The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 21: 1 April to 31 October 1824
Hardcover
- Price:
- $150.00/拢125.00
- ISBN:
- Published (US):
- Apr 29, 2025
- Published (UK):
- Jun 24, 2025
- Copyright:
- 2024
- Pages:
- 808
- Size:
- 6.13 x 9.25 in.
- 8 color + 9 b/w illus. 5 maps.
ebook (PDF via app)
The 533 documents in this volume include revealing material on Jefferson鈥檚 health. He is limited to a liquid diet for weeks due to an abscess under his jaw. Although daily horseback rides take him 鈥�3. or 4. to 8. or 10. miles without fatigue,鈥� he cannot walk 鈥渇urther than my garden.鈥� He has lost only one tooth due to age and is glad not to need 鈥渢eeth of porcelain.鈥�
Due to debility, Jefferson鈥檚 only serious occupation is the effort to open the University of Virginia. Francis W. Gilmer travels to Great Britain to recruit professors and buy 鈥渁 library and apparatus.鈥� Jefferson is determined to hire only faculty of 鈥渢he first grade of science.鈥� The Rotunda is still unfinished but fit for use 鈥渦ntil funds may occur to compleat it.鈥�
Jefferson predicts that a plan to send freed African Americans to Africa will fail. He observes that 鈥渂arbarism鈥� is in decline and 鈥渨ill in time I trust disappear from the earth.鈥� To another correspondent he defends 鈥渢he principles which have guided my public life,鈥� but adds that, when altered circumstances make changes of principle beneficial, 鈥渢hen let such changes take place, and the means yield to the end.鈥�
