19/01/2026
After two tumultuous terms as president, Thomas Jefferson retired to his beloved Monticello, the neoclassical mansion he designed himself on a "little mountain" in Virginia.
He spent his final years engrossed in his passions: gardening, architectural designs for his Poplar Forest retreat and the nascent University of Virginia, and a voluminous correspondence with fellow statesmen and philosophers.
The financial troubles that had plagued him for much of his adult life, stemming partly from inherited debt and the economic downturn following the War of 1812, persisted into his retirement. He was eventually forced to sell his extensive personal library to Congress to alleviate some debt, forming the foundation of a new national library after the British burned the original.
A significant source of solace was the rekindling of his strained friendship with John Adams, his old friend and political rival. Starting in 1812, the two men exchanged hundreds of letters over the next fourteen years, discussing politics, philosophy, and history.
In the end, it was a poignant final chapter. Both men, the last surviving major figures of the Revolution, died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826—exactly the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Unaware that Jefferson had passed away earlier that day at Monticello, Adams' last words are famously reported to have been, "Thomas Jefferson survives".
