MR. JEFFERSON'S LETTER.

23

ernor will especially oblige me by imparting to him his information and advice.

"THOMAS JEFFERSON."

"Mr. Bacon has continued to possess the esteem, confidence, and good-will of his neighbors, and of the family in which he has lived, without any interruption to this day.

"September 14, 1820."

"TH. M. RANDOLPH."

I will here add, that Capt. Bacon has now resided in Kentucky about forty years, and his neighbors, who have known him during all that time, would vouch as strongly for his character as Mr. Jefferson and his son-in-law, Gov. Randolph, have done. He is a man of wealth and character.

Our time was exhausted, and expressing our great gratification at our visit, we arose to leave; but Capt. Bacon insisted that we should go to his stable and see his horses. He had two of them brought out and exhibited for our gratification. They were magnificent specimens of that noble animal. Their pedigrees for an indefinite period backward were at his tongue's end, and he showed a knowledge of blooded horses that I think would have astonished any old Virginia connoisseur in that line. He was certainly thoroughly Jeffersonian in his love for fine horses. He had taken the

leading stock journals of the country for more than fifty years, and seemed to know all about all the most noted horses there had been in the country in all that time. Like Mr. Jefferson, he has never patronized nor in any way encouraged horse-racing. He says, that though John Randolph had sometimes a hundred blooded horses, the finest stable of horses in Virginia, he never trained them for the turf-never allowed them to race.

On leaving, I told Capt. Bacon, that if my life was spared, that would not be my last visit to him. I felt that I had found a rich historical placer, that I was determined to thoroughly work, as soon as I could find time to do so.

*

*

* "CHARLOTTE COUNTY, VA., May 19, 1826. * * "Mr. Randolph is the Magnus Apollo of this county. Every one knows and fears him. His power of sarcasm and invective is such, that no one pretends to contradict him. IIe has three several plantations in this county, all of them extensive. His horses (I mean those which are never used) are worth, I suppose, about $8,000."

* ** * *

*

"CHARLOTTE, April 10, 1827.

* "This part of Virginia has long been celebrated for its breed of horses. There is a scrupulous attention paid to the preservation of the immaculate English blood. Among the crowd on this day were snorting and rearing fourteen or fifteen stallions, some of which were indeed fine specimens of that noble creature. Among the rest, Mr. Randolph's celebrated English horse Roanoke, who is nine years old, and has never been 'backed."— Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander, D.D. New York: Chas. Scribner. 1860. Pp. 95, 101.

I have recently been able to accomplish that determination. I have spent several weeks with my host, to whom I was indebted for this introduction, and day after day I have gone to Capt. Bacon's, and listened to his reminiscences of his venerated employer. He was never weary of talking on this theme, nor I of listening. At his fireside, around his hospitable table, strolling among his blooded stock, and riding over his immense plantation, he poured forth from the inexhaustible storehouse of his wonderful memory the accumu lations of a score of the best years of his life, that were spent at Monticello. It will be my object in the pages that follow, to give the results of these conversations. I shall not trouble the reader with the thousand questions I have asked, but will give the answers in narrative form, as nearly as possible in Capt. Bacon's own language. He has frequently remarked to me, that when he was a boy, there were no such opportunities for education as now; that he had only an "old-field-school, picked-up education;" but the reader will see that he has "picked up" a very terse, vigorous use of language. This is no doubt largely due to the unconscious influence of Mr. Jefferson, for whom his admiration is most profound, and was acquired inhis twenty years' correspondence and conversations with him in regard to his business affairs.

In my visits to Capt. Bacon, I took notes of all that he said of Mr. Jefferson. Sometimes he would talk at length upon one subject, and at others his conversation was perfectly discursive. But wherever he went I followed him with my "notes," asking him questions and drawing him out whenever his mind seemed most excited by his own reminiscences upon particular themes. In this manner we talked, and I wrote day after day, until I had gained from him all the information I could possibly acquire in regard to Mr. Jefferson. Having in this manner filled a blank book with "notes," and having carefully looked over Capt. Bacon's papers, and selected, by his permission, all those in the handwriting of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Monroe, Mr. Randolph, and some others, I returned home with my historical treasures.

In writing this volume, I have done very little "editing," except that the results of these conversations are arranged, as far as possible, under the subjects to which they appropriately belong. The reader will bear in mind, that these reminiscences go back over a period of from forty to sixty years; yet in no instance has Capt. Bacon referred to a manuscript or written memorandum in regard to any of the facts communicated. They are literally "reminiscences." It is therefore well-nigh impossible that there should be no inaccuracies in any

of the statements. Should any reader make such a discovery, I am sure that in the circumstances he will need no exhortation from me, in behalf of my aged friend, to

"Be to his faults a little blind;

Be to his virtues very kind."

Before proceeding with these reminiscences of Mr. Jefferson, it will be proper for me more fully to introduce Capt. Bacon to my readers. This I shall do in the next chapter.