Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/187

 THOMAS JEFFERSON 149 ruin, and he was in danger of being compelled to surrender Monticello and seek shelter for his last days in another abode. Philip Hone, mayor of New York, raised for him, in 1826, $8,500, to which Philadelphia added $5,000 and Baltimore $3,000. He was deeply touched by the spontaneous gener osity of his countrymen. &quot;No cent of this,&quot; he wrote, &quot;is wrung from the tax-payer. It is the pure and unsolicited offering of love.&quot; He retained his health nearly to his last days, and had the hap piness of living to the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He died at twenty minutes to one p. M., July 4, 1826. John Adams died a few hours later on the same day, saying just before he breathed his last, &quot;Thomas Jefferson still lives.&quot; He was buried in his own grave-yard at Monticello, beneath a stone upon which was en graved an inscription prepared by his own hand: &quot;Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.&quot; He died solvent, for the sale of his estate discharged his debts to the uttermost farthing. His daughter and her children lost their home and had no means of support. Their circumstances becoming known, the legislature of South Carolina and Virginia each voted her a gift of $10,000, which gave peace and dignity to the remainder of her life. She died in