Thomas Jefferson, Part 9 (The Last Days)

Reading audio



2004-1-7

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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Thomas Jefferson left the White House in March, Eighteen-Hundred
and Nine. His secretary of state, James Madison, had been elected
president. And Jefferson believed the nation was in good hands.

He returned to his country home in Virginia and never went back
to Washington again. Jefferson and the new president exchanged
letters often. Jefferson offered his advice on a number of problems
faced by Madison.

There were many visitors to Jefferson's home. All of them were
welcome. But Jefferson was happiest with the young men who came to
see him. They discussed books, government, and developments in
science. Jefferson answered their questions and proposed studies to
improve their education.

VOICE TWO:

Jefferson believed firmly in the value of education. His whole
idea of government depended on the ability of citizens to make
intelligent decisions. He spent the final years of his life building
a better educational system for Virginia.

Jefferson had been interested in education for most of his life.
He had developed many ideas about the best way to educate the
people. He believed that every citizen had the right to an
education. But he understood that all people do not have the same
ability to learn.

Jefferson divided the people into two groups: those who labor and
those who use their minds. He thought both should start with the
same simple education -- learning to read and write and count. After
these things were learned, he believed the two groups should be
taught separately.

Those in the labor group, he thought, should learn how to be
better farmers or how to make things with their hands. The other
group should study science, or medicine, or law.

VOICE ONE:

Jefferson did not wait long to begin working to improve education
in Virginia. A group of men decided to build a college at
Charlottesville, near Jefferson's home. Jefferson immediately
offered to take a leading part in starting the school. He said he
would plan the buildings and also plan what the students would
study. He wrote to many of his friends -- experts in education. He
asked for their advice.

One of the experts told Jefferson he should not include religion
among the studies. Jefferson agreed. But he understood that leaving
out religious studies would cause problems. He explained it this
way:

"We cannot always do what is absolutely best. Those with whom we
act have different ideas. They have the right and power to act on
their ideas. We make progress only one step at a time. To do our
fellow men the most good, we must lead where we can, follow where we
cannot. But we must still go with them, watching always for the
moment we can help them move forward another step."

VOICE TWO:

Jefferson began by planning a
program of studies for the Charlottesville College. But he did not
stop there. Before he finished, he had completed plans for a
complete education system for Virginia. He proposed a school system
of three steps.

The first step would be elementary schools, where all children
could learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. These
schools would be built in all areas of the state and would be paid
for by the people living in each area.

The second step would be colleges...equal to the high schools of
today. He proposed that nine of these schools be built in the state.
Students would begin the study of science, or would study
agriculture, or how to use their hands to make things. These schools
would be paid for by the state.

The third step would be a state university, where students of
great ability could go to get the best of educations. The university
would produce the lawyers, doctors, professors, scientists, and
government leaders. Young men whose families had money would pay for
their own educations. The state would pay the costs of a small
number of bright students from poor families.

Jefferson also proposed that the University of Virginia be built
at Charlottesville. He already had begun work on the college there
and offered to give it to the university.

VOICE ONE:

His education program was offered to the Virginia legislature.
Many law-makers thought it was excellent. But many others opposed
it. They did not want to raise taxes for the large amount of money
such a system would cost.

The legislature, however, agreed to part of the plan. It approved
a bill to help pay the cost of educating poor children. And it
agreed to spend fifteen-thousand dollars each year for a university.
There was much debate about where the university should be built.
Several other towns wanted the school. Finally, Charlottesville was
chosen.

VOICE TWO:

By this time, Jefferson had completed plans for the university
buildings. He borrowed many of his ideas from the beautiful
buildings of ancient Greece and Rome. The buildings were so well
planned that one-hundred years later, when the university was to put
up a new building, the builder could find no reason to change the
plans drawn by Jefferson.

Work began on the university immediately. But it was six years
before the school was open to students.

Jefferson was there almost every day, watching the workmen. He
was quick to criticize any mistake or work that was not done well.
When he was sick and not able to go down to the university, he would
watch the work through a telescope from a window of his home.

The cost of the university kept growing. And Jefferson had to
struggle to get the legislature to pay for it. He also worked hard
to get the best possible professors to teach at the university. He
sent men throughout the United States to find good teachers. He even
sent a man to Europe for this purpose. Finally, in March,
Eighteen-Hundred Twenty-Five, the University of Virginia opened.

VOICE ONE:

Jefferson's health had suffered during his years of work for the
university. He was eighty-two years old and feeling his age. He
suffered from rheumatism and diabetes, and was so weak he could walk
only short distances. Jefferson also found his memory was failing.

He knew he did not have much longer to live. He told a friend one
day: "When I look back over the ranks of those with whom I have
lived and loved, it is like looking over a field of battle. All
fallen."

As his health grew worse, Jefferson turned his thoughts to death.
He wrote how he wished to be buried. He wanted a simple grave on the
mountainside below his house. He drew a picture of the kind of
memorial he wanted put at his grave.

On this stone he wanted the statement: "Here was buried Thomas
Jefferson -- author of the Declaration of American Independence, of
the Virginia Law for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University
of Virginia."

He did not choose his work as governor of Virginia, secretary of
state, or president. There was not a word about his purchase of the
Louisiana Territory from France, which added so greatly to the
United States. Jefferson did not explain why he chose the
Declaration of Independence, the law for religious freedom, and the
university as his greatest works.

VOICE TWO:

Writer Nathan Schachner, in his book on Jefferson, offers this
explanation:

"He chose those points in his life when he performed some service
in the unending struggle to free the human mind. Freedom from
political tyranny, freedom from religious tyranny, and finally,
freedom through education -- from all the tyrannies that have ever
clouded and held back the human spirit."

On the Fourth of July, Eighteen-Twenty-Six, the nation began its
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence. Then, from Boston, came news that former president
John Adams had died. His last words were: "Thomas Jefferson still
lives."

VOICE ONE:

But Adams was wrong. At ten minutes before ten in the morning, on
that same Fourth of July, his friend, Thomas Jefferson, had died.

As the news of the deaths of the two great men spread across the
country, the celebrations turned to mourning and sorrow. Jefferson
was buried the next day, as he had ordered, in a simple grave on the
quiet mountainside. But his spirit still lives in the Declaration of
Independence, the American tradition of religious freedom, and at
his beloved University of Virginia.

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VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Kay
Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You can download
all of our program script text and MP3 audio files from WWW.testbig.com. THE MAKING OF A
NATION can be heard Thursdays.