In the darkest hours he inspired the
colonists with hope and enthusiasm. Whenever the times seemed to demand
another number of the _Crisis_, it was forthcoming. Sixteen of these
appeared during the progress of the struggle for liberty. He had an almost
Shakespearean intuition of what would appeal to the exigencies of each
case. After the Americans had triumphed, he went abroad to aid the French,
saying, "Where Liberty is not, there is my home." He died in America in
1809. He is unfortunately more remembered for his skeptical _Age of Reason_
than for his splendid services to the cause of liberty.
[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON]
THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826), the third President of the United States,
wrote much political prose and many letters, which have been gathered into
ten large volumes. Ignoring these, he left directions that the words,
"Author of the Declaration of American Independence," should immediately
follow his name on his monument. No other American prose writer has, in an
equal number of words, yet surpassed this _Declaration of Independence_.
Its influence has encircled the world and modified the opinions of nations
as widely separated as the French and the Japanese.
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