OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 227 



The Bastile had fallen when he was given six months leave. 

 He arrived at Monticello to learn that he had been appointed 

 Secretary of State under Washington at the princely salary of 

 $3,500. But he was ill at ease, since he found Hamilton and 

 the Federalist party looking on the new government as only a 

 temporary expedient, lacking strength for permanency. Since 

 his lesson in France had taught him the overwhelming need for 

 equal justice, he could do naught but oppose this movement. 

 In 1794 he retired to Monticello. 



The Presidential election of 1800 resulted in a tie between 

 himself and Aaron Burr and through the good o£Bces of his 

 erstwhile opponent, Alexander Hamilton, he received the elec- 

 tion in Congress. He abolished the alien and sedition law, dis- 

 patched Decatur to overawe the Barbary pirates, and purchased 

 from Bonaparte the great Louisiana territory. His first term 

 was extremely peaceful, but the difficulties with England and 

 Spain several times came nearly to a head in his second presi- 

 dential period, and his embargo method of meeting it not only 

 ruined himself financially, but also stirred up bitter critics of 

 the administration. 



His last days were spent at Monticello under a cloud of debt, 

 and he died on the Fourth of July, 1826, fifty years after signing 

 the Declaration of Independence and only a few hours before 

 John Adams, the second president, passed away. His greatest 

 public work following the presidency was the securing of an 

 appropriation for a state university and the personal superin- 

 tendence of its construction. He was buried beneath an inscrip- 

 tion written by his own hand: "Here was buried Thomas Jef- 

 ferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Stat- 

 ute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia." 



