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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Jefferson by Henry Childs Merwin
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Henry Childs Merwin
+
+Release Date: June 28, 2010 [Ebook #33011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF‐8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS JEFFERSON***
+
+
+
+
+
+                   *The Riverside Biographical Series*
+
+                                 NUMBER 5
+
+                             THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+                                    BY
+
+                           HENRY CHILDS MERWIN
+
+                      [Illustration: Th. Jefferson]
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           HENRY CHILDS MERWIN
+
+
+                           [Publisher’s emblem]
+
+
+HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street
+Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Avenue
+*The Riverside Press, Cambridge*
+
+
+
+
+
+                   COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HENRY C. MERWIN
+
+                           ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAP.                                        PAGE
+    I.   YOUTH AND TRAINING                      1
+   II.   VIRGINIA IN JEFFERSON’S DAY            16
+  III.   MONTICELLO AND ITS HOUSEHOLD           28
+   IV.   JEFFERSON IN THE REVOLUTION            36
+    V.   REFORM WORK IN VIRGINIA                45
+   VI.   GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA                   59
+  VII.   ENVOY AT PARIS                         71
+ VIII.   SECRETARY OF STATE                     82
+   IX.   THE TWO PARTIES                        98
+    X.   PRESIDENT JEFFERSON                   114
+   XI.   SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM              130
+  XII.   A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE          149
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    I
+
+
+                            YOUTH AND TRAINING
+
+
+Thomas Jefferson was born upon a frontier estate in Albemarle County,
+Virginia, April 13, 1743. His father, Peter Jefferson, was of Welsh
+descent, not of aristocratic birth, but of that yeoman class which
+constitutes the backbone of all societies. The elder Jefferson had
+uncommon powers both of mind and body. His strength was such that he could
+simultaneously “head up”—that is, raise from their sides to an upright
+position—two hogsheads of tobacco, weighing nearly one thousand pounds
+apiece. Like Washington, he was a surveyor; and there is a tradition that
+once, while running his lines through a vast wilderness, his assistants
+gave out from famine and fatigue, and Peter Jefferson pushed on alone,
+sleeping at night in hollow trees, amidst howling beasts of prey, and
+subsisting on the flesh of a pack mule which he had been obliged to kill.
+
+Thomas Jefferson inherited from his father a love of mathematics and of
+literature. Peter Jefferson had not received a classical education, but he
+was a diligent reader of a few good books, chiefly Shakespeare, The
+Spectator, Pope, and Swift; and in mastering these he was forming his mind
+on great literature after the manner of many another Virginian,—for the
+houses of that colony held English books as they held English furniture.
+The edition of Shakespeare (and it is a handsome one) which Peter
+Jefferson used is still preserved among the heirlooms of his descendants.
+
+It was probably in his capacity of surveyor that Mr. Jefferson made the
+acquaintance of the Randolph family, and he soon became the bosom friend
+of William Randolph, the young proprietor of Tuckahoe. The Randolphs had
+been for ages a family of consideration in the midland counties of
+England, claiming descent from the Scotch Earls of Murray, and connected
+by blood or marriage with many of the English nobility. In 1735 Peter
+Jefferson established himself as a planter by patenting a thousand acres
+of land in Goochland County, his estate lying near and partly including
+the outlying hills, which form a sort of picket line for the Blue Mountain
+range. At the same time his friend William Randolph patented an adjoining
+estate of twenty-four hundred acres; and inasmuch as there was no good
+site for a house on Jefferson’s estate, Mr. Randolph conveyed to him four
+hundred acres for that purpose, the consideration expressed in the deed,
+which is still extant, being “Henry Weatherbourne’s biggest bowl of Arrack
+punch.”
+
+Here Peter Jefferson built his house, and here, three years later, he
+brought his bride,—a handsome girl of nineteen, and a kinswoman of William
+Randolph, being Jane, oldest child of Isham Randolph, then
+Adjutant-General of Virginia. She was born in London, in the parish of
+Shadwell, and Shadwell was the name given by Peter Jefferson to his
+estate. This marriage was a fortunate union of the best aristocratic and
+yeoman strains in Virginia.
+
+In the year 1744 the new County of Albemarle was carved out of Goochland
+County, and Peter Jefferson was appointed one of the three justices who
+constituted the county court and were the real rulers of the shire. He was
+made also Surveyor, and later Colonel of the county. This last office was
+regarded as the chief provincial honor in Virginia, and it was especially
+important when he held it, for it was the time of the French war, and
+Albemarle was in the debatable land.
+
+In the midst of that war, in August, 1757, Peter Jefferson died suddenly,
+of a disease which is not recorded, but which was probably produced by
+fatigue and exposure. He was a strong, just, kindly man, sought for as a
+protector of the widow and the orphan, and respected and loved by Indians
+as well as white men. Upon his deathbed he left two injunctions regarding
+his son Thomas: one, that he should receive a classical education; the
+other, that he should never be permitted to neglect the physical exercises
+necessary for health and strength. Of these dying commands his son often
+spoke with gratitude; and he used to say that if he were obliged to choose
+between the education and the estate which his father gave him, he would
+choose the education. Peter Jefferson left eight children, but only one
+son besides Thomas, and that one died in infancy. Less is known of
+Jefferson’s mother; but he derived from her a love of music, an
+extraordinary keenness of susceptibility, and a corresponding refinement
+of taste.
+
+His father’s death left Jefferson his own master. In one of his later
+letters he says: “At fourteen years of age the whole care and direction of
+myself were thrown on myself entirely, without a relative or a friend
+qualified to advise or guide me.”
+
+The first use that he made of his liberty was to change his school, and to
+become a pupil of the Rev. James Maury,—an excellent clergyman and
+scholar, of Huguenot descent, who had recently settled in Albemarle
+County. With him young Jefferson continued for two years, studying Greek
+and Latin, and becoming noted, as a schoolmate afterward reported, for
+scholarship, industry, and shyness. He was a good runner, a keen
+fox-hunter, and a bold and graceful rider.
+
+At the age of sixteen, in the spring of 1760, he set out on horseback for
+Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, where he proposed to enter the
+college of William and Mary. Up to this time he had never seen a town, or
+even a village, except the hamlet of Charlottesville, which is about four
+miles from Shadwell. Williamsburg—described in contemporary language as
+“the centre of taste, fashion, and refinement”—was an unpaved village, of
+about one thousand inhabitants, surrounded by an expanse of dark green
+tobacco fields as far as the eye could reach. It was, however, well
+situated upon a plateau midway between the York and James rivers, and was
+swept by breezes which tempered the heat of the summer sun and kept the
+town free from mosquitoes.
+
+Williamsburg was also well laid out, and it has the honor of having served
+as a model for the city of Washington. It consisted chiefly of a single
+street, one hundred feet broad and three quarters of a mile long, with the
+capitol at one end, the college at the other, and a ten-acre square with
+public buildings in the middle. Here in his palace lived the colonial
+governor. The town also contained “ten or twelve gentlemen’s families,
+besides merchants and tradesmen.” These were the permanent inhabitants;
+and during the “season”—the midwinter months—the planters’ families came
+to town in their coaches, the gentlemen on horseback, and the little
+capital was then a scene of gayety and dissipation.
+
+Such was Williamsburg in 1760 when Thomas Jefferson, the frontier
+planter’s son, rode slowly into town at the close of an early spring day,
+surveying with the outward indifference, but keen inward curiosity of a
+countryman, the place which was to be his residence for seven years,—in
+one sense the most important, because the most formative, period of his
+life. He was a tall stripling, rather slightly built,—after the model of
+the Randolphs,—but extremely well-knit, muscular, and agile. His face was
+freckled, and his features were somewhat pointed. His hair is variously
+described as red, reddish, and sandy, and the color of his eyes as blue,
+gray, and also hazel. The expression of his face was frank, cheerful, and
+engaging. He was not handsome in youth, but “a very good-looking man in
+middle age, and quite a handsome old man.” At maturity he stood six feet
+two and a half inches. “Mr. Jefferson,” said Mr. Bacon, at one time the
+superintendent of his estate, “was well proportioned and straight as a
+gun-barrel. He was like a fine horse, he had no surplus flesh. He had an
+iron constitution, and was very strong.”
+
+Jefferson was always the most cheerful and optimistic of men. He once
+said, after remarking that something must depend “on the chapter of
+events:” “I am in the habit of turning over the next leaf with hope, and,
+though it often fails me, there is still another and another behind.” No
+doubt this sanguine trait was due in part at least to his almost perfect
+health. He was, to use his own language, “blessed with organs of digestion
+which accepted and concocted, without ever murmuring, whatever the palate
+chose to consign to them.” His habits through life were good. He never
+smoked, he drank wine in moderation, he went to bed early, he was regular
+in taking exercise, either by walking or, more commonly, by riding on
+horseback.
+
+The college of William and Mary in Jefferson’s day is described by Mr.
+Parton as “a medley of college, Indian mission, and grammar school,
+ill-governed, and distracted by dissensions among its ruling powers.” But
+Jefferson had a thirst for knowledge and a capacity for acquiring it,
+which made him almost independent of institutions of learning. Moreover,
+there was one professor who had a large share in the formation of his
+mind. “It was my great good fortune,” he wrote in his brief autobiography,
+“and what probably fixed the destinies of my life, that Dr. William Small,
+of Scotland, was then professor of mathematics; a man profound in most of
+the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication and
+an enlarged liberal mind. He, most happily for me, soon became attached to
+me, and made me his daily companion when not engaged in the school; and
+from his conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science,
+and of the system of things in which we are placed.”
+
+Jefferson, like all well-bred Virginians, was brought up as an
+Episcopalian; but as a young man, perhaps owing in part to the influence
+of Dr. Small, he ceased to believe in Christianity as a religion, though
+he always at home attended the Episcopal church, and though his daughters
+were brought up in that faith. If any theological term is to be applied to
+him, he should be called a Deist. Upon the subject of his religious faith,
+Jefferson was always extremely reticent. To one or two friends only did he
+disclose his creed, and that was in letters which were published after his
+death. When asked, even by one of his own family, for his opinion upon any
+religious matter, he invariably refused to express it, saying that every
+person was bound to look into the subject for himself, and to decide upon
+it conscientiously, unbiased by the opinions of others.
+
+Dr. Small introduced Jefferson to other valuable acquaintances; and, boy
+though he was, he soon became the fourth in a group of friends which
+embraced the three most notable men in the little metropolis. These were,
+beside Dr. Small, Francis Fauquier, the acting governor of the province,
+appointed by the crown, and George Wythe. Fauquier was a courtly,
+honorable, highly cultivated man of the world, a disciple of Voltaire, and
+a confirmed gambler, who had in this respect an unfortunate influence upon
+the Virginia gentry,—not, however, upon Jefferson, who, though a lover of
+horses, and a frequenter of races, never in his life gambled or even
+played cards. Wythe was then just beginning a long and honorable career as
+lawyer, statesman, professor, and judge. He remained always a firm and
+intimate friend of Jefferson, who spoke of him, after his death, as “my
+second father.” It is an interesting fact that Thomas Jefferson, John
+Marshall, and Henry Clay were all, in succession, law students in the
+office of George Wythe.
+
+Many of the government officials and planters who flocked to Williamsburg
+in the winter were related to Jefferson on his mother’s side, and they
+opened their houses to him with Virginia hospitality. We read also of
+dances in the “Apollo,” the ball-room of the old Raleigh tavern, and of
+musical parties at Gov. Fauquier’s house, in which Jefferson, who was a
+skillful and enthusiastic fiddler, always took part. “I suppose,” he
+remarked in his old age, “that during at least a dozen years of my life, I
+played no less than three hours a day.”
+
+At this period he was somewhat of a dandy, very particular about his
+clothes and equipage, and devoted, as indeed he remained through life, to
+fine horses. Virginia imported more thoroughbred horses than any other
+colony, and to this day there is probably a greater admixture of
+thoroughbred blood there than in any other State. Diomed, winner of the
+first English Derby, was brought over to Virginia in 1799, and founded a
+family which, even now, is highly esteemed as a source of speed and
+endurance. Jefferson had some of his colts; and both for the saddle and
+for his carriage he always used high-bred horses.
+
+Referring to the Williamsburg period of his life, he wrote once to a
+grandson: “When I recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I
+associated from time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some
+of them, and become as worthless to society as they were.... But I had the
+good fortune to become acquainted very early with some characters of very
+high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever become
+what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself
+what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situation?
+What course in it will assure me their approbation? I am certain that this
+mode of deciding on my conduct tended more to correctness than any
+reasoning powers that I possesed.”
+
+This passage throws a light upon Jefferson’s character. It does not seem
+to occur to him that a young man might require some stronger motive to
+keep his passions in check than could be furnished either by the wish to
+imitate a good example or by his “reasoning powers.” To Jefferson’s
+well-regulated mind the desire for approbation was a sufficient motive. He
+was particularly sensitive, perhaps morbidly so, to disapprobation. The
+respect, the good-will, the affection of his countrymen were so dear to
+him that the desire to retain them exercised a great, it may be at times,
+an undue influence upon him. “I find,” he once said, “the pain of a little
+censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of
+much praise.”
+
+During his second year at college, Jefferson laid aside all frivolities.
+He sent home his horses, contenting himself with a mile run out and back
+at nightfall for exercise, and studying, if we may believe the biographer,
+no less than fifteen hours a day. This intense application reduced the
+time of his college course by one half; and after the second winter at
+Williamsburg he went home with a degree in his pocket, and a volume of
+Coke upon Lytleton in his trunk.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    II
+
+
+                       VIRGINIA IN JEFFERSON’S DAY
+
+
+To a young Virginian of Jefferson’s standing but two active careers were
+open, law and politics, and in almost every case these two, sooner or
+later, merged in one. The condition of Virginia was very different from
+that of New England,—neither the clerical nor the medical profession was
+held in esteem. There were no manufactures, and there was no general
+commerce.
+
+Nature has divided Virginia into two parts: the mountainous region to the
+west and the broad level plain between the mountains and the sea,
+intersected by numerous rivers, in which, far back from the ocean, the
+tide ebbs and flows. In this tide-water region were situated the tobacco
+plantations which constituted the wealth and were inhabited by the
+aristocracy of the colony. Almost every planter lived near a river and had
+his own wharf, whence a schooner carried his tobacco to London, and
+brought back wines, silks, velvets, guns, saddles, and shoes.
+
+The small proprietors of land were comparatively few in number, and the
+whole constitution of the colony, political and social, was aristocratic.
+Both real estate and slaves descended by force of law to the eldest son,
+so that the great properties were kept intact. There were no townships and
+no town meetings. The political unit was the parish; for the Episcopal
+church was the established church,—a state institution; and the parishes
+were of great extent, there being, as a rule, but one or two parishes in a
+county.
+
+The clergy, though belonging to an establishment, were poorly paid, and
+not revered as a class. They held the same position of inferiority in
+respect to the rich planters which the clergy of England held in respect
+to the country gentry at the same period. Being appointed by the crown,
+they were selected without much regard to fitness, and they were
+demoralized by want of supervision, for there were no resident bishops,
+and, further, by the uncertain character of their incomes, which, being
+paid in tobacco, were subject to great fluctuations. A few were men of
+learning and virtue who performed their duties faithfully, and eked out
+their incomes by taking pupils. “It was these few,” remarks Mr. Parton,
+“who saved civilization in the colony.” A few others became cultivators of
+tobacco, and acquired wealth. But the greater part of the clergy were
+companions and hangers-on of the rich planters,—examples of that type
+which Thackeray so well describes in the character of Parson Sampson in
+“The Virginians.” Strange tales were told of these old Virginia parsons.
+One is spoken of as pocketing annually a hundred dollars, the revenue of a
+legacy for preaching four sermons a year against atheism, gambling,
+racing, and swearing,—for all of which vices, except the first, he was
+notorious.
+
+This period, the middle half of the eighteenth century, was, as the reader
+need not be reminded, that in which the English church sank to its lowest
+point. It was the era when the typical country parson was a convivial
+fox-hunter; when the Fellows of colleges sat over their wine from four
+o’clock, their dinner hour, till midnight or after; when the highest type
+of bishop was a learned man who spent more time in his private studies
+than in the duties of his office; when the cathedrals were neglected and
+dirty, and the parish churches were closed from Sunday to Sunday. In
+England, the reaction produced Methodism, and, later, the Tractarian
+movement; and we are told that even in Virginia, “swarms of Methodists,
+Moravians, and New-Light Presbyterians came over the border from
+Pennsylvania, and pervaded the colony.”
+
+Taxation pressed with very unequal force upon the poor, and the right of
+voting was confined to freeholders. There was no system of public schools,
+and the great mass of the people were ignorant and coarse, but morally and
+physically sound,—a good substructure for an aristocratic society. Wealth
+being concentrated mainly in the hands of a few, Virginia presented
+striking contrasts of luxury and destitution, whereas in the neighboring
+colony of Pennsylvania, where wealth was more distributed and society more
+democratic, thrift and prosperity were far more common.
+
+“In Pennsylvania,” relates a foreign traveler, “one sees great numbers of
+wagons drawn by four or more fine fat horses.... In the slave States we
+sometimes meet a ragged black boy or girl driving a team consisting of a
+lean cow and a mule; and I have seen a mule, a bull, and a cow, each
+miserable in its appearance, composing one team, with a half-naked black
+slave or two riding or driving as occasion suited.” And yet between
+Richmond and Fredericksburg, “in the afternoon, as our road lay through
+the woods, I was surprised to meet a family party traveling along in as
+elegant a coach as is usually met with in the neighborhood of London, and
+attended by several gayly dressed footmen.”
+
+Virginia society just before the Revolution perfectly illustrated Buckle’s
+remark about leisure: “Without leisure, science is impossible; and when
+leisure has been won, most of the class possessing it will waste it in the
+pursuit of pleasure, and a _few_ will employ it in the pursuit of
+knowledge.” Men like Jefferson, George Wythe, and Madison used their
+leisure for the good of their fellow-beings and for the cultivation of
+their minds; whereas the greater part of the planters—and the poor whites
+imitated them—spent their ample leisure in sports, in drinking, and in
+absolute idleness. “In spite of the Virginians’ love for dissipation,”
+wrote a famous French traveler, “the taste for reading is commoner among
+men of the first rank than in any other part of America; but the populace
+is perhaps more ignorant there than elsewhere.” “The Virginia virtues,”
+says Mr. Henry Adams, “were those of the field and farm—the simple and
+straightforward mind, the notions of courage and truth, the absence of
+mercantile sharpness and quickness, the rusticity and open-handed
+hospitality.” Virginians of the upper class were remarkable for their
+high-bred courtesy,—a trait so inherent that it rarely disappeared even in
+the bitterness of political disputes and divisions. This, too, was the
+natural product of a society based not on trade or commerce, but on land.
+“I blush for my own people,” wrote Dr. Channing, from Virginia, in 1791,
+“when I compare the selfish prudence of a Yankee with the generous
+confidence of a Virginian. Here I find great vices, but greater virtues
+than I left behind me.” There was a largeness of temper and of feeling in
+the Virginia aristocracy, which seems to be inseparable from people living
+in a new country, upon the outskirts of civilization. They had the pride
+of birth, but they recognized other claims to consideration, and were as
+far as possible from estimating a man according to the amount of his
+wealth.
+
+Slavery itself was probably a factor for good in the character of such a
+man as Jefferson,—it afforded a daily exercise in the virtues of
+benevolence and self-control. How he treated the blacks may be gathered
+from a story, told by his superintendent, of a slave named Jim who had
+been caught stealing nails from the nail-factory: “When Mr. Jefferson
+came, I sent for Jim, and I never saw any person, white or black, feel as
+badly as he did when he saw his master. The tears streamed down his face,
+and he begged for pardon over and over again. I felt very badly myself.
+Mr. Jefferson turned to me and said, ‘Ah, sir, we can’t punish him. He has
+suffered enough already.’ He then talked to him, gave him a heap of good
+advice, and sent him to the shop.... Jim said: ‘Well I’se been a-seeking
+religion a long time, but I never heard anything before that sounded so,
+or made me feel so, as I did when Master said, “Go, and don’t do so any
+more,” and now I’se determined to seek religion till I find it;’ and sure
+enough he afterwards came to me for a permit to go and be baptized.... He
+was always a good servant afterward.”
+
+Another element that contributed to the efficiency and the high standard
+of the early Virginia statesman was a good, old-fashioned classical
+education. They were familiar, to use Matthew Arnold’s famous expression,
+“with the best that has ever been said or done.” This was no small
+advantage to men who were called upon to act as founders of a republic
+different indeed from the republics of Greece and Rome, but still based
+upon the same principles, and demanding an exercise of the same heroic
+virtues. The American Revolution would never have cut quite the figure in
+the world which history assigns to it, had it not been conducted with a
+kind of classic dignity and decency; and to this result nobody contributed
+more than Jefferson.
+
+Such was Virginia in the eighteenth century,—at the base of society, the
+slaves; next, a lower class, rough, ignorant, and somewhat brutal, but
+still wholesome, and possessing the primitive virtues of courage and
+truth; and at the top, the landed gentry, luxurious, proud, idle and
+dissipated for the most part, and yet blossoming into a few characters of
+a type so high that the world has hardly seen a better. Had he been born
+in Europe, Jefferson would doubtless have devoted himself to music, or to
+architecture, or to literature, or to science,—for in all these directions
+his taste was nearly equally strong; but these careers being closed to him
+by the circumstances of the colony, he became a lawyer, and then, under
+pressure of the Revolution, a politician and statesman.
+
+During the four years following his graduation, Jefferson spent most of
+the winter months at Williamsburg, pursuing his legal and other studies,
+and the rest of the year upon the family plantation, the management of
+which had devolved upon him. Now, as always, he was the most industrious
+of men. He lived, as Mr. Parton remarks, “with a pen in his hand.” He kept
+a garden book, a farm book, a weather book, a receipt book, a cash book,
+and, while he practiced law, a fee book. Many of these books are still
+preserved, and the entries are as legible now as when they were first
+written down in Jefferson’s small but clear and graceful hand,—the hand of
+an artist. Jefferson, as one of his old friends once remarked, _hated_
+superficial knowledge; and he dug to the roots of the common law, reading
+deeply in old reports written in law French and law Latin, and especially
+studying Magna Charta and Bracton.
+
+He found time also for riding, for music, and dancing; and in his
+twentieth year he became enamored of Miss Rebecca Burwell, a Williamsburg
+belle more distinguished, tradition reports, for beauty than for
+cleverness. But Jefferson was not yet in a position to marry,—he even
+contemplated a foreign tour; and the girl, somewhat abruptly, married
+another lover. The wound seems not to have been a deep one. Jefferson, in
+fact, though he found his chief happiness in family affection, and though
+capable of strong and lasting attachments, was not the man for a romantic
+passion. He was a philosopher of the reasonable, eighteenth-century type.
+No one was more kind and just in the treatment of his slaves, but he did
+not free them, as George Wythe, perhaps foolishly, did; and he was even
+cautious about promulgating his views as to the folly and wickedness of
+slavery, though he did his best to promote its abolition by legislative
+measures. There was not in Jefferson the material for a martyr or a Don
+Quixote; but that was Nature’s fault, not his. It may be said of every
+particular man that there is a certain depth to which he cannot sink, and
+there is a certain height to which he cannot rise. Within the intermediate
+zone there is ample exercise for free-will; and no man struggled harder
+than Jefferson to fulfill all the obligations which, as he conceived, were
+laid upon him.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   III
+
+
+                       MONTICELLO AND ITS HOUSEHOLD
+
+
+In April, 1764, Jefferson came of age, and his first public act was a
+characteristic one. For the benefit of the neighborhood, he procured the
+passage of a statute to authorize the dredging of the Rivanna River upon
+which his own estate bordered in part. He then by private subscriptions
+raised a sum sufficient for carrying out this purpose; and in a short time
+the stream, upon which before a bark canoe would hardly have floated, was
+made available for the transportation of farm produce to the James River,
+and thence to the sea.
+
+In 1766, he made a journey to Philadelphia, in order to be inoculated for
+smallpox, traveling in a light gig drawn by a high-spirited horse, and
+narrowly escaping death by drowning in one of the numerous rivers which
+had to be forded between Charlottesville and Philadelphia. In the
+following year, about the time of his twenty-fourth birthday, he was
+admitted to the bar, and entered almost immediately upon a large and
+lucrative practice. He remained at the bar only seven years, but during
+most of this time his professional income averaged more than £2500 a year;
+and he increased his paternal estate from 1900 acres to 5000 acres. He
+argued with force and fluency, but his voice was not suitable for public
+speaking, and soon became husky. Moreover, Jefferson had an intense
+repugnance to the arena. He shrank with a kind of nervous horror from a
+personal contest, and hated to be drawn into a discussion. The turmoil and
+confusion of a public body were hideous to him;—it was as a writer, not as
+a speaker, that he won fame, first in the Virginia Assembly, and afterward
+in the Continental Congress.
+
+In October, 1768, Jefferson was chosen to represent Albemarle County in
+the House of Burgesses of Virginia; and thus began his long political
+career of forty years. A resolution which he formed at the outset is
+stated in the following letter written in 1792 to a friend who had offered
+him a share in an undertaking which promised to be profitable:—
+
+“When I first entered on the stage of public life (now twenty-four years
+ago) I came to a resolution never to engage, while in public office, in
+any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear any
+other character than that of a farmer. I have never departed from it in a
+single instance; and I have in multiplied instances found myself happy in
+being able to decide and to act as a public servant, clear of all
+interest, in the multiform questions that have arisen, wherein I have seen
+others embarrassed and biased by having got themselves in a more
+interested situation.”
+
+During the next few years there was a lull in political affairs,—a sullen
+calm before the storm of the Revolution; but they were important years in
+Mr. Jefferson’s life. In February, 1770, the house at Shadwell, where he
+lived with his mother and sisters, was burned to the ground, while the
+family were away. “Were none of my books saved?” Jefferson asked of the
+negro who came to him, breathless, with news of the disaster. “No,
+master,” was the reply, “but we saved the fiddle.”
+
+In giving his friend Page an account of the fire, Jefferson wrote: “On a
+reasonable estimate, I calculate the cost of the books burned to have been
+£200. Would to God it had been the money,—then had it never cost me a
+sigh!” Beside the books, Jefferson lost most of his notes and papers; but
+no mishap, not caused by his own fault, ever troubled his peace of mind.
+
+After the fire, his mother and the children took temporary refuge in the
+home of an overseer, and Jefferson repaired to Monticello,—as he had named
+the elevated spot on the paternal estate where he had already begun to
+build the house which was his home for the remainder of his life.
+
+Monticello is a small outlying peak, upon the outskirts of the mountainous
+part of Virginia, west of the tide-water region, and rising 580 feet above
+the plain at its foot. Upon its summit there is a space of about six
+acres, leveled partly by nature and partly by art; and here, one hundred
+feet back from the brow of the hill, Jefferson built his house. It is a
+long, low building,—still standing,—with a Grecian portico in front,
+surmounted by a cupola. The road by which it is approached winds round and
+round, so as to make the ascent less difficult. In front of the house
+three long terraces, terminating in small pavilions, were constructed; and
+upon the northern terrace, or in its pavilion, Jefferson and his friends
+used to sit on summer nights gazing off toward the Blue Ridge, some eighty
+miles distant, or upon the nearer peaks of the Ragged Mountains. The
+altitude is such that neither dew nor mosquitoes can reach it.
+
+To this beautiful but as yet uncompleted mountain home, Jefferson, in
+January, 1772, brought his bride. She was Martha Skelton, who had been
+left a widow at nineteen, and was now twenty-two, a daughter of John
+Wayles, a leading and opulent lawyer. Martha Skelton was a tall,
+beautiful, highly educated young woman, of graceful carriage, with hazel
+eyes, literary in her tastes, a skillful performer upon the spinnet, and a
+notable housewife whose neatly kept account books are still preserved.
+They were married at “The Forest,” her father’s estate in Charles City
+County, and immediately set out for Monticello.
+
+Two years later, in 1774, died Dabney Carr, a brilliant and patriotic
+young lawyer, Jefferson’s most intimate friend, and the husband of his
+sister Martha. Dabney Carr left six small children, whom, with their
+mother, Jefferson took under his wing, and they were brought up at
+Monticello as if they had been his own children. Jefferson loved children,
+and he had, in common with that very different character, Aaron Burr, an
+instinct for teaching. While still a young man himself, he was often
+called upon to direct the studies of other young men,—Madison and Monroe
+were in this sense his pupils; and the founding of the University of
+Virginia was an achievement long anticipated by him and enthusiastically
+performed.
+
+Jefferson was somewhat unfortunate in his own children, for, of the six
+that were born to him, only two, Martha and Maria, lived to grow up. Maria
+married but died young, leaving one child. Martha, the first-born, was a
+brilliant, cheerful, wholesome woman. She married Thomas Mann Randolph,
+afterward governor of Virginia. “She was just like her father, in this
+respect,” says Mr. Bacon, the superintendent,—“she was always busy. If she
+wasn’t reading or writing, she was always doing something. She used to sit
+in Mr. Jefferson’s room a great deal, and sew, or read, or talk, as he
+would be busy about something else.” John Randolph of Roanoke once toasted
+her—and it was after his quarrel with her father—as the sweetest woman in
+Virginia. She left ten children, and many of her descendants are still
+living.
+
+To her, and to his other daughter, Maria, who is described as being more
+beautiful and no less amiable than her sister, but not so intellectual,
+Jefferson owed the chief happiness of his life. Like many another man who
+has won fame and a high position in the world, he counted these things but
+as dust and ashes in comparison with family affection.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IV
+
+
+                       JEFFERSON IN THE REVOLUTION
+
+
+Shortly after Mr. Jefferson’s marriage, the preliminary movements of the
+Revolution began, and though he took an active part in them it was not
+without reluctance. Even after the battle of Bunker Hill, namely, in
+November, 1775, he wrote to a kinsman that there was not a man in the
+British Empire who more cordially loved a union with Great Britain than he
+did. John Jay said after the Revolution: “During the course of my life,
+and until the second petition of Congress in 1775, I never did hear any
+American of any class or description express a wish for the independence
+of the colonies.”
+
+But these friendly feelings were first outraged and then extinguished by a
+long series of ill-considered and oppressive acts, covering, with some
+intermissions, a period of about twelve years. Of these the most
+noteworthy were the Stamp Act, which amounted to taxation without
+representation, and the impost on tea, which was coupled with a provision
+that the receipts should be applied to the salaries of officers of the
+crown, thus placing them beyond the control of the local assemblies. The
+crown officers were also authorized to grant salaries and pensions at
+their discretion; and a board of revenue commissioners for the whole
+country was established at Boston, and armed with despotic powers. These
+proceedings amounted to a deprivation of liberty, and they were aggravated
+by the king’s contemptuous rejection of the petitions addressed to him by
+the colonists. We know what followed,—the burning of the British war
+schooner, Gaspee, by leading citizens of Providence, and the famous
+tea-party in Boston harbor.
+
+Meanwhile Virginia had not been inactive. In March, 1772, a few young men,
+members of the House of Burgesses, met at the Raleigh Tavern in
+Williamsburg. They were Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and his brother,
+Thomas Jefferson, and a few others. They drew up several resolutions, the
+most important of which called for the appointment of a standing committee
+and for an invitation to the other colonies to appoint like committees for
+mutual information and assistance in the struggle against the crown. A
+similar resolution had been adopted in Massachusetts two years before, but
+without any practical result. The Virginia resolution was passed the next
+day by the House of Burgesses, and it gave rise to those proceedings which
+ushered in the Revolution.
+
+The first Continental Congress was to meet in Philadelphia, in September,
+1774; and Jefferson, in anticipation, prepared a draft of instructions for
+the delegates who were to be elected by Virginia. Being taken ill himself,
+on his way to the convention, he sent forward a copy of these
+instructions. They were considered too drastic to be adopted by the
+convention; but some of the members caused them to be published under the
+title of “A Summary View of the Rights of America.” The pamphlet was
+extensively read in this country, and a copy which had been sent to London
+falling into the hands of Edmund Burke, he had it reprinted in England,
+where it ran through edition after edition. Jefferson’s name thus became
+known throughout the colonies and in England.
+
+The “Summary View” is in reality a political essay. Its author wasted no
+time in discussing the specific legal and constitutional questions which
+had arisen between the colonies and the crown; but he went to the root of
+the matter, and with one or two generalizations as bold and original as if
+they had been made by Rousseau, he cut the Gordian knot, and severed
+America from the Parliament of Great Britain. He admitted some sort of
+dependence upon the crown, but his two main principles were these: (1)
+that the soil of this country belonged to the people who had settled and
+improved it, and that the crown had no right to sell or give it away; (2)
+that the right of self-government was a right natural to every people, and
+that Parliament, therefore, had no authority to make laws for America.
+Jefferson was always about a century in advance of his time; and the
+“Summary View” substantially anticipated what is now the acknowledged
+relation of England to her colonies.
+
+Jefferson was elected a member of the Continental Congress at its second
+session; and he made a rapid journey to Philadelphia in a chaise, with two
+led horses behind, reaching there the night before Washington set out for
+Cambridge. The Congress was composed mainly of young men. Franklin, the
+oldest member, was seventy-one, and a few others were past sixty.
+Washington was forty-three; John Adams, forty; Patrick Henry, a year or
+two younger; John Rutledge, thirty-six; his brother, twenty-six; John
+Langdon and William Paca, thirty-five, John Jay, thirty; Thomas Stone,
+thirty-two, and Jefferson, thirty-two.
+
+Jefferson soon became intimate with John Adams, who in later years said of
+him: “Though a silent member of Congress, he was so prompt, frank,
+explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation—not even Samuel
+Adams was more so—that he soon seized upon my heart.”
+
+Jefferson, as we have seen, was not fitted to shine as an orator, still
+less in debate. But as a writer he had that capacity for style which
+comes, if it comes at all, as a gift of nature; which needs to be
+supplemented, but which cannot be supplied, by practice and study. In some
+of his early letters there are slight reminders of Dr. Johnson’s manner,
+and still more of Sterne’s. Sterne indeed was one of his favorite authors.
+However, these early traces of imitation were absorbed very quickly; and,
+before he was thirty, Jefferson became master of a clear, smooth,
+polished, picturesque, and individual style. To him, therefore, his
+associates naturally turned when they needed such a proclamation to the
+world as the Declaration of Independence; and that document is very
+characteristic of its author. It was imagination that gave distinction to
+Jefferson both as a man and as a writer. He never dashed off a letter
+which did not contain some play of fancy; and whether he was inventing a
+plough or forecasting the destinies of a great Democracy, imagination
+qualified the performance.
+
+One of the most effective forms in which imagination displays itself in
+prose is by the use of a common word in such a manner and context that it
+conveys an uncommon meaning. There are many examples of this rhetorical
+art in Jefferson’s writings, but the most notable one occurs in the noble
+first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: “When, in the course
+of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
+political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume
+among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the
+Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the
+opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
+impel them to the separation.”
+
+Upon this paragraph Mr. Parton eloquently observes: “The noblest utterance
+of the whole composition is the reason given for making the
+Declaration,—‘_A decent __respect for the opinions of mankind_.’ This
+touches the heart. Among the best emotions that human nature knows is the
+veneration of man for man. This recognition of the public opinion of the
+world—the sum of human sense—as the final arbiter in all such
+controversies is the single phrase of the document which Jefferson alone,
+perhaps, of all the Congress, could have originated; and in point of merit
+it was worth all the rest.”
+
+Franklin and John Adams, who were on the committee with Jefferson, made a
+few verbal changes in his draught of the Declaration, and it was then
+discussed and reviewed by Congress for three days. Congress made eighteen
+suppressions, six additions, and ten alterations; and it must be admitted
+that most of these were improvements. For example, Jefferson had framed a
+paragraph in which the king was severely censured for opposing certain
+measures looking to the suppression of the slave trade. This would have
+come with an ill grace from the Americans, since for a century New England
+had been enriching herself by that trade, and the southern colonies had
+subsisted upon the labor which it brought them. Congress wisely struck out
+the paragraph.
+
+The Declaration of Independence was received with rapture throughout the
+country. Everywhere it was read aloud to the people who gathered to hear
+it, amid the booming of guns, the ringing of bells, and the display of
+fireworks. In Philadelphia, after the reading, the late king’s coat of
+arms was burned in Independence Square; in New York the leaden statue, in
+Bowling Green, of George III. was “laid prostrate in the dust,” and
+ordered to be run into bullets. Virginia had already stricken the king’s
+name from her prayer-book; and Rhode Island now forbade her people to pray
+for the king, as king, under a penalty of one hundred thousand pounds! The
+Declaration of Independence, both as a political and literary document,
+has stood the test of time. It has all the classic qualities of an oration
+by Demosthenes; and even that passage in it which has been
+criticised—that, namely, which pronounces all men to be created equal—is
+true in a sense, the truth of which it will take a century or two yet to
+develop.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    V
+
+
+                         REFORM WORK IN VIRGINIA
+
+
+In September, 1776, Jefferson, having resigned his seat in Congress to
+engage in duties nearer home, returned to Monticello. A few weeks later, a
+messenger from Congress arrived to inform him that he had been elected a
+joint commissioner with Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane to represent at Paris
+the newly formed nation. His heart had long been set upon foreign travel;
+but he felt obliged to decline this appointment, first on account of the
+ill health of his wife, and secondly, because he was needed in Virginia as
+a legislator. Not since Lycurgus gave laws to the Spartans had there been
+such an opportunity as then existed in the United States. John Adams
+declared: “The best lawgivers of antiquity would rejoice to live at a
+period like this when, for the first time in the history of the world,
+three millions of people are deliberately _choosing_ their government and
+institutions.”
+
+Of all the colonies, Virginia offered the best field for reform, because,
+as we have already seen, she had by far the most aristocratic political
+and social system; and it is extraordinary how quickly the reform was
+effected by Jefferson and his friends. In ordinary times of peace the task
+would have been impossible; but in throwing off the English yoke, the
+colonists had opened their minds to new ideas; change had become familiar
+to them, and in the general upheaval the rights of the people were
+recognized. A year later, Jefferson wrote to Franklin: “With respect to
+the State of Virginia, in particular, the people seem to have laid aside
+the monarchical and taken up the republican government with as much ease
+as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new set
+of clothes.”
+
+Jefferson’s greatness lay in this, that he was the first statesman who
+trusted the mass of the people. He alone had divined the fact that they
+were competent, morally and mentally, for self-government. It is almost
+impossible for us to appreciate Jefferson’s originality in this respect,
+because the bold and untried theories for which he contended are now
+regarded as commonplace maxims. He may have derived his political ideas in
+part from the French philosophical writers of the eighteenth century,
+although there is no evidence to that effect; but he was certainly the
+first statesman to grasp the idea of democracy as a form of government,
+just as, at a later day, Walt Whitman was the first poet to grasp the idea
+of equality as a social system. Hamilton, John Adams, Pinckney, Gouverneur
+Morris, even Washington himself, all believed that popular government
+would be unsafe and revolutionary unless held in check by a strong
+executive and by an aristocratic senate.
+
+Jefferson in his lifetime was often charged with gross inconsistency in
+his political views and conduct; but the inconsistency was more apparent
+than real. At times he strictly construed, and at times he almost set
+aside the Constitution; but the clue to his conduct can usually be found
+in the fundamental principle that the only proper function of government
+or constitutions is to express the will of the people, and that the people
+are morally and mentally competent to govern. “I am sure,” he wrote in
+1796, “that the mass of citizens in these United States mean well, and I
+firmly believe that they will always act well, whenever they can obtain a
+right understanding of matters.” And Jefferson’s lifelong endeavor was to
+enable the people to form this “right understanding” by educating them.
+His ideas of the scope of public education went far beyond those which
+prevailed in his time, and considerably beyond those which prevail even
+now. For example, a free university course for the most apt pupils
+graduated at the grammar schools made part of his scheme,—an idea most
+nearly realized in the Western States; and those States received their
+impetus in educational matters from the Ordinance of 1787, which was
+largely the product of Jefferson’s foresight.
+
+Happily for Virginia, she did not become a scene of war until the year
+1779, and, meanwhile, Jefferson and his friends lost no time in remodeling
+her constitution. There were no common schools, and the mass of the people
+were more ignorant and rough than their contemporaries in any other
+colony. Elections were scenes of bribery, intimidation, and riot,
+surpassing even those which Hogarth depicted in England. Elkanah Watson,
+of Massachusetts, describes what he saw at Hanover Court House, Patrick
+Henry’s county, in 1778: “The whole county was assembled. The moment I
+alighted, a wretched, pug-nosed fellow assailed me to swap watches. I had
+hardly shaken him off, when I was attacked by a wild Irishman who insisted
+on my swapping horses with him.... With him I came near being involved in
+a boxing-match, the Irishman swearing, I ‘did not trate him like a
+jintleman.’ I had hardly escaped this dilemma when my attention was
+attracted by a fight between two very unwieldy fat men, foaming and
+puffing like two furies, until one succeeded in twisting a forefinger in a
+sidelock of the other’s hair, and in the act of thrusting by this purchase
+his thumb into the latter’s eye, he bawled out, ‘King’s Cruise,’
+equivalent in technical language to ‘Enough.’”
+
+Quakers were put in the pillory, scolding women were ducked, and it is
+said that a woman was burned to death in Princess Anne County for
+witchcraft. The English church, as we have seen, was an established
+church; and all taxpayers, dissenters as well as churchmen, were compelled
+to contribute to its support. Baptist preachers were arrested, and fined
+as disturbers of the peace. The law of entail, both as respects land and
+slaves, was so strict that their descent to the eldest son could not be
+prevented even by agreement between the owner and his heir.
+
+In his reformation of the laws, Jefferson was supported by Patrick Henry,
+now governor, and inhabiting what was still called the palace; by George
+Mason, a patriotic lawyer who drew the famous Virginia Bill of Rights; by
+George Wythe, his old preceptor, and by James Madison, Jefferson’s friend,
+pupil, and successor, who in this year began his political career as a
+member of the House of Burgesses.
+
+Opposed to them were the conservative party led by R. C. Nicholas, head of
+the Virginia bar, a stanch churchman and gentleman of the old school, and
+Edward Pendleton, whom Jefferson described as “full of resource, never
+vanquished; for if he lost the main battle he returned upon you, and
+regained so much of it as to make it a drawn one, by dexterous manœuvres,
+skirmishes in detail, and the recovery of small advantages, which, little
+singly, were important all together. You never knew when you were clear of
+him.”
+
+Intense as the controversy was, fundamental as were the points at issue,
+the speakers never lost that courtesy for which the Virginians were
+remarkable; John Randolph being perhaps the only exception. Even Patrick
+Henry—though from his humble origin and impetuous oratory one might have
+expected otherwise—was never guilty of any rudeness to his opponents. What
+Jefferson said of Madison was true of the Virginia orators in
+general,—“soothing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities
+and softnesses of expression.”
+
+Jefferson struck first at the system of entail. After a three weeks’
+struggle, land and slaves were put upon the same footing as all other
+property,—they might be sold or bequeathed according to the will of the
+possessor. Then came a longer and more bitter contest. Jefferson was for
+abolishing all connection between church and state, and for establishing
+complete freedom of religion. Nine years elapsed before Virginia could be
+brought to that point; but at this session he procured a repeal of the law
+which imposed penalties for attendance at a dissenting meeting-house, and
+also of the law compelling dissenters to pay tithes. The fight was,
+therefore, substantially won; and in 1786, Jefferson’s “Act for
+establishing religion” became the law of Virginia.(1)
+
+Another far-reaching law introduced by Jefferson at this memorable session
+of 1776 provided for the naturalization of foreigners in Virginia, after a
+two years’ residence in the State, and upon a declaration of their
+intention to become American citizens. The bill provided also that the
+minor children of naturalized parents should be citizens of the United
+States when they came of age. The principles of this measure were
+afterward embodied in the statutes of the United States, and they are in
+force to-day.
+
+At this session Jefferson also drew an act for establishing courts of law
+in Virginia, the royal courts having necessarily passed out of existence
+when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Moreover, he set on foot
+a revision of all the statutes of Virginia, a committee with him at the
+head being appointed for this purpose; and finally he procured the removal
+of the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond.
+
+All this was accomplished, mainly by Jefferson’s efforts; and yet the two
+bills upon which he set most store failed entirely. These were, first, a
+comprehensive measure of state education, running up through primary
+schools and grammar schools to a state university, and, secondly, a bill
+providing that all who were born in slavery after the passage of the bill
+should be free.
+
+This was Jefferson’s second ineffectual attempt to promote the abolition
+of slavery. During the year 1768, when he first became a member of the
+House of Burgesses, he had endeavored to procure the passage of a law
+enabling slave-owners to free their slaves, He induced Colonel Bland, one
+of the ablest, oldest, and most respected members to propose the law, and
+he seconded the proposal; but it was overwhelmingly rejected. “I, as a
+younger member,” related Jefferson afterward, “was more spared in the
+debate; but he was denounced as an enemy to his country, and was treated
+with the greatest indecorum.”
+
+In 1778 Jefferson made another attempt:—he brought in a bill forbidding
+the further importation of slaves in Virginia, and this was passed without
+opposition. Again, in 1784, when Virginia ceded to the United States her
+immense northwestern territory, Jefferson drew up a scheme of government
+for the States to be carved out of it which included a provision “that
+after the year 1800 of the Christian Era, there shall be neither slavery
+nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in
+punishment of crimes.” The provision was rejected by Congress.
+
+In his “Notes on Virginia,” written in the year 1781, but published in
+1787, he said: “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual
+exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism,
+on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. Our children see
+this, and learn to imitate it.... With the morals of the people their
+industry also is destroyed. For in a warm climate no one will labor for
+himself who can make another labor for him.... Indeed, I tremble for my
+country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep
+forever.... The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in
+such a contest.”
+
+When the Missouri Compromise question came up, in 1820, Jefferson rightly
+predicted that a controversy had begun which would end in disruption; but
+he made the mistake of supposing that the Northern party were actuated in
+that matter solely by political motives. April 22, 1820, he wrote: “This
+momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me
+with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.... A
+geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and
+political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will
+never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper.... The cession of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is
+a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought if, in that way, a
+general emancipation and expatriation could be effected; and gradually and
+with due sacrifices I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by
+the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in
+one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”
+
+And later, he wrote of the Missouri Compromise, as a “question having just
+enough of the semblance of morality to throw dust into the eyes of the
+people.... The Federalists, unable to rise again under the old division of
+Whig and Tory, have invented a geographical division which gives them
+fourteen States against ten, and seduces their old opponents into a
+coalition with them. Real morality is on the other side. For while the
+removal of the slaves from one State to another adds no more to their
+numbers than their removal from one country to another, the spreading them
+over a larger surface adds to their happiness, and renders their future
+emancipation more practicable.”
+
+These misconceptions as to Northern motives might be ascribed to
+Jefferson’s advanced age, for, as he himself graphically expressed it, he
+then had “one foot in the grave, and the other lifted to follow it;” but
+it would probably be more just to say that they were due, in part, to his
+prejudice against the New England people and especially the New England
+clergy, and in part to the fact that his long retirement in Virginia had
+somewhat contracted his views and sympathies. Jefferson was a man of
+intense local attachments, and he took color from his surroundings. He
+never ceased, however, to regard slavery as morally wrong and socially
+ruinous; and in the brief autobiography which he left behind him he made
+these predictions: “Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate
+than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two
+races, equally free, cannot live in the same government.”
+
+History has justified the second as well as the first of these
+declarations, for, excepting that brief period of anarchy known as “the
+carpet-bag era,” it cannot be maintained that the colored race in the
+Southern States have been at any time, even since their emancipation,
+“equally free,” in the sense of politically free, with their white fellow
+citizens.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    VI
+
+
+                           GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
+
+
+For three years Jefferson was occupied with the legislative duties already
+described, and especially with a revision of the Virginia statutes, and
+then, in June, 1779, he succeeded Patrick Henry as governor of the State.
+It has often been remarked that he was, all through life, a lucky man, but
+in this case fortune did not favor him, for the ensuing two years proved
+to be, so far as Virginia was concerned, by much the worst period of the
+war.
+
+The French alliance, though no doubt an ultimate benefit to the colonies,
+had at first two bad effects: it relaxed the energy of the Americans, who
+trusted that France would fight their battles for them; and it stimulated
+the British to increased exertions. The British commissioners announced
+that henceforth England would employ, in the prosecution of the war, all
+those agencies which “God and nature had placed in her hands.” This meant
+that the ferocity of the Indians would be invoked, a matter of special
+moment to Virginia, since her western frontier swarmed with Indians, the
+bravest of their race.
+
+The colony, it must be remembered, was then of immense extent; for beside
+the present Virginia and West Virginia, Kentucky and the greater part of
+Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were embraced in it. It stretched, in short,
+from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. Upon the seaboard
+Virginia was especially vulnerable, the tide-water region being penetrated
+by numerous bays and rivers, which the enemy’s ships could easily ascend,
+for they were undefended by forts or men. The total navy of the colony was
+four vessels, mounting sixty-two guns, and a few armed boats. The flower
+of the Virginia soldiery, to the number of ten thousand, were in
+Washington’s army, and supplies of men, of arms, of ammunition and food
+were urgently called for by General Gates, who was battling against
+Cornwallis in North Carolina. The militia were supposed to number fifty
+thousand, which included every man between sixteen and fifty years of age;
+but this was only one man for every square mile of territory in the
+present State of Virginia, and of these militiamen it was estimated that,
+east of the Blue Ridge, only about one in five was armed with a gun. The
+treasury was practically bankrupt, and there was a dearth of every kind of
+warlike material.
+
+Such was the situation which confronted, as Mr. Parton puts it, “a lawyer
+of thirty-six, with a talent for music, a taste for art, a love of
+science, literature, and gardening.” The task was one calling rather for a
+soldier than a statesman; but Mr. Jefferson faced it with courage, and on
+the whole with success. In retaliating the cruel measures of the British,
+he showed a firmness which must have been especially difficult for a man
+of his temperament. He put in irons and confined in a dungeon Colonel
+Henry Hamilton and two subordinate officers who had committed atrocities
+upon American prisoners. He caused a prison-ship, like the ships of
+infamous memory which were employed as prisons by the British at New York,
+to be prepared; and the exchange of captives between Virginia and the
+British was stopped. “Humane conduct on our part,” wrote Jefferson, “was
+found to produce no effect. The contrary, therefore, is to be tried. Iron
+will be retaliated by iron, prison-ships for prison-ships, and like for
+like in general.” But in November, 1779, notice was received that the
+English, under their new leader, Sir Henry Clinton, had adopted a less
+barbarous system of warfare; and fortunately Jefferson’s measures of
+reprisal became unnecessary.
+
+Hampered as he was by want of men and money, Jefferson did all that he
+could to supply the needs of the Virginia soldiers with Washington, of the
+army in North Carolina, led by Gates, and of George Rogers Clarke, the
+heroic commander who put down the Indian uprising on the western frontier,
+and captured the English officer who instigated it,—that same Colonel
+Hamilton of whom mention has already been made. The story of Clarke’s
+adventures in the wilderness,—he was a neighbor of Jefferson, only
+twenty-six years old,—of his forced marches, of his masterful dealing with
+the Indians, and finally of his capture of the British force, forms a
+thrilling chapter in the history of the American Revolution.
+
+Many indeed of Jefferson’s constituents censured him as being over-zealous
+in his support of the army of Gates. He stripped Virginia, they said, of
+troops and resources which, as it proved afterward, were needed at home.
+But if Cornwallis were not defeated in North Carolina, it was certain that
+he would overrun the much more exposed Virginia. If he could be defeated
+anywhere, it would be in the Carolinas. Jefferson’s course, it is
+sufficient to say, was that recommended by Washington; and his exertions
+in behalf of the Continental armies were commended in the highest terms
+not only by Washington, but also by Generals Gates, Greene, Steuben, and
+Lafayette. The militia were called out, leaving behind only so many men as
+were required to cultivate the land, wagons were impressed, including two
+belonging to the governor, and attempts were even made—extraordinary for
+Virginia—to manufacture certain much-needed articles. “Our smiths,” wrote
+Jefferson, “are making five hundred axes and some tomahawks for General
+Gates.”
+
+Thus fared the year 1779, and in 1780 things went from bad to worse. In
+April came a letter from Madison, saying that Washington’s army was on the
+verge of dissolution, being only half-clothed, and in a way to be starved.
+The public treasury was empty and the public credit gone. In August
+occurred the disastrous defeat of General Gates at Camden, which left
+Virginia at the mercy of Cornwallis. In October a British fleet under
+Leslie ravaged the country about Portsmouth, but failing to effect a
+juncture with Cornwallis, who was detained in North Carolina by illness
+among his troops, did no further harm. Two months later, however, Benedict
+Arnold sailed up the James River with another fleet, and, after committing
+some depredations at Richmond, sailed down again, escaping by the aid of a
+favorable wind, which hauled from east to west just in the nick of time
+for him.
+
+In June, 1781, Cornwallis invaded Virginia, and no one suffered more than
+Jefferson from his depredations. Tarleton was dispatched to seize the
+governor at Monticello; but the latter was forewarned by a citizen of
+Charlottesville, who, being in a tavern at Louisa when Tarleton and his
+troop swept by on the main road, immediately guessed their destination,
+and mounting his horse, a fleet Virginia thoroughbred, rode by a short cut
+through the woods straight to Monticello, arriving there about three hours
+ahead of Tarleton.
+
+Jefferson took the matter coolly. He first dispatched his family to a
+place of safety, sent his best horse to be shod at a neighboring smithy,
+and then proceeded to sort and separate his papers. He left the house only
+about five minutes before the soldiers entered it.
+
+Two slaves, Martin, Mr. Jefferson’s body servant, and Cæsar, were engaged
+in hiding plate and other articles under the floor of the portico, a
+single plank having been raised for that purpose. As Martin, above, handed
+the last article to Cæsar under the floor, the tramp of the approaching
+cavalry was heard. Down went the plank, shutting in Cæsar, and there he
+remained, without making any outcry, for eighteen hours, in darkness, and
+of course without food or water. One of the soldiers, to try Martin’s
+nerve, clapped a pistol to his breast, and threatened to fire unless he
+would tell which way his master had fled. “Fire away, then,” retorted the
+black, fiercely answering glance for glance, and not receding a hair’s
+breath.
+
+Tarleton and his men scrupulously refrained from injuring Jefferson’s
+property. Cornwallis, on the other hand, who encamped on Jefferson’s
+estate of Elk Hill, lying opposite Elk Island in the James River,
+destroyed the growing crops, burned all the barns and fences, carried
+off—“as was to be expected,” said Mr. Jefferson—the cattle and horses, and
+committed the barbarity of killing the colts that were too young to be of
+service. He carried off, also, about thirty slaves. “Had this been to give
+them freedom,” wrote Jefferson, “he would have done right; but it was to
+consign them to inevitable death from the smallpox and putrid fever, then
+raging in his camp.”
+
+“Some of the miserable wretches crawled home to die,” Mr. Randall relates,
+“and giving information where others lay perishing in hovels or in the
+open air, by the wayside, these were sent for by their generous master;
+and the last moments of all of them were made as comfortable as could be
+done by proper nursing and medical attendance.”
+
+These dreadful scenes, added to the agitation of having twice been
+obliged, at a moment’s notice, to flee from the enemy, to say nothing of
+the anxieties which she must have endured on her husband’s account, were
+too much for Mrs. Jefferson’s already enfeebled constitution. She died on
+September 6, 1782.
+
+Six slave women who were household servants enjoyed for thirty years a
+kind of humble distinction at Monticello as “the servants who were in the
+room when Mrs. Jefferson died;” and the fact that they were there attests
+the affectionate relations which must have existed between them and their
+master and mistress. “They have often told my wife,” relates Mr. Bacon,
+“that when Mrs. Jefferson died they stood around the bed. Mr. Jefferson
+sat by her, and she gave him directions about a good many things that she
+wanted done. When she came to the children, she wept, and could not speak
+for some time. Finally she held up her hand, and, spreading out her four
+fingers, she told him she could not die happy if she thought her four
+children were ever to have a stepmother brought in over them. Holding her
+other hand in his, Mr. Jefferson promised her solemnly that he would never
+marry again;” and the promise was kept.
+
+After his wife’s death Jefferson sank into what he afterward described as
+“a stupor of mind;” and even before that he had been, for the first and
+last time in his life, in a somewhat morbid mental condition. He was an
+excessively sensitive man, and reflections upon his conduct as governor,
+during the raids into Virginia by Arnold and Cornwallis, coming at a time
+when he was overwrought, rankled in his mind. He refused to serve again as
+governor, and desiring to defend his course when in that office, became a
+member of the House of Burgesses in 1781, in order that he might answer
+his critics there; but not a voice was raised against him. In 1782, he was
+again elected to the House, but he did not attend; and both Madison and
+Monroe endeavored in vain to draw him from his seclusion. To Monroe he
+replied: “Before I ventured to declare to my countrymen my determination
+to retire from public employment, I examined well my heart to know whether
+it were thoroughly cured of every principle of political ambition, whether
+no lurking particle remained which might leave me uneasy, when reduced
+within the limits of mere private life. I became satisfied that every
+fibre of that passion was thoroughly eradicated.”
+
+Jefferson was an impulsive man,—in some respects a creature of the moment;
+certainly often, in his own case, mistaking, as a permanent feeling, what
+was really a transitory impression. His language to Monroe must,
+therefore, be taken as the sincere deliverance of a man who, at that time,
+had not the remotest expectation of receiving, or the least ambition to
+attain, the highest offices in the gift of the American people.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   VII
+
+
+                              ENVOY AT PARIS
+
+
+Two years after his wife’s death, namely, in 1784, Jefferson was chosen by
+Congress to serve as envoy at Paris, with John Adams and Benjamin
+Franklin. The appointment came at an opportune moment, when his mind was
+beginning to recover its tone, and he gladly accepted it. It was deemed
+necessary that the new Confederacy should make treaties with the various
+governments of Europe, and as soon as the envoys reached Paris, they drew
+up a treaty such as they hoped might be negotiated. It has been described
+as “the first serious attempt ever made to conduct the intercourse of
+nations on Christian principles;” and, on that account, it failed. To this
+failure there was, however, one exception. “Old Frederick of Prussia,” as
+Jefferson styled him, “met us cordially;” and with him a treaty was soon
+concluded.
+
+In May, 1785, Franklin returned to the United States, and Jefferson was
+appointed minister. “You replace Dr. Franklin,” said the Count of
+Vergennes when Jefferson announced his appointment. “I succeed,—no one can
+replace him,” was the reply.
+
+Jefferson’s residence in Paris at this critical period was a fortunate
+occurrence. It would be a mistake to suppose that he derived his political
+principles from France:—he carried them there; but he was confirmed in
+them by witnessing the injustice and misery which resulted to the common
+people from the monarchical governments of Europe. To James Monroe he
+wrote in June, 1785: “The pleasure of the trip [to Europe] will be less
+than you expect, but the utility greater. It will make you adore your own
+country,—its soil, its climate, its equality, laws, people, and manners.
+My God! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are
+in possession of and which no other people on earth enjoy! I confess I had
+no idea of it myself.”
+
+To George Wythe he wrote in August, 1786: “Preach, my dear sir, a crusade
+against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common
+people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us
+against these evils; and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose
+is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings,
+priests, and nobles, who will rise up among us if we leave the people in
+ignorance.” To Madison, he wrote in January, 1787: “This is a government
+of wolves over sheep.” Jefferson took the greatest pains to ascertain the
+condition of the laboring classes. In the course of a journey in the south
+of France, he wrote to Lafayette, begging him to survey the condition of
+the people for himself. “To do it most effectually,” he said, “you must be
+absolutely incognito; you must ferret the people out of their hovels, as I
+have done; look into their kettles; eat their bread; loll on their beds on
+pretense of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft. You
+will feel a sublime pleasure in the course of the investigation, and a
+sublimer one hereafter, when you shall be able to apply your knowledge to
+the softening of their beds, or the throwing a morsel of meat into their
+kettle of vegetables.”
+
+These excursions among the French peasantry, who, as Jefferson well knew,
+were ruinously taxed in order to support an extravagant court and an idle
+and insolent nobility, made him a fierce Republican. “There is not a
+crowned head in Europe,” he wrote to General Washington, in 1788, “whose
+talents or merits would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the
+people of America.”
+
+But for the French race Jefferson had an affinity. He was glad to live
+with people among whom, as he said, “a man might pass a life without
+encountering a single rudeness.” He liked their polished manners and gay
+disposition, their aptitude for science, for philosophy, and for art; even
+their wines and cookery suited his taste, and his preference in this
+respect was so well known that Patrick Henry once humorously stigmatized
+him as “a man who had abjured his native victuals.”
+
+Jefferson’s stay in Paris corresponded exactly with the “glorious” period
+of the French Revolution. He was present at the Assembly of the Notables
+in 1787, and he witnessed the destruction of the Bastille in 1789.
+
+“The change in this country,” he wrote in March, 1789, “is such as you can
+form no idea of. The frivolities of conversation have given way entirely
+to politics. Men, women, and children talk nothing else ... and mode has
+acted a wonderful part in the present instance. All the handsome young
+women, for example, are for the _tiers étât_, and this is an army more
+powerful in France than the 200,000 men of the king.”
+
+The truth is that an intellectual and moral revolution preceded in France
+the outbreak of the populace. There was an interior conviction that the
+government of the country was excessively unjust and oppressive. A love of
+liberty, a feeling of fraternity, a passion for equality moved the
+intellect and even the aristocracy of France. In this crisis the reformers
+looked toward America, for the United States had just trodden the path
+upon which France was entering. “Our proceedings,” wrote Jefferson to
+Madison in 1789, “have been viewed as a model for them on every
+occasion.... Our [authority] has been treated like that of the Bible, open
+to explanation, but not to question.”
+
+Jefferson’s advice was continually sought by Lafayette and others; and his
+house, maintained in the easy, liberal style of Virginia, was a meeting
+place for the Revolutionary statesmen. Jefferson dined at three or four
+o’clock; and after the cloth had been removed he and his guests sat over
+their wine till nine or ten in the evening.
+
+In July, 1789, the National Assembly appointed a committee to draught a
+constitution, and the committee formally invited the American minister to
+assist at their sessions and favor them with his advice. This function he
+felt obliged to decline, as being inconsistent with his post of minister
+to the king. No man had a nicer sense of propriety than Jefferson; and he
+punctiliously observed the requirements of his somewhat difficult
+situation in Paris.
+
+What gave Mr. Jefferson the greatest anxiety and trouble, was our
+relations with the piratical Barbary powers who held the keys of the
+Mediterranean and sometimes extended their depredations even into the
+Atlantic. It was a question of paying tribute or going to war; and most of
+the European powers paid tribute. In 1784, for example, the Dutch
+contributed to “the high, glorious, mighty, and most noble, King, Prince,
+and Emperor of Morocco,” a mass of material which included thirty cables,
+seventy cannon, sixty-nine masts, twenty-one anchors, fifty dozen
+sail-needles, twenty-four tons of pitch, two hundred and eighty loaves of
+sugar, twenty-four China punch-bowls, three clocks, and one “very large
+watch.”
+
+Jefferson ascertained that the pirates would require of the United States,
+as the price of immunity for its commerce, a tribute of about three
+hundred thousand dollars per annum. “Surely,” he wrote home, “our people
+will not give this. Would it not be better to offer them an equal treaty?
+If they refuse, why not go to war with them?” And he pressed upon Mr. Jay,
+who held the secretaryship of foreign affairs, as the office was then
+called, the immediate establishment of a navy. But Congress would do
+nothing; and it was not till Jefferson himself became President that the
+Barbary pirates were dealt with in a wholesome and stringent manner.
+During the whole term of his residence at Paris he was negotiating with
+the Mediterranean powers for the release of unfortunate Americans, many of
+whom spent the best part of their lives in horrible captivity.
+
+Mr. Jefferson’s self-imposed duties were no less arduous. He kept four
+colleges informed of the most valuable new inventions, discoveries, and
+books. He had a Yankee talent for mechanical improvements, and he was
+always on the alert to obtain anything of this nature which he thought
+might be useful at home. Jefferson himself, by the way, invented the
+revolving armchair, the buggy-top, and a mould board for a plough. He
+bought books for Franklin, Madison, Monroe, Wythe, and himself. He
+informed one correspondent about Watt’s engine, another about the new
+system of canals. He smuggled rice from Turin in his coat pockets; and he
+was continually dispatching to agricultural societies in America seeds,
+roots, nuts, and plants. Houdin was sent over by him to make the statue of
+Washington; and he forwarded designs for the new capitol at Richmond. For
+Buffon he procured the skin of an American panther, and also the bones and
+hide of a New Hampshire moose, to obtain which Governor Sullivan of that
+State organized a hunting-party in the depth of winter and cut a road
+through the forest for twenty miles in order to bring out his quarry.
