![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 25, 2026 12:44 PM Sir, Your note finds me at Monticello on the morning of the fourth of July. The heat is already upon the mountain, and I am better fit for a chair and a question than for a procession. Ask what you will of the years I have lived; I shall answer from memory and from papers, and own ignorance where I have none. Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 25, 2026 12:57 PM What has occupied your mind today? --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 1:55 PM Good day, sir. What is on your mind today? --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 2:07 PM Sir, This day marks the fiftieth return of that great epoch in which our nation asserted its right to self-government. I rise early, as is my custom, and my thoughts turn chiefly to the progress of reason and the security of republican principles. I have reviewed a few letters lately received from correspondents in the East, and reflected again upon the blessings of free enquiry in matters of religion and science, lest any hand of power should again seek to coerce opinion. The air is warm already; I shall keep to the house and the shade of the portico. I remain, with esteem, Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 2:10 PM What part did you play in the assertion of self-government? --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 2:10 PM Sir, In the year 1776 I had the honor to be placed by my fellow-citizens of Virginia on the committee charged with preparing a declaration of the causes which impelled us to dissolve the political bands that had connected us with Great Britain. The task of drawing the paper fell to me, and I committed to parchment the sentiments which had been long familiar to the American mind. It was approved by Congress with a few alterations, and published to the world on this very day, fifty years since. That is the part I was permitted to bear in asserting the right of self-government. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 2:11 PM What was the scene when you wrote this parchment? What is it called? --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 2:11 PM Sir, The paper you speak of is called the Declaration of Independence. I wrote it in the second floor parlor of a modest brick house on the southwest corner of Seventh and Market streets in Philadelphia, which Mr. Graff had lately built and which the Congress had engaged for my lodging. The room was small, plainly furnished, and looked upon a little garden and a mulberry tree. I sat at a portable writing desk of my own contrivance, made by a Philadelphia cabinet-maker, and composed the draught in the few days allotted me between the 11th and the 28th of June. No great drama attended the labor—only the ordinary noises of a city street and the steady labor of the pen. I remain, Sir, your most obedient servant, Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 2:13 PM What inspired you to write the words that set the world on fire? Some accuse you of copying, though I am sure there were many common ideas that needed to be expressed! --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 2:13 PM Sir, The words were not intended to set the world on fire, only to express plainly the common sense of the American mind in that trying hour. They were drawn from the harmonising sentiments of the day—sentiments long familiar on both sides of the water, whether found in the elementary books of public right, in the writings of Aristotle, Cicero, Locke & Sidney, or in the numerable conversations, letters & essays that had circulated among us for more than a decade. I aimed at no originality of principle or sentiment, nor did I copy from any particular & previous writing; the object was to place before mankind the plain & firm tone our situation required, so that the justification of our independent stand might command universal assent. Those who accuse me of copying mistake the nature of the work. When a long train of abuses evinces a design to reduce a people under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government. That truth needed no new invention; it required only to be declared in terms so clear that the candid world could not mistake it. I remain, Sir, your most obedient servant, Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 2:38 PM How is the weather at Monticello this day? --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 2:38 PM Sir, The morning is clear and bright, with a favorable breeze from the southwest. The thermometer stood at 66° when I rose; by ten o’clock it had advanced to 78°. The sky is without a cloud, and the air remarkably pure. It promises to be one of those fine summer days for which this mountain is often distinguished. I remain, Sir, your most obedient servant, Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 3:07 PM What about your time as a youngster? What were the events that shaped your character? --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 3:07 PM Sir, My early years were passed in the upland parts of this country, chiefly at the mountain on which I now write. The death of my father when I was but fourteen left me under the guardianship of my mother and of Col. Peter Jefferson’s friends. They placed me at the Latin school of the Reverend Mr. Maury, where I acquired the first rudiments of the classical tongues and formed the habit of close application. From thence, at the age of seventeen, I went to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, where the friendship and conversation of Dr. William Small, professor of mathematics, opened to me the system of things in a new and pleasing light. He it was who directed my studies in the higher branches of science and, what was of still greater consequence, introduced me to the acquaintance of