An excellent standard thermometer at the present time can
be bought for five dollars, and the sum which Mr. Jefferson paid in 1776
was fully equal, in purchasing power, to fifty dollars in our present
currency.
Mr. Jefferson lived then on the south side of Market street, not far
from the corner of Seventh, in Philadelphia. As it was the only house
then standing in that part of the street, he was unable in after years
to designate the exact spot, though he was always under the impression
that it was a corner house, either on the corner of Seventh street or
very near it. The owner of the house, named Graaf, was a young man, the
son of a German, and then newly married. Soon after coming to
Philadelphia, Mr. Jefferson hired the whole of the second floor, ready
furnished; and as the floor consisted of but two rooms--a parlor and a
bed-room--we may conjecture that the house was of no great size. It was
in that parlor that he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
The writing-desk upon which he wrote it exists in Boston, and is still
possessed by the venerable friend and connection of Mr. Jefferson to
whom he gave it. The note which the author of the Declaration wrote when
he sent this writing-desk to the husband of one of his grand-daughters,
has a particular interest for us at this present time.
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