-til his death.

He lived to be a ver-y old man, and e-ven when he was so weak he could
not rise from his bed, his great, strong brain was still clear. You
know that he died on the 4th of Ju-ly, 1826, just a few hours be-fore
the death of his old friend, John Ad-ams.

Next to the name of George Wash-ing-ton, there is no name a-mong the
great men of our land, of which the peo-ple are so proud, as that of
Thom-as Jef-fer-son.

[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON.]

[Illustration: JAMES MADISON.]

JAMES MAD-I-SON.

In the home of his grand-fath-er at Port Con-way, Vir-gin-i-a, was
born, in the spring of 1751, the small boy who was to be our fourth
Pres-i-dent. He was ver-y young, though, when he went to live at
Mont-pel-ier, his fath-er's great farm in Vir-gin-i-a, and here he led
much the same life as George Wash-ing-ton did when a boy. He was but a
small boy when the French and Eng-lish War be-gan, and when Brad-dock
lost the day, a great fear of the In-di-ans spread to the ver-y door of
his home; and he grew up with the name of George Wash-ing-ton ev-er in
his ears, as a great he-ro.

His school days were much like those of Jef-fer-son. He was a young boy
when he could read French and Span-ish with ease, and was as well hard
at work at Greek and Lat-in. In 1769 he went to Prince-ton Col-lege, and
here, as well as when he was at home, Jef-fer-son was a great help to
him. The old-er man wrote to the boy in the qui-et old col-lege town,
a-bout the scenes of war; he told him much of the Brit-ish troops in the
Bos-ton streets, of young John Ad-ams and of Wash-ing-ton. So, when in
1771 he left col-lege, he knew a great deal a-bout the strife of the
day, and had deep, clear thoughts a-bout it. At home he led a qui-et
life with his books, un-til 1774, then he was put at the head of a few
men, who were to guard their own town if the Brit-ish troops came there.
In this post he showed such a wise, clear mind and did his part so well
that in a short time he was put in a high place in his State, and from
there in 1779 was sent to Con-gress. Jef-fer-son was at this time
Gov-ern-or of Vir-gin-i-a, and the two men were close, warm friends.

For twen-ty five years Mad-i-son was one of the first men in this land.
He had no taste for war, but he soon took a high place with those who
made the laws of the land. One of the great things he did was to help
draw up the Con-sti-tu-tion of the U-nit-ed States.

In 1794 this grave a