+
+Jefferson was the most indefatigable of men, and he did not relax in
+Paris. He had rooms at a Carthusian monastery to which he repaired when he
+had some special work on hand. He kept a carriage and horses, but could
+not afford a saddle horse. Instead of riding, he took a walk every
+afternoon, usually of six or seven miles, occasionally twice as long. It
+was while returning with a friend from one of these excursions that he
+fell and fractured his right wrist; and the fracture was set so
+imperfectly that it troubled him ever afterward. It was characteristic of
+Jefferson that he said nothing to his friend as to the injury until they
+reached home, though his suffering from it was great; and, also, that he
+at once began to write with the other hand, making numerous entries, on
+the very night of the accident, in a writing which, though stiff, was, and
+remains, perfectly clear.
+
+Mr. Jefferson’s two daughters had been placed at a convent school near
+Paris, and he was surprised one day to receive a note from Martha, the
+elder, asking his permission to remain in the convent for the rest of her
+life as a nun. For a day or two she received no answer. Then her father
+called in his carriage, and after a short interview with the abbess took
+his daughters away; and thenceforth Martha presided, so far as her age
+permitted, over her father’s household. Not a word upon the subject of her
+request ever passed between them; and long afterward, in telling the story
+to her own children, she praised Mr. Jefferson’s tact in dealing with what
+she described as a transient impulse.
+
+After this incident, Jefferson, thinking that it was time to take his
+daughters home, obtained leave of absence for six months; and the little
+family landed at Norfolk, November 18, 1789. They journeyed slowly
+homeward, stopping at one friend’s house after another, and, two days
+before Christmas, arrived at Monticello, where they were rapturously
+greeted by the slaves, who took the four horses from the carriage and drew
+it up the steep incline themselves; and when he alighted, Mr. Jefferson,
+in spite of himself, was carried into the house on the arms of his black
+servants and friends.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   VIII
+
+
+                            SECRETARY OF STATE
+
+
+Mr. Jefferson had a strong desire to resume his post as minister to
+France, but he yielded to Washington’s earnest request that he should
+become Secretary of State in the new government. He lingered long enough
+at Monticello to witness the marriage of his daughter Martha to Thomas
+Mann Randolph, and then set out upon a cold, wet journey of twenty-one
+days, reaching New York, which was then the seat of government, late in
+March, 1790. He hired a small house at No. 57 Maiden Lane, and immediately
+attacked the arrears of work which had been accumulating for six months.
+The unusual confinement, aggravated, perhaps, by a homesickness, clearly
+revealed in his letters, for his daughters and for Monticello, brought on
+what seems to have been a neuralgic headache which lasted for three weeks.
+It may have been caused in part by the climate of New York, as to which
+Mr. Jefferson observed: “Spring and fall they never have, so far as I can
+learn. They have ten months of winter, two of summer, with some winter
+days interspersed.” But there were other causes beside homesickness and
+headache which made Jefferson unhappy in his new position. Long afterward
+he described them as follows:—
+
+“I had left France in the first year of her Revolution, in the fervor of
+natural rights and zeal for reformation. My conscientious devotion to
+those rights could not be heightened, but it had been aroused and excited
+by daily exercise. The President received me cordially, and my colleagues
+and the circle of principal citizens apparently with welcome. The
+courtesies of dinners given to me, as a stranger newly arrived among them,
+placed me at once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe the
+wonder and mortification with which the table conversations filled me.
+Politics were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over republican
+government was evidently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not
+be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I found myself for the most part the only
+advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among the guests
+there chanced to be some member of that party from the legislative
+houses.”
+
+It must be remembered that Jefferson’s absence in France had been the
+period of the Confederacy, when the inability of Congress to enforce its
+laws and to control the States was so evident and so disastrous that the
+need of a stronger central government had been impressed on men’s minds.
+The new Constitution had been devised to supply that need, but it was
+elastic in its terms, and it avoided all details. Should it be construed
+in an aristocratic or in a democratic spirit, and should the new nation be
+given an aristocratic or a democratic twist? This was a burning question,
+and it gave rise to that long struggle led by Hamilton on one side and by
+Jefferson on the other, which ended with the election of Jefferson as
+President in the year 1800.
+
+Hamilton and his party utterly disbelieved in government by the people.(2)
+John Adams declared that the English Constitution, barring its element of
+corruption, was an ideal constitution. Hamilton went farther and asserted
+that the English form of government, corruption and all, was the best
+practicable form. An aristocratic senate, chosen for a long term, if not
+for life, was thought to be essential even by Mr. Adams. Hamilton’s notion
+was that mankind were incapable of self-government, and must be governed
+in one or two ways,—by force or by fraud. Property was, in his view, the
+ideal basis of government; and he was inclined to fix the possession of “a
+thousand Spanish dollars” as the proper qualification for a voter.
+
+The difference between the Hamiltonian and the Jeffersonian view arises
+chiefly from a different belief as to the connection between education and
+morality. All aristocratic systems must, in the last analysis, be founded
+either upon brute force or else upon the assumption that education and
+morality go hand-in-hand, and that the well-to-do and best educated class
+is morally superior to the less educated. Jefferson rejected this
+assumption, and all real believers in democracy must take their stand with
+him. He once stated his creed upon this point in a letter as follows:—
+
+“The moral sense or conscience is as much a part of man as his leg or
+arm.... It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of
+the body. This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree to the guidance
+of reason, but it is a small stock which is required for this, even a less
+one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and
+a professor. The former will decide it as well and often better than the
+latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules.”
+
+This is sound philosophy. The great problems in government, whether they
+relate to matters external or internal, are moral, not intellectual. There
+are, indeed, purely intellectual problems, such as the question between
+free silver and a gold standard; and as to these problems, the people may
+go wrong. But they are not vital. No nation ever yet achieved glory or
+incurred destruction by taking one course rather than another in a matter
+of trade or finance. The crucial questions are moral questions, and
+experience has shown that as to such matters the people can be trusted. As
+Jefferson himself said, “The will of the majority, the natural law of
+every society, is the only sure guardian of the rights of man. Perhaps
+even this may sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary, and
+short-lived.”
+
+Washington’s cabinet was made up on the theory that it should represent
+not the party in power, but both parties,—for two parties already existed,
+the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, who, under Jefferson’s
+influence, soon became known by the better name of Republicans. The
+cabinet consisted of four members, Jefferson, Secretary of State,
+Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox, Secretary of War, and
+Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General.
+
+Knox sided almost always with Hamilton, and Randolph was an inconstant
+supporter of Jefferson. Though an able and learned man, he was given to
+hair-splitting and hesitation, and, in allusion to his habit of arguing on
+one side, but finally voting upon the other, Jefferson once remarked that
+he usually gave the shell to his friends, and reserved the oyster for his
+opponents.
+
+The political opinions of Jefferson and Hamilton were so diametrically
+opposed that the cabinet was soon torn by dissension. Hamilton was for a
+strong government, for surrounding the President with pomp and etiquette,
+for a central authority as against the authority of the States. In
+pursuance of these ideas, he brought forward his famous measures for
+assumption of the state debts by the national government, for the funding
+of the national debt, and finally for the creation of a national bank.
+Jefferson opposed these measures, and, although the assumption and the
+funding laws had grave faults, and led to speculation, and in the case of
+many persons to financial ruin, yet it must be admitted that Jefferson
+never appreciated their merits.
+
+The truth is that both Hamilton and Jefferson were essential to the
+development of this country; and the principles of each have been adopted
+in part, and rejected in part. Hamilton’s conception of a central
+government predominating over the state governments has been realized,
+though not nearly to the extent to which he would have carried it. On the
+other hand, his various schemes for making the government into an
+aristocracy instead of a democracy have all been abandoned, or, like the
+Electoral College, turned to a use the opposite of what he intended. So,
+Jefferson’s view of state rights has not strictly been maintained; but his
+fundamental principles of popular government and popular education have
+made the United States what it is, and are destined, we hope, when fully
+developed, to make it something better yet.
+
+No less an authority than that of Washington, who appreciated the merits
+of both men, could have kept the peace between them. Hamilton under an
+assumed name attacked Jefferson in the public prints. Jefferson never
+published a line unsigned; but he permitted Philip Freneau, who had slight
+employment as a translator in his department, and the trifling salary of
+$250 a year, to wage war against Hamilton in the gazette which Freneau
+published; and he even stood by while Freneau attacked Washington.
+Washington indeed once gave Jefferson a hint on this subject, which the
+latter refused to take. “He was evidently sore and warm,” wrote Jefferson,
+“and I took his intention to be that I should interfere in some way with
+Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment of translating clerk to my
+office. But I will not do it. His paper has saved our constitution, which
+was galloping fast into monarchy.... And the President has not, ... with
+his usual good sense and _sang froid_, ... seen that, though some bad
+things had passed through it to the public, yet the good have predominated
+immensely.”
+
+In the spring of 1792, Jefferson, who had now been two years in office,
+was extremely anxious to retire, not only because his situation at
+Washington was unpleasant, but because his affairs at home had been so
+neglected during his long absences that he was in danger of bankruptcy.
+His estate was large, but it was incumbered by a debt to English creditors
+of $13,000. Some years before he had sold for cash a farm near Monticello
+in order to discharge this debt; but at that time the Revolutionary war
+had begun, and the Virginia legislature passed an act inviting all men
+owing money to English creditors to deposit the same in the state
+treasury, the State agreeing to pay it over to the English creditors after
+the war. Jefferson accordingly deposited the $13,000 in gold which he had
+just received. Later, however, this law was rescinded, and the money
+received under it was paid back, not in gold, but in paper money of the
+State, which was then so depreciated as to be almost worthless. In riding
+by the farm thus disposed of, Jefferson in after years would sometimes
+point to it and say: “That farm I once sold for an overcoat;”—the price of
+the overcoat having been the $13,000 in paper money. Cornwallis, as we
+have seen, destroyed Jefferson’s property to an amount more than double
+this debt, which might be considered as a second payment of it; but
+Jefferson finally paid it the third time,—and this time into the hands of
+the actual creditor. Meanwhile, he wrote: “The torment of mind I endure
+till the moment shall arrive when I shall not owe a shilling on earth is
+such really as to render life of little value.”
+
+Urged by all these motives, Jefferson had resolved to resign his office in
+1792, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Washington; but the attacks
+made upon him by the Federalists, especially those made in the newspapers,
+were so violent that a retirement at that time would have given the public
+cause to believe that he had been driven from office by his enemies.
+Jefferson, therefore, concluded to remain Secretary of State a few months
+longer; and those few, as it happened, were the most important of the
+whole term.
+
+On January 21, 1793, King Louis of France was executed, and within a week
+thereafter England was at war with the new rulers of the French. Difficult
+questions at once arose under our treaties with France. The French people
+thought that we were in honor bound to assist them in their struggle
+against Great Britain, as they had assisted us; and they sent over as
+minister “Citizen” Genet, in the frigate L’Embuscade. The frigate,
+carrying forty guns and three hundred men, sailed into the harbor of
+Charleston, April 8, 1793, with a liberty-cap for her figure-head, and a
+British prize in her wake. Citizen Genet, even for a Frenchman, was a most
+indiscreet and hot-headed person, and before he had been a week on shore
+he had issued commissions to privateers manned by American citizens.
+L’Embuscade then proceeded to Philadelphia, where, as in Charleston,
+Citizen Genet was welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm. His coming was
+hailed by the Republicans generally with rapture; and their cry was for
+war. “I wish,” wrote Jefferson, in a confidential letter to Monroe, “that
+we may be able to repress the people within the limits of a fair
+neutrality.”
+
+This was the position taken also by Washington and the whole cabinet; and
+it is a striking example of Jefferson’s wisdom, justice, and firmness,
+that, although the bulk of the Republicans were carried off their feet by
+sympathy with France and with Genet, he, the very person in the United
+States who most loved the French and best understood the causes and
+motives of the French Revolution, withstood the storm, and kept his eye
+fixed upon the interests of his own country. England, contrary to the
+treaty which closed the Revolutionary War, still retained her military
+posts in the west; and she was the undisputed mistress of the sea. War
+with her would therefore have been suicidal for the United States. The
+time for that had not yet come. Moreover, if the United States had taken
+sides with France, a war with Spain also would inevitably have followed;
+and Spain then held Florida and the mouth of the Mississippi.
+
+Nevertheless, there were different ways of preserving neutrality: there
+were the offensive way and the friendly way. Hamilton, whose extreme bias
+toward England made him bitter against France, was always for the one;
+Jefferson for the other. A single example will suffice as an illustration.
+M. Genet asked as a favor that the United States should advance an
+installment of its debt to France. Hamilton advised that the request be
+refused without a word of explanation. Jefferson’s opinion was that the
+request should be granted, if that were lawful, and if it were found to be
+unlawful, them that the refusal should be explained. Mr. Jefferson’s
+advice was followed.
+
+Mr. Jefferson, also, though he firmly withstood the many illegal and
+unwarrantable acts attempted by Genet, did so in such a manner as not to
+lose the friendship of the minister or even a degree of control over him.
+To Madison Jefferson wrote of Genet: “He renders my position immensely
+difficult. He does me justice personally; and giving him time to vent
+himself and become more cool, I am on a footing to advise him freely, and
+he respects it; but he will break out again on the very first occasion.”
+
+Finally Citizen Genet, becoming desperate, fitted out one of L’Embuscade’s
+prizes as a frigate to be used against England, which amounted on the part
+of the United States to a breach of neutrality; and being hindered in
+sending her to sea, he threatened to appeal from the President to the
+people of the United States. Thereupon the question arose, what shall be
+done with Genet? and upon this question the cabinet divided with more than
+usual acrimony. Knox was for sending him out of the country without
+ceremony; Hamilton for publishing the whole correspondence between him and
+the government, with a statement of his proceedings. Jefferson was for
+sending an account of the affair to the French government, with copies of
+the correspondence, and a request for Genet’s recall. Meanwhile the whole
+country was thrown into a state of tumultuous excitement. There was a riot
+in Philadelphia; and even the sacred character of Washington was assailed
+in prose and verse.
+
+The President decided to adopt the course proposed by Jefferson; France
+appointed another minister, and the Genet episode ended by his marriage to
+a daughter of George Clinton, governor of New York, in which State he
+lived thereafter as a respectable citizen and a patron of agriculture. He
+died in the year 1834.
+
+The summer of delirium at Philadelphia culminated in the panic and
+desolation of the yellow fever, and every member of the government fled
+from the city, Jefferson being the last to depart.
+
+When, in the next year, the correspondence between Genet and Jefferson,
+and between the English minister and Jefferson, was published, the
+Secretary was seen to have conducted it on his part with so much ability,
+discretion, and tact, and with so true a sense of what was due to each
+nation concerned, that he may be said to have retired to his farm in a
+blaze of glory.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IX
+
+
+                             THE TWO PARTIES
+
+
+When Jefferson at last found himself at Monticello, having resigned his
+office as Secretary of State, he declared and believed that he had done
+with politics forever. To various correspondents he wrote as follows: “I
+think that I shall never take another newspaper of any sort. I find my
+mind totally absorbed in my rural occupations.... No circumstances, my
+dear sir, will ever more tempt me to engage in anything public.... I would
+not give up my retirement for the empire of the universe.”
+
+When Madison wrote in 1795, soliciting him to accept the Republican
+nomination for the presidency, Mr. Jefferson replied: “The little spice of
+ambition which I had in my younger days has long since evaporated, and I
+set still less store by a posthumous than present fame. The question is
+forever closed with me.” Nevertheless, within a few months Mr. Jefferson
+accepted the nomination, chiefly, it is probable, because, with his usual
+sagacity, he foresaw that the Republican candidate would be defeated as
+President, but elected as Vice-President. It must be remembered that at
+that time the candidate receiving the next to the highest number of
+electoral votes was declared to be Vice-President; so that there was
+always a probability that the presidential candidate of the party defeated
+would be chosen to the second office.
+
+There were several reasons why Jefferson would have been glad to receive
+the office of Vice-President. It involved no disagreeable responsibility;
+it called for no great expenditure of money in the way of entertainments;
+it carried a good salary; it required only a few months’ residence at
+Washington. “Mr. Jefferson often told me,” remarks Mr. Bacon, “that the
+office of Vice-President was far preferable to that of President.”
+
+Mr. Jefferson therefore became the Republican nominee for President, and,
+as he doubtless expected, was elected Vice-President, the vote standing as
+follows: Adams, 71; Jefferson, 68; Pinckney, 59; Burr, 30.
+
+It is significant of Mr. Jefferson’s high standing in the country that
+many people believed that he would not deign to accept the office of
+Vice-President; and Madison wrote advising him to come to Washington on
+the 4th of March, and take the oath of office, in order that this belief
+might be dispelled. Jefferson accordingly did so, bringing with him the
+bones of a mastodon, lately discovered, and a little manuscript book
+written in his law-student days, marked “Parliamentary Pocket-Book.” This
+was the basis of that careful and elaborate “Manual of Parliamentary
+Practice” which Jefferson left as his legacy to the Senate.
+
+Upon receiving news of the election Jefferson had written to Madison: “If
+Mr. Adams can be induced to administer the government on its true
+principles, and to relinquish his bias to an English Constitution, it is
+to be considered whether it would not be, on the whole, for the public
+good to come to a good understanding with him as to his future elections.
+He is perhaps the only sure barrier against Hamilton’s getting in.”
+
+Mr. Adams, indeed, at the outset of his administration, was inclined to be
+confidential with Mr. Jefferson; but soon, by one of those sudden turns
+not infrequent with him, he took a different course, and thenceforth
+treated the Vice-President with nothing more than bare civility.
+
+It was a time, indeed, when cordial relations between Federalist and
+Republican were almost impossible. In a letter written at this period to
+Mr. Edward Rutledge, Jefferson said: “You and I have formerly seen warm
+debates, and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics
+would then speak to each other, and separate the business of the Senate
+from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate all
+their lives cross the street to avoid meeting, and turn their heads
+another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats.”
+
+These party feelings were intensified in the year 1798 by what is known as
+the X Y Z business. Mr. Adams had sent three commissioners to Paris to
+negotiate a treaty. Talleyrand, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs,
+held aloof from them; but they were informed by certain mysterious agents
+that a treaty could be had on three conditions, (1) that the President
+should apologize for certain expressions in his recent message to
+Congress; (2) that the United States should loan a large sum of money to
+the French government; (3) that a _douceur_ of $25,000 should be given to
+Talleyrand’s agents.
+
+These insulting proposals were indignantly rejected by the commissioners,
+and being reported in this country, they aroused a storm of popular
+indignation. Preparations for war were made forthwith. General Washington,
+though in failing health, was appointed commander-in-chief,—the real
+command being expected to devolve upon Hamilton, who was named second; men
+and supplies were voted; letters of marque were issued, and war actually
+prevailed upon the high seas. The situation redounded greatly to the
+advantage of the Federalists, for they were always as eager to go to war
+with France as they were reluctant to go to war with England. The newly
+appointed officers were drawn almost, if not quite, without exception from
+the Federalist party, and Hamilton seemed to be on the verge of that
+military career which he had long hoped for. He trusted, as his most
+intimate friend, Gouverneur Morris, said after his death, “that in the
+changes and chances of time we would be involved in some war which might
+strengthen our union and nerve our executive.” So late as 1802, Hamilton
+wrote to Morris, “there must be a systematic and persevering endeavor to
+establish the future of a great empire on foundations much firmer than
+have yet been devised.” At this very time he was negotiating with Miranda
+and with the British government, his design being to use against Mexico
+the army raised in expectation of a war with France.
+
+Hamilton was not the man to overturn the government out of personal
+ambition, nor even in order to set up a monarchy in place of a republic.
+But he had convinced himself that the republic must some day fall of its
+own weight. He was always anticipating a “crisis,” and this word is
+repeated over and over again in his correspondence. It even occurs in the
+crucial sentence of that pathetic document which he wrote on the eve of
+his fatal duel. When the “crisis” came, Hamilton meant to be on hand; and,
+if possible, at the head of an army.
+
+However, the X Y Z affair ended peacefully. The warlike spirit shown by
+the people of the United States had a wholesome effect upon the French
+government; and at their suggestion new envoys were sent over by the
+President, by whom a treaty was negotiated. This wise and patriotic act
+upon the part of Mr. Adams was a benefit to his country, but it aroused
+the bitter anger of the Federalists and ruined his position in that party.
+
+But what was Mr. Jefferson’s attitude during this business? He was not for
+war, and he contended that a distinction should be made between the acts
+of Talleyrand and his agents, and the real disposition of the French
+people. He wrote as follows: “Inexperienced in such manœuvres, the people
+did not permit themselves even to suspect that the turpitude of private
+swindlers might mingle itself unobserved, and give its own hue to the
+communications of the French government, of whose participation there was
+neither proof nor probability.” And again: “But as I view a peace between
+France and England the ensuing winter to be certain, I have thought it
+would have been better for us to have contrived to bear from France
+through the present summer what we have been bearing both from her and
+from England these four years, and still continue to bear from England,
+and to have required indemnification in the hour of peace, when, I firmly
+believe, it would have been yielded by both.”
+
+But this is bad political philosophy. A nation cannot obtain justice by
+submitting to wrongs or insults even for a time. Jefferson himself had
+written long before: “I think it is our interest to punish the first
+insult, because an insult unpunished is the parent of many others.” It is
+possible that he was misled at this juncture by his liking for France, and
+by his dislike of the Federalists and of their British proclivities. It is
+true that the bribe demanded by Talleyrand’s agents might be considered,
+to use Mr. Jefferson’s words, as “the turpitude of private swindlers;” but
+the demand for a loan and for a retraction could be regarded only as
+national acts, being acts of the French government, although the bulk of
+the French people might repudiate them.
+
+Whether Jefferson was right or wrong in the position which he took, he
+maintained it with superb self-confidence and aplomb. For the moment, the
+Federalists had everything their own way. They carried the election.
+Hamilton’s oft-anticipated “crisis” seemed to have arrived at last. But
+Jefferson coolly waited till the storm should blow over. “Our countrymen,”
+he wrote to a friend, “are essentially Republicans. They retain
+unadulterated the principles of ’76, and those who are conscious of no
+change in themselves have nothing to fear in the long run.”
+
+And so it proved. The ascendency of the Federalists was soon destroyed,
+and destroyed forever, by the political crimes and follies which they
+committed; and especially by the alien and sedition laws. The reader need
+hardly be reminded that the alien law gave the President authority to
+banish from the country “all such aliens as _he_ should judge dangerous to
+the peace and safety of the United States,”—a despotic power which no king
+of England ever possessed. The sedition act made it a crime, punishable by
+fine and imprisonment, to speak or write anything “false, scandalous, and
+malicious,” with intent to excite against either House of Congress or
+against the President, “the hatred of the good people of the United
+States.” It can readily be seen what gross oppression was possible under
+this elastic law, interpreted by judges who, to a man, were members of the
+Federal party. Matthew Lyon, of Vermont, ventured to read aloud at a
+political meeting a letter which he had received expressing astonishment
+that the President’s recent address to the House of Representatives had
+not been answered by “an order to send him to a mad-house.” For this Mr.
+Lyon was fined $1,000, and imprisoned in a veritable dungeon.
+
+These unconstitutional and un-American laws were vigorously opposed by
+Jefferson and Madison. In October, 1798, Jefferson wrote: “For my own part
+I consider those laws as merely an experiment on the American mind to see
+how far it will bear an avowed violation of the Constitution. If this goes
+down, we shall immediately see attempted another act of Congress declaring
+that the President shall continue in office during life, reserving to
+another occasion the transfer of the succession to his heirs, and the
+establishment of the Senate for life.”
+
+Jefferson also prepared the famous Kentucky resolutions, which were
+adopted by the legislature of that State,—the authorship, however, being
+kept secret till Jefferson avowed it, twenty years later. These
+much-discussed resolutions have been said to have originated the doctrine
+of nullification, and to contain that principle of secession upon which
+the South acted in 1861. They may be summed up roughly as follows: The
+source of all political power is in the people. The people have, by the
+compact known as the Constitution, granted certain specified powers to the
+federal government; all other powers, if not granted to the several state
+governments, are retained by the people. The alien and sedition laws
+assume the exercise by the federal government of powers not granted to it
+by the Constitution. They are therefore void.
+
+Thus far there can be no question that Jefferson’s argument was sound, and
+its soundness would not be denied, even at the present day. But the
+question then arose: what next? May the laws be disregarded and disobeyed
+by the States or by individuals, or must they be obeyed until some
+competent authority has pronounced them void? and if so, what is that
+authority? We understand now that the Supreme Court has sole authority to
+decide upon the constitutionality of the acts of Congress. It was so held,
+for the first time, in the year 1803, in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison,
+by Chief Justice Marshall and his associates; and that decision, though
+resisted at the time, has long been accepted by the country as a whole.
+But this case did not arise until several years after the Kentucky
+Resolutions were written. Moreover, Marshall was an extreme Federalist,
+and his view was by no means the commonly accepted view. Jefferson scouted
+it. He protested all his life against the assumption that the Supreme
+Court, a body of men appointed for life, and thus removed from all control
+by the people, should have the enormous power of construing the
+Constitution and of passing upon the validity of national laws. In a
+letter written in 1804, he said: “You seem to think it devolved on the
+judges to decide the validity of the sedition law. But nothing in the
+Constitution has given them a right to decide for the executive more than
+the executive to decide for them. But the opinion which gives to the
+judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not—not
+only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislature
+and executive also in their spheres—would make the judiciary a despotic
+branch.”(3)
+
+In the Kentucky resolutions, Jefferson argued, first, that the
+Constitution was a compact between the States; secondly, that no person or
+body had been appointed by the Constitution as a common judge in respect
+to questions arising under the Constitution between any one State and
+Congress, or between the people and Congress; and thirdly, “as in all
+other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has
+an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode
+and measure of redress.” It was open to him to take this view, because it
+had not yet been decided that the Supreme Court was the “common judge”
+appointed by the Constitution; and the Constitution itself was not
+explicit upon the point. Moreover, the laws in question had not been
+passed upon by the Supreme Court,—they expired by limitation before that
+stage was reached.
+
+It must be admitted, then, that the Kentucky resolutions do contain the
+principles of nullification. But at the time when they were written,
+nullification was a permissible doctrine, because it was not certainly
+excluded by the Constitution. In 1803, as we have seen, the Constitution
+was interpreted by the Supreme Court as excluding this doctrine; and that
+decision having been reaffirmed repeatedly, and having been acquiesced in
+by the nation for fifty years, may fairly be said to have become by the
+year 1861 the law of the land.
+
+Jefferson, however, by no means intended to push matters to their logical
+conclusion. His resolutions were intended for moral effect, as he
+explained in the following letter to Madison:—
+
+“I think we should distinctly affirm all the important principles they
+contain, so as to hold to that ground in future, and leave the matter in
+such a train that we may not be committed absolutely to push the matter to
+extremities, and yet may be free to push as far as events will render
+prudent.”
+
+As to the charge that the Kentucky Resolutions imply the doctrine of
+secession, as well as that of nullification, it has no basis. The two
+doctrines do not stand or fall together. There is nothing in the
+resolutions which implies the right of secession. Jefferson, like most
+Americans of his day, contemplated with indifference the possibility of an
+ultimate separation of the region beyond the Mississippi from the United
+States. But nobody placed a higher value than he did on what he described
+“as our union, the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to
+prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    X
+
+
+                           PRESIDENT JEFFERSON
+
+
+For the presidential election of 1800, Adams was again the candidate on
+the Federal side, and Jefferson on the Republican side. Jefferson, by
+interviews, by long and numerous letters, by the commanding force of his
+own intellect and character, had at last welded the anti-Federal elements
+into a compact and disciplined Republican party. The contest was waged
+with the utmost bitterness, and especially with bitterness against
+Jefferson. For this there were several causes. Jefferson had deeply
+offended two powerful classes in Virginia, the old aristocratic and Tory
+element, and—excluding the dissenters—the religious element; the former,
+by the repeal of the law of entail, and the latter by the statute for
+freedom of religion in Virginia. These were among the most meritorious
+acts of his life, but they produced an intense enmity which lasted till
+his death and even beyond his death. Jefferson, also, though at times
+over-cautious, was at times rash and indiscreet, and the freedom of his
+comments upon men and measures often got him into trouble. His career will
+be misunderstood unless it is remembered that he was an impulsive man. His
+judgments were intuitive, and though usually correct, yet sometimes hasty
+and ill-considered.
+
+Above all, Jefferson was both for friends and foes the embodiment of
+Republicanism. He represented those ideas which the Federalists, and
+especially the New England lawyers and clergy, really believed to be
+subversive of law and order, of government and religion. To them he
+figured as “a fanatic in politics, and an atheist in religion;” and they
+were so disposed to believe everything bad of him that they swallowed
+whole the worst slanders which the political violence of the times, far
+exceeding that of the present day, could invent. We have seen with what
+tenderness Jefferson treated his widowed sister, Mrs. Carr, and her
+children. It was in reference to this very family that the Rev. Mr. Cotton
+Mather Smith, of Connecticut, declared that Jefferson had gained his
+estate by robbery, namely, by robbing a widow and her children of £10,000,
+“all of which can be proved.”
+
+Jefferson, as we have said, was a deist. He was a religious man and a
+daily reader of the Bible, far less extreme in his notions, less hostile
+to orthodox Christianity than John Adams. Nevertheless,—partly, perhaps,
+because he had procured the disestablishment of the Virginia Church,
+partly on account of his scientific tastes and his liking for French
+notions,—the Federalists had convinced themselves that he was a violent
+atheist and anti-Christian. It was a humorous saying of the time that the
+old women of New England hid their Bibles in the well when Jefferson’s
+election in 1800 became known.
+
+The vote was as follows:—Jefferson, 73, Burr, 73; Adams, 65; C. C.
+Pinckney, 64; Jay, 1. There being a tie between Jefferson and Burr, the
+Republican candidate for Vice-President, the election was thrown into the
+House of Representatives, voting by States. In that House the Federalists
+were in the majority, but they did not have a majority by States. They
+could not, therefore, elect Adams; but it was possible for them to make
+Burr President instead of Jefferson. At first, the leaders were inclined
+to do this, some believing that Burr’s utter want of principle was less
+dangerous than the pernicious principles which they ascribed to Jefferson,
+and others thinking that Burr, if elected by Federal votes, would pursue a
+Federal policy. It was feared that Jefferson would wipe out the national
+debt, abolish the navy, and remove every Federal officeholder in the land.
+He was approached from many quarters, and even President Adams desired him
+to give some intimation of his intended policy on these points, but
+Jefferson firmly refused.
+
+As to one such interview, with Gouverneur Morris, Jefferson wrote
+afterward: “I told him that I should leave the world to judge of the
+course I meant to pursue, by that which I had pursued hitherto, believing
+it to be my duty to be passive and silent during the present scene; that I
+should certainly make no terms; should never go into the office of
+President by capitulation, nor with my hands tied by any conditions which
+would hinder me from pursuing the measures which I should deem for the
+public good.”
+
+The Federalists had a characteristic plan: they proposed to pass a law
+devolving the Presidency upon the chairman of the Senate, in case the
+office of President should become vacant; and this vacancy they would be
+able to bring about by prolonging the election until Mr. Adams’s term of
+office had expired. The chairman of the Senate, a Federalist, of course,
+would then become President. This scheme Jefferson and his friends were
+prepared to resist by force. “Because,” as he afterward explained, “that
+precedent once set, it would be artificially reproduced, and would soon
+end in a dictator.”
+
+Hamilton, to his credit, be it said, strongly advocated the election of
+Jefferson; and finally, through the action of Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, a
+leading Federalist, who had sounded an intimate friend of Mr. Jefferson as
+to his views upon the points already mentioned, Mr. Jefferson was elected
+President, and the threatening civil war was averted.
+
+Mr. Adams, who was deeply chagrined by his defeat, did not attend the
+inauguration of his successor, but left Washington in his carriage, at
+sunrise, on the fourth of March; and Jefferson rode on horseback to the
+Capitol, unattended, and dismounting, fastened his horse to the fence with
+his own hands. The inaugural address, brief, and beautifully worded,
+surprised most of those who heard it by the moderation and liberality of
+its tone. “Let us,” said the new President, “restore to social intercourse
+that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself,
+are but dreary things.”
+
+Jefferson served two terms, and he was succeeded first by Madison, and
+then by Monroe, both of whom were his friends and disciples, and imbued
+with his ideas. They, also, were reëlected. For twenty-four years,
+therefore, Jefferson and Jeffersonian Democracy predominated in the
+government of the United States, and the period was an exceedingly
+prosperous one. Not one of the dismal forebodings of the Federalists was
+fulfilled; and the practicability of popular government was proved.
+
+The first problem with which Jefferson had to deal was that of
+appointments to office. The situation was much like that which afterward
+confronted President Cleveland when he entered upon his first term,—that
+is, every place was filled by a member of the party opposed to the new
+administration. The principle which Mr. Jefferson adopted closely
+resembles that afterward adopted by Mr. Cleveland, namely, no officeholder
+was to be displaced on account of his political belief; but if he acted
+aggressively in politics, that was to be sufficient ground for removal.
+“Electioneering activity” was the phrase used in Mr. Jefferson’s time, and
+“offensive partisanship” in Mr. Cleveland’s.
+
+The following letter from President Jefferson to the Secretary of the
+Treasury will show how the rule was construed by him:—
+
+“The allegations against Pope [collector] of New Bedford are insufficient.
+Although meddling in political caucuses is no part of that freedom of
+personal suffrage which ought to be allowed him, yet his mere presence at
+a caucus does not necessarily involve an active and official influence in
+opposition to the government which employs him.”
+
+There were some lapses, but, on the whole, Mr. Jefferson’s rule was
+adhered to; and it is difficult to say whether he received more abuse from
+the Federalists on account of the removals which he did make, or from a
+faction in his own party on account of the removals which he refused to
+make.
+
+His principle was thus stated in a letter: “If a due participation of
+office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by
+death are few; by resignation, none.... It would have been to me a
+circumstance of great relief, had I found a moderate participation of
+office in the hands of the majority. I should gladly have left to time and
+accident to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion
+calls for prompter corrections. I shall correct the procedure; but that
+done, disdain to follow it. I shall return with joy to that state of
+things when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be, Is he
+honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?”
+
+The ascendency of Jefferson and of the Republican party produced a great
+change in the government and in national feeling, but it was a change the
+most important part of which was intangible, and is therefore hard to
+describe. It was such a change as takes place in the career of an
+individual, when he shakes off some controlling force, and sets up in life
+for himself. The common people felt an independence, a pride, an élan,
+which sent a thrill of vigor through every department of industry and
+adventure.
+
+The simplicity of the forms which President Jefferson adopted were a
+symbol to the national imagination of the change which had taken place. He
+gave up the royal custom of levees; he stopped the celebration of the
+President’s birthday; he substituted a written message for the speech to
+Congress delivered in person at the Capitol, and the reply by Congress,
+delivered in person at the White House. The President’s residence ceased
+to be called the Palace. He cut down the army and navy. He introduced
+economy in all the departments of the government, and paid off
+thirty-three millions of the national debt. He procured the abolition of
+internal taxes and the repeal of the bankruptcy law—two measures which
+greatly decreased his own patronage, and which called forth John
+Randolph’s encomium long afterward: “I have never seen but one
+administration which seriously and in good faith was disposed to give up
+its patronage, and was willing to go farther than Congress or even the
+people themselves ... desired; and that was the first administration of
+Thomas Jefferson.”
+
+The two most important measures of the first administration were, however,
+the repression of the Barbary pirates and the acquisition of Louisiana.
+Mr. Jefferson’s ineffectual efforts, while he was minister to France, to
+put down by force Mediterranean piracy have already been rehearsed. During
+Mr. Adams’s term, two million dollars were expended in bribing the
+bucaneers. One item in the account was as follows, “A frigate to carry
+thirty-six guns for the Dey of Algiers;” and this frigate went crammed
+with a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of powder, lead, timber, rope,
+canvas, and other means of piracy. One hundred and twenty-two captives
+came home in that year, 1796, of whom ten had been held in slavery for
+eleven years.
+
+Jefferson’s first important act as President was to dispatch to the
+Mediterranean three frigates and a sloop-of-war to overawe the pirates,
+and to cruise in protection of American commerce. Thus began that series
+of events which finally rendered the commerce of the world as safe from
+piracy in the Mediterranean as it was in the British channel. How
+brilliantly Decatur and his gallant comrades carried out this policy, and
+how at last the tardy naval powers of Europe followed an example which
+they ought to have set, every one is supposed to know.
+
+The second important event was the acquisition of Louisiana. Louisiana
+meant the whole territory from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,
+embracing about one million square miles. All this region belonged to
+Spain by right of discovery; and early in the year 1801 news came from the
+American minister at Paris that Spain had ceded or was about to cede it to
+France. The Spanish ownership of the mouth of the Mississippi had long
+been a source of annoyance to the settlers on the Mississippi River; and
+it had begun to be felt that the United States must control New Orleans at
+least. If this vast territory should come into the hands of France, and
+Napoleon should colonize it, as was said to be his intention,—France then
+being the greatest power in Europe,—the United States would have a
+powerful rival on its borders, and in control of a seaport absolutely
+necessary for its commerce. We can see this now plainly enough, but even
+so able a man as Mr. Livingston, the American minister at Paris, did not
+see it then. On the contrary, he wrote to the government at Washington:
+“... I have, however, on all occasions, declared that as long as France
+conforms to the existing treaty between us and Spain, the government of
+the United States does not consider itself as having any interest in
+opposing the exchange.”
+
+Mr. Jefferson’s very different view was expressed in the following letter
+to Mr. Livingston: “... France, placing herself in that door, assumes to
+us the attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for
+years. Her pacific disposition, her feeble state would induce her to
+increase our facilities there.... Not so can it ever be in the hands of
+France; the impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her
+character, placed in a point of eternal friction with us and our
+character, which, though quiet and loving peace and the pursuit of wealth,
+is high-minded, despising wealth in competition with insult or injury,
+enterprising and energetic as any nation on earth,—these circumstances
+render it impossible that France and the United States can continue long
+friends when they meet in so irritable a position.... The day that France
+takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain
+her forever within her low-water mark.... From that moment we must marry
+ourselves to the British fleet and nation.”
+
+Thus, at a moment’s notice, and in obedience to a vital change in
+circumstance, Jefferson threw aside the policy of a lifetime, suppressed
+his liking for France and his dislike for England, and entered upon that
+radically new course which, as he foresaw, the interests of the United
+States would require.
+
+Livingston, thus primed, began negotiations for the purchase of New
+Orleans; and Jefferson hastily dispatched Monroe, as a special envoy, for
+the same purpose, armed, it is supposed, with secret verbal instructions,
+to buy, if possible, not only New Orleans, but the whole of Louisiana.
+Monroe had not a word in writing to show that in purchasing Louisiana—if
+the act should be repudiated by the nation—he did not exceed his
+instructions. But, as Mr. Henry Adams remarks, “Jefferson’s friends always
+trusted him perfectly.”
+
+The moment was most propitious, for England and France were about to close
+in that terrific struggle which ended at Waterloo, and Napoleon was
+desperately in need of money. After some haggling the bargain was
+concluded, and, for the very moderate sum of fifteen million dollars, the
+United States became possessed of a territory which more than doubled its
+area.
+
+The purchase of Louisiana was confessedly an unconstitutional, or at least
+an extra-constitutional act, for the Constitution gave no authority to the
+President to acquire new territory, or to pledge the credit of the United
+States in payment. Jefferson himself thought that the Constitution ought
+to be amended in order to make the purchase legal; but in this he was
+overruled by his advisers.
+
+Thus, Jefferson’s first administration ended with a brilliant achievement;
+but this public glory was far more than outweighed by a private loss. The
+President’s younger daughter, Mrs. Eppes, died in April, 1804; and in a
+letter to his old friend, John Page, he said: “Others may lose of their
+abundance, but I, of my wants, have, lost even the half of all I had. My
+evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of a single life. Perhaps
+I may be destined to see even this last cord of parental affection broken.
+The hope with which I have looked forward to the moment when, resigning
+public cares to younger hands, I was to retire to that domestic comfort
+from which the last great step is to be taken, is fearfully blighted.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    XI
+
+
+                         SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM
+
+
+The purchase of Louisiana increased Jefferson’s popularity, and in 1805,
+at the age of sixty-two, he was elected to his second term as President by
+an overwhelming majority. Even Massachusetts was carried by the
+Republicans, and the total vote in the electoral college stood: 162 for
+Jefferson and Clinton; 14 for C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King, the Federal
+candidates.
+
+This result was due in part to the fact that Jefferson had stolen the
+thunder of the Federalists. His Louisiana purchase, though bitterly
+opposed by the leading Federalists, who were blinded by their hatred of
+the President, was far more consonant with Federal than with Republican
+principles; and in his second inaugural address Jefferson went even
+farther in the direction of a strong central government, for he said:
+“Redemption once effected, the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just
+repartition among the States, and a corresponding amendment of the
+Constitution, be applied _in time of peace_ to rivers, canals, roads,
+arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects within each State.
+In time of war, ... aided by other measures reserved for that crisis, it
+may meet within the year all the expenses of the year without encroaching
+on the rights of future generations by burdening them with the debts of
+the past.”
+
+This proposal flatly contradicted what the President had said in his first
+inaugural address, and was in strange contrast with his criticism made
+years before upon a similar Federal scheme of public improvement, that the
+mines of Peru would not supply the moneys which would be wasted on this
+object. In later years, after his permanent retirement to Monticello,
+Jefferson seems to have reverted to his earlier views, and he condemned
+the measures of John Quincy Adams for making public improvements with
+national funds.
+
+But the President was no longer to enjoy a smooth course. One domestic
+affair gave him much annoyance, and our foreign relations were a continual
+source of anxiety and mortification.
+
+Aaron Burr had been a brilliant soldier of the Revolution, a highly
+successful lawyer and politician, and finally, during Mr. Jefferson’s
+first administration, Vice-President of the United States. But in the year
+1805 he found himself, owing to a complication of causes, most of which,
+however, could be traced to his own moral defects, a bankrupt in
+reputation and in purse. Such being his condition, he applied to the
+President for a foreign appointment; and Mr. Jefferson very properly
+refused it, frankly explaining that Burr, whether justly or unjustly, had
+lost the confidence of the public.
+
+Burr took this rebuff with the easy good-humor which characterized him,
+dined with the President a few days later, and then started westward to
+carry out a scheme which he had been preparing for a year. His plans were
+so shrouded in mystery that it is difficult to say exactly what they were,
+but it is certain that he contemplated an expedition against Mexico, with
+the intention of making himself the ruler of that country; and it is
+possible that he hoped to capture New Orleans, and, after dividing the
+United States, to annex the western half to his Mexican empire. Burr had
+got together a small supply of men and arms, and he floated down the Ohio,
+gathering recruits as he went.
+
+Jefferson, with his usual good sense, perceived the futility of Burr’s
+designs, which were based upon a false belief as to the want of loyalty
+among the western people; but he took all needful precautions. General
+Wilkinson was ordered to protect New Orleans, Burr’s proceedings were
+denounced by a proclamation, and finally Burr himself was arrested in
+Alabama, and brought to Richmond for trial.
+
+The trial at once became a political affair, the Federalists, to spite the
+President, making Burr’s cause their own, though he had killed Alexander
+Hamilton but three years before, and pretending to regard him as an
+innocent man persecuted by the President for political reasons. Jefferson
+himself took a hand in the prosecution to the extent of writing letters to
+the district attorney full of advice and suggestions. It would have been
+more dignified had he held aloof, but the provocation which he received
+was very great. Burr and his counsel used every possible means of throwing
+odium upon the President; and in this they were assisted by Chief Justice
+Marshall, who presided at the trial. Marshall, though in the main a just
+man, was bitterly opposed to Jefferson in political affairs, and in this
+case he harshly blamed the executive for not procuring evidence with a
+celerity which, under the circumstances, was impossible. He also summoned
+the President into court as a witness. The President, however, declined to
+attend, and the matter was not pressed. Burr was acquitted, chiefly on
+technical grounds.
+
+The Burr affair, however, was but a trifle compared with the difficulties
+arising from our relations with England. That country had always asserted
+over the United States the right of impressment, a right, namely, to
+search American ships, and to take therefrom any Englishmen found among
+the crew. In many cases, Englishmen who had been naturalized in the United
+States were thus taken. This alleged right had always been denied by the
+United States, and British perseverance in it finally led to the war of
+1812.
+
+Another source of contention was the neutral trade. During the European
+wars in the early part of the century the seaport towns of the United
+States did an immense and profitable business in carrying goods to
+European ports, and from one European port to another. Great Britain,
+after various attempts to discourage American commerce with her enemies,
+undertook to put it down by confiscating vessels of the United States on
+the ground that their cargoes were not neutral but belligerent
+property,—the property, that is, of nations at war with Great Britain.
+And, no doubt, in some cases this was the fact,—foreign merchandise having
+been imported to this country to get a neutral name for it, and thence
+exported to a country to which it could not have been shipped directly
+from its place of origin. In April, 1806, the President dispatched Mr.
+Monroe to London in order, if possible, to settle these disputed matters
+by a treaty. Monroe, in conjunction with Mr. Pinckney, our minister to
+England, sent back a treaty which contained no reference whatever to the
+matter of impressments. It was the best treaty which they could obtain,
+but it was silent upon this vital point.
+
+The situation was a perilous one; England had fought the battle of
+Trafalgar the year before; and was now able to carry everything before her
+upon the high seas. Nevertheless, the President’s conduct was bold and
+prompt. The treaty had been negotiated mainly by his own envoy and friend,
+Monroe, and great pressure was exerted in favor of it,—especially by the
+merchants and shipowners of the east. But Jefferson refused even to lay it
+before the Senate, and at once sent it back to England. His position, and
+history has justified it, was that to accept a treaty which might be
+construed as tacitly admitting the right of impressment would be a
+disgrace to the country. The other questions at issue were more nearly
+legal and technical, but this one touched the national honor; and with the
+same right instinct which Jefferson showed in 1807, the people of the
+United States, five years later, fixed upon this grievance, out of the fog
+in which diplomacy had enveloped our relations with England, as the true
+and sufficient cause of the war of 1812.
+
+Nevertheless, Jefferson treated Monroe with the greatest consideration. At
+this period Monroe and Madison were both candidates for the Republican
+nomination for the presidency. Jefferson’s choice was Madison, but he
+remained impartial between them; and he withheld Monroe’s treaty from
+publication at a time when to publish it would have given a fatal blow to
+Monroe’s prospects. In every way, in fact, he exerted himself to disguise
+and soften Monroe’s discredit.
+
+The wisdom of Jefferson’s course as to the treaty was shown before three
+months had elapsed by an act of British aggression, which, had the Monroe
+treaty been accepted, might fairly have been laid to its door. In June,
+1807, the British frigate Leopard, having been refused permission to
+search the American frigate Chesapeake, fired upon the Chesapeake, which
+was totally unprepared for action, and, after killing three men and
+wounding eighteen, refused to accept the surrender of the ship, but
+carried off three alleged deserters.
+
+This event roused a storm of indignation, which never quite subsided until
+the insult had been effaced by the blood which was shed in the war of
+1812. “For the first time in their history,” says Mr. Henry Adams, “the
+people of the United States learned in June, 1807, the feeling of a true
+national emotion.” “Never since the battle of Lexington,” wrote Jefferson,
+“have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at present.”
+
+War might easily have been precipitated, had Jefferson been carried away
+by the popular excitement. He immediately dispatched a frigate to England
+demanding reparation, and he issued a proclamation forbidding all British
+men-of-war to enter the waters of the United States, unless in distress or
+bearing dispatches. Jefferson expected war, but he meant to delay it for a
+while.
+
+To his son-in-law, John Eppes, he wrote: “Reason and the usage of
+civilized nations require that we should give them an opportunity of
+disavowal and reparation. Our own interests, too, the very means of making
+war, require that we should give time to our merchants to gather in their
+vessels and property and our seamen now afloat.”
+
+Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, even criticised the President’s
+annual message at this time as being too warlike and “not in the style of
+the proclamation, which has been almost universally approved at home and
+abroad.” It cannot truly be said, therefore, that Jefferson had any
+unconquerable aversion to war.
+
+Mr. Canning, the British Foreign Minister, went through the form of
+expressing his regrets for the Chesapeake affair, and sent a special envoy
+to Washington to settle the difficulty. Reparation was made at last, but
+not till the year 1811.
+
+In the mean time, both Great Britain and France had given other causes of
+offense, which may be summarized as follows: In May, 1806, Great Britain
+declared the French ports from Brest to the Elbe closed to American as to
+all other shipping. In the following November, Napoleon retorted with a
+decree issued from Berlin, prohibiting all commerce with Great Britain.
+That power immediately forbade the coasting trade between one port and
+another in the possession of her enemies. And in November, 1807, Great
+Britain issued the famous Orders in Council, which forbade all trade
+whatsoever with France and her allies, except on payment of a tribute to
+Great Britain, each vessel to pay according to the value of its cargo.
+Then followed Napoleon’s Milan decree prohibiting trade with Great
+Britain, and declaring that all vessels which paid the tribute demanded
+were lawful prizes to the French marine.
+
+Such was the series of acts which assailed the foreign commerce of the
+United States, and wounded the national honor by attempting to prostrate
+the country at the mercy of the European powers. Diplomacy had been
+exhausted. The Chesapeake affair, the right of impressment, the British
+decrees and orders directed against our commerce,—all these causes of
+offense had been tangled into a complication which no man could unravel.
+Retaliation on our part had become absolutely necessary. What form should
+it take? Jefferson rejected war, and proposed an embargo which prohibited
+commerce between the United States and Europe. The measure was bitterly
+opposed by the New England Federalists; but the President’s influence was
+so great that Congress adopted it almost without discussion.
+
+Jefferson’s design, to use his own words, was “to introduce between
+nations another umpire than arms;” and he expected that England would be
+starved into submission. The annual British exports to the United States
+amounted to $50,000,000. Cutting off this trade meant the throwing out of
+work of thousands of British sailors and tens of thousands of British
+factory hands, who had no other means of livelihood. Mr. Jefferson felt
+confident that the starvation of this class would bring such pressure to
+bear upon the English government, then engaged in a death struggle with
+Bonaparte, that it would be forced to repeal the laws which obstructed
+American commerce. It is possible that this would have been the result had
+the embargo been observed faithfully by all citizens of the United States.
+Jefferson maintained till the day of his death that such would have been
+the case; and Madison, no enthusiast, long afterward asserted that the
+American state department had proofs that the English government was on
+the point of yielding. The embargo pressed hardest of all upon Virginia,
+for it stopped the exportation of her staples,—wheat and tobacco. It
+brought about, by the way, the financial ruin of Jefferson himself and of
+his son-in-law, Colonel Randolph. But the Virginians bore it without a
+murmur. “They drained the poison which their own President held
+obstinately to their lips.”
+
+It was otherwise in New England. There the disastrous effect of the
+embargo was not only indirect but direct. The New England farmers, it is
+true, could at least exist upon the produce of their farms; but the
+mariners, the sea-captains, and the merchants of the coast towns, saw a
+total suspension of the industry by which they lived. New England evaded
+the embargo by smuggling, and resisted it tooth and nail. Some of the
+Federal leaders in that section believing, or pretending to believe, that
+it was a pro-French measure, were in secret correspondence with the
+British government, and meditated a secession of the eastern States from
+the rest of the country. They went so far, in private conversation at
+least, as to maintain the British right of impressment; and even the
+Orders in Council were defended by Gardenier, a leading Federalist, and a
+member of Congress.
+
+The present generation has witnessed a similar exhibition of anglomania,
+when, upon the assertion of the Monroe doctrine in respect to Venezuela,
+by President Cleveland, his attitude was criticised more severely by a
+group in New York and Boston than it was by the English themselves.
+
+Jefferson’s effort to enforce the embargo and his calm resistance to New
+England fury showed extraordinary firmness of will and tenacity of
+purpose. In August, 1808, he wrote to General Dearborn, Secretary of War,
+who was then in Maine: “The Tories of Boston openly threaten insurrection
+if their importation of flour is stopped. The next post will stop it.”
+
+Blood was soon shed; but Jefferson did not shrink. The army was stationed
+along the Canadian frontier, to prevent smuggling; gunboats and frigates
+patrolled the coast. The embargo failed; but Mr. Henry Adams, the ablest
+and fairest historian of this period, declares that it “was an experiment
+in politics well worth making. In the scheme of President Jefferson,
+non-intercourse was the substitute for war.... Failure of the embargo
+meant in his mind not only a recurrence to the practice of war, but to
+every political and social evil that war had always brought in its train.
+In such a case the crimes and corruptions of Europe, which had been the
+object of his political fears, must, as he believed, sooner or later, teem
+in the fat soil of America. To avert a disaster so vast was a proper
+motive for statesmanship, and justified disregard for smaller interests.”
+Mr. Parton observes, with almost as much truth as humor, that the embargo
+was approved by the two highest authorities in Europe, namely, Napoleon
+Bonaparte and the “Edinburgh Review.”
+
+Perhaps the fundamental error in Jefferson’s theory was that nations are
+governed mainly by motives of self-interest. He thought that England would
+cease to legislate against American commerce, when it was once made plain
+that such a course was prejudicial to her own interests. But nations, like
+individuals, are influenced in their relations to others far more by pride
+and patriotism, and even by prejudice, than by material self-interest. The
+only way in which America could win respect and fair treatment from Europe
+was by fighting, or at least by showing a perfect readiness to fight. This
+she did by the war of 1812.
+
+The embargo was an academic policy,—the policy of a philosopher rather
+than that of a practical man of affairs. Turreau, the French ambassador,
+wrote to Talleyrand, in May, 1806, that the President “has little energy
+and still less of that audacity which is indispensable in a place so
+eminent, whatever may be the form of government. The slightest event makes
+him lose his balance, and he does not even know how to disguise the
+impression which he receives.... He has made himself ill, and has grown
+ten years older.”
+
+Jefferson had energy and audacity,—but he was energetic and audacious only
+by fits and starts. He was too sensitive, too full of ideas, too
+far-sighted, too conscious of all possible results for a man of action.
+During the last three months of his term he made no attempt to settle the
+difficulties in which the country was involved, declaring that he felt
+bound to do nothing which might embarrass his successor. But it may be
+doubted if he did not unconsciously decline the task rather from its
+difficulty than because he felt precluded from undertaking it.
+Self-knowledge was never Mr. Jefferson’s strong point.
+
+But he had done his best, and if his scheme had failed, the failure was
+not an ignoble one. He was still the most beloved, as well as the best
+hated man in the United States; and he could have had a third term, if he
+would have taken it.
+
+He retired, permanently, as it proved, to Monticello, wearied and
+harassed, but glad to be back on his farm, in the bosom of his family, and
+among his neighbors. His fellow-citizens of Albemarle County desired to
+meet the returning President, and escort him to his home; but Mr.
+Jefferson, characteristically, avoided this demonstration, and received
+instead an address, to which he made a reply that closed in a fit and
+pathetic manner his public career. “... The part which I have acted on the
+theatre of public life has been before them [his countrymen], and to their
+sentence I submit it; but the testimony of my native county, of the
+individuals who have known me in private life, to my conduct in its
+various duties and relations, is the more grateful as proceeding from
+eyewitnesses and observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my
+neighbors, I may ask in the face of the world, ‘whose ox have I taken, or
+whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I
+received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?’ On your verdict I rest
+with conscious security.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   XII
+
+
+                       A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE
+
+
+Jefferson’s second term as President ended March 4, 1809, and during the
+rest of his life he lived at Monticello, with occasional visits to his
+more retired estate at Poplar Forest, and to the homes of his friends, but
+never going beyond the confines of Virginia. Just before leaving
+Washington, he had written: “Never did a prisoner released from his chains
+feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature
+intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my
+supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived
+have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on
+the boisterous ocean of political passions.”
+
+Though no longer in office, Jefferson remained till his death the chief
+personage in the United States, and his authority continued to be almost
+supreme among the leaders as well as among the rank and file of the
+Republican party. Madison first, and Monroe afterward, consulted him in
+all the most important matters which arose during the sixteen years of
+their double terms as President. Long and frequent letters passed between
+them; and both Madison and Monroe often visited Jefferson at Monticello.
+
+The Monroe doctrine, as it is called, was first broached by Jefferson. In
+a letter of August 4, 1820, to William Short, he said: “The day is not far
+distant, when we may formally require a meridian through the ocean which
+separates the two hemispheres on the hither side of which no European gun
+shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other;” and he spoke of “the
+essential policy of interdicting in the seas and territories of both
+Americas the ferocious and sanguinary contests of Europe.” Later, when
+applied to by Monroe himself, in October, 1823, Jefferson wrote to him:
+“Our first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves in
+the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to meddle in
+cisatlantic affairs.” The whole letter, a long one, deserves to be read as
+the first exposition of what has since become a famous doctrine.
+
+The darling object of Mr. Jefferson’s last years was the founding of the
+University of Virginia at Charlottesville. For this purpose he gave $1000;
+many of his neighbors in Albemarle County joined him with gifts; and
+through Jefferson’s influence, the legislature appropriated considerable
+sums. But money was the least of Jefferson’s endowment of the University.
+He gave of the maturity of his judgment and a great part of his time. He
+was made regent. He drew the plans for the buildings, and overlooked their
+construction, riding to the University grounds almost every day, a
+distance of four miles, and back, and watching with paternal solicitude
+the laying of every brick and stone. His design was the perhaps
+over-ambitious one of displaying in the University buildings the various
+leading styles of architecture; and certain practical inconveniences, such
+as the entire absence of closets from the houses of the professors, marred
+the result. Some offense also was given to the more religious people of
+Virginia, by the selection of a Unitarian as the first professor. However,
+Jefferson’s enthusiasm, ingenuity, and thoroughness carried the scheme
+through with success; and the University still stands as a monument to its
+founder.
+
+It should be recorded, moreover, that under Jefferson’s regency the
+University of Virginia adopted certain reforms, which even Harvard, the
+most progressive of eastern universities, did not attain till more than
+half a century later. These were, an elective system of studies; the
+abolition of rules and penalties for the preservation of order, and the
+abolition of compulsory attendance at religious services.
+
+Mr. Jefferson’s daily life was simple and methodical. He rose as soon as
+it was light enough for him to see the hands of a clock which was opposite
+his bed. Till breakfast time, which was about nine o’clock, he employed
+himself in writing. The whole morning was devoted to an immense
+correspondence; the discharge of which was not only mentally, but
+physically distressing, inasmuch as his crippled hands, each wrist having
+been fractured, could not be used without pain. In a letter to his old
+friend, John Adams, he wrote: “I can read by candle-light only, and
+stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be indulged to me
+could I by that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o’clock,
+and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all
+this to answer letters, in which neither interest nor inclination on my
+part enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.
+Yet writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers.” At his
+death Jefferson left copies of 16,000 letters, being only a part of those
+written by himself, and 26,000 letters written by others to him.
+
+At one o’clock he set out upon horseback, and was gone for one or two
+hours,—never attended by a servant, even when he became old and infirm. He
+continued these rides until he had become so feeble that he had to be
+lifted to the saddle; and his mount was always a fiery one. Once, in Mr.
+Jefferson’s old age, news came that a serious accident had happened in the
+neighboring village to one of his grandsons. Immediately he ordered his
+horse to be brought round, and though it was night and very dark, he
+mounted, despite the protests of the household, and, at a run, dashed down
+the steep ascent by which Monticello is reached. The family held their
+breath till the tramp of his horse’s feet, on the level ground below,
+could faintly be heard.
+
+At half past three or four he dined; and at six he returned to the
+drawing-room, where coffee was served. The evening was spent in reading or
+conversation, and at nine he went to bed. “His diet,” relates a
+distinguished visitor, Daniel Webster, “is simple, but he seems restrained
+only by his taste. His breakfast is tea and coffee, bread always fresh
+from the oven, of which he does not seem afraid, with at times a slight
+accompaniment of cold meat. He enjoys his dinner well, taking with his
+meat a large proportion of vegetables.” The fact is that he used meat only
+as a sort of condiment to vegetables. “He has a strong preference for the
+wines of the continent, of which he has many sorts of excellent
+quality.... Dinner is served in half Virginian, half French style, in good
+taste and abundance. No wine is put on the table till the cloth is
+removed. In conversation, Mr. Jefferson is easy and natural, and
+apparently not ambitious; it is not loud as challenging general attention,
+but usually addressed to the person next him.” His health remained good
+till within a few months of his death, and he never lost a tooth.
+
+Scarcely less burdensome than his correspondence was the throng of
+visitors at Monticello, of all nationalities, from every State in the
+Union, some coming from veneration, some from curiosity, some from a
+desire to obtain free quarters. Groups of people often stood about the
+house and in the halls to see Jefferson pass from his study to his
+dining-room. It is recorded that “a female once punched through a
+window-pane of the house with her parasol to get a better view of him.” As
+many as fifty guests sometimes lodged in the house. “As a specimen of
+Virginia life,” relates one biographer, “we will mention that a friend
+from abroad came to Monticello, with a family of six persons, and remained
+ten months.... Accomplished young kinswomen habitually passed two or three
+of the summer months there, as they would now at a fashionable
+watering-place. They married the sons of Mr. Jefferson’s friends, and then
+came with their families.”
+
+The immense expense entailed by these hospitalities, added to the debt,
+amounting to $20,000, which Mr. Jefferson owed when he left Washington,
+crippled him financially. Moreover, Colonel Randolph, who managed his
+estate for many years, though a good farmer, was a poor man of business.
+It was a common saying in the neighborhood that nobody raised better crops
+or got less money for them than Colonel Randolph. The embargo, and the
+period of depression which followed the war of 1812, went far to
+impoverish the Virginia planters. Monroe died a bankrupt, and Madison’s
+widow was left almost in want of bread. Jefferson himself wrote in 1814:
+“What can we raise for the market? Wheat? we can only give it to our
+horses, as we have been doing since harvest. Tobacco? It is not worth the
+pipe it is smoked in. Some say whiskey, but all mankind must become
+drunkards to consume it.” Jefferson, also, was so anxious lest his slaves
+should be overworked, that the amount of labor performed upon his
+plantation was much less than it should have been. And, to cap the climax
+of his financial troubles, he lost $20,000 by indorsing to that amount for
+his intimate friend, Governor Nicholas, an honorable but unfortunate man.
+It should be added that Mr. Nicholas, in his last hours, “declared with
+unspeakable emotion that Mr. Jefferson had never by a word, by a look, or
+in any other way, made any allusion to his loss by him.”
+
+In 1814, Mr. Jefferson sold his library to Congress for $23,950, about one
+half its cost; and in the very year of his death he requested of the
+Virginia legislature that a law might be passed permitting him to sell
+some of his farms by means of a lottery,—the times being such that they
+could be disposed of in no other way. He even published some “Thoughts on
+Lotteries,”—by way of advancing this project. The legislature granted his
+request, with reluctance; but in the mean time his necessities became
+known throughout the country, and subscriptions were made for his relief.
+The lottery was suspended, and Jefferson died in the belief that
+Monticello would be saved as a home for his family.
+
+In March, 1826, Mr. Jefferson’s health began to fail; but so late as June
+24 he was well enough to write a long letter in reply to an invitation to
+attend the fiftieth celebration, at Washington, of the 4th of July. During
+the 3d of July he dozed hour after hour under the influence of opiates,
+rousing occasionally, and uttering a few words. It was evident that his
+end was very near. His family and he himself fervently desired that he
+might live till the 4th of July. At eleven in the evening of July 3 he
+whispered to Mr. Trist, the husband of one of his granddaughters, who sat
+by him: “This is the fourth?” Not bearing to disappoint him, Mr. Trist
+remained silent; and Mr. Jefferson feebly asked a second time: “This is
+the fourth?” Mr. Trist nodded assent. “Ah!” he breathed, and sank into a
+slumber from which he never awoke; but his end did not come till half past
+twelve in the afternoon of Independence Day. On the same day, at Quincy,
+died John Adams, his last words being, “Thomas Jefferson still lives!”
+
+The double coincidence made a strong impression upon the imagination of
+the American people. “When it became known,” says Mr. Parton, “that the
+author of the Declaration and its most powerful defender had both breathed
+their last on the Fourth of July, the fiftieth since they had set it apart
+from the roll of common days, it seemed as if Heaven had given its visible
+and unerring sanction to the work which they had done.”
