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BOOK VII
LAST YEARS AT MONTICELLO
CHAPTER I
THE MADISON ADMINISTRATIONS. 1809-1817
. . . Nec vos, dulcissima mundi
Nomina, vos Musae, libertas, otia, libri,
Hortique sylvaeque anima remanente relinquam.
Nomina, vos Musae, libertas, otia, libri,
Hortique sylvaeque anima remanente relinquam.
Nor by me e'er shall you,
You of all names the sweetest, and the best,
You Muses, books, and liberty, and rest;
You gardens, fields, and woods forsaken be,
As long as life itself forsakes not me.
—Abraham Cowley
You of all names the sweetest, and the best,
You Muses, books, and liberty, and rest;
You gardens, fields, and woods forsaken be,
As long as life itself forsakes not me.
—Abraham Cowley
A statesman is not always seen at his best when the time comes for him to relinquish high office. But Jefferson handed over the reins of government to James Madison with something more than the composure of a philosopher; for like Wordsworth's Happy Warrior, 'conspicuous object in a nation's eye,' he was
It was in this spirit that he wrote just before leaving Washington to his friend Dupont de Nemours in Paris:
"Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms; and having gained the harbour myself I shall look on my friends still buffeting the storm, with anxiety in-
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