes that we are indebted for the formation of that character, which, in obedience to your wishes, I have undertaken, I fear presumptuously, to delineate; a character combining the mild virtues of the man, the impulsive energies of the patriot, the exalted aims and beneficent deeds of the philosopher and philanthropist. For these, the friends of THOMAS JEFFERSON have already embalmed his memory with their tears; his country has ranked him among her first of patriots; and philosophy, or, in other words, benevolence, unlimited by time, or sect, or place, prepares to crown him with that glory which never dies. Not

unmindful of the two first of these relations, it is principally in reference to the last, that we are called upon to view him. It is true, as men, we must feel the sympathies that bind man to man; as citizens, we should be ready, on all occasions, to advance and defend the interests of our country. But here we assemble for a higher, a holier purpose. We come here as members of one great family, with our minds directed to those pure and exalted objects in which all men are equally interested. Hence, in whatever I shall offer to your attention, even while contemplating our departed associate in the retired walks of private, or the active scenes of public life, I shall keep my eye steadily fixed on the elevated and comprehensive views which never deserted him.

THOMAS JEFFERSON was born on the second day of April, 1743, in the County of Albemarle, and Province of Virginia, and was educated at William and Mary College, having distinguished himself in all the branches of knowledge taught there. It does not appear that he evinced, in his juvenile years, any extraordinary sprightliness of mind. But from the extensive acquisitions he subsequently made, acquisitions which could only be the fruits of constant labor, it is probable that his earliest habits were those of patience and study. Be this as it may, having read law under Chancellor Wythe, he commenced its practice, in which he soon reached a respectable eminence. But to an ardent spirit the times were too full of higher attractions to leave him undisturbed in the discharge of professional duties. It was at this era that the dawn of Independence began to streak our horizon. The word was not uttered, the idea was scarcely breathed, but principles were inculcated, justifying resistance to oppression, that necessarily involved it. That these principles were embraced by him with an intense interest at the earliest stage of his adolescence, is shown by the mottoes to his seals, which he, at this time, adopted, "Ab eo libertas, a quo spiritus,”—and, "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." The generous flame glowed in his breast, and he hesitated not for a moment to take the side of liberty and his country.