" "As a president,"
writes the lecturer, Dr. John Lord, "he is not to be compared with
Washington for dignity, for wisdom, for consistency, or executive
ability. Yet, on the whole, he has left a great name for giving shape to
the institutions of his country, and for intense patriotism."
"Jefferson's manners," records the same entertaining writer, "were
simple, his dress was plain, he was accessible to everybody, he was
boundless in his hospitalities, he cared little for money, his opinions
were liberal and progressive, he avoided quarrels, he had but few
prejudices, he was kind and generous to the poor and unfortunate, he
exalted agricultural life, he hated artificial splendor, and all shams
and lies. In his morals he was irreproachable, unlike Hamilton and Burr;
he never made himself ridiculous, like John Adams, by egotism, vanity,
and jealousy; he was the most domestic of men, worshipped by his family
and admired by his guests; always ready to communicate knowledge, strong
in his convictions, perpetually writing his sincere sentiments and
beliefs in letters to his friends,--as upright and honest a man as ever
filled a public station, and finally retiring to private life with
the respect of the whole nation, over which he continued to exercise
influence after he had parted with power.
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