Page:The Ladies of the White House.djvu/172

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MARTHA JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.

"It is not the tear at this moment shed
When the cold turf has just been lain o'er him"—

There is also a touching tribute to his daughter, declaring that while he "goes to his fathers," "the last pang of life" is in parting from her; that "two seraphs" "long shrouded in death" (meaning doubtless his wife and younger daughter) "await him;" that he will "bear them her love."

After this all is sadness. To satisfy creditors, all the property was sold, and the proceeds did not fully meet the debts.

"When it became known that Monticello had gone, or must go out of the hands of Mr, Jefferson's family, and that his only child was left without an independent provision, another exhibition of public feeling took place. The Legislatures of South Carolina and Louisiana promptly voted her $10,000 each, and the stocks they created for the purpose sold for $21,800. Other plans were started in other States, which, had they been carried out, would have embraced a liberal provision for Mr. Jefferson's descendants. But, as is usual on such occasions, the people in each locality obtained exaggerated impressions of what was doing in others, and slackened their own exertions until the feeling that prompted them died away."

Two years passed, and Mrs. Randolph was called upon to see her husband die, and she of all her name remained to link the memory of her ancestors with those of her descendants.