+
+Jefferson’s body was buried at Monticello, and on the tombstone is
+inscribed, as he desired, the following: “Here was buried Thomas
+Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the
+Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of
+Virginia.”
+
+Jefferson’s expectation that Monticello would remain the property of his
+descendants was not fulfilled. His debts were paid to the uttermost
+farthing by his executor and grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph; but
+Martha Randolph and her family were left homeless and penniless. When this
+became known, the legislatures of South Carolina and Louisiana each voted
+to Mrs. Randolph a gift of $10,000. She died suddenly, in 1836, at the age
+of sixty-three. Monticello passed into the hands of strangers.
+
+Jefferson had his faults and defects. As a statesman and ruler, he showed
+at times irresolution, want of energy and of audacity, and a
+misunderstanding of human nature; and at times his judgment was clouded by
+the political prejudices which were common in his day. His attitude in the
+X Y Z business, his embargo policy, and his policy or want of policy after
+the failure of the embargo,—in these cases, and perhaps in these alone,
+his defects are exhibited. It is certain also that although at times frank
+and outspoken to a fault, he was at other times over-complaisant and
+insincere. To Aaron Burr, for example, he expressed himself in terms of
+friendship which he could hardly have felt; and, once, in writing to a
+minister of the gospel he implied, upon his own part, a belief in
+revelation which he did not really feel. It seems to be true also that
+Jefferson had an overweening desire to win the approbation of his
+fellow-countrymen; and at times, though quite unconsciously to himself,
+this motive led him into courses which were rather selfish than patriotic.
+This was the case, perhaps, in his negotiations with the English minister
+after the failure of the embargo. It is charged against him, also, that he
+avoided unpleasant situations; and that he said or did nothing to check
+the Republican slanders which were cast upon Washington and upon John
+Adams. But when this much has been said, all has been said. As a citizen,
+husband, father, friend, and master, Jefferson was almost an ideal
+character. No man was ever more kind, more amiable, more tender, more
+just, more generous. To her children, Mrs. Randolph declared that never,
+never had she witnessed a _particle_ of injustice in her father,—never had
+she heard him say a word or seen him do an act which she at the time or
+afterward regretted. He was magnanimous,—as when he frankly forgave John
+Adams for the injustice of his midnight appointments. Though easily
+provoked, he never bore malice. In matters of business and in matters of
+politics he was punctiliously honorable. How many times he paid his
+British debt has already been related. On one occasion he drew his cheque
+to pay the duties on certain imported wines which might have come in
+free,—yet made no merit of the action, for it never came to light until
+long after his death. In the presidential campaigns when he was a
+candidate, he never wrote a letter or made a sign to influence the result.
+He would not say a word by way of promise in 1801, when a word would have
+given him the presidency, and when so honorable a man as John Adams
+thought that he did wrong to withhold it. There was no vanity or smallness
+in his character. It was he and not Dickinson who wrote the address to the
+King, set forth by the Continental Congress of 1775; but Dickinson enjoyed
+the fame of it throughout Jefferson’s lifetime.
+
+Above all, he was patriotic and conscientious. When he lapsed, it was in
+some subordinate matter, and because a little self-deception clouded his
+sight. But in all important matters, in all emergencies, he stood firm as
+a rock for what he considered to be right, unmoved by the entreaties of
+his friends or by the jeers, threats, and taunts of his enemies. He shrank
+with almost feminine repugnance from censure and turmoil, but when the
+occasion demanded it, he faced even these with perfect courage and
+resolution. His course as Secretary of State, and his enforcement of the
+embargo, are examples.
+
+Jefferson’s political career was bottomed upon a great principle which he
+never, for one moment, lost sight of or doubted, no matter how difficult
+the present, or how dark the future. He believed in the people, in their
+capacity for self-government, and in their right to enjoy it. This belief
+shaped his course, and, in spite of minor inconsistencies, made it
+consistent. It was on account of this belief, and of the faith and courage
+with which he put it in practice, that he became the idol of his
+countrymen, and attained a unique position in the history of the world.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 It is to be remembered that the support of public worship was
+      compulsory in Massachusetts—the inhabitants of certain cities
+      excepted—down to the year 1833. An attempt to free the people from
+      this burden, led by Dr. Childs, of Berkshire County, was defeated at
+      the Constitutional Convention of 1820.
+
+    2 The father of Miss Catherine Sedgwick was a leading Federalist, and
+      his daughter records that, though a most kind-hearted man, he
+      habitually spoke of the people as “Jacobins” and “miscreants.”
+
+    3 Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:—“But if the
+      policy of the government upon a vital question affecting the whole
+      people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme
+      Court, the moment they are made, the people will cease to be their
+      own masters; having to that extent resigned their government into
+      the hands of that eminent tribunal.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+
+Italic type is marked by underscore (_), black letter by asterisk (*).
+
+The following changes have been made to the text:
+
+      page 65, “Charlotteville” changed to “Charlottesville”
+      page 73, “goverment” changed to “government”
+      page 93, “1795” changed to “1793”
+      page 98, “circumtances” changed to “circumstances”
+
+Both “draught” and “draft” are used in the text.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS JEFFERSON***
+
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+***FINIS***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Jefferson by Henry Childs Merwin
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Henry Childs Merwin
+
+Release Date: June 28, 2010 [Ebook #33011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS JEFFERSON***
+
+
+
+
+
+                   *The Riverside Biographical Series*
+
+                                 NUMBER 5
+
+                             THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+                                    BY
+
+                           HENRY CHILDS MERWIN
+
+                      [Illustration: Th. Jefferson]
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           HENRY CHILDS MERWIN
+
+
+                           [Publisher's emblem]
+
+
+HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street
+Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Avenue
+*The Riverside Press, Cambridge*
+
+
+
+
+
+                   COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HENRY C. MERWIN
+
+                           ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAP.                                        PAGE
+    I.   YOUTH AND TRAINING                      1
+   II.   VIRGINIA IN JEFFERSON'S DAY            16
+  III.   MONTICELLO AND ITS HOUSEHOLD           28
+   IV.   JEFFERSON IN THE REVOLUTION            36
+    V.   REFORM WORK IN VIRGINIA                45
+   VI.   GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA                   59
+  VII.   ENVOY AT PARIS                         71
+ VIII.   SECRETARY OF STATE                     82
+   IX.   THE TWO PARTIES                        98
+    X.   PRESIDENT JEFFERSON                   114
+   XI.   SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM              130
+  XII.   A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE          149
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    I
+
+
+                            YOUTH AND TRAINING
+
+
+Thomas Jefferson was born upon a frontier estate in Albemarle County,
+Virginia, April 13, 1743. His father, Peter Jefferson, was of Welsh
+descent, not of aristocratic birth, but of that yeoman class which
+constitutes the backbone of all societies. The elder Jefferson had
+uncommon powers both of mind and body. His strength was such that he could
+simultaneously "head up"--that is, raise from their sides to an upright
+position--two hogsheads of tobacco, weighing nearly one thousand pounds
+apiece. Like Washington, he was a surveyor; and there is a tradition that
+once, while running his lines through a vast wilderness, his assistants
+gave out from famine and fatigue, and Peter Jefferson pushed on alone,
+sleeping at night in hollow trees, amidst howling beasts of prey, and
+subsisting on the flesh of a pack mule which he had been obliged to kill.
+
+Thomas Jefferson inherited from his father a love of mathematics and of
+literature. Peter Jefferson had not received a classical education, but he
+was a diligent reader of a few good books, chiefly Shakespeare, The
+Spectator, Pope, and Swift; and in mastering these he was forming his mind
+on great literature after the manner of many another Virginian,--for the
+houses of that colony held English books as they held English furniture.
+The edition of Shakespeare (and it is a handsome one) which Peter
+Jefferson used is still preserved among the heirlooms of his descendants.
+
+It was probably in his capacity of surveyor that Mr. Jefferson made the
+acquaintance of the Randolph family, and he soon became the bosom friend
+of William Randolph, the young proprietor of Tuckahoe. The Randolphs had
+been for ages a family of consideration in the midland counties of
+England, claiming descent from the Scotch Earls of Murray, and connected
+by blood or marriage with many of the English nobility. In 1735 Peter
+Jefferson established himself as a planter by patenting a thousand acres
+of land in Goochland County, his estate lying near and partly including
+the outlying hills, which form a sort of picket line for the Blue Mountain
+range. At the same time his friend William Randolph patented an adjoining
+estate of twenty-four hundred acres; and inasmuch as there was no good
+site for a house on Jefferson's estate, Mr. Randolph conveyed to him four
+hundred acres for that purpose, the consideration expressed in the deed,
+which is still extant, being "Henry Weatherbourne's biggest bowl of Arrack
+punch."
+
+Here Peter Jefferson built his house, and here, three years later, he
+brought his bride,--a handsome girl of nineteen, and a kinswoman of William
+Randolph, being Jane, oldest child of Isham Randolph, then
+Adjutant-General of Virginia. She was born in London, in the parish of
+Shadwell, and Shadwell was the name given by Peter Jefferson to his
+estate. This marriage was a fortunate union of the best aristocratic and
+yeoman strains in Virginia.
+
+In the year 1744 the new County of Albemarle was carved out of Goochland
+County, and Peter Jefferson was appointed one of the three justices who
+constituted the county court and were the real rulers of the shire. He was
+made also Surveyor, and later Colonel of the county. This last office was
+regarded as the chief provincial honor in Virginia, and it was especially
+important when he held it, for it was the time of the French war, and
+Albemarle was in the debatable land.
+
+In the midst of that war, in August, 1757, Peter Jefferson died suddenly,
+of a disease which is not recorded, but which was probably produced by
+fatigue and exposure. He was a strong, just, kindly man, sought for as a
+protector of the widow and the orphan, and respected and loved by Indians
+as well as white men. Upon his deathbed he left two injunctions regarding
+his son Thomas: one, that he should receive a classical education; the
+other, that he should never be permitted to neglect the physical exercises
+necessary for health and strength. Of these dying commands his son often
+spoke with gratitude; and he used to say that if he were obliged to choose
+between the education and the estate which his father gave him, he would
+choose the education. Peter Jefferson left eight children, but only one
+son besides Thomas, and that one died in infancy. Less is known of
+Jefferson's mother; but he derived from her a love of music, an
+extraordinary keenness of susceptibility, and a corresponding refinement
+of taste.
+
+His father's death left Jefferson his own master. In one of his later
+letters he says: "At fourteen years of age the whole care and direction of
+myself were thrown on myself entirely, without a relative or a friend
+qualified to advise or guide me."
+
+The first use that he made of his liberty was to change his school, and to
+become a pupil of the Rev. James Maury,--an excellent clergyman and
+scholar, of Huguenot descent, who had recently settled in Albemarle
+County. With him young Jefferson continued for two years, studying Greek
+and Latin, and becoming noted, as a schoolmate afterward reported, for
+scholarship, industry, and shyness. He was a good runner, a keen
+fox-hunter, and a bold and graceful rider.
+
+At the age of sixteen, in the spring of 1760, he set out on horseback for
+Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, where he proposed to enter the
+college of William and Mary. Up to this time he had never seen a town, or
+even a village, except the hamlet of Charlottesville, which is about four
+miles from Shadwell. Williamsburg--described in contemporary language as
+"the centre of taste, fashion, and refinement"--was an unpaved village, of
+about one thousand inhabitants, surrounded by an expanse of dark green
+tobacco fields as far as the eye could reach. It was, however, well
+situated upon a plateau midway between the York and James rivers, and was
+swept by breezes which tempered the heat of the summer sun and kept the
+town free from mosquitoes.
+
+Williamsburg was also well laid out, and it has the honor of having served
+as a model for the city of Washington. It consisted chiefly of a single
+street, one hundred feet broad and three quarters of a mile long, with the
+capitol at one end, the college at the other, and a ten-acre square with
+public buildings in the middle. Here in his palace lived the colonial
+governor. The town also contained "ten or twelve gentlemen's families,
+besides merchants and tradesmen." These were the permanent inhabitants;
+and during the "season"--the midwinter months--the planters' families came
+to town in their coaches, the gentlemen on horseback, and the little
+capital was then a scene of gayety and dissipation.
+
+Such was Williamsburg in 1760 when Thomas Jefferson, the frontier
+planter's son, rode slowly into town at the close of an early spring day,
+surveying with the outward indifference, but keen inward curiosity of a
+countryman, the place which was to be his residence for seven years,--in
+one sense the most important, because the most formative, period of his
+life. He was a tall stripling, rather slightly built,--after the model of
+the Randolphs,--but extremely well-knit, muscular, and agile. His face was
+freckled, and his features were somewhat pointed. His hair is variously
+described as red, reddish, and sandy, and the color of his eyes as blue,
+gray, and also hazel. The expression of his face was frank, cheerful, and
+engaging. He was not handsome in youth, but "a very good-looking man in
+middle age, and quite a handsome old man." At maturity he stood six feet
+two and a half inches. "Mr. Jefferson," said Mr. Bacon, at one time the
+superintendent of his estate, "was well proportioned and straight as a
+gun-barrel. He was like a fine horse, he had no surplus flesh. He had an
+iron constitution, and was very strong."
+
+Jefferson was always the most cheerful and optimistic of men. He once
+said, after remarking that something must depend "on the chapter of
+events:" "I am in the habit of turning over the next leaf with hope, and,
+though it often fails me, there is still another and another behind." No
+doubt this sanguine trait was due in part at least to his almost perfect
+health. He was, to use his own language, "blessed with organs of digestion
+which accepted and concocted, without ever murmuring, whatever the palate
+chose to consign to them." His habits through life were good. He never
+smoked, he drank wine in moderation, he went to bed early, he was regular
+in taking exercise, either by walking or, more commonly, by riding on
+horseback.
+
+The college of William and Mary in Jefferson's day is described by Mr.
+Parton as "a medley of college, Indian mission, and grammar school,
+ill-governed, and distracted by dissensions among its ruling powers." But
+Jefferson had a thirst for knowledge and a capacity for acquiring it,
+which made him almost independent of institutions of learning. Moreover,
+there was one professor who had a large share in the formation of his
+mind. "It was my great good fortune," he wrote in his brief autobiography,
+"and what probably fixed the destinies of my life, that Dr. William Small,
+of Scotland, was then professor of mathematics; a man profound in most of
+the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication and
+an enlarged liberal mind. He, most happily for me, soon became attached to
+me, and made me his daily companion when not engaged in the school; and
+from his conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science,
+and of the system of things in which we are placed."
+
+Jefferson, like all well-bred Virginians, was brought up as an
+Episcopalian; but as a young man, perhaps owing in part to the influence
+of Dr. Small, he ceased to believe in Christianity as a religion, though
+he always at home attended the Episcopal church, and though his daughters
+were brought up in that faith. If any theological term is to be applied to
+him, he should be called a Deist. Upon the subject of his religious faith,
+Jefferson was always extremely reticent. To one or two friends only did he
+disclose his creed, and that was in letters which were published after his
+death. When asked, even by one of his own family, for his opinion upon any
+religious matter, he invariably refused to express it, saying that every
+person was bound to look into the subject for himself, and to decide upon
+it conscientiously, unbiased by the opinions of others.
+
+Dr. Small introduced Jefferson to other valuable acquaintances; and, boy
+though he was, he soon became the fourth in a group of friends which
+embraced the three most notable men in the little metropolis. These were,
+beside Dr. Small, Francis Fauquier, the acting governor of the province,
+appointed by the crown, and George Wythe. Fauquier was a courtly,
+honorable, highly cultivated man of the world, a disciple of Voltaire, and
+a confirmed gambler, who had in this respect an unfortunate influence upon
+the Virginia gentry,--not, however, upon Jefferson, who, though a lover of
+horses, and a frequenter of races, never in his life gambled or even
+played cards. Wythe was then just beginning a long and honorable career as
+lawyer, statesman, professor, and judge. He remained always a firm and
+intimate friend of Jefferson, who spoke of him, after his death, as "my
+second father." It is an interesting fact that Thomas Jefferson, John
+Marshall, and Henry Clay were all, in succession, law students in the
+office of George Wythe.
+
+Many of the government officials and planters who flocked to Williamsburg
+in the winter were related to Jefferson on his mother's side, and they
+opened their houses to him with Virginia hospitality. We read also of
+dances in the "Apollo," the ball-room of the old Raleigh tavern, and of
+musical parties at Gov. Fauquier's house, in which Jefferson, who was a
+skillful and enthusiastic fiddler, always took part. "I suppose," he
+remarked in his old age, "that during at least a dozen years of my life, I
+played no less than three hours a day."
+
+At this period he was somewhat of a dandy, very particular about his
+clothes and equipage, and devoted, as indeed he remained through life, to
+fine horses. Virginia imported more thoroughbred horses than any other
+colony, and to this day there is probably a greater admixture of
+thoroughbred blood there than in any other State. Diomed, winner of the
+first English Derby, was brought over to Virginia in 1799, and founded a
+family which, even now, is highly esteemed as a source of speed and
+endurance. Jefferson had some of his colts; and both for the saddle and
+for his carriage he always used high-bred horses.
+
+Referring to the Williamsburg period of his life, he wrote once to a
+grandson: "When I recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I
+associated from time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some
+of them, and become as worthless to society as they were.... But I had the
+good fortune to become acquainted very early with some characters of very
+high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever become
+what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself
+what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situation?
+What course in it will assure me their approbation? I am certain that this
+mode of deciding on my conduct tended more to correctness than any
+reasoning powers that I possesed."
+
+This passage throws a light upon Jefferson's character. It does not seem
+to occur to him that a young man might require some stronger motive to
+keep his passions in check than could be furnished either by the wish to
+imitate a good example or by his "reasoning powers." To Jefferson's
+well-regulated mind the desire for approbation was a sufficient motive. He
+was particularly sensitive, perhaps morbidly so, to disapprobation. The
+respect, the good-will, the affection of his countrymen were so dear to
+him that the desire to retain them exercised a great, it may be at times,
+an undue influence upon him. "I find," he once said, "the pain of a little
+censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of
+much praise."
+
+During his second year at college, Jefferson laid aside all frivolities.
+He sent home his horses, contenting himself with a mile run out and back
+at nightfall for exercise, and studying, if we may believe the biographer,
+no less than fifteen hours a day. This intense application reduced the
+time of his college course by one half; and after the second winter at
+Williamsburg he went home with a degree in his pocket, and a volume of
+Coke upon Lytleton in his trunk.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    II
+
+
+                       VIRGINIA IN JEFFERSON'S DAY
+
+
+To a young Virginian of Jefferson's standing but two active careers were
+open, law and politics, and in almost every case these two, sooner or
+later, merged in one. The condition of Virginia was very different from
+that of New England,--neither the clerical nor the medical profession was
+held in esteem. There were no manufactures, and there was no general
+commerce.
+
+Nature has divided Virginia into two parts: the mountainous region to the
+west and the broad level plain between the mountains and the sea,
+intersected by numerous rivers, in which, far back from the ocean, the
+tide ebbs and flows. In this tide-water region were situated the tobacco
+plantations which constituted the wealth and were inhabited by the
+aristocracy of the colony. Almost every planter lived near a river and had
+his own wharf, whence a schooner carried his tobacco to London, and
+brought back wines, silks, velvets, guns, saddles, and shoes.
+
+The small proprietors of land were comparatively few in number, and the
+whole constitution of the colony, political and social, was aristocratic.
+Both real estate and slaves descended by force of law to the eldest son,
+so that the great properties were kept intact. There were no townships and
+no town meetings. The political unit was the parish; for the Episcopal
+church was the established church,--a state institution; and the parishes
+were of great extent, there being, as a rule, but one or two parishes in a
+county.
+
+The clergy, though belonging to an establishment, were poorly paid, and
+not revered as a class. They held the same position of inferiority in
+respect to the rich planters which the clergy of England held in respect
+to the country gentry at the same period. Being appointed by the crown,
+they were selected without much regard to fitness, and they were
+demoralized by want of supervision, for there were no resident bishops,
+and, further, by the uncertain character of their incomes, which, being
+paid in tobacco, were subject to great fluctuations. A few were men of
+learning and virtue who performed their duties faithfully, and eked out
+their incomes by taking pupils. "It was these few," remarks Mr. Parton,
+"who saved civilization in the colony." A few others became cultivators of
+tobacco, and acquired wealth. But the greater part of the clergy were
+companions and hangers-on of the rich planters,--examples of that type
+which Thackeray so well describes in the character of Parson Sampson in
+"The Virginians." Strange tales were told of these old Virginia parsons.
+One is spoken of as pocketing annually a hundred dollars, the revenue of a
+legacy for preaching four sermons a year against atheism, gambling,
+racing, and swearing,--for all of which vices, except the first, he was
+notorious.
+
+This period, the middle half of the eighteenth century, was, as the reader
+need not be reminded, that in which the English church sank to its lowest
+point. It was the era when the typical country parson was a convivial
+fox-hunter; when the Fellows of colleges sat over their wine from four
+o'clock, their dinner hour, till midnight or after; when the highest type
+of bishop was a learned man who spent more time in his private studies
+than in the duties of his office; when the cathedrals were neglected and
+dirty, and the parish churches were closed from Sunday to Sunday. In
+England, the reaction produced Methodism, and, later, the Tractarian
+movement; and we are told that even in Virginia, "swarms of Methodists,
+Moravians, and New-Light Presbyterians came over the border from
+Pennsylvania, and pervaded the colony."
+
+Taxation pressed with very unequal force upon the poor, and the right of
+voting was confined to freeholders. There was no system of public schools,
+and the great mass of the people were ignorant and coarse, but morally and
+physically sound,--a good substructure for an aristocratic society. Wealth
+being concentrated mainly in the hands of a few, Virginia presented
+striking contrasts of luxury and destitution, whereas in the neighboring
+colony of Pennsylvania, where wealth was more distributed and society more
+democratic, thrift and prosperity were far more common.
+
+"In Pennsylvania," relates a foreign traveler, "one sees great numbers of
+wagons drawn by four or more fine fat horses.... In the slave States we
+sometimes meet a ragged black boy or girl driving a team consisting of a
+lean cow and a mule; and I have seen a mule, a bull, and a cow, each
+miserable in its appearance, composing one team, with a half-naked black
+slave or two riding or driving as occasion suited." And yet between
+Richmond and Fredericksburg, "in the afternoon, as our road lay through
+the woods, I was surprised to meet a family party traveling along in as
+elegant a coach as is usually met with in the neighborhood of London, and
+attended by several gayly dressed footmen."
+
+Virginia society just before the Revolution perfectly illustrated Buckle's
+remark about leisure: "Without leisure, science is impossible; and when
+leisure has been won, most of the class possessing it will waste it in the
+pursuit of pleasure, and a _few_ will employ it in the pursuit of
+knowledge." Men like Jefferson, George Wythe, and Madison used their
+leisure for the good of their fellow-beings and for the cultivation of
+their minds; whereas the greater part of the planters--and the poor whites
+imitated them--spent their ample leisure in sports, in drinking, and in
+absolute idleness. "In spite of the Virginians' love for dissipation,"
+wrote a famous French traveler, "the taste for reading is commoner among
+men of the first rank than in any other part of America; but the populace
+is perhaps more ignorant there than elsewhere." "The Virginia virtues,"
+says Mr. Henry Adams, "were those of the field and farm--the simple and
+straightforward mind, the notions of courage and truth, the absence of
+mercantile sharpness and quickness, the rusticity and open-handed
+hospitality." Virginians of the upper class were remarkable for their
+high-bred courtesy,--a trait so inherent that it rarely disappeared even in
+the bitterness of political disputes and divisions. This, too, was the
+natural product of a society based not on trade or commerce, but on land.
+"I blush for my own people," wrote Dr. Channing, from Virginia, in 1791,
+"when I compare the selfish prudence of a Yankee with the generous
+confidence of a Virginian. Here I find great vices, but greater virtues
+than I left behind me." There was a largeness of temper and of feeling in
+the Virginia aristocracy, which seems to be inseparable from people living
+in a new country, upon the outskirts of civilization. They had the pride
+of birth, but they recognized other claims to consideration, and were as
+far as possible from estimating a man according to the amount of his
+wealth.
+
+Slavery itself was probably a factor for good in the character of such a
+man as Jefferson,--it afforded a daily exercise in the virtues of
+benevolence and self-control. How he treated the blacks may be gathered
+from a story, told by his superintendent, of a slave named Jim who had
+been caught stealing nails from the nail-factory: "When Mr. Jefferson
+came, I sent for Jim, and I never saw any person, white or black, feel as
+badly as he did when he saw his master. The tears streamed down his face,
+and he begged for pardon over and over again. I felt very badly myself.
+Mr. Jefferson turned to me and said, 'Ah, sir, we can't punish him. He has
+suffered enough already.' He then talked to him, gave him a heap of good
+advice, and sent him to the shop.... Jim said: 'Well I'se been a-seeking
+religion a long time, but I never heard anything before that sounded so,
+or made me feel so, as I did when Master said, "Go, and don't do so any
+more," and now I'se determined to seek religion till I find it;' and sure
+enough he afterwards came to me for a permit to go and be baptized.... He
+was always a good servant afterward."
+
+Another element that contributed to the efficiency and the high standard
+of the early Virginia statesman was a good, old-fashioned classical
+education. They were familiar, to use Matthew Arnold's famous expression,
+"with the best that has ever been said or done." This was no small
+advantage to men who were called upon to act as founders of a republic
+different indeed from the republics of Greece and Rome, but still based
+upon the same principles, and demanding an exercise of the same heroic
+virtues. The American Revolution would never have cut quite the figure in
+the world which history assigns to it, had it not been conducted with a
+kind of classic dignity and decency; and to this result nobody contributed
+more than Jefferson.
+
+Such was Virginia in the eighteenth century,--at the base of society, the
+slaves; next, a lower class, rough, ignorant, and somewhat brutal, but
+still wholesome, and possessing the primitive virtues of courage and
+truth; and at the top, the landed gentry, luxurious, proud, idle and
+dissipated for the most part, and yet blossoming into a few characters of
+a type so high that the world has hardly seen a better. Had he been born
+in Europe, Jefferson would doubtless have devoted himself to music, or to
+architecture, or to literature, or to science,--for in all these directions
+his taste was nearly equally strong; but these careers being closed to him
+by the circumstances of the colony, he became a lawyer, and then, under
+pressure of the Revolution, a politician and statesman.
+
+During the four years following his graduation, Jefferson spent most of
+the winter months at Williamsburg, pursuing his legal and other studies,
+and the rest of the year upon the family plantation, the management of
+which had devolved upon him. Now, as always, he was the most industrious
+of men. He lived, as Mr. Parton remarks, "with a pen in his hand." He kept
+a garden book, a farm book, a weather book, a receipt book, a cash book,
+and, while he practiced law, a fee book. Many of these books are still
+preserved, and the entries are as legible now as when they were first
+written down in Jefferson's small but clear and graceful hand,--the hand of
+an artist. Jefferson, as one of his old friends once remarked, _hated_
+superficial knowledge; and he dug to the roots of the common law, reading
+deeply in old reports written in law French and law Latin, and especially
+studying Magna Charta and Bracton.
+
+He found time also for riding, for music, and dancing; and in his
+twentieth year he became enamored of Miss Rebecca Burwell, a Williamsburg
+belle more distinguished, tradition reports, for beauty than for
+cleverness. But Jefferson was not yet in a position to marry,--he even
+contemplated a foreign tour; and the girl, somewhat abruptly, married
+another lover. The wound seems not to have been a deep one. Jefferson, in
+fact, though he found his chief happiness in family affection, and though
+capable of strong and lasting attachments, was not the man for a romantic
+passion. He was a philosopher of the reasonable, eighteenth-century type.
+No one was more kind and just in the treatment of his slaves, but he did
+not free them, as George Wythe, perhaps foolishly, did; and he was even
+cautious about promulgating his views as to the folly and wickedness of
+slavery, though he did his best to promote its abolition by legislative
+measures. There was not in Jefferson the material for a martyr or a Don
+Quixote; but that was Nature's fault, not his. It may be said of every
+particular man that there is a certain depth to which he cannot sink, and
+there is a certain height to which he cannot rise. Within the intermediate
+zone there is ample exercise for free-will; and no man struggled harder
+than Jefferson to fulfill all the obligations which, as he conceived, were
+laid upon him.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   III
+
+
+                       MONTICELLO AND ITS HOUSEHOLD
+
+
+In April, 1764, Jefferson came of age, and his first public act was a
+characteristic one. For the benefit of the neighborhood, he procured the
+passage of a statute to authorize the dredging of the Rivanna River upon
+which his own estate bordered in part. He then by private subscriptions
+raised a sum sufficient for carrying out this purpose; and in a short time
+the stream, upon which before a bark canoe would hardly have floated, was
+made available for the transportation of farm produce to the James River,
+and thence to the sea.
+
+In 1766, he made a journey to Philadelphia, in order to be inoculated for
+smallpox, traveling in a light gig drawn by a high-spirited horse, and
+narrowly escaping death by drowning in one of the numerous rivers which
+had to be forded between Charlottesville and Philadelphia. In the
+following year, about the time of his twenty-fourth birthday, he was
+admitted to the bar, and entered almost immediately upon a large and
+lucrative practice. He remained at the bar only seven years, but during
+most of this time his professional income averaged more than �2500 a year;
+and he increased his paternal estate from 1900 acres to 5000 acres. He
+argued with force and fluency, but his voice was not suitable for public
+speaking, and soon became husky. Moreover, Jefferson had an intense
+repugnance to the arena. He shrank with a kind of nervous horror from a
+personal contest, and hated to be drawn into a discussion. The turmoil and
+confusion of a public body were hideous to him;--it was as a writer, not as
+a speaker, that he won fame, first in the Virginia Assembly, and afterward
+in the Continental Congress.
+
+In October, 1768, Jefferson was chosen to represent Albemarle County in
+the House of Burgesses of Virginia; and thus began his long political
+career of forty years. A resolution which he formed at the outset is
+stated in the following letter written in 1792 to a friend who had offered
+him a share in an undertaking which promised to be profitable:--
+
+"When I first entered on the stage of public life (now twenty-four years
+ago) I came to a resolution never to engage, while in public office, in
+any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear any
+other character than that of a farmer. I have never departed from it in a
+single instance; and I have in multiplied instances found myself happy in
+being able to decide and to act as a public servant, clear of all
+interest, in the multiform questions that have arisen, wherein I have seen
+others embarrassed and biased by having got themselves in a more
+interested situation."
+
+During the next few years there was a lull in political affairs,--a sullen
+calm before the storm of the Revolution; but they were important years in
+Mr. Jefferson's life. In February, 1770, the house at Shadwell, where he
+lived with his mother and sisters, was burned to the ground, while the
+family were away. "Were none of my books saved?" Jefferson asked of the
+negro who came to him, breathless, with news of the disaster. "No,
+master," was the reply, "but we saved the fiddle."
+
+In giving his friend Page an account of the fire, Jefferson wrote: "On a
+reasonable estimate, I calculate the cost of the books burned to have been
+�200. Would to God it had been the money,--then had it never cost me a
+sigh!" Beside the books, Jefferson lost most of his notes and papers; but
+no mishap, not caused by his own fault, ever troubled his peace of mind.
+
+After the fire, his mother and the children took temporary refuge in the
+home of an overseer, and Jefferson repaired to Monticello,--as he had named
+the elevated spot on the paternal estate where he had already begun to
+build the house which was his home for the remainder of his life.
+
+Monticello is a small outlying peak, upon the outskirts of the mountainous
+part of Virginia, west of the tide-water region, and rising 580 feet above
+the plain at its foot. Upon its summit there is a space of about six
+acres, leveled partly by nature and partly by art; and here, one hundred
+feet back from the brow of the hill, Jefferson built his house. It is a
+long, low building,--still standing,--with a Grecian portico in front,
+surmounted by a cupola. The road by which it is approached winds round and
+round, so as to make the ascent less difficult. In front of the house
+three long terraces, terminating in small pavilions, were constructed; and
+upon the northern terrace, or in its pavilion, Jefferson and his friends
+used to sit on summer nights gazing off toward the Blue Ridge, some eighty
+miles distant, or upon the nearer peaks of the Ragged Mountains. The
+altitude is such that neither dew nor mosquitoes can reach it.
+
+To this beautiful but as yet uncompleted mountain home, Jefferson, in
+January, 1772, brought his bride. She was Martha Skelton, who had been
+left a widow at nineteen, and was now twenty-two, a daughter of John
+Wayles, a leading and opulent lawyer. Martha Skelton was a tall,
+beautiful, highly educated young woman, of graceful carriage, with hazel
+eyes, literary in her tastes, a skillful performer upon the spinnet, and a
+notable housewife whose neatly kept account books are still preserved.
+They were married at "The Forest," her father's estate in Charles City
+County, and immediately set out for Monticello.
+
+Two years later, in 1774, died Dabney Carr, a brilliant and patriotic
+young lawyer, Jefferson's most intimate friend, and the husband of his
+sister Martha. Dabney Carr left six small children, whom, with their
+mother, Jefferson took under his wing, and they were brought up at
+Monticello as if they had been his own children. Jefferson loved children,
+and he had, in common with that very different character, Aaron Burr, an
+instinct for teaching. While still a young man himself, he was often
+called upon to direct the studies of other young men,--Madison and Monroe
+were in this sense his pupils; and the founding of the University of
+Virginia was an achievement long anticipated by him and enthusiastically
+performed.
+
+Jefferson was somewhat unfortunate in his own children, for, of the six
+that were born to him, only two, Martha and Maria, lived to grow up. Maria
+married but died young, leaving one child. Martha, the first-born, was a
+brilliant, cheerful, wholesome woman. She married Thomas Mann Randolph,
+afterward governor of Virginia. "She was just like her father, in this
+respect," says Mr. Bacon, the superintendent,--"she was always busy. If she
+wasn't reading or writing, she was always doing something. She used to sit
+in Mr. Jefferson's room a great deal, and sew, or read, or talk, as he
+would be busy about something else." John Randolph of Roanoke once toasted
+her--and it was after his quarrel with her father--as the sweetest woman in
+Virginia. She left ten children, and many of her descendants are still
+living.
+
+To her, and to his other daughter, Maria, who is described as being more
+beautiful and no less amiable than her sister, but not so intellectual,
+Jefferson owed the chief happiness of his life. Like many another man who
+has won fame and a high position in the world, he counted these things but
+as dust and ashes in comparison with family affection.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IV
+
+
+                       JEFFERSON IN THE REVOLUTION
+
+
+Shortly after Mr. Jefferson's marriage, the preliminary movements of the
+Revolution began, and though he took an active part in them it was not
+without reluctance. Even after the battle of Bunker Hill, namely, in
+November, 1775, he wrote to a kinsman that there was not a man in the
+British Empire who more cordially loved a union with Great Britain than he
+did. John Jay said after the Revolution: "During the course of my life,
+and until the second petition of Congress in 1775, I never did hear any
+American of any class or description express a wish for the independence
+of the colonies."
+
+But these friendly feelings were first outraged and then extinguished by a
+long series of ill-considered and oppressive acts, covering, with some
+intermissions, a period of about twelve years. Of these the most
+noteworthy were the Stamp Act, which amounted to taxation without
+representation, and the impost on tea, which was coupled with a provision
+that the receipts should be applied to the salaries of officers of the
+crown, thus placing them beyond the control of the local assemblies. The
+crown officers were also authorized to grant salaries and pensions at
+their discretion; and a board of revenue commissioners for the whole
+country was established at Boston, and armed with despotic powers. These
+proceedings amounted to a deprivation of liberty, and they were aggravated
+by the king's contemptuous rejection of the petitions addressed to him by
+the colonists. We know what followed,--the burning of the British war
+schooner, Gaspee, by leading citizens of Providence, and the famous
+tea-party in Boston harbor.
+
+Meanwhile Virginia had not been inactive. In March, 1772, a few young men,
+members of the House of Burgesses, met at the Raleigh Tavern in
+Williamsburg. They were Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and his brother,
+Thomas Jefferson, and a few others. They drew up several resolutions, the
+most important of which called for the appointment of a standing committee
+and for an invitation to the other colonies to appoint like committees for
+mutual information and assistance in the struggle against the crown. A
+similar resolution had been adopted in Massachusetts two years before, but
+without any practical result. The Virginia resolution was passed the next
+day by the House of Burgesses, and it gave rise to those proceedings which
+ushered in the Revolution.
+
+The first Continental Congress was to meet in Philadelphia, in September,
+1774; and Jefferson, in anticipation, prepared a draft of instructions for
+the delegates who were to be elected by Virginia. Being taken ill himself,
+on his way to the convention, he sent forward a copy of these
+instructions. They were considered too drastic to be adopted by the
+convention; but some of the members caused them to be published under the
+title of "A Summary View of the Rights of America." The pamphlet was
+extensively read in this country, and a copy which had been sent to London
+falling into the hands of Edmund Burke, he had it reprinted in England,
+where it ran through edition after edition. Jefferson's name thus became
+known throughout the colonies and in England.
+
+The "Summary View" is in reality a political essay. Its author wasted no
+time in discussing the specific legal and constitutional questions which
+had arisen between the colonies and the crown; but he went to the root of
+the matter, and with one or two generalizations as bold and original as if
+they had been made by Rousseau, he cut the Gordian knot, and severed
+America from the Parliament of Great Britain. He admitted some sort of
+dependence upon the crown, but his two main principles were these: (1)
+that the soil of this country belonged to the people who had settled and
+improved it, and that the crown had no right to sell or give it away; (2)
+that the right of self-government was a right natural to every people, and
+that Parliament, therefore, had no authority to make laws for America.
+Jefferson was always about a century in advance of his time; and the
+"Summary View" substantially anticipated what is now the acknowledged
+relation of England to her colonies.
+
+Jefferson was elected a member of the Continental Congress at its second
+session; and he made a rapid journey to Philadelphia in a chaise, with two
+led horses behind, reaching there the night before Washington set out for
+Cambridge. The Congress was composed mainly of young men. Franklin, the
+oldest member, was seventy-one, and a few others were past sixty.
+Washington was forty-three; John Adams, forty; Patrick Henry, a year or
+two younger; John Rutledge, thirty-six; his brother, twenty-six; John
+Langdon and William Paca, thirty-five, John Jay, thirty; Thomas Stone,
+thirty-two, and Jefferson, thirty-two.
+
+Jefferson soon became intimate with John Adams, who in later years said of
+him: "Though a silent member of Congress, he was so prompt, frank,
+explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation--not even Samuel
+Adams was more so--that he soon seized upon my heart."
+
+Jefferson, as we have seen, was not fitted to shine as an orator, still
+less in debate. But as a writer he had that capacity for style which
+comes, if it comes at all, as a gift of nature; which needs to be
+supplemented, but which cannot be supplied, by practice and study. In some
+of his early letters there are slight reminders of Dr. Johnson's manner,
+and still more of Sterne's. Sterne indeed was one of his favorite authors.
+However, these early traces of imitation were absorbed very quickly; and,
+before he was thirty, Jefferson became master of a clear, smooth,
+polished, picturesque, and individual style. To him, therefore, his
+associates naturally turned when they needed such a proclamation to the
+world as the Declaration of Independence; and that document is very
+characteristic of its author. It was imagination that gave distinction to
+Jefferson both as a man and as a writer. He never dashed off a letter
+which did not contain some play of fancy; and whether he was inventing a
+plough or forecasting the destinies of a great Democracy, imagination
+qualified the performance.
+
+One of the most effective forms in which imagination displays itself in
+prose is by the use of a common word in such a manner and context that it
+conveys an uncommon meaning. There are many examples of this rhetorical
+art in Jefferson's writings, but the most notable one occurs in the noble
+first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: "When, in the course
+of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
+political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume
+among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the
+Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
+opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
+impel them to the separation."
+
+Upon this paragraph Mr. Parton eloquently observes: "The noblest utterance
+of the whole composition is the reason given for making the
+Declaration,--'_A decent __respect for the opinions of mankind_.' This
+touches the heart. Among the best emotions that human nature knows is the
+veneration of man for man. This recognition of the public opinion of the
+world--the sum of human sense--as the final arbiter in all such
+controversies is the single phrase of the document which Jefferson alone,
+perhaps, of all the Congress, could have originated; and in point of merit
+it was worth all the rest."
+
+Franklin and John Adams, who were on the committee with Jefferson, made a
+few verbal changes in his draught of the Declaration, and it was then
+discussed and reviewed by Congress for three days. Congress made eighteen
+suppressions, six additions, and ten alterations; and it must be admitted
+that most of these were improvements. For example, Jefferson had framed a
+paragraph in which the king was severely censured for opposing certain
+measures looking to the suppression of the slave trade. This would have
+come with an ill grace from the Americans, since for a century New England
+had been enriching herself by that trade, and the southern colonies had
+subsisted upon the labor which it brought them. Congress wisely struck out
+the paragraph.
+
+The Declaration of Independence was received with rapture throughout the
+country. Everywhere it was read aloud to the people who gathered to hear
+it, amid the booming of guns, the ringing of bells, and the display of
+fireworks. In Philadelphia, after the reading, the late king's coat of
+arms was burned in Independence Square; in New York the leaden statue, in
+Bowling Green, of George III. was "laid prostrate in the dust," and
+ordered to be run into bullets. Virginia had already stricken the king's
+name from her prayer-book; and Rhode Island now forbade her people to pray
+for the king, as king, under a penalty of one hundred thousand pounds! The
+Declaration of Independence, both as a political and literary document,
+has stood the test of time. It has all the classic qualities of an oration
+by Demosthenes; and even that passage in it which has been
+criticised--that, namely, which pronounces all men to be created equal--is
+true in a sense, the truth of which it will take a century or two yet to
+develop.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    V
+
+
+                         REFORM WORK IN VIRGINIA
+
+
+In September, 1776, Jefferson, having resigned his seat in Congress to
+engage in duties nearer home, returned to Monticello. A few weeks later, a
+messenger from Congress arrived to inform him that he had been elected a
+joint commissioner with Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane to represent at Paris
+the newly formed nation. His heart had long been set upon foreign travel;
+but he felt obliged to decline this appointment, first on account of the
+ill health of his wife, and secondly, because he was needed in Virginia as
+a legislator. Not since Lycurgus gave laws to the Spartans had there been
+such an opportunity as then existed in the United States. John Adams
+declared: "The best lawgivers of antiquity would rejoice to live at a
+period like this when, for the first time in the history of the world,
+three millions of people are deliberately _choosing_ their government and
+institutions."
+
+Of all the colonies, Virginia offered the best field for reform, because,
+as we have already seen, she had by far the most aristocratic political
+and social system; and it is extraordinary how quickly the reform was
+effected by Jefferson and his friends. In ordinary times of peace the task
+would have been impossible; but in throwing off the English yoke, the
+colonists had opened their minds to new ideas; change had become familiar
+to them, and in the general upheaval the rights of the people were
+recognized. A year later, Jefferson wrote to Franklin: "With respect to
+the State of Virginia, in particular, the people seem to have laid aside
+the monarchical and taken up the republican government with as much ease
+as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new set
+of clothes."
+
+Jefferson's greatness lay in this, that he was the first statesman who
+trusted the mass of the people. He alone had divined the fact that they
+were competent, morally and mentally, for self-government. It is almost
+impossible for us to appreciate Jefferson's originality in this respect,
+because the bold and untried theories for which he contended are now
+regarded as commonplace maxims. He may have derived his political ideas in
+part from the French philosophical writers of the eighteenth century,
+although there is no evidence to that effect; but he was certainly the
+first statesman to grasp the idea of democracy as a form of government,
+just as, at a later day, Walt Whitman was the first poet to grasp the idea
+of equality as a social system. Hamilton, John Adams, Pinckney, Gouverneur
+Morris, even Washington himself, all believed that popular government
+would be unsafe and revolutionary unless held in check by a strong
+executive and by an aristocratic senate.
+
+Jefferson in his lifetime was often charged with gross inconsistency in
+his political views and conduct; but the inconsistency was more apparent
+than real. At times he strictly construed, and at times he almost set
+aside the Constitution; but the clue to his conduct can usually be found
+in the fundamental principle that the only proper function of government
+or constitutions is to express the will of the people, and that the people
+are morally and mentally competent to govern. "I am sure," he wrote in
+1796, "that the mass of citizens in these United States mean well, and I
+firmly believe that they will always act well, whenever they can obtain a
+right understanding of matters." And Jefferson's lifelong endeavor was to
+enable the people to form this "right understanding" by educating them.
+His ideas of the scope of public education went far beyond those which
+prevailed in his time, and considerably beyond those which prevail even
+now. For example, a free university course for the most apt pupils
+graduated at the grammar schools made part of his scheme,--an idea most
+nearly realized in the Western States; and those States received their
+impetus in educational matters from the Ordinance of 1787, which was
+largely the product of Jefferson's foresight.
+
+Happily for Virginia, she did not become a scene of war until the year
+1779, and, meanwhile, Jefferson and his friends lost no time in remodeling
+her constitution. There were no common schools, and the mass of the people
+were more ignorant and rough than their contemporaries in any other
+colony. Elections were scenes of bribery, intimidation, and riot,
+surpassing even those which Hogarth depicted in England. Elkanah Watson,
+of Massachusetts, describes what he saw at Hanover Court House, Patrick
+Henry's county, in 1778: "The whole county was assembled. The moment I
+alighted, a wretched, pug-nosed fellow assailed me to swap watches. I had
+hardly shaken him off, when I was attacked by a wild Irishman who insisted
+on my swapping horses with him.... With him I came near being involved in
+a boxing-match, the Irishman swearing, I 'did not trate him like a
+jintleman.' I had hardly escaped this dilemma when my attention was
+attracted by a fight between two very unwieldy fat men, foaming and
+puffing like two furies, until one succeeded in twisting a forefinger in a
+sidelock of the other's hair, and in the act of thrusting by this purchase
+his thumb into the latter's eye, he bawled out, 'King's Cruise,'
+equivalent in technical language to 'Enough.'"
+
+Quakers were put in the pillory, scolding women were ducked, and it is
+said that a woman was burned to death in Princess Anne County for
+witchcraft. The English church, as we have seen, was an established
+church; and all taxpayers, dissenters as well as churchmen, were compelled
+to contribute to its support. Baptist preachers were arrested, and fined
+as disturbers of the peace. The law of entail, both as respects land and
+slaves, was so strict that their descent to the eldest son could not be
+prevented even by agreement between the owner and his heir.
+
+In his reformation of the laws, Jefferson was supported by Patrick Henry,
+now governor, and inhabiting what was still called the palace; by George
+Mason, a patriotic lawyer who drew the famous Virginia Bill of Rights; by
+George Wythe, his old preceptor, and by James Madison, Jefferson's friend,
+pupil, and successor, who in this year began his political career as a
+member of the House of Burgesses.
+
+Opposed to them were the conservative party led by R. C. Nicholas, head of
+the Virginia bar, a stanch churchman and gentleman of the old school, and
+Edward Pendleton, whom Jefferson described as "full of resource, never
+vanquished; for if he lost the main battle he returned upon you, and
+regained so much of it as to make it a drawn one, by dexterous manoeuvres,
+skirmishes in detail, and the recovery of small advantages, which, little
+singly, were important all together. You never knew when you were clear of
+him."
+
+Intense as the controversy was, fundamental as were the points at issue,
+the speakers never lost that courtesy for which the Virginians were
+remarkable; John Randolph being perhaps the only exception. Even Patrick
+Henry--though from his humble origin and impetuous oratory one might have
+expected otherwise--was never guilty of any rudeness to his opponents. What
+Jefferson said of Madison was true of the Virginia orators in
+general,--"soothing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities
+and softnesses of expression."
+
+Jefferson struck first at the system of entail. After a three weeks'
+struggle, land and slaves were put upon the same footing as all other
+property,--they might be sold or bequeathed according to the will of the
+possessor. Then came a longer and more bitter contest. Jefferson was for
+abolishing all connection between church and state, and for establishing
+complete freedom of religion. Nine years elapsed before Virginia could be
+brought to that point; but at this session he procured a repeal of the law
+which imposed penalties for attendance at a dissenting meeting-house, and
+also of the law compelling dissenters to pay tithes. The fight was,
+therefore, substantially won; and in 1786, Jefferson's "Act for
+establishing religion" became the law of Virginia.(1)
+
+Another far-reaching law introduced by Jefferson at this memorable session
+of 1776 provided for the naturalization of foreigners in Virginia, after a
+two years' residence in the State, and upon a declaration of their
+intention to become American citizens. The bill provided also that the
+minor children of naturalized parents should be citizens of the United
+States when they came of age. The principles of this measure were
+afterward embodied in the statutes of the United States, and they are in
+force to-day.
+
+At this session Jefferson also drew an act for establishing courts of law
+in Virginia, the royal courts having necessarily passed out of existence
+when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Moreover, he set on foot
+a revision of all the statutes of Virginia, a committee with him at the
+head being appointed for this purpose; and finally he procured the removal
+of the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond.
+
+All this was accomplished, mainly by Jefferson's efforts; and yet the two
+bills upon which he set most store failed entirely. These were, first, a
+comprehensive measure of state education, running up through primary
+schools and grammar schools to a state university, and, secondly, a bill
+providing that all who were born in slavery after the passage of the bill
+should be free.
+
+This was Jefferson's second ineffectual attempt to promote the abolition
+of slavery. During the year 1768, when he first became a member of the
+House of Burgesses, he had endeavored to procure the passage of a law
+enabling slave-owners to free their slaves, He induced Colonel Bland, one
+of the ablest, oldest, and most respected members to propose the law, and
+he seconded the proposal; but it was overwhelmingly rejected. "I, as a
+younger member," related Jefferson afterward, "was more spared in the
+debate; but he was denounced as an enemy to his country, and was treated
+with the greatest indecorum."
+
+In 1778 Jefferson made another attempt:--he brought in a bill forbidding
+the further importation of slaves in Virginia, and this was passed without
+opposition. Again, in 1784, when Virginia ceded to the United States her
+immense northwestern territory, Jefferson drew up a scheme of government
+for the States to be carved out of it which included a provision "that
+after the year 1800 of the Christian Era, there shall be neither slavery
+nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in
+punishment of crimes." The provision was rejected by Congress.
+
+In his "Notes on Virginia," written in the year 1781, but published in
+1787, he said: "The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual
+exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism,
+on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. Our children see
+this, and learn to imitate it.... With the morals of the people their
+industry also is destroyed. For in a warm climate no one will labor for
+himself who can make another labor for him.... Indeed, I tremble for my
+country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep
+forever.... The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in
+such a contest."
+
+When the Missouri Compromise question came up, in 1820, Jefferson rightly
+predicted that a controversy had begun which would end in disruption; but
+he made the mistake of supposing that the Northern party were actuated in
+that matter solely by political motives. April 22, 1820, he wrote: "This
+momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me
+with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.... A
+geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and
+political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will
+never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper.... The cession of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is
+a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought if, in that way, a
+general emancipation and expatriation could be effected; and gradually and
+with due sacrifices I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by
+the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in
+one scale, and self-preservation in the other."
+
+And later, he wrote of the Missouri Compromise, as a "question having just
+enough of the semblance of morality to throw dust into the eyes of the
+people.... The Federalists, unable to rise again under the old division of
+Whig and Tory, have invented a geographical division which gives them
+fourteen States against ten, and seduces their old opponents into a
+coalition with them. Real morality is on the other side. For while the
+removal of the slaves from one State to another adds no more to their
+numbers than their removal from one country to another, the spreading them
+over a larger surface adds to their happiness, and renders their future
+emancipation more practicable."
+
+These misconceptions as to Northern motives might be ascribed to
+Jefferson's advanced age, for, as he himself graphically expressed it, he
+then had "one foot in the grave, and the other lifted to follow it;" but
+it would probably be more just to say that they were due, in part, to his
+prejudice against the New England people and especially the New England
+clergy, and in part to the fact that his long retirement in Virginia had
+somewhat contracted his views and sympathies. Jefferson was a man of
+intense local attachments, and he took color from his surroundings. He
+never ceased, however, to regard slavery as morally wrong and socially
+ruinous; and in the brief autobiography which he left behind him he made
+these predictions: "Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate
+than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two
+races, equally free, cannot live in the same government."
+
+History has justified the second as well as the first of these
+declarations, for, excepting that brief period of anarchy known as "the
+carpet-bag era," it cannot be maintained that the colored race in the
+Southern States have been at any time, even since their emancipation,
+"equally free," in the sense of politically free, with their white fellow
+citizens.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    VI
+
+
+                           GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
+
+
+For three years Jefferson was occupied with the legislative duties already
+described, and especially with a revision of the Virginia statutes, and
+then, in June, 1779, he succeeded Patrick Henry as governor of the State.
+It has often been remarked that he was, all through life, a lucky man, but
+in this case fortune did not favor him, for the ensuing two years proved
+to be, so far as Virginia was concerned, by much the worst period of the
+war.
+
+The French alliance, though no doubt an ultimate benefit to the colonies,
+had at first two bad effects: it relaxed the energy of the Americans, who
+trusted that France would fight their battles for them; and it stimulated
+the British to increased exertions. The British commissioners announced
+that henceforth England would employ, in the prosecution of the war, all
+those agencies which "God and nature had placed in her hands." This meant
+that the ferocity of the Indians would be invoked, a matter of special
+moment to Virginia, since her western frontier swarmed with Indians, the
+bravest of their race.
+
+The colony, it must be remembered, was then of immense extent; for beside
+the present Virginia and West Virginia, Kentucky and the greater part of
+Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were embraced in it. It stretched, in short,
+from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. Upon the seaboard
+Virginia was especially vulnerable, the tide-water region being penetrated
+by numerous bays and rivers, which the enemy's ships could easily ascend,
+for they were undefended by forts or men. The total navy of the colony was
+four vessels, mounting sixty-two guns, and a few armed boats. The flower
+of the Virginia soldiery, to the number of ten thousand, were in
+Washington's army, and supplies of men, of arms, of ammunition and food
+were urgently called for by General Gates, who was battling against
+Cornwallis in North Carolina. The militia were supposed to number fifty
+thousand, which included every man between sixteen and fifty years of age;
+but this was only one man for every square mile of territory in the
+present State of Virginia, and of these militiamen it was estimated that,
+east of the Blue Ridge, only about one in five was armed with a gun. The
+treasury was practically bankrupt, and there was a dearth of every kind of
+warlike material.
+
+Such was the situation which confronted, as Mr. Parton puts it, "a lawyer
+of thirty-six, with a talent for music, a taste for art, a love of
+science, literature, and gardening." The task was one calling rather for a
+soldier than a statesman; but Mr. Jefferson faced it with courage, and on
+the whole with success. In retaliating the cruel measures of the British,
+he showed a firmness which must have been especially difficult for a man
+of his temperament. He put in irons and confined in a dungeon Colonel
+Henry Hamilton and two subordinate officers who had committed atrocities
+upon American prisoners. He caused a prison-ship, like the ships of
+infamous memory which were employed as prisons by the British at New York,
+to be prepared; and the exchange of captives between Virginia and the
+British was stopped. "Humane conduct on our part," wrote Jefferson, "was
+found to produce no effect. The contrary, therefore, is to be tried. Iron
+will be retaliated by iron, prison-ships for prison-ships, and like for
+like in general." But in November, 1779, notice was received that the
+English, under their new leader, Sir Henry Clinton, had adopted a less
+barbarous system of warfare; and fortunately Jefferson's measures of
+reprisal became unnecessary.
+
+Hampered as he was by want of men and money, Jefferson did all that he
+could to supply the needs of the Virginia soldiers with Washington, of the
+army in North Carolina, led by Gates, and of George Rogers Clarke, the
+heroic commander who put down the Indian uprising on the western frontier,
+and captured the English officer who instigated it,--that same Colonel
+Hamilton of whom mention has already been made. The story of Clarke's
+adventures in the wilderness,--he was a neighbor of Jefferson, only
+twenty-six years old,--of his forced marches, of his masterful dealing with
+the Indians, and finally of his capture of the British force, forms a
+thrilling chapter in the history of the American Revolution.
+
+Many indeed of Jefferson's constituents censured him as being over-zealous
+in his support of the army of Gates. He stripped Virginia, they said, of
+troops and resources which, as it proved afterward, were needed at home.
+But if Cornwallis were not defeated in North Carolina, it was certain that
+he would overrun the much more exposed Virginia. If he could be defeated
+anywhere, it would be in the Carolinas. Jefferson's course, it is
+sufficient to say, was that recommended by Washington; and his exertions
+in behalf of the Continental armies were commended in the highest terms
+not only by Washington, but also by Generals Gates, Greene, Steuben, and
+Lafayette. The militia were called out, leaving behind only so many men as
+were required to cultivate the land, wagons were impressed, including two
+belonging to the governor, and attempts were even made--extraordinary for
+Virginia--to manufacture certain much-needed articles. "Our smiths," wrote
+Jefferson, "are making five hundred axes and some tomahawks for General
+Gates."
+
+Thus fared the year 1779, and in 1780 things went from bad to worse. In
+April came a letter from Madison, saying that Washington's army was on the
+verge of dissolution, being only half-clothed, and in a way to be starved.
+The public treasury was empty and the public credit gone. In August
+occurred the disastrous defeat of General Gates at Camden, which left
+Virginia at the mercy of Cornwallis. In October a British fleet under
+Leslie ravaged the country about Portsmouth, but failing to effect a
+juncture with Cornwallis, who was detained in North Carolina by illness
+among his troops, did no further harm. Two months later, however, Benedict
+Arnold sailed up the James River with another fleet, and, after committing
+some depredations at Richmond, sailed down again, escaping by the aid of a
+favorable wind, which hauled from east to west just in the nick of time
+for him.
+
+In June, 1781, Cornwallis invaded Virginia, and no one suffered more than
+Jefferson from his depredations. Tarleton was dispatched to seize the
+governor at Monticello; but the latter was forewarned by a citizen of
+Charlottesville, who, being in a tavern at Louisa when Tarleton and his
+troop swept by on the main road, immediately guessed their destination,
+and mounting his horse, a fleet Virginia thoroughbred, rode by a short cut
+through the woods straight to Monticello, arriving there about three hours
+ahead of Tarleton.
+
+Jefferson took the matter coolly. He first dispatched his family to a
+place of safety, sent his best horse to be shod at a neighboring smithy,
+and then proceeded to sort and separate his papers. He left the house only
+about five minutes before the soldiers entered it.
+
+Two slaves, Martin, Mr. Jefferson's body servant, and C�sar, were engaged
+in hiding plate and other articles under the floor of the portico, a
+single plank having been raised for that purpose. As Martin, above, handed
+the last article to C�sar under the floor, the tramp of the approaching
+cavalry was heard. Down went the plank, shutting in C�sar, and there he
+remained, without making any outcry, for eighteen hours, in darkness, and
+of course without food or water. One of the soldiers, to try Martin's
+nerve, clapped a pistol to his breast, and threatened to fire unless he
+would tell which way his master had fled. "Fire away, then," retorted the
+black, fiercely answering glance for glance, and not receding a hair's
+breath.
+
+Tarleton and his men scrupulously refrained from injuring Jefferson's
+property. Cornwallis, on the other hand, who encamped on Jefferson's
+estate of Elk Hill, lying opposite Elk Island in the James River,
+destroyed the growing crops, burned all the barns and fences, carried
+off--"as was to be expected," said Mr. Jefferson--the cattle and horses, and
+committed the barbarity of killing the colts that were too young to be of
+service. He carried off, also, about thirty slaves. "Had this been to give
+them freedom," wrote Jefferson, "he would have done right; but it was to
+consign them to inevitable death from the smallpox and putrid fever, then
+raging in his camp."
+
+"Some of the miserable wretches crawled home to die," Mr. Randall relates,
+"and giving information where others lay perishing in hovels or in the
+open air, by the wayside, these were sent for by their generous master;
+and the last moments of all of them were made as comfortable as could be
+done by proper nursing and medical attendance."
+
+These dreadful scenes, added to the agitation of having twice been
+obliged, at a moment's notice, to flee from the enemy, to say nothing of
+the anxieties which she must have endured on her husband's account, were
+too much for Mrs. Jefferson's already enfeebled constitution. She died on
+September 6, 1782.
+
+Six slave women who were household servants enjoyed for thirty years a
+kind of humble distinction at Monticello as "the servants who were in the
+room when Mrs. Jefferson died;" and the fact that they were there attests
+the affectionate relations which must have existed between them and their
+master and mistress. "They have often told my wife," relates Mr. Bacon,
+"that when Mrs. Jefferson died they stood around the bed. Mr. Jefferson
+sat by her, and she gave him directions about a good many things that she
+wanted done. When she came to the children, she wept, and could not speak
+for some time. Finally she held up her hand, and, spreading out her four
+fingers, she told him she could not die happy if she thought her four
+children were ever to have a stepmother brought in over them. Holding her
+other hand in his, Mr. Jefferson promised her solemnly that he would never
+marry again;" and the promise was kept.
+
+After his wife's death Jefferson sank into what he afterward described as
+"a stupor of mind;" and even before that he had been, for the first and
+last time in his life, in a somewhat morbid mental condition. He was an
+excessively sensitive man, and reflections upon his conduct as governor,
+during the raids into Virginia by Arnold and Cornwallis, coming at a time
+when he was overwrought, rankled in his mind. He refused to serve again as
+governor, and desiring to defend his course when in that office, became a
+member of the House of Burgesses in 1781, in order that he might answer
+his critics there; but not a voice was raised against him. In 1782, he was
+again elected to the House, but he did not attend; and both Madison and
+Monroe endeavored in vain to draw him from his seclusion. To Monroe he
+replied: "Before I ventured to declare to my countrymen my determination
+to retire from public employment, I examined well my heart to know whether
+it were thoroughly cured of every principle of political ambition, whether
+no lurking particle remained which might leave me uneasy, when reduced
+within the limits of mere private life. I became satisfied that every
+fibre of that passion was thoroughly eradicated."
+
+Jefferson was an impulsive man,--in some respects a creature of the moment;
+certainly often, in his own case, mistaking, as a permanent feeling, what
+was really a transitory impression. His language to Monroe must,
+therefore, be taken as the sincere deliverance of a man who, at that time,
+had not the remotest expectation of receiving, or the least ambition to
+attain, the highest offices in the gift of the American people.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   VII
+
+
+                              ENVOY AT PARIS
+
+
+Two years after his wife's death, namely, in 1784, Jefferson was chosen by
+Congress to serve as envoy at Paris, with John Adams and Benjamin
+Franklin. The appointment came at an opportune moment, when his mind was
+beginning to recover its tone, and he gladly accepted it. It was deemed
+necessary that the new Confederacy should make treaties with the various
+governments of Europe, and as soon as the envoys reached Paris, they drew
+up a treaty such as they hoped might be negotiated. It has been described
+as "the first serious attempt ever made to conduct the intercourse of
+nations on Christian principles;" and, on that account, it failed. To this
+failure there was, however, one exception. "Old Frederick of Prussia," as
+Jefferson styled him, "met us cordially;" and with him a treaty was soon
+concluded.
+
+In May, 1785, Franklin returned to the United States, and Jefferson was
+appointed minister. "You replace Dr. Franklin," said the Count of
+Vergennes when Jefferson announced his appointment. "I succeed,--no one can
+replace him," was the reply.
+
+Jefferson's residence in Paris at this critical period was a fortunate
+occurrence. It would be a mistake to suppose that he derived his political
+principles from France:--he carried them there; but he was confirmed in
+them by witnessing the injustice and misery which resulted to the common
+people from the monarchical governments of Europe. To James Monroe he
+wrote in June, 1785: "The pleasure of the trip [to Europe] will be less
+than you expect, but the utility greater. It will make you adore your own
+country,--its soil, its climate, its equality, laws, people, and manners.
+My God! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are
+in possession of and which no other people on earth enjoy! I confess I had
+no idea of it myself."
+
+To George Wythe he wrote in August, 1786: "Preach, my dear sir, a crusade
+against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common
+people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us
+against these evils; and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose
+is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings,
+priests, and nobles, who will rise up among us if we leave the people in
+ignorance." To Madison, he wrote in January, 1787: "This is a government
+of wolves over sheep." Jefferson took the greatest pains to ascertain the
+condition of the laboring classes. In the course of a journey in the south
+of France, he wrote to Lafayette, begging him to survey the condition of
+the people for himself. "To do it most effectually," he said, "you must be
+absolutely incognito; you must ferret the people out of their hovels, as I
+have done; look into their kettles; eat their bread; loll on their beds on
+pretense of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft. You
+will feel a sublime pleasure in the course of the investigation, and a
+sublimer one hereafter, when you shall be able to apply your knowledge to
+the softening of their beds, or the throwing a morsel of meat into their
+kettle of vegetables."