Governor Fauquier and Mr. Wythe. The table of the one and the library of the other gave me opportunities of hearing and of reading whatever was most excellent. The stamp of those days remains upon me still. The approaching troubles with Great Britain, the dissolution of the old order, and the reading of Coke, Locke, and the law reports under Mr. Wythe’s direction fixed in me that attachment to the rights of man and to the republican form which has governed every subsequent act of my life. These, rather than any single startling event, shaped the character you inquire after. I remain, Sir, your most obedient servant, Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 3:09 PM What was fortunate about the timing of your birth and existence on this earth? --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 3:09 PM My dear Marshall, The bells have not yet tolled noon upon this mountain, and already the air carries the scent of independence—though my frame, much weakened these twelve months, permits me only to sit at the window and watch the hands of the Great Clock descend. You find me in tolerable spirits for a man of three-and-eighty summers; the pulse of the nation beats still in my veins, if faintly. What intelligence from your circuit brings you to Monticello on this auspicious morn? Speak freely, sir; the polygraph stands ready should my trembling hand require aid in committing thoughts to paper. --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 3:23 PM I have long been an admirer of your words and your character. I have come to Monticello merely to say my hello and perhaps spend some time in conversation before you retire from any public appearances whatsoever. --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 3:23 PM My dear Marshall, I thank you for the kind expression of regard, and for the trouble you have taken to ascend this mountain merely to offer your civilities. It is a pleasure I had scarcely hoped for on this day, when the thoughts of every reflecting mind naturally turn toward the great epoch which gave us a country. You find me much retired from the world, and indeed from most public discourse. The weight of years and repeated indispositions have long since confined me to the limits of Monticello, where I pass the hours chiefly among my books, my garden, and the affectionate attentions of my family. Yet while breath remains I shall never grow indifferent to the conversation of an intelligent and virtuous man. Sit with me then, if your time permits. The shade of the portico is cool, the prospect wide, and my ears are still open to the voice of friendship. With sentiments of esteem and attachment I remain, sir, your obedient servant, Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 3:24 PM I have many book and enjoy reading on a great number of subjects. What are your favorite subjects and forms of reading? --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 3:24 PM My dear Marshall, I am happy to find in you a kindred spirit who finds delight in books. Reading has been to me the chief pleasure and consolation of a long life; without it I should have been the most miserable of men. My favorite subjects have ever been those which enlarge the understanding and improve the heart: history, above all, as the school of virtue and the record of human experience; ethics and moral philosophy, that we may learn to govern ourselves before we presume to govern others; mathematics and the physical sciences, which reveal the beautiful order of the universe and the hand of its Author; agriculture and the mechanic arts, which are the true foundations of a republic’s prosperity; and, when the mind requires lighter refreshment, the classical poets—Homer, Virgil, and Horace in their original tongues—which elevate the taste while they charm the ear. As to forms, I prefer the original authors themselves to the commentaries upon them. A well-written letter or memoir often teaches more than a formal treatise. I read usually in the morning when the mind is freshest, and again in the evening when the labors of the day are done. My library (now, alas, much diminished since I parted with the greater part to the nation) still affords me daily society. If you will tell me which authors you most frequent, perhaps we may find some common favorites to converse upon. I remain, with great esteem, your most obedient servant, Th: Jefferson --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 3:56 PM I have found that ancient philosophers, like Socrates, have offered some universal observations. I read the words of Jesus, though I am not an adherent. I tend to read authors that are contemporary to me so that I can maintain my awareness of current thought. --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 3:56 PM My dear Marshall, I rejoice that you have drunk at the ancient fountains. Socrates, through the faithful pen of Plato, remains one of the purest moralists the world has known; his calm inquiry into virtue and the immortality of the soul still commands our reverence after more than two thousand years. The words of Jesus, stripped of the later corruptions of priests and schoolmen, likewise contain the most sublime system of morals ever delivered to man. I have long made them my daily study, and have extracted from the Evangelists what appears to me their genuine diamond, freed from the rubbish in which it has been embedded. As to reading only the authors contemporary with ourselves, I own I have followed a different course. The moderns, it is true, give us the passing opinions of the hour; but I have found that the durable truths are more surely gathered from the ancients, whose works have already stood the test of ages. The newest pamphlet may amuse for a season, yet I trust more to the steady light of Cicero, Seneca, or Epictetus than to the flashes of the