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...
The contradictions in Jefferson’s character have always rendered it a fascinating study ... A few broad strokes of the brush would paint the portraits of all the early Presidents with this exception, and a few more strokes would answer for any member of their many cabinets; but Jefferson could be...
The intellect of the negro was then, as now, the subject of learned inquiry. Mr. Jefferson, among other statesmen and philosophers, while he considered slavery an evil, entertained a rather low estimate of the negro’s mental ability. He thought that the negro might become learned in music and in...