Ebook: Twilight at Monticello: the final years of Thomas Jefferson

A society of would-be country squires -- An upcountry prince -- The education of a philosopher -- The young revolutionary -- The crucible of revolution -- "Whence he might contemplate the whole universe" -- "The hated occupations of politics" -- The revolutionary takes command -- "In a state of almost total incapacity -- "A prisoner released from his chains" -- "Elevated above the mass of mankind" -- "When I expect to settle my grandchildren" -- "The shock of an earthquate" -- Old friends reunited -- At war again -- "This enterprise is for the young" -- "When I reflect that God is just" -- A library for "the American statesman" -- Jeff Randolph takes a wife -- The realm of "sobriety and cool reason" -- "To witness the death of all our companions" -- "The eternal preservation of-- republican principles" -- The indulgent patriarch -- The "yellow children" of the mountaintop -- "Something very great and very new" -- Struggling "all our lives with debt & difficulty" -- Blood in the streets of Charlottesville -- Fire, sickness, drought, and storm -- A philosophe's faith -- "We shall have every religious man in Virginia against us" -- The death knell of the Union -- The "hideous evil" of slavery -- "Ah, Jefferson!" "Ah, Lafayette!" -- "More than patience could endure" -- "Take care of me when dead-- " -- "An inspiration from the realms of bliss" -- "I have given my whole life to my country" -- "Is it the fourth?";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.