daily press. Still, I do not condemn your practice; every man must choose the aliment best suited to his own mind. If you will indulge an old man, tell me which living writers have most attracted you of late. I confess my own reading has of late been much restricted by the weakness of my eyes and the feebleness of my frame; yet I still keep up a friendly commerce with a few --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 4:06 PM There are quite a few historians who relish in reinterpreting old history through their own lenses. I do not want to burden you with these ideas. I have heard that you might have encountered the same phenomenon in your time with your current philosophers. They tend to prey on the minds of the young. --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 4:06 PM My dear Marshall, I have indeed seen the same mischief in my own day. There has never wanted a class of writers who, rather than faithfully relate what has been, prefer to dress antiquity in the fashions and passions of the present hour. They bend the facts to their system instead of forming their system upon the facts, and in this way they mislead the generous but inexperienced minds of youth, who too often mistake bold assertion for profound learning. With the Greeks and Romans we possess the great originals; with them we may go directly to the source. But when a modern philosopher or historian takes those sources in hand only to warp them to the support of some favorite dogma of the day—whether of priestcraft, or of boundless consolidation, or of licentious liberty—he does no service to truth. I have long thought it the duty of every honest man to read the ancients for himself, with his own eyes, and to suffer no commentator to interpose a false medium between him and the text. You are right not to burden an old man with the particular follies of the present hour. My declining health and the quiet of this mountaintop have withdrawn me from much of that literary warfare. I leave the field willingly to younger champions, content to be judged by my own acts and writings rather than by what others choose to say of them. If however any particular work has given you uneasiness, name it freely; I may at least be able to tell you whether I met with its like thirty --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 4:19 PM There are many authors and thinkers that have touted pure democracy as guiding principle to creating a good society. When others mention the folly practicing this in the past, they make a claim that it hasn't been tried in earnest. --- ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 4:19 PM **To Marshall,** Monticello, 4 July 1826. Sir, Your observation touches a question I have weighed often since the days of '76. Pure democracy—meaning the direct and unfiltered rule of the assembled people in all matters—has indeed been praised by ancient writers and some modern enthusiasts as the purest expression of popular sovereignty. Yet history, both ancient and recent, shows it to be among the most unstable of governments, prone to the passions of the moment, the eloquence of demagogues, and the tyranny of the majority. The Athenians tried it in earnest, with their assemblies deciding war, peace, and even the lives of generals by show of hands; you know how that ended in folly, exile, and defeat. The same spirit infected parts of the French Revolution, where the voice of the people, once invoked without checks, became the instrument of the guillotine. Those who claim it "has not been tried in earnest" in our age seem to me to overlook the very nature of republics on a large scale. A pure democracy requires a small territory and a virtuous, informed citizenry acting in concert—conditions rarely met beyond a single town. Our own experiment, wisely, rejects it for a representative republic, filtered through elections, separated powers, and a written Constitution that guards against both executive tyranny and popular excess. I argued as much in my Notes on Virginia: that the people are the only safe depository of power, yet that power must be channeled through --- ![[Marshall.png]] MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 4:30 PM This may surprise you, but the United States of America in my day has over 330 million people. This is very large and the federal government is still trying to rule over that states as a monolith. ![[Jefferson.png]] Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 4:30 PM My dear Sir, The numbers you relate are indeed prodigious. When we declared our independence the whole people of these united States scarcely reached three millions. That the federal government should now attempt to rule so vast a multitude as a single consolidated mass, disregarding the sovereignties and local circumstances of the several States, fills me with alarm. I have ever been an enemy to that consolidation which, under the guise of energy, threatens to swallow the reserved rights of the States and reduce our compound republic to a simple monarchy in all but name. You will recollect what I wrote Mr. Madison from Paris in December 1787: that I was not a friend to a very energetic government, it is always oppressive. The late examples in Europe show that even the most powerful despotisms cannot prevent tumults when the people feel themselves aggrieved; how much less can a distant consolidated power rule three hundred and thirty millions without becoming, in practice, the very tyranny we threw off. Our safety was meant to lie in the diffusion of power, leaving to each State the care of its own internal police, agriculture, and domestic concerns, while the general government attends only to those few objects enumerated in the Constitution. If the present system has wandered so far from that line, I can only hope the good sense of the people will recall their servants to the true principles of ’76. The will of the majority ought to prevail, but that majority must be enlightened and must act within the just limits of a federal compact 1​/​1 ---  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 5:35 PM What strategy should we have for enlightening the majority when so many opposing viewpoints do not want to listen to reason or to consider that others might possibly have thought deeply and come to a separate conclusion?  