Author Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ADVERTISEMENT. This work is a compilation exclusively; and the only merit it can possibly claim, is in the collection and arrangement of the materials, and in the authenticity and correctness of its authorities. And where facts and truths alone are sought, this acknowledgment cannot diminish the value of the production, or detract from its usefulness. Farther than what the writers quoted afford, neither the splendour of fancy, nor the fascination of language, is to be expected from it; its aim has been a plain, unvarnished statement of the prominent incidents in the life of its illustrious subject; and if that is attained, the intention of the publishers is answered. The selections for this purpose have been made from various authors; and the memoirs of Mr. Jefferson, composed by himself, and prefixed to the volumes of his correspondence, has been the text-book by which difficulties and discrepancies have been obviated or reconciled. These memoirs, however, comprise but little of his lengthened and eventful life, and his letters have enabled me, in some measure, to supply the deficiency. Neither have I hesitated, in many instances, to employ the very words of my authorities; conscious that any attempted amendment on my part, would not only be futile, but, by misapplication of a phrase, might perplex the meaning. On this account, a variety of style will be perceptible, but not having a tendency, it is imagined, to throw confusion in the facts related, or shroud expression in obscurity. To the American Biography, more than any other, I have been indebted for date and incident. To present to the publick a candid and impartial history of the life of Thomas Jefferson, has been the anxious desire of the compiler, though, in other respects, his ability may have failed in the per...