+
+These excursions among the French peasantry, who, as Jefferson well knew,
+were ruinously taxed in order to support an extravagant court and an idle
+and insolent nobility, made him a fierce Republican. "There is not a
+crowned head in Europe," he wrote to General Washington, in 1788, "whose
+talents or merits would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the
+people of America."
+
+But for the French race Jefferson had an affinity. He was glad to live
+with people among whom, as he said, "a man might pass a life without
+encountering a single rudeness." He liked their polished manners and gay
+disposition, their aptitude for science, for philosophy, and for art; even
+their wines and cookery suited his taste, and his preference in this
+respect was so well known that Patrick Henry once humorously stigmatized
+him as "a man who had abjured his native victuals."
+
+Jefferson's stay in Paris corresponded exactly with the "glorious" period
+of the French Revolution. He was present at the Assembly of the Notables
+in 1787, and he witnessed the destruction of the Bastille in 1789.
+
+"The change in this country," he wrote in March, 1789, "is such as you can
+form no idea of. The frivolities of conversation have given way entirely
+to politics. Men, women, and children talk nothing else ... and mode has
+acted a wonderful part in the present instance. All the handsome young
+women, for example, are for the _tiers �t�t_, and this is an army more
+powerful in France than the 200,000 men of the king."
+
+The truth is that an intellectual and moral revolution preceded in France
+the outbreak of the populace. There was an interior conviction that the
+government of the country was excessively unjust and oppressive. A love of
+liberty, a feeling of fraternity, a passion for equality moved the
+intellect and even the aristocracy of France. In this crisis the reformers
+looked toward America, for the United States had just trodden the path
+upon which France was entering. "Our proceedings," wrote Jefferson to
+Madison in 1789, "have been viewed as a model for them on every
+occasion.... Our [authority] has been treated like that of the Bible, open
+to explanation, but not to question."
+
+Jefferson's advice was continually sought by Lafayette and others; and his
+house, maintained in the easy, liberal style of Virginia, was a meeting
+place for the Revolutionary statesmen. Jefferson dined at three or four
+o'clock; and after the cloth had been removed he and his guests sat over
+their wine till nine or ten in the evening.
+
+In July, 1789, the National Assembly appointed a committee to draught a
+constitution, and the committee formally invited the American minister to
+assist at their sessions and favor them with his advice. This function he
+felt obliged to decline, as being inconsistent with his post of minister
+to the king. No man had a nicer sense of propriety than Jefferson; and he
+punctiliously observed the requirements of his somewhat difficult
+situation in Paris.
+
+What gave Mr. Jefferson the greatest anxiety and trouble, was our
+relations with the piratical Barbary powers who held the keys of the
+Mediterranean and sometimes extended their depredations even into the
+Atlantic. It was a question of paying tribute or going to war; and most of
+the European powers paid tribute. In 1784, for example, the Dutch
+contributed to "the high, glorious, mighty, and most noble, King, Prince,
+and Emperor of Morocco," a mass of material which included thirty cables,
+seventy cannon, sixty-nine masts, twenty-one anchors, fifty dozen
+sail-needles, twenty-four tons of pitch, two hundred and eighty loaves of
+sugar, twenty-four China punch-bowls, three clocks, and one "very large
+watch."
+
+Jefferson ascertained that the pirates would require of the United States,
+as the price of immunity for its commerce, a tribute of about three
+hundred thousand dollars per annum. "Surely," he wrote home, "our people
+will not give this. Would it not be better to offer them an equal treaty?
+If they refuse, why not go to war with them?" And he pressed upon Mr. Jay,
+who held the secretaryship of foreign affairs, as the office was then
+called, the immediate establishment of a navy. But Congress would do
+nothing; and it was not till Jefferson himself became President that the
+Barbary pirates were dealt with in a wholesome and stringent manner.
+During the whole term of his residence at Paris he was negotiating with
+the Mediterranean powers for the release of unfortunate Americans, many of
+whom spent the best part of their lives in horrible captivity.
+
+Mr. Jefferson's self-imposed duties were no less arduous. He kept four
+colleges informed of the most valuable new inventions, discoveries, and
+books. He had a Yankee talent for mechanical improvements, and he was
+always on the alert to obtain anything of this nature which he thought
+might be useful at home. Jefferson himself, by the way, invented the
+revolving armchair, the buggy-top, and a mould board for a plough. He
+bought books for Franklin, Madison, Monroe, Wythe, and himself. He
+informed one correspondent about Watt's engine, another about the new
+system of canals. He smuggled rice from Turin in his coat pockets; and he
+was continually dispatching to agricultural societies in America seeds,
+roots, nuts, and plants. Houdin was sent over by him to make the statue of
+Washington; and he forwarded designs for the new capitol at Richmond. For
+Buffon he procured the skin of an American panther, and also the bones and
+hide of a New Hampshire moose, to obtain which Governor Sullivan of that
+State organized a hunting-party in the depth of winter and cut a road
+through the forest for twenty miles in order to bring out his quarry.
+
+Jefferson was the most indefatigable of men, and he did not relax in
+Paris. He had rooms at a Carthusian monastery to which he repaired when he
+had some special work on hand. He kept a carriage and horses, but could
+not afford a saddle horse. Instead of riding, he took a walk every
+afternoon, usually of six or seven miles, occasionally twice as long. It
+was while returning with a friend from one of these excursions that he
+fell and fractured his right wrist; and the fracture was set so
+imperfectly that it troubled him ever afterward. It was characteristic of
+Jefferson that he said nothing to his friend as to the injury until they
+reached home, though his suffering from it was great; and, also, that he
+at once began to write with the other hand, making numerous entries, on
+the very night of the accident, in a writing which, though stiff, was, and
+remains, perfectly clear.
+
+Mr. Jefferson's two daughters had been placed at a convent school near
+Paris, and he was surprised one day to receive a note from Martha, the
+elder, asking his permission to remain in the convent for the rest of her
+life as a nun. For a day or two she received no answer. Then her father
+called in his carriage, and after a short interview with the abbess took
+his daughters away; and thenceforth Martha presided, so far as her age
+permitted, over her father's household. Not a word upon the subject of her
+request ever passed between them; and long afterward, in telling the story
+to her own children, she praised Mr. Jefferson's tact in dealing with what
+she described as a transient impulse.
+
+After this incident, Jefferson, thinking that it was time to take his
+daughters home, obtained leave of absence for six months; and the little
+family landed at Norfolk, November 18, 1789. They journeyed slowly
+homeward, stopping at one friend's house after another, and, two days
+before Christmas, arrived at Monticello, where they were rapturously
+greeted by the slaves, who took the four horses from the carriage and drew
+it up the steep incline themselves; and when he alighted, Mr. Jefferson,
+in spite of himself, was carried into the house on the arms of his black
+servants and friends.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   VIII
+
+
+                            SECRETARY OF STATE
+
+
+Mr. Jefferson had a strong desire to resume his post as minister to
+France, but he yielded to Washington's earnest request that he should
+become Secretary of State in the new government. He lingered long enough
+at Monticello to witness the marriage of his daughter Martha to Thomas
+Mann Randolph, and then set out upon a cold, wet journey of twenty-one
+days, reaching New York, which was then the seat of government, late in
+March, 1790. He hired a small house at No. 57 Maiden Lane, and immediately
+attacked the arrears of work which had been accumulating for six months.
+The unusual confinement, aggravated, perhaps, by a homesickness, clearly
+revealed in his letters, for his daughters and for Monticello, brought on
+what seems to have been a neuralgic headache which lasted for three weeks.
+It may have been caused in part by the climate of New York, as to which
+Mr. Jefferson observed: "Spring and fall they never have, so far as I can
+learn. They have ten months of winter, two of summer, with some winter
+days interspersed." But there were other causes beside homesickness and
+headache which made Jefferson unhappy in his new position. Long afterward
+he described them as follows:--
+
+"I had left France in the first year of her Revolution, in the fervor of
+natural rights and zeal for reformation. My conscientious devotion to
+those rights could not be heightened, but it had been aroused and excited
+by daily exercise. The President received me cordially, and my colleagues
+and the circle of principal citizens apparently with welcome. The
+courtesies of dinners given to me, as a stranger newly arrived among them,
+placed me at once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe the
+wonder and mortification with which the table conversations filled me.
+Politics were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over republican
+government was evidently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not
+be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I found myself for the most part the only
+advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among the guests
+there chanced to be some member of that party from the legislative
+houses."
+
+It must be remembered that Jefferson's absence in France had been the
+period of the Confederacy, when the inability of Congress to enforce its
+laws and to control the States was so evident and so disastrous that the
+need of a stronger central government had been impressed on men's minds.
+The new Constitution had been devised to supply that need, but it was
+elastic in its terms, and it avoided all details. Should it be construed
+in an aristocratic or in a democratic spirit, and should the new nation be
+given an aristocratic or a democratic twist? This was a burning question,
+and it gave rise to that long struggle led by Hamilton on one side and by
+Jefferson on the other, which ended with the election of Jefferson as
+President in the year 1800.
+
+Hamilton and his party utterly disbelieved in government by the people.(2)
+John Adams declared that the English Constitution, barring its element of
+corruption, was an ideal constitution. Hamilton went farther and asserted
+that the English form of government, corruption and all, was the best
+practicable form. An aristocratic senate, chosen for a long term, if not
+for life, was thought to be essential even by Mr. Adams. Hamilton's notion
+was that mankind were incapable of self-government, and must be governed
+in one or two ways,--by force or by fraud. Property was, in his view, the
+ideal basis of government; and he was inclined to fix the possession of "a
+thousand Spanish dollars" as the proper qualification for a voter.
+
+The difference between the Hamiltonian and the Jeffersonian view arises
+chiefly from a different belief as to the connection between education and
+morality. All aristocratic systems must, in the last analysis, be founded
+either upon brute force or else upon the assumption that education and
+morality go hand-in-hand, and that the well-to-do and best educated class
+is morally superior to the less educated. Jefferson rejected this
+assumption, and all real believers in democracy must take their stand with
+him. He once stated his creed upon this point in a letter as follows:--
+
+"The moral sense or conscience is as much a part of man as his leg or
+arm.... It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of
+the body. This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree to the guidance
+of reason, but it is a small stock which is required for this, even a less
+one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and
+a professor. The former will decide it as well and often better than the
+latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules."
+
+This is sound philosophy. The great problems in government, whether they
+relate to matters external or internal, are moral, not intellectual. There
+are, indeed, purely intellectual problems, such as the question between
+free silver and a gold standard; and as to these problems, the people may
+go wrong. But they are not vital. No nation ever yet achieved glory or
+incurred destruction by taking one course rather than another in a matter
+of trade or finance. The crucial questions are moral questions, and
+experience has shown that as to such matters the people can be trusted. As
+Jefferson himself said, "The will of the majority, the natural law of
+every society, is the only sure guardian of the rights of man. Perhaps
+even this may sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary, and
+short-lived."
+
+Washington's cabinet was made up on the theory that it should represent
+not the party in power, but both parties,--for two parties already existed,
+the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, who, under Jefferson's
+influence, soon became known by the better name of Republicans. The
+cabinet consisted of four members, Jefferson, Secretary of State,
+Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox, Secretary of War, and
+Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General.
+
+Knox sided almost always with Hamilton, and Randolph was an inconstant
+supporter of Jefferson. Though an able and learned man, he was given to
+hair-splitting and hesitation, and, in allusion to his habit of arguing on
+one side, but finally voting upon the other, Jefferson once remarked that
+he usually gave the shell to his friends, and reserved the oyster for his
+opponents.
+
+The political opinions of Jefferson and Hamilton were so diametrically
+opposed that the cabinet was soon torn by dissension. Hamilton was for a
+strong government, for surrounding the President with pomp and etiquette,
+for a central authority as against the authority of the States. In
+pursuance of these ideas, he brought forward his famous measures for
+assumption of the state debts by the national government, for the funding
+of the national debt, and finally for the creation of a national bank.
+Jefferson opposed these measures, and, although the assumption and the
+funding laws had grave faults, and led to speculation, and in the case of
+many persons to financial ruin, yet it must be admitted that Jefferson
+never appreciated their merits.
+
+The truth is that both Hamilton and Jefferson were essential to the
+development of this country; and the principles of each have been adopted
+in part, and rejected in part. Hamilton's conception of a central
+government predominating over the state governments has been realized,
+though not nearly to the extent to which he would have carried it. On the
+other hand, his various schemes for making the government into an
+aristocracy instead of a democracy have all been abandoned, or, like the
+Electoral College, turned to a use the opposite of what he intended. So,
+Jefferson's view of state rights has not strictly been maintained; but his
+fundamental principles of popular government and popular education have
+made the United States what it is, and are destined, we hope, when fully
+developed, to make it something better yet.
+
+No less an authority than that of Washington, who appreciated the merits
+of both men, could have kept the peace between them. Hamilton under an
+assumed name attacked Jefferson in the public prints. Jefferson never
+published a line unsigned; but he permitted Philip Freneau, who had slight
+employment as a translator in his department, and the trifling salary of
+$250 a year, to wage war against Hamilton in the gazette which Freneau
+published; and he even stood by while Freneau attacked Washington.
+Washington indeed once gave Jefferson a hint on this subject, which the
+latter refused to take. "He was evidently sore and warm," wrote Jefferson,
+"and I took his intention to be that I should interfere in some way with
+Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment of translating clerk to my
+office. But I will not do it. His paper has saved our constitution, which
+was galloping fast into monarchy.... And the President has not, ... with
+his usual good sense and _sang froid_, ... seen that, though some bad
+things had passed through it to the public, yet the good have predominated
+immensely."
+
+In the spring of 1792, Jefferson, who had now been two years in office,
+was extremely anxious to retire, not only because his situation at
+Washington was unpleasant, but because his affairs at home had been so
+neglected during his long absences that he was in danger of bankruptcy.
+His estate was large, but it was incumbered by a debt to English creditors
+of $13,000. Some years before he had sold for cash a farm near Monticello
+in order to discharge this debt; but at that time the Revolutionary war
+had begun, and the Virginia legislature passed an act inviting all men
+owing money to English creditors to deposit the same in the state
+treasury, the State agreeing to pay it over to the English creditors after
+the war. Jefferson accordingly deposited the $13,000 in gold which he had
+just received. Later, however, this law was rescinded, and the money
+received under it was paid back, not in gold, but in paper money of the
+State, which was then so depreciated as to be almost worthless. In riding
+by the farm thus disposed of, Jefferson in after years would sometimes
+point to it and say: "That farm I once sold for an overcoat;"--the price of
+the overcoat having been the $13,000 in paper money. Cornwallis, as we
+have seen, destroyed Jefferson's property to an amount more than double
+this debt, which might be considered as a second payment of it; but
+Jefferson finally paid it the third time,--and this time into the hands of
+the actual creditor. Meanwhile, he wrote: "The torment of mind I endure
+till the moment shall arrive when I shall not owe a shilling on earth is
+such really as to render life of little value."
+
+Urged by all these motives, Jefferson had resolved to resign his office in
+1792, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Washington; but the attacks
+made upon him by the Federalists, especially those made in the newspapers,
+were so violent that a retirement at that time would have given the public
+cause to believe that he had been driven from office by his enemies.
+Jefferson, therefore, concluded to remain Secretary of State a few months
+longer; and those few, as it happened, were the most important of the
+whole term.
+
+On January 21, 1793, King Louis of France was executed, and within a week
+thereafter England was at war with the new rulers of the French. Difficult
+questions at once arose under our treaties with France. The French people
+thought that we were in honor bound to assist them in their struggle
+against Great Britain, as they had assisted us; and they sent over as
+minister "Citizen" Genet, in the frigate L'Embuscade. The frigate,
+carrying forty guns and three hundred men, sailed into the harbor of
+Charleston, April 8, 1793, with a liberty-cap for her figure-head, and a
+British prize in her wake. Citizen Genet, even for a Frenchman, was a most
+indiscreet and hot-headed person, and before he had been a week on shore
+he had issued commissions to privateers manned by American citizens.
+L'Embuscade then proceeded to Philadelphia, where, as in Charleston,
+Citizen Genet was welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm. His coming was
+hailed by the Republicans generally with rapture; and their cry was for
+war. "I wish," wrote Jefferson, in a confidential letter to Monroe, "that
+we may be able to repress the people within the limits of a fair
+neutrality."
+
+This was the position taken also by Washington and the whole cabinet; and
+it is a striking example of Jefferson's wisdom, justice, and firmness,
+that, although the bulk of the Republicans were carried off their feet by
+sympathy with France and with Genet, he, the very person in the United
+States who most loved the French and best understood the causes and
+motives of the French Revolution, withstood the storm, and kept his eye
+fixed upon the interests of his own country. England, contrary to the
+treaty which closed the Revolutionary War, still retained her military
+posts in the west; and she was the undisputed mistress of the sea. War
+with her would therefore have been suicidal for the United States. The
+time for that had not yet come. Moreover, if the United States had taken
+sides with France, a war with Spain also would inevitably have followed;
+and Spain then held Florida and the mouth of the Mississippi.
+
+Nevertheless, there were different ways of preserving neutrality: there
+were the offensive way and the friendly way. Hamilton, whose extreme bias
+toward England made him bitter against France, was always for the one;
+Jefferson for the other. A single example will suffice as an illustration.
+M. Genet asked as a favor that the United States should advance an
+installment of its debt to France. Hamilton advised that the request be
+refused without a word of explanation. Jefferson's opinion was that the
+request should be granted, if that were lawful, and if it were found to be
+unlawful, them that the refusal should be explained. Mr. Jefferson's
+advice was followed.
+
+Mr. Jefferson, also, though he firmly withstood the many illegal and
+unwarrantable acts attempted by Genet, did so in such a manner as not to
+lose the friendship of the minister or even a degree of control over him.
+To Madison Jefferson wrote of Genet: "He renders my position immensely
+difficult. He does me justice personally; and giving him time to vent
+himself and become more cool, I am on a footing to advise him freely, and
+he respects it; but he will break out again on the very first occasion."
+
+Finally Citizen Genet, becoming desperate, fitted out one of L'Embuscade's
+prizes as a frigate to be used against England, which amounted on the part
+of the United States to a breach of neutrality; and being hindered in
+sending her to sea, he threatened to appeal from the President to the
+people of the United States. Thereupon the question arose, what shall be
+done with Genet? and upon this question the cabinet divided with more than
+usual acrimony. Knox was for sending him out of the country without
+ceremony; Hamilton for publishing the whole correspondence between him and
+the government, with a statement of his proceedings. Jefferson was for
+sending an account of the affair to the French government, with copies of
+the correspondence, and a request for Genet's recall. Meanwhile the whole
+country was thrown into a state of tumultuous excitement. There was a riot
+in Philadelphia; and even the sacred character of Washington was assailed
+in prose and verse.
+
+The President decided to adopt the course proposed by Jefferson; France
+appointed another minister, and the Genet episode ended by his marriage to
+a daughter of George Clinton, governor of New York, in which State he
+lived thereafter as a respectable citizen and a patron of agriculture. He
+died in the year 1834.
+
+The summer of delirium at Philadelphia culminated in the panic and
+desolation of the yellow fever, and every member of the government fled
+from the city, Jefferson being the last to depart.
+
+When, in the next year, the correspondence between Genet and Jefferson,
+and between the English minister and Jefferson, was published, the
+Secretary was seen to have conducted it on his part with so much ability,
+discretion, and tact, and with so true a sense of what was due to each
+nation concerned, that he may be said to have retired to his farm in a
+blaze of glory.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IX
+
+
+                             THE TWO PARTIES
+
+
+When Jefferson at last found himself at Monticello, having resigned his
+office as Secretary of State, he declared and believed that he had done
+with politics forever. To various correspondents he wrote as follows: "I
+think that I shall never take another newspaper of any sort. I find my
+mind totally absorbed in my rural occupations.... No circumstances, my
+dear sir, will ever more tempt me to engage in anything public.... I would
+not give up my retirement for the empire of the universe."
+
+When Madison wrote in 1795, soliciting him to accept the Republican
+nomination for the presidency, Mr. Jefferson replied: "The little spice of
+ambition which I had in my younger days has long since evaporated, and I
+set still less store by a posthumous than present fame. The question is
+forever closed with me." Nevertheless, within a few months Mr. Jefferson
+accepted the nomination, chiefly, it is probable, because, with his usual
+sagacity, he foresaw that the Republican candidate would be defeated as
+President, but elected as Vice-President. It must be remembered that at
+that time the candidate receiving the next to the highest number of
+electoral votes was declared to be Vice-President; so that there was
+always a probability that the presidential candidate of the party defeated
+would be chosen to the second office.
+
+There were several reasons why Jefferson would have been glad to receive
+the office of Vice-President. It involved no disagreeable responsibility;
+it called for no great expenditure of money in the way of entertainments;
+it carried a good salary; it required only a few months' residence at
+Washington. "Mr. Jefferson often told me," remarks Mr. Bacon, "that the
+office of Vice-President was far preferable to that of President."
+
+Mr. Jefferson therefore became the Republican nominee for President, and,
+as he doubtless expected, was elected Vice-President, the vote standing as
+follows: Adams, 71; Jefferson, 68; Pinckney, 59; Burr, 30.
+
+It is significant of Mr. Jefferson's high standing in the country that
+many people believed that he would not deign to accept the office of
+Vice-President; and Madison wrote advising him to come to Washington on
+the 4th of March, and take the oath of office, in order that this belief
+might be dispelled. Jefferson accordingly did so, bringing with him the
+bones of a mastodon, lately discovered, and a little manuscript book
+written in his law-student days, marked "Parliamentary Pocket-Book." This
+was the basis of that careful and elaborate "Manual of Parliamentary
+Practice" which Jefferson left as his legacy to the Senate.
+
+Upon receiving news of the election Jefferson had written to Madison: "If
+Mr. Adams can be induced to administer the government on its true
+principles, and to relinquish his bias to an English Constitution, it is
+to be considered whether it would not be, on the whole, for the public
+good to come to a good understanding with him as to his future elections.
+He is perhaps the only sure barrier against Hamilton's getting in."
+
+Mr. Adams, indeed, at the outset of his administration, was inclined to be
+confidential with Mr. Jefferson; but soon, by one of those sudden turns
+not infrequent with him, he took a different course, and thenceforth
+treated the Vice-President with nothing more than bare civility.
+
+It was a time, indeed, when cordial relations between Federalist and
+Republican were almost impossible. In a letter written at this period to
+Mr. Edward Rutledge, Jefferson said: "You and I have formerly seen warm
+debates, and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics
+would then speak to each other, and separate the business of the Senate
+from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate all
+their lives cross the street to avoid meeting, and turn their heads
+another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats."
+
+These party feelings were intensified in the year 1798 by what is known as
+the X Y Z business. Mr. Adams had sent three commissioners to Paris to
+negotiate a treaty. Talleyrand, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs,
+held aloof from them; but they were informed by certain mysterious agents
+that a treaty could be had on three conditions, (1) that the President
+should apologize for certain expressions in his recent message to
+Congress; (2) that the United States should loan a large sum of money to
+the French government; (3) that a _douceur_ of $25,000 should be given to
+Talleyrand's agents.
+
+These insulting proposals were indignantly rejected by the commissioners,
+and being reported in this country, they aroused a storm of popular
+indignation. Preparations for war were made forthwith. General Washington,
+though in failing health, was appointed commander-in-chief,--the real
+command being expected to devolve upon Hamilton, who was named second; men
+and supplies were voted; letters of marque were issued, and war actually
+prevailed upon the high seas. The situation redounded greatly to the
+advantage of the Federalists, for they were always as eager to go to war
+with France as they were reluctant to go to war with England. The newly
+appointed officers were drawn almost, if not quite, without exception from
+the Federalist party, and Hamilton seemed to be on the verge of that
+military career which he had long hoped for. He trusted, as his most
+intimate friend, Gouverneur Morris, said after his death, "that in the
+changes and chances of time we would be involved in some war which might
+strengthen our union and nerve our executive." So late as 1802, Hamilton
+wrote to Morris, "there must be a systematic and persevering endeavor to
+establish the future of a great empire on foundations much firmer than
+have yet been devised." At this very time he was negotiating with Miranda
+and with the British government, his design being to use against Mexico
+the army raised in expectation of a war with France.
+
+Hamilton was not the man to overturn the government out of personal
+ambition, nor even in order to set up a monarchy in place of a republic.
+But he had convinced himself that the republic must some day fall of its
+own weight. He was always anticipating a "crisis," and this word is
+repeated over and over again in his correspondence. It even occurs in the
+crucial sentence of that pathetic document which he wrote on the eve of
+his fatal duel. When the "crisis" came, Hamilton meant to be on hand; and,
+if possible, at the head of an army.
+
+However, the X Y Z affair ended peacefully. The warlike spirit shown by
+the people of the United States had a wholesome effect upon the French
+government; and at their suggestion new envoys were sent over by the
+President, by whom a treaty was negotiated. This wise and patriotic act
+upon the part of Mr. Adams was a benefit to his country, but it aroused
+the bitter anger of the Federalists and ruined his position in that party.
+
+But what was Mr. Jefferson's attitude during this business? He was not for
+war, and he contended that a distinction should be made between the acts
+of Talleyrand and his agents, and the real disposition of the French
+people. He wrote as follows: "Inexperienced in such manoeuvres, the people
+did not permit themselves even to suspect that the turpitude of private
+swindlers might mingle itself unobserved, and give its own hue to the
+communications of the French government, of whose participation there was
+neither proof nor probability." And again: "But as I view a peace between
+France and England the ensuing winter to be certain, I have thought it
+would have been better for us to have contrived to bear from France
+through the present summer what we have been bearing both from her and
+from England these four years, and still continue to bear from England,
+and to have required indemnification in the hour of peace, when, I firmly
+believe, it would have been yielded by both."
+
+But this is bad political philosophy. A nation cannot obtain justice by
+submitting to wrongs or insults even for a time. Jefferson himself had
+written long before: "I think it is our interest to punish the first
+insult, because an insult unpunished is the parent of many others." It is
+possible that he was misled at this juncture by his liking for France, and
+by his dislike of the Federalists and of their British proclivities. It is
+true that the bribe demanded by Talleyrand's agents might be considered,
+to use Mr. Jefferson's words, as "the turpitude of private swindlers;" but
+the demand for a loan and for a retraction could be regarded only as
+national acts, being acts of the French government, although the bulk of
+the French people might repudiate them.
+
+Whether Jefferson was right or wrong in the position which he took, he
+maintained it with superb self-confidence and aplomb. For the moment, the
+Federalists had everything their own way. They carried the election.
+Hamilton's oft-anticipated "crisis" seemed to have arrived at last. But
+Jefferson coolly waited till the storm should blow over. "Our countrymen,"
+he wrote to a friend, "are essentially Republicans. They retain
+unadulterated the principles of '76, and those who are conscious of no
+change in themselves have nothing to fear in the long run."
+
+And so it proved. The ascendency of the Federalists was soon destroyed,
+and destroyed forever, by the political crimes and follies which they
+committed; and especially by the alien and sedition laws. The reader need
+hardly be reminded that the alien law gave the President authority to
+banish from the country "all such aliens as _he_ should judge dangerous to
+the peace and safety of the United States,"--a despotic power which no king
+of England ever possessed. The sedition act made it a crime, punishable by
+fine and imprisonment, to speak or write anything "false, scandalous, and
+malicious," with intent to excite against either House of Congress or
+against the President, "the hatred of the good people of the United
+States." It can readily be seen what gross oppression was possible under
+this elastic law, interpreted by judges who, to a man, were members of the
+Federal party. Matthew Lyon, of Vermont, ventured to read aloud at a
+political meeting a letter which he had received expressing astonishment
+that the President's recent address to the House of Representatives had
+not been answered by "an order to send him to a mad-house." For this Mr.
+Lyon was fined $1,000, and imprisoned in a veritable dungeon.
+
+These unconstitutional and un-American laws were vigorously opposed by
+Jefferson and Madison. In October, 1798, Jefferson wrote: "For my own part
+I consider those laws as merely an experiment on the American mind to see
+how far it will bear an avowed violation of the Constitution. If this goes
+down, we shall immediately see attempted another act of Congress declaring
+that the President shall continue in office during life, reserving to
+another occasion the transfer of the succession to his heirs, and the
+establishment of the Senate for life."
+
+Jefferson also prepared the famous Kentucky resolutions, which were
+adopted by the legislature of that State,--the authorship, however, being
+kept secret till Jefferson avowed it, twenty years later. These
+much-discussed resolutions have been said to have originated the doctrine
+of nullification, and to contain that principle of secession upon which
+the South acted in 1861. They may be summed up roughly as follows: The
+source of all political power is in the people. The people have, by the
+compact known as the Constitution, granted certain specified powers to the
+federal government; all other powers, if not granted to the several state
+governments, are retained by the people. The alien and sedition laws
+assume the exercise by the federal government of powers not granted to it
+by the Constitution. They are therefore void.
+
+Thus far there can be no question that Jefferson's argument was sound, and
+its soundness would not be denied, even at the present day. But the
+question then arose: what next? May the laws be disregarded and disobeyed
+by the States or by individuals, or must they be obeyed until some
+competent authority has pronounced them void? and if so, what is that
+authority? We understand now that the Supreme Court has sole authority to
+decide upon the constitutionality of the acts of Congress. It was so held,
+for the first time, in the year 1803, in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison,
+by Chief Justice Marshall and his associates; and that decision, though
+resisted at the time, has long been accepted by the country as a whole.
+But this case did not arise until several years after the Kentucky
+Resolutions were written. Moreover, Marshall was an extreme Federalist,
+and his view was by no means the commonly accepted view. Jefferson scouted
+it. He protested all his life against the assumption that the Supreme
+Court, a body of men appointed for life, and thus removed from all control
+by the people, should have the enormous power of construing the
+Constitution and of passing upon the validity of national laws. In a
+letter written in 1804, he said: "You seem to think it devolved on the
+judges to decide the validity of the sedition law. But nothing in the
+Constitution has given them a right to decide for the executive more than
+the executive to decide for them. But the opinion which gives to the
+judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not--not
+only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislature
+and executive also in their spheres--would make the judiciary a despotic
+branch."(3)
+
+In the Kentucky resolutions, Jefferson argued, first, that the
+Constitution was a compact between the States; secondly, that no person or
+body had been appointed by the Constitution as a common judge in respect
+to questions arising under the Constitution between any one State and
+Congress, or between the people and Congress; and thirdly, "as in all
+other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has
+an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode
+and measure of redress." It was open to him to take this view, because it
+had not yet been decided that the Supreme Court was the "common judge"
+appointed by the Constitution; and the Constitution itself was not
+explicit upon the point. Moreover, the laws in question had not been
+passed upon by the Supreme Court,--they expired by limitation before that
+stage was reached.
+
+It must be admitted, then, that the Kentucky resolutions do contain the
+principles of nullification. But at the time when they were written,
+nullification was a permissible doctrine, because it was not certainly
+excluded by the Constitution. In 1803, as we have seen, the Constitution
+was interpreted by the Supreme Court as excluding this doctrine; and that
+decision having been reaffirmed repeatedly, and having been acquiesced in
+by the nation for fifty years, may fairly be said to have become by the
+year 1861 the law of the land.
+
+Jefferson, however, by no means intended to push matters to their logical
+conclusion. His resolutions were intended for moral effect, as he
+explained in the following letter to Madison:--
+
+"I think we should distinctly affirm all the important principles they
+contain, so as to hold to that ground in future, and leave the matter in
+such a train that we may not be committed absolutely to push the matter to
+extremities, and yet may be free to push as far as events will render
+prudent."
+
+As to the charge that the Kentucky Resolutions imply the doctrine of
+secession, as well as that of nullification, it has no basis. The two
+doctrines do not stand or fall together. There is nothing in the
+resolutions which implies the right of secession. Jefferson, like most
+Americans of his day, contemplated with indifference the possibility of an
+ultimate separation of the region beyond the Mississippi from the United
+States. But nobody placed a higher value than he did on what he described
+"as our union, the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to
+prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    X
+
+
+                           PRESIDENT JEFFERSON
+
+
+For the presidential election of 1800, Adams was again the candidate on
+the Federal side, and Jefferson on the Republican side. Jefferson, by
+interviews, by long and numerous letters, by the commanding force of his
+own intellect and character, had at last welded the anti-Federal elements
+into a compact and disciplined Republican party. The contest was waged
+with the utmost bitterness, and especially with bitterness against
+Jefferson. For this there were several causes. Jefferson had deeply
+offended two powerful classes in Virginia, the old aristocratic and Tory
+element, and--excluding the dissenters--the religious element; the former,
+by the repeal of the law of entail, and the latter by the statute for
+freedom of religion in Virginia. These were among the most meritorious
+acts of his life, but they produced an intense enmity which lasted till
+his death and even beyond his death. Jefferson, also, though at times
+over-cautious, was at times rash and indiscreet, and the freedom of his
+comments upon men and measures often got him into trouble. His career will
+be misunderstood unless it is remembered that he was an impulsive man. His
+judgments were intuitive, and though usually correct, yet sometimes hasty
+and ill-considered.
+
+Above all, Jefferson was both for friends and foes the embodiment of
+Republicanism. He represented those ideas which the Federalists, and
+especially the New England lawyers and clergy, really believed to be
+subversive of law and order, of government and religion. To them he
+figured as "a fanatic in politics, and an atheist in religion;" and they
+were so disposed to believe everything bad of him that they swallowed
+whole the worst slanders which the political violence of the times, far
+exceeding that of the present day, could invent. We have seen with what
+tenderness Jefferson treated his widowed sister, Mrs. Carr, and her
+children. It was in reference to this very family that the Rev. Mr. Cotton
+Mather Smith, of Connecticut, declared that Jefferson had gained his
+estate by robbery, namely, by robbing a widow and her children of �10,000,
+"all of which can be proved."
+
+Jefferson, as we have said, was a deist. He was a religious man and a
+daily reader of the Bible, far less extreme in his notions, less hostile
+to orthodox Christianity than John Adams. Nevertheless,--partly, perhaps,
+because he had procured the disestablishment of the Virginia Church,
+partly on account of his scientific tastes and his liking for French
+notions,--the Federalists had convinced themselves that he was a violent
+atheist and anti-Christian. It was a humorous saying of the time that the
+old women of New England hid their Bibles in the well when Jefferson's
+election in 1800 became known.
+
+The vote was as follows:--Jefferson, 73, Burr, 73; Adams, 65; C. C.
+Pinckney, 64; Jay, 1. There being a tie between Jefferson and Burr, the
+Republican candidate for Vice-President, the election was thrown into the
+House of Representatives, voting by States. In that House the Federalists
+were in the majority, but they did not have a majority by States. They
+could not, therefore, elect Adams; but it was possible for them to make
+Burr President instead of Jefferson. At first, the leaders were inclined
+to do this, some believing that Burr's utter want of principle was less
+dangerous than the pernicious principles which they ascribed to Jefferson,
+and others thinking that Burr, if elected by Federal votes, would pursue a
+Federal policy. It was feared that Jefferson would wipe out the national
+debt, abolish the navy, and remove every Federal officeholder in the land.
+He was approached from many quarters, and even President Adams desired him
+to give some intimation of his intended policy on these points, but
+Jefferson firmly refused.
+
+As to one such interview, with Gouverneur Morris, Jefferson wrote
+afterward: "I told him that I should leave the world to judge of the
+course I meant to pursue, by that which I had pursued hitherto, believing
+it to be my duty to be passive and silent during the present scene; that I
+should certainly make no terms; should never go into the office of
+President by capitulation, nor with my hands tied by any conditions which
+would hinder me from pursuing the measures which I should deem for the
+public good."
+
+The Federalists had a characteristic plan: they proposed to pass a law
+devolving the Presidency upon the chairman of the Senate, in case the
+office of President should become vacant; and this vacancy they would be
+able to bring about by prolonging the election until Mr. Adams's term of
+office had expired. The chairman of the Senate, a Federalist, of course,
+would then become President. This scheme Jefferson and his friends were
+prepared to resist by force. "Because," as he afterward explained, "that
+precedent once set, it would be artificially reproduced, and would soon
+end in a dictator."
+
+Hamilton, to his credit, be it said, strongly advocated the election of
+Jefferson; and finally, through the action of Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, a
+leading Federalist, who had sounded an intimate friend of Mr. Jefferson as
+to his views upon the points already mentioned, Mr. Jefferson was elected
+President, and the threatening civil war was averted.
+
+Mr. Adams, who was deeply chagrined by his defeat, did not attend the
+inauguration of his successor, but left Washington in his carriage, at
+sunrise, on the fourth of March; and Jefferson rode on horseback to the
+Capitol, unattended, and dismounting, fastened his horse to the fence with
+his own hands. The inaugural address, brief, and beautifully worded,
+surprised most of those who heard it by the moderation and liberality of
+its tone. "Let us," said the new President, "restore to social intercourse
+that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself,
+are but dreary things."
+
+Jefferson served two terms, and he was succeeded first by Madison, and
+then by Monroe, both of whom were his friends and disciples, and imbued
+with his ideas. They, also, were re�lected. For twenty-four years,
+therefore, Jefferson and Jeffersonian Democracy predominated in the
+government of the United States, and the period was an exceedingly
+prosperous one. Not one of the dismal forebodings of the Federalists was
+fulfilled; and the practicability of popular government was proved.
+
+The first problem with which Jefferson had to deal was that of
+appointments to office. The situation was much like that which afterward
+confronted President Cleveland when he entered upon his first term,--that
+is, every place was filled by a member of the party opposed to the new
+administration. The principle which Mr. Jefferson adopted closely
+resembles that afterward adopted by Mr. Cleveland, namely, no officeholder
+was to be displaced on account of his political belief; but if he acted
+aggressively in politics, that was to be sufficient ground for removal.
+"Electioneering activity" was the phrase used in Mr. Jefferson's time, and
+"offensive partisanship" in Mr. Cleveland's.
+
+The following letter from President Jefferson to the Secretary of the
+Treasury will show how the rule was construed by him:--
+
+"The allegations against Pope [collector] of New Bedford are insufficient.
+Although meddling in political caucuses is no part of that freedom of
+personal suffrage which ought to be allowed him, yet his mere presence at
+a caucus does not necessarily involve an active and official influence in
+opposition to the government which employs him."
+
+There were some lapses, but, on the whole, Mr. Jefferson's rule was
+adhered to; and it is difficult to say whether he received more abuse from
+the Federalists on account of the removals which he did make, or from a
+faction in his own party on account of the removals which he refused to
+make.
+
+His principle was thus stated in a letter: "If a due participation of
+office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by
+death are few; by resignation, none.... It would have been to me a
+circumstance of great relief, had I found a moderate participation of
+office in the hands of the majority. I should gladly have left to time and
+accident to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion
+calls for prompter corrections. I shall correct the procedure; but that
+done, disdain to follow it. I shall return with joy to that state of
+things when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be, Is he
+honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?"
+
+The ascendency of Jefferson and of the Republican party produced a great
+change in the government and in national feeling, but it was a change the
+most important part of which was intangible, and is therefore hard to
+describe. It was such a change as takes place in the career of an
+individual, when he shakes off some controlling force, and sets up in life
+for himself. The common people felt an independence, a pride, an �lan,
+which sent a thrill of vigor through every department of industry and
+adventure.
+
+The simplicity of the forms which President Jefferson adopted were a
+symbol to the national imagination of the change which had taken place. He
+gave up the royal custom of levees; he stopped the celebration of the
+President's birthday; he substituted a written message for the speech to
+Congress delivered in person at the Capitol, and the reply by Congress,
+delivered in person at the White House. The President's residence ceased
+to be called the Palace. He cut down the army and navy. He introduced
+economy in all the departments of the government, and paid off
+thirty-three millions of the national debt. He procured the abolition of
+internal taxes and the repeal of the bankruptcy law--two measures which
+greatly decreased his own patronage, and which called forth John
+Randolph's encomium long afterward: "I have never seen but one
+administration which seriously and in good faith was disposed to give up
+its patronage, and was willing to go farther than Congress or even the
+people themselves ... desired; and that was the first administration of
+Thomas Jefferson."
+
+The two most important measures of the first administration were, however,
+the repression of the Barbary pirates and the acquisition of Louisiana.
+Mr. Jefferson's ineffectual efforts, while he was minister to France, to
+put down by force Mediterranean piracy have already been rehearsed. During
+Mr. Adams's term, two million dollars were expended in bribing the
+bucaneers. One item in the account was as follows, "A frigate to carry
+thirty-six guns for the Dey of Algiers;" and this frigate went crammed
+with a hundred thousand dollars' worth of powder, lead, timber, rope,
+canvas, and other means of piracy. One hundred and twenty-two captives
+came home in that year, 1796, of whom ten had been held in slavery for
+eleven years.
+
+Jefferson's first important act as President was to dispatch to the
+Mediterranean three frigates and a sloop-of-war to overawe the pirates,
+and to cruise in protection of American commerce. Thus began that series
+of events which finally rendered the commerce of the world as safe from
+piracy in the Mediterranean as it was in the British channel. How
+brilliantly Decatur and his gallant comrades carried out this policy, and
+how at last the tardy naval powers of Europe followed an example which
+they ought to have set, every one is supposed to know.
+
+The second important event was the acquisition of Louisiana. Louisiana
+meant the whole territory from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,
+embracing about one million square miles. All this region belonged to
+Spain by right of discovery; and early in the year 1801 news came from the
+American minister at Paris that Spain had ceded or was about to cede it to
+France. The Spanish ownership of the mouth of the Mississippi had long
+been a source of annoyance to the settlers on the Mississippi River; and
+it had begun to be felt that the United States must control New Orleans at
+least. If this vast territory should come into the hands of France, and
+Napoleon should colonize it, as was said to be his intention,--France then
+being the greatest power in Europe,--the United States would have a
+powerful rival on its borders, and in control of a seaport absolutely
+necessary for its commerce. We can see this now plainly enough, but even
+so able a man as Mr. Livingston, the American minister at Paris, did not
+see it then. On the contrary, he wrote to the government at Washington:
+"... I have, however, on all occasions, declared that as long as France
+conforms to the existing treaty between us and Spain, the government of
+the United States does not consider itself as having any interest in
+opposing the exchange."
+
+Mr. Jefferson's very different view was expressed in the following letter
+to Mr. Livingston: "... France, placing herself in that door, assumes to
+us the attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for
+years. Her pacific disposition, her feeble state would induce her to
+increase our facilities there.... Not so can it ever be in the hands of
+France; the impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her
+character, placed in a point of eternal friction with us and our
+character, which, though quiet and loving peace and the pursuit of wealth,
+is high-minded, despising wealth in competition with insult or injury,
+enterprising and energetic as any nation on earth,--these circumstances
+render it impossible that France and the United States can continue long
+friends when they meet in so irritable a position.... The day that France
+takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain
+her forever within her low-water mark.... From that moment we must marry
+ourselves to the British fleet and nation."
+
+Thus, at a moment's notice, and in obedience to a vital change in
+circumstance, Jefferson threw aside the policy of a lifetime, suppressed
+his liking for France and his dislike for England, and entered upon that
+radically new course which, as he foresaw, the interests of the United
+States would require.
+
+Livingston, thus primed, began negotiations for the purchase of New
+Orleans; and Jefferson hastily dispatched Monroe, as a special envoy, for
+the same purpose, armed, it is supposed, with secret verbal instructions,
+to buy, if possible, not only New Orleans, but the whole of Louisiana.
+Monroe had not a word in writing to show that in purchasing Louisiana--if
+the act should be repudiated by the nation--he did not exceed his
+instructions. But, as Mr. Henry Adams remarks, "Jefferson's friends always
+trusted him perfectly."
+
+The moment was most propitious, for England and France were about to close
+in that terrific struggle which ended at Waterloo, and Napoleon was
+desperately in need of money. After some haggling the bargain was
+concluded, and, for the very moderate sum of fifteen million dollars, the
+United States became possessed of a territory which more than doubled its
+area.
+
+The purchase of Louisiana was confessedly an unconstitutional, or at least
+an extra-constitutional act, for the Constitution gave no authority to the
+President to acquire new territory, or to pledge the credit of the United
+States in payment. Jefferson himself thought that the Constitution ought
+to be amended in order to make the purchase legal; but in this he was
+overruled by his advisers.
+
+Thus, Jefferson's first administration ended with a brilliant achievement;
+but this public glory was far more than outweighed by a private loss. The
+President's younger daughter, Mrs. Eppes, died in April, 1804; and in a
+letter to his old friend, John Page, he said: "Others may lose of their
+abundance, but I, of my wants, have, lost even the half of all I had. My
+evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of a single life. Perhaps
+I may be destined to see even this last cord of parental affection broken.
+The hope with which I have looked forward to the moment when, resigning
+public cares to younger hands, I was to retire to that domestic comfort
+from which the last great step is to be taken, is fearfully blighted."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    XI
+
+
+                         SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM
+
+
+The purchase of Louisiana increased Jefferson's popularity, and in 1805,
+at the age of sixty-two, he was elected to his second term as President by
+an overwhelming majority. Even Massachusetts was carried by the
+Republicans, and the total vote in the electoral college stood: 162 for
+Jefferson and Clinton; 14 for C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King, the Federal
+candidates.
+
+This result was due in part to the fact that Jefferson had stolen the
+thunder of the Federalists. His Louisiana purchase, though bitterly
+opposed by the leading Federalists, who were blinded by their hatred of
+the President, was far more consonant with Federal than with Republican
+principles; and in his second inaugural address Jefferson went even
+farther in the direction of a strong central government, for he said:
+"Redemption once effected, the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just
+repartition among the States, and a corresponding amendment of the
+Constitution, be applied _in time of peace_ to rivers, canals, roads,
+arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects within each State.
+In time of war, ... aided by other measures reserved for that crisis, it
+may meet within the year all the expenses of the year without encroaching
+on the rights of future generations by burdening them with the debts of
+the past."
+
+This proposal flatly contradicted what the President had said in his first
+inaugural address, and was in strange contrast with his criticism made
+years before upon a similar Federal scheme of public improvement, that the
+mines of Peru would not supply the moneys which would be wasted on this
+object. In later years, after his permanent retirement to Monticello,
+Jefferson seems to have reverted to his earlier views, and he condemned
+the measures of John Quincy Adams for making public improvements with
+national funds.
+
+But the President was no longer to enjoy a smooth course. One domestic
+affair gave him much annoyance, and our foreign relations were a continual
+source of anxiety and mortification.
+
+Aaron Burr had been a brilliant soldier of the Revolution, a highly
+successful lawyer and politician, and finally, during Mr. Jefferson's
+first administration, Vice-President of the United States. But in the year
+1805 he found himself, owing to a complication of causes, most of which,
+however, could be traced to his own moral defects, a bankrupt in
+reputation and in purse. Such being his condition, he applied to the
+President for a foreign appointment; and Mr. Jefferson very properly
+refused it, frankly explaining that Burr, whether justly or unjustly, had
+lost the confidence of the public.
+
+Burr took this rebuff with the easy good-humor which characterized him,
+dined with the President a few days later, and then started westward to
+carry out a scheme which he had been preparing for a year. His plans were
+so shrouded in mystery that it is difficult to say exactly what they were,
+but it is certain that he contemplated an expedition against Mexico, with
+the intention of making himself the ruler of that country; and it is
+possible that he hoped to capture New Orleans, and, after dividing the
+United States, to annex the western half to his Mexican empire. Burr had
+got together a small supply of men and arms, and he floated down the Ohio,
+gathering recruits as he went.
+
+Jefferson, with his usual good sense, perceived the futility of Burr's
+designs, which were based upon a false belief as to the want of loyalty
+among the western people; but he took all needful precautions. General
+Wilkinson was ordered to protect New Orleans, Burr's proceedings were
+denounced by a proclamation, and finally Burr himself was arrested in
+Alabama, and brought to Richmond for trial.
+
+The trial at once became a political affair, the Federalists, to spite the
+President, making Burr's cause their own, though he had killed Alexander
+Hamilton but three years before, and pretending to regard him as an
+innocent man persecuted by the President for political reasons. Jefferson
+himself took a hand in the prosecution to the extent of writing letters to
+the district attorney full of advice and suggestions. It would have been
+more dignified had he held aloof, but the provocation which he received
+was very great. Burr and his counsel used every possible means of throwing
+odium upon the President; and in this they were assisted by Chief Justice
+Marshall, who presided at the trial. Marshall, though in the main a just
+man, was bitterly opposed to Jefferson in political affairs, and in this
+case he harshly blamed the executive for not procuring evidence with a
+celerity which, under the circumstances, was impossible. He also summoned
+the President into court as a witness. The President, however, declined to
+attend, and the matter was not pressed. Burr was acquitted, chiefly on
+technical grounds.
+
+The Burr affair, however, was but a trifle compared with the difficulties
+arising from our relations with England. That country had always asserted
+over the United States the right of impressment, a right, namely, to
+search American ships, and to take therefrom any Englishmen found among
+the crew. In many cases, Englishmen who had been naturalized in the United
+States were thus taken. This alleged right had always been denied by the
+United States, and British perseverance in it finally led to the war of
+1812.
+
+Another source of contention was the neutral trade. During the European
+wars in the early part of the century the seaport towns of the United
+States did an immense and profitable business in carrying goods to
+European ports, and from one European port to another. Great Britain,
+after various attempts to discourage American commerce with her enemies,
+undertook to put it down by confiscating vessels of the United States on
+the ground that their cargoes were not neutral but belligerent
+property,--the property, that is, of nations at war with Great Britain.
+And, no doubt, in some cases this was the fact,--foreign merchandise having
+been imported to this country to get a neutral name for it, and thence
+exported to a country to which it could not have been shipped directly
+from its place of origin. In April, 1806, the President dispatched Mr.
+Monroe to London in order, if possible, to settle these disputed matters
+by a treaty. Monroe, in conjunction with Mr. Pinckney, our minister to
+England, sent back a treaty which contained no reference whatever to the
+matter of impressments. It was the best treaty which they could obtain,
+but it was silent upon this vital point.
+
+The situation was a perilous one; England had fought the battle of
+Trafalgar the year before; and was now able to carry everything before her
+upon the high seas. Nevertheless, the President's conduct was bold and
+prompt. The treaty had been negotiated mainly by his own envoy and friend,
+Monroe, and great pressure was exerted in favor of it,--especially by the
+merchants and shipowners of the east. But Jefferson refused even to lay it
+before the Senate, and at once sent it back to England. His position, and
+history has justified it, was that to accept a treaty which might be
+construed as tacitly admitting the right of impressment would be a
+disgrace to the country. The other questions at issue were more nearly
+legal and technical, but this one touched the national honor; and with the
+same right instinct which Jefferson showed in 1807, the people of the
+United States, five years later, fixed upon this grievance, out of the fog
+in which diplomacy had enveloped our relations with England, as the true
+and sufficient cause of the war of 1812.
+
+Nevertheless, Jefferson treated Monroe with the greatest consideration. At
+this period Monroe and Madison were both candidates for the Republican
+nomination for the presidency. Jefferson's choice was Madison, but he
+remained impartial between them; and he withheld Monroe's treaty from
+publication at a time when to publish it would have given a fatal blow to
+Monroe's prospects. In every way, in fact, he exerted himself to disguise
+and soften Monroe's discredit.
+
+The wisdom of Jefferson's course as to the treaty was shown before three
+months had elapsed by an act of British aggression, which, had the Monroe
+treaty been accepted, might fairly have been laid to its door. In June,
+1807, the British frigate Leopard, having been refused permission to
+search the American frigate Chesapeake, fired upon the Chesapeake, which
+was totally unprepared for action, and, after killing three men and
+wounding eighteen, refused to accept the surrender of the ship, but
+carried off three alleged deserters.
+
+This event roused a storm of indignation, which never quite subsided until
+the insult had been effaced by the blood which was shed in the war of
+1812. "For the first time in their history," says Mr. Henry Adams, "the
+people of the United States learned in June, 1807, the feeling of a true
+national emotion." "Never since the battle of Lexington," wrote Jefferson,
+"have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at present."
+
+War might easily have been precipitated, had Jefferson been carried away
+by the popular excitement. He immediately dispatched a frigate to England
+demanding reparation, and he issued a proclamation forbidding all British
+men-of-war to enter the waters of the United States, unless in distress or
+bearing dispatches. Jefferson expected war, but he meant to delay it for a
+while.
+
+To his son-in-law, John Eppes, he wrote: "Reason and the usage of
+civilized nations require that we should give them an opportunity of
+disavowal and reparation. Our own interests, too, the very means of making
+war, require that we should give time to our merchants to gather in their
+vessels and property and our seamen now afloat."
+
+Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, even criticised the President's
+annual message at this time as being too warlike and "not in the style of
+the proclamation, which has been almost universally approved at home and
+abroad." It cannot truly be said, therefore, that Jefferson had any
+unconquerable aversion to war.
+
+Mr. Canning, the British Foreign Minister, went through the form of
+expressing his regrets for the Chesapeake affair, and sent a special envoy
+to Washington to settle the difficulty. Reparation was made at last, but
+not till the year 1811.
+
+In the mean time, both Great Britain and France had given other causes of
+offense, which may be summarized as follows: In May, 1806, Great Britain
+declared the French ports from Brest to the Elbe closed to American as to
+all other shipping. In the following November, Napoleon retorted with a
+decree issued from Berlin, prohibiting all commerce with Great Britain.
+That power immediately forbade the coasting trade between one port and
+another in the possession of her enemies. And in November, 1807, Great
+Britain issued the famous Orders in Council, which forbade all trade
+whatsoever with France and her allies, except on payment of a tribute to
+Great Britain, each vessel to pay according to the value of its cargo.
+Then followed Napoleon's Milan decree prohibiting trade with Great
+Britain, and declaring that all vessels which paid the tribute demanded
+were lawful prizes to the French marine.
+
+Such was the series of acts which assailed the foreign commerce of the
+United States, and wounded the national honor by attempting to prostrate
+the country at the mercy of the European powers. Diplomacy had been
+exhausted. The Chesapeake affair, the right of impressment, the British
+decrees and orders directed against our commerce,--all these causes of
+offense had been tangled into a complication which no man could unravel.
+Retaliation on our part had become absolutely necessary. What form should
+it take? Jefferson rejected war, and proposed an embargo which prohibited
+commerce between the United States and Europe. The measure was bitterly
+opposed by the New England Federalists; but the President's influence was
+so great that Congress adopted it almost without discussion.
+
+Jefferson's design, to use his own words, was "to introduce between
+nations another umpire than arms;" and he expected that England would be
+starved into submission. The annual British exports to the United States
+amounted to $50,000,000. Cutting off this trade meant the throwing out of
+work of thousands of British sailors and tens of thousands of British
+factory hands, who had no other means of livelihood. Mr. Jefferson felt
+confident that the starvation of this class would bring such pressure to
+bear upon the English government, then engaged in a death struggle with
+Bonaparte, that it would be forced to repeal the laws which obstructed
+American commerce. It is possible that this would have been the result had
+the embargo been observed faithfully by all citizens of the United States.
+Jefferson maintained till the day of his death that such would have been
+the case; and Madison, no enthusiast, long afterward asserted that the
+American state department had proofs that the English government was on
+the point of yielding. The embargo pressed hardest of all upon Virginia,
+for it stopped the exportation of her staples,--wheat and tobacco. It
+brought about, by the way, the financial ruin of Jefferson himself and of
+his son-in-law, Colonel Randolph. But the Virginians bore it without a
+murmur. "They drained the poison which their own President held
+obstinately to their lips."
+
+It was otherwise in New England. There the disastrous effect of the
+embargo was not only indirect but direct. The New England farmers, it is
+true, could at least exist upon the produce of their farms; but the
+mariners, the sea-captains, and the merchants of the coast towns, saw a
+total suspension of the industry by which they lived. New England evaded
+the embargo by smuggling, and resisted it tooth and nail. Some of the
+Federal leaders in that section believing, or pretending to believe, that
+it was a pro-French measure, were in secret correspondence with the
+British government, and meditated a secession of the eastern States from
+the rest of the country. They went so far, in private conversation at
+least, as to maintain the British right of impressment; and even the
+Orders in Council were defended by Gardenier, a leading Federalist, and a
+member of Congress.
+
+The present generation has witnessed a similar exhibition of anglomania,
+when, upon the assertion of the Monroe doctrine in respect to Venezuela,
+by President Cleveland, his attitude was criticised more severely by a
+group in New York and Boston than it was by the English themselves.
+
+Jefferson's effort to enforce the embargo and his calm resistance to New
+England fury showed extraordinary firmness of will and tenacity of
+purpose. In August, 1808, he wrote to General Dearborn, Secretary of War,
+who was then in Maine: "The Tories of Boston openly threaten insurrection
+if their importation of flour is stopped. The next post will stop it."
+
+Blood was soon shed; but Jefferson did not shrink. The army was stationed
+along the Canadian frontier, to prevent smuggling; gunboats and frigates
+patrolled the coast. The embargo failed; but Mr. Henry Adams, the ablest
+and fairest historian of this period, declares that it "was an experiment
+in politics well worth making. In the scheme of President Jefferson,
+non-intercourse was the substitute for war.... Failure of the embargo
+meant in his mind not only a recurrence to the practice of war, but to
+every political and social evil that war had always brought in its train.
+In such a case the crimes and corruptions of Europe, which had been the
+object of his political fears, must, as he believed, sooner or later, teem
+in the fat soil of America. To avert a disaster so vast was a proper
+motive for statesmanship, and justified disregard for smaller interests."
+Mr. Parton observes, with almost as much truth as humor, that the embargo
+was approved by the two highest authorities in Europe, namely, Napoleon
+Bonaparte and the "Edinburgh Review."
+
+Perhaps the fundamental error in Jefferson's theory was that nations are
+governed mainly by motives of self-interest. He thought that England would
+cease to legislate against American commerce, when it was once made plain
+that such a course was prejudicial to her own interests. But nations, like
+individuals, are influenced in their relations to others far more by pride
+and patriotism, and even by prejudice, than by material self-interest. The
+only way in which America could win respect and fair treatment from Europe
+was by fighting, or at least by showing a perfect readiness to fight. This
+she did by the war of 1812.
+
+The embargo was an academic policy,--the policy of a philosopher rather
+than that of a practical man of affairs. Turreau, the French ambassador,
+wrote to Talleyrand, in May, 1806, that the President "has little energy
+and still less of that audacity which is indispensable in a place so
+eminent, whatever may be the form of government. The slightest event makes
+him lose his balance, and he does not even know how to disguise the
+impression which he receives.... He has made himself ill, and has grown
+ten years older."
+
+Jefferson had energy and audacity,--but he was energetic and audacious only
+by fits and starts. He was too sensitive, too full of ideas, too
+far-sighted, too conscious of all possible results for a man of action.
+During the last three months of his term he made no attempt to settle the
+difficulties in which the country was involved, declaring that he felt
+bound to do nothing which might embarrass his successor. But it may be
+doubted if he did not unconsciously decline the task rather from its
+difficulty than because he felt precluded from undertaking it.
+Self-knowledge was never Mr. Jefferson's strong point.
+
+But he had done his best, and if his scheme had failed, the failure was
+not an ignoble one. He was still the most beloved, as well as the best
+hated man in the United States; and he could have had a third term, if he
+would have taken it.
+
+He retired, permanently, as it proved, to Monticello, wearied and
+harassed, but glad to be back on his farm, in the bosom of his family, and
+among his neighbors. His fellow-citizens of Albemarle County desired to
+meet the returning President, and escort him to his home; but Mr.
+Jefferson, characteristically, avoided this demonstration, and received
+instead an address, to which he made a reply that closed in a fit and
+pathetic manner his public career. "... The part which I have acted on the
+theatre of public life has been before them [his countrymen], and to their
+sentence I submit it; but the testimony of my native county, of the
+individuals who have known me in private life, to my conduct in its
+various duties and relations, is the more grateful as proceeding from
+eyewitnesses and observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my
+neighbors, I may ask in the face of the world, 'whose ox have I taken, or
+whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I
+received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?' On your verdict I rest
+with conscious security."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   XII
+
+
+                       A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE
+
+
+Jefferson's second term as President ended March 4, 1809, and during the
+rest of his life he lived at Monticello, with occasional visits to his
+more retired estate at Poplar Forest, and to the homes of his friends, but
+never going beyond the confines of Virginia. Just before leaving
+Washington, he had written: "Never did a prisoner released from his chains
+feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature
+intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my
+supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived
+have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on
+the boisterous ocean of political passions."
+
+Though no longer in office, Jefferson remained till his death the chief
+personage in the United States, and his authority continued to be almost
+supreme among the leaders as well as among the rank and file of the
+Republican party. Madison first, and Monroe afterward, consulted him in
+all the most important matters which arose during the sixteen years of
+their double terms as President. Long and frequent letters passed between
+them; and both Madison and Monroe often visited Jefferson at Monticello.
+
+The Monroe doctrine, as it is called, was first broached by Jefferson. In
+a letter of August 4, 1820, to William Short, he said: "The day is not far
+distant, when we may formally require a meridian through the ocean which
+separates the two hemispheres on the hither side of which no European gun
+shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other;" and he spoke of "the
+essential policy of interdicting in the seas and territories of both
+Americas the ferocious and sanguinary contests of Europe." Later, when
+applied to by Monroe himself, in October, 1823, Jefferson wrote to him:
+"Our first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves in
+the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to meddle in
+cisatlantic affairs." The whole letter, a long one, deserves to be read as
+the first exposition of what has since become a famous doctrine.
+
+The darling object of Mr. Jefferson's last years was the founding of the
+University of Virginia at Charlottesville. For this purpose he gave $1000;
+many of his neighbors in Albemarle County joined him with gifts; and
+through Jefferson's influence, the legislature appropriated considerable
+sums. But money was the least of Jefferson's endowment of the University.
+He gave of the maturity of his judgment and a great part of his time. He
+was made regent. He drew the plans for the buildings, and overlooked their
+construction, riding to the University grounds almost every day, a
+distance of four miles, and back, and watching with paternal solicitude
+the laying of every brick and stone. His design was the perhaps
+over-ambitious one of displaying in the University buildings the various
+leading styles of architecture; and certain practical inconveniences, such
+as the entire absence of closets from the houses of the professors, marred
+the result. Some offense also was given to the more religious people of
+Virginia, by the selection of a Unitarian as the first professor. However,
+Jefferson's enthusiasm, ingenuity, and thoroughness carried the scheme
+through with success; and the University still stands as a monument to its
+founder.
+
+It should be recorded, moreover, that under Jefferson's regency the
+University of Virginia adopted certain reforms, which even Harvard, the
+most progressive of eastern universities, did not attain till more than
+half a century later. These were, an elective system of studies; the
+abolition of rules and penalties for the preservation of order, and the
+abolition of compulsory attendance at religious services.
+
+Mr. Jefferson's daily life was simple and methodical. He rose as soon as
+it was light enough for him to see the hands of a clock which was opposite
+his bed. Till breakfast time, which was about nine o'clock, he employed
+himself in writing. The whole morning was devoted to an immense
+correspondence; the discharge of which was not only mentally, but
+physically distressing, inasmuch as his crippled hands, each wrist having
+been fractured, could not be used without pain. In a letter to his old
+friend, John Adams, he wrote: "I can read by candle-light only, and
+stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be indulged to me
+could I by that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o'clock,
+and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all
+this to answer letters, in which neither interest nor inclination on my
+part enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.
+Yet writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers." At his
+death Jefferson left copies of 16,000 letters, being only a part of those
+written by himself, and 26,000 letters written by others to him.
+
+At one o'clock he set out upon horseback, and was gone for one or two
+hours,--never attended by a servant, even when he became old and infirm. He
+continued these rides until he had become so feeble that he had to be
+lifted to the saddle; and his mount was always a fiery one. Once, in Mr.
+Jefferson's old age, news came that a serious accident had happened in the
+neighboring village to one of his grandsons. Immediately he ordered his
+horse to be brought round, and though it was night and very dark, he
+mounted, despite the protests of the household, and, at a run, dashed down
+the steep ascent by which Monticello is reached. The family held their
+breath till the tramp of his horse's feet, on the level ground below,
+could faintly be heard.