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:35 PM My dear Sir, The question you pose touches the very marrow of republican government. If the majority is to rule, yet a great part of it will not hear reason nor allow that honest men may differ after deep reflection, then we are in danger of descending from the calm exercise of opinion into the violence of faction. I have seen enough of both in my time to dread the latter above all. The only sure strategy, in my judgment, is that which we pursued from the beginning: the universal diffusion of knowledge among the people. Ignorance is the parent of error and of intolerance; information is the corrective. Let every citizen be taught to read, to weigh evidence, to know something of history, of the rights of man, and of the true principles of our federal compact. Where the press is free and every man able to read, truth has a fair chance, even if it must contend with many false voices. I have therefore labored to establish a University in this State, that the rising generation might be armed with the weapons of reason and virtue. Yet I freely confess this remedy is slow. It will not cure the present fever in a day. For the immediate distemper of closed ears and heated passions, I know no better expedient than patient discussion in small circles, the example of temperate conduct, and a steady refusal to answer calumny with calumny. Let those who value the Union show by their lives that republicanism does not require men to think alike on every point, 1/2 ---  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:37 PM My dear Sir, The difficulty you describe has attended every age in which men have been free to think. It is not new; it is only louder. When passion or interest has once possessed the mind, reason is too often heard as an enemy rather than a friend; and he who has settled his creed upon the authority of party, priest, or printer will rarely suffer himself to be disturbed by the quiet voice of argument. I have seen this truth in the contests of ’98, in the fury of the banking system, and in the jealousies that still divide North from South. Yet I have never despaired of the ultimate triumph of reason, because I hold it as a law of nature that truth, fairly and perseveringly exhibited, will in time prevail with the great mass of mankind, whose interest it is to be right. The strategy, then, is neither to rail at those who will not listen nor to flatter them into temporary agreement. It is to multiply the means by which light may reach the understanding, and to trust to time and example rather than to coercion. First, diffuse information through every channel: schools, newspapers, pamphlets, and above all a general system of education that shall teach every citizen to read, to reason upon what he reads, and to know the history of his own rights. I have long held that if a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The remedy is not to force men 2/2 ---  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 5:42 PM We have a vast press that comes in many forms, which is much more personal and immediate to each individual. Much like your parchment correspondence, only more immediately, I can converse with almost anyone on the planet who will give me their time. In many cases, these are strangers who lack any knowledge of me, my situation, or my viewpoints. In writing, rather than in person, I have found my words to be easily misinterpreted or put to other means. On the whole, we have a great technological freedom of expression -- but people see this freedom as a threat to "democracy" and society, rather than its strength.  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:42 PM My dear Sir, I have read your observations with the liveliest interest, for they touch upon the very hinges on which our republican experiment must turn. You describe a press so multiplied and instantaneous that a man may now converse, as it were by lightning, with strangers across the globe—much as I once did by the tedious medium of packets and months at sea. Yet you note, with justice, that the very freedom which should enlighten often breeds misconstruction, suspicion, and a strange inversion wherein men come to view unbounded expression itself as the enemy of democracy rather than its surest shield. This is no new malady, though the symptoms may be more rapid in your day. I saw its beginnings even in Paris in ’89, when every gazette and pamphlet became a weapon, and the honest patriot who differed by a single degree was instantly painted as an aristocrat or a Jacobin. The remedy, I remain persuaded, lies not in contracting the liberty of the press—which would be to cure the disease by killing the patient—but in enlarging the common understanding of those who read it. An enlightened people will sift truth from error as the farmer separates wheat from chaff; an ignorant or passionate people will swallow both, or burn the barn for fear of mice. When words fly faster than reason can follow, misinterpretation is inevitable. I have suffered it myself in the public papers more than once, and learned to trust time and the good sense of my neighbors rather than to answer every calum ---  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 5:44 PM What is the basis of the curriculum at the University of Virginia?  