Thomas Jefferson's design of his headstone

could the dead feel any interest in Monuments or other remembrances of them, when, as Anacreon says:

My soul to festive feelings true;
One pang of envy never knew;
And little has it learn'd to dread
The gall that Envy's tongue can shed.

the following would be to my Manes the most gratifying.

On the grave, a plain die or cube of 3.f without any mouldings, surmounted by an Obelisk of 6.f height, each of a single stone.

On the faces of the Obelisk the following inscription, & not a word more

Here was buried
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of American Independance
of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom
& Father of the University of Virginia.

because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be remembered. to be of the coarse stone of which my columns are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials. my bust by Ciracchi, with the pedestal and truncated column on which it stands, might be given to the University if they would place it in the dome room of the Rotunda. on the Die of the Obelisk might be engraved

Born Apr. 2. 1743. O.S.
Died _______

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