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Extract from a Reported Comment made by Thomas Jefferson, as Recalled by Martha J. Trist Burke, 25 Sept. 1887 [Quote]

My father read law under Mr Jefferson’s direction, and once became uncertain in his own mind whether the practice of law was compatible with perfect truthfulness, he once asked Mr Jefferson “do you believe in he once said to Mr Jefferson “I have made up my mind never to utter a word with my lips,...

Martha J. Trist Burke’s Extract of a Letter from Mary Elizabeth Randolph Eppes, [ca. 1888]

Extract from a letter written by Elizabeth Eppes—wife of Frances Eppes. to aunt Jane (Mrs T. J. Randolph of “Edgehill.”) July 7th 1828. “Poplar Forest” Speaking of life at Monticello “before death had changed those scenes of peace & happiness I have ever felt cheered & enlivened in my...

Martha J. Trist Burke to Ella Thurman Pratt, enclosing “Monticello ‘child Life’—memories of what we heard from our parents,” [before 5 July 1888]

My cousin Mrs Harrison, begs me to add some of my “memories” of what I have heard, from my mother & aunts on the subject of their child life at “Monticello”

Martha J. Trist Burke’s Transcript of Ellen W. Randolph Harrison’s anecdotes of “Child Life” at Monticello, [before 5 July 1888]

“As Jefferson’s daughters were both married before his 1st Presidential term, it is his grandchildren who appear on the roll of the “Children of the White House”; and in the roll of “children of his old age” we find the children of “Dear Patsey” Mrs T. M. Randolph and her chivalerous lover like...

Martha J. Trist Burke’s “Relics from ‘Monticello,’” 9 Aug. 1888

Relics from “Monticello” 1st The old french clock supported between black marble Obelisks. This clock was brought from France by Thomas Jefferson, and stood always near the head of his bed on a wooden bracket which is at Edgehill. When the sale of Mr Jefferson’s personal property took place at ...

Martha J. Trist Burke’s Notes on the Name of Jefferson in Virginia’s Colonial History, [ca. 1888]

First mention of the name Jefferson in Colonial Virginia” x x x x x x The first time that the name of Jefferson appears in any record of the affairs of Virginia which happens at as early a period at as twelve years after the settlement of the Colony. It was known that a house of Burgesses had...

Extract from Henry Adams, History of the United States during the first administration of Thomas Jefferson, 1889 [Quote]

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...

Martha J. Trist Burke’s other “Relics” and Reminiscences of Monticello, April 1889

There are several other relics small & insignificant in themselves but valuable as having belonged to “Thomas Jefferson” A silver stock buckle”—a pair of shoe buckles of steel, a pair of silver shoe buckles with small crystals set in them, and a stock buckle to match: this buckle he was...

Extract from Frederick Douglass’s Address to the Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, March 1893 [Quote]

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...

Martha J. Trist Burke’s Notes on Relics of Thomas Jefferson, 12–13 Jan. 1896

Small Articles of Jewellery & other relics of Thomas Jefferson. 1 stock buckle & small pair of shoe buckles of “Paste” or crystal set in silver, the stock buckle he was wearing at the time of his death, 1 Silver stock Buckle— 1 Silver pencil case made to hold a cedar pencil, & with a ...

Martha J. Trist Burke’s Extract of an Obituary and Notes on Thomas Mann Randolph, 16 July 1896

Obituary written by “Alexander Garrett” of Charlottesville Va & published in “Richmond Enquirer” June 1828 On the 20th Instant at “Monticello,” died in the 60th year of his age, Thomas Mann Randolph late Governor of Virginia. In death, as in life, the same fearless, intrepid individual. Mute...

Martha J. Trist Burke’s List of Trist Family Relics, with Notes, 20 June 1901

List of silver made June 20th 1901—Copied from a list made April 20th 1891. revised & added to. my grand mother’s 2d husband, who requested that my father “Nicholas Trist” should take his name “Philip” which he did, Mr Jones left him all of his silver among other things a very handsome &...

