stration: THOMAS JEFFERSON.

(1743-1826.) Two terms, 1801-1809.]

Jefferson was undoubtedly the most learned of all our Presidents. He was
not only a fine mathematician, but a master of Latin, Greek, French,
Spanish, and Italian. He was an exquisite performer on the violin, and
it was said of him, by one of the most noted European musicians, that he
never heard an amateur play the king of instruments as well as the slim
Virginian.

Jefferson married a wealthy lady and named his attractive home
Monticello. His great ability caused his election to the Virginia
Legislature while a young man, and he was soon afterward sent to
Congress. Lacking the gifts of oratory, he had no superior as a writer
of fine, classical, forceful English. Among the many excellent laws he
secured for Virginia was the separation of Church and State. He was the
author of a parliamentary manual for the government of the United States
Senate, which is still an authority, and of our present system of
decimal currency; but the reader does not need to be reminded that his
fame will go down to posterity chiefly as the writer of the Declaration
of Independence; but Jefferson felt almost equally proud of the fact
that he was founder of the University of Virginia, which, abandoning the
old system, introduced the "free system of independent schools." He also
proposed for his State a comprehensive system of free public schools.

Although wealthy, he went almost to the extreme of simplicity. His dress
was as plain as that of the Quakers; he wore leathern shoestrings
instead of the fashionable silver buckles; and strove to keep his
birthday a secret, because some of his friends wished to celebrate it.
He was opposed to all pomp, ceremony, and titles. He is universally
regarded as the founder of the Democracy of the present day, and was
undeniably one of the greatest Presidents we have had.

WELCOME LEGISLATION.

The administration of Jefferson proved among the most important in the
history of our country. Congress promptly abolished the tax on distilled
spirits and a number of other manufactures, a step which enabled the
President to dismiss a large number of revenue collectors, whose
unwelcome duties had entailed considerable expense upon the country. The
obnoxious Sedition Law was repealed, and the Alien Law so modified that
it was shorn of its disagreeable features.

ADMISSION OF OHIO.

In the year 1800, a line was run through the Northwest Terri