required it. At this visit, Hancock took from the cooler standing on the hearth a full tankard, and drank first himself and then offered it to those present. On one occasion, at a banquet, when Hancock was present, there were not less than fifty or sixty at table, but the host did not sit at meat with them. He ate at a little side-table, and sat on a wheel-chair, in which he wheeled himself about the general table to speak with his guests. This was because of his gout, of which he made a political as well as social excuse for doing as he pleased. On the occasion in question, when the guests were in the height of an animated conversation, and just as the cloth was withdrawn, they were interrupted by a tremendous crash. A servant, in removing a cut glass epergne, which formed the central ornament of the table, let it fall, and it was dashed in a thousand pieces. An awkward silence fell upon the company, who hardly knew how to treat the accident, when Hancock relieved their embarrassment by cheerfully exclaiming, "James, break as much as you like, but don't make such a confounded noise about it!" And under cover of the laugh this excited, the fragments were removed, and the talk went on as if nothing had happened. This, evidently, was the presence of mind of true good breeding. His apparel was sumptuously embroidered with gold, silver, lace and other decorations fashionable among men of fortune of that period. He wore a scarlet coat with ruffles on his sleeves, which soon became the prevailing fashion; and it is related of Dr. Nathan Jacques, the famous pedestrian of West Newbury, that he passed all the way from that place to Boston in one day, to procure cloth for a coat like that of John Hancock, and returned with it under his arm, on foot. Such were the character, habits, and customs of this distinguished man. We have the biography of no greater political hero; and to his efforts, in a great degree, we owe the prosperity and happiness of our great and rapidly advancing country. He was married in 1773 to a Miss Quincy, a relative of the Adamses, by whom he had one son. This child, however, died at an early age; and, ripe for the tomb, with honors of an exalted character on his head and full of years, in October, 1793, John Hancock paid the debt of nature, and was laid calmly to rest among the graves of his fathers, leaving an example well worthy of emulation of young men of the rising generation. CHAPTER XII. THOMAS JEFFERSON. "Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori."—HORACE. AMONG the names indelibly impressed on the pages of undying history, or emblazoned on the scroll of Fame, perhaps there is no one more conspicuous than that of THOMAS JEFFERSON. If other names received honors in military points of view, and have chaplets of eternal laurels entwined about their memories, the great author of the "Declaration of Independence" stands equally prominent before the world-equally admired and renowned for his civic and political heroism. Science and Literature bear unmistakable witness of his master spirit, and the development of our Nationality received its strongest supports from his pen. As Hamilton was properly designated "the Pen of the Revolution," Thomas Jefferson may, with equal propriety, be called "the Pruning Hook of Political Economy." For it was through the instrumentality of his essays and writings that Southern chivalry received patriotic impulses, and the cause of Freedom and Independence was advanced. It was by his labors, to a great extent, that a spirit of resistance to the oppressive dictation of Great Britain was evoked in the South, and took such deep root in the senti ments of the people. Thomas Jefferson was early imbued with the principles of Liberty, and when he first heard the eloquent speech of Patrick Henry on the "Stamp Act," new and vigorous impulses lighted up his mind, and gave additional incentives to his political character. From that moment he was another man-his future course was decided; he had chosen for his guiding principles the emancipation of his countrymen from bondage, by the establishment of institutions wherein the character and dignity of American citizens, with high national prerogatives, should be respected abroad and productive of good at home. His character was that of a pure patriot, unsullied by selfish motives for personal aggrandizement, and every act of his political career he conscientiously believed to be in consonance with the immutable decrees of justice and truth, as expounded in the great volumes of "Revelation and Human Rights." Wherever the cause of Independence could be served, or the rights of mankind advanced, there Jefferson's influences were felt and his efforts exerted. But perhaps we cannot give, in the space allotted to us for a brief memoir of this great man, anything better than the facts employed by MR. LOSSING, in his biography of Thomas Jefferson. He says that Mr. Jefferson's family were among the early British emigrants to Virginia. His ancestors came from Wales, from near the great Snowdon mountains. His grandfather settled in Chesterfield, and had three sons, Thomas, Field, and Peter. The latter married Jane, daughter of Isham Randolph, of Goochland, of Scotch descent; and on the 13th of April, 1743, she became the mother of the subject of this sketch. They resided at that time at Shadwell, in Albemarle County, Virginia. Thomas was the oldest child. His father died when he was fourteen years old, leaving a widow and eight children-two sons and six daughters. He left a handsome estate to his family, and the lands, which he called Monticello, fell to Thomas, where the latter always resided, when not engaged in public duty, and where he lived at the time of his death. Thomas entered a grammar-school at the age of five years, and when nine years old he commenced the study of the classics with a Scotch clergyman named Douglass. On the death of his father, the Rev. Mr. Murray became his preceptor; and in the spring of 1760 he entered William and Mary College, where he remained two years. From Dr. William Small, a professor of mathematics in the college, he received. his first philosophical teachings, and the bias of his mind concerning subjects of scientific investigation, seemed to have received its initial impetus from that gentleman. Through his influence, in 1762, young Jefferson was admitted as a student-at-law, in the office of George Wythe, the intimate friend of Governor Fauquier, at whose table our subject became a welcome guest. In 1765, while yet a student, Jefferson heard the celebrated speech of Patrick Henry against the Stamp Act, and fired by its doctrines, he at once stood forth the avowed champion of American Freedom. So manifest were his talents that in 1769 he was elected a member of the Virginia Legislature, and became at once active and popular there. He made strong but unsuccessful efforts in the Virginia Assembly for the emancipation of the slaves. He filled that station until the period of the Revolution, |