THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)

Book: The Beginner's American History

Chapter: XXI | Thomas Jefferson

Author: D. H. Montgomery

How much cotton New Orleans sends to Europe; Eli Whitney's work; who it was that bought New Orleans and Louisiana for us.

To-day the city of New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, sends more cotton to England and Europe than any other city in America.

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If you should visit that city and go down to the riverside, you would see thousands of cotton bales* piled up, and hundreds of negroes loading them on ocean steamers. It would be a sight you would never forget.

Before Eli Whitney invented his machine, we sent hardly a bale of cotton abroad. Now we send so much in one year that the bales can be counted by millions. If they were laid end to end, in a straight line, they would reach clear across the American continent from San Francisco to New York, and then clear across the ocean from New York to Liverpool, England. It was Eli Whitney, more than any other man, who helped to build up this great trade. But at the time when he invented his cotton-gin, we did not own New Orleans, or, for that matter, any part of Louisiana or of the country west of the Mississippi River. The man who bought New Orleans and Louisiana for us was Thomas Jefferson.

*A bale or bundle of cotton is usually somewhat more than five feet long, and it generally weighs from 400 to 550 pounds. The cotton crop of this country in 1891 amounted to more than 8,650,000 bales; laid end to end, in a straight line, these bales would extend more than 8000 miles.

Who Thomas Jefferson was; Monticello; how Jefferson's slaves met him when he came home from Europe.

Thomas Jefferson was the son of a rich planter who lived near Charlottesville in Virginia. When his father died, he came into possession of a plantation of nearly two thousand acres of land, with forty or fifty negro slaves on it.

There was a high hill on the plantation, which Jefferson called Monticello, or the little mountain. Here he built a fine house. From it he could see the mountains and valleys of the Blue Ridge for an immense distance. No man in America had a more beautiful home, or enjoyed it more, than Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's slaves thought that no one could be better than their master. He was always kind to them, and they were ready to do anything for him. Once when he came back from France, where he had been staying for a long time, the negroes went to meet his carriage. They walked several miles down the road; when they caught sight of the carriage, they shouted and sang with delight. They would gladly have taken out the horses and drawn it up the steep hill. When Jefferson reached Monticello and got out, the negroes took him in their arms, and, laughing and crying for joy, they carried him into the house. Perhaps no king ever got such a welcome as that; for that welcome was not bought with money: it came from the heart. Yet Jefferson hoped and prayed that the time would come when every slave in the country might be set free.

Thomas Jefferson hears Patrick Henry speak at Richmond.

Jefferson was educated to be a lawyer; he was not a good public speaker, but he liked to hear men who were. Just before the beginning of the Revolutionary War (1775), the people of Virginia sent men to the city of Richmond to hold a meeting in old St. John's Church. They met to see what should be done about defending those rights which the king of England had refused to grant the Americans.

One of the speakers at that meeting was a famous Virginian named Patrick Henry. When he got up to speak he looked very pale, but his eyes shone like coals of fire. He made a great speech. He said, "We must fight! I repeat it, sir,—we must fight!" The other Virginians agreed with Patrick Henry, and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, with other noted men who were present at the meeting, began at once to make ready to fight.

Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence; how it was sent through the country.

Shortly after this the great war began. In a little over a year from the time when the first battle was fought, Congress asked Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and some others to write the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson really wrote almost every word of it. He was called the "Pen of the Revolution"; for he could write quite as well as Patrick Henry could speak.

The Declaration was printed and carried by men mounted on fast horses all over the United States. When men heard it, they rang the church bells and sent up cheer after cheer. General Washington had the Declaration read to all the soldiers in his army, and if powder had not been so scarce, they would have fired off every gun for joy.

Jefferson is chosen President of the United States; what he said about New Orleans.

A number of years after the war was over Jefferson was chosen President of the United States; while he was President he did something for the country which will never be forgotten.

Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, with the lower part of the Mississippi River, then belonged to the French; for at that time the United States only reached west as far as the Mississippi River. Now as New Orleans stands near the mouth of that river, the French could say, if they chose, what vessels should go out to sea, and what should come in. So far, then, as that part of America was concerned, we were like a man who owns a house while another man owns one of the doors to it. The man who has the door could say to the owner of the house, I shall stand here on the steps, and you must pay me so many dollars every time you go out and every time you come in this way.

Jefferson saw that so long as the French held the door of New Orleans, we should not be free to send our cotton down the river and across the ocean to Europe. He said we must have that door, no matter how much it costs.

Jefferson buys New Orleans and Louisiana for the United States.—Mr. Robert R. Livingston, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was in France at that time, and Jefferson sent over to him to see if he could buy New Orleans for the United States. Napoleon Bonaparte[5] then ruled France. He said, I want money to purchase war-ships with, so that I can fight England; I will sell not only New Orleans, but all Louisiana besides, for fifteen millions of dollars. That was cheap enough, and so in 1803 President Jefferson bought it.If you look on the map you will see that Louisiana then was not simply a good-sized state, as it is now, but an immense country reaching clear back to the Rocky Mountains. It was really larger than the whole United States east of the Mississippi River. So, through President Jefferson's purchase, we added so much land that we now had more than twice as much as we had before, and we had got the whole Mississippi River, the city of New Orleans, and what is now the great city of St. Louis besides.

Death of Jefferson; the words cut on his gravestone.

Jefferson lived to be an old man. He died at Monticello on the Fourth of July, 1826, just fifty years, to a day, after he had signed the Declaration of Independence. John Adams, who had been President next before Jefferson, died a few hours later. So America lost two of her great men on the same day.

Jefferson was buried at Monticello. He asked to have these words, with some others, cut on his gravestone:—

Here Lies Buried

THOMAS JEFFERSON,

Author of the Declaration of American Independence.

Summary

Thomas Jefferson of Virginia wrote the Declaration of Independence. After he became President of the United States, he bought Louisiana for us. The purchase of Louisiana, with New Orleans, gave us the right to send our ships to sea by way of the Mississippi River, which now belonged to us. Louisiana added so much land that it more than doubled the size of the United States.