ped to build up this great trade. But at the time when he
invented his cotton-gin, we did not own New Orleans, or, for that
matter, any part of Louisiana or of the country west of the
Mississippi River. The man who bought New Orleans and Louisiana for
us was Thomas Jefferson.

[Footnote 1: A bale or bundle of cotton is usually somewhat more than
five feet long, and it generally weighs from 400 to 550 pounds. The
cotton crop of this country in 1891 amounted to more than 8,650,000
bales; laid end to end, in a straight line, these bales would extend
more than 8000 miles.]

[Footnote 2: 2 See paragraph 180.]

184. Who Thomas Jefferson was; Monticello;[3] how Jefferson's slaves
met him when he came home from Europe.--Thomas Jefferson was the son
of a rich planter who lived near Charlottesville in Virginia.[4] When
his father died, he came into possession of a plantation of nearly
two thousand acres of land, with forty or fifty negro slaves on it.

There was a high hill on the plantation, which Jefferson called
Monticello, or the little mountain. Here he built a fine house. From
it he could see the mountains and valleys of the Blue Ridge for an
immense distance. No man in America had a more beautiful home, or
enjoyed it more, than Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's slaves thought
that no one could be better than their master. He was always kind
to them, and they were ready to do anything for him. Once when he
came back from France, where he had been staying for a long time,
the negroes went to meet his carriage. They walked several miles down
the road; when they caught sight of the carriage, they shouted and
sang with delight. They would gladly have taken out the horses and
drawn it up the steep hill. When Jefferson reached Monticello and
got out, the negroes took him in their arms, and, laughing and crying
for joy, they carried him into the house. Perhaps no king ever got
such a welcome as that; for that welcome was not bought with money:
it came from the heart. Yet Jefferson hoped and prayed that the time
would come when every slave in the country might be set free.

[Illustration: JEFFERSON'S HOME AT MONTICELLO.]

[Footnote 3: Monticello (Mon-ti-cel'lo).]

[Footnote 4: See map in paragraph 140.]

185. Thomas Jefferson hears Patrick Henry speak at
Richmond.--Jefferson was educated to be a lawyer; he was not a good
public speaker, but he liked to hear men who were. Just before the
beginning of the Revolutionary War