Volume Eight of the project documenting Thomas Jefferson's last years presents 591 documents dated from 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815. Jefferson is overjoyed by American victories late in the War of 1812 and highly interested in the treaty negotiations that ultimately end the conflict. Following Congress's decision to purchase his library, he oversees the counting, packing, and transportation of his books to Washington. Jefferson uses most of the funds from the sale to pay old debts but spends some of the proceeds on new titles. He resigns from the presidency of the American Philosophical Society, revises draft chapters of Louis H. Girardin's history of Virginia, and advises William Wirt on revolutionary-era Stamp Act resolutions. Jefferson criticizes those who discuss politics from the pulpit, and he drafts a bill to transform the Albemarle Academy into Central College. Monticello visitors Francis W. Gilmer, Francis C. Gray, and George Ticknor describe the mountaintop and its inhabitants, and Gray's visit leads to an exchange with Jefferson about how many generations of white interbreeding it takes to clear Negro blood. Finally, although death takes his nephew Peter Carr and brother Randolph Jefferson, the marriage of his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph is a continuing source of great happiness. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

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Twilight at Monticello is something entirely new: an unprecedented and engrossing personal look at the intimate Jefferson in his final years that will change the way readers think about this true American icon. It was during these years–from his return to Monticello in 1809 after two terms as president until his death in 1826–that Jefferson’s idealism would be most severely, and heartbreakingly, tested. Based on new research and documents culled from the Library of Congress, the Virginia Historical Society, and other special collections, including hitherto unexamined letters from family, friends, and Monticello neighbors, Alan Pell Crawford paints an authoritative and deeply moving portrait of Thomas Jefferson as private citizen–the first original depiction of the man in more than a generation.

The definitive life of Jefferson in one volume, this biography relates Jefferson's private life and thought to his prominent public position and reveals the rich complexity of his development. As Peterson explores the dominant themes guiding Jefferson's career--democracy, nationality, and enlightenment--and Jefferson's powerful role in shaping America, he simultaneously tells the story of nation coming into being.

Volume Six of the definitive edition of Thomas Jefferson's papers from the end of his presidency until his death presents 516 documents from 11 March to 27 November 1813. Although free from the cares of government, Jefferson cannot disassociate himself from politics entirely. He recommends to President James Madison during the War of 1812 that gunboats be used to protect the Chesapeake Bay, and writes to his congressional son-in-law, John Wayles Eppes, urging the repayment of the national debt and the reining in of the American banking system. Jefferson remains active and healthy, making trips to his beloved Poplar Forest estate, entertaining visitors at Monticello, and happily supervising the education of his grandchildren and other relations. His correspondence shows no signs of abating--he writes to John Waldo and John Wilson to discuss the improvement of English orthography, addresses Isaac McPherson as part of a plea for limits on government-sanctioned intellectual-property rights, and provides a study of Meriwether Lewis for Nicholas Biddle's History of the Expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark. Finally, this volume records the most intense period of correspondence between Jefferson and John Adams during their retirement. In an exchange of thirty-one letters, the two men reveal their hopes and fears for the nation.

"The Retirement Series documents Jefferson's written legacy between his return to private life on 4 March 1809 and his death on 4 July 1826. During this period Jefferson founded the University of Virginia and sold his extraordinary library to the nation, but his greatest legacy from these years is the astonishing depth and breadth of his correspondence with statesmen, inventors, scientists, philosophers, and ordinary citizens on topics spanning virtually every field of human endeavor."--