When we select 文档 for exhibition at the Massachusetts Historical Society, we almost always regret that interesting and important letters, 文档, 书, 图像必须被排除在外, 通常是出于空间考虑, 虽然有时是为了更适合我们展览计划的叙事线索. The extraordinary collections we drew upon for our current exhibition, 二等兵杰斐逊: From the 利记手机官网 of the Massachusetts Historical Society, made the selection of representative letters and drawings, chosen from thousands of letters written or received by Thomas Jefferson, and hundreds of his architectural drawings, 尤其困难.

One item not included in the exhibition, 但是在这里, 是托马斯·杰斐逊在他生命的最后一年写给他心爱的孙子的一封信的草稿吗, 艾伦·韦尔斯·伦道夫, who had recently married a young man from Massachusetts, 约瑟夫·柯立芝, Jr., and moved with her husband to their new home in Boston. 这封信——作为托马斯·杰斐逊手稿的庞大档案的一部分——是如何被存放在波士顿博伊尔斯顿街1154号的，这个故事始于一个爱情故事.

蒙蒂塞洛的美女

生于1796年, the third daughter (and fourth of twelve children) of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, 玛莎, 还有她的丈夫, 托马斯-伦道夫, 埃莉诺拉·韦尔斯·伦道夫五岁时收到了祖父的第一封信. 当他还是总统的时候, 她尽职尽责地报告了她对蒙蒂塞洛的访问以及他(他们)在蒙蒂塞洛心爱的花园的状况. After Jefferson retired from public life in 1809, 祖父和孙女之间很少通信，因为艾伦和她的家人住在蒙蒂塞洛. 由她的母亲和祖父辅导, Ellen grew up to be the belle of the family, but was thought destined never to marry; she was closely attached to her grandfather and acted as his assistant at Monticello and agent when she travelled elsewhere.

1824年5月，小约瑟夫·柯立芝.他是一位年轻的波士顿商人，带着一封给托马斯·杰斐逊的介绍信来到了蒙蒂塞洛. 柯立芝 made a good impression on Jefferson and an even better one on Ellen. He returned to Charlottesville later that year and proposed to Ellen. They were married in the parlor of Monticello on 27 May 1825. They took a honeymoon tour of upstate New York and northern New England, recapitulating a trip that Jefferson had made with James Madison in 1791, before arriving at 约瑟夫·柯立芝's family home in Boston. 在那里，艾伦发现了所有从弗吉尼亚运到波士顿的私人物品, including her writings and correspondence, 在海上迷路了. Jefferson replaced her writing desk with a relic of the Revolution—the desk on which he had written the Declaration of Independence, now at the Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution.

The 柯立芝 Collection of Thomas Jefferson 手稿s

在他的遗嘱中, 托马斯·杰斐逊把他所有的手稿都遗赠给了艾伦·柯立芝的兄弟, 托马斯·杰斐逊·伦道夫. 1848年，联邦政府从伦道夫手中购买了杰斐逊的公共文件(现在存放在国会图书馆)，但他的个人文件仍由家族保管. 与此同时, Joseph and Ellen 柯立芝 had raised six children, naming their youngest son Thomas Jefferson 柯立芝.

Thomas Jefferson's personal papers passed down through family hands to the 柯立芝s, 1898年，托马斯·杰斐逊·柯立芝(Thomas Jefferson 柯立芝)制作了杰弗逊纸系列非凡礼物中的第一份——超过9份,000 manuscript items—to the Massachusetts Historical Society. In 1912, 托马斯·杰斐逊的建筑图纸是由柯立芝的儿子托马斯·杰斐逊·柯立芝交给MHS的, Jr. 1957年，小柯立芝的儿子托马斯·杰斐逊·柯立芝三世捐赠了另一份重要的手稿作为补充.

这些累积的礼物形成了柯立芝收藏的托马斯·杰斐逊手稿——最大和最重要的MHS手稿收藏之一. 除了寄给杰斐逊的数千封信件和他作为私人公民写的数千封信件副本之外, the collection includes more than 400 architectural drawings, bound volumes of farm and garden records, and the manuscript of his only sustained literary work, 利记APP官网手机版弗吉尼亚州的说明, a political and natural history not just of the Commonwealth of Virginia, but really much of the eastern half of the new United States. 杰斐逊1825年8月27日写给艾伦的信的经过编辑的草稿只是这个庞大的个人档案中的一个不起眼的项目.

致命的污点

Jefferson begins his letter in a mournful tone:

杰斐逊采取的做法通常是在每一段中只把第一个单词大写, 而不是每句话都不知道, 直到你离开我们, 这将使我们的家庭变得多么空虚啊. imagination had illy sketched its full measure to us. and at this moment every thing around serves but to remind us of our past happiness. only consoled by the addition it has made to yours.

杰斐逊继续说, 出乎意料地, to address one of the central dilemmas in American history--奴隶制:

我毫不怀疑，你也会发现那里(马萨诸塞州)的社会状况更适合你的思想, 比你留下的乡村风光更美好. Altho' these do not want their points of endearment. 不, one single circumstance changed [that is, 奴隶制, which had ended in Massachusetts during the 1780s], and their scale would hardly be the lightest. 一个致命的污点(划掉并用“污点”代替)使大自然赐予我们的最美丽的礼物毁于一旦.

在信中，杰斐逊继续回忆他和麦迪逊在1791年的北方之旅中所走过的道路, 他说，在某些地方，森林和湖泊一定是伊甸园般的组合，“大部分是沙漠”. now it is what 34 y[ears] of free and good gov[ernme]nt have made it," he continued. "it shews how soon the labor of man would make a paradise of the whole earth, were it not for misgovnt and a diversion of all his energies from their proper [course?], the happiness of man, to the selfish [vices] interest of kings, nobles & 牧师."

Leaving "small news" (family matters) to other correspondents, 杰斐逊显然花了很多时间来修改和完善他写给艾伦的信, 添加长, 也许在页边空白处有一段过于乐观的文字，内容是利记APP官网手机版新成立的弗吉尼亚大学进行的一项自治实验:

我们刻意避免过多的政府干预. 我们把他们(学生)当男人看待 & 绅士们主要以自己的判断力为指导，他们这样看待自己，并为自己的机构获得这种品质而自豪.]

托马斯·杰斐逊在信的结尾处提出了一个苦乐参半的请求，希望他的新女婿“林肯先生”. 柯立芝. . . give to your-self ten thousand kisses for me, and they will still fall short of the measure of my love to you. if his parents and family can set any store by the esteem & respect of a stranger mine are devoted to them." Jefferson and Ellen exchanged several more letters, but never saw each other again before his death at Monticello on 4 July 1826.