to refuse
our labours in this divine work, is to refuse to be a great, a free, a
pious, and a happy people!

And now having left the important alternative, political happiness or
wretchedness, under God, in a great degree in your own hands; I pray
the supreme Arbiter of the affairs of men, so to direct your judgment,
as that you may act agreeable to what seems to be his will, revealed
in his miraculous works in behalf of America, bleeding at the altar of
liberty!

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

~1743=1826.~

THOMAS JEFFERSON, the "Sage of Monticello," and founder of the
University of Virginia, was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County,
Virginia. He was educated at William and Mary College, and early
developed a rare taste for study, music, and general culture. His is
one of the greatest and most interesting figures in our history. He
received and adorned all the positions in the gift of his
fellow-citizens, from that of member of the State Legislature to that
of President of the United States, which office he twice filled. He is
considered the founder of the present Democratic party in politics;
and he gained imperishable fame as the author of the Declaration of
Independence. He spent five years in France, succeeding Benjamin
Franklin as minister to that country, and he introduced into the
United States the decimal system of currency.

[Illustration: ~Monticello, the Home of Thomas Jefferson, Albemarle
County, Va.~]

His love for country life induced him to retire to Monticello, his
place in Albemarle County, where he spent his declining years in
planning and establishing the University of Virginia. His love of
freedom in every possible form is shown in his plan for the
University, which was, unlike most colleges of the times, to be under
the patronage of no church, and the students were to be controlled
like any community of citizens. He was also opposed to slavery. (_See
his Notes on Virginia._)

He died at Monticello, July 4, 1826, on the same day with John Adams,
just fifty years after the great event of their lives, the declaration
of independence of the United States.

The following inscription was at his own request put upon his
tombstone:

THOMAS JEFFERSON,

Author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of
Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father
of the University of Virginia.

WORKS.

Autobiography, Essays, Treatises, Letters, Reports, Messages, and
Addre