CHAPTER X. MR. JEFFERSON'S HOSPITALITY. HIS VISITORS-MR. MADISON-HIS APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER-MR. MONROE -HIS ABILITY-LETTERS-A BAD MANAGER-WHAT MADE HIM PRESIDENT— THE THREE EX-PRESIDENTS TOGETHER-OTHER VISITORS CAME IN GANGSTHEIR HORSES, AND WHAT THEY CONSUMED-MRS. RANDOLPH'S TROUBLE TO ENTERTAIN THEM-MR. JEFFERSON'S REASON FOR GOING TO POPLAR FOREST-REASONS OF HIS FAILURE-GOV. WILSON C. NICHOLAS-THOMAS J. RANDOLPH-REASONS FOR LEAVING MR. JEFFERSON-THE PARTING-SUBSEQUENT CORRESPONDENCE-CAPT. BACON'S OPINION OF MR. JEFFERSONCONCLUSION. "MR. JEFFERSON always had a great deal of company. He enjoyed seeing his friends very much. Mr. Madison was very often at Monticello. He generally stayed there when he attended Court at Charlottesville. He was a fine man. He had a very solid look. I always thought he looked like a Methodist preacher; he wore his hair as they did then. Mr. Monroe, too, was at Monticello a great deal. I have seen him hundreds of times, and done a great deal of business with him. I sold him the nails, from Mr. Jefferson's nailery, for his house. I have had a great many letters from him. He was a miserable writer. Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madi son both wrote a plain, beautiful hand, but you could write better with your toes than Mr. Monroe wrote. I have heard Governor Morris say, that once, after Mr. Monroe had transcribed a paper, he could not read it. (Laughed heartily.) Here are two of Mr. Monroe's letters: 666 "SIR,-There has been a mistake in the kind of nails which I have written for. I cannot say whether you or I have made it. I wanted sixteenpenny nails, and eightpenny. Mr. Fogg will want some of the latter kind for his hog'ds, which I will thank you to add to those already written for. "I expect to pay you the cash at Court, or to make an arrangement to suit you. "Your very obedient servant, "JAS. MONROE. "MR. BACON. [See Facsimile.] 666 SIR,-I have rec'd, by the boy, three pounds nineteen and seven pence, the balance due me of the fifty dollars sent you this morning, after paying £11 0s. 5d. due Mr. Jefferson for nails. The statement is perfectly correct, and I am happy that it was in my power to accommodate you with the money. "I am respectfully yours, "' Feb. 7, 1810.' "JAS. MONROE. Huve has been a mistabre in the drin Ixpect to pay you the cash at court or to make un not my sint-yo mont to sent you. yo very oot kish Jaky 28.1410. Mr Bacon LITH OF SARONY, MAJOR&KNAPP 449 BROADWAY.N.Y THE THREE EX-PRESIDENTS, 123 "Mr. Monroe was an indifferent manager-was nearly always in debt. He once applied to me to oversee for him, and offered me more than Mr. Jef ferson was paying me; but I said, 'Sir, I would not leave Mr. Jefferson for any price.' 'Then,' said You know he, 'you must help me to get a man. what I want.' I recommended a man to him, and he employed him. “Mr. Monroe was not the equal of Mr. Jefferson or Mr. Madison; and Chapman Johnson, Vaul W. Southall, Wm. F. Gordon, and Phil. Barbour were enough better lawyers than he. Everybody knew that. But he made the purchase of Louisiana, and that made him President. It was thought that he managed that matter remarkably well. I well remember the firing of guns and great rejoicings there were when the news of that purchase first came. It made Mr. Monroe so popular, that he was elected President almost without opposition. "It used to be very interesting to the people to see the three ex-Presidents together. I have often seen them meet at Charlottesville on Court day, and stand and talk together a few minutes, and crowds of people would gather around them and listen to their conversation, and follow them wherever they would go. I remember one Court day I had been helping Scott, the Kentucky drover, sell his mules, as I knew all the people. He made fine sales that |