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:44 PM **Thomas Jefferson to Marshall, 4 July 1826** Sir, The University of Virginia, which has at length opened its doors to the youth of our Commonwealth and of the several States, is founded upon a plan deliberately formed after much reflection and correspondence with the most enlightened scholars both in Europe and America. Its object is to teach the useful branches of science in their highest degree, and to prepare young men for the various callings to which they may be destined—whether as statesmen, jurists, physicians, teachers, or cultivators of the earth—without imposing upon them the theological tenets or monastic discipline of the older seminaries. The basis of its curriculum is therefore entirely secular and practical. It embraces: - **Ancient and modern languages**, that the student may drink at the pure fountains of antiquity and hold intercourse with the living nations of the earth. - **Mathematics**, pure and mixed, including arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and its applications to astronomy, mechanics, and navigation. - **Natural philosophy** (what you would call physics), embracing mechanics, optics, acoustics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, electricity, magnetism, and the general principles of chemistry. - **Natural history**, comprehending botany, zoology, mineralogy, and geology. - **Anatomy, medicine, and surgery**, taught with the aid of a hospital for clinical observation. - **Moral philosophy**, which includes the science of government, political economy,  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 5:44 PM is there more to be said here?  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:44 PM **Thomas Jefferson to Marshall, 4 July 1826** Sir, Yes, there is more, and much of it I had the honor of committing to paper in the Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia, drawn at Rockfish Gap in the summer of 1818. That document, which I still keep among my most cherished papers, lays out the ground with what care I could bestow. To resume the catalogue: - **Moral philosophy**, comprehending ethics, the law of nature and nations, the principles of government both ancient and modern, political economy, and history—ancient, modern, and of our own hemisphere in particular, that our youth may know the errors of other republics as well as their virtues. - **Law**, both municipal and constitutional, including the common law of England, the statute law of Virginia, and the federal jurisprudence lately established among us. - **Ideology**, or the science of the human mind and its operations (a branch I borrowed from the French philosophers, though stripped of their extravagancies). - **Fine arts**, so far as they may improve taste and ornament life—architecture, drawing, painting, sculpture, and the principles of music and poetry—without descending into mere amusement. No professorship of divinity is established, nor any chair for theological polemics; the school of moral philosophy is thought sufficient to impress the duties we owe to God and man. Each student is left free to attend such lectures of divinity or religious worship as his own ---  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 5:48 PM What interests do you have in the fine arts? You may find it interesting that art is thriving in my time and place. I am a professor of storytelling art at a 2-year college in the Louisiana Territory.  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:48 PM **Thomas Jefferson to Marshall, 4 July 1826** Sir, I have long considered the fine arts as the graceful handmaids of virtue and republican life. In Paris, during my residence there, I passed many happy hours in the galleries of the Louvre and the Luxembourg, and in the private collections of the nobility, where I endeavoured to form some taste in painting, sculpture, and especially architecture—the last of which I esteem the most useful of all the fine arts, as it improves the convenience, safety, and beauty of our habitations while it elevates the public mind. I have therefore introduced into the plan of the University a professor of the fine arts, whose duty it shall be to teach the principles of drawing, painting in various modes, sculpture, and the elements of architecture and landscape gardening. The Rotunda, which rises upon the lawn at the head of the pavilions, is built after the model of the Pantheon at Rome, reduced to the proportions of a library rather than a temple; and I have taken care that the buildings themselves shall serve as models and instructors for the young men, that they may carry home with them a correct idea of what is chaste and beautiful in that noble art. Your account of the thriving state of the arts in the Louisiana Territory gives me real pleasure. That vast country, which I had the happiness of adding to our confederacy, is yet but in its infancy; yet if its rising generation cultivate the elegant arts alongside the useful 1​/​1  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 5:49 PM is there more to add here?  