hemselves more hard-pressed than he, and occasionally had been forced to make good on their notes when they found it impossible to do so. He had spent money lavishly on his libraries and the arts, on Monticello, and on his children's education. His passion for architecture cost him a small fortune. At the final stage of his financial distress, Jefferson petitioned the Virginia legislature to grant him permission to dispose of Monticello and its farms by lottery. The almost immediate response of private citizens, in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, on hearing this news was to donate a sum of over $16,000 to aid the leader who had devoted his industry and resourcefulness to all America for half a century (Smith 304).On July 4, 1826, Jefferson died at Monticello. He was buried on the hillside beside his wife. He had written the script for his headstone himself: Here was buriedThomas JeffersonAuthor of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom and Father of the University of Virginia.On our family vacation last fall to Virginia, my wife and I toured Jefferson's Monticello home and also viewed his grave site. We both found it very interesting that of all the accomplishments that Jefferson listed on his headstone he apparently did not think it important enough to mention that he had been twice elected and served as president of the United States. BibliographyDaugherty, Sonia. Thomas Jefferson: Fighter for Freedom and Human Rights. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1961.Koch, Adrienne, and William Peden. The Life and Selected Writings Of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Random House Publishers, 1993.McLaughlin, Jack. Jefferson and Monticello The Biography Of A Builder. 1st ed. New York: Henry Holt and Company Publishers, 1988.Randall, Willard Sterne. Thomas Jefferson A Life. 1st ed. New York: Henry Holt and Company Publishers, 1993.Smith, Page. Jefferson A Revealing Biography. New Yo...