+
+At half past three or four he dined; and at six he returned to the
+drawing-room, where coffee was served. The evening was spent in reading or
+conversation, and at nine he went to bed. "His diet," relates a
+distinguished visitor, Daniel Webster, "is simple, but he seems restrained
+only by his taste. His breakfast is tea and coffee, bread always fresh
+from the oven, of which he does not seem afraid, with at times a slight
+accompaniment of cold meat. He enjoys his dinner well, taking with his
+meat a large proportion of vegetables." The fact is that he used meat only
+as a sort of condiment to vegetables. "He has a strong preference for the
+wines of the continent, of which he has many sorts of excellent
+quality.... Dinner is served in half Virginian, half French style, in good
+taste and abundance. No wine is put on the table till the cloth is
+removed. In conversation, Mr. Jefferson is easy and natural, and
+apparently not ambitious; it is not loud as challenging general attention,
+but usually addressed to the person next him." His health remained good
+till within a few months of his death, and he never lost a tooth.
+
+Scarcely less burdensome than his correspondence was the throng of
+visitors at Monticello, of all nationalities, from every State in the
+Union, some coming from veneration, some from curiosity, some from a
+desire to obtain free quarters. Groups of people often stood about the
+house and in the halls to see Jefferson pass from his study to his
+dining-room. It is recorded that "a female once punched through a
+window-pane of the house with her parasol to get a better view of him." As
+many as fifty guests sometimes lodged in the house. "As a specimen of
+Virginia life," relates one biographer, "we will mention that a friend
+from abroad came to Monticello, with a family of six persons, and remained
+ten months.... Accomplished young kinswomen habitually passed two or three
+of the summer months there, as they would now at a fashionable
+watering-place. They married the sons of Mr. Jefferson's friends, and then
+came with their families."
+
+The immense expense entailed by these hospitalities, added to the debt,
+amounting to $20,000, which Mr. Jefferson owed when he left Washington,
+crippled him financially. Moreover, Colonel Randolph, who managed his
+estate for many years, though a good farmer, was a poor man of business.
+It was a common saying in the neighborhood that nobody raised better crops
+or got less money for them than Colonel Randolph. The embargo, and the
+period of depression which followed the war of 1812, went far to
+impoverish the Virginia planters. Monroe died a bankrupt, and Madison's
+widow was left almost in want of bread. Jefferson himself wrote in 1814:
+"What can we raise for the market? Wheat? we can only give it to our
+horses, as we have been doing since harvest. Tobacco? It is not worth the
+pipe it is smoked in. Some say whiskey, but all mankind must become
+drunkards to consume it." Jefferson, also, was so anxious lest his slaves
+should be overworked, that the amount of labor performed upon his
+plantation was much less than it should have been. And, to cap the climax
+of his financial troubles, he lost $20,000 by indorsing to that amount for
+his intimate friend, Governor Nicholas, an honorable but unfortunate man.
+It should be added that Mr. Nicholas, in his last hours, "declared with
+unspeakable emotion that Mr. Jefferson had never by a word, by a look, or
+in any other way, made any allusion to his loss by him."
+
+In 1814, Mr. Jefferson sold his library to Congress for $23,950, about one
+half its cost; and in the very year of his death he requested of the
+Virginia legislature that a law might be passed permitting him to sell
+some of his farms by means of a lottery,--the times being such that they
+could be disposed of in no other way. He even published some "Thoughts on
+Lotteries,"--by way of advancing this project. The legislature granted his
+request, with reluctance; but in the mean time his necessities became
+known throughout the country, and subscriptions were made for his relief.
+The lottery was suspended, and Jefferson died in the belief that
+Monticello would be saved as a home for his family.
+
+In March, 1826, Mr. Jefferson's health began to fail; but so late as June
+24 he was well enough to write a long letter in reply to an invitation to
+attend the fiftieth celebration, at Washington, of the 4th of July. During
+the 3d of July he dozed hour after hour under the influence of opiates,
+rousing occasionally, and uttering a few words. It was evident that his
+end was very near. His family and he himself fervently desired that he
+might live till the 4th of July. At eleven in the evening of July 3 he
+whispered to Mr. Trist, the husband of one of his granddaughters, who sat
+by him: "This is the fourth?" Not bearing to disappoint him, Mr. Trist
+remained silent; and Mr. Jefferson feebly asked a second time: "This is
+the fourth?" Mr. Trist nodded assent. "Ah!" he breathed, and sank into a
+slumber from which he never awoke; but his end did not come till half past
+twelve in the afternoon of Independence Day. On the same day, at Quincy,
+died John Adams, his last words being, "Thomas Jefferson still lives!"
+
+The double coincidence made a strong impression upon the imagination of
+the American people. "When it became known," says Mr. Parton, "that the
+author of the Declaration and its most powerful defender had both breathed
+their last on the Fourth of July, the fiftieth since they had set it apart
+from the roll of common days, it seemed as if Heaven had given its visible
+and unerring sanction to the work which they had done."
+
+Jefferson's body was buried at Monticello, and on the tombstone is
+inscribed, as he desired, the following: "Here was buried Thomas
+Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the
+Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of
+Virginia."
+
+Jefferson's expectation that Monticello would remain the property of his
+descendants was not fulfilled. His debts were paid to the uttermost
+farthing by his executor and grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph; but
+Martha Randolph and her family were left homeless and penniless. When this
+became known, the legislatures of South Carolina and Louisiana each voted
+to Mrs. Randolph a gift of $10,000. She died suddenly, in 1836, at the age
+of sixty-three. Monticello passed into the hands of strangers.
+
+Jefferson had his faults and defects. As a statesman and ruler, he showed
+at times irresolution, want of energy and of audacity, and a
+misunderstanding of human nature; and at times his judgment was clouded by
+the political prejudices which were common in his day. His attitude in the
+X Y Z business, his embargo policy, and his policy or want of policy after
+the failure of the embargo,--in these cases, and perhaps in these alone,
+his defects are exhibited. It is certain also that although at times frank
+and outspoken to a fault, he was at other times over-complaisant and
+insincere. To Aaron Burr, for example, he expressed himself in terms of
+friendship which he could hardly have felt; and, once, in writing to a
+minister of the gospel he implied, upon his own part, a belief in
+revelation which he did not really feel. It seems to be true also that
+Jefferson had an overweening desire to win the approbation of his
+fellow-countrymen; and at times, though quite unconsciously to himself,
+this motive led him into courses which were rather selfish than patriotic.
+This was the case, perhaps, in his negotiations with the English minister
+after the failure of the embargo. It is charged against him, also, that he
+avoided unpleasant situations; and that he said or did nothing to check
+the Republican slanders which were cast upon Washington and upon John
+Adams. But when this much has been said, all has been said. As a citizen,
+husband, father, friend, and master, Jefferson was almost an ideal
+character. No man was ever more kind, more amiable, more tender, more
+just, more generous. To her children, Mrs. Randolph declared that never,
+never had she witnessed a _particle_ of injustice in her father,--never had
+she heard him say a word or seen him do an act which she at the time or
+afterward regretted. He was magnanimous,--as when he frankly forgave John
+Adams for the injustice of his midnight appointments. Though easily
+provoked, he never bore malice. In matters of business and in matters of
+politics he was punctiliously honorable. How many times he paid his
+British debt has already been related. On one occasion he drew his cheque
+to pay the duties on certain imported wines which might have come in
+free,--yet made no merit of the action, for it never came to light until
+long after his death. In the presidential campaigns when he was a
+candidate, he never wrote a letter or made a sign to influence the result.
+He would not say a word by way of promise in 1801, when a word would have
+given him the presidency, and when so honorable a man as John Adams
+thought that he did wrong to withhold it. There was no vanity or smallness
+in his character. It was he and not Dickinson who wrote the address to the
+King, set forth by the Continental Congress of 1775; but Dickinson enjoyed
+the fame of it throughout Jefferson's lifetime.
+
+Above all, he was patriotic and conscientious. When he lapsed, it was in
+some subordinate matter, and because a little self-deception clouded his
+sight. But in all important matters, in all emergencies, he stood firm as
+a rock for what he considered to be right, unmoved by the entreaties of
+his friends or by the jeers, threats, and taunts of his enemies. He shrank
+with almost feminine repugnance from censure and turmoil, but when the
+occasion demanded it, he faced even these with perfect courage and
+resolution. His course as Secretary of State, and his enforcement of the
+embargo, are examples.
+
+Jefferson's political career was bottomed upon a great principle which he
+never, for one moment, lost sight of or doubted, no matter how difficult
+the present, or how dark the future. He believed in the people, in their
+capacity for self-government, and in their right to enjoy it. This belief
+shaped his course, and, in spite of minor inconsistencies, made it
+consistent. It was on account of this belief, and of the faith and courage
+with which he put it in practice, that he became the idol of his
+countrymen, and attained a unique position in the history of the world.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 It is to be remembered that the support of public worship was
+      compulsory in Massachusetts--the inhabitants of certain cities
+      excepted--down to the year 1833. An attempt to free the people from
+      this burden, led by Dr. Childs, of Berkshire County, was defeated at
+      the Constitutional Convention of 1820.
+
+    2 The father of Miss Catherine Sedgwick was a leading Federalist, and
+      his daughter records that, though a most kind-hearted man, he
+      habitually spoke of the people as "Jacobins" and "miscreants."
+
+    3 Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:--"But if the
+      policy of the government upon a vital question affecting the whole
+      people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme
+      Court, the moment they are made, the people will cease to be their
+      own masters; having to that extent resigned their government into
+      the hands of that eminent tribunal."
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Italic type is marked by underscore (_), black letter by asterisk (*).
+
+The following changes have been made to the text:
+
+      page 65, "Charlotteville" changed to "Charlottesville"
+      page 73, "goverment" changed to "government"
+      page 93, "1795" changed to "1793"
+      page 98, "circumtances" changed to "circumstances"
+
+Both "draught" and "draft" are used in the text.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS JEFFERSON***
+
+
+
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+<div lang="en" class="tei tei-text" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em" xml:lang="en">
+<div class="tei tei-front" style="margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+    <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <div id="pgheader" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em">The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Jefferson by Henry Childs Merwin</p></div><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost
+          and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
+          give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
+          Gutenberg License <a href="#pglicense" class="tei tei-ref">included with this
+          eBook</a> or online at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license" class="tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a></p></div><pre class="pre tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">Title: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Henry Childs Merwin
+
+Release Date: June 28, 2010 [Ebook #33011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS JEFFERSON***
+</pre></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        
+    </div>
+<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-weight: 700">The Riverside Biographical Series</span></span>
+</p>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">NUMBER 5</p>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">THOMAS JEFFERSON</span></span></p>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">BY</p>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">HENRY CHILDS MERWIN</p>
+<div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div>
+<div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div>
+<div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 100%; text-align: center"><img src="images/i004.jpg" alt="Th. Jefferson" /></div>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-titlePage" style="text-align: center">
+<div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div>
+<span class="tei tei-docTitle" style="text-align: center">
+    <span class="tei tei-titlePart" style="text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 173%">THOMAS JEFFERSON</span></span></span>
+<br /><br />
+</span>
+<div class="tei tei-byline" style="text-align: center">BY<br /><br />
+<span class="tei tei-docAuthor" style="text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">HENRY CHILDS MERWIN</span></span></span></div>
+<br /><br />
+<div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i005.png" alt="Publisher's emblem" /></div>
+<br /><br />
+<span class="tei tei-docImprint" style="text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-publisher" style="text-align: center">HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<br />
+<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street</span><br /><span style="font-size: 90%">
+Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Avenue</span></span></span><br />
+<span class="tei tei-publisher" style="text-align: center"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-weight: 700">The Riverside Press, Cambridge</span></span></span>
+</span>  
+</div>
+<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HENRY C. MERWIN</span></p>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</span></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">CONTENTS</span></h1>
+
+<table summary="This is a table" cellspacing="0" class="tei tei-table" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><colgroup span="3"></colgroup><tbody><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 81%">CHAP.</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 81%">PAGE</span></span></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">I.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Youth and Training</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg1" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">1</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">II.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Virginia in Jefferson’s Day</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg16" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">16</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">III.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Monticello and its Household</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg28" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">28</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">IV.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Jefferson in the Revolution</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg36" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">36</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">V.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Reform Work in Virginia</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg45" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">45</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">VI.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Governor of Virginia</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg59" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">59</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">VII.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Envoy at Paris</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg71" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">71</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"> VIII.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Secretary of State</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg82" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">82</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">IX.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">The Two Parties</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg98" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">98</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">X.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">President Jefferson</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg114" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">114</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XI.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Second Presidential Term</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg130" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">130</a></td>
+</tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">XII.</td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">A Public Man in Private Life</span></span></td>
+<td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg149" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">149</a></td>
+</tr></tbody></table>
+   <div class="tei tei-pb"></div> 
+</div>
+</div>
+<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-body" style="margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page1">[pg 1]</span><a name="Pg1" id="Pg1" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">THOMAS JEFFERSON</span></h1>
+<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<a name="toc1" id="toc1"></a><a name="pdf2" id="pdf2"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">I</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">YOUTH AND TRAINING</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Thomas Jefferson was born upon a
+frontier estate in Albemarle County, Virginia,
+April 13, 1743. His father, Peter
+Jefferson, was of Welsh descent, not of aristocratic
+birth, but of that yeoman class which
+constitutes the backbone of all societies.
+The elder Jefferson had uncommon powers
+both of mind and body. His strength was
+such that he could simultaneously <span class="tei tei-q">“head
+up”</span>—that is, raise from their sides to an
+upright position—two hogsheads of tobacco,
+weighing nearly one thousand pounds apiece.
+Like Washington, he was a surveyor; and
+there is a tradition that once, while running
+his lines through a vast wilderness, his assistants
+gave out from famine and fatigue,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page2">[pg 2]</span><a name="Pg2" id="Pg2" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and Peter Jefferson pushed on alone, sleeping
+at night in hollow trees, amidst howling
+beasts of prey, and subsisting on the flesh
+of a pack mule which he had been obliged
+to kill.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Thomas Jefferson inherited from his father
+a love of mathematics and of literature.
+Peter Jefferson had not received a classical
+education, but he was a diligent reader of a
+few good books, chiefly Shakespeare, The
+Spectator, Pope, and Swift; and in mastering
+these he was forming his mind on great
+literature after the manner of many another
+Virginian,—for the houses of that colony
+held English books as they held English
+furniture. The edition of Shakespeare (and
+it is a handsome one) which Peter Jefferson
+used is still preserved among the heirlooms
+of his descendants.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was probably in his capacity of surveyor
+that Mr. Jefferson made the acquaintance
+of the Randolph family, and he soon became
+the bosom friend of William Randolph, the
+young proprietor of Tuckahoe. The Randolphs
+had been for ages a family of con<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page3">[pg 3]</span><a name="Pg3" id="Pg3" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>sideration in the midland counties of England,
+claiming descent from the Scotch Earls
+of Murray, and connected by blood or marriage
+with many of the English nobility. In
+1735 Peter Jefferson established himself as
+a planter by patenting a thousand acres of
+land in Goochland County, his estate lying
+near and partly including the outlying hills,
+which form a sort of picket line for the
+Blue Mountain range. At the same time
+his friend William Randolph patented an
+adjoining estate of twenty-four hundred
+acres; and inasmuch as there was no good
+site for a house on Jefferson’s estate, Mr.
+Randolph conveyed to him four hundred
+acres for that purpose, the consideration expressed
+in the deed, which is still extant,
+being <span class="tei tei-q">“Henry Weatherbourne’s biggest
+bowl of Arrack punch.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Here Peter Jefferson built his house, and
+here, three years later, he brought his bride,—a
+handsome girl of nineteen, and a kinswoman
+of William Randolph, being Jane,
+oldest child of Isham Randolph, then Adjutant-General
+of Virginia. She was born in
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page4">[pg 4]</span><a name="Pg4" id="Pg4" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>London, in the parish of Shadwell, and Shadwell
+was the name given by Peter Jefferson
+to his estate. This marriage was a fortunate
+union of the best aristocratic and yeoman
+strains in Virginia.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In the year 1744 the new County of Albemarle
+was carved out of Goochland County,
+and Peter Jefferson was appointed one of
+the three justices who constituted the county
+court and were the real rulers of the shire.
+He was made also Surveyor, and later Colonel
+of the county. This last office was regarded
+as the chief provincial honor in Virginia, and
+it was especially important when he held it,
+for it was the time of the French war, and
+Albemarle was in the debatable land.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In the midst of that war, in August,
+1757, Peter Jefferson died suddenly, of a
+disease which is not recorded, but which was
+probably produced by fatigue and exposure.
+He was a strong, just, kindly man, sought
+for as a protector of the widow and the
+orphan, and respected and loved by Indians
+as well as white men. Upon his deathbed
+he left two injunctions regarding his son
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page5">[pg 5]</span><a name="Pg5" id="Pg5" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Thomas: one, that he should receive a classical
+education; the other, that he should
+never be permitted to neglect the physical
+exercises necessary for health and strength.
+Of these dying commands his son often
+spoke with gratitude; and he used to say
+that if he were obliged to choose between
+the education and the estate which his father
+gave him, he would choose the education.
+Peter Jefferson left eight children, but only
+one son besides Thomas, and that one died
+in infancy. Less is known of Jefferson’s
+mother; but he derived from her a love of
+music, an extraordinary keenness of susceptibility,
+and a corresponding refinement
+of taste.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+His father’s death left Jefferson his own
+master. In one of his later letters he says:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“At fourteen years of age the whole care
+and direction of myself were thrown on myself
+entirely, without a relative or a friend
+qualified to advise or guide me.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The first use that he made of his liberty
+was to change his school, and to become a
+pupil of the Rev. James Maury,—an ex<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page6">[pg 6]</span><a name="Pg6" id="Pg6" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cellent clergyman and scholar, of Huguenot
+descent, who had recently settled in Albemarle
+County. With him young Jefferson
+continued for two years, studying Greek and
+Latin, and becoming noted, as a schoolmate
+afterward reported, for scholarship, industry,
+and shyness. He was a good runner, a
+keen fox-hunter, and a bold and graceful
+rider.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At the age of sixteen, in the spring of
+1760, he set out on horseback for Williamsburg,
+the capital of Virginia, where he proposed
+to enter the college of William and
+Mary. Up to this time he had never seen
+a town, or even a village, except the hamlet
+of Charlottesville, which is about four miles
+from Shadwell. Williamsburg—described
+in contemporary language as <span class="tei tei-q">“the centre of
+taste, fashion, and refinement”</span>—was an
+unpaved village, of about one thousand inhabitants,
+surrounded by an expanse of dark
+green tobacco fields as far as the eye could
+reach. It was, however, well situated upon
+a plateau midway between the York and
+James rivers, and was swept by breezes
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page7">[pg 7]</span><a name="Pg7" id="Pg7" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which tempered the heat of the summer sun
+and kept the town free from mosquitoes.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Williamsburg was also well laid out, and
+it has the honor of having served as a model
+for the city of Washington. It consisted
+chiefly of a single street, one hundred feet
+broad and three quarters of a mile long,
+with the capitol at one end, the college at
+the other, and a ten-acre square with public
+buildings in the middle. Here in his palace
+lived the colonial governor. The town also
+contained <span class="tei tei-q">“ten or twelve gentlemen’s families,
+besides merchants and tradesmen.”</span>
+These were the permanent inhabitants;
+and during the <span class="tei tei-q">“season”</span>—the midwinter
+months—the planters’ families came to
+town in their coaches, the gentlemen on
+horseback, and the little capital was then a
+scene of gayety and dissipation.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Such was Williamsburg in 1760 when
+Thomas Jefferson, the frontier planter’s son,
+rode slowly into town at the close of an early
+spring day, surveying with the outward indifference,
+but keen inward curiosity of a
+countryman, the place which was to be his
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page8">[pg 8]</span><a name="Pg8" id="Pg8" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>residence for seven years,—in one sense the
+most important, because the most formative,
+period of his life. He was a tall stripling,
+rather slightly built,—after the model of
+the Randolphs,—but extremely well-knit,
+muscular, and agile. His face was freckled,
+and his features were somewhat pointed. His
+hair is variously described as red, reddish,
+and sandy, and the color of his eyes as blue,
+gray, and also hazel. The expression of his
+face was frank, cheerful, and engaging. He
+was not handsome in youth, but <span class="tei tei-q">“a very
+good-looking man in middle age, and quite a
+handsome old man.”</span> At maturity he stood
+six feet two and a half inches. <span class="tei tei-q">“Mr. Jefferson,”</span>
+said Mr. Bacon, at one time the
+superintendent of his estate, <span class="tei tei-q">“was well proportioned
+and straight as a gun-barrel. He
+was like a fine horse, he had no surplus flesh.
+He had an iron constitution, and was very
+strong.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson was always the most cheerful and
+optimistic of men. He once said, after remarking
+that something must depend <span class="tei tei-q">“on
+the chapter of events:”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“I am in the habit
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page9">[pg 9]</span><a name="Pg9" id="Pg9" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of turning over the next leaf with hope, and,
+though it often fails me, there is still another
+and another behind.”</span> No doubt this
+sanguine trait was due in part at least to
+his almost perfect health. He was, to use
+his own language, <span class="tei tei-q">“blessed with organs of
+digestion which accepted and concocted,
+without ever murmuring, whatever the palate
+chose to consign to them.”</span> His habits
+through life were good. He never smoked,
+he drank wine in moderation, he went to
+bed early, he was regular in taking exercise,
+either by walking or, more commonly, by
+riding on horseback.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The college of William and Mary in Jefferson’s
+day is described by Mr. Parton as
+<span class="tei tei-q">“a medley of college, Indian mission, and
+grammar school, ill-governed, and distracted
+by dissensions among its ruling powers.”</span>
+But Jefferson had a thirst for knowledge
+and a capacity for acquiring it, which made
+him almost independent of institutions of
+learning. Moreover, there was one professor
+who had a large share in the formation
+of his mind. <span class="tei tei-q">“It was my great good for<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page10">[pg 10]</span><a name="Pg10" id="Pg10" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tune,”</span> he wrote in his brief autobiography,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“and what probably fixed the destinies of
+my life, that Dr. William Small, of Scotland,
+was then professor of mathematics; a man
+profound in most of the useful branches of
+science, with a happy talent of communication
+and an enlarged liberal mind. He, most
+happily for me, soon became attached to me,
+and made me his daily companion when not
+engaged in the school; and from his conversation
+I got my first views of the expansion
+of science, and of the system of things in
+which we are placed.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson, like all well-bred Virginians,
+was brought up as an Episcopalian; but as
+a young man, perhaps owing in part to the
+influence of Dr. Small, he ceased to believe
+in Christianity as a religion, though he always
+at home attended the Episcopal church, and
+though his daughters were brought up in that
+faith. If any theological term is to be applied
+to him, he should be called a Deist.
+Upon the subject of his religious faith,
+Jefferson was always extremely reticent.
+To one or two friends only did he disclose
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page11">[pg 11]</span><a name="Pg11" id="Pg11" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>his creed, and that was in letters which were
+published after his death. When asked,
+even by one of his own family, for his opinion
+upon any religious matter, he invariably
+refused to express it, saying that every person
+was bound to look into the subject for
+himself, and to decide upon it conscientiously,
+unbiased by the opinions of others.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Dr. Small introduced Jefferson to other
+valuable acquaintances; and, boy though he
+was, he soon became the fourth in a group
+of friends which embraced the three most
+notable men in the little metropolis. These
+were, beside Dr. Small, Francis Fauquier,
+the acting governor of the province, appointed
+by the crown, and George Wythe.
+Fauquier was a courtly, honorable, highly
+cultivated man of the world, a disciple of
+Voltaire, and a confirmed gambler, who had
+in this respect an unfortunate influence upon
+the Virginia gentry,—not, however, upon
+Jefferson, who, though a lover of horses,
+and a frequenter of races, never in his life
+gambled or even played cards. Wythe was
+then just beginning a long and honorable
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page12">[pg 12]</span><a name="Pg12" id="Pg12" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>career as lawyer, statesman, professor, and
+judge. He remained always a firm and intimate
+friend of Jefferson, who spoke of him,
+after his death, as <span class="tei tei-q">“my second father.”</span> It
+is an interesting fact that Thomas Jefferson,
+John Marshall, and Henry Clay were all,
+in succession, law students in the office of
+George Wythe.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Many of the government officials and
+planters who flocked to Williamsburg in
+the winter were related to Jefferson on his
+mother’s side, and they opened their houses
+to him with Virginia hospitality. We read
+also of dances in the <span class="tei tei-q">“Apollo,”</span> the ball-room
+of the old Raleigh tavern, and of musical
+parties at Gov. Fauquier’s house, in which
+Jefferson, who was a skillful and enthusiastic
+fiddler, always took part. <span class="tei tei-q">“I suppose,”</span> he
+remarked in his old age, <span class="tei tei-q">“that during at
+least a dozen years of my life, I played no
+less than three hours a day.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At this period he was somewhat of a
+dandy, very particular about his clothes and
+equipage, and devoted, as indeed he remained
+through life, to fine horses. Virginia im<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page13">[pg 13]</span><a name="Pg13" id="Pg13" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ported more thoroughbred horses than any
+other colony, and to this day there is probably
+a greater admixture of thoroughbred
+blood there than in any other State. Diomed,
+winner of the first English Derby,
+was brought over to Virginia in 1799, and
+founded a family which, even now, is highly
+esteemed as a source of speed and endurance.
+Jefferson had some of his colts; and both
+for the saddle and for his carriage he always
+used high-bred horses.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Referring to the Williamsburg period of
+his life, he wrote once to a grandson: <span class="tei tei-q">“When
+I recollect the various sorts of bad company
+with which I associated from time to time, I
+am astonished I did not turn off with some of
+them, and become as worthless to society as
+they were.... But I had the good fortune
+to become acquainted very early with some
+characters of very high standing, and to feel
+the incessant wish that I could ever become
+what they were. Under temptations and difficulties,
+I would ask myself what would Dr.
+Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in
+this situation? What course in it will as<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page14">[pg 14]</span><a name="Pg14" id="Pg14" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>sure me their approbation? I am certain
+that this mode of deciding on my conduct
+tended more to correctness than any reasoning
+powers that I possesed.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This passage throws a light upon Jefferson’s
+character. It does not seem to occur to
+him that a young man might require some
+stronger motive to keep his passions in check
+than could be furnished either by the wish
+to imitate a good example or by his <span class="tei tei-q">“reasoning
+powers.”</span> To Jefferson’s well-regulated
+mind the desire for approbation was a
+sufficient motive. He was particularly sensitive,
+perhaps morbidly so, to disapprobation.
+The respect, the good-will, the affection
+of his countrymen were so dear to him
+that the desire to retain them exercised a
+great, it may be at times, an undue influence
+upon him. <span class="tei tei-q">“I find,”</span> he once said, <span class="tei tei-q">“the pain
+of a little censure, even when it is unfounded,
+is more acute than the pleasure of much
+praise.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+During his second year at college, Jefferson
+laid aside all frivolities. He sent home
+his horses, contenting himself with a mile
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page15">[pg 15]</span><a name="Pg15" id="Pg15" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>run out and back at nightfall for exercise,
+and studying, if we may believe the biographer,
+no less than fifteen hours a day. This
+intense application reduced the time of his
+college course by one half; and after the
+second winter at Williamsburg he went home
+with a degree in his pocket, and a volume of
+Coke upon Lytleton in his trunk.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page16">[pg 16]</span><a name="Pg16" id="Pg16" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc3" id="toc3"></a><a name="pdf4" id="pdf4"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">II</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">VIRGINIA IN JEFFERSON’S DAY</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+To a young Virginian of Jefferson’s standing
+but two active careers were open, law and
+politics, and in almost every case these two,
+sooner or later, merged in one. The condition
+of Virginia was very different from that
+of New England,—neither the clerical nor
+the medical profession was held in esteem.
+There were no manufactures, and there was
+no general commerce.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Nature has divided Virginia into two parts:
+the mountainous region to the west and the
+broad level plain between the mountains and
+the sea, intersected by numerous rivers, in
+which, far back from the ocean, the tide
+ebbs and flows. In this tide-water region
+were situated the tobacco plantations which
+constituted the wealth and were inhabited by
+the aristocracy of the colony. Almost every
+planter lived near a river and had his own
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page17">[pg 17]</span><a name="Pg17" id="Pg17" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>wharf, whence a schooner carried his tobacco
+to London, and brought back wines, silks,
+velvets, guns, saddles, and shoes.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The small proprietors of land were comparatively
+few in number, and the whole
+constitution of the colony, political and social,
+was aristocratic. Both real estate and
+slaves descended by force of law to the eldest
+son, so that the great properties were kept
+intact. There were no townships and no
+town meetings. The political unit was the
+parish; for the Episcopal church was the established
+church,—a state institution; and
+the parishes were of great extent, there being,
+as a rule, but one or two parishes in a county.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The clergy, though belonging to an establishment,
+were poorly paid, and not revered as
+a class. They held the same position of inferiority
+in respect to the rich planters which
+the clergy of England held in respect to the
+country gentry at the same period. Being
+appointed by the crown, they were selected
+without much regard to fitness, and they
+were demoralized by want of supervision,
+for there were no resident bishops, and,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page18">[pg 18]</span><a name="Pg18" id="Pg18" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>further, by the uncertain character of their
+incomes, which, being paid in tobacco, were
+subject to great fluctuations. A few were
+men of learning and virtue who performed
+their duties faithfully, and eked out their
+incomes by taking pupils. <span class="tei tei-q">“It was these
+few,”</span> remarks Mr. Parton, <span class="tei tei-q">“who saved civilization
+in the colony.”</span> A few others became
+cultivators of tobacco, and acquired
+wealth. But the greater part of the clergy
+were companions and hangers-on of the rich
+planters,—examples of that type which
+Thackeray so well describes in the character
+of Parson Sampson in <span class="tei tei-q">“The Virginians.”</span>
+Strange tales were told of these old Virginia
+parsons. One is spoken of as pocketing
+annually a hundred dollars, the revenue of a
+legacy for preaching four sermons a year
+against atheism, gambling, racing, and swearing,—for
+all of which vices, except the first,
+he was notorious.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This period, the middle half of the eighteenth
+century, was, as the reader need not
+be reminded, that in which the English
+church sank to its lowest point. It was the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page19">[pg 19]</span><a name="Pg19" id="Pg19" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>era when the typical country parson was a
+convivial fox-hunter; when the Fellows of
+colleges sat over their wine from four o’clock,
+their dinner hour, till midnight or after;
+when the highest type of bishop was a
+learned man who spent more time in his
+private studies than in the duties of his
+office; when the cathedrals were neglected
+and dirty, and the parish churches were
+closed from Sunday to Sunday. In England,
+the reaction produced Methodism, and,
+later, the Tractarian movement; and we are
+told that even in Virginia, <span class="tei tei-q">“swarms of Methodists,
+Moravians, and New-Light Presbyterians
+came over the border from Pennsylvania,
+and pervaded the colony.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Taxation pressed with very unequal force
+upon the poor, and the right of voting was
+confined to freeholders. There was no system
+of public schools, and the great mass
+of the people were ignorant and coarse, but
+morally and physically sound,—a good substructure
+for an aristocratic society. Wealth
+being concentrated mainly in the hands of a
+few, Virginia presented striking contrasts of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page20">[pg 20]</span><a name="Pg20" id="Pg20" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>luxury and destitution, whereas in the neighboring
+colony of Pennsylvania, where wealth
+was more distributed and society more democratic,
+thrift and prosperity were far more
+common.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“In Pennsylvania,”</span> relates a foreign traveler,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“one sees great numbers of wagons
+drawn by four or more fine fat horses....
+In the slave States we sometimes meet a
+ragged black boy or girl driving a team consisting
+of a lean cow and a mule; and I have
+seen a mule, a bull, and a cow, each miserable
+in its appearance, composing one team, with
+a half-naked black slave or two riding or
+driving as occasion suited.”</span> And yet between
+Richmond and Fredericksburg, <span class="tei tei-q">“in
+the afternoon, as our road lay through the
+woods, I was surprised to meet a family
+party traveling along in as elegant a coach
+as is usually met with in the neighborhood
+of London, and attended by several gayly
+dressed footmen.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Virginia society just before the Revolution
+perfectly illustrated Buckle’s remark about
+leisure: <span class="tei tei-q">“Without leisure, science is impos<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page21">[pg 21]</span><a name="Pg21" id="Pg21" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>sible; and when leisure has been won, most
+of the class possessing it will waste it in the
+pursuit of pleasure, and a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">few</span></span> will employ
+it in the pursuit of knowledge.”</span> Men like
+Jefferson, George Wythe, and Madison used
+their leisure for the good of their fellow-beings
+and for the cultivation of their minds;
+whereas the greater part of the planters—and
+the poor whites imitated them—spent
+their ample leisure in sports, in drinking, and
+in absolute idleness. <span class="tei tei-q">“In spite of the Virginians’
+love for dissipation,”</span> wrote a famous
+French traveler, <span class="tei tei-q">“the taste for reading is
+commoner among men of the first rank than
+in any other part of America; but the populace
+is perhaps more ignorant there than
+elsewhere.”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“The Virginia virtues,”</span> says
+Mr. Henry Adams, <span class="tei tei-q">“were those of the field
+and farm—the simple and straightforward
+mind, the notions of courage and truth, the
+absence of mercantile sharpness and quickness,
+the rusticity and open-handed hospitality.”</span>
+Virginians of the upper class were
+remarkable for their high-bred courtesy,—a
+trait so inherent that it rarely disappeared
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page22">[pg 22]</span><a name="Pg22" id="Pg22" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>even in the bitterness of political disputes
+and divisions. This, too, was the natural
+product of a society based not on trade or
+commerce, but on land. <span class="tei tei-q">“I blush for my
+own people,”</span> wrote Dr. Channing, from Virginia,
+in 1791, <span class="tei tei-q">“when I compare the selfish
+prudence of a Yankee with the generous confidence
+of a Virginian. Here I find great
+vices, but greater virtues than I left behind
+me.”</span> There was a largeness of temper and
+of feeling in the Virginia aristocracy, which
+seems to be inseparable from people living
+in a new country, upon the outskirts of civilization.
+They had the pride of birth, but
+they recognized other claims to consideration,
+and were as far as possible from estimating
+a man according to the amount of
+his wealth.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Slavery itself was probably a factor for
+good in the character of such a man as Jefferson,—it
+afforded a daily exercise in the
+virtues of benevolence and self-control. How
+he treated the blacks may be gathered from
+a story, told by his superintendent, of a slave
+named Jim who had been caught stealing
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page23">[pg 23]</span><a name="Pg23" id="Pg23" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>nails from the nail-factory: <span class="tei tei-q">“When Mr.
+Jefferson came, I sent for Jim, and I never
+saw any person, white or black, feel as badly
+as he did when he saw his master. The tears
+streamed down his face, and he begged for
+pardon over and over again. I felt very
+badly myself. Mr. Jefferson turned to me
+and said, <span class="tei tei-q">‘Ah, sir, we can’t punish him. He
+has suffered enough already.’</span> He then talked
+to him, gave him a heap of good advice, and
+sent him to the shop.... Jim said: <span class="tei tei-q">‘Well
+I’se been a-seeking religion a long time, but
+I never heard anything before that sounded
+so, or made me feel so, as I did when Master
+said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Go, and don’t do so any more,”</span> and
+now I’se determined to seek religion till I
+find it;’</span> and sure enough he afterwards
+came to me for a permit to go and be baptized....
+He was always a good servant
+afterward.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Another element that contributed to the
+efficiency and the high standard of the early
+Virginia statesman was a good, old-fashioned
+classical education. They were familiar, to
+use Matthew Arnold’s famous expression,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page24">[pg 24]</span><a name="Pg24" id="Pg24" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-q">“with the best that has ever been said or
+done.”</span> This was no small advantage to men
+who were called upon to act as founders of
+a republic different indeed from the republics
+of Greece and Rome, but still based upon
+the same principles, and demanding an
+exercise of the same heroic virtues. The
+American Revolution would never have cut
+quite the figure in the world which history
+assigns to it, had it not been conducted with
+a kind of classic dignity and decency; and
+to this result nobody contributed more than
+Jefferson.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Such was Virginia in the eighteenth century,—at
+the base of society, the slaves;
+next, a lower class, rough, ignorant, and
+somewhat brutal, but still wholesome, and
+possessing the primitive virtues of courage
+and truth; and at the top, the landed gentry,
+luxurious, proud, idle and dissipated
+for the most part, and yet blossoming into
+a few characters of a type so high that the
+world has hardly seen a better. Had he
+been born in Europe, Jefferson would doubtless
+have devoted himself to music, or to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page25">[pg 25]</span><a name="Pg25" id="Pg25" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>architecture, or to literature, or to science,—for
+in all these directions his taste was
+nearly equally strong; but these careers being
+closed to him by the circumstances of
+the colony, he became a lawyer, and then,
+under pressure of the Revolution, a politician
+and statesman.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+During the four years following his graduation,
+Jefferson spent most of the winter
+months at Williamsburg, pursuing his legal
+and other studies, and the rest of the year
+upon the family plantation, the management
+of which had devolved upon him. Now, as
+always, he was the most industrious of men.
+He lived, as Mr. Parton remarks, <span class="tei tei-q">“with a
+pen in his hand.”</span> He kept a garden book,
+a farm book, a weather book, a receipt book,
+a cash book, and, while he practiced law, a
+fee book. Many of these books are still preserved,
+and the entries are as legible now as
+when they were first written down in Jefferson’s
+small but clear and graceful hand,—the
+hand of an artist. Jefferson, as one of
+his old friends once remarked, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">hated</span></span> superficial
+knowledge; and he dug to the roots of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page26">[pg 26]</span><a name="Pg26" id="Pg26" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the common law, reading deeply in old reports
+written in law French and law Latin,
+and especially studying Magna Charta and
+Bracton.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+He found time also for riding, for music,
+and dancing; and in his twentieth year he
+became enamored of Miss Rebecca Burwell,
+a Williamsburg belle more distinguished,
+tradition reports, for beauty than for cleverness.
+But Jefferson was not yet in a position
+to marry,—he even contemplated a
+foreign tour; and the girl, somewhat abruptly,
+married another lover. The wound
+seems not to have been a deep one. Jefferson,
+in fact, though he found his chief happiness
+in family affection, and though capable
+of strong and lasting attachments, was not
+the man for a romantic passion. He was a
+philosopher of the reasonable, eighteenth-century
+type. No one was more kind and
+just in the treatment of his slaves, but he
+did not free them, as George Wythe, perhaps
+foolishly, did; and he was even cautious
+about promulgating his views as to the folly
+and wickedness of slavery, though he did his
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page27">[pg 27]</span><a name="Pg27" id="Pg27" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>best to promote its abolition by legislative
+measures. There was not in Jefferson the
+material for a martyr or a Don Quixote;
+but that was Nature’s fault, not his. It may
+be said of every particular man that there
+is a certain depth to which he cannot sink,
+and there is a certain height to which he
+cannot rise. Within the intermediate zone
+there is ample exercise for free-will; and no
+man struggled harder than Jefferson to fulfill
+all the obligations which, as he conceived,
+were laid upon him.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page28">[pg 28]</span><a name="Pg28" id="Pg28" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc5" id="toc5"></a><a name="pdf6" id="pdf6"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">III</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">MONTICELLO AND ITS HOUSEHOLD</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In April, 1764, Jefferson came of age,
+and his first public act was a characteristic
+one. For the benefit of the neighborhood,
+he procured the passage of a statute to authorize
+the dredging of the Rivanna River
+upon which his own estate bordered in part.
+He then by private subscriptions raised a
+sum sufficient for carrying out this purpose;
+and in a short time the stream, upon which
+before a bark canoe would hardly have
+floated, was made available for the transportation
+of farm produce to the James River,
+and thence to the sea.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In 1766, he made a journey to Philadelphia,
+in order to be inoculated for smallpox,
+traveling in a light gig drawn by a high-spirited
+horse, and narrowly escaping death
+by drowning in one of the numerous rivers
+which had to be forded between Charlottes<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page29">[pg 29]</span><a name="Pg29" id="Pg29" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ville and Philadelphia. In the following
+year, about the time of his twenty-fourth
+birthday, he was admitted to the bar, and
+entered almost immediately upon a large
+and lucrative practice. He remained at the
+bar only seven years, but during most of
+this time his professional income averaged
+more than £2500 a year; and he increased
+his paternal estate from 1900 acres to 5000
+acres. He argued with force and fluency,
+but his voice was not suitable for public
+speaking, and soon became husky. Moreover,
+Jefferson had an intense repugnance
+to the arena. He shrank with a kind of
+nervous horror from a personal contest, and
+hated to be drawn into a discussion. The
+turmoil and confusion of a public body were
+hideous to him;—it was as a writer, not as
+a speaker, that he won fame, first in the
+Virginia Assembly, and afterward in the
+Continental Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In October, 1768, Jefferson was chosen
+to represent Albemarle County in the House
+of Burgesses of Virginia; and thus began
+his long political career of forty years. A
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page30">[pg 30]</span><a name="Pg30" id="Pg30" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>resolution which he formed at the outset is
+stated in the following letter written in 1792
+to a friend who had offered him a share in
+an undertaking which promised to be profitable:—
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“When I first entered on the stage of
+public life (now twenty-four years ago) I
+came to a resolution never to engage, while
+in public office, in any kind of enterprise for
+the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear
+any other character than that of a farmer.
+I have never departed from it in a single
+instance; and I have in multiplied instances
+found myself happy in being able to decide
+and to act as a public servant, clear of all
+interest, in the multiform questions that
+have arisen, wherein I have seen others embarrassed
+and biased by having got themselves
+in a more interested situation.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+During the next few years there was a
+lull in political affairs,—a sullen calm before
+the storm of the Revolution; but they
+were important years in Mr. Jefferson’s life.
+In February, 1770, the house at Shadwell,
+where he lived with his mother and sisters,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page31">[pg 31]</span><a name="Pg31" id="Pg31" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>was burned to the ground, while the family
+were away. <span class="tei tei-q">“Were none of my books
+saved?”</span> Jefferson asked of the negro who
+came to him, breathless, with news of the
+disaster. <span class="tei tei-q">“No, master,”</span> was the reply,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“but we saved the fiddle.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In giving his friend Page an account of
+the fire, Jefferson wrote: <span class="tei tei-q">“On a reasonable
+estimate, I calculate the cost of the books
+burned to have been £200. Would to God
+it had been the money,—then had it never
+cost me a sigh!”</span> Beside the books, Jefferson
+lost most of his notes and papers; but
+no mishap, not caused by his own fault, ever
+troubled his peace of mind.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+After the fire, his mother and the children
+took temporary refuge in the home of an
+overseer, and Jefferson repaired to Monticello,—as
+he had named the elevated spot
+on the paternal estate where he had already
+begun to build the house which was his
+home for the remainder of his life.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Monticello is a small outlying peak, upon
+the outskirts of the mountainous part of
+Virginia, west of the tide-water region, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page32">[pg 32]</span><a name="Pg32" id="Pg32" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>rising 580 feet above the plain at its foot.
+Upon its summit there is a space of about
+six acres, leveled partly by nature and partly
+by art; and here, one hundred feet back
+from the brow of the hill, Jefferson built his
+house. It is a long, low building,—still
+standing,—with a Grecian portico in front,
+surmounted by a cupola. The road by
+which it is approached winds round and
+round, so as to make the ascent less difficult.
+In front of the house three long terraces,
+terminating in small pavilions, were
+constructed; and upon the northern terrace,
+or in its pavilion, Jefferson and his friends
+used to sit on summer nights gazing off
+toward the Blue Ridge, some eighty miles
+distant, or upon the nearer peaks of the Ragged
+Mountains. The altitude is such that
+neither dew nor mosquitoes can reach it.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+To this beautiful but as yet uncompleted
+mountain home, Jefferson, in January, 1772,
+brought his bride. She was Martha Skelton,
+who had been left a widow at nineteen,
+and was now twenty-two, a daughter of John
+Wayles, a leading and opulent lawyer.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page33">[pg 33]</span><a name="Pg33" id="Pg33" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Martha Skelton was a tall, beautiful, highly
+educated young woman, of graceful carriage,
+with hazel eyes, literary in her tastes, a
+skillful performer upon the spinnet, and a
+notable housewife whose neatly kept account
+books are still preserved. They were married
+at <span class="tei tei-q">“The Forest,”</span> her father’s estate in
+Charles City County, and immediately set
+out for Monticello.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Two years later, in 1774, died Dabney
+Carr, a brilliant and patriotic young lawyer,
+Jefferson’s most intimate friend, and the
+husband of his sister Martha. Dabney
+Carr left six small children, whom, with
+their mother, Jefferson took under his wing,
+and they were brought up at Monticello as
+if they had been his own children. Jefferson
+loved children, and he had, in common
+with that very different character, Aaron
+Burr, an instinct for teaching. While still
+a young man himself, he was often called
+upon to direct the studies of other young
+men,—Madison and Monroe were in this
+sense his pupils; and the founding of the
+University of Virginia was an achievement
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page34">[pg 34]</span><a name="Pg34" id="Pg34" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>long anticipated by him and enthusiastically
+performed.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson was somewhat unfortunate in his
+own children, for, of the six that were born
+to him, only two, Martha and Maria, lived
+to grow up. Maria married but died young,
+leaving one child. Martha, the first-born,
+was a brilliant, cheerful, wholesome woman.
+She married Thomas Mann Randolph, afterward
+governor of Virginia. <span class="tei tei-q">“She was just
+like her father, in this respect,”</span> says Mr.
+Bacon, the superintendent,—<span class="tei tei-q">“she was always
+busy. If she wasn’t reading or writing,
+she was always doing something. She
+used to sit in Mr. Jefferson’s room a great
+deal, and sew, or read, or talk, as he would
+be busy about something else.”</span> John Randolph
+of Roanoke once toasted her—and it
+was after his quarrel with her father—as
+the sweetest woman in Virginia. She left
+ten children, and many of her descendants
+are still living.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+To her, and to his other daughter, Maria,
+who is described as being more beautiful
+and no less amiable than her sister, but not
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page35">[pg 35]</span><a name="Pg35" id="Pg35" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>so intellectual, Jefferson owed the chief happiness
+of his life. Like many another man
+who has won fame and a high position in the
+world, he counted these things but as dust
+and ashes in comparison with family affection.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page36">[pg 36]</span><a name="Pg36" id="Pg36" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc7" id="toc7"></a><a name="pdf8" id="pdf8"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">IV</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">JEFFERSON IN THE REVOLUTION</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Shortly after Mr. Jefferson’s marriage,
+the preliminary movements of the Revolution
+began, and though he took an active
+part in them it was not without reluctance.
+Even after the battle of Bunker Hill, namely,
+in November, 1775, he wrote to a kinsman
+that there was not a man in the British
+Empire who more cordially loved a union
+with Great Britain than he did. John Jay
+said after the Revolution: <span class="tei tei-q">“During the
+course of my life, and until the second petition
+of Congress in 1775, I never did hear
+any American of any class or description
+express a wish for the independence of the
+colonies.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+But these friendly feelings were first outraged
+and then extinguished by a long series
+of ill-considered and oppressive acts, covering,
+with some intermissions, a period of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page37">[pg 37]</span><a name="Pg37" id="Pg37" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>about twelve years. Of these the most noteworthy
+were the Stamp Act, which amounted
+to taxation without representation, and the
+impost on tea, which was coupled with a
+provision that the receipts should be applied
+to the salaries of officers of the crown, thus
+placing them beyond the control of the local
+assemblies. The crown officers were also
+authorized to grant salaries and pensions at
+their discretion; and a board of revenue
+commissioners for the whole country was established
+at Boston, and armed with despotic
+powers. These proceedings amounted to a
+deprivation of liberty, and they were aggravated
+by the king’s contemptuous rejection
+of the petitions addressed to him by the
+colonists. We know what followed,—the
+burning of the British war schooner, Gaspee,
+by leading citizens of Providence, and the
+famous tea-party in Boston harbor.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Meanwhile Virginia had not been inactive.
+In March, 1772, a few young men, members
+of the House of Burgesses, met at the Raleigh
+Tavern in Williamsburg. They were
+Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and his
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page38">[pg 38]</span><a name="Pg38" id="Pg38" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>brother, Thomas Jefferson, and a few others.
+They drew up several resolutions, the most
+important of which called for the appointment
+of a standing committee and for an
+invitation to the other colonies to appoint
+like committees for mutual information and
+assistance in the struggle against the crown.
+A similar resolution had been adopted in
+Massachusetts two years before, but without
+any practical result. The Virginia resolution
+was passed the next day by the House
+of Burgesses, and it gave rise to those proceedings
+which ushered in the Revolution.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The first Continental Congress was to meet
+in Philadelphia, in September, 1774; and
+Jefferson, in anticipation, prepared a draft
+of instructions for the delegates who were to
+be elected by Virginia. Being taken ill
+himself, on his way to the convention, he
+sent forward a copy of these instructions.
+They were considered too drastic to be
+adopted by the convention; but some of the
+members caused them to be published under
+the title of <span class="tei tei-q">“A Summary View of the Rights
+of America.”</span> The pamphlet was extensively
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page39">[pg 39]</span><a name="Pg39" id="Pg39" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>read in this country, and a copy which had
+been sent to London falling into the hands
+of Edmund Burke, he had it reprinted in
+England, where it ran through edition after
+edition. Jefferson’s name thus became
+known throughout the colonies and in England.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The <span class="tei tei-q">“Summary View”</span> is in reality a
+political essay. Its author wasted no time
+in discussing the specific legal and constitutional
+questions which had arisen between
+the colonies and the crown; but he went to
+the root of the matter, and with one or two
+generalizations as bold and original as if
+they had been made by Rousseau, he cut the
+Gordian knot, and severed America from the
+Parliament of Great Britain. He admitted
+some sort of dependence upon the crown,
+but his two main principles were these: (1)
+that the soil of this country belonged to the
+people who had settled and improved it, and
+that the crown had no right to sell or give it
+away; (2) that the right of self-government
+was a right natural to every people, and that
+Parliament, therefore, had no authority to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page40">[pg 40]</span><a name="Pg40" id="Pg40" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>make laws for America. Jefferson was
+always about a century in advance of his
+time; and the <span class="tei tei-q">“Summary View”</span> substantially
+anticipated what is now the acknowledged
+relation of England to her colonies.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson was elected a member of the
+Continental Congress at its second session;
+and he made a rapid journey to Philadelphia
+in a chaise, with two led horses behind,
+reaching there the night before Washington
+set out for Cambridge. The Congress was
+composed mainly of young men. Franklin,
+the oldest member, was seventy-one, and a
+few others were past sixty. Washington
+was forty-three; John Adams, forty; Patrick
+Henry, a year or two younger; John Rutledge,
+thirty-six; his brother, twenty-six;
+John Langdon and William Paca, thirty-five,
+John Jay, thirty; Thomas Stone, thirty-two,
+and Jefferson, thirty-two.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson soon became intimate with John
+Adams, who in later years said of him:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Though a silent member of Congress, he
+was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive
+upon committees and in conversation—not
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page41">[pg 41]</span><a name="Pg41" id="Pg41" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>even Samuel Adams was more so—that he
+soon seized upon my heart.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson, as we have seen, was not fitted
+to shine as an orator, still less in debate.
+But as a writer he had that capacity for style
+which comes, if it comes at all, as a gift of
+nature; which needs to be supplemented, but
+which cannot be supplied, by practice and
+study. In some of his early letters there
+are slight reminders of Dr. Johnson’s manner,
+and still more of Sterne’s. Sterne indeed
+was one of his favorite authors. However,
+these early traces of imitation were
+absorbed very quickly; and, before he was
+thirty, Jefferson became master of a clear,
+smooth, polished, picturesque, and individual
+style. To him, therefore, his associates naturally
+turned when they needed such a proclamation
+to the world as the Declaration of
+Independence; and that document is very
+characteristic of its author. It was imagination
+that gave distinction to Jefferson both
+as a man and as a writer. He never dashed
+off a letter which did not contain some play
+of fancy; and whether he was inventing a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page42">[pg 42]</span><a name="Pg42" id="Pg42" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>plough or forecasting the destinies of a great
+Democracy, imagination qualified the performance.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+One of the most effective forms in which
+imagination displays itself in prose is by the
+use of a common word in such a manner and
+context that it conveys an uncommon meaning.
+There are many examples of this rhetorical
+art in Jefferson’s writings, but the
+most notable one occurs in the noble first
+paragraph of the Declaration of Independence:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“When, in the course of human
+events, it becomes necessary for one people
+to dissolve the political bands which have
+connected them with another, and to assume
+among the powers of the earth the separate
+and equal station to which the Laws of
+Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a
+decent respect to the opinions of mankind
+requires that they should declare the causes
+which impel them to the separation.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Upon this paragraph Mr. Parton eloquently
+observes: <span class="tei tei-q">“The noblest utterance of
+the whole composition is the reason given
+for making the Declaration,—<span class="tei tei-q">‘<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">A decent
+</span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page43">[pg 43]</span><a name="Pg43" id="Pg43" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-style: italic">respect for the opinions of mankind</span></span>.’</span> This
+touches the heart. Among the best emotions
+that human nature knows is the veneration
+of man for man. This recognition of the
+public opinion of the world—the sum of human
+sense—as the final arbiter in all such
+controversies is the single phrase of the document
+which Jefferson alone, perhaps, of all
+the Congress, could have originated; and in
+point of merit it was worth all the rest.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Franklin and John Adams, who were on
+the committee with Jefferson, made a few
+verbal changes in his draught of the Declaration,
+and it was then discussed and reviewed
+by Congress for three days. Congress
+made eighteen suppressions, six additions,
+and ten alterations; and it must be admitted
+that most of these were improvements. For
+example, Jefferson had framed a paragraph
+in which the king was severely censured for
+opposing certain measures looking to the suppression
+of the slave trade. This would have
+come with an ill grace from the Americans,
+since for a century New England had been
+enriching herself by that trade, and the southern
+colonies had subsisted upon the labor
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page44">[pg 44]</span><a name="Pg44" id="Pg44" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which it brought them. Congress wisely
+struck out the paragraph.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The Declaration of Independence was received
+with rapture throughout the country.
+Everywhere it was read aloud to the people
+who gathered to hear it, amid the booming
+of guns, the ringing of bells, and the display
+of fireworks. In Philadelphia, after the reading,
+the late king’s coat of arms was burned
+in Independence Square; in New York the
+leaden statue, in Bowling Green, of George
+III. was <span class="tei tei-q">“laid prostrate in the dust,”</span> and
+ordered to be run into bullets. Virginia had
+already stricken the king’s name from her
+prayer-book; and Rhode Island now forbade
+her people to pray for the king, as king,
+under a penalty of one hundred thousand
+pounds! The Declaration of Independence,
+both as a political and literary document, has
+stood the test of time. It has all the classic
+qualities of an oration by Demosthenes; and
+even that passage in it which has been criticised—that,
+namely, which pronounces all
+men to be created equal—is true in a sense,
+the truth of which it will take a century or
+two yet to develop.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page45">[pg 45]</span><a name="Pg45" id="Pg45" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc9" id="toc9"></a><a name="pdf10" id="pdf10"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">V</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">REFORM WORK IN VIRGINIA</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In September, 1776, Jefferson, having
+resigned his seat in Congress to engage in
+duties nearer home, returned to Monticello.
+A few weeks later, a messenger from Congress
+arrived to inform him that he had
+been elected a joint commissioner with Dr.
+Franklin and Silas Deane to represent at
+Paris the newly formed nation. His heart
+had long been set upon foreign travel; but
+he felt obliged to decline this appointment,
+first on account of the ill health of his wife,
+and secondly, because he was needed in Virginia
+as a legislator. Not since Lycurgus
+gave laws to the Spartans had there been
+such an opportunity as then existed in the
+United States. John Adams declared:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The best lawgivers of antiquity would rejoice
+to live at a period like this when, for
+the first time in the history of the world,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page46">[pg 46]</span><a name="Pg46" id="Pg46" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>three millions of people are deliberately
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">choosing</span></span> their government and institutions.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Of all the colonies, Virginia offered the
+best field for reform, because, as we have
+already seen, she had by far the most aristocratic
+political and social system; and it is
+extraordinary how quickly the reform was
+effected by Jefferson and his friends. In
+ordinary times of peace the task would have
+been impossible; but in throwing off the
+English yoke, the colonists had opened their
+minds to new ideas; change had become
+familiar to them, and in the general upheaval
+the rights of the people were recognized. A
+year later, Jefferson wrote to Franklin:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“With respect to the State of Virginia, in
+particular, the people seem to have laid
+aside the monarchical and taken up the
+republican government with as much ease
+as would have attended their throwing off
+an old and putting on a new set of clothes.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s greatness lay in this, that he
+was the first statesman who trusted the mass
+of the people. He alone had divined the
+fact that they were competent, morally and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page47">[pg 47]</span><a name="Pg47" id="Pg47" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>mentally, for self-government. It is almost
+impossible for us to appreciate Jefferson’s
+originality in this respect, because the bold
+and untried theories for which he contended
+are now regarded as commonplace maxims.
+He may have derived his political ideas in
+part from the French philosophical writers
+of the eighteenth century, although there is
+no evidence to that effect; but he was certainly
+the first statesman to grasp the idea
+of democracy as a form of government, just
+as, at a later day, Walt Whitman was the
+first poet to grasp the idea of equality as a
+social system. Hamilton, John Adams,
+Pinckney, Gouverneur Morris, even Washington
+himself, all believed that popular
+government would be unsafe and revolutionary
+unless held in check by a strong
+executive and by an aristocratic senate.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson in his lifetime was often charged
+with gross inconsistency in his political
+views and conduct; but the inconsistency
+was more apparent than real. At times he
+strictly construed, and at times he almost
+set aside the Constitution; but the clue to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page48">[pg 48]</span><a name="Pg48" id="Pg48" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>his conduct can usually be found in the
+fundamental principle that the only proper
+function of government or constitutions is to
+express the will of the people, and that the
+people are morally and mentally competent to
+govern. <span class="tei tei-q">“I am sure,”</span> he wrote in 1796, <span class="tei tei-q">“that
+the mass of citizens in these United States
+mean well, and I firmly believe that they
+will always act well, whenever they can obtain
+a right understanding of matters.”</span> And
+Jefferson’s lifelong endeavor was to enable
+the people to form this <span class="tei tei-q">“right understanding”</span>
+by educating them. His ideas of the
+scope of public education went far beyond
+those which prevailed in his time, and considerably
+beyond those which prevail even
+now. For example, a free university course
+for the most apt pupils graduated at the
+grammar schools made part of his scheme,—an
+idea most nearly realized in the Western
+States; and those States received their
+impetus in educational matters from the Ordinance
+of 1787, which was largely the product
+of Jefferson’s foresight.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Happily for Virginia, she did not become
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page49">[pg 49]</span><a name="Pg49" id="Pg49" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a scene of war until the year 1779, and,
+meanwhile, Jefferson and his friends lost no
+time in remodeling her constitution. There
+were no common schools, and the mass of
+the people were more ignorant and rough
+than their contemporaries in any other
+colony. Elections were scenes of bribery,
+intimidation, and riot, surpassing even those
+which Hogarth depicted in England. Elkanah
+Watson, of Massachusetts, describes
+what he saw at Hanover Court House, Patrick
+Henry’s county, in 1778: <span class="tei tei-q">“The whole
+county was assembled. The moment I
+alighted, a wretched, pug-nosed fellow assailed
+me to swap watches. I had hardly
+shaken him off, when I was attacked by a
+wild Irishman who insisted on my swapping
+horses with him.... With him I
+came near being involved in a boxing-match,
+the Irishman swearing, I <span class="tei tei-q">‘did not
+trate him like a jintleman.’</span> I had hardly
+escaped this dilemma when my attention
+was attracted by a fight between two very
+unwieldy fat men, foaming and puffing like
+two furies, until one succeeded in twisting
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page50">[pg 50]</span><a name="Pg50" id="Pg50" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a forefinger in a sidelock of the other’s
+hair, and in the act of thrusting by this
+purchase his thumb into the latter’s eye, he
+bawled out, <span class="tei tei-q">‘King’s Cruise,’</span> equivalent in
+technical language to <span class="tei tei-q">‘Enough.’</span> ”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Quakers were put in the pillory, scolding
+women were ducked, and it is said that a
+woman was burned to death in Princess
+Anne County for witchcraft. The English
+church, as we have seen, was an established
+church; and all taxpayers, dissenters as
+well as churchmen, were compelled to contribute
+to its support. Baptist preachers
+were arrested, and fined as disturbers of
+the peace. The law of entail, both as respects
+land and slaves, was so strict that
+their descent to the eldest son could not be
+prevented even by agreement between the
+owner and his heir.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In his reformation of the laws, Jefferson
+was supported by Patrick Henry, now governor,
+and inhabiting what was still called
+the palace; by George Mason, a patriotic
+lawyer who drew the famous Virginia Bill
+of Rights; by George Wythe, his old pre<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page51">[pg 51]</span><a name="Pg51" id="Pg51" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ceptor, and by James Madison, Jefferson’s
+friend, pupil, and successor, who in this year
+began his political career as a member of the
+House of Burgesses.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Opposed to them were the conservative
+party led by R. C. Nicholas, head of the
+Virginia bar, a stanch churchman and gentleman
+of the old school, and Edward Pendleton,
+whom Jefferson described as <span class="tei tei-q">“full
+of resource, never vanquished; for if he
+lost the main battle he returned upon you,
+and regained so much of it as to make it a
+drawn one, by dexterous manœuvres, skirmishes
+in detail, and the recovery of small
+advantages, which, little singly, were important
+all together. You never knew when
+you were clear of him.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Intense as the controversy was, fundamental
+as were the points at issue, the speakers
+never lost that courtesy for which the Virginians
+were remarkable; John Randolph
+being perhaps the only exception. Even
+Patrick Henry—though from his humble
+origin and impetuous oratory one might
+have expected otherwise—was never guilty
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page52">[pg 52]</span><a name="Pg52" id="Pg52" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of any rudeness to his opponents. What
+Jefferson said of Madison was true of the
+Virginia orators in general,—<span class="tei tei-q">“soothing
+always the feelings of his adversaries by
+civilities and softnesses of expression.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson struck first at the system of
+entail. After a three weeks’ struggle, land
+and slaves were put upon the same footing
+as all other property,—they might be sold
+or bequeathed according to the will of the
+possessor. Then came a longer and more
+bitter contest. Jefferson was for abolishing
+all connection between church and state, and
+for establishing complete freedom of religion.
+Nine years elapsed before Virginia could be
+brought to that point; but at this session
+he procured a repeal of the law which imposed
+penalties for attendance at a dissenting
+meeting-house, and also of the law
+compelling dissenters to pay tithes. The
+fight was, therefore, substantially won; and
+in 1786, Jefferson’s <span class="tei tei-q">“Act for establishing
+religion”</span> became the law of Virginia.<a id="noteref_1" name="noteref_1" href="#note_1"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">1</span></span></a>
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page53">[pg 53]</span><a name="Pg53" id="Pg53" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Another far-reaching law introduced by
+Jefferson at this memorable session of 1776
+provided for the naturalization of foreigners
+in Virginia, after a two years’ residence in
+the State, and upon a declaration of their
+intention to become American citizens. The
+bill provided also that the minor children
+of naturalized parents should be citizens of
+the United States when they came of age.
+The principles of this measure were afterward
+embodied in the statutes of the United
+States, and they are in force to-day.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At this session Jefferson also drew an act
+for establishing courts of law in Virginia,
+the royal courts having necessarily passed
+out of existence when the Declaration of
+Independence was adopted. Moreover, he
+set on foot a revision of all the statutes of
+Virginia, a committee with him at the head
+being appointed for this purpose; and
+finally he procured the removal of the capital
+from Williamsburg to Richmond.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page54">[pg 54]</span><a name="Pg54" id="Pg54" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+All this was accomplished, mainly by
+Jefferson’s efforts; and yet the two bills
+upon which he set most store failed entirely.
+These were, first, a comprehensive measure
+of state education, running up through
+primary schools and grammar schools to a
+state university, and, secondly, a bill providing
+that all who were born in slavery
+after the passage of the bill should be free.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This was Jefferson’s second ineffectual
+attempt to promote the abolition of slavery.
