Jefferson when she was a little girl. Mr. Jefferson was Minister to France, and he wanted to put her in school there. They crossed the ocean alone. I have often heard her tell about it. When they got to London, they stayed with Mr. Adams, who was Minister there, until Mr. Jefferson came or sent for them. I have read a beautiful letter that Mrs. Adams wrote to her sister, Mrs. Cranch, about her. Here it is:

666

"I have had with me for a fortnight a little daughter of Mr. Jefferson's, who arrived here with a young negro girl, her servant, from Virginia. Mr. Jefferson wrote me some months ago that he expected them, and desired me to receive them. I did so, and was amply repaid for my trouble. A finer child of her age I never saw. So mature an understanding, so womanly a behavior, and so much sensibility, united, are rarely to be met with.

I

grew so fond of her, and she was so attached to me, that, when Mr. Jefferson sent for her, they were obliged to force the little creature away. She is but eight years old. She would sit, sometimes, and describe to me the parting with her aunt, who brought her up, the obligations she was under to her, and the love she had for her little cousins, till the tears would stream down her cheeks; and how I had been her friend, and she

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loved me. Her papa would break her heart by making her go again. She clung round me so that I could not help shedding a tear at parting with her. She was the favorite of every one in the house. I regret that such fine spirits must be spent in the walls of a convent. She is a beautiful girl, too.'*

She was

"Ursula was Mrs. Randolph's nurse. a big fat woman. She took charge of all the children that were not in school. If there was any switching to be done, she always did it. She used to be down at my house a great deal with those children. They used to be there so much, that we very often got tired of them; but we never said so. They were all very much attached to their nurse. They always called her 'Mammy.'

"John Hemings was a carpenter. He was a first-rate workman-a yery extra workman. He could make any thing that was wanted in woodwork. He learned his trade of Dinsmore. He made most of the wood-work of Mr. Jefferson's fine carriage. Joe Fosset made the iron-work. He was a very fine workman; could do any thing it was necessary to do with steel or iron. He learned his trade of Stewart. Mr. Jefferson kept Stewart several years longer than he would otherwise have done, in order that his own servants might learn

* Mrs. Adams' Letters, vol. ii., p. 179.

his trade thoroughly. Stewart was a very superior workman, but he would drink. And Burwell was a fine painter. He painted the carriage, and always kept the house painted. He painted a good deal at the University.

"Mr. Jefferson freed a number of his servants in his will. I think he would have freed all of them, if his affairs had not been so much involved that he could not do it. He freed one girl some years before he died, and there was a great deal of talk about it. She was nearly as white as any. body, and very beautiful. People said he freed her because she was his own daughter. She was not his daughter; she was ......'s daughter. I know that. I have seen him come out of her mother's room many a morning, when I went up to Monticello very early. When she was nearly grown, by Mr. Jefferson's direction I paid her stage fare to Philadelphia, and gave her fifty dol lars. I have never seen her since, and don't know what became of her. From the time she was large enough, she always worked in the cotton factory. She never did any hard work.

"While Mr. Madison was President, one of our slaves ran away, and we never got him again. As soon as I learned that he was gone, I was satisfied that he had gone with Mr. Madison's cart to Washington, and had passed himself off as Mr. Madi

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111

son's servant. But Jeff. Randolph did not believe it. He believed he had hid himself somewhere about the plantation, and he hunted everywhere for him. Finally he said he was sure he was hid in the loft of the stable where we kept our mules. I told him it was no use to look; but he would do it, and while crawling over the hay-mow, he tumbled through. I thought the mules would tread or kick him to death, but when he came out he said the mules were as badly scared as he was, when he fell among them, and did not move or hurt him at all. We afterwards learned that he went off with Mr. Madison's servant, as I had supposed. No servants ever had a kinder master than Mr. Jefferson's. He did not like slavery. I have heard him talk a great deal about it. He thought it a bad system. I have heard him prophesy that we should have just such trouble with it as we are having now.*

* Capt. Bacon is a stanch Union man, utterly opposed to the whole secession movement.

CHAPTER IX.

MR. JEFFERSON AT WASHINGTON-HIS LIBRARY.

CAPT. BACON'S VISITS TO MR JEFFERSON IN

WASHINGTON-APPEARANCE OF

THE CITY-THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE-ITS DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS-SERVANTS FROM MONTICELLO-STEWARD-COOK-CARRIAGE DRIVER-VISITORS

แ

-DINNERS-MARKET-EXPENSE-MOVING HOME MR. JEFFERSON'S GOODS AND SERVANTS-SNOW-STORM-CAPT. BACON MISTAKEN FOR THE PRESIDENT -MR. JEFFERSON'S RECEPTION ON THE WAY-ANXIETY TO SEE OLD TOM"-HIS RECEPTION AT HOME-HIS LIBRARY-SALE TO CONGRESS-REMOVAL TO WASHINGTON-SIXTEEN WAGON LOADS-HIS LOUNGE-WRITING

TABLE-BIBLE-READING-CHANCELLOR WYTHE'S LIBRARY.

"I VISITED Mr. Jefferson at Washington three times while he was President. My first visit was soon after his inauguration. I went to take his carriage horses. The second time I went he had got very much displeased with two of his servants, Davy and Fanny, and he wished me to take them to Alexandria and sell them. They were married, and had got into a terrible quarrel. Davy was jealous of his wife, and, I reckon, with good reason. When I got there, they learned what I had come for, and they were in great trouble. They wept, and begged, and made good promises, and