Christmas at Monticello
with
Thomas Jefferson
BY
HELEN TOPPING MILLER
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
NEW YORK · LONDON · TORONTO
1959
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO., INC.
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CHRISTMAS AT MONTICELLO
WITH THOMAS JEFFERSON
COPYRIGHT © 1959
BY HELEN TOPPING MILLER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE THIS BOOK, OR ANY PORTION THEREOF, IN ANY FORM
PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA BY
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO., TORONTO
FIRST EDITION
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 59-11264
Printed in the United States of America
Christmas Tales
By Helen Topping Miller
Christmas for Tad
No Tears for Christmas
Christmas at Mount Vernon
Her Christmas at the Hermitage
Christmas with Robert E. Lee
1
Washington: March, 1809
Suddenly, as he climbed the long, curving flight ofstairs, he knew that now he was an old man.
Sixty-six last April, and, though his sandy red hairhad merely faded instead of turning gray, there weretwinges in his knees that reminded him of too many milesin the saddle, in cold rain and sleet, too many hours standingat his writing table, too much tension, not enoughrest. But now he could rest.
In the half-furnished rooms of the White House below,the crowd still danced at the Inaugural Ball, with the wifeof the new president, sparkling, vivacious Dolly Madison,a gay and charming hostess in a sweeping white cambricdress and the inevitable enormous turban on her head.
He was grateful, Thomas Jefferson was thinking as hetoiled up the stairs, that he had been able to see his goodfriend, Jemmy Madison, inaugurated president of these newand struggling United States. But he was even more gratefulthat his own years of service were at an end.
“No third term,” he had told them when they importuned8him. “No, never! My work is done. I am goinghome.”
If only he could have left a government in peace, but, forthis new nation that he had worked a lifetime to build, itappeared sadly that there could be no peace. Off the coastsof his country British and French ships prowled and battled,seizing American shipping, taking off sailors at gunpoint,confiscating cargoes. Would James Madison be ableto keep the nation out of another war? he worried, as heentered the disordered bedroom where his half-packed possessionswere strewn about, books stacked on the floor,papers spread over the bed. Down below in some