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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1898)
THOMAS JKFFEKSON'S IJOOKS. The story of the third president's library gathered together in Europe1 and the United States its sale to the government the found ation of the present Congressional Library- Details of the collection. 1IY AIN8WOHTII II. SI'OFFOIU ) . Of notable book collectors very few nre to be found among the presidents of the United States. Washington and both the Adamses had moderately good private libraries , that of Washington ( now in part preserved in the Boston Athcmcum ) numbering about a thous and volumes. Garfleld collected per haps as many more , but the only presi dent who made what could be termed a notable collection of books was Jefferson. He began it early in life , and before he went to France as minister he had ac quired a fairly good select library , es pecially iu political { --cionco and juris prudence. As an example of his assidu- itjin this direction , ho copied with his own hand several volumes of Virginia laws , either out of printer never printed , and these form a part of his collection now in the Congressional Library. In Paris , where he resided six years , he continued to amass books for his library , frequenting book shops on the quays along the Seine ( then rich in in tellectual spoils ) and placing orders with commissionnaires for works de sired , until ho had accumulated an ag gregate of nearly seven thousand vol umes. Returning home in 1789 , Jeffer son collected but few books during his busy year , as secretary of state and as president. Six years after retiring from the presidency , in 1809 , he found himselt encumbered with debt at Monticello , "An old man broken with the storms of state. " For ho had kept open house with old-fashioned Virginia hospitality for years , the "hotel Jefferson , " being a resort for countless friends , admirers and foreign visitors. This , with short crops , an estate neglected during his long absence at Washington , and en dorsements for relatives , reduced him almost to penury. Ho then embraced the opportunity of the destruction of the entire Library of Congress , with the burning of the capitol - tel by the British army in Atigust , 1814 , to tender his collection to the govern ment at such valuation as might bo agreed upon. In a letter to his friend , Samuel H. Smith , a member of congress and publisher of the National Intelli gencer , Jefferson wrote : "I learn from the newspapers that the vandalism of our enemy has triumphed at Washington , over science as well as the arts , by the destruction of the pub lic library , with the uoblo edifice in which it was deposited. Of tin's trans action , as of that of Copenhagen , the world will entertain but ono sentiment. * * * * * I presume it will bo among the early ob jects of congress to recommence their collection. This will be difficult while the war continues. You know my col lection , its condition , and extent. I have been fifty years making it , and have spared no pains , opportunity , or expense , to make it what it is. While residing in Paris , I devoted every after noon I was disengaged for a summer or two , iu examining all the principal book stores , turning over every book with my own hand' , and , putting by everything which related to America , and , indeed , whatever was rare and valuable in every science. Besides this I had standing orders during the whole time I was in Europe , in its principal book marts , principally Amsterdam , Frankfort , Ma drid , and London , for such works relat ing to America as could not bo found in Paris. So that in that department par ticularly , such a collection was made as probably can never again bo effected , oecause it is hardly probable that the same opportunities , the same time , in dustry , perseverance , and -expense , with some knowledge of the bibliography of the subject , would again happen to be in concurrence. During the same period , and after my return to America , I was led to procure also whatever re lated to the duties of those in the high concerns of the nation. So that the col lection , which I suppose is between nine and ten thousand volumes , while it in cludes what is chiefly valuable in science and literature generally , extends more particularly to whatever belongs to the i American : statesman. In the diplomatic and parliamentary branches , it is par ticularly full. It is long since I have oeen sensible it ought not to continue private property , and had provided that at my death congress should have the refusal of it at their own price. But the loss they have now incurred makes the present the proper moment for their accouiodatiou , without regard to the small remnant of time and the barren use of iny enjoying it. I ask of your friendship , therefore , to make for me the tender of it to the library committee of congress. I enclose you the cata logue , which will enable thoui to judge of its contents. * * * They may enter into immediate use of it , as eighteen or twenty wagons would place it in Washington in a single trip of a fortnight. * * * I do not know that it contains any branch of science which congress would wish to exclude from their collection ; there is in fact no subject to which a member of congress may not have occasion to re fer. " Mr. Jefferson wrote three days later to his friend Madison , then president : ' I have sent my catalogue * * * to make the offer of my collection , which may bo delivered on a valuation by persons of their own naming , to bo paid for in any way , and at any term thoj'- please ; in stock , for example , of any loan. I have long been sensible that niy library would bo an interesting possession for the public , and the loss congress has sustained and the dif ficulty of replacing it , while our in tercourse with Europe is so obstructed , render this the proper moment for placing it at their service. " A bill providing for the purchase of the library passed the senate without difficulty. In the house it met strong opposition. Many federalists were foolish enough to oppose it on slight pre texts ; while not avowing partisan reas ons , they alleged that Jefferson's col lection was too philosophical , had too many books in foreign languages , was too costly , and was too large for the wants of congress. Some members de clared that many of the books were of irreligious tendency , the works of Vol taire being specially objected to. Others thought the collection had too much literature and too little history and politics , while , in fact , the latter were its strongest features. The debate was long , amusing , and sometimes acri monious , though not reported save in a bare outline. The advocates of the li brary insisted that so valuable a collec tion , and so well suited to the uses of congress , could not be found elsewhere ; that exceptions taken against certain books were no reason for rejecting it , since no collection was ever made to some of which exceptions would not be taken , from feeling or prejudice ; that the cost was very moderate and on terms of long credit ; and that the col lection afforded a most admirable sub stratum for a great national libraiy. The purchase was finally authorised , January 26,1815 , by the close vote of 81 to 71 , and the sum of $25,950 ! was paid for the Jefferson books , numbering when delivered in Washington 0,479 volumes , rather more than double the size of the Congressional * Library burned by the British troops. President Madison su pervised the arrangements for the re ception of the books , which were shipped in boxes , iinder care of a wagon master , a hundred and twenty-five miles , from Charlottesville , Va. , to the capitol. Mr. Jefferson personally veri fied the contents of each division of the library by the catalogue , which ho had ar ranged by subject-matters , and prepared with his own hand an index of authors. This catalogue , printed by congress in 1815 , in u quarto of 210 pages , is highly curious , as exhibiting Jefferson's method of classification , which ho based upon Lord Bacon's division of knowledge. The book bears the significant and ap propriate title "Catalogue of the Library of the United States , " no doubt pre fixed by Jefferson himself , and , indeed , it appears from the terms employed in the debate that the members of con gress believed that they were founding a national libraiy. The collection , though overrated nu merically by its owner ( as libraries always are ) embraced what was for its