Mr. Jefferson was a tall strait-bodied man as ever you see, right square-shouldered: Nary a man in this town walked so straight as my old master: neat a built man as ever was seen in Vaginny, I reckon or any place—a straight-up man: long face, high nose.
He was a man of easy and ingratiating manners ... Mr. Jefferson never would discuss any proposition if you differed with him, for he said he thought discussion rather rivetted opinions than changed them.
With regard to Mr Jefferson’s skill on the violin ... Mr Randall’s idea that he became “one of the best violinists of his day” is a little extreme. My grandfather would I believe have disclaimed it ... we see at once that the time given to music by Mr Jefferson could never have accomplished more...
Mr Jefferson had a most decided taste for music and great natural dispositions for it. His ear was singularly correct and his voice, though he never sang except in the retirement of his own rooms, was sweet and clear and continued unbroken to a very late period of his life. My chamber at...
I remember the planting of the first hyacinths and tulips, and their subsequent growth. The roots arrived, labelled each one with a fancy name. There was Marcus Aurelius and the King of the Gold Mine, the Roman Empress, and the Queen of the Amazons ... Then, when spring returned, how eagerly we...
Our grandfather seemed to read our hearts, to see our invisible wishes, to be our good genius, to wave the fairy wand, to brighten our young lives by his goodness and his gifts.
What you say in one of your letters of my grandfather’s being considered by a great many persons as a theorist, a man of projects, an innovator, set me to thinking how far there might be truth in these views of his character. He certainly had a good deal of ingenuity in contrivance—a good deal of...
Some of his innovations, his theoretical novelties, so absurd in practice were mere anticipations of other men’s ideas. He built a light open carriage after a plan of his own with leather tops which closed at will, and he used it for all purposes of driving & travelling. This carriage was...
My grandfather taught me to play chess, liked to play with me, and after our dinner, in summer time, he would have the chess board under the trees before the door, and we would have our game together. He had made, by his own carpenter and cabinet maker, John Hemmings, and painted by his own...
Then he had lived abroad and he had introduced into his own household many of what were called foreign ways. He ate with a silver fork when other people used steel. He would have his plate changed several times during dinner, a habit not observed, in those days, by country gentlemen generally ......
Mr. Jefferson was not a man who could be regarded as an eminent conversationalist. He was rather reserved; and did not often enter into great questions—political or moral—in my presence.
You are surprised to learn that I have not a high opinion of Mr. Jefferson and I am a little surprised at your surprise ... I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty, or civilisation, or both ... Thinking thus, of course, I cannot reckon...
The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society ... This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it. All honor...
I have rode over the plantation, I reckon, a thousand times with Mr. Jefferson, and when he was not talking he was nearly always humming some tune, or singing in a low tone to himself.
Mr. Jefferson was six feet two and a half inches high, well proportioned, and straight as a gun barrel. He was like a fine horse; he had no surplus flesh ... His countenance was always mild and pleasant.
thank dear Va for her letter to me, and for that a/c of the scoundrelism of the Secy of War; which I can well believe. when I saw him about Sidney’s commission, and handed him a letter in which S. was spoken of as having your Grandfather’s blood in his veins, he (Cameron) broke in with the remark...
The fathers of this republic waged a seven years war for political liberty. Thomas Jefferson taught me that my bondage was, in its essence, worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose.
From this northern terrace the view is sublime; and here Jefferson and his company were accustomed to sit, bare-headed, in the summer until bed-time, having neither dew nor insects to annoy them. Here, perhaps, has been assembled more love of liberty, virtue, wisdom, and learning than any other...
Thomas Jefferson could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play a violin.
I have a distinct recollection of Mr Jefferson’s appearance, when he called on my Mother, to pay his respects, & deliver, in person, the invitation to dine with him; and also of every incident that occurred at the dinner party, & especially of his grace & vivacity of manner. He...