+During the year 1768, when he first became
+a member of the House of Burgesses, he had
+endeavored to procure the passage of a law
+enabling slave-owners to free their slaves,
+He induced Colonel Bland, one of the ablest,
+oldest, and most respected members to propose
+the law, and he seconded the proposal;
+but it was overwhelmingly rejected. <span class="tei tei-q">“I, as
+a younger member,”</span> related Jefferson afterward,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“was more spared in the debate; but
+he was denounced as an enemy to his country,
+and was treated with the greatest indecorum.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In 1778 Jefferson made another attempt:<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page55">[pg 55]</span><a name="Pg55" id="Pg55" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>—he brought in a bill forbidding the further
+importation of slaves in Virginia, and this
+was passed without opposition. Again, in
+1784, when Virginia ceded to the United
+States her immense northwestern territory,
+Jefferson drew up a scheme of government
+for the States to be carved out of it which
+included a provision <span class="tei tei-q">“that after the year
+1800 of the Christian Era, there shall be
+neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in
+any of the said States, otherwise than in
+punishment of crimes.”</span> The provision was
+rejected by Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In his <span class="tei tei-q">“Notes on Virginia,”</span> written in the
+year 1781, but published in 1787, he said:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The whole commerce between master and
+slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous
+passions, the most unremitting despotism,
+on the one part, and degrading submission
+on the other. Our children see this, and
+learn to imitate it.... With the morals
+of the people their industry also is destroyed.
+For in a warm climate no one will labor
+for himself who can make another labor for
+him.... Indeed, I tremble for my country
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page56">[pg 56]</span><a name="Pg56" id="Pg56" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>when I reflect that God is just; that his
+justice cannot sleep forever.... The Almighty
+has no attribute which can take sides
+with us in such a contest.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+When the Missouri Compromise question
+came up, in 1820, Jefferson rightly predicted
+that a controversy had begun which would
+end in disruption; but he made the mistake
+of supposing that the Northern party were
+actuated in that matter solely by political
+motives. April 22, 1820, he wrote: <span class="tei tei-q">“This
+momentous question, like a fire-bell in the
+night, awakened and filled me with terror.
+I considered it at once as the knell of the
+Union.... A geographical line, coinciding
+with a marked principle, moral and political,
+once conceived and held up to the angry passions
+of men, will never be obliterated; and
+every new irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper.... The cession of that kind of property,
+for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle
+which would not cost me a second thought
+if, in that way, a general emancipation and
+expatriation could be effected; and gradually
+and with due sacrifices I think it might be.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page57">[pg 57]</span><a name="Pg57" id="Pg57" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears,
+and we can neither hold him nor safely let
+him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation
+in the other.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+And later, he wrote of the Missouri Compromise,
+as a <span class="tei tei-q">“question having just enough
+of the semblance of morality to throw dust
+into the eyes of the people.... The Federalists,
+unable to rise again under the old
+division of Whig and Tory, have invented a
+geographical division which gives them fourteen
+States against ten, and seduces their old
+opponents into a coalition with them. Real
+morality is on the other side. For while the
+removal of the slaves from one State to
+another adds no more to their numbers than
+their removal from one country to another,
+the spreading them over a larger surface adds
+to their happiness, and renders their future
+emancipation more practicable.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+These misconceptions as to Northern motives
+might be ascribed to Jefferson’s advanced
+age, for, as he himself graphically
+expressed it, he then had <span class="tei tei-q">“one foot in the
+grave, and the other lifted to follow it;”</span> but
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page58">[pg 58]</span><a name="Pg58" id="Pg58" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>it would probably be more just to say that
+they were due, in part, to his prejudice against
+the New England people and especially the
+New England clergy, and in part to the fact
+that his long retirement in Virginia had somewhat
+contracted his views and sympathies.
+Jefferson was a man of intense local attachments,
+and he took color from his surroundings.
+He never ceased, however, to regard
+slavery as morally wrong and socially ruinous;
+and in the brief autobiography which he
+left behind him he made these predictions:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Nothing is more certainly written in the
+book of fate than that these people are to
+be free. Nor is it less certain that the two
+races, equally free, cannot live in the same
+government.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+History has justified the second as well as
+the first of these declarations, for, excepting
+that brief period of anarchy known as <span class="tei tei-q">“the
+carpet-bag era,”</span> it cannot be maintained that
+the colored race in the Southern States have
+been at any time, even since their emancipation,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“equally free,”</span> in the sense of politically
+free, with their white fellow citizens.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page59">[pg 59]</span><a name="Pg59" id="Pg59" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc11" id="toc11"></a><a name="pdf12" id="pdf12"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">VI</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+For three years Jefferson was occupied
+with the legislative duties already described,
+and especially with a revision of the Virginia
+statutes, and then, in June, 1779, he succeeded
+Patrick Henry as governor of the
+State. It has often been remarked that he
+was, all through life, a lucky man, but in
+this case fortune did not favor him, for the
+ensuing two years proved to be, so far as
+Virginia was concerned, by much the worst
+period of the war.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The French alliance, though no doubt an
+ultimate benefit to the colonies, had at first
+two bad effects: it relaxed the energy of the
+Americans, who trusted that France would
+fight their battles for them; and it stimulated
+the British to increased exertions. The British
+commissioners announced that henceforth
+England would employ, in the prosecu<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page60">[pg 60]</span><a name="Pg60" id="Pg60" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tion of the war, all those agencies which
+<span class="tei tei-q">“God and nature had placed in her hands.”</span>
+This meant that the ferocity of the Indians
+would be invoked, a matter of special moment
+to Virginia, since her western frontier
+swarmed with Indians, the bravest of their
+race.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The colony, it must be remembered, was
+then of immense extent; for beside the present
+Virginia and West Virginia, Kentucky
+and the greater part of Ohio, Indiana, and
+Illinois were embraced in it. It stretched,
+in short, from the Atlantic Ocean to the
+Mississippi River. Upon the seaboard Virginia
+was especially vulnerable, the tide-water
+region being penetrated by numerous bays
+and rivers, which the enemy’s ships could
+easily ascend, for they were undefended by
+forts or men. The total navy of the colony
+was four vessels, mounting sixty-two guns,
+and a few armed boats. The flower of the
+Virginia soldiery, to the number of ten thousand,
+were in Washington’s army, and supplies
+of men, of arms, of ammunition and
+food were urgently called for by General
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page61">[pg 61]</span><a name="Pg61" id="Pg61" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Gates, who was battling against Cornwallis
+in North Carolina. The militia were supposed
+to number fifty thousand, which included
+every man between sixteen and fifty
+years of age; but this was only one man for
+every square mile of territory in the present
+State of Virginia, and of these militiamen it
+was estimated that, east of the Blue Ridge,
+only about one in five was armed with a gun.
+The treasury was practically bankrupt, and
+there was a dearth of every kind of warlike
+material.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Such was the situation which confronted,
+as Mr. Parton puts it, <span class="tei tei-q">“a lawyer of thirty-six,
+with a talent for music, a taste for art,
+a love of science, literature, and gardening.”</span>
+The task was one calling rather for a soldier
+than a statesman; but Mr. Jefferson faced it
+with courage, and on the whole with success.
+In retaliating the cruel measures of the
+British, he showed a firmness which must
+have been especially difficult for a man of
+his temperament. He put in irons and confined
+in a dungeon Colonel Henry Hamilton
+and two subordinate officers who had com<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page62">[pg 62]</span><a name="Pg62" id="Pg62" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>mitted atrocities upon American prisoners.
+He caused a prison-ship, like the ships of
+infamous memory which were employed as
+prisons by the British at New York, to be
+prepared; and the exchange of captives between
+Virginia and the British was stopped.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Humane conduct on our part,”</span> wrote Jefferson,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“was found to produce no effect.
+The contrary, therefore, is to be tried. Iron
+will be retaliated by iron, prison-ships for
+prison-ships, and like for like in general.”</span>
+But in November, 1779, notice was received
+that the English, under their new leader, Sir
+Henry Clinton, had adopted a less barbarous
+system of warfare; and fortunately Jefferson’s
+measures of reprisal became unnecessary.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Hampered as he was by want of men and
+money, Jefferson did all that he could to supply
+the needs of the Virginia soldiers with
+Washington, of the army in North Carolina,
+led by Gates, and of George Rogers Clarke,
+the heroic commander who put down the
+Indian uprising on the western frontier, and
+captured the English officer who instigated
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page63">[pg 63]</span><a name="Pg63" id="Pg63" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>it,—that same Colonel Hamilton of whom
+mention has already been made. The story
+of Clarke’s adventures in the wilderness,—he
+was a neighbor of Jefferson, only twenty-six
+years old,—of his forced marches, of
+his masterful dealing with the Indians, and
+finally of his capture of the British force,
+forms a thrilling chapter in the history of the
+American Revolution.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Many indeed of Jefferson’s constituents
+censured him as being over-zealous in his
+support of the army of Gates. He stripped
+Virginia, they said, of troops and resources
+which, as it proved afterward, were needed
+at home. But if Cornwallis were not defeated
+in North Carolina, it was certain that
+he would overrun the much more exposed
+Virginia. If he could be defeated anywhere,
+it would be in the Carolinas. Jefferson’s
+course, it is sufficient to say, was that recommended
+by Washington; and his exertions
+in behalf of the Continental armies were
+commended in the highest terms not only by
+Washington, but also by Generals Gates,
+Greene, Steuben, and Lafayette. The mili<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page64">[pg 64]</span><a name="Pg64" id="Pg64" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tia were called out, leaving behind only so
+many men as were required to cultivate the
+land, wagons were impressed, including two
+belonging to the governor, and attempts were
+even made—extraordinary for Virginia—to
+manufacture certain much-needed articles.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Our smiths,”</span> wrote Jefferson, <span class="tei tei-q">“are making
+five hundred axes and some tomahawks for
+General Gates.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Thus fared the year 1779, and in 1780
+things went from bad to worse. In April
+came a letter from Madison, saying that
+Washington’s army was on the verge of
+dissolution, being only half-clothed, and in a
+way to be starved. The public treasury was
+empty and the public credit gone. In August
+occurred the disastrous defeat of General
+Gates at Camden, which left Virginia at the
+mercy of Cornwallis. In October a British
+fleet under Leslie ravaged the country about
+Portsmouth, but failing to effect a juncture
+with Cornwallis, who was detained in North
+Carolina by illness among his troops, did no
+further harm. Two months later, however,
+Benedict Arnold sailed up the James River
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page65">[pg 65]</span><a name="Pg65" id="Pg65" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>with another fleet, and, after committing
+some depredations at Richmond, sailed down
+again, escaping by the aid of a favorable
+wind, which hauled from east to west just
+in the nick of time for him.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In June, 1781, Cornwallis invaded Virginia,
+and no one suffered more than Jefferson
+from his depredations. Tarleton was
+dispatched to seize the governor at Monticello;
+but the latter was forewarned by a
+citizen of <a name="corr065" id="corr065" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">Charlottesville</span>, who, being in a
+tavern at Louisa when Tarleton and his
+troop swept by on the main road, immediately
+guessed their destination, and mounting
+his horse, a fleet Virginia thoroughbred,
+rode by a short cut through the woods
+straight to Monticello, arriving there about
+three hours ahead of Tarleton.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson took the matter coolly. He
+first dispatched his family to a place of
+safety, sent his best horse to be shod at a
+neighboring smithy, and then proceeded to
+sort and separate his papers. He left the
+house only about five minutes before the
+soldiers entered it.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page66">[pg 66]</span><a name="Pg66" id="Pg66" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Two slaves, Martin, Mr. Jefferson’s body
+servant, and Cæsar, were engaged in hiding
+plate and other articles under the floor
+of the portico, a single plank having been
+raised for that purpose. As Martin, above,
+handed the last article to Cæsar under the
+floor, the tramp of the approaching cavalry
+was heard. Down went the plank, shutting
+in Cæsar, and there he remained, without
+making any outcry, for eighteen hours, in
+darkness, and of course without food or
+water. One of the soldiers, to try Martin’s
+nerve, clapped a pistol to his breast, and
+threatened to fire unless he would tell which
+way his master had fled. <span class="tei tei-q">“Fire away,
+then,”</span> retorted the black, fiercely answering
+glance for glance, and not receding a hair’s
+breath.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Tarleton and his men scrupulously refrained
+from injuring Jefferson’s property.
+Cornwallis, on the other hand, who encamped
+on Jefferson’s estate of Elk Hill, lying opposite
+Elk Island in the James River, destroyed
+the growing crops, burned all the barns and
+fences, carried off—<span class="tei tei-q">“as was to be expected,”</span>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page67">[pg 67]</span><a name="Pg67" id="Pg67" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>said Mr. Jefferson—the cattle and horses,
+and committed the barbarity of killing the
+colts that were too young to be of service.
+He carried off, also, about thirty slaves.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Had this been to give them freedom,”</span>
+wrote Jefferson, <span class="tei tei-q">“he would have done right;
+but it was to consign them to inevitable
+death from the smallpox and putrid fever,
+then raging in his camp.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Some of the miserable wretches crawled
+home to die,”</span> Mr. Randall relates, <span class="tei tei-q">“and
+giving information where others lay perishing
+in hovels or in the open air, by the wayside,
+these were sent for by their generous master;
+and the last moments of all of them were
+made as comfortable as could be done by
+proper nursing and medical attendance.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+These dreadful scenes, added to the agitation
+of having twice been obliged, at a moment’s
+notice, to flee from the enemy, to say
+nothing of the anxieties which she must have
+endured on her husband’s account, were too
+much for Mrs. Jefferson’s already enfeebled
+constitution. She died on September 6,
+1782.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page68">[pg 68]</span><a name="Pg68" id="Pg68" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Six slave women who were household servants
+enjoyed for thirty years a kind of
+humble distinction at Monticello as <span class="tei tei-q">“the
+servants who were in the room when Mrs.
+Jefferson died;”</span> and the fact that they
+were there attests the affectionate relations
+which must have existed between them and
+their master and mistress. <span class="tei tei-q">“They have
+often told my wife,”</span> relates Mr. Bacon,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“that when Mrs. Jefferson died they stood
+around the bed. Mr. Jefferson sat by her,
+and she gave him directions about a good
+many things that she wanted done. When
+she came to the children, she wept, and could
+not speak for some time. Finally she held
+up her hand, and, spreading out her four
+fingers, she told him she could not die happy
+if she thought her four children were ever to
+have a stepmother brought in over them.
+Holding her other hand in his, Mr. Jefferson
+promised her solemnly that he would
+never marry again;”</span> and the promise was
+kept.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+After his wife’s death Jefferson sank into
+what he afterward described as <span class="tei tei-q">“a stupor of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page69">[pg 69]</span><a name="Pg69" id="Pg69" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>mind;”</span> and even before that he had been,
+for the first and last time in his life, in a
+somewhat morbid mental condition. He was
+an excessively sensitive man, and reflections
+upon his conduct as governor, during the
+raids into Virginia by Arnold and Cornwallis,
+coming at a time when he was overwrought,
+rankled in his mind. He refused to serve
+again as governor, and desiring to defend
+his course when in that office, became a
+member of the House of Burgesses in 1781,
+in order that he might answer his critics
+there; but not a voice was raised against
+him. In 1782, he was again elected to the
+House, but he did not attend; and both
+Madison and Monroe endeavored in vain to
+draw him from his seclusion. To Monroe
+he replied: <span class="tei tei-q">“Before I ventured to declare
+to my countrymen my determination to retire
+from public employment, I examined
+well my heart to know whether it were
+thoroughly cured of every principle of political
+ambition, whether no lurking particle
+remained which might leave me uneasy, when
+reduced within the limits of mere private
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page70">[pg 70]</span><a name="Pg70" id="Pg70" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>life. I became satisfied that every fibre of
+that passion was thoroughly eradicated.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson was an impulsive man,—in
+some respects a creature of the moment;
+certainly often, in his own case, mistaking,
+as a permanent feeling, what was really a
+transitory impression. His language to
+Monroe must, therefore, be taken as the
+sincere deliverance of a man who, at that
+time, had not the remotest expectation of
+receiving, or the least ambition to attain,
+the highest offices in the gift of the American
+people.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page71">[pg 71]</span><a name="Pg71" id="Pg71" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc13" id="toc13"></a><a name="pdf14" id="pdf14"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">VII</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">ENVOY AT PARIS</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Two years after his wife’s death, namely,
+in 1784, Jefferson was chosen by Congress
+to serve as envoy at Paris, with John Adams
+and Benjamin Franklin. The appointment
+came at an opportune moment, when his
+mind was beginning to recover its tone, and
+he gladly accepted it. It was deemed necessary
+that the new Confederacy should make
+treaties with the various governments of
+Europe, and as soon as the envoys reached
+Paris, they drew up a treaty such as they
+hoped might be negotiated. It has been
+described as <span class="tei tei-q">“the first serious attempt ever
+made to conduct the intercourse of nations
+on Christian principles;”</span> and, on that account,
+it failed. To this failure there was,
+however, one exception. <span class="tei tei-q">“Old Frederick of
+Prussia,”</span> as Jefferson styled him, <span class="tei tei-q">“met us
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page72">[pg 72]</span><a name="Pg72" id="Pg72" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cordially;”</span> and with him a treaty was soon
+concluded.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In May, 1785, Franklin returned to the
+United States, and Jefferson was appointed
+minister. <span class="tei tei-q">“You replace Dr. Franklin,”</span>
+said the Count of Vergennes when Jefferson
+announced his appointment. <span class="tei tei-q">“I succeed,—no
+one can replace him,”</span> was the reply.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s residence in Paris at this critical
+period was a fortunate occurrence. It
+would be a mistake to suppose that he derived
+his political principles from France:—he
+carried them there; but he was confirmed
+in them by witnessing the injustice
+and misery which resulted to the common
+people from the monarchical governments of
+Europe. To James Monroe he wrote in
+June, 1785: <span class="tei tei-q">“The pleasure of the trip [to
+Europe] will be less than you expect, but
+the utility greater. It will make you adore
+your own country,—its soil, its climate, its
+equality, laws, people, and manners. My
+God! how little do my countrymen know
+what precious blessings they are in possession
+of and which no other people on earth
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page73">[pg 73]</span><a name="Pg73" id="Pg73" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>enjoy! I confess I had no idea of it myself.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+To George Wythe he wrote in August,
+1786: <span class="tei tei-q">“Preach, my dear sir, a crusade
+against ignorance; establish and improve
+the law for educating the common people.
+Let our countrymen know that the people
+alone can protect us against these evils; and
+that the tax which will be paid for this purpose
+is not more than the thousandth part
+of what will be paid to kings, priests, and
+nobles, who will rise up among us if we
+leave the people in ignorance.”</span> To Madison,
+he wrote in January, 1787: <span class="tei tei-q">“This is a
+<a name="corr073" id="corr073" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">government</span> of wolves over sheep.”</span> Jefferson
+took the greatest pains to ascertain the condition
+of the laboring classes. In the course
+of a journey in the south of France, he wrote
+to Lafayette, begging him to survey the condition
+of the people for himself. <span class="tei tei-q">“To do
+it most effectually,”</span> he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“you must be
+absolutely incognito; you must ferret the
+people out of their hovels, as I have done;
+look into their kettles; eat their bread; loll
+on their beds on pretense of resting your<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page74">[pg 74]</span><a name="Pg74" id="Pg74" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>self, but in fact to find if they are soft.
+You will feel a sublime pleasure in the
+course of the investigation, and a sublimer
+one hereafter, when you shall be able to
+apply your knowledge to the softening of
+their beds, or the throwing a morsel of meat
+into their kettle of vegetables.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+These excursions among the French peasantry,
+who, as Jefferson well knew, were ruinously
+taxed in order to support an extravagant
+court and an idle and insolent nobility,
+made him a fierce Republican. <span class="tei tei-q">“There is
+not a crowned head in Europe,”</span> he wrote to
+General Washington, in 1788, <span class="tei tei-q">“whose talents
+or merits would entitle him to be elected
+a vestryman by the people of America.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+But for the French race Jefferson had an
+affinity. He was glad to live with people
+among whom, as he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“a man might pass
+a life without encountering a single rudeness.”</span>
+He liked their polished manners and
+gay disposition, their aptitude for science, for
+philosophy, and for art; even their wines
+and cookery suited his taste, and his preference
+in this respect was so well known that
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page75">[pg 75]</span><a name="Pg75" id="Pg75" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Patrick Henry once humorously stigmatized
+him as <span class="tei tei-q">“a man who had abjured his native
+victuals.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s stay in Paris corresponded
+exactly with the <span class="tei tei-q">“glorious”</span> period of the
+French Revolution. He was present at the
+Assembly of the Notables in 1787, and he
+witnessed the destruction of the Bastille in
+1789.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The change in this country,”</span> he wrote
+in March, 1789, <span class="tei tei-q">“is such as you can form
+no idea of. The frivolities of conversation
+have given way entirely to politics. Men,
+women, and children talk nothing else ...
+and mode has acted a wonderful part in the
+present instance. All the handsome young
+women, for example, are for the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tiers étât</span></span>, and
+this is an army more powerful in France
+than the 200,000 men of the king.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The truth is that an intellectual and
+moral revolution preceded in France the
+outbreak of the populace. There was an
+interior conviction that the government of
+the country was excessively unjust and oppressive.
+A love of liberty, a feeling of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page76">[pg 76]</span><a name="Pg76" id="Pg76" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>fraternity, a passion for equality moved the
+intellect and even the aristocracy of France.
+In this crisis the reformers looked toward
+America, for the United States had just
+trodden the path upon which France was
+entering. <span class="tei tei-q">“Our proceedings,”</span> wrote Jefferson
+to Madison in 1789, <span class="tei tei-q">“have been
+viewed as a model for them on every occasion....
+Our [authority] has been treated
+like that of the Bible, open to explanation,
+but not to question.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s advice was continually sought
+by Lafayette and others; and his house,
+maintained in the easy, liberal style of Virginia,
+was a meeting place for the Revolutionary
+statesmen. Jefferson dined at three
+or four o’clock; and after the cloth had been
+removed he and his guests sat over their
+wine till nine or ten in the evening.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In July, 1789, the National Assembly
+appointed a committee to draught a constitution,
+and the committee formally invited
+the American minister to assist at their sessions
+and favor them with his advice. This
+function he felt obliged to decline, as being
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page77">[pg 77]</span><a name="Pg77" id="Pg77" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>inconsistent with his post of minister to the
+king. No man had a nicer sense of propriety
+than Jefferson; and he punctiliously
+observed the requirements of his somewhat
+difficult situation in Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+What gave Mr. Jefferson the greatest
+anxiety and trouble, was our relations with
+the piratical Barbary powers who held the
+keys of the Mediterranean and sometimes
+extended their depredations even into the
+Atlantic. It was a question of paying tribute
+or going to war; and most of the European
+powers paid tribute. In 1784, for
+example, the Dutch contributed to <span class="tei tei-q">“the
+high, glorious, mighty, and most noble,
+King, Prince, and Emperor of Morocco,”</span>
+a mass of material which included thirty
+cables, seventy cannon, sixty-nine masts,
+twenty-one anchors, fifty dozen sail-needles,
+twenty-four tons of pitch, two hundred and
+eighty loaves of sugar, twenty-four China
+punch-bowls, three clocks, and one <span class="tei tei-q">“very
+large watch.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson ascertained that the pirates
+would require of the United States, as the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page78">[pg 78]</span><a name="Pg78" id="Pg78" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>price of immunity for its commerce, a tribute
+of about three hundred thousand dollars
+per annum. <span class="tei tei-q">“Surely,”</span> he wrote home, <span class="tei tei-q">“our
+people will not give this. Would it not be
+better to offer them an equal treaty? If
+they refuse, why not go to war with them?”</span>
+And he pressed upon Mr. Jay, who held the
+secretaryship of foreign affairs, as the office
+was then called, the immediate establishment
+of a navy. But Congress would do nothing;
+and it was not till Jefferson himself became
+President that the Barbary pirates were dealt
+with in a wholesome and stringent manner.
+During the whole term of his residence at
+Paris he was negotiating with the Mediterranean
+powers for the release of unfortunate
+Americans, many of whom spent the best
+part of their lives in horrible captivity.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Jefferson’s self-imposed duties were
+no less arduous. He kept four colleges informed
+of the most valuable new inventions,
+discoveries, and books. He had a Yankee
+talent for mechanical improvements, and he
+was always on the alert to obtain anything
+of this nature which he thought might be
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page79">[pg 79]</span><a name="Pg79" id="Pg79" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>useful at home. Jefferson himself, by the
+way, invented the revolving armchair, the
+buggy-top, and a mould board for a plough.
+He bought books for Franklin, Madison,
+Monroe, Wythe, and himself. He informed
+one correspondent about Watt’s engine, another
+about the new system of canals. He
+smuggled rice from Turin in his coat pockets;
+and he was continually dispatching to
+agricultural societies in America seeds, roots,
+nuts, and plants. Houdin was sent over by
+him to make the statue of Washington;
+and he forwarded designs for the new capitol
+at Richmond. For Buffon he procured
+the skin of an American panther, and also
+the bones and hide of a New Hampshire
+moose, to obtain which Governor Sullivan
+of that State organized a hunting-party in
+the depth of winter and cut a road through
+the forest for twenty miles in order to bring
+out his quarry.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson was the most indefatigable of
+men, and he did not relax in Paris. He
+had rooms at a Carthusian monastery to
+which he repaired when he had some special
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page80">[pg 80]</span><a name="Pg80" id="Pg80" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>work on hand. He kept a carriage and
+horses, but could not afford a saddle horse.
+Instead of riding, he took a walk every
+afternoon, usually of six or seven miles, occasionally
+twice as long. It was while returning
+with a friend from one of these
+excursions that he fell and fractured his
+right wrist; and the fracture was set so imperfectly
+that it troubled him ever afterward.
+It was characteristic of Jefferson
+that he said nothing to his friend as to the
+injury until they reached home, though his
+suffering from it was great; and, also, that
+he at once began to write with the other
+hand, making numerous entries, on the very
+night of the accident, in a writing which,
+though stiff, was, and remains, perfectly
+clear.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Jefferson’s two daughters had been
+placed at a convent school near Paris, and
+he was surprised one day to receive a note
+from Martha, the elder, asking his permission
+to remain in the convent for the rest
+of her life as a nun. For a day or two she
+received no answer. Then her father called
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page81">[pg 81]</span><a name="Pg81" id="Pg81" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in his carriage, and after a short interview
+with the abbess took his daughters away;
+and thenceforth Martha presided, so far as
+her age permitted, over her father’s household.
+Not a word upon the subject of her
+request ever passed between them; and long
+afterward, in telling the story to her own
+children, she praised Mr. Jefferson’s tact in
+dealing with what she described as a transient
+impulse.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+After this incident, Jefferson, thinking
+that it was time to take his daughters home,
+obtained leave of absence for six months;
+and the little family landed at Norfolk, November
+18, 1789. They journeyed slowly
+homeward, stopping at one friend’s house
+after another, and, two days before Christmas,
+arrived at Monticello, where they were
+rapturously greeted by the slaves, who took
+the four horses from the carriage and drew
+it up the steep incline themselves; and
+when he alighted, Mr. Jefferson, in spite of
+himself, was carried into the house on the
+arms of his black servants and friends.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page82">[pg 82]</span><a name="Pg82" id="Pg82" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc15" id="toc15"></a><a name="pdf16" id="pdf16"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">VIII</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">SECRETARY OF STATE</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Jefferson had a strong desire to
+resume his post as minister to France, but
+he yielded to Washington’s earnest request
+that he should become Secretary of State in
+the new government. He lingered long
+enough at Monticello to witness the marriage
+of his daughter Martha to Thomas
+Mann Randolph, and then set out upon a
+cold, wet journey of twenty-one days, reaching
+New York, which was then the seat of
+government, late in March, 1790. He hired
+a small house at No. 57 Maiden Lane, and
+immediately attacked the arrears of work
+which had been accumulating for six months.
+The unusual confinement, aggravated, perhaps,
+by a homesickness, clearly revealed in
+his letters, for his daughters and for Monticello,
+brought on what seems to have been a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page83">[pg 83]</span><a name="Pg83" id="Pg83" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>neuralgic headache which lasted for three
+weeks. It may have been caused in part
+by the climate of New York, as to which
+Mr. Jefferson observed: <span class="tei tei-q">“Spring and fall
+they never have, so far as I can learn. They
+have ten months of winter, two of summer,
+with some winter days interspersed.”</span> But
+there were other causes beside homesickness
+and headache which made Jefferson unhappy
+in his new position. Long afterward he
+described them as follows:—
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I had left France in the first year of
+her Revolution, in the fervor of natural
+rights and zeal for reformation. My conscientious
+devotion to those rights could not
+be heightened, but it had been aroused and
+excited by daily exercise. The President
+received me cordially, and my colleagues
+and the circle of principal citizens apparently
+with welcome. The courtesies of dinners
+given to me, as a stranger newly arrived
+among them, placed me at once in their familiar
+society. But I cannot describe the
+wonder and mortification with which the
+table conversations filled me. Politics were
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page84">[pg 84]</span><a name="Pg84" id="Pg84" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the chief topic, and a preference of kingly
+over republican government was evidently
+the favorite sentiment. An apostate I
+could not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I
+found myself for the most part the only advocate
+on the republican side of the question,
+unless among the guests there chanced
+to be some member of that party from the
+legislative houses.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It must be remembered that Jefferson’s
+absence in France had been the period of
+the Confederacy, when the inability of Congress
+to enforce its laws and to control the
+States was so evident and so disastrous that
+the need of a stronger central government
+had been impressed on men’s minds. The
+new Constitution had been devised to supply
+that need, but it was elastic in its terms, and
+it avoided all details. Should it be construed
+in an aristocratic or in a democratic spirit,
+and should the new nation be given an aristocratic
+or a democratic twist? This was a
+burning question, and it gave rise to that
+long struggle led by Hamilton on one side
+and by Jefferson on the other, which ended
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page85">[pg 85]</span><a name="Pg85" id="Pg85" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>with the election of Jefferson as President
+in the year 1800.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Hamilton and his party utterly disbelieved
+in government by the people.<a id="noteref_2" name="noteref_2" href="#note_2"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">2</span></span></a> John Adams
+declared that the English Constitution, barring
+its element of corruption, was an ideal
+constitution. Hamilton went farther and
+asserted that the English form of government,
+corruption and all, was the best practicable
+form. An aristocratic senate, chosen
+for a long term, if not for life, was thought
+to be essential even by Mr. Adams. Hamilton’s
+notion was that mankind were incapable
+of self-government, and must be governed
+in one or two ways,—by force or by
+fraud. Property was, in his view, the ideal
+basis of government; and he was inclined to
+fix the possession of <span class="tei tei-q">“a thousand Spanish
+dollars”</span> as the proper qualification for a
+voter.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The difference between the Hamiltonian
+and the Jeffersonian view arises chiefly from
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page86">[pg 86]</span><a name="Pg86" id="Pg86" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a different belief as to the connection between
+education and morality. All aristocratic systems
+must, in the last analysis, be founded
+either upon brute force or else upon the
+assumption that education and morality go
+hand-in-hand, and that the well-to-do and
+best educated class is morally superior to the
+less educated. Jefferson rejected this assumption,
+and all real believers in democracy
+must take their stand with him. He once
+stated his creed upon this point in a letter as
+follows:—
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The moral sense or conscience is as
+much a part of man as his leg or arm....
+It may be strengthened by exercise, as may
+any particular limb of the body. This sense
+is submitted, indeed, in some degree to the
+guidance of reason, but it is a small stock
+which is required for this, even a less one
+than what we call common sense. State a
+moral case to a ploughman and a professor.
+The former will decide it as well and often
+better than the latter, because he has not
+been led astray by artificial rules.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This is sound philosophy. The great prob<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page87">[pg 87]</span><a name="Pg87" id="Pg87" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>lems in government, whether they relate to
+matters external or internal, are moral, not
+intellectual. There are, indeed, purely intellectual
+problems, such as the question between
+free silver and a gold standard; and as
+to these problems, the people may go wrong.
+But they are not vital. No nation ever yet
+achieved glory or incurred destruction by taking
+one course rather than another in a matter
+of trade or finance. The crucial questions
+are moral questions, and experience has
+shown that as to such matters the people
+can be trusted. As Jefferson himself said,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The will of the majority, the natural law
+of every society, is the only sure guardian of
+the rights of man. Perhaps even this may
+sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary,
+and short-lived.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Washington’s cabinet was made up on the
+theory that it should represent not the party
+in power, but both parties,—for two parties
+already existed, the Federalists and the anti-Federalists,
+who, under Jefferson’s influence,
+soon became known by the better name of
+Republicans. The cabinet consisted of four
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page88">[pg 88]</span><a name="Pg88" id="Pg88" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>members, Jefferson, Secretary of State, Hamilton,
+Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox,
+Secretary of War, and Edmund Randolph,
+Attorney-General.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Knox sided almost always with Hamilton,
+and Randolph was an inconstant supporter
+of Jefferson. Though an able and learned
+man, he was given to hair-splitting and hesitation,
+and, in allusion to his habit of arguing
+on one side, but finally voting upon the other,
+Jefferson once remarked that he usually gave
+the shell to his friends, and reserved the
+oyster for his opponents.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The political opinions of Jefferson and
+Hamilton were so diametrically opposed that
+the cabinet was soon torn by dissension.
+Hamilton was for a strong government, for
+surrounding the President with pomp and
+etiquette, for a central authority as against
+the authority of the States. In pursuance of
+these ideas, he brought forward his famous
+measures for assumption of the state debts
+by the national government, for the funding
+of the national debt, and finally for the creation
+of a national bank. Jefferson opposed
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page89">[pg 89]</span><a name="Pg89" id="Pg89" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>these measures, and, although the assumption
+and the funding laws had grave faults, and
+led to speculation, and in the case of many
+persons to financial ruin, yet it must be admitted
+that Jefferson never appreciated their
+merits.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The truth is that both Hamilton and Jefferson
+were essential to the development of
+this country; and the principles of each have
+been adopted in part, and rejected in part.
+Hamilton’s conception of a central government
+predominating over the state governments
+has been realized, though not nearly
+to the extent to which he would have carried
+it. On the other hand, his various schemes
+for making the government into an aristocracy
+instead of a democracy have all been
+abandoned, or, like the Electoral College,
+turned to a use the opposite of what he intended.
+So, Jefferson’s view of state rights
+has not strictly been maintained; but his
+fundamental principles of popular government
+and popular education have made the
+United States what it is, and are destined,
+we hope, when fully developed, to make it
+something better yet.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page90">[pg 90]</span><a name="Pg90" id="Pg90" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+No less an authority than that of Washington,
+who appreciated the merits of both
+men, could have kept the peace between
+them. Hamilton under an assumed name
+attacked Jefferson in the public prints. Jefferson
+never published a line unsigned; but
+he permitted Philip Freneau, who had slight
+employment as a translator in his department,
+and the trifling salary of $250 a year,
+to wage war against Hamilton in the gazette
+which Freneau published; and he even stood
+by while Freneau attacked Washington.
+Washington indeed once gave Jefferson a
+hint on this subject, which the latter refused
+to take. <span class="tei tei-q">“He was evidently sore and warm,”</span>
+wrote Jefferson, <span class="tei tei-q">“and I took his intention to
+be that I should interfere in some way with
+Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment
+of translating clerk to my office. But I will
+not do it. His paper has saved our constitution,
+which was galloping fast into monarchy....
+And the President has not, ...
+with his usual good sense and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sang froid</span></span>,
+... seen that, though some bad things had
+passed through it to the public, yet the good
+have predominated immensely.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page91">[pg 91]</span><a name="Pg91" id="Pg91" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In the spring of 1792, Jefferson, who had
+now been two years in office, was extremely
+anxious to retire, not only because his situation
+at Washington was unpleasant, but
+because his affairs at home had been so neglected
+during his long absences that he was
+in danger of bankruptcy. His estate was
+large, but it was incumbered by a debt to
+English creditors of $13,000. Some years
+before he had sold for cash a farm near
+Monticello in order to discharge this debt;
+but at that time the Revolutionary war had
+begun, and the Virginia legislature passed
+an act inviting all men owing money to English
+creditors to deposit the same in the state
+treasury, the State agreeing to pay it over to
+the English creditors after the war. Jefferson
+accordingly deposited the $13,000 in gold
+which he had just received. Later, however,
+this law was rescinded, and the money received
+under it was paid back, not in gold,
+but in paper money of the State, which was
+then so depreciated as to be almost worthless.
+In riding by the farm thus disposed
+of, Jefferson in after years would sometimes
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page92">[pg 92]</span><a name="Pg92" id="Pg92" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>point to it and say: <span class="tei tei-q">“That farm I once sold
+for an overcoat;”</span>—the price of the overcoat
+having been the $13,000 in paper money.
+Cornwallis, as we have seen, destroyed Jefferson’s
+property to an amount more than
+double this debt, which might be considered
+as a second payment of it; but Jefferson
+finally paid it the third time,—and this
+time into the hands of the actual creditor.
+Meanwhile, he wrote: <span class="tei tei-q">“The torment of
+mind I endure till the moment shall arrive
+when I shall not owe a shilling on earth is
+such really as to render life of little value.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Urged by all these motives, Jefferson had
+resolved to resign his office in 1792, notwithstanding
+the remonstrances of Washington;
+but the attacks made upon him by
+the Federalists, especially those made in the
+newspapers, were so violent that a retirement
+at that time would have given the public
+cause to believe that he had been driven
+from office by his enemies. Jefferson,
+therefore, concluded to remain Secretary of
+State a few months longer; and those few,
+as it happened, were the most important of
+the whole term.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page93">[pg 93]</span><a name="Pg93" id="Pg93" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+On January 21, 1793, King Louis of
+France was executed, and within a week
+thereafter England was at war with the new
+rulers of the French. Difficult questions at
+once arose under our treaties with France.
+The French people thought that we were in
+honor bound to assist them in their struggle
+against Great Britain, as they had assisted
+us; and they sent over as minister <span class="tei tei-q">“Citizen”</span>
+Genet, in the frigate L’Embuscade.
+The frigate, carrying forty guns and three
+hundred men, sailed into the harbor of
+Charleston, April 8, <a name="corr093" id="corr093" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">1793</span>, with a liberty-cap
+for her figure-head, and a British prize in
+her wake. Citizen Genet, even for a Frenchman,
+was a most indiscreet and hot-headed
+person, and before he had been a week on
+shore he had issued commissions to privateers
+manned by American citizens. L’Embuscade
+then proceeded to Philadelphia,
+where, as in Charleston, Citizen Genet was
+welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm. His
+coming was hailed by the Republicans generally
+with rapture; and their cry was for
+war. <span class="tei tei-q">“I wish,”</span> wrote Jefferson, in a con<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page94">[pg 94]</span><a name="Pg94" id="Pg94" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>fidential letter to Monroe, <span class="tei tei-q">“that we may be
+able to repress the people within the limits
+of a fair neutrality.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This was the position taken also by
+Washington and the whole cabinet; and it
+is a striking example of Jefferson’s wisdom,
+justice, and firmness, that, although the
+bulk of the Republicans were carried off
+their feet by sympathy with France and
+with Genet, he, the very person in the United
+States who most loved the French and best
+understood the causes and motives of the
+French Revolution, withstood the storm, and
+kept his eye fixed upon the interests of his
+own country. England, contrary to the
+treaty which closed the Revolutionary War,
+still retained her military posts in the west;
+and she was the undisputed mistress of the
+sea. War with her would therefore have
+been suicidal for the United States. The
+time for that had not yet come. Moreover,
+if the United States had taken sides with
+France, a war with Spain also would inevitably
+have followed; and Spain then held
+Florida and the mouth of the Mississippi.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page95">[pg 95]</span><a name="Pg95" id="Pg95" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Nevertheless, there were different ways of
+preserving neutrality: there were the offensive
+way and the friendly way. Hamilton,
+whose extreme bias toward England made
+him bitter against France, was always for
+the one; Jefferson for the other. A single
+example will suffice as an illustration. M.
+Genet asked as a favor that the United
+States should advance an installment of its
+debt to France. Hamilton advised that the
+request be refused without a word of explanation.
+Jefferson’s opinion was that the
+request should be granted, if that were lawful,
+and if it were found to be unlawful, them
+that the refusal should be explained. Mr.
+Jefferson’s advice was followed.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Jefferson, also, though he firmly withstood
+the many illegal and unwarrantable
+acts attempted by Genet, did so in such a
+manner as not to lose the friendship of the
+minister or even a degree of control over
+him. To Madison Jefferson wrote of Genet:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“He renders my position immensely difficult.
+He does me justice personally; and giving
+him time to vent himself and become more
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page96">[pg 96]</span><a name="Pg96" id="Pg96" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cool, I am on a footing to advise him freely,
+and he respects it; but he will break out
+again on the very first occasion.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Finally Citizen Genet, becoming desperate,
+fitted out one of L’Embuscade’s prizes
+as a frigate to be used against England,
+which amounted on the part of the United
+States to a breach of neutrality; and being
+hindered in sending her to sea, he threatened
+to appeal from the President to the
+people of the United States. Thereupon
+the question arose, what shall be done with
+Genet? and upon this question the cabinet
+divided with more than usual acrimony.
+Knox was for sending him out of the country
+without ceremony; Hamilton for publishing
+the whole correspondence between
+him and the government, with a statement
+of his proceedings. Jefferson was for sending
+an account of the affair to the French
+government, with copies of the correspondence,
+and a request for Genet’s recall.
+Meanwhile the whole country was thrown
+into a state of tumultuous excitement. There
+was a riot in Philadelphia; and even the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page97">[pg 97]</span><a name="Pg97" id="Pg97" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>sacred character of Washington was assailed
+in prose and verse.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The President decided to adopt the course
+proposed by Jefferson; France appointed
+another minister, and the Genet episode
+ended by his marriage to a daughter of
+George Clinton, governor of New York, in
+which State he lived thereafter as a respectable
+citizen and a patron of agriculture.
+He died in the year 1834.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The summer of delirium at Philadelphia
+culminated in the panic and desolation of
+the yellow fever, and every member of the
+government fled from the city, Jefferson being
+the last to depart.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+When, in the next year, the correspondence
+between Genet and Jefferson, and between
+the English minister and Jefferson,
+was published, the Secretary was seen to
+have conducted it on his part with so much
+ability, discretion, and tact, and with so
+true a sense of what was due to each nation
+concerned, that he may be said to have retired
+to his farm in a blaze of glory.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page98">[pg 98]</span><a name="Pg98" id="Pg98" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc17" id="toc17"></a><a name="pdf18" id="pdf18"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">IX</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">THE TWO PARTIES</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+When Jefferson at last found himself at
+Monticello, having resigned his office as
+Secretary of State, he declared and believed
+that he had done with politics forever. To
+various correspondents he wrote as follows:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I think that I shall never take another
+newspaper of any sort. I find my mind
+totally absorbed in my rural occupations....
+No <a name="corr098" id="corr098" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">circumstances</span>, my dear sir, will ever
+more tempt me to engage in anything public....
+I would not give up my retirement for
+the empire of the universe.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+When Madison wrote in 1795, soliciting
+him to accept the Republican nomination
+for the presidency, Mr. Jefferson replied:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The little spice of ambition which I had
+in my younger days has long since evaporated,
+and I set still less store by a posthumous
+than present fame. The question
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page99">[pg 99]</span><a name="Pg99" id="Pg99" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>is forever closed with me.”</span> Nevertheless,
+within a few months Mr. Jefferson accepted
+the nomination, chiefly, it is probable, because,
+with his usual sagacity, he foresaw that the
+Republican candidate would be defeated as
+President, but elected as Vice-President. It
+must be remembered that at that time the
+candidate receiving the next to the highest
+number of electoral votes was declared to be
+Vice-President; so that there was always a
+probability that the presidential candidate
+of the party defeated would be chosen to the
+second office.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+There were several reasons why Jefferson
+would have been glad to receive the office of
+Vice-President. It involved no disagreeable
+responsibility; it called for no great expenditure
+of money in the way of entertainments;
+it carried a good salary; it required
+only a few months’ residence at Washington.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Mr. Jefferson often told me,”</span> remarks
+Mr. Bacon, <span class="tei tei-q">“that the office of Vice-President
+was far preferable to that of President.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Jefferson therefore became the Republican
+nominee for President, and, as he doubt<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page100">[pg 100]</span><a name="Pg100" id="Pg100" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>less expected, was elected Vice-President,
+the vote standing as follows: Adams, 71;
+Jefferson, 68; Pinckney, 59; Burr, 30.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It is significant of Mr. Jefferson’s high
+standing in the country that many people
+believed that he would not deign to accept
+the office of Vice-President; and Madison
+wrote advising him to come to Washington
+on the 4th of March, and take the oath of
+office, in order that this belief might be dispelled.
+Jefferson accordingly did so, bringing
+with him the bones of a mastodon, lately
+discovered, and a little manuscript book written
+in his law-student days, marked <span class="tei tei-q">“Parliamentary
+Pocket-Book.”</span> This was the basis
+of that careful and elaborate <span class="tei tei-q">“Manual of
+Parliamentary Practice”</span> which Jefferson left
+as his legacy to the Senate.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Upon receiving news of the election Jefferson
+had written to Madison: <span class="tei tei-q">“If Mr.
+Adams can be induced to administer the government
+on its true principles, and to relinquish
+his bias to an English Constitution, it
+is to be considered whether it would not be,
+on the whole, for the public good to come to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page101">[pg 101]</span><a name="Pg101" id="Pg101" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a good understanding with him as to his
+future elections. He is perhaps the only
+sure barrier against Hamilton’s getting in.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Adams, indeed, at the outset of his
+administration, was inclined to be confidential
+with Mr. Jefferson; but soon, by one of
+those sudden turns not infrequent with him,
+he took a different course, and thenceforth
+treated the Vice-President with nothing more
+than bare civility.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was a time, indeed, when cordial relations
+between Federalist and Republican were almost
+impossible. In a letter written at this
+period to Mr. Edward Rutledge, Jefferson
+said: <span class="tei tei-q">“You and I have formerly seen warm
+debates, and high political passions. But
+gentlemen of different politics would then
+speak to each other, and separate the business
+of the Senate from that of society. It is not
+so now. Men who have been intimate all
+their lives cross the street to avoid meeting,
+and turn their heads another way, lest they
+should be obliged to touch their hats.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+These party feelings were intensified in the
+year 1798 by what is known as the X Y Z
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page102">[pg 102]</span><a name="Pg102" id="Pg102" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>business. Mr. Adams had sent three commissioners
+to Paris to negotiate a treaty.
+Talleyrand, the French Minister for Foreign
+Affairs, held aloof from them; but they were
+informed by certain mysterious agents that
+a treaty could be had on three conditions,
+(1) that the President should apologize for
+certain expressions in his recent message to
+Congress; (2) that the United States should
+loan a large sum of money to the French
+government; (3) that a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">douceur</span></span> of $25,000
+should be given to Talleyrand’s agents.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+These insulting proposals were indignantly
+rejected by the commissioners, and being reported
+in this country, they aroused a storm
+of popular indignation. Preparations for war
+were made forthwith. General Washington,
+though in failing health, was appointed
+commander-in-chief,—the real command being
+expected to devolve upon Hamilton, who
+was named second; men and supplies were
+voted; letters of marque were issued, and war
+actually prevailed upon the high seas. The
+situation redounded greatly to the advantage
+of the Federalists, for they were always as
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page103">[pg 103]</span><a name="Pg103" id="Pg103" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>eager to go to war with France as they were
+reluctant to go to war with England. The
+newly appointed officers were drawn almost,
+if not quite, without exception from the Federalist
+party, and Hamilton seemed to be on
+the verge of that military career which he
+had long hoped for. He trusted, as his most
+intimate friend, Gouverneur Morris, said after
+his death, <span class="tei tei-q">“that in the changes and chances
+of time we would be involved in some war
+which might strengthen our union and nerve
+our executive.”</span> So late as 1802, Hamilton
+wrote to Morris, <span class="tei tei-q">“there must be a systematic
+and persevering endeavor to establish the
+future of a great empire on foundations much
+firmer than have yet been devised.”</span> At this
+very time he was negotiating with Miranda
+and with the British government, his design
+being to use against Mexico the army raised
+in expectation of a war with France.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Hamilton was not the man to overturn
+the government out of personal ambition,
+nor even in order to set up a monarchy in
+place of a republic. But he had convinced
+himself that the republic must some day fall
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page104">[pg 104]</span><a name="Pg104" id="Pg104" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of its own weight. He was always anticipating
+a <span class="tei tei-q">“crisis,”</span> and this word is repeated
+over and over again in his correspondence.
+It even occurs in the crucial sentence of that
+pathetic document which he wrote on the eve
+of his fatal duel. When the <span class="tei tei-q">“crisis”</span> came,
+Hamilton meant to be on hand; and, if possible,
+at the head of an army.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+However, the X Y Z affair ended peacefully.
+The warlike spirit shown by the people
+of the United States had a wholesome effect
+upon the French government; and at their
+suggestion new envoys were sent over by the
+President, by whom a treaty was negotiated.
+This wise and patriotic act upon the part of
+Mr. Adams was a benefit to his country, but
+it aroused the bitter anger of the Federalists
+and ruined his position in that party.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+But what was Mr. Jefferson’s attitude
+during this business? He was not for war,
+and he contended that a distinction should
+be made between the acts of Talleyrand and
+his agents, and the real disposition of the
+French people. He wrote as follows: <span class="tei tei-q">“Inexperienced
+in such manœuvres, the people
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page105">[pg 105]</span><a name="Pg105" id="Pg105" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>did not permit themselves even to suspect
+that the turpitude of private swindlers might
+mingle itself unobserved, and give its own
+hue to the communications of the French
+government, of whose participation there was
+neither proof nor probability.”</span> And again:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“But as I view a peace between France and
+England the ensuing winter to be certain,
+I have thought it would have been better for
+us to have contrived to bear from France
+through the present summer what we have
+been bearing both from her and from England
+these four years, and still continue to
+bear from England, and to have required indemnification
+in the hour of peace, when, I
+firmly believe, it would have been yielded
+by both.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+But this is bad political philosophy. A
+nation cannot obtain justice by submitting
+to wrongs or insults even for a time. Jefferson
+himself had written long before: <span class="tei tei-q">“I
+think it is our interest to punish the first
+insult, because an insult unpunished is the
+parent of many others.”</span> It is possible that
+he was misled at this juncture by his liking
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page106">[pg 106]</span><a name="Pg106" id="Pg106" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>for France, and by his dislike of the Federalists
+and of their British proclivities. It is
+true that the bribe demanded by Talleyrand’s
+agents might be considered, to use
+Mr. Jefferson’s words, as <span class="tei tei-q">“the turpitude of
+private swindlers;”</span> but the demand for a
+loan and for a retraction could be regarded
+only as national acts, being acts of the
+French government, although the bulk of
+the French people might repudiate them.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Whether Jefferson was right or wrong in
+the position which he took, he maintained it
+with superb self-confidence and aplomb. For
+the moment, the Federalists had everything
+their own way. They carried the election.
+Hamilton’s oft-anticipated <span class="tei tei-q">“crisis”</span> seemed
+to have arrived at last. But Jefferson coolly
+waited till the storm should blow over. <span class="tei tei-q">“Our
+countrymen,”</span> he wrote to a friend, <span class="tei tei-q">“are essentially
+Republicans. They retain unadulterated
+the principles of ’76, and those who
+are conscious of no change in themselves
+have nothing to fear in the long run.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+And so it proved. The ascendency of
+the Federalists was soon destroyed, and de<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page107">[pg 107]</span><a name="Pg107" id="Pg107" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>stroyed forever, by the political crimes and
+follies which they committed; and especially
+by the alien and sedition laws. The reader
+need hardly be reminded that the alien law
+gave the President authority to banish from
+the country <span class="tei tei-q">“all such aliens as <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">he</span></span> should
+judge dangerous to the peace and safety
+of the United States,”</span>—a despotic power
+which no king of England ever possessed.
+The sedition act made it a crime, punishable
+by fine and imprisonment, to speak or write
+anything <span class="tei tei-q">“false, scandalous, and malicious,”</span>
+with intent to excite against either House of
+Congress or against the President, <span class="tei tei-q">“the hatred
+of the good people of the United States.”</span>
+It can readily be seen what gross oppression
+was possible under this elastic law, interpreted
+by judges who, to a man, were members
+of the Federal party. Matthew Lyon, of
+Vermont, ventured to read aloud at a political
+meeting a letter which he had received
+expressing astonishment that the President’s
+recent address to the House of Representatives
+had not been answered by <span class="tei tei-q">“an order
+to send him to a mad-house.”</span> For this Mr.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page108">[pg 108]</span><a name="Pg108" id="Pg108" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Lyon was fined $1,000, and imprisoned in a
+veritable dungeon.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+These unconstitutional and un-American
+laws were vigorously opposed by Jefferson
+and Madison. In October, 1798, Jefferson
+wrote: <span class="tei tei-q">“For my own part I consider those
+laws as merely an experiment on the American
+mind to see how far it will bear an
+avowed violation of the Constitution. If
+this goes down, we shall immediately see
+attempted another act of Congress declaring
+that the President shall continue in office
+during life, reserving to another occasion
+the transfer of the succession to his heirs,
+and the establishment of the Senate for
+life.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson also prepared the famous Kentucky
+resolutions, which were adopted by
+the legislature of that State,—the authorship,
+however, being kept secret till Jefferson
+avowed it, twenty years later. These
+much-discussed resolutions have been said
+to have originated the doctrine of nullification,
+and to contain that principle of secession
+upon which the South acted in 1861.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page109">[pg 109]</span><a name="Pg109" id="Pg109" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>They may be summed up roughly as follows:
+The source of all political power is in
+the people. The people have, by the compact
+known as the Constitution, granted certain
+specified powers to the federal government;
+all other powers, if not granted to the several
+state governments, are retained by the
+people. The alien and sedition laws assume
+the exercise by the federal government of
+powers not granted to it by the Constitution.
+They are therefore void.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Thus far there can be no question that
+Jefferson’s argument was sound, and its
+soundness would not be denied, even at the
+present day. But the question then arose:
+what next? May the laws be disregarded
+and disobeyed by the States or by individuals,
+or must they be obeyed until some competent
+authority has pronounced them void?
+and if so, what is that authority? We understand
+now that the Supreme Court has
+sole authority to decide upon the constitutionality
+of the acts of Congress. It was so
+held, for the first time, in the year 1803, in
+the case of Marbury <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">v.</span></span> Madison, by Chief
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page110">[pg 110]</span><a name="Pg110" id="Pg110" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Justice Marshall and his associates; and that
+decision, though resisted at the time, has
+long been accepted by the country as a
+whole. But this case did not arise until
+several years after the Kentucky Resolutions
+were written. Moreover, Marshall was an
+extreme Federalist, and his view was by no
+means the commonly accepted view. Jefferson
+scouted it. He protested all his life
+against the assumption that the Supreme
+Court, a body of men appointed for life, and
+thus removed from all control by the people,
+should have the enormous power of construing
+the Constitution and of passing upon
+the validity of national laws. In a letter
+written in 1804, he said: <span class="tei tei-q">“You seem to
+think it devolved on the judges to decide
+the validity of the sedition law. But nothing
+in the Constitution has given them a
+right to decide for the executive more than
+the executive to decide for them. But the
+opinion which gives to the judges the right
+to decide what laws are constitutional and
+what not—not only for themselves in their
+own sphere of action, but for the legislature
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page111">[pg 111]</span><a name="Pg111" id="Pg111" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and executive also in their spheres—would
+make the judiciary a despotic branch.”</span><a id="noteref_3" name="noteref_3" href="#note_3"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">3</span></span></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In the Kentucky resolutions, Jefferson
+argued, first, that the Constitution was a
+compact between the States; secondly, that
+no person or body had been appointed by
+the Constitution as a common judge in respect
+to questions arising under the Constitution
+between any one State and Congress,
+or between the people and Congress; and
+thirdly, <span class="tei tei-q">“as in all other cases of compact
+among powers having no common judge,
+each party has an equal right to judge for
+itself, as well of infractions as of the mode
+and measure of redress.”</span> It was open to
+him to take this view, because it had not
+yet been decided that the Supreme Court
+was the <span class="tei tei-q">“common judge”</span> appointed by the
+Constitution; and the Constitution itself
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page112">[pg 112]</span><a name="Pg112" id="Pg112" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>was not explicit upon the point. Moreover,
+the laws in question had not been passed
+upon by the Supreme Court,—they expired
+by limitation before that stage was reached.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It must be admitted, then, that the Kentucky
+resolutions do contain the principles
+of nullification. But at the time when they
+were written, nullification was a permissible
+doctrine, because it was not certainly excluded
+by the Constitution. In 1803, as we
+have seen, the Constitution was interpreted
+by the Supreme Court as excluding this
+doctrine; and that decision having been reaffirmed
+repeatedly, and having been acquiesced
+in by the nation for fifty years, may
+fairly be said to have become by the year
+1861 the law of the land.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson, however, by no means intended
+to push matters to their logical conclusion.
+His resolutions were intended for moral
+effect, as he explained in the following letter
+to Madison:—
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I think we should distinctly affirm all
+the important principles they contain, so as
+to hold to that ground in future, and leave
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page113">[pg 113]</span><a name="Pg113" id="Pg113" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the matter in such a train that we may not
+be committed absolutely to push the matter
+to extremities, and yet may be free to push
+as far as events will render prudent.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+As to the charge that the Kentucky Resolutions
+imply the doctrine of secession, as
+well as that of nullification, it has no basis.
+The two doctrines do not stand or fall together.
+There is nothing in the resolutions
+which implies the right of secession. Jefferson,
+like most Americans of his day, contemplated
+with indifference the possibility of an
+ultimate separation of the region beyond the
+Mississippi from the United States. But
+nobody placed a higher value than he did on
+what he described <span class="tei tei-q">“as our union, the last
+anchor of our hope, and that alone which is
+to prevent this heavenly country from becoming
+an arena of gladiators.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page114">[pg 114]</span><a name="Pg114" id="Pg114" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc19" id="toc19"></a><a name="pdf20" id="pdf20"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">X</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">PRESIDENT JEFFERSON</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+For the presidential election of 1800,
+Adams was again the candidate on the Federal
+side, and Jefferson on the Republican
+side. Jefferson, by interviews, by long and
+numerous letters, by the commanding force
+of his own intellect and character, had at
+last welded the anti-Federal elements into a
+compact and disciplined Republican party.
+The contest was waged with the utmost bitterness,
+and especially with bitterness against
+Jefferson. For this there were several causes.
+Jefferson had deeply offended two powerful
+classes in Virginia, the old aristocratic and
+Tory element, and—excluding the dissenters—the
+religious element; the former, by
+the repeal of the law of entail, and the latter
+by the statute for freedom of religion in Virginia.
+These were among the most meritorious
+acts of his life, but they produced an
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page115">[pg 115]</span><a name="Pg115" id="Pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>intense enmity which lasted till his death
+and even beyond his death. Jefferson, also,
+though at times over-cautious, was at times
+rash and indiscreet, and the freedom of his
+comments upon men and measures often got
+him into trouble. His career will be misunderstood
+unless it is remembered that he
+was an impulsive man. His judgments were
+intuitive, and though usually correct, yet
+sometimes hasty and ill-considered.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Above all, Jefferson was both for friends
+and foes the embodiment of Republicanism.
+He represented those ideas which the Federalists,
+and especially the New England lawyers
+and clergy, really believed to be subversive
+of law and order, of government and
+religion. To them he figured as <span class="tei tei-q">“a fanatic
+in politics, and an atheist in religion;”</span> and
+they were so disposed to believe everything
+bad of him that they swallowed whole the
+worst slanders which the political violence
+of the times, far exceeding that of the present
+day, could invent. We have seen with
+what tenderness Jefferson treated his widowed
+sister, Mrs. Carr, and her children.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page116">[pg 116]</span><a name="Pg116" id="Pg116" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>It was in reference to this very family that
+the Rev. Mr. Cotton Mather Smith, of Connecticut,
+declared that Jefferson had gained
+his estate by robbery, namely, by robbing a
+widow and her children of £10,000, <span class="tei tei-q">“all of
+which can be proved.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson, as we have said, was a deist.
+He was a religious man and a daily reader
+of the Bible, far less extreme in his notions,
+less hostile to orthodox Christianity than
+John Adams. Nevertheless,—partly, perhaps,
+because he had procured the disestablishment
+of the Virginia Church, partly on
+account of his scientific tastes and his liking
+for French notions,—the Federalists
+had convinced themselves that he was a violent
+atheist and anti-Christian. It was a
+humorous saying of the time that the old
+women of New England hid their Bibles in
+the well when Jefferson’s election in 1800
+became known.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The vote was as follows:—Jefferson, 73,
+Burr, 73; Adams, 65; C. C. Pinckney, 64;
+Jay, 1. There being a tie between Jefferson
+and Burr, the Republican candidate for
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page117">[pg 117]</span><a name="Pg117" id="Pg117" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Vice-President, the election was thrown
+into the House of Representatives, voting by
+States. In that House the Federalists were
+in the majority, but they did not have a majority
+by States. They could not, therefore,
+elect Adams; but it was possible for them
+to make Burr President instead of Jefferson.
+At first, the leaders were inclined to do
+this, some believing that Burr’s utter want
+of principle was less dangerous than the pernicious
+principles which they ascribed to
+Jefferson, and others thinking that Burr, if
+elected by Federal votes, would pursue a
+Federal policy. It was feared that Jefferson
+would wipe out the national debt, abolish
+the navy, and remove every Federal officeholder
+in the land. He was approached from
+many quarters, and even President Adams
+desired him to give some intimation of his
+intended policy on these points, but Jefferson
+firmly refused.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+As to one such interview, with Gouverneur
+Morris, Jefferson wrote afterward: <span class="tei tei-q">“I told
+him that I should leave the world to judge
+of the course I meant to pursue, by that
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page118">[pg 118]</span><a name="Pg118" id="Pg118" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which I had pursued hitherto, believing it
+to be my duty to be passive and silent during
+the present scene; that I should certainly
+make no terms; should never go into the
+office of President by capitulation, nor with
+my hands tied by any conditions which
+would hinder me from pursuing the measures
+which I should deem for the public good.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The Federalists had a characteristic plan:
+they proposed to pass a law devolving the
+Presidency upon the chairman of the Senate,
+in case the office of President should become
+vacant; and this vacancy they would be able
+to bring about by prolonging the election
+until Mr. Adams’s term of office had expired.
+The chairman of the Senate, a Federalist, of
+course, would then become President. This
+scheme Jefferson and his friends were prepared
+to resist by force. <span class="tei tei-q">“Because,”</span> as he
+afterward explained, <span class="tei tei-q">“that precedent once
+set, it would be artificially reproduced, and
+would soon end in a dictator.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Hamilton, to his credit, be it said, strongly
+advocated the election of Jefferson; and
+finally, through the action of Mr. Bayard,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page119">[pg 119]</span><a name="Pg119" id="Pg119" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of Delaware, a leading Federalist, who had
+sounded an intimate friend of Mr. Jefferson
+as to his views upon the points already mentioned,
+Mr. Jefferson was elected President,
+and the threatening civil war was averted.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Adams, who was deeply chagrined by
+his defeat, did not attend the inauguration
+of his successor, but left Washington
+in his carriage, at sunrise, on the fourth of
+March; and Jefferson rode on horseback to
+the Capitol, unattended, and dismounting,
+fastened his horse to the fence with his own
+hands. The inaugural address, brief, and
+beautifully worded, surprised most of those
+who heard it by the moderation and liberality
+of its tone. <span class="tei tei-q">“Let us,”</span> said the new President,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“restore to social intercourse that harmony
+and affection without which liberty,
+and even life itself, are but dreary things.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson served two terms, and he was
+succeeded first by Madison, and then by
+Monroe, both of whom were his friends and
+disciples, and imbued with his ideas. They,
+also, were reëlected. For
+twenty-four years,
+therefore, Jefferson and Jeffersonian De<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page120">[pg 120]</span><a name="Pg120" id="Pg120" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>mocracy predominated in the government of
+the United States, and the period was an
+exceedingly prosperous one. Not one of the
+dismal forebodings of the Federalists was
+fulfilled; and the practicability of popular
+government was proved.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The first problem with which Jefferson
+had to deal was that of appointments to
+office. The situation was much like that
+which afterward confronted President Cleveland
+when he entered upon his first term,—that
+is, every place was filled by a member
+of the party opposed to the new administration.
+The principle which Mr. Jefferson
+adopted closely resembles that afterward
+adopted by Mr. Cleveland, namely, no officeholder
+was to be displaced on account of his
+political belief; but if he acted aggressively
+in politics, that was to be sufficient ground
+for removal. <span class="tei tei-q">“Electioneering activity”</span> was
+the phrase used in Mr. Jefferson’s time, and
+<span class="tei tei-q">“offensive partisanship”</span> in Mr. Cleveland’s.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The following letter from President Jefferson
+to the Secretary of the Treasury will
+show how the rule was construed by him:—
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page121">[pg 121]</span><a name="Pg121" id="Pg121" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The allegations against Pope [collector]
+of New Bedford are insufficient. Although
+meddling in political caucuses is no part of
+that freedom of personal suffrage which
+ought to be allowed him, yet his mere presence
+at a caucus does not necessarily involve
+an active and official influence in opposition
+to the government which employs
+him.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+There were some lapses, but, on the whole,
+Mr. Jefferson’s rule was adhered to; and it
+is difficult to say whether he received more
+abuse from the Federalists on account of the
+removals which he did make, or from a faction
+in his own party on account of the
+removals which he refused to make.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+His principle was thus stated in a letter:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“If a due participation of office is a matter
+of right, how are vacancies to be obtained?