Martha J. Trist Burke’s Notes on Trist Family History, [ca. 1888–1901]

My great grandfather “Nicholas Trist,” (Son of Browse & Elizabeth Trist of the town of Devonshire England) came to America during the Revolution, and was Lieutenant in the “Royal Irish” of which his brother Browse Trist was Col at Bunker Hill My great grandfather married in Phila a Miss ...

Extract from the Report of Woodrow Wilson’s Keynote Address at the National Democratic Club’s “Jefferson Day Dinner,” 14 Apr. 1912 [Quote]

Gov. Wilson of New Jersey, speaking to the toast, “What Would Jefferson Do?” ... declared that had Jefferson lived to-day he would, with clear-sightedness, have acted on the facts as they actually are ... Monopoly, private control, the authority of privilege, the concealed mastery of a few men...

Elizabeth Marks Bedford to Eleanor E. Wright, 17 Dec. 1914

I am sending you the Papers in reference to my Mother and Father as I told you I would I have been very sick for the last six weeks or I would of sent them sooner Hopeing you may be successfull in placing them and the articles I gave you where they will be taken care of

Extract from Woodrow Wilson’s Jefferson Day Address to the Common Counsel Club, 13 Apr. 1916 [Quote]

The immortality of Thomas Jefferson does not lie in any one of his achievements, or in the series of his achievements, but in his attitude towards mankind and the conception which he sought to realize in action of the service owed by America to the rest of the world ... one of the things which...

Extract from Allen Tate’s “On the Father of Liberty,” Jan. 1930 [Quote]

Jefferson had many charms; Was democratic; still—and yet What should one do? The family arms On coach and spoon he wisely set Against historical alarms: For quality not being loath, Nor quantity, nor the fame of both.

Extract from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Comments on the Jefferson Memorial, [ca. 1938] [Quote]

Thomas Jefferson? Were that gentleman alive today he would be the first to condemn the stupid erudition mistaken in his honor. I imagine I see the sarcastic smile with which his shade must receive this fashionable design proposing to drag his mortal remains to the surface of the present ... in...

Extract from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Address at the Jackson Day Dinner, 8 Jan. 1940 [Quote]

Thomas Jefferson is a hero to me despite the fact that the theories of the French Revolutionists at times overexcited his practical judgment. He is a hero because, in his many-sided genius, he too did the big job that then had to be done–to establish the new republic as a real democracy based on...

Extract from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Address at the University of Pennsylvania, 20 Sept. 1940 [Quote]

With the gaining of our political freedom you will remember that there came a conflict between the point of view of Alexander Hamilton, sincerely believing in the superiority of Government by a small group of public-spirited and usually wealthy citizens, and, on the other hand, the point of view...

Extract from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Address at the Dedication of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., 13 Apr. 1943 [Quote]

Jefferson, across a hundred and fifty years of time, is closer by much to living men than many of our leaders of the years between.

Extract from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Undelivered Address prepared for Jefferson Day, 13 Apr. 1945 [Quote]

In this historic year, more than ever before, we do well to consider the character of Thomas Jefferson as an American citizen of the world. As Minister to France, then as our first Secretary of State and as our third President, Jefferson was instrumental in the establishment of the United States...

Extract from Dumas Malone’s Introduction for Jefferson the Virginian, 1948 [Quote]

in youthful presumptuousness I flattered myself that sometime I would fully comprehend and encompass him. I do not claim that I have yet done so, and I do not believe that I or any other single person ever can. Nobody can live Jefferson’s long and eventful life all over again, and nobody in our...

Extract from The Cantos of Ezra Pound, 1948 [Quote]

‘You the one, I the few’ said John Adams speaking of fears in the abstract to his volatile friend Mr. Jefferson.

Extract from John F. Kennedy’s Remarks at a Dinner Honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere, 29 Apr. 1962 [Quote]

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Someone once said that Thomas Jefferson was a gentleman of 32 who could calculate an eclipse,...

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