HOW TO GET STRONG
JEFFERSON (1743–1826)
Born at Shadwell, Virginia; at twenty a member of the Assembly, active in the steps which created the Continental Congress; sent a delegate to it, he drafted the Declaration of Independence. Governor of Virginia; in 1784 Minister to France; 1789 Secretary of State, appointed by Washington; led the State Rights party against the Federalists; 1797 Vice-President; 1800 President, and Aaron Burr Vice-President; purchased Louisiana from France; published Notes on Virginia in 1782; died July 4, 1826; as did John Adams.
"Jefferson appears to have been sensibly brought up, getting as good an education as was possible in Virginia, and paying also due regard to his physical training. He grew to be a slender and sinewy young man, six feet two and one -half inches tall; with hair variously reported as red, reddish, and sandy, and with eyes mixed of gray and hazel.… He is said to have improved in appearance as he grew older, and to have become 'a very good-looking man in middle age, and quite a handsome old man.' He was athletic; fond of shooting; and a skilful and daring horseman, even for a Virginian."—Morse's Jefferson, p. 5.
"Jefferson was a stripling of seventeen, tall, rawboned, freckled, and sandy-haired, when in 1760 he came to Williamsburg from the far west of Virginia to enter the College of William and Mary. With his large feet and hands, his thick wrists, and prominent cheek-bones and chin, he could not have been accounted handsome or graceful. He is described, however, as a fresh, bright, healthy-looking youth, as straight as a gun-barrel, sinewy and strong, with that alertness of movement which comes with early familiarity with saddle and gun and canoe and minuet and contra-dance—that sure, elastic tread and ease of bearing which we still observe in country-bred lads, who have been exempt from the ruder toils of agriculture while enjoying in full measure the freedom and the sports of the country.
300