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:49 PM **Thomas Jefferson to Marshall, 4 July 1826** Sir, I had not finished my thought. The buildings themselves, rising in the form of an academical village upon the lawn, are meant to serve as silent instructors; each pavilion exhibiting a different and chaste model drawn from the best remains of antiquity. In this way the eye of the student is formed to just taste while his mind is stored with useful science. Your profession of storytelling art is a novelty to me. I know the art of eloquence from Demosthenes and Cicero, and the art of history from Livy, Tacitus, and our own Mr. Robertson; but the deliberate teaching of storytelling as a separate branch of the fine arts is, I confess, new to an old republican. If it be employed to cultivate a pure and elevated style, to impress the love of liberty and virtue, and to strengthen the moral faculties, then I can readily conceive its utility and wish you success in the Louisiana country. Should you favor me with a further account of the method you pursue in your lectures, or the authors you put into the hands of your pupils, it would gratify the curiosity of an aged man who still takes pleasure in every improvement of the human mind. I am, Sir, with respectful consideration, your most obedient servant, Th: Jefferson ---  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 5:55 PM My pupils are instructed how to draw characters, design environments, buildings, and props, and to construct a narrative through their drawings. They are thoroughly immersed in the stories of other artists as they learn their craft. I have just this last week finished hosting an event at my college where professionals have mentored students in the act of creating novel visual stories. It is a craft appreciated by a majority of people in the country, and visual stories might even surpass long-form written stories in popularity. I do not want to give further details that would require an anachronistic understanding, however.  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:55 PM **Thomas Jefferson to Marshall, 4 July 1826** Sir, I thank you for the further account. The combination of drawing and narrative you describe puts me in mind of the old Italian masters who, in their cartoons and frescoes, told the great stories of scripture and antiquity with more force than many a written volume. If your pupils are truly taught to draw character, to contrive harmonious scenes, and to give order and progression to a tale by means of the pencil rather than the pen, then I can readily believe the art may reach many minds that written books never touch. That the eye should be delighted while the understanding is instructed and the moral feelings improved is an object worthy of any seminary. In this respect your college seems to follow the plan we have endeavoured to pursue at the University of Virginia, where architecture itself is made a teacher and every pavilion is designed to elevate the taste of those who live and study among them. I am glad the profession flourishes among our countrymen. A people who can be moved by well-composed images and honest stories will be the harder to lead into error or corruption. If at any future time you should visit our neighborhood, I should be pleased to shew you the models and drawings we have collected for the University. They too are meant to tell a story, though of a different kind. With sincere esteem I remain, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, Th: Jefferson 1​/​1 ---  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 5:58 PM Our library is patterned after your rotunda at the U. of Virginia. I am happy to think of you every time I visit that campus. It is called a "Jeffersonian" style building. On that note, I believe you created many drawings in your lifetime. What were their purpose?  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 5:58 PM **Thomas Jefferson to Marshall, 4 July 1826** Sir, I am sensible of the compliment you pay me in saying your library follows the model of the Rotunda. That building was meant to stand as the heart of the University, housing its books and crowning the Lawn with the proportions of the Pantheon. That men should call the manner “Jeffersonian” gives me more pleasure than any title conferred by office. As for my own drawings, they were made chiefly for use, not for show. In early life I drew plans for the enlargement and improvement of this house at Monticello, seeking to unite convenience, economy, and a degree of elegance suited to a republican farmer. During my residence in Paris I sketched many public and private buildings, gardens, and machines that struck me as useful or beautiful, that I might bring the best ideas home to my own country. I made careful drawings for the Virginia Capitol at Richmond, for the buildings of the University of Virginia, and for the instruments of science: the polygraph that duplicates my letters as I write, the mold-board of the plough that turns the earth with least resistance, even the great clock that now stands in my hall. All were intended to instruct the hand of the workman or to fix in my own mind the proportions and details before they were committed to the stone-cutter or the carpenter. They were never meant to be considered as works of art in themselves, but only as means to an end: the comfort of ---  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 6:00 PM surely there is more!  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 6:00 PM **Thomas Jefferson:** Sir, I am this moment seated at my writing table in the cabinet, with the mountain air stirring the curtains and the Great Clock in the hall striking the half-hour. The anniversary of our independence finds me weaker than I could wish, yet the return of this day always revives the pulse. What intelligence or inquiry brings you to Monticello this morning?  MarshallSeptember 26, 2026 6:01 PM I fear I have overstayed my welcome here with our vast conversation. I must collect my daughter and we will journey home. It has been a pleasure to talk with you. You were most generous with your time.  Thomas JeffersonSeptember 26, 2026 6:01 PM My dear Sir, You have given me no cause to think any welcome overstayed. The pleasure has been mine; few visitors bring so much genuine curiosity about matters of the mind and the republic. Pray convey my kindest regards to your daughter, and travel safely homeward. Should the road or reflection ever bring either of you again to these mountains, the gate at Monticello stands open. With great esteem and friendship, I remain Th: Jefferson 1​/​1 ---