Mr. Randall makes a long argument to defend Jefferson from the common imputation, that a man who was so fond of detail could not have had much capacity for higher effort.  It was hardly worth while to expose a delusion which is so apparent, especially in the case of Jefferson.  Men are often seen with great aptitude for the accumulation of facts, and none for the comprehension of principles.  Such men, though never great, are always useful.  But the most useless and unfortunate organization is that quite common one, where a speculative mind is found which has not sufficient energy to lay hold of details.  These philosophers, as the foolish call them, are the ingenious contrivers of the impracticable reforms, the crazy enterprises, and the numberless panaceas for all human ills, which are constantly urged upon the public, and which, under the name of progress, are the most serious obstacles to progress.  Both faculties are necessary to one who undertakes high and useful action.  Mr. Jefferson was a philosopher because he was a constant and accurate observer; he was correct in his generalizations because he was so in matters of detail.

His career at the bar was short.  The acquisition of a science like the law was an easy task for a mind so ingenious and active as his.  He had no talent as an advocate, but was at once successful in the more retired and not less difficult departments of the profession.  During seven years’ practice, his income averaged three thousand dollars a year;—­a large sum then, and no mean reward at the present day.

When twenty-nine years old, he married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a young and childless widow, of great beauty.  In relation to this affair a pleasant anecdote is told.  Mr. Jefferson had a number of rivals.  Two of these gentlemen met, one evening, in the drawing-room of Mrs. Skelton’s house.  While waiting for her to enter, they heard her singing in an adjoining room, and Jefferson playing an accompaniment upon the violin.  There was something in the burden of the air, and in the expression with which the performers rendered it, which conveyed unpleasant suggestions; and the two suitors, after listening awhile, departed without seeing the lady.  The inevitable account-book mentions the sums paid to the clergyman, fiddlers, and servants, on the occasion of the marriage.

His wife’s fortune, as he informs us, doubled his own, and placed him in a position of pecuniary independence.  He soon abandoned his profession, and thenceforward his career was a public one.  He entered political life at the time when it first became evident that a war with England must occur, and threw himself into the extreme party.  He was admirably fitted for success in a legislative body.  His talents were deliberative, rather than executive.  He had no power in debate, but he possessed qualities which we believe are more uniformly influential in a public assemblage,—­tact, industry, a conciliatory disposition, and systematic habits of