[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.

Jefferson may have borrowed some of his ideas from _Magna Charta_
(1215) and the _Petition of Right_ (1628); he may have incorporated
in this _Declaration_ the yearnings that thousands of human souls had
already felt, but he voiced those yearnings so well that his utterances
have become classic. It has been said that he "poured the soul of the
continent" into that _Declaration_, but he did more than that. He poured
into it the soul of all freedom-loving humanity, and he was accepted as the
spokesman of the dweller on the Seine as enthusiastically as of the
revolutionists in America. Those who have misconstrued the meaning of his
famous expression, "All men are created equal" have been met with the
adequate reply, "No intelligent man has ever misconstrued it except
intentionally."

America has no _Beowulf_ celebrating the slaying of land-devastating
monsters, but she has in this _Declaration_ a deathless battle song against
the monsters that would throttle Liberty. Outside of Holy Writ, what words
are more familiar to our ears than these?--

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal;