From a story on smithsonianmag.com by Maris Kreizman headlined “What Makes the Library of Congress a Monument to Democracy”:

It was a hot and dismal day in Charlottesville, Virginia, in June 1815 as Thomas Jefferson watched the last of ten wagons carry away his entire personal library. His beloved 1744 edition of Cicero was headed north along with nearly 6,500 other volumes, and the Sage of Monticello was bereft. “I cannot live without books,” he wrote to John Adams shortly thereafter.