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 Hamitron 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 offices 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 
Joun Apams, 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 Jer- 
FERSON, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Stat- 
ute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia.” 