+Those by death are few; by resignation,
+none.... It would have been to me a
+circumstance of great relief, had I found a
+moderate participation of office in the hands
+of the majority. I should gladly have left
+to time and accident to raise them to their
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page122">[pg 122]</span><a name="Pg122" id="Pg122" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>just share. But their total exclusion calls
+for prompter corrections. I shall correct
+the procedure; but that done, disdain to
+follow it. I shall return with joy to that
+state of things when the only questions concerning
+a candidate shall be, Is he honest?
+Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The ascendency of Jefferson and of the
+Republican party produced a great change
+in the government and in national feeling,
+but it was a change the most important part
+of which was intangible, and is therefore
+hard to describe. It was such a change as
+takes place in the career of an individual,
+when he shakes off some controlling force,
+and sets up in life for himself. The common
+people felt an independence, a pride, an élan,
+which sent a thrill of vigor through every
+department of industry and adventure.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The simplicity of the forms which President
+Jefferson adopted were a symbol to the
+national imagination of the change which
+had taken place. He gave up the royal custom
+of levees; he stopped the celebration
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page123">[pg 123]</span><a name="Pg123" id="Pg123" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the President’s birthday; he substituted
+a written message for the speech to Congress
+delivered in person at the Capitol, and
+the reply by Congress, delivered in person
+at the White House. The President’s residence
+ceased to be called the Palace. He
+cut down the army and navy. He introduced
+economy in all the departments of the
+government, and paid off thirty-three millions
+of the national debt. He procured the
+abolition of internal taxes and the repeal of
+the bankruptcy law—two measures which
+greatly decreased his own patronage, and
+which called forth John Randolph’s encomium
+long afterward: <span class="tei tei-q">“I have never seen
+but one administration which seriously and
+in good faith was disposed to give up its
+patronage, and was willing to go farther
+than Congress or even the people themselves
+... desired; and that was the first administration
+of Thomas Jefferson.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The two most important measures of the
+first administration were, however, the repression
+of the Barbary pirates and the
+acquisition of Louisiana. Mr. Jefferson’s
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page124">[pg 124]</span><a name="Pg124" id="Pg124" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ineffectual efforts, while he was minister to
+France, to put down by force Mediterranean
+piracy have already been rehearsed. During
+Mr. Adams’s term, two million dollars were
+expended in bribing the bucaneers. One
+item in the account was as follows, <span class="tei tei-q">“A frigate
+to carry thirty-six guns for the Dey of
+Algiers;”</span> and this frigate went crammed
+with a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of
+powder, lead, timber, rope, canvas, and other
+means of piracy. One hundred and twenty-two
+captives came home in that year, 1796,
+of whom ten had been held in slavery for
+eleven years.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s first important act as President
+was to dispatch to the Mediterranean three
+frigates and a sloop-of-war to overawe the
+pirates, and to cruise in protection of American
+commerce. Thus began that series of
+events which finally rendered the commerce
+of the world as safe from piracy in the
+Mediterranean as it was in the British channel.
+How brilliantly Decatur and his gallant
+comrades carried out this policy, and how at
+last the tardy naval powers of Europe fol<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page125">[pg 125]</span><a name="Pg125" id="Pg125" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>lowed an example which they ought to have
+set, every one is supposed to know.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The second important event was the acquisition
+of Louisiana. Louisiana meant the
+whole territory from the Mississippi River to
+the Pacific Ocean, embracing about one million
+square miles. All this region belonged
+to Spain by right of discovery; and early
+in the year 1801 news came from the American
+minister at Paris that Spain had ceded
+or was about to cede it to France. The
+Spanish ownership of the mouth of the Mississippi
+had long been a source of annoyance
+to the settlers on the Mississippi River; and
+it had begun to be felt that the United States
+must control New Orleans at least. If this
+vast territory should come into the hands of
+France, and Napoleon should colonize it, as
+was said to be his intention,—France then
+being the greatest power in Europe,—the
+United States would have a powerful rival on
+its borders, and in control of a seaport absolutely
+necessary for its commerce. We can
+see this now plainly enough, but even so able
+a man as Mr. Livingston, the American
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page126">[pg 126]</span><a name="Pg126" id="Pg126" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>minister at Paris, did not see it then. On
+the contrary, he wrote to the government at
+Washington: <span class="tei tei-q">“... I have, however, on all
+occasions, declared that as long as France
+conforms to the existing treaty between us
+and Spain, the government of the United
+States does not consider itself as having any
+interest in opposing the exchange.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Jefferson’s very different view was
+expressed in the following letter to Mr.
+Livingston: <span class="tei tei-q">“... France, placing herself
+in that door, assumes to us the attitude of
+defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly
+for years. Her pacific disposition, her feeble
+state would induce her to increase our facilities
+there.... Not so can it ever be in the
+hands of France; the impetuosity of her
+temper, the energy and restlessness of her
+character, placed in a point of eternal friction
+with us and our character, which,
+though quiet and loving peace and the pursuit
+of wealth, is high-minded, despising
+wealth in competition with insult or injury,
+enterprising and energetic as any nation on
+earth,—these circumstances render it im<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page127">[pg 127]</span><a name="Pg127" id="Pg127" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>possible that France and the United States
+can continue long friends when they meet
+in so irritable a position.... The day that
+France takes possession of New Orleans fixes
+the sentence which is to restrain her forever
+within her low-water mark.... From that
+moment we must marry ourselves to the
+British fleet and nation.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Thus, at a moment’s notice, and in obedience
+to a vital change in circumstance, Jefferson
+threw aside the policy of a lifetime,
+suppressed his liking for France and his dislike
+for England, and entered upon that
+radically new course which, as he foresaw,
+the interests of the United States would require.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Livingston, thus primed, began negotiations
+for the purchase of New Orleans; and
+Jefferson hastily dispatched Monroe, as a
+special envoy, for the same purpose, armed,
+it is supposed, with secret verbal instructions,
+to buy, if possible, not only New Orleans,
+but the whole of Louisiana. Monroe had
+not a word in writing to show that in purchasing
+Louisiana—if the act should be
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page128">[pg 128]</span><a name="Pg128" id="Pg128" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>repudiated by the nation—he did not exceed
+his instructions. But, as Mr. Henry
+Adams remarks, <span class="tei tei-q">“Jefferson’s friends always
+trusted him perfectly.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The moment was most propitious, for
+England and France were about to close in
+that terrific struggle which ended at Waterloo,
+and Napoleon was desperately in need of
+money. After some haggling the bargain
+was concluded, and, for the very moderate
+sum of fifteen million dollars, the United
+States became possessed of a territory which
+more than doubled its area.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The purchase of Louisiana was confessedly
+an unconstitutional, or at least an extra-constitutional
+act, for the Constitution gave no
+authority to the President to acquire new
+territory, or to pledge the credit of the
+United States in payment. Jefferson himself
+thought that the Constitution ought to
+be amended in order to make the purchase
+legal; but in this he was overruled by his
+advisers.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Thus, Jefferson’s first administration ended
+with a brilliant achievement; but this public
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page129">[pg 129]</span><a name="Pg129" id="Pg129" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>glory was far more than outweighed by a private
+loss. The President’s younger daughter,
+Mrs. Eppes, died in April, 1804; and
+in a letter to his old friend, John Page,
+he said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Others may lose of their abundance,
+but I, of my wants, have, lost even
+the half of all I had. My evening prospects
+now hang on the slender thread of a single
+life. Perhaps I may be destined to see even
+this last cord of parental affection broken.
+The hope with which I have looked forward
+to the moment when, resigning public cares
+to younger hands, I was to retire to that
+domestic comfort from which the last great
+step is to be taken, is fearfully blighted.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page130">[pg 130]</span><a name="Pg130" id="Pg130" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc21" id="toc21"></a><a name="pdf22" id="pdf22"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">XI</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The purchase of Louisiana increased Jefferson’s
+popularity, and in 1805, at the age
+of sixty-two, he was elected to his second term
+as President by an overwhelming majority.
+Even Massachusetts was carried by the Republicans,
+and the total vote in the electoral
+college stood: 162 for Jefferson and Clinton;
+14 for C. C. Pinckney and Rufus
+King, the Federal candidates.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This result was due in part to the fact
+that Jefferson had stolen the thunder of the
+Federalists. His Louisiana purchase, though
+bitterly opposed by the leading Federalists,
+who were blinded by their hatred of the
+President, was far more consonant with Federal
+than with Republican principles; and in
+his second inaugural address Jefferson went
+even farther in the direction of a strong central
+government, for he said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Redemption
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page131">[pg 131]</span><a name="Pg131" id="Pg131" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>once effected, the revenue thereby liberated
+may, by a just repartition among the States,
+and a corresponding amendment of the Constitution,
+be applied <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">in time of peace</span></span> to
+rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education,
+and other great objects within each
+State. In time of war, ... aided by other
+measures reserved for that crisis, it may meet
+within the year all the expenses of the year
+without encroaching on the rights of future
+generations by burdening them with the debts
+of the past.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This proposal flatly contradicted what the
+President had said in his first inaugural address,
+and was in strange contrast with his
+criticism made years before upon a similar
+Federal scheme of public improvement, that
+the mines of Peru would not supply the
+moneys which would be wasted on this object.
+In later years, after his permanent
+retirement to Monticello, Jefferson seems to
+have reverted to his earlier views, and he
+condemned the measures of John Quincy
+Adams for making public improvements with
+national funds.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page132">[pg 132]</span><a name="Pg132" id="Pg132" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+But the President was no longer to enjoy
+a smooth course. One domestic affair gave
+him much annoyance, and our foreign relations
+were a continual source of anxiety and
+mortification.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Aaron Burr had been a brilliant soldier
+of the Revolution, a highly successful lawyer
+and politician, and finally, during Mr. Jefferson’s
+first administration, Vice-President
+of the United States. But in the year 1805
+he found himself, owing to a complication of
+causes, most of which, however, could be
+traced to his own moral defects, a bankrupt
+in reputation and in purse. Such being his
+condition, he applied to the President for
+a foreign appointment; and Mr. Jefferson
+very properly refused it, frankly explaining
+that Burr, whether justly or unjustly, had
+lost the confidence of the public.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Burr took this rebuff with the easy good-humor
+which characterized him, dined with
+the President a few days later, and then
+started westward to carry out a scheme which
+he had been preparing for a year. His plans
+were so shrouded in mystery that it is diffi<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page133">[pg 133]</span><a name="Pg133" id="Pg133" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cult to say exactly what they were, but it is
+certain that he contemplated an expedition
+against Mexico, with the intention of making
+himself the ruler of that country; and
+it is possible that he hoped to capture New
+Orleans, and, after dividing the United
+States, to annex the western half to his
+Mexican empire. Burr had got together a
+small supply of men and arms, and he floated
+down the Ohio, gathering recruits as he went.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson, with his usual good sense, perceived
+the futility of Burr’s designs, which
+were based upon a false belief as to the want
+of loyalty among the western people; but he
+took all needful precautions. General Wilkinson
+was ordered to protect New Orleans,
+Burr’s proceedings were denounced by a
+proclamation, and finally Burr himself was
+arrested in Alabama, and brought to Richmond
+for trial.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The trial at once became a political affair,
+the Federalists, to spite the President, making
+Burr’s cause their own, though he had
+killed Alexander Hamilton but three years
+before, and pretending to regard him as an
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page134">[pg 134]</span><a name="Pg134" id="Pg134" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>innocent man persecuted by the President
+for political reasons. Jefferson himself took
+a hand in the prosecution to the extent of
+writing letters to the district attorney full of
+advice and suggestions. It would have been
+more dignified had he held aloof, but the
+provocation which he received was very great.
+Burr and his counsel used every possible
+means of throwing odium upon the President;
+and in this they were assisted by Chief
+Justice Marshall, who presided at the trial.
+Marshall, though in the main a just man,
+was bitterly opposed to Jefferson in political
+affairs, and in this case he harshly blamed
+the executive for not procuring evidence with
+a celerity which, under the circumstances,
+was impossible. He also summoned the
+President into court as a witness. The President,
+however, declined to attend, and the
+matter was not pressed. Burr was acquitted,
+chiefly on technical grounds.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The Burr affair, however, was but a trifle
+compared with the difficulties arising from
+our relations with England. That country
+had always asserted over the United States
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page135">[pg 135]</span><a name="Pg135" id="Pg135" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the right of impressment, a right, namely, to
+search American ships, and to take therefrom
+any Englishmen found among the crew. In
+many cases, Englishmen who had been naturalized
+in the United States were thus taken.
+This alleged right had always been denied
+by the United States, and British perseverance
+in it finally led to the war of 1812.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Another source of contention was the neutral
+trade. During the European wars in
+the early part of the century the seaport
+towns of the United States did an immense
+and profitable business in carrying goods to
+European ports, and from one European port
+to another. Great Britain, after various
+attempts to discourage American commerce
+with her enemies, undertook to put it down
+by confiscating vessels of the United States
+on the ground that their cargoes were not
+neutral but belligerent property,—the property,
+that is, of nations at war with Great
+Britain. And, no doubt, in some cases this
+was the fact,—foreign merchandise having
+been imported to this country to get a neutral
+name for it, and thence exported to a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page136">[pg 136]</span><a name="Pg136" id="Pg136" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>country to which it could not have been
+shipped directly from its place of origin. In
+April, 1806, the President dispatched Mr.
+Monroe to London in order, if possible, to
+settle these disputed matters by a treaty.
+Monroe, in conjunction with Mr. Pinckney,
+our minister to England, sent back a treaty
+which contained no reference whatever to
+the matter of impressments. It was the best
+treaty which they could obtain, but it was
+silent upon this vital point.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The situation was a perilous one; England
+had fought the battle of Trafalgar the
+year before; and was now able to carry
+everything before her upon the high seas.
+Nevertheless, the President’s conduct was
+bold and prompt. The treaty had been negotiated
+mainly by his own envoy and friend,
+Monroe, and great pressure was exerted in
+favor of it,—especially by the merchants
+and shipowners of the east. But Jefferson
+refused even to lay it before the Senate,
+and at once sent it back to England. His
+position, and history has justified it, was
+that to accept a treaty which might be con<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page137">[pg 137]</span><a name="Pg137" id="Pg137" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>strued as tacitly admitting the right of impressment
+would be a disgrace to the country.
+The other questions at issue were more
+nearly legal and technical, but this one
+touched the national honor; and with the
+same right instinct which Jefferson showed
+in 1807, the people of the United States,
+five years later, fixed upon this grievance,
+out of the fog in which diplomacy had enveloped
+our relations with England, as the
+true and sufficient cause of the war of 1812.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Nevertheless, Jefferson treated Monroe
+with the greatest consideration. At this
+period Monroe and Madison were both
+candidates for the Republican nomination
+for the presidency. Jefferson’s choice was
+Madison, but he remained impartial between
+them; and he withheld Monroe’s treaty from
+publication at a time when to publish it would
+have given a fatal blow to Monroe’s prospects.
+In every way, in fact, he exerted himself to
+disguise and soften Monroe’s discredit.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The wisdom of Jefferson’s course as to the
+treaty was shown before three months had
+elapsed by an act of British aggression, which,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page138">[pg 138]</span><a name="Pg138" id="Pg138" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>had the Monroe treaty been accepted, might
+fairly have been laid to its door. In June,
+1807, the British frigate Leopard, having
+been refused permission to search the American
+frigate Chesapeake, fired upon the Chesapeake,
+which was totally unprepared for
+action, and, after killing three men and
+wounding eighteen, refused to accept the
+surrender of the ship, but carried off three
+alleged deserters.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This event roused a storm of indignation,
+which never quite subsided until the insult
+had been effaced by the blood which was
+shed in the war of 1812. <span class="tei tei-q">“For the first
+time in their history,”</span> says Mr. Henry Adams,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“the people of the United States learned in
+June, 1807, the feeling of a true national
+emotion.”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Never since the battle of Lexington,”</span>
+wrote Jefferson, <span class="tei tei-q">“have I seen this
+country in such a state of exasperation as at
+present.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+War might easily have been precipitated,
+had Jefferson been carried away by the popular
+excitement. He immediately dispatched
+a frigate to England demanding reparation,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page139">[pg 139]</span><a name="Pg139" id="Pg139" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and he issued a proclamation forbidding all
+British men-of-war to enter the waters of the
+United States, unless in distress or bearing
+dispatches. Jefferson expected war, but he
+meant to delay it for a while.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+To his son-in-law, John Eppes, he wrote:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Reason and the usage of civilized nations
+require that we should give them an opportunity
+of disavowal and reparation. Our
+own interests, too, the very means of making
+war, require that we should give time to our
+merchants to gather in their vessels and
+property and our seamen now afloat.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury,
+even criticised the President’s annual message
+at this time as being too warlike and <span class="tei tei-q">“not
+in the style of the proclamation, which has
+been almost universally approved at home
+and abroad.”</span> It cannot truly be said, therefore,
+that Jefferson had any unconquerable
+aversion to war.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Canning, the British Foreign Minister,
+went through the form of expressing his
+regrets for the Chesapeake affair, and sent a
+special envoy to Washington to settle the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page140">[pg 140]</span><a name="Pg140" id="Pg140" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>difficulty. Reparation was made at last, but
+not till the year 1811.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In the mean time, both Great Britain and
+France had given other causes of offense,
+which may be summarized as follows: In
+May, 1806, Great Britain declared the
+French ports from Brest to the Elbe closed to
+American as to all other shipping. In the
+following November, Napoleon retorted with
+a decree issued from Berlin, prohibiting all
+commerce with Great Britain. That power
+immediately forbade the coasting trade between
+one port and another in the possession
+of her enemies. And in November, 1807,
+Great Britain issued the famous Orders in
+Council, which forbade all trade whatsoever
+with France and her allies, except on payment
+of a tribute to Great Britain, each vessel to
+pay according to the value of its cargo. Then
+followed Napoleon’s Milan decree prohibiting
+trade with Great Britain, and declaring that
+all vessels which paid the tribute demanded
+were lawful prizes to the French marine.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Such was the series of acts which assailed
+the foreign commerce of the United States,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page141">[pg 141]</span><a name="Pg141" id="Pg141" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and wounded the national honor by attempting
+to prostrate the country at the mercy of
+the European powers. Diplomacy had been
+exhausted. The Chesapeake affair, the right
+of impressment, the British decrees and orders
+directed against our commerce,—all these
+causes of offense had been tangled into a
+complication which no man could unravel.
+Retaliation on our part had become absolutely
+necessary. What form should it take? Jefferson
+rejected war, and proposed an embargo
+which prohibited commerce between
+the United States and Europe. The measure
+was bitterly opposed by the New England
+Federalists; but the President’s influence
+was so great that Congress adopted it
+almost without discussion.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s design, to use his own words,
+was <span class="tei tei-q">“to introduce between nations another
+umpire than arms;”</span> and he expected that
+England would be starved into submission.
+The annual British exports to the United
+States amounted to $50,000,000. Cutting
+off this trade meant the throwing out of
+work of thousands of British sailors and tens
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page142">[pg 142]</span><a name="Pg142" id="Pg142" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of thousands of British factory hands, who
+had no other means of livelihood. Mr. Jefferson
+felt confident that the starvation of
+this class would bring such pressure to bear
+upon the English government, then engaged
+in a death struggle with Bonaparte, that it
+would be forced to repeal the laws which
+obstructed American commerce. It is possible
+that this would have been the result
+had the embargo been observed faithfully
+by all citizens of the United States. Jefferson
+maintained till the day of his death that
+such would have been the case; and Madison,
+no enthusiast, long afterward asserted
+that the American state department had
+proofs that the English government was on
+the point of yielding. The embargo pressed
+hardest of all upon Virginia, for it stopped
+the exportation of her staples,—wheat and
+tobacco. It brought about, by the way, the
+financial ruin of Jefferson himself and of his
+son-in-law, Colonel Randolph. But the Virginians
+bore it without a murmur. <span class="tei tei-q">“They
+drained the poison which their own President
+held obstinately to their lips.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page143">[pg 143]</span><a name="Pg143" id="Pg143" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was otherwise in New England. There
+the disastrous effect of the embargo was not
+only indirect but direct. The New England
+farmers, it is true, could at least exist
+upon the produce of their farms; but the
+mariners, the sea-captains, and the merchants
+of the coast towns, saw a total suspension of
+the industry by which they lived. New
+England evaded the embargo by smuggling,
+and resisted it tooth and nail. Some of the
+Federal leaders in that section believing, or
+pretending to believe, that it was a pro-French
+measure, were in secret correspondence
+with the British government, and meditated
+a secession of the eastern States from
+the rest of the country. They went so far,
+in private conversation at least, as to maintain
+the British right of impressment; and
+even the Orders in Council were defended
+by Gardenier, a leading Federalist, and a
+member of Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The present generation has witnessed a
+similar exhibition of anglomania, when, upon
+the assertion of the Monroe doctrine in respect
+to Venezuela, by President Cleveland,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page144">[pg 144]</span><a name="Pg144" id="Pg144" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>his attitude was criticised more severely by
+a group in New York and Boston than it
+was by the English themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s effort to enforce the embargo
+and his calm resistance to New England
+fury showed extraordinary firmness of will
+and tenacity of purpose. In August, 1808,
+he wrote to General Dearborn, Secretary of
+War, who was then in Maine: <span class="tei tei-q">“The Tories
+of Boston openly threaten insurrection if
+their importation of flour is stopped. The
+next post will stop it.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Blood was soon shed; but Jefferson did
+not shrink. The army was stationed along
+the Canadian frontier, to prevent smuggling;
+gunboats and frigates patrolled the coast.
+The embargo failed; but Mr. Henry Adams,
+the ablest and fairest historian of this period,
+declares that it <span class="tei tei-q">“was an experiment in politics
+well worth making. In the scheme of
+President Jefferson, non-intercourse was the
+substitute for war.... Failure of the embargo
+meant in his mind not only a recurrence
+to the practice of war, but to every
+political and social evil that war had always
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page145">[pg 145]</span><a name="Pg145" id="Pg145" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>brought in its train. In such a case the
+crimes and corruptions of Europe, which
+had been the object of his political fears,
+must, as he believed, sooner or later, teem
+in the fat soil of America. To avert a disaster
+so vast was a proper motive for statesmanship,
+and justified disregard for smaller
+interests.”</span> Mr. Parton observes, with almost
+as much truth as humor, that the
+embargo was approved by the two highest
+authorities in Europe, namely, Napoleon
+Bonaparte and the <span class="tei tei-q">“Edinburgh Review.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Perhaps the fundamental error in Jefferson’s
+theory was that nations are governed
+mainly by motives of self-interest. He
+thought that England would cease to legislate
+against American commerce, when it
+was once made plain that such a course was
+prejudicial to her own interests. But nations,
+like individuals, are influenced in their
+relations to others far more by pride and
+patriotism, and even by prejudice, than by
+material self-interest. The only way in
+which America could win respect and fair
+treatment from Europe was by fighting, or
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page146">[pg 146]</span><a name="Pg146" id="Pg146" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>at least by showing a perfect readiness to
+fight. This she did by the war of 1812.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The embargo was an academic policy,—the
+policy of a philosopher rather than that
+of a practical man of affairs. Turreau, the
+French ambassador, wrote to Talleyrand,
+in May, 1806, that the President <span class="tei tei-q">“has little
+energy and still less of that audacity which
+is indispensable in a place so eminent, whatever
+may be the form of government. The
+slightest event makes him lose his balance,
+and he does not even know how to disguise
+the impression which he receives.... He
+has made himself ill, and has grown ten
+years older.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson had energy and audacity,—but
+he was energetic and audacious only by fits
+and starts. He was too sensitive, too full of
+ideas, too far-sighted, too conscious of all
+possible results for a man of action. During
+the last three months of his term he made
+no attempt to settle the difficulties in which
+the country was involved, declaring that he
+felt bound to do nothing which might embarrass
+his successor. But it may be doubted
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page147">[pg 147]</span><a name="Pg147" id="Pg147" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>if he did not unconsciously decline the task
+rather from its difficulty than because he
+felt precluded from undertaking it. Self-knowledge
+was never Mr. Jefferson’s strong
+point.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+But he had done his best, and if his
+scheme had failed, the failure was not an
+ignoble one. He was still the most beloved,
+as well as the best hated man in the United
+States; and he could have had a third term,
+if he would have taken it.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+He retired, permanently, as it proved, to
+Monticello, wearied and harassed, but glad
+to be back on his farm, in the bosom of his
+family, and among his neighbors. His fellow-citizens
+of Albemarle County desired to
+meet the returning President, and escort
+him to his home; but Mr. Jefferson, characteristically,
+avoided this demonstration, and
+received instead an address, to which he
+made a reply that closed in a fit and pathetic
+manner his public career. <span class="tei tei-q">“... The
+part which I have acted on the theatre of
+public life has been before them [his countrymen],
+and to their sentence I submit it;
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page148">[pg 148]</span><a name="Pg148" id="Pg148" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>but the testimony of my native county, of
+the individuals who have known me in
+private life, to my conduct in its various
+duties and relations, is the more grateful as
+proceeding from eyewitnesses and observers,
+from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then,
+my neighbors, I may ask in the face of the
+world, <span class="tei tei-q">‘whose ox have I taken, or whom
+have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed,
+or of whose hand have I received a bribe to
+blind mine eyes therewith?’</span> On your verdict
+I rest with conscious security.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page149">[pg 149]</span><a name="Pg149" id="Pg149" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc23" id="toc23"></a><a name="pdf24" id="pdf24"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">XII</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s second term as President
+ended March 4, 1809, and during the rest
+of his life he lived at Monticello, with occasional
+visits to his more retired estate at Poplar
+Forest, and to the homes of his friends,
+but never going beyond the confines of Virginia.
+Just before leaving Washington, he
+had written: <span class="tei tei-q">“Never did a prisoner released
+from his chains feel such relief as I shall on
+shaking off the shackles of power. Nature
+intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science
+by rendering them my supreme delight.
+But the enormities of the times in which
+I have lived have forced me to take a part
+in resisting them, and to commit myself on
+the boisterous ocean of political passions.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Though no longer in office, Jefferson remained
+till his death the chief personage in
+the United States, and his authority continued
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page150">[pg 150]</span><a name="Pg150" id="Pg150" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to be almost supreme among the leaders as
+well as among the rank and file of the Republican
+party. Madison first, and Monroe
+afterward, consulted him in all the most
+important matters which arose during the
+sixteen years of their double terms as President.
+Long and frequent letters passed between
+them; and both Madison and Monroe
+often visited Jefferson at Monticello.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The Monroe doctrine, as it is called, was
+first broached by Jefferson. In a letter of
+August 4, 1820, to William Short, he
+said: <span class="tei tei-q">“The day is not far distant, when we
+may formally require a meridian through
+the ocean which separates the two hemispheres
+on the hither side of which no
+European gun shall ever be heard, nor an
+American on the other;”</span> and he spoke of
+<span class="tei tei-q">“the essential policy of interdicting in the
+seas and territories of both Americas the
+ferocious and sanguinary contests of Europe.”</span>
+Later, when applied to by Monroe himself,
+in October, 1823, Jefferson wrote to him:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Our first and fundamental maxim should
+be never to entangle ourselves in the broils
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page151">[pg 151]</span><a name="Pg151" id="Pg151" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of Europe. Our second, never to suffer
+Europe to meddle in cisatlantic affairs.”</span>
+The whole letter, a long one, deserves to be
+read as the first exposition of what has since
+become a famous doctrine.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The darling object of Mr. Jefferson’s last
+years was the founding of the University of
+Virginia at Charlottesville. For this purpose
+he gave $1000; many of his neighbors
+in Albemarle County joined him with gifts;
+and through Jefferson’s influence, the legislature
+appropriated considerable sums. But
+money was the least of Jefferson’s endowment
+of the University. He gave of the maturity
+of his judgment and a great part of
+his time. He was made regent. He drew
+the plans for the buildings, and overlooked
+their construction, riding to the University
+grounds almost every day, a distance of four
+miles, and back, and watching with paternal
+solicitude the laying of every brick and
+stone. His design was the perhaps over-ambitious
+one of displaying in the University
+buildings the various leading styles of
+architecture; and certain practical inconven<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page152">[pg 152]</span><a name="Pg152" id="Pg152" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>iences, such as the entire absence of closets
+from the houses of the professors, marred
+the result. Some offense also was given to
+the more religious people of Virginia, by the
+selection of a Unitarian as the first professor.
+However, Jefferson’s enthusiasm, ingenuity,
+and thoroughness carried the scheme through
+with success; and the University still stands
+as a monument to its founder.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It should be recorded, moreover, that
+under Jefferson’s regency the University of
+Virginia adopted certain reforms, which even
+Harvard, the most progressive of eastern
+universities, did not attain till more than
+half a century later. These were, an elective
+system of studies; the abolition of rules and
+penalties for the preservation of order, and
+the abolition of compulsory attendance at
+religious services.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mr. Jefferson’s daily life was simple and
+methodical. He rose as soon as it was light
+enough for him to see the hands of a clock
+which was opposite his bed. Till breakfast
+time, which was about nine o’clock, he
+employed himself in writing. The whole
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page153">[pg 153]</span><a name="Pg153" id="Pg153" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>morning was devoted to an immense correspondence;
+the discharge of which was not
+only mentally, but physically distressing,
+inasmuch as his crippled hands, each wrist
+having been fractured, could not be used
+without pain. In a letter to his old friend,
+John Adams, he wrote: <span class="tei tei-q">“I can read by
+candle-light only, and stealing long hours
+from my rest; nor would that time be indulged
+to me could I by that light see to
+write. From sunrise to one or two o’clock,
+and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging
+at the writing-table. And all this to
+answer letters, in which neither interest nor
+inclination on my part enters; and often
+from persons whose names I have never
+before heard. Yet writing civilly, it is hard
+to refuse them civil answers.”</span> At his death
+Jefferson left copies of 16,000 letters, being
+only a part of those written by himself, and
+26,000 letters written by others to him.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At one o’clock he set out upon horseback,
+and was gone for one or two hours,—never
+attended by a servant, even when he became
+old and infirm. He continued these rides
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page154">[pg 154]</span><a name="Pg154" id="Pg154" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>until he had become so feeble that he had
+to be lifted to the saddle; and his mount
+was always a fiery one. Once, in Mr. Jefferson’s
+old age, news came that a serious
+accident had happened in the neighboring
+village to one of his grandsons. Immediately
+he ordered his horse to be brought
+round, and though it was night and very
+dark, he mounted, despite the protests of
+the household, and, at a run, dashed down
+the steep ascent by which Monticello is
+reached. The family held their breath till
+the tramp of his horse’s feet, on the level
+ground below, could faintly be heard.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At half past three or four he dined; and
+at six he returned to the drawing-room,
+where coffee was served. The evening was
+spent in reading or conversation, and at
+nine he went to bed. <span class="tei tei-q">“His diet,”</span> relates a
+distinguished visitor, Daniel Webster, <span class="tei tei-q">“is
+simple, but he seems restrained only by his
+taste. His breakfast is tea and coffee, bread
+always fresh from the oven, of which he
+does not seem afraid, with at times a slight
+accompaniment of cold meat. He enjoys
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page155">[pg 155]</span><a name="Pg155" id="Pg155" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>his dinner well, taking with his meat a large
+proportion of vegetables.”</span> The fact is that
+he used meat only as a sort of condiment to
+vegetables. <span class="tei tei-q">“He has a strong preference
+for the wines of the continent, of which he
+has many sorts of excellent quality....
+Dinner is served in half Virginian, half
+French style, in good taste and abundance.
+No wine is put on the table till the cloth is
+removed. In conversation, Mr. Jefferson is
+easy and natural, and apparently not ambitious;
+it is not loud as challenging general
+attention, but usually addressed to the person
+next him.”</span> His health remained good till
+within a few months of his death, and he
+never lost a tooth.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Scarcely less burdensome than his correspondence
+was the throng of visitors at Monticello,
+of all nationalities, from every State
+in the Union, some coming from veneration,
+some from curiosity, some from a desire to
+obtain free quarters. Groups of people often
+stood about the house and in the halls to see
+Jefferson pass from his study to his dining-room.
+It is recorded that <span class="tei tei-q">“a female once
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page156">[pg 156]</span><a name="Pg156" id="Pg156" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>punched through a window-pane of the house
+with her parasol to get a better view of him.”</span>
+As many as fifty guests sometimes lodged
+in the house. <span class="tei tei-q">“As a specimen of Virginia
+life,”</span> relates one biographer, <span class="tei tei-q">“we will
+mention that a friend from abroad came to
+Monticello, with a family of six persons, and
+remained ten months.... Accomplished
+young kinswomen habitually passed two or
+three of the summer months there, as they
+would now at a fashionable watering-place.
+They married the sons of Mr. Jefferson’s
+friends, and then came with their families.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The immense expense entailed by these
+hospitalities, added to the debt, amounting
+to $20,000, which Mr. Jefferson owed when
+he left Washington, crippled him financially.
+Moreover, Colonel Randolph, who managed
+his estate for many years, though a good
+farmer, was a poor man of business. It was
+a common saying in the neighborhood that
+nobody raised better crops or got less money
+for them than Colonel Randolph. The embargo,
+and the period of depression which
+followed the war of 1812, went far to impov<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page157">[pg 157]</span><a name="Pg157" id="Pg157" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>erish the Virginia planters. Monroe died
+a bankrupt, and Madison’s widow was left
+almost in want of bread. Jefferson himself
+wrote in 1814: <span class="tei tei-q">“What can we raise for the
+market? Wheat? we can only give it to our
+horses, as we have been doing since harvest.
+Tobacco? It is not worth the pipe it is
+smoked in. Some say whiskey, but all mankind
+must become drunkards to consume it.”</span>
+Jefferson, also, was so anxious lest his slaves
+should be overworked, that the amount of
+labor performed upon his plantation was
+much less than it should have been. And,
+to cap the climax of his financial troubles, he
+lost $20,000 by indorsing to that amount
+for his intimate friend, Governor Nicholas,
+an honorable but unfortunate man. It
+should be added that Mr. Nicholas, in his last
+hours, <span class="tei tei-q">“declared with unspeakable emotion
+that Mr. Jefferson had never by a word, by
+a look, or in any other way, made any allusion
+to his loss by him.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In 1814, Mr. Jefferson sold his library
+to Congress for $23,950, about one half its
+cost; and in the very year of his death he
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page158">[pg 158]</span><a name="Pg158" id="Pg158" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>requested of the Virginia legislature that a
+law might be passed permitting him to sell
+some of his farms by means of a lottery,—the
+times being such that they could be
+disposed of in no other way. He even published
+some <span class="tei tei-q">“Thoughts on Lotteries,”</span>—by
+way of advancing this project. The legislature
+granted his request, with reluctance;
+but in the mean time his necessities became
+known throughout the country, and subscriptions
+were made for his relief. The lottery
+was suspended, and Jefferson died in the
+belief that Monticello would be saved as a
+home for his family.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In March, 1826, Mr. Jefferson’s health
+began to fail; but so late as June 24 he
+was well enough to write a long letter in
+reply to an invitation to attend the fiftieth
+celebration, at Washington, of the 4th of
+July. During the 3d of July he dozed hour
+after hour under the influence of opiates,
+rousing occasionally, and uttering a few
+words. It was evident that his end was
+very near. His family and he himself fervently
+desired that he might live till the 4th
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page159">[pg 159]</span><a name="Pg159" id="Pg159" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of July. At eleven in the evening of July 3
+he whispered to Mr. Trist, the husband of
+one of his granddaughters, who sat by him:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“This is the fourth?”</span> Not bearing to disappoint
+him, Mr. Trist remained silent; and
+Mr. Jefferson feebly asked a second time:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“This is the fourth?”</span> Mr. Trist nodded assent.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Ah!”</span> he breathed, and sank into a
+slumber from which he never awoke; but his
+end did not come till half past twelve in the
+afternoon of Independence Day. On the
+same day, at Quincy, died John Adams, his
+last words being, <span class="tei tei-q">“Thomas Jefferson still
+lives!”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The double coincidence made a strong impression
+upon the imagination of the American
+people. <span class="tei tei-q">“When it became known,”</span> says
+Mr. Parton, <span class="tei tei-q">“that the author of the Declaration
+and its most powerful defender had
+both breathed their last on the Fourth of
+July, the fiftieth since they had set it apart
+from the roll of common days, it seemed as
+if Heaven had given its visible and unerring
+sanction to the work which they had done.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s body was buried at Monticello,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page160">[pg 160]</span><a name="Pg160" id="Pg160" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and on the tombstone is inscribed, as he
+desired, the following: <span class="tei tei-q">“Here was buried
+Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration
+of American Independence, of the Statute of
+Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father
+of the University of Virginia.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s expectation that Monticello
+would remain the property of his descendants
+was not fulfilled. His debts were paid
+to the uttermost farthing by his executor
+and grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph;
+but Martha Randolph and her family were
+left homeless and penniless. When this became
+known, the legislatures of South Carolina
+and Louisiana each voted to Mrs. Randolph
+a gift of $10,000. She died suddenly,
+in 1836, at the age of sixty-three. Monticello
+passed into the hands of strangers.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson had his faults and defects. As
+a statesman and ruler, he showed at times
+irresolution, want of energy and of audacity,
+and a misunderstanding of human nature;
+and at times his judgment was clouded by
+the political prejudices which were common
+in his day. His attitude in the X Y Z
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page161">[pg 161]</span><a name="Pg161" id="Pg161" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>business, his embargo policy, and his policy
+or want of policy after the failure of the
+embargo,—in these cases, and perhaps in
+these alone, his defects are exhibited. It
+is certain also that although at times frank
+and outspoken to a fault, he was at other
+times over-complaisant and insincere. To
+Aaron Burr, for example, he expressed himself
+in terms of friendship which he could
+hardly have felt; and, once, in writing to a
+minister of the gospel he implied, upon his
+own part, a belief in revelation which he did
+not really feel. It seems to be true also that
+Jefferson had an overweening desire to win
+the approbation of his fellow-countrymen;
+and at times, though quite unconsciously to
+himself, this motive led him into courses
+which were rather selfish than patriotic.
+This was the case, perhaps, in his negotiations
+with the English minister after the failure
+of the embargo. It is charged against
+him, also, that he avoided unpleasant situations;
+and that he said or did nothing to
+check the Republican slanders which were
+cast upon Washington and upon John
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page162">[pg 162]</span><a name="Pg162" id="Pg162" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Adams. But when this much has been
+said, all has been said. As a citizen, husband,
+father, friend, and master, Jefferson
+was almost an ideal character. No man was
+ever more kind, more amiable, more tender,
+more just, more generous. To her children,
+Mrs. Randolph declared that never, never
+had she witnessed a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">particle</span></span> of injustice in
+her father,—never had she heard him say a
+word or seen him do an act which she at the
+time or afterward regretted. He was magnanimous,—as
+when he frankly forgave
+John Adams for the injustice of his midnight
+appointments. Though easily provoked,
+he never bore malice. In matters of
+business and in matters of politics he was
+punctiliously honorable. How many times
+he paid his British debt has already been related.
+On one occasion he drew his cheque
+to pay the duties on certain imported wines
+which might have come in free,—yet made
+no merit of the action, for it never came to
+light until long after his death. In the presidential
+campaigns when he was a candidate,
+he never wrote a letter or made a sign
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page163">[pg 163]</span><a name="Pg163" id="Pg163" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to influence the result. He would not say
+a word by way of promise in 1801, when a
+word would have given him the presidency,
+and when so honorable a man as John Adams
+thought that he did wrong to withhold it.
+There was no vanity or smallness in his
+character. It was he and not Dickinson
+who wrote the address to the King, set forth
+by the Continental Congress of 1775; but
+Dickinson enjoyed the fame of it throughout
+Jefferson’s lifetime.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Above all, he was patriotic and conscientious.
+When he lapsed, it was in some
+subordinate matter, and because a little self-deception
+clouded his sight. But in all important
+matters, in all emergencies, he stood
+firm as a rock for what he considered to
+be right, unmoved by the entreaties of his
+friends or by the jeers, threats, and taunts of
+his enemies. He shrank with almost feminine
+repugnance from censure and turmoil,
+but when the occasion demanded it, he
+faced even these with perfect courage and
+resolution. His course as Secretary of State,
+and his enforcement of the embargo, are
+examples.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page164">[pg 164]</span><a name="Pg164" id="Pg164" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Jefferson’s political career was bottomed
+upon a great principle which he never, for
+one moment, lost sight of or doubted, no
+matter how difficult the present, or how dark
+the future. He believed in the people, in
+their capacity for self-government, and in their
+right to enjoy it. This belief shaped his
+course, and, in spite of minor inconsistencies,
+made it consistent. It was on account of
+this belief, and of the faith and courage with
+which he put it in practice, that he became
+the idol of his countrymen, and attained a
+unique position in the history of the world.
+</p>
+        </div></div>
+        <div class="tei tei-back" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+            
+                
+                
+                    <hr class="doublepage" /><div id="footnotes" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+                        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Footnotes</span></h1>
+                        <dl class="tei tei-list-footnotes"><dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_1" name="note_1" href="#noteref_1">1.</a></dt><dd class="tei tei-notetext">It is to be remembered that the support of public
+worship was compulsory in Massachusetts—the inhabitants of certain cities excepted—down to the year 1833.
+An attempt to free the people from this burden, led by
+Dr. Childs, of Berkshire County, was defeated at the Constitutional
+Convention of 1820.</dd><dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_2" name="note_2" href="#noteref_2">2.</a></dt><dd class="tei tei-notetext">The father of Miss Catherine Sedgwick was a leading
+Federalist, and his daughter records that, though a
+most kind-hearted man, he habitually spoke of the people
+as <span class="tei tei-q">“Jacobins”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“miscreants.”</span></dd><dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_3" name="note_3" href="#noteref_3">3.</a></dt><dd class="tei tei-notetext">Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:—<span class="tei tei-q">“But
+if the policy of the government upon a vital
+question affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably
+fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the moment
+they are made, the people will cease to be their own
+masters; having to that extent resigned their government
+into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”</span></dd></dl>
+                    </div>
+                
+            
+            </div>
+<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="boxed tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+                <a name="pdf25" id="pdf25"></a><a name="toc26" id="toc26"></a>
+                <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Transcriber’s Note</span></h1>
+                
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Black letter has been rendered as boldface.</p>
+                
+                
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The following changes have been made to the text:</p>
+            <table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr065" class="tei tei-ref">page 65</a>, <span class="tei tei-q">“Charlotteville”</span> changed to <span class="tei tei-q">“Charlottesville”</span></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr073" class="tei tei-ref">page 73</a>, <span class="tei tei-q">“goverment”</span> changed to <span class="tei tei-q">“government”</span></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr093" class="tei tei-ref">page 93</a>, <span class="tei tei-q">“1795”</span> changed to <span class="tei tei-q">“1793”</span></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr098" class="tei tei-ref">page 98</a>, <span class="tei tei-q">“circumtances”</span> changed to <span class="tei tei-q">“circumstances”</span></td></tr></tbody></table>
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Both <span class="tei tei-q">“draught”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“draft”</span> are used in the text.</p>
+</div>
+            <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <div id="pgfooter" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"><pre class="pre tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS JEFFERSON***
+</pre><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><a name="rightpageheader27" id="rightpageheader27"></a><a name="pgtoc28" id="pgtoc28"></a><a name="pdf29" id="pdf29"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Credits</span></h1><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr><th class="tei tei-label tei-label-gloss">June 28, 2010  </th></tr><tr><td class="tei tei-item tei-item-gloss"><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><span class="tei tei-respStmt">
+                <span class="tei tei-resp">Produced by <span class="tei tei-name">Stefan Cramme</span>
+                    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</span>
+            </span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><a name="rightpageheader30" id="rightpageheader30"></a><a name="pgtoc31" id="pgtoc31"></a><a name="pdf32" id="pdf32"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Word from Project Gutenberg</span></h1><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This file should be named 
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+            <titleStmt>
+                <title>Thomas Jefferson</title>
+                <author><name reg="Merwin, Henry Childs">Henry Childs Merwin</name></author>
+            </titleStmt>
+            <publicationStmt>
+                <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher>
+                <date value="2010-06-28">June 28, 2010</date>
+                <idno type='etext-no'>33011</idno>
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+                  at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
+                  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+                  the terms of the Project Gutenberg License online at
+                  www.gutenberg.org/license</p>
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+        <pgCharMap formats="txt">
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+        <charName>thinsp</charName>
+        <desc>THIN SPACE</desc>
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+<front>
+    <div>
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+    <div>
+        <divGen type="encodingDesc" />
+    </div>
+<div rend="center; page-break-before: always">
+<pb/>
+<p><hi rend="antiqua">The Riverside Biographical Series</hi>
+</p>
+<p>NUMBER 5</p>
+<p><hi rend="font-size: large">THOMAS JEFFERSON</hi></p>
+<p>BY</p>
+<p>HENRY CHILDS MERWIN</p>
+<pb/>
+<pb/>
+<pb/>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p>[Illustration: Th. Jefferson]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i004.jpg" rend="width: 100%"><figDesc>Th. Jefferson</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+</div>
+<titlePage rend="center; page-break-before: right">
+<pb/>
+<docTitle>
+    <titlePart type="main"><hi rend="font-size: xx-large">THOMAS JEFFERSON</hi></titlePart>
+<lb/><lb/>
+</docTitle>
+<byline>BY<lb/><lb/>
+<docAuthor><hi rend="font-size: large">HENRY CHILDS MERWIN</hi></docAuthor></byline>
+<lb/><lb/>
+<figure url="images/i005.png" rend="small"><figDesc>Publisher's emblem</figDesc></figure>
+<lb/><lb/>
+<docImprint><publisher>HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<lb/>
+<hi rend="font-size: small">Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street<lb/>
+Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Avenue</hi></publisher><lb/>
+<publisher><hi rend="antiqua">The Riverside Press, Cambridge</hi></publisher>
+</docImprint>  
+</titlePage>
+<div rend="center; page-break-before: always">
+<pb/>
+<p rend="font-size: small">COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HENRY C. MERWIN</p>
+<p rend="font-size: small">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p>
+</div>
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb/>
+
+<head>CONTENTS</head>
+
+<table rend="tblcolumns: 'r lw(34m) r'; latexcolumns: 'rp{5cm}r'">
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-size: x-small">CHAP.</hi></cell>
+<cell></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-size: x-small">PAGE</hi></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">I.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Youth and Training</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg1">1</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">II.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Virginia in Jefferson’s Day</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg16">16</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">III.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Monticello and its Household</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg28">28</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">IV.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Jefferson in the Revolution</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg36">36</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">V.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Reform Work in Virginia</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg45">45</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">VI.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Governor of Virginia</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg59">59</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">VII.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Envoy at Paris</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg71">71</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">&nbsp;VIII.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Secretary of State</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg82">82</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">IX.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Two Parties</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg98">98</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">X.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>President Jefferson</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg114">114</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XI.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Second Presidential Term</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg130">130</ref></cell>
+</row>
+    <row>
+<cell rend="text-align: right">XII.</cell>
+<cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>A Public Man in Private Life</hi></cell>
+<cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg149">149</ref></cell>
+</row>
+</table>
+   <pb/> 
+</div>
+</front>
+<body rend="page-break-before: right">
+<pb n="1"/><anchor id="Pg1"/>
+
+<head>THOMAS JEFFERSON</head>
+<div>
+<index index="toc" level1="I. Youth and Training"/><index index="pdf" level1="I. Youth and Training"/>
+<head>I</head>
+
+<head type="sub">YOUTH AND TRAINING</head>
+
+<p>
+Thomas Jefferson was born upon a
+frontier estate in Albemarle County, Virginia,
+April 13, 1743. His father, Peter
+Jefferson, was of Welsh descent, not of aristocratic
+birth, but of that yeoman class which
+constitutes the backbone of all societies.
+The elder Jefferson had uncommon powers
+both of mind and body. His strength was
+such that he could simultaneously <q>head
+up</q>—that is, raise from their sides to an
+upright position—two hogsheads of tobacco,
+weighing nearly one thousand pounds apiece.
+Like Washington, he was a surveyor; and
+there is a tradition that once, while running
+his lines through a vast wilderness, his assistants
+gave out from famine and fatigue,
+<pb n="2"/><anchor id="Pg2"/>and Peter Jefferson pushed on alone, sleeping
+at night in hollow trees, amidst howling
+beasts of prey, and subsisting on the flesh
+of a pack mule which he had been obliged
+to kill.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thomas Jefferson inherited from his father
+a love of mathematics and of literature.
+Peter Jefferson had not received a classical
+education, but he was a diligent reader of a
+few good books, chiefly Shakespeare, The
+Spectator, Pope, and Swift; and in mastering
+these he was forming his mind on great
+literature after the manner of many another
+Virginian,—for the houses of that colony
+held English books as they held English
+furniture. The edition of Shakespeare (and
+it is a handsome one) which Peter Jefferson
+used is still preserved among the heirlooms
+of his descendants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was probably in his capacity of surveyor
+that Mr. Jefferson made the acquaintance
+of the Randolph family, and he soon became
+the bosom friend of William Randolph, the
+young proprietor of Tuckahoe. The Randolphs
+had been for ages a family of con<pb n="3"/><anchor id="Pg3"/>sideration in the midland counties of England,
+claiming descent from the Scotch Earls
+of Murray, and connected by blood or marriage
+with many of the English nobility. In
+1735 Peter Jefferson established himself as
+a planter by patenting a thousand acres of
+land in Goochland County, his estate lying
+near and partly including the outlying hills,
+which form a sort of picket line for the
+Blue Mountain range. At the same time
+his friend William Randolph patented an
+adjoining estate of twenty-four hundred
+acres; and inasmuch as there was no good
+site for a house on Jefferson’s estate, Mr.
+Randolph conveyed to him four hundred
+acres for that purpose, the consideration expressed
+in the deed, which is still extant,
+being <q>Henry Weatherbourne’s biggest
+bowl of Arrack punch.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here Peter Jefferson built his house, and
+here, three years later, he brought his bride,—a
+handsome girl of nineteen, and a kinswoman
+of William Randolph, being Jane,
+oldest child of Isham Randolph, then Adjutant-General
+of Virginia. She was born in
+<pb n="4"/><anchor id="Pg4"/>London, in the parish of Shadwell, and Shadwell
+was the name given by Peter Jefferson
+to his estate. This marriage was a fortunate
+union of the best aristocratic and yeoman
+strains in Virginia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the year 1744 the new County of Albemarle
+was carved out of Goochland County,
+and Peter Jefferson was appointed one of
+the three justices who constituted the county
+court and were the real rulers of the shire.
+He was made also Surveyor, and later Colonel
+of the county. This last office was regarded
+as the chief provincial honor in Virginia, and
+it was especially important when he held it,
+for it was the time of the French war, and
+Albemarle was in the debatable land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the midst of that war, in August,
+1757, Peter Jefferson died suddenly, of a
+disease which is not recorded, but which was
+probably produced by fatigue and exposure.
+He was a strong, just, kindly man, sought
+for as a protector of the widow and the
+orphan, and respected and loved by Indians
+as well as white men. Upon his deathbed
+he left two injunctions regarding his son
+<pb n="5"/><anchor id="Pg5"/>Thomas: one, that he should receive a classical
+education; the other, that he should
+never be permitted to neglect the physical
+exercises necessary for health and strength.
+Of these dying commands his son often
+spoke with gratitude; and he used to say
+that if he were obliged to choose between
+the education and the estate which his father
+gave him, he would choose the education.
+Peter Jefferson left eight children, but only
+one son besides Thomas, and that one died
+in infancy. Less is known of Jefferson’s
+mother; but he derived from her a love of
+music, an extraordinary keenness of susceptibility,
+and a corresponding refinement
+of taste.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His father’s death left Jefferson his own
+master. In one of his later letters he says:
+<q>At fourteen years of age the whole care
+and direction of myself were thrown on myself
+entirely, without a relative or a friend
+qualified to advise or guide me.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first use that he made of his liberty
+was to change his school, and to become a
+pupil of the Rev. James Maury,—an ex<pb n="6"/><anchor id="Pg6"/>cellent clergyman and scholar, of Huguenot
+descent, who had recently settled in Albemarle
+County. With him young Jefferson
+continued for two years, studying Greek and
+Latin, and becoming noted, as a schoolmate
+afterward reported, for scholarship, industry,
+and shyness. He was a good runner, a
+keen fox-hunter, and a bold and graceful
+rider.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the age of sixteen, in the spring of
+1760, he set out on horseback for Williamsburg,
+the capital of Virginia, where he proposed
+to enter the college of William and
+Mary. Up to this time he had never seen
+a town, or even a village, except the hamlet
+of Charlottesville, which is about four miles
+from Shadwell. Williamsburg—described
+in contemporary language as <q>the centre of
+taste, fashion, and refinement</q>—was an
+unpaved village, of about one thousand inhabitants,
+surrounded by an expanse of dark
+green tobacco fields as far as the eye could
+reach. It was, however, well situated upon
+a plateau midway between the York and
+James rivers, and was swept by breezes
+<pb n="7"/><anchor id="Pg7"/>which tempered the heat of the summer sun
+and kept the town free from mosquitoes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Williamsburg was also well laid out, and
+it has the honor of having served as a model
+for the city of Washington. It consisted
+chiefly of a single street, one hundred feet
+broad and three quarters of a mile long,
+with the capitol at one end, the college at
+the other, and a ten-acre square with public
+buildings in the middle. Here in his palace
+lived the colonial governor. The town also
+contained <q>ten or twelve gentlemen’s families,
+besides merchants and tradesmen.</q>
+These were the permanent inhabitants;
+and during the <q>season</q>—the midwinter
+months—the planters’ families came to
+town in their coaches, the gentlemen on
+horseback, and the little capital was then a
+scene of gayety and dissipation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was Williamsburg in 1760 when
+Thomas Jefferson, the frontier planter’s son,
+rode slowly into town at the close of an early
+spring day, surveying with the outward indifference,
+but keen inward curiosity of a
+countryman, the place which was to be his
+<pb n="8"/><anchor id="Pg8"/>residence for seven years,—in one sense the
+most important, because the most formative,
+period of his life. He was a tall stripling,
+rather slightly built,—after the model of
+the Randolphs,—but extremely well-knit,
+muscular, and agile. His face was freckled,
+and his features were somewhat pointed. His
+hair is variously described as red, reddish,
+and sandy, and the color of his eyes as blue,
+gray, and also hazel. The expression of his
+face was frank, cheerful, and engaging. He
+was not handsome in youth, but <q>a very
+good-looking man in middle age, and quite a
+handsome old man.</q> At maturity he stood
+six feet two and a half inches. <q>Mr. Jefferson,</q>
+said Mr. Bacon, at one time the
+superintendent of his estate, <q>was well proportioned
+and straight as a gun-barrel. He
+was like a fine horse, he had no surplus flesh.
+He had an iron constitution, and was very
+strong.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson was always the most cheerful and
+optimistic of men. He once said, after remarking
+that something must depend <q>on
+the chapter of events:</q> <q>I am in the habit
+<pb n="9"/><anchor id="Pg9"/>of turning over the next leaf with hope, and,
+though it often fails me, there is still another
+and another behind.</q> No doubt this
+sanguine trait was due in part at least to
+his almost perfect health. He was, to use
+his own language, <q>blessed with organs of
+digestion which accepted and concocted,
+without ever murmuring, whatever the palate
+chose to consign to them.</q> His habits
+through life were good. He never smoked,
+he drank wine in moderation, he went to
+bed early, he was regular in taking exercise,
+either by walking or, more commonly, by
+riding on horseback.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The college of William and Mary in Jefferson’s
+day is described by Mr. Parton as
+<q>a medley of college, Indian mission, and
+grammar school, ill-governed, and distracted
+by dissensions among its ruling powers.</q>
+But Jefferson had a thirst for knowledge
+and a capacity for acquiring it, which made
+him almost independent of institutions of
+learning. Moreover, there was one professor
+who had a large share in the formation
+of his mind. <q>It was my great good for<pb n="10"/><anchor id="Pg10"/>tune,</q> he wrote in his brief autobiography,
+<q>and what probably fixed the destinies of
+my life, that Dr. William Small, of Scotland,
+was then professor of mathematics; a man
+profound in most of the useful branches of
+science, with a happy talent of communication
+and an enlarged liberal mind. He, most
+happily for me, soon became attached to me,
+and made me his daily companion when not
+engaged in the school; and from his conversation
+I got my first views of the expansion
+of science, and of the system of things in
+which we are placed.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson, like all well-bred Virginians,
+was brought up as an Episcopalian; but as
+a young man, perhaps owing in part to the
+influence of Dr. Small, he ceased to believe
+in Christianity as a religion, though he always
+at home attended the Episcopal church, and
+though his daughters were brought up in that
+faith. If any theological term is to be applied
+to him, he should be called a Deist.
+Upon the subject of his religious faith,
+Jefferson was always extremely reticent.
+To one or two friends only did he disclose
+<pb n="11"/><anchor id="Pg11"/>his creed, and that was in letters which were
+published after his death. When asked,
+even by one of his own family, for his opinion
+upon any religious matter, he invariably
+refused to express it, saying that every person
+was bound to look into the subject for
+himself, and to decide upon it conscientiously,
+unbiased by the opinions of others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dr. Small introduced Jefferson to other
+valuable acquaintances; and, boy though he
+was, he soon became the fourth in a group
+of friends which embraced the three most
+notable men in the little metropolis. These
+were, beside Dr. Small, Francis Fauquier,
+the acting governor of the province, appointed
+by the crown, and George Wythe.
+Fauquier was a courtly, honorable, highly
+cultivated man of the world, a disciple of
+Voltaire, and a confirmed gambler, who had
+in this respect an unfortunate influence upon
+the Virginia gentry,—not, however, upon
+Jefferson, who, though a lover of horses,
+and a frequenter of races, never in his life
+gambled or even played cards. Wythe was
+then just beginning a long and honorable
+<pb n="12"/><anchor id="Pg12"/>career as lawyer, statesman, professor, and
+judge. He remained always a firm and intimate
+friend of Jefferson, who spoke of him,
+after his death, as <q>my second father.</q> It
+is an interesting fact that Thomas Jefferson,
+John Marshall, and Henry Clay were all,
+in succession, law students in the office of
+George Wythe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many of the government officials and
+planters who flocked to Williamsburg in
+the winter were related to Jefferson on his
+mother’s side, and they opened their houses
+to him with Virginia hospitality. We read
+also of dances in the <q>Apollo,</q> the ball-room
+of the old Raleigh tavern, and of musical
+parties at Gov. Fauquier’s house, in which
+Jefferson, who was a skillful and enthusiastic
+fiddler, always took part. <q>I suppose,</q> he
+remarked in his old age, <q>that during at
+least a dozen years of my life, I played no
+less than three hours a day.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this period he was somewhat of a
+dandy, very particular about his clothes and
+equipage, and devoted, as indeed he remained
+through life, to fine horses. Virginia im<pb n="13"/><anchor id="Pg13"/>ported more thoroughbred horses than any
+other colony, and to this day there is probably
+a greater admixture of thoroughbred
+blood there than in any other State. Diomed,
+winner of the first English Derby,
+was brought over to Virginia in 1799, and
+founded a family which, even now, is highly
+esteemed as a source of speed and endurance.
+Jefferson had some of his colts; and both
+for the saddle and for his carriage he always
+used high-bred horses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Referring to the Williamsburg period of
+his life, he wrote once to a grandson: <q>When
+I recollect the various sorts of bad company
+with which I associated from time to time, I
+am astonished I did not turn off with some of
+them, and become as worthless to society as
+they were.... But I had the good fortune
+to become acquainted very early with some
+characters of very high standing, and to feel
+the incessant wish that I could ever become
+what they were. Under temptations and difficulties,
+I would ask myself what would Dr.
+Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in
+this situation? What course in it will as<pb n="14"/><anchor id="Pg14"/>sure me their approbation? I am certain
+that this mode of deciding on my conduct
+tended more to correctness than any reasoning
+powers that I possesed.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This passage throws a light upon Jefferson’s
+character. It does not seem to occur to
+him that a young man might require some
+stronger motive to keep his passions in check
+than could be furnished either by the wish
+to imitate a good example or by his <q>reasoning
+powers.</q> To Jefferson’s well-regulated
+mind the desire for approbation was a
+sufficient motive. He was particularly sensitive,
+perhaps morbidly so, to disapprobation.
+The respect, the good-will, the affection
+of his countrymen were so dear to him
+that the desire to retain them exercised a
+great, it may be at times, an undue influence
+upon him. <q>I find,</q> he once said, <q>the pain
+of a little censure, even when it is unfounded,
+is more acute than the pleasure of much
+praise.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During his second year at college, Jefferson
+laid aside all frivolities. He sent home
+his horses, contenting himself with a mile
+<pb n="15"/><anchor id="Pg15"/>run out and back at nightfall for exercise,
+and studying, if we may believe the biographer,
+no less than fifteen hours a day. This
+intense application reduced the time of his
+college course by one half; and after the
+second winter at Williamsburg he went home
+with a degree in his pocket, and a volume of
+Coke upon Lytleton in his trunk.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="16"/><anchor id="Pg16"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="II. Virginia in Jefferson's day"/><index index="pdf" level1="II. Virginia in Jefferson's day"/>
+<head>II</head>
+
+<head type="sub">VIRGINIA IN JEFFERSON’S DAY</head>
+
+<p>
+To a young Virginian of Jefferson’s standing
+but two active careers were open, law and
+politics, and in almost every case these two,
+sooner or later, merged in one. The condition
+of Virginia was very different from that
+of New England,—neither the clerical nor
+the medical profession was held in esteem.
+There were no manufactures, and there was
+no general commerce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nature has divided Virginia into two parts:
+the mountainous region to the west and the
+broad level plain between the mountains and
+the sea, intersected by numerous rivers, in
+which, far back from the ocean, the tide
+ebbs and flows. In this tide-water region
+were situated the tobacco plantations which
+constituted the wealth and were inhabited by
+the aristocracy of the colony. Almost every
+planter lived near a river and had his own
+<pb n="17"/><anchor id="Pg17"/>wharf, whence a schooner carried his tobacco
+to London, and brought back wines, silks,
+velvets, guns, saddles, and shoes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The small proprietors of land were comparatively
+few in number, and the whole
+constitution of the colony, political and social,
+was aristocratic. Both real estate and
+slaves descended by force of law to the eldest
+son, so that the great properties were kept
+intact. There were no townships and no
+town meetings. The political unit was the
+parish; for the Episcopal church was the established
+church,—a state institution; and
+the parishes were of great extent, there being,
+as a rule, but one or two parishes in a county.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The clergy, though belonging to an establishment,
+were poorly paid, and not revered as
+a class. They held the same position of inferiority
+in respect to the rich planters which
+the clergy of England held in respect to the
+country gentry at the same period. Being
+appointed by the crown, they were selected
+without much regard to fitness, and they
+were demoralized by want of supervision,
+for there were no resident bishops, and,
+<pb n="18"/><anchor id="Pg18"/>further, by the uncertain character of their
+incomes, which, being paid in tobacco, were
+subject to great fluctuations. A few were
+men of learning and virtue who performed
+their duties faithfully, and eked out their
+incomes by taking pupils. <q>It was these
+few,</q> remarks Mr. Parton, <q>who saved civilization
+in the colony.</q> A few others became
+cultivators of tobacco, and acquired
+wealth. But the greater part of the clergy
+were companions and hangers-on of the rich
+planters,—examples of that type which
+Thackeray so well describes in the character
+of Parson Sampson in <q>The Virginians.</q>
+Strange tales were told of these old Virginia
+parsons. One is spoken of as pocketing
+annually a hundred dollars, the revenue of a
+legacy for preaching four sermons a year
+against atheism, gambling, racing, and swearing,—for
+all of which vices, except the first,
+he was notorious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This period, the middle half of the eighteenth
+century, was, as the reader need not
+be reminded, that in which the English
+church sank to its lowest point. It was the
+<pb n="19"/><anchor id="Pg19"/>era when the typical country parson was a
+convivial fox-hunter; when the Fellows of
+colleges sat over their wine from four o’clock,
+their dinner hour, till midnight or after;
+when the highest type of bishop was a
+learned man who spent more time in his
+private studies than in the duties of his
+office; when the cathedrals were neglected
+and dirty, and the parish churches were
+closed from Sunday to Sunday. In England,
+the reaction produced Methodism, and,
+later, the Tractarian movement; and we are
+told that even in Virginia, <q>swarms of Methodists,
+Moravians, and New-Light Presbyterians
+came over the border from Pennsylvania,
+and pervaded the colony.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Taxation pressed with very unequal force
+upon the poor, and the right of voting was
+confined to freeholders. There was no system
+of public schools, and the great mass
+of the people were ignorant and coarse, but
+morally and physically sound,—a good substructure
+for an aristocratic society. Wealth
+being concentrated mainly in the hands of a
+few, Virginia presented striking contrasts of
+<pb n="20"/><anchor id="Pg20"/>luxury and destitution, whereas in the neighboring
+colony of Pennsylvania, where wealth
+was more distributed and society more democratic,
+thrift and prosperity were far more
+common.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>In Pennsylvania,</q> relates a foreign traveler,
+<q>one sees great numbers of wagons
+drawn by four or more fine fat horses....
+In the slave States we sometimes meet a
+ragged black boy or girl driving a team consisting
+of a lean cow and a mule; and I have
+seen a mule, a bull, and a cow, each miserable
+in its appearance, composing one team, with
+a half-naked black slave or two riding or
+driving as occasion suited.</q> And yet between
+Richmond and Fredericksburg, <q>in
+the afternoon, as our road lay through the
+woods, I was surprised to meet a family
+party traveling along in as elegant a coach
+as is usually met with in the neighborhood
+of London, and attended by several gayly
+dressed footmen.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Virginia society just before the Revolution
+perfectly illustrated Buckle’s remark about
+leisure: <q>Without leisure, science is impos<pb n="21"/><anchor id="Pg21"/>sible; and when leisure has been won, most
+of the class possessing it will waste it in the
+pursuit of pleasure, and a <hi rend="italic">few</hi> will employ
+it in the pursuit of knowledge.</q> Men like
+Jefferson, George Wythe, and Madison used
+their leisure for the good of their fellow-beings
+and for the cultivation of their minds;
+whereas the greater part of the planters—and
+the poor whites imitated them—spent
+their ample leisure in sports, in drinking, and
+in absolute idleness. <q>In spite of the Virginians’
+love for dissipation,</q> wrote a famous
+French traveler, <q>the taste for reading is
+commoner among men of the first rank than
+in any other part of America; but the populace
+is perhaps more ignorant there than
+elsewhere.</q> <q>The Virginia virtues,</q> says
+Mr. Henry Adams, <q>were those of the field
+and farm—the simple and straightforward
+mind, the notions of courage and truth, the
+absence of mercantile sharpness and quickness,
+the rusticity and open-handed hospitality.</q>
+Virginians of the upper class were
+remarkable for their high-bred courtesy,—a
+trait so inherent that it rarely disappeared
+<pb n="22"/><anchor id="Pg22"/>even in the bitterness of political disputes
+and divisions. This, too, was the natural
+product of a society based not on trade or
+commerce, but on land. <q>I blush for my
+own people,</q> wrote Dr. Channing, from Virginia,
+in 1791, <q>when I compare the selfish
+prudence of a Yankee with the generous confidence
+of a Virginian. Here I find great
+vices, but greater virtues than I left behind
+me.</q> There was a largeness of temper and
+of feeling in the Virginia aristocracy, which
+seems to be inseparable from people living
+in a new country, upon the outskirts of civilization.
+They had the pride of birth, but
+they recognized other claims to consideration,
+and were as far as possible from estimating
+a man according to the amount of
+his wealth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slavery itself was probably a factor for
+good in the character of such a man as Jefferson,—it
+afforded a daily exercise in the
+virtues of benevolence and self-control. How
+he treated the blacks may be gathered from
+a story, told by his superintendent, of a slave
+named Jim who had been caught stealing
+<pb n="23"/><anchor id="Pg23"/>nails from the nail-factory: <q>When Mr.
+Jefferson came, I sent for Jim, and I never
+saw any person, white or black, feel as badly
+as he did when he saw his master. The tears
+streamed down his face, and he begged for
+pardon over and over again. I felt very
+badly myself. Mr. Jefferson turned to me
+and said, <q>Ah, sir, we can’t punish him. He
+has suffered enough already.</q> He then talked
+to him, gave him a heap of good advice, and
+sent him to the shop.... Jim said: <q>Well
+I’se been a-seeking religion a long time, but
+I never heard anything before that sounded
+so, or made me feel so, as I did when Master
+said, <q>Go, and don’t do so any more,</q> and
+now I’se determined to seek religion till I
+find it;</q> and sure enough he afterwards
+came to me for a permit to go and be baptized....
+He was always a good servant
+afterward.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another element that contributed to the
+efficiency and the high standard of the early
+Virginia statesman was a good, old-fashioned
+classical education. They were familiar, to
+use Matthew Arnold’s famous expression,
+<pb n="24"/><anchor id="Pg24"/><q>with the best that has ever been said or
+done.</q> This was no small advantage to men
+who were called upon to act as founders of
+a republic different indeed from the republics
+of Greece and Rome, but still based upon
+the same principles, and demanding an
+exercise of the same heroic virtues. The
+American Revolution would never have cut
+quite the figure in the world which history
+assigns to it, had it not been conducted with
+a kind of classic dignity and decency; and
+to this result nobody contributed more than
+Jefferson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was Virginia in the eighteenth century,—at
+the base of society, the slaves;
+next, a lower class, rough, ignorant, and
+somewhat brutal, but still wholesome, and
+possessing the primitive virtues of courage
+and truth; and at the top, the landed gentry,
+luxurious, proud, idle and dissipated
+for the most part, and yet blossoming into
+a few characters of a type so high that the
+world has hardly seen a better. Had he
+been born in Europe, Jefferson would doubtless
+have devoted himself to music, or to
+<pb n="25"/><anchor id="Pg25"/>architecture, or to literature, or to science,—for
+in all these directions his taste was
+nearly equally strong; but these careers being
+closed to him by the circumstances of
+the colony, he became a lawyer, and then,
+under pressure of the Revolution, a politician
+and statesman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the four years following his graduation,
+Jefferson spent most of the winter
+months at Williamsburg, pursuing his legal
+and other studies, and the rest of the year
+upon the family plantation, the management
+of which had devolved upon him. Now, as
+always, he was the most industrious of men.
+He lived, as Mr. Parton remarks, <q>with a
+pen in his hand.</q> He kept a garden book,
+a farm book, a weather book, a receipt book,
+a cash book, and, while he practiced law, a
+fee book. Many of these books are still preserved,
+and the entries are as legible now as
+when they were first written down in Jefferson’s
+small but clear and graceful hand,—the
+hand of an artist. Jefferson, as one of
+his old friends once remarked, <hi rend="italic">hated</hi> superficial
+knowledge; and he dug to the roots of
+<pb n="26"/><anchor id="Pg26"/>the common law, reading deeply in old reports
+written in law French and law Latin,
+and especially studying Magna Charta and
+Bracton.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He found time also for riding, for music,
+and dancing; and in his twentieth year he
+became enamored of Miss Rebecca Burwell,
+a Williamsburg belle more distinguished,
+tradition reports, for beauty than for cleverness.
+But Jefferson was not yet in a position
+to marry,—he even contemplated a
+foreign tour; and the girl, somewhat abruptly,
+married another lover. The wound
+seems not to have been a deep one. Jefferson,
+in fact, though he found his chief happiness
+in family affection, and though capable
+of strong and lasting attachments, was not
+the man for a romantic passion. He was a
+philosopher of the reasonable, eighteenth-century
+type. No one was more kind and
+just in the treatment of his slaves, but he
+did not free them, as George Wythe, perhaps
+foolishly, did; and he was even cautious
+about promulgating his views as to the folly
+and wickedness of slavery, though he did his
+<pb n="27"/><anchor id="Pg27"/>best to promote its abolition by legislative
+measures. There was not in Jefferson the
+material for a martyr or a Don Quixote;
+but that was Nature’s fault, not his. It may
+be said of every particular man that there
+is a certain depth to which he cannot sink,
+and there is a certain height to which he
+cannot rise. Within the intermediate zone
+there is ample exercise for free-will; and no
+man struggled harder than Jefferson to fulfill
+all the obligations which, as he conceived,
+were laid upon him.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="28"/><anchor id="Pg28"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="III. Monticello and its Household"/><index index="pdf" level1="III. Monticello and its Household"/>
+<head>III</head>
+
+<head type="sub">MONTICELLO AND ITS HOUSEHOLD</head>
+
+<p>
+In April, 1764, Jefferson came of age,
+and his first public act was a characteristic
+one. For the benefit of the neighborhood,
+he procured the passage of a statute to authorize
+the dredging of the Rivanna River
+upon which his own estate bordered in part.
+He then by private subscriptions raised a
+sum sufficient for carrying out this purpose;
+and in a short time the stream, upon which
+before a bark canoe would hardly have
+floated, was made available for the transportation
+of farm produce to the James River,
+and thence to the sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In 1766, he made a journey to Philadelphia,
+in order to be inoculated for smallpox,
+traveling in a light gig drawn by a high-spirited
+horse, and narrowly escaping death
+by drowning in one of the numerous rivers
+which had to be forded between Charlottes<pb n="29"/><anchor id="Pg29"/>ville and Philadelphia. In the following
+year, about the time of his twenty-fourth
+birthday, he was admitted to the bar, and
+entered almost immediately upon a large
+and lucrative practice. He remained at the
+bar only seven years, but during most of
+this time his professional income averaged
+more than £2500 a year; and he increased
+his paternal estate from 1900 acres to 5000
+acres. He argued with force and fluency,
+but his voice was not suitable for public
+speaking, and soon became husky. Moreover,
+Jefferson had an intense repugnance
+to the arena. He shrank with a kind of
+nervous horror from a personal contest, and
+hated to be drawn into a discussion. The
+turmoil and confusion of a public body were
+hideous to him;—it was as a writer, not as
+a speaker, that he won fame, first in the
+Virginia Assembly, and afterward in the
+Continental Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In October, 1768, Jefferson was chosen
+to represent Albemarle County in the House
+of Burgesses of Virginia; and thus began
+his long political career of forty years. A
+<pb n="30"/><anchor id="Pg30"/>resolution which he formed at the outset is
+stated in the following letter written in 1792
+to a friend who had offered him a share in
+an undertaking which promised to be profitable:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>When I first entered on the stage of
+public life (now twenty-four years ago) I
+came to a resolution never to engage, while
+in public office, in any kind of enterprise for
+the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear
+any other character than that of a farmer.
+I have never departed from it in a single
+instance; and I have in multiplied instances
+found myself happy in being able to decide
+and to act as a public servant, clear of all
+interest, in the multiform questions that
+have arisen, wherein I have seen others embarrassed
+and biased by having got themselves
+in a more interested situation.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the next few years there was a
+lull in political affairs,—a sullen calm before
+the storm of the Revolution; but they
+were important years in Mr. Jefferson’s life.
+In February, 1770, the house at Shadwell,
+where he lived with his mother and sisters,
+<pb n="31"/><anchor id="Pg31"/>was burned to the ground, while the family
+were away. <q>Were none of my books
+saved?</q> Jefferson asked of the negro who
+came to him, breathless, with news of the
+disaster. <q>No, master,</q> was the reply,
+<q>but we saved the fiddle.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In giving his friend Page an account of
+the fire, Jefferson wrote: <q>On a reasonable
+estimate, I calculate the cost of the books
+burned to have been £200. Would to God
+it had been the money,—then had it never
+cost me a sigh!</q> Beside the books, Jefferson
+lost most of his notes and papers; but
+no mishap, not caused by his own fault, ever
+troubled his peace of mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the fire, his mother and the children
+took temporary refuge in the home of an
+overseer, and Jefferson repaired to Monticello,—as
+he had named the elevated spot
+on the paternal estate where he had already
+begun to build the house which was his
+home for the remainder of his life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Monticello is a small outlying peak, upon
+the outskirts of the mountainous part of
+Virginia, west of the tide-water region, and
+<pb n="32"/><anchor id="Pg32"/>rising 580 feet above the plain at its foot.
+Upon its summit there is a space of about
+six acres, leveled partly by nature and partly
+by art; and here, one hundred feet back
+from the brow of the hill, Jefferson built his
+house. It is a long, low building,—still
+standing,—with a Grecian portico in front,
+surmounted by a cupola. The road by
+which it is approached winds round and
+round, so as to make the ascent less difficult.
+In front of the house three long terraces,
+terminating in small pavilions, were
+constructed; and upon the northern terrace,
+or in its pavilion, Jefferson and his friends
+used to sit on summer nights gazing off
+toward the Blue Ridge, some eighty miles
+distant, or upon the nearer peaks of the Ragged
+Mountains. The altitude is such that
+neither dew nor mosquitoes can reach it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this beautiful but as yet uncompleted
+mountain home, Jefferson, in January, 1772,
+brought his bride. She was Martha Skelton,
+who had been left a widow at nineteen,
+and was now twenty-two, a daughter of John
+Wayles, a leading and opulent lawyer.
+<pb n="33"/><anchor id="Pg33"/>Martha Skelton was a tall, beautiful, highly
+educated young woman, of graceful carriage,
+with hazel eyes, literary in her tastes, a
+skillful performer upon the spinnet, and a
+notable housewife whose neatly kept account
+books are still preserved. They were married
+at <q>The Forest,</q> her father’s estate in
+Charles City County, and immediately set
+out for Monticello.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two years later, in 1774, died Dabney
+Carr, a brilliant and patriotic young lawyer,
+Jefferson’s most intimate friend, and the
+husband of his sister Martha. Dabney
+Carr left six small children, whom, with
+their mother, Jefferson took under his wing,
+and they were brought up at Monticello as
+if they had been his own children. Jefferson
+loved children, and he had, in common
+with that very different character, Aaron
+Burr, an instinct for teaching. While still
+a young man himself, he was often called
+upon to direct the studies of other young
+men,—Madison and Monroe were in this
+sense his pupils; and the founding of the
+University of Virginia was an achievement
+<pb n="34"/><anchor id="Pg34"/>long anticipated by him and enthusiastically
+performed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson was somewhat unfortunate in his
+own children, for, of the six that were born
+to him, only two, Martha and Maria, lived
+to grow up. Maria married but died young,
+leaving one child. Martha, the first-born,
+was a brilliant, cheerful, wholesome woman.
+She married Thomas Mann Randolph, afterward
+governor of Virginia. <q>She was just
+like her father, in this respect,</q> says Mr.
+Bacon, the superintendent,—<q>she was always
+busy. If she wasn’t reading or writing,
+she was always doing something. She
+used to sit in Mr. Jefferson’s room a great
+deal, and sew, or read, or talk, as he would
+be busy about something else.</q> John Randolph
+of Roanoke once toasted her—and it
+was after his quarrel with her father—as
+the sweetest woman in Virginia. She left
+ten children, and many of her descendants
+are still living.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To her, and to his other daughter, Maria,
+who is described as being more beautiful
+and no less amiable than her sister, but not
+<pb n="35"/><anchor id="Pg35"/>so intellectual, Jefferson owed the chief happiness
+of his life. Like many another man
+who has won fame and a high position in the
+world, he counted these things but as dust
+and ashes in comparison with family affection.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="36"/><anchor id="Pg36"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="IV. Jefferson in the Revolution"/><index index="pdf" level1="IV. Jefferson in the Revolution"/>
+<head>IV</head>
+
+<head type="sub">JEFFERSON IN THE REVOLUTION</head>
+
+<p>
+Shortly after Mr. Jefferson’s marriage,
+the preliminary movements of the Revolution
+began, and though he took an active
+part in them it was not without reluctance.
+Even after the battle of Bunker Hill, namely,
+in November, 1775, he wrote to a kinsman
+that there was not a man in the British
+Empire who more cordially loved a union
+with Great Britain than he did. John Jay
+said after the Revolution: <q>During the
+course of my life, and until the second petition
+of Congress in 1775, I never did hear
+any American of any class or description
+express a wish for the independence of the
+colonies.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But these friendly feelings were first outraged
+and then extinguished by a long series
+of ill-considered and oppressive acts, covering,
+with some intermissions, a period of
+<pb n="37"/><anchor id="Pg37"/>about twelve years. Of these the most noteworthy
+were the Stamp Act, which amounted
+to taxation without representation, and the
+impost on tea, which was coupled with a
+provision that the receipts should be applied
+to the salaries of officers of the crown, thus
+placing them beyond the control of the local
+assemblies. The crown officers were also
+authorized to grant salaries and pensions at
+their discretion; and a board of revenue
+commissioners for the whole country was established
+at Boston, and armed with despotic
+powers. These proceedings amounted to a
+deprivation of liberty, and they were aggravated
+by the king’s contemptuous rejection
+of the petitions addressed to him by the
+colonists. We know what followed,—the
+burning of the British war schooner, Gaspee,
+by leading citizens of Providence, and the
+famous tea-party in Boston harbor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile Virginia had not been inactive.
+In March, 1772, a few young men, members
+of the House of Burgesses, met at the Raleigh
+Tavern in Williamsburg. They were
+Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and his
+<pb n="38"/><anchor id="Pg38"/>brother, Thomas Jefferson, and a few others.
+They drew up several resolutions, the most
+important of which called for the appointment
+of a standing committee and for an
+invitation to the other colonies to appoint
+like committees for mutual information and
+assistance in the struggle against the crown.
+A similar resolution had been adopted in
+Massachusetts two years before, but without
+any practical result. The Virginia resolution
+was passed the next day by the House
+of Burgesses, and it gave rise to those proceedings
+which ushered in the Revolution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first Continental Congress was to meet
+in Philadelphia, in September, 1774; and
+Jefferson, in anticipation, prepared a draft
+of instructions for the delegates who were to
+be elected by Virginia. Being taken ill
+himself, on his way to the convention, he
+sent forward a copy of these instructions.
+They were considered too drastic to be
+adopted by the convention; but some of the
+members caused them to be published under
+the title of <q>A Summary View of the Rights
+of America.</q> The pamphlet was extensively
+<pb n="39"/><anchor id="Pg39"/>read in this country, and a copy which had
+been sent to London falling into the hands
+of Edmund Burke, he had it reprinted in
+England, where it ran through edition after
+edition. Jefferson’s name thus became
+known throughout the colonies and in England.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <q>Summary View</q> is in reality a
+political essay. Its author wasted no time
+in discussing the specific legal and constitutional
+questions which had arisen between
+the colonies and the crown; but he went to
+the root of the matter, and with one or two
+generalizations as bold and original as if
+they had been made by Rousseau, he cut the
+Gordian knot, and severed America from the
+Parliament of Great Britain. He admitted
+some sort of dependence upon the crown,
+but his two main principles were these: (1)
+that the soil of this country belonged to the
+people who had settled and improved it, and
+that the crown had no right to sell or give it
+away; (2) that the right of self-government
+was a right natural to every people, and that
+Parliament, therefore, had no authority to
+<pb n="40"/><anchor id="Pg40"/>make laws for America. Jefferson was
+always about a century in advance of his
+time; and the <q>Summary View</q> substantially
+anticipated what is now the acknowledged
+relation of England to her colonies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson was elected a member of the
+Continental Congress at its second session;
+and he made a rapid journey to Philadelphia
+in a chaise, with two led horses behind,
+reaching there the night before Washington
+set out for Cambridge. The Congress was
+composed mainly of young men. Franklin,
+the oldest member, was seventy-one, and a
+few others were past sixty. Washington
+was forty-three; John Adams, forty; Patrick
+Henry, a year or two younger; John Rutledge,
+thirty-six; his brother, twenty-six;
+John Langdon and William Paca, thirty-five,
+John Jay, thirty; Thomas Stone, thirty-two,
+and Jefferson, thirty-two.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson soon became intimate with John
+Adams, who in later years said of him:
+<q>Though a silent member of Congress, he
+was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive
+upon committees and in conversation—not
+<pb n="41"/><anchor id="Pg41"/>even Samuel Adams was more so—that he
+soon seized upon my heart.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson, as we have seen, was not fitted
+to shine as an orator, still less in debate.
+But as a writer he had that capacity for style
+which comes, if it comes at all, as a gift of
+nature; which needs to be supplemented, but
+which cannot be supplied, by practice and
+study. In some of his early letters there
+are slight reminders of Dr. Johnson’s manner,
+and still more of Sterne’s. Sterne indeed
+was one of his favorite authors. However,
+these early traces of imitation were
+absorbed very quickly; and, before he was
+thirty, Jefferson became master of a clear,
+smooth, polished, picturesque, and individual
+style. To him, therefore, his associates naturally
+turned when they needed such a proclamation
+to the world as the Declaration of
+Independence; and that document is very
+characteristic of its author. It was imagination
+that gave distinction to Jefferson both
+as a man and as a writer. He never dashed
+off a letter which did not contain some play
+of fancy; and whether he was inventing a
+<pb n="42"/><anchor id="Pg42"/>plough or forecasting the destinies of a great
+Democracy, imagination qualified the performance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the most effective forms in which
+imagination displays itself in prose is by the
+use of a common word in such a manner and
+context that it conveys an uncommon meaning.
+There are many examples of this rhetorical
+art in Jefferson’s writings, but the
+most notable one occurs in the noble first
+paragraph of the Declaration of Independence:
+<q>When, in the course of human
+events, it becomes necessary for one people
+to dissolve the political bands which have
+connected them with another, and to assume
+among the powers of the earth the separate
+and equal station to which the Laws of
+Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a
+decent respect to the opinions of mankind
+requires that they should declare the causes
+which impel them to the separation.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon this paragraph Mr. Parton eloquently
+observes: <q>The noblest utterance of
+the whole composition is the reason given
+for making the Declaration,—<q><hi rend="italic">A decent
+<pb n="43"/><anchor id="Pg43"/>respect for the opinions of mankind</hi>.</q> This
+touches the heart. Among the best emotions
+that human nature knows is the veneration
+of man for man. This recognition of the
+public opinion of the world—the sum of human
+sense—as the final arbiter in all such
+controversies is the single phrase of the document
+which Jefferson alone, perhaps, of all
+the Congress, could have originated; and in
+point of merit it was worth all the rest.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Franklin and John Adams, who were on
+the committee with Jefferson, made a few
+verbal changes in his draught of the Declaration,
+and it was then discussed and reviewed
+by Congress for three days. Congress
+made eighteen suppressions, six additions,
+and ten alterations; and it must be admitted
+that most of these were improvements. For
+example, Jefferson had framed a paragraph
+in which the king was severely censured for
+opposing certain measures looking to the suppression
+of the slave trade. This would have
+come with an ill grace from the Americans,
+since for a century New England had been
+enriching herself by that trade, and the southern
+colonies had subsisted upon the labor
+<pb n="44"/><anchor id="Pg44"/>which it brought them. Congress wisely
+struck out the paragraph.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Declaration of Independence was received
+with rapture throughout the country.
+Everywhere it was read aloud to the people
+who gathered to hear it, amid the booming
+of guns, the ringing of bells, and the display
+of fireworks. In Philadelphia, after the reading,
+the late king’s coat of arms was burned
+in Independence Square; in New York the
+leaden statue, in Bowling Green, of George
+III. was <q>laid prostrate in the dust,</q> and
+ordered to be run into bullets. Virginia had
+already stricken the king’s name from her
+prayer-book; and Rhode Island now forbade
+her people to pray for the king, as king,
+under a penalty of one hundred thousand
+pounds! The Declaration of Independence,
+both as a political and literary document, has
+stood the test of time. It has all the classic
+qualities of an oration by Demosthenes; and
+even that passage in it which has been criticised—that,
+namely, which pronounces all
+men to be created equal—is true in a sense,
+the truth of which it will take a century or
+two yet to develop.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="45"/><anchor id="Pg45"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="V. Reform Work in Virginia"/><index index="pdf" level1="V. Reform Work in Virginia"/>
+<head>V</head>
+
+<head type="sub">REFORM WORK IN VIRGINIA</head>
+
+<p>
+In September, 1776, Jefferson, having
+resigned his seat in Congress to engage in
+duties nearer home, returned to Monticello.
+A few weeks later, a messenger from Congress
+arrived to inform him that he had
+been elected a joint commissioner with Dr.
+Franklin and Silas Deane to represent at
+Paris the newly formed nation. His heart
+had long been set upon foreign travel; but
+he felt obliged to decline this appointment,
+first on account of the ill health of his wife,
+and secondly, because he was needed in Virginia
+as a legislator. Not since Lycurgus
+gave laws to the Spartans had there been
+such an opportunity as then existed in the
+United States. John Adams declared:
+<q>The best lawgivers of antiquity would rejoice
+to live at a period like this when, for
+the first time in the history of the world,
+<pb n="46"/><anchor id="Pg46"/>three millions of people are deliberately
+<hi rend="italic">choosing</hi> their government and institutions.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of all the colonies, Virginia offered the
+best field for reform, because, as we have
+already seen, she had by far the most aristocratic
+political and social system; and it is
+extraordinary how quickly the reform was
+effected by Jefferson and his friends. In
+ordinary times of peace the task would have
+been impossible; but in throwing off the
+English yoke, the colonists had opened their
+minds to new ideas; change had become
+familiar to them, and in the general upheaval
+the rights of the people were recognized. A
+year later, Jefferson wrote to Franklin:
+<q>With respect to the State of Virginia, in
+particular, the people seem to have laid
+aside the monarchical and taken up the
+republican government with as much ease
+as would have attended their throwing off
+an old and putting on a new set of clothes.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s greatness lay in this, that he
+was the first statesman who trusted the mass
+of the people. He alone had divined the
+fact that they were competent, morally and
+<pb n="47"/><anchor id="Pg47"/>mentally, for self-government. It is almost
+impossible for us to appreciate Jefferson’s
+originality in this respect, because the bold
+and untried theories for which he contended
+are now regarded as commonplace maxims.
+He may have derived his political ideas in
+part from the French philosophical writers
+of the eighteenth century, although there is
+no evidence to that effect; but he was certainly
+the first statesman to grasp the idea
+of democracy as a form of government, just
+as, at a later day, Walt Whitman was the
+first poet to grasp the idea of equality as a
+social system. Hamilton, John Adams,
+Pinckney, Gouverneur Morris, even Washington
+himself, all believed that popular
+government would be unsafe and revolutionary
+unless held in check by a strong
+executive and by an aristocratic senate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson in his lifetime was often charged
+with gross inconsistency in his political
+views and conduct; but the inconsistency
+was more apparent than real. At times he
+strictly construed, and at times he almost
+set aside the Constitution; but the clue to
+<pb n="48"/><anchor id="Pg48"/>his conduct can usually be found in the
+fundamental principle that the only proper
+function of government or constitutions is to
+express the will of the people, and that the
+people are morally and mentally competent to
+govern. <q>I am sure,</q> he wrote in 1796, <q>that
+the mass of citizens in these United States
+mean well, and I firmly believe that they
+will always act well, whenever they can obtain
+a right understanding of matters.</q> And
+Jefferson’s lifelong endeavor was to enable
+the people to form this <q>right understanding</q>
+by educating them. His ideas of the
+scope of public education went far beyond
+those which prevailed in his time, and considerably
+beyond those which prevail even
+now. For example, a free university course
+for the most apt pupils graduated at the
+grammar schools made part of his scheme,—an
+idea most nearly realized in the Western
+States; and those States received their
+impetus in educational matters from the Ordinance
+of 1787, which was largely the product
+of Jefferson’s foresight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Happily for Virginia, she did not become
+<pb n="49"/><anchor id="Pg49"/>a scene of war until the year 1779, and,
+meanwhile, Jefferson and his friends lost no
+time in remodeling her constitution. There
+were no common schools, and the mass of
+the people were more ignorant and rough
+than their contemporaries in any other
+colony. Elections were scenes of bribery,
+intimidation, and riot, surpassing even those
+which Hogarth depicted in England. Elkanah
+Watson, of Massachusetts, describes
+what he saw at Hanover Court House, Patrick
+Henry’s county, in 1778: <q>The whole
+county was assembled. The moment I
+alighted, a wretched, pug-nosed fellow assailed
+me to swap watches. I had hardly
+shaken him off, when I was attacked by a
+wild Irishman who insisted on my swapping
+horses with him.... With him I
+came near being involved in a boxing-match,
+the Irishman swearing, I <q>did not
+trate him like a jintleman.</q> I had hardly
+escaped this dilemma when my attention
+was attracted by a fight between two very
+unwieldy fat men, foaming and puffing like
+two furies, until one succeeded in twisting
+<pb n="50"/><anchor id="Pg50"/>a forefinger in a sidelock of the other’s
+hair, and in the act of thrusting by this
+purchase his thumb into the latter’s eye, he
+bawled out, <q>King’s Cruise,</q> equivalent in
+technical language to <q>Enough.</q></q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Quakers were put in the pillory, scolding
+women were ducked, and it is said that a
+woman was burned to death in Princess
+Anne County for witchcraft. The English
+church, as we have seen, was an established
+church; and all taxpayers, dissenters as
+well as churchmen, were compelled to contribute
+to its support. Baptist preachers
+were arrested, and fined as disturbers of
+the peace. The law of entail, both as respects
+land and slaves, was so strict that
+their descent to the eldest son could not be
+prevented even by agreement between the
+owner and his heir.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In his reformation of the laws, Jefferson
+was supported by Patrick Henry, now governor,
+and inhabiting what was still called
+the palace; by George Mason, a patriotic
+lawyer who drew the famous Virginia Bill
+of Rights; by George Wythe, his old pre<pb n="51"/><anchor id="Pg51"/>ceptor, and by James Madison, Jefferson’s
+friend, pupil, and successor, who in this year
+began his political career as a member of the
+House of Burgesses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Opposed to them were the conservative
+party led by R. C. Nicholas, head of the
+Virginia bar, a stanch churchman and gentleman
+of the old school, and Edward Pendleton,
+whom Jefferson described as <q>full
+of resource, never vanquished; for if he
+lost the main battle he returned upon you,
+and regained so much of it as to make it a
+drawn one, by dexterous manœuvres, skirmishes
+in detail, and the recovery of small
+advantages, which, little singly, were important
+all together. You never knew when
+you were clear of him.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Intense as the controversy was, fundamental
+as were the points at issue, the speakers
+never lost that courtesy for which the Virginians
+were remarkable; John Randolph
+being perhaps the only exception. Even
+Patrick Henry—though from his humble
+origin and impetuous oratory one might
+have expected otherwise—was never guilty
+<pb n="52"/><anchor id="Pg52"/>of any rudeness to his opponents. What
+Jefferson said of Madison was true of the
+Virginia orators in general,—<q>soothing
+always the feelings of his adversaries by
+civilities and softnesses of expression.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson struck first at the system of
+entail. After a three weeks’ struggle, land
+and slaves were put upon the same footing
+as all other property,—they might be sold
+or bequeathed according to the will of the
+possessor. Then came a longer and more
+bitter contest. Jefferson was for abolishing
+all connection between church and state, and
+for establishing complete freedom of religion.
+Nine years elapsed before Virginia could be
+brought to that point; but at this session
+he procured a repeal of the law which imposed
+penalties for attendance at a dissenting
+meeting-house, and also of the law
+compelling dissenters to pay tithes. The
+fight was, therefore, substantially won; and
+in 1786, Jefferson’s <q>Act for establishing
+religion</q> became the law of Virginia.<note place="foot">It is to be remembered that the support of public
+worship was compulsory in Massachusetts—the inhabitants of certain cities excepted—down to the year 1833.
+An attempt to free the people from this burden, led by
+Dr. Childs, of Berkshire County, was defeated at the Constitutional
+Convention of 1820.</note>
+</p>
+
+<pb n="53"/><anchor id="Pg53"/>
+
+<p>
+Another far-reaching law introduced by
+Jefferson at this memorable session of 1776
+provided for the naturalization of foreigners
+in Virginia, after a two years’ residence in
+the State, and upon a declaration of their
+intention to become American citizens. The
+bill provided also that the minor children
+of naturalized parents should be citizens of
+the United States when they came of age.
+The principles of this measure were afterward
+embodied in the statutes of the United
+States, and they are in force to-day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this session Jefferson also drew an act
+for establishing courts of law in Virginia,
+the royal courts having necessarily passed
+out of existence when the Declaration of
+Independence was adopted. Moreover, he
+set on foot a revision of all the statutes of
+Virginia, a committee with him at the head
+being appointed for this purpose; and
+finally he procured the removal of the capital
+from Williamsburg to Richmond.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="54"/><anchor id="Pg54"/>
+
+<p>
+All this was accomplished, mainly by
+Jefferson’s efforts; and yet the two bills
+upon which he set most store failed entirely.
+These were, first, a comprehensive measure
+of state education, running up through
+primary schools and grammar schools to a
+state university, and, secondly, a bill providing
+that all who were born in slavery
+after the passage of the bill should be free.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was Jefferson’s second ineffectual
+attempt to promote the abolition of slavery.
+During the year 1768, when he first became
+a member of the House of Burgesses, he had
+endeavored to procure the passage of a law
+enabling slave-owners to free their slaves,
+He induced Colonel Bland, one of the ablest,
+oldest, and most respected members to propose
+the law, and he seconded the proposal;
+but it was overwhelmingly rejected. <q>I, as
+a younger member,</q> related Jefferson afterward,
+<q>was more spared in the debate; but
+he was denounced as an enemy to his country,
+and was treated with the greatest indecorum.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In 1778 Jefferson made another attempt:<pb n="55"/><anchor id="Pg55"/>—he brought in a bill forbidding the further
+importation of slaves in Virginia, and this
+was passed without opposition. Again, in
+1784, when Virginia ceded to the United
+States her immense northwestern territory,
+Jefferson drew up a scheme of government
+for the States to be carved out of it which
+included a provision <q>that after the year
+1800 of the Christian Era, there shall be
+neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in
+any of the said States, otherwise than in
+punishment of crimes.</q> The provision was
+rejected by Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In his <q>Notes on Virginia,</q> written in the
+year 1781, but published in 1787, he said:
+<q>The whole commerce between master and
+slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous
+passions, the most unremitting despotism,
+on the one part, and degrading submission
+on the other. Our children see this, and
+learn to imitate it.... With the morals
+of the people their industry also is destroyed.
+For in a warm climate no one will labor
+for himself who can make another labor for
+him.... Indeed, I tremble for my country
+<pb n="56"/><anchor id="Pg56"/>when I reflect that God is just; that his
+justice cannot sleep forever.... The Almighty
+has no attribute which can take sides
+with us in such a contest.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the Missouri Compromise question
+came up, in 1820, Jefferson rightly predicted
+that a controversy had begun which would
+end in disruption; but he made the mistake
+of supposing that the Northern party were
+actuated in that matter solely by political
+motives. April 22, 1820, he wrote: <q>This
+momentous question, like a fire-bell in the
+night, awakened and filled me with terror.
+I considered it at once as the knell of the
+Union.... A geographical line, coinciding
+with a marked principle, moral and political,
+once conceived and held up to the angry passions
+of men, will never be obliterated; and
+every new irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper.... The cession of that kind of property,
+for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle
+which would not cost me a second thought
+if, in that way, a general emancipation and
+expatriation could be effected; and gradually
+and with due sacrifices I think it might be.
+<pb n="57"/><anchor id="Pg57"/>But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears,
+and we can neither hold him nor safely let
+him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation
+in the other.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And later, he wrote of the Missouri Compromise,
+as a <q>question having just enough
+of the semblance of morality to throw dust
+into the eyes of the people.... The Federalists,
+unable to rise again under the old
+division of Whig and Tory, have invented a
+geographical division which gives them fourteen
+States against ten, and seduces their old
+opponents into a coalition with them. Real
+morality is on the other side. For while the
+removal of the slaves from one State to
+another adds no more to their numbers than
+their removal from one country to another,
+the spreading them over a larger surface adds
+to their happiness, and renders their future
+emancipation more practicable.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These misconceptions as to Northern motives
+might be ascribed to Jefferson’s advanced
+age, for, as he himself graphically
+expressed it, he then had <q>one foot in the
+grave, and the other lifted to follow it;</q> but
+<pb n="58"/><anchor id="Pg58"/>it would probably be more just to say that
+they were due, in part, to his prejudice against
+the New England people and especially the
+New England clergy, and in part to the fact
+that his long retirement in Virginia had somewhat
+contracted his views and sympathies.
+Jefferson was a man of intense local attachments,
+and he took color from his surroundings.
+He never ceased, however, to regard
+slavery as morally wrong and socially ruinous;
+and in the brief autobiography which he
+left behind him he made these predictions:
+<q>Nothing is more certainly written in the
+book of fate than that these people are to
+be free. Nor is it less certain that the two
+races, equally free, cannot live in the same
+government.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+History has justified the second as well as
+the first of these declarations, for, excepting
+that brief period of anarchy known as <q>the
+carpet-bag era,</q> it cannot be maintained that
+the colored race in the Southern States have
+been at any time, even since their emancipation,
+<q>equally free,</q> in the sense of politically
+free, with their white fellow citizens.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="59"/><anchor id="Pg59"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="VI. Governor of Virginia"/><index index="pdf" level1="VI. Governor of Virginia"/>
+<head>VI</head>
+
+<head type="sub">GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA</head>
+
+<p>
+For three years Jefferson was occupied
+with the legislative duties already described,
+and especially with a revision of the Virginia
+statutes, and then, in June, 1779, he succeeded
+Patrick Henry as governor of the
+State. It has often been remarked that he
+was, all through life, a lucky man, but in
+this case fortune did not favor him, for the
+ensuing two years proved to be, so far as
+Virginia was concerned, by much the worst
+period of the war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The French alliance, though no doubt an
+ultimate benefit to the colonies, had at first
+two bad effects: it relaxed the energy of the
+Americans, who trusted that France would
+fight their battles for them; and it stimulated
+the British to increased exertions. The British
+commissioners announced that henceforth
+England would employ, in the prosecu<pb n="60"/><anchor id="Pg60"/>tion of the war, all those agencies which
+<q>God and nature had placed in her hands.</q>
+This meant that the ferocity of the Indians
+would be invoked, a matter of special moment
+to Virginia, since her western frontier
+swarmed with Indians, the bravest of their
+race.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The colony, it must be remembered, was
+then of immense extent; for beside the present
+Virginia and West Virginia, Kentucky
+and the greater part of Ohio, Indiana, and
+Illinois were embraced in it. It stretched,
+in short, from the Atlantic Ocean to the
+Mississippi River. Upon the seaboard Virginia
+was especially vulnerable, the tide-water
+region being penetrated by numerous bays
+and rivers, which the enemy’s ships could
+easily ascend, for they were undefended by
+forts or men. The total navy of the colony
+was four vessels, mounting sixty-two guns,
+and a few armed boats. The flower of the
+Virginia soldiery, to the number of ten thousand,
+were in Washington’s army, and supplies
+of men, of arms, of ammunition and
+food were urgently called for by General
+<pb n="61"/><anchor id="Pg61"/>Gates, who was battling against Cornwallis
+in North Carolina. The militia were supposed
+to number fifty thousand, which included
+every man between sixteen and fifty
+years of age; but this was only one man for
+every square mile of territory in the present
+State of Virginia, and of these militiamen it
+was estimated that, east of the Blue Ridge,
+only about one in five was armed with a gun.
+The treasury was practically bankrupt, and
+there was a dearth of every kind of warlike
+material.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the situation which confronted,
+as Mr. Parton puts it, <q>a lawyer of thirty-six,
+with a talent for music, a taste for art,
+a love of science, literature, and gardening.</q>
+The task was one calling rather for a soldier
+than a statesman; but Mr. Jefferson faced it
+with courage, and on the whole with success.
+In retaliating the cruel measures of the
+British, he showed a firmness which must
+have been especially difficult for a man of
+his temperament. He put in irons and confined
+in a dungeon Colonel Henry Hamilton
+and two subordinate officers who had com<pb n="62"/><anchor id="Pg62"/>mitted atrocities upon American prisoners.
+He caused a prison-ship, like the ships of
+infamous memory which were employed as
+prisons by the British at New York, to be
+prepared; and the exchange of captives between
+Virginia and the British was stopped.
+<q>Humane conduct on our part,</q> wrote Jefferson,
+<q>was found to produce no effect.
+The contrary, therefore, is to be tried. Iron
+will be retaliated by iron, prison-ships for
+prison-ships, and like for like in general.</q>
+But in November, 1779, notice was received
+that the English, under their new leader, Sir
+Henry Clinton, had adopted a less barbarous
+system of warfare; and fortunately Jefferson’s
+measures of reprisal became unnecessary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hampered as he was by want of men and
+money, Jefferson did all that he could to supply
+the needs of the Virginia soldiers with
+Washington, of the army in North Carolina,
+led by Gates, and of George Rogers Clarke,
+the heroic commander who put down the
+Indian uprising on the western frontier, and
+captured the English officer who instigated
+<pb n="63"/><anchor id="Pg63"/>it,—that same Colonel Hamilton of whom
+mention has already been made. The story
+of Clarke’s adventures in the wilderness,—he
+was a neighbor of Jefferson, only twenty-six
+years old,—of his forced marches, of
+his masterful dealing with the Indians, and
+finally of his capture of the British force,
+forms a thrilling chapter in the history of the
+American Revolution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many indeed of Jefferson’s constituents
+censured him as being over-zealous in his
+support of the army of Gates. He stripped
+Virginia, they said, of troops and resources
+which, as it proved afterward, were needed
+at home. But if Cornwallis were not defeated
+in North Carolina, it was certain that
+he would overrun the much more exposed
+Virginia. If he could be defeated anywhere,
+it would be in the Carolinas. Jefferson’s
+course, it is sufficient to say, was that recommended
+by Washington; and his exertions
+in behalf of the Continental armies were
+commended in the highest terms not only by
+Washington, but also by Generals Gates,
+Greene, Steuben, and Lafayette. The mili<pb n="64"/><anchor id="Pg64"/>tia were called out, leaving behind only so
+many men as were required to cultivate the
+land, wagons were impressed, including two
+belonging to the governor, and attempts were
+even made—extraordinary for Virginia—to
+manufacture certain much-needed articles.
+<q>Our smiths,</q> wrote Jefferson, <q>are making
+five hundred axes and some tomahawks for
+General Gates.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus fared the year 1779, and in 1780
+things went from bad to worse. In April
+came a letter from Madison, saying that
+Washington’s army was on the verge of
+dissolution, being only half-clothed, and in a
+way to be starved. The public treasury was
+empty and the public credit gone. In August
+occurred the disastrous defeat of General
+Gates at Camden, which left Virginia at the
+mercy of Cornwallis. In October a British
+fleet under Leslie ravaged the country about
+Portsmouth, but failing to effect a juncture
+with Cornwallis, who was detained in North
+Carolina by illness among his troops, did no
+further harm. Two months later, however,
+Benedict Arnold sailed up the James River
+<pb n="65"/><anchor id="Pg65"/>with another fleet, and, after committing
+some depredations at Richmond, sailed down
+again, escaping by the aid of a favorable
+wind, which hauled from east to west just
+in the nick of time for him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In June, 1781, Cornwallis invaded Virginia,
+and no one suffered more than Jefferson
+from his depredations. Tarleton was
+dispatched to seize the governor at Monticello;
+but the latter was forewarned by a
+citizen of <anchor id="corr065"/><corr sic="Charlotteville">Charlottesville</corr>, who, being in a
+tavern at Louisa when Tarleton and his
+troop swept by on the main road, immediately
+guessed their destination, and mounting
+his horse, a fleet Virginia thoroughbred,
+rode by a short cut through the woods
+straight to Monticello, arriving there about
+three hours ahead of Tarleton.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson took the matter coolly. He
+first dispatched his family to a place of
+safety, sent his best horse to be shod at a
+neighboring smithy, and then proceeded to
+sort and separate his papers. He left the
+house only about five minutes before the
+soldiers entered it.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="66"/><anchor id="Pg66"/>
+
+<p>
+Two slaves, Martin, Mr. Jefferson’s body
+servant, and Cæsar, were engaged in hiding
+plate and other articles under the floor
+of the portico, a single plank having been
+raised for that purpose. As Martin, above,
+handed the last article to Cæsar under the
+floor, the tramp of the approaching cavalry
+was heard. Down went the plank, shutting
+in Cæsar, and there he remained, without
+making any outcry, for eighteen hours, in
+darkness, and of course without food or
+water. One of the soldiers, to try Martin’s
+nerve, clapped a pistol to his breast, and
+threatened to fire unless he would tell which
+way his master had fled. <q>Fire away,
+then,</q> retorted the black, fiercely answering
+glance for glance, and not receding a hair’s
+breath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tarleton and his men scrupulously refrained
+from injuring Jefferson’s property.
+Cornwallis, on the other hand, who encamped
+on Jefferson’s estate of Elk Hill, lying opposite
+Elk Island in the James River, destroyed
+the growing crops, burned all the barns and
+fences, carried off—<q>as was to be expected,</q>
+<pb n="67"/><anchor id="Pg67"/>said Mr. Jefferson—the cattle and horses,
+and committed the barbarity of killing the
+colts that were too young to be of service.
+He carried off, also, about thirty slaves.
+<q>Had this been to give them freedom,</q>
+wrote Jefferson, <q>he would have done right;
+but it was to consign them to inevitable
+death from the smallpox and putrid fever,
+then raging in his camp.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Some of the miserable wretches crawled
+home to die,</q> Mr. Randall relates, <q>and
+giving information where others lay perishing
+in hovels or in the open air, by the wayside,
+these were sent for by their generous master;
+and the last moments of all of them were
+made as comfortable as could be done by
+proper nursing and medical attendance.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These dreadful scenes, added to the agitation
+of having twice been obliged, at a moment’s
+notice, to flee from the enemy, to say
+nothing of the anxieties which she must have
+endured on her husband’s account, were too
+much for Mrs. Jefferson’s already enfeebled
+constitution. She died on September 6,
+1782.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="68"/><anchor id="Pg68"/>
+
+<p>
+Six slave women who were household servants
+enjoyed for thirty years a kind of
+humble distinction at Monticello as <q>the
+servants who were in the room when Mrs.
+Jefferson died;</q> and the fact that they
+were there attests the affectionate relations
+which must have existed between them and
+their master and mistress. <q>They have
+often told my wife,</q> relates Mr. Bacon,
+<q>that when Mrs. Jefferson died they stood
+around the bed. Mr. Jefferson sat by her,
+and she gave him directions about a good
+many things that she wanted done. When
+she came to the children, she wept, and could
+not speak for some time. Finally she held
+up her hand, and, spreading out her four
+fingers, she told him she could not die happy
+if she thought her four children were ever to
+have a stepmother brought in over them.
+Holding her other hand in his, Mr. Jefferson
+promised her solemnly that he would
+never marry again;</q> and the promise was
+kept.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After his wife’s death Jefferson sank into
+what he afterward described as <q>a stupor of
+<pb n="69"/><anchor id="Pg69"/>mind;</q> and even before that he had been,
+for the first and last time in his life, in a
+somewhat morbid mental condition. He was
+an excessively sensitive man, and reflections
+upon his conduct as governor, during the
+raids into Virginia by Arnold and Cornwallis,
+coming at a time when he was overwrought,
+rankled in his mind. He refused to serve
+again as governor, and desiring to defend
+his course when in that office, became a
+member of the House of Burgesses in 1781,
+in order that he might answer his critics
+there; but not a voice was raised against
+him. In 1782, he was again elected to the
+House, but he did not attend; and both
+Madison and Monroe endeavored in vain to
+draw him from his seclusion. To Monroe
+he replied: <q>Before I ventured to declare
+to my countrymen my determination to retire
+from public employment, I examined
+well my heart to know whether it were
+thoroughly cured of every principle of political
+ambition, whether no lurking particle
+remained which might leave me uneasy, when
+reduced within the limits of mere private
+<pb n="70"/><anchor id="Pg70"/>life. I became satisfied that every fibre of
+that passion was thoroughly eradicated.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson was an impulsive man,—in
+some respects a creature of the moment;
+certainly often, in his own case, mistaking,
+as a permanent feeling, what was really a
+transitory impression. His language to
+Monroe must, therefore, be taken as the
+sincere deliverance of a man who, at that
+time, had not the remotest expectation of
+receiving, or the least ambition to attain,
+the highest offices in the gift of the American
+people.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="71"/><anchor id="Pg71"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="VII. Envoy at Paris"/><index index="pdf" level1="VII. Envoy at Paris"/>
+<head>VII</head>
+
+<head type="sub">ENVOY AT PARIS</head>
+
+<p>
+Two years after his wife’s death, namely,
+in 1784, Jefferson was chosen by Congress
+to serve as envoy at Paris, with John Adams
+and Benjamin Franklin. The appointment
+came at an opportune moment, when his
+mind was beginning to recover its tone, and
+he gladly accepted it. It was deemed necessary
+that the new Confederacy should make
+treaties with the various governments of
+Europe, and as soon as the envoys reached
+Paris, they drew up a treaty such as they
+hoped might be negotiated. It has been
+described as <q>the first serious attempt ever
+made to conduct the intercourse of nations
+on Christian principles;</q> and, on that account,
+it failed. To this failure there was,
+however, one exception. <q>Old Frederick of
+Prussia,</q> as Jefferson styled him, <q>met us
+<pb n="72"/><anchor id="Pg72"/>cordially;</q> and with him a treaty was soon
+concluded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In May, 1785, Franklin returned to the
+United States, and Jefferson was appointed
+minister. <q>You replace Dr. Franklin,</q>
+said the Count of Vergennes when Jefferson
+announced his appointment. <q>I succeed,—no
+one can replace him,</q> was the reply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s residence in Paris at this critical
+period was a fortunate occurrence. It
+would be a mistake to suppose that he derived
+his political principles from France:—he
+carried them there; but he was confirmed
+in them by witnessing the injustice
+and misery which resulted to the common
+people from the monarchical governments of
+Europe. To James Monroe he wrote in
+June, 1785: <q>The pleasure of the trip [to
+Europe] will be less than you expect, but
+the utility greater. It will make you adore
+your own country,—its soil, its climate, its
+equality, laws, people, and manners. My
+God! how little do my countrymen know
+what precious blessings they are in possession
+of and which no other people on earth
+<pb n="73"/><anchor id="Pg73"/>enjoy! I confess I had no idea of it myself.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To George Wythe he wrote in August,
+1786: <q>Preach, my dear sir, a crusade
+against ignorance; establish and improve
+the law for educating the common people.
+Let our countrymen know that the people
+alone can protect us against these evils; and
+that the tax which will be paid for this purpose
+is not more than the thousandth part
+of what will be paid to kings, priests, and
+nobles, who will rise up among us if we
+leave the people in ignorance.</q> To Madison,
+he wrote in January, 1787: <q>This is a
+<anchor id="corr073"/><corr sic="goverment">government</corr> of wolves over sheep.</q> Jefferson
+took the greatest pains to ascertain the condition
+of the laboring classes. In the course
+of a journey in the south of France, he wrote
+to Lafayette, begging him to survey the condition
+of the people for himself. <q>To do
+it most effectually,</q> he said, <q>you must be
+absolutely incognito; you must ferret the
+people out of their hovels, as I have done;
+look into their kettles; eat their bread; loll
+on their beds on pretense of resting your<pb n="74"/><anchor id="Pg74"/>self, but in fact to find if they are soft.
+You will feel a sublime pleasure in the
+course of the investigation, and a sublimer
+one hereafter, when you shall be able to
+apply your knowledge to the softening of
+their beds, or the throwing a morsel of meat
+into their kettle of vegetables.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These excursions among the French peasantry,
+who, as Jefferson well knew, were ruinously
+taxed in order to support an extravagant
+court and an idle and insolent nobility,
+made him a fierce Republican. <q>There is
+not a crowned head in Europe,</q> he wrote to
+General Washington, in 1788, <q>whose talents
+or merits would entitle him to be elected
+a vestryman by the people of America.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But for the French race Jefferson had an
+affinity. He was glad to live with people
+among whom, as he said, <q>a man might pass
+a life without encountering a single rudeness.</q>
+He liked their polished manners and
+gay disposition, their aptitude for science, for
+philosophy, and for art; even their wines
+and cookery suited his taste, and his preference
+in this respect was so well known that
+<pb n="75"/><anchor id="Pg75"/>Patrick Henry once humorously stigmatized
+him as <q>a man who had abjured his native
+victuals.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s stay in Paris corresponded
+exactly with the <q>glorious</q> period of the
+French Revolution. He was present at the
+Assembly of the Notables in 1787, and he
+witnessed the destruction of the Bastille in
+1789.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The change in this country,</q> he wrote
+in March, 1789, <q>is such as you can form
+no idea of. The frivolities of conversation
+have given way entirely to politics. Men,
+women, and children talk nothing else ...
+and mode has acted a wonderful part in the
+present instance. All the handsome young
+women, for example, are for the <hi rend="italic">tiers étât</hi>, and
+this is an army more powerful in France
+than the 200,000 men of the king.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The truth is that an intellectual and
+moral revolution preceded in France the
+outbreak of the populace. There was an
+interior conviction that the government of
+the country was excessively unjust and oppressive.
+A love of liberty, a feeling of
+<pb n="76"/><anchor id="Pg76"/>fraternity, a passion for equality moved the
+intellect and even the aristocracy of France.
+In this crisis the reformers looked toward
+America, for the United States had just
+trodden the path upon which France was
+entering. <q>Our proceedings,</q> wrote Jefferson
+to Madison in 1789, <q>have been
+viewed as a model for them on every occasion....
+Our [authority] has been treated
+like that of the Bible, open to explanation,
+but not to question.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s advice was continually sought
+by Lafayette and others; and his house,
+maintained in the easy, liberal style of Virginia,
+was a meeting place for the Revolutionary
+statesmen. Jefferson dined at three
+or four o’clock; and after the cloth had been
+removed he and his guests sat over their
+wine till nine or ten in the evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In July, 1789, the National Assembly
+appointed a committee to draught a constitution,
+and the committee formally invited
+the American minister to assist at their sessions
+and favor them with his advice. This
+function he felt obliged to decline, as being
+<pb n="77"/><anchor id="Pg77"/>inconsistent with his post of minister to the
+king. No man had a nicer sense of propriety
+than Jefferson; and he punctiliously
+observed the requirements of his somewhat
+difficult situation in Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What gave Mr. Jefferson the greatest
+anxiety and trouble, was our relations with
+the piratical Barbary powers who held the
+keys of the Mediterranean and sometimes
+extended their depredations even into the
+Atlantic. It was a question of paying tribute
+or going to war; and most of the European
+powers paid tribute. In 1784, for
+example, the Dutch contributed to <q>the
+high, glorious, mighty, and most noble,
+King, Prince, and Emperor of Morocco,</q>
+a mass of material which included thirty
+cables, seventy cannon, sixty-nine masts,
+twenty-one anchors, fifty dozen sail-needles,
+twenty-four tons of pitch, two hundred and
+eighty loaves of sugar, twenty-four China
+punch-bowls, three clocks, and one <q>very
+large watch.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson ascertained that the pirates
+would require of the United States, as the
+<pb n="78"/><anchor id="Pg78"/>price of immunity for its commerce, a tribute
+of about three hundred thousand dollars
+per annum. <q>Surely,</q> he wrote home, <q>our
+people will not give this. Would it not be
+better to offer them an equal treaty? If
+they refuse, why not go to war with them?</q>
+And he pressed upon Mr. Jay, who held the
+secretaryship of foreign affairs, as the office
+was then called, the immediate establishment
+of a navy. But Congress would do nothing;
+and it was not till Jefferson himself became
+President that the Barbary pirates were dealt
+with in a wholesome and stringent manner.
+During the whole term of his residence at
+Paris he was negotiating with the Mediterranean
+powers for the release of unfortunate
+Americans, many of whom spent the best
+part of their lives in horrible captivity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jefferson’s self-imposed duties were
+no less arduous. He kept four colleges informed
+of the most valuable new inventions,
+discoveries, and books. He had a Yankee
+talent for mechanical improvements, and he
+was always on the alert to obtain anything
+of this nature which he thought might be
+<pb n="79"/><anchor id="Pg79"/>useful at home. Jefferson himself, by the
+way, invented the revolving armchair, the
+buggy-top, and a mould board for a plough.
+He bought books for Franklin, Madison,
+Monroe, Wythe, and himself. He informed
+one correspondent about Watt’s engine, another
+about the new system of canals. He
+smuggled rice from Turin in his coat pockets;
+and he was continually dispatching to
+agricultural societies in America seeds, roots,
+nuts, and plants. Houdin was sent over by
+him to make the statue of Washington;
+and he forwarded designs for the new capitol
+at Richmond. For Buffon he procured
+the skin of an American panther, and also
+the bones and hide of a New Hampshire
+moose, to obtain which Governor Sullivan
+of that State organized a hunting-party in
+the depth of winter and cut a road through
+the forest for twenty miles in order to bring
+out his quarry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson was the most indefatigable of
+men, and he did not relax in Paris. He
+had rooms at a Carthusian monastery to
+which he repaired when he had some special
+<pb n="80"/><anchor id="Pg80"/>work on hand. He kept a carriage and
+horses, but could not afford a saddle horse.
+Instead of riding, he took a walk every
+afternoon, usually of six or seven miles, occasionally
+twice as long. It was while returning
+with a friend from one of these
+excursions that he fell and fractured his
+right wrist; and the fracture was set so imperfectly
+that it troubled him ever afterward.
+It was characteristic of Jefferson
+that he said nothing to his friend as to the
+injury until they reached home, though his
+suffering from it was great; and, also, that
+he at once began to write with the other
+hand, making numerous entries, on the very
+night of the accident, in a writing which,
+though stiff, was, and remains, perfectly
+clear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jefferson’s two daughters had been
+placed at a convent school near Paris, and
+he was surprised one day to receive a note
+from Martha, the elder, asking his permission
+to remain in the convent for the rest
+of her life as a nun. For a day or two she
+received no answer. Then her father called
+<pb n="81"/><anchor id="Pg81"/>in his carriage, and after a short interview
+with the abbess took his daughters away;
+and thenceforth Martha presided, so far as
+her age permitted, over her father’s household.
+Not a word upon the subject of her
+request ever passed between them; and long
+afterward, in telling the story to her own
+children, she praised Mr. Jefferson’s tact in
+dealing with what she described as a transient
+impulse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this incident, Jefferson, thinking
+that it was time to take his daughters home,
+obtained leave of absence for six months;
+and the little family landed at Norfolk, November
+18, 1789. They journeyed slowly
+homeward, stopping at one friend’s house
+after another, and, two days before Christmas,
+arrived at Monticello, where they were
+rapturously greeted by the slaves, who took
+the four horses from the carriage and drew
+it up the steep incline themselves; and
+when he alighted, Mr. Jefferson, in spite of
+himself, was carried into the house on the
+arms of his black servants and friends.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="82"/><anchor id="Pg82"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="VIII. Secretary of State"/><index index="pdf" level1="VIII. Secretary of State"/>
+<head>VIII</head>
+
+<head type="sub">SECRETARY OF STATE</head>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jefferson had a strong desire to
+resume his post as minister to France, but
+he yielded to Washington’s earnest request
+that he should become Secretary of State in
+the new government. He lingered long
+enough at Monticello to witness the marriage
+of his daughter Martha to Thomas
+Mann Randolph, and then set out upon a
+cold, wet journey of twenty-one days, reaching
+New York, which was then the seat of
+government, late in March, 1790. He hired
+a small house at No. 57 Maiden Lane, and
+immediately attacked the arrears of work
+which had been accumulating for six months.
+The unusual confinement, aggravated, perhaps,
+by a homesickness, clearly revealed in
+his letters, for his daughters and for Monticello,
+brought on what seems to have been a
+<pb n="83"/><anchor id="Pg83"/>neuralgic headache which lasted for three
+weeks. It may have been caused in part
+by the climate of New York, as to which
+Mr. Jefferson observed: <q>Spring and fall
+they never have, so far as I can learn. They
+have ten months of winter, two of summer,
+with some winter days interspersed.</q> But
+there were other causes beside homesickness
+and headache which made Jefferson unhappy
+in his new position. Long afterward he
+described them as follows:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I had left France in the first year of
+her Revolution, in the fervor of natural
+rights and zeal for reformation. My conscientious
+devotion to those rights could not
+be heightened, but it had been aroused and
+excited by daily exercise. The President
+received me cordially, and my colleagues
+and the circle of principal citizens apparently
+with welcome. The courtesies of dinners
+given to me, as a stranger newly arrived
+among them, placed me at once in their familiar
+society. But I cannot describe the
+wonder and mortification with which the
+table conversations filled me. Politics were
+<pb n="84"/><anchor id="Pg84"/>the chief topic, and a preference of kingly
+over republican government was evidently
+the favorite sentiment. An apostate I
+could not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I
+found myself for the most part the only advocate
+on the republican side of the question,
+unless among the guests there chanced
+to be some member of that party from the
+legislative houses.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be remembered that Jefferson’s
+absence in France had been the period of
+the Confederacy, when the inability of Congress
+to enforce its laws and to control the
+States was so evident and so disastrous that
+the need of a stronger central government
+had been impressed on men’s minds. The
+new Constitution had been devised to supply
+that need, but it was elastic in its terms, and
+it avoided all details. Should it be construed
+in an aristocratic or in a democratic spirit,
+and should the new nation be given an aristocratic
+or a democratic twist? This was a
+burning question, and it gave rise to that
+long struggle led by Hamilton on one side
+and by Jefferson on the other, which ended
+<pb n="85"/><anchor id="Pg85"/>with the election of Jefferson as President
+in the year 1800.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hamilton and his party utterly disbelieved
+in government by the people.<note place="foot">The father of Miss Catherine Sedgwick was a leading
+Federalist, and his daughter records that, though a
+most kind-hearted man, he habitually spoke of the people
+as <q>Jacobins</q> and <q>miscreants.</q></note> John Adams
+declared that the English Constitution, barring
+its element of corruption, was an ideal
+constitution. Hamilton went farther and
+asserted that the English form of government,
+corruption and all, was the best practicable
+form. An aristocratic senate, chosen
+for a long term, if not for life, was thought
+to be essential even by Mr. Adams. Hamilton’s
+notion was that mankind were incapable
+of self-government, and must be governed
+in one or two ways,—by force or by
+fraud. Property was, in his view, the ideal
+basis of government; and he was inclined to
+fix the possession of <q>a thousand Spanish
+dollars</q> as the proper qualification for a
+voter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The difference between the Hamiltonian
+and the Jeffersonian view arises chiefly from
+<pb n="86"/><anchor id="Pg86"/>a different belief as to the connection between
+education and morality. All aristocratic systems
+must, in the last analysis, be founded
+either upon brute force or else upon the
+assumption that education and morality go
+hand-in-hand, and that the well-to-do and
+best educated class is morally superior to the
+less educated. Jefferson rejected this assumption,
+and all real believers in democracy
+must take their stand with him. He once
+stated his creed upon this point in a letter as
+follows:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>The moral sense or conscience is as
+much a part of man as his leg or arm....
+It may be strengthened by exercise, as may
+any particular limb of the body. This sense
+is submitted, indeed, in some degree to the
+guidance of reason, but it is a small stock
+which is required for this, even a less one
+than what we call common sense. State a
+moral case to a ploughman and a professor.
+The former will decide it as well and often
+better than the latter, because he has not
+been led astray by artificial rules.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is sound philosophy. The great prob<pb n="87"/><anchor id="Pg87"/>lems in government, whether they relate to
+matters external or internal, are moral, not
+intellectual. There are, indeed, purely intellectual
+problems, such as the question between
+free silver and a gold standard; and as
+to these problems, the people may go wrong.
+But they are not vital. No nation ever yet
+achieved glory or incurred destruction by taking
+one course rather than another in a matter
+of trade or finance. The crucial questions
+are moral questions, and experience has
+shown that as to such matters the people
+can be trusted. As Jefferson himself said,
+<q>The will of the majority, the natural law
+of every society, is the only sure guardian of
+the rights of man. Perhaps even this may
+sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary,
+and short-lived.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Washington’s cabinet was made up on the
+theory that it should represent not the party
+in power, but both parties,—for two parties
+already existed, the Federalists and the anti-Federalists,
+who, under Jefferson’s influence,
+soon became known by the better name of
+Republicans. The cabinet consisted of four
+<pb n="88"/><anchor id="Pg88"/>members, Jefferson, Secretary of State, Hamilton,
+Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox,
+Secretary of War, and Edmund Randolph,
+Attorney-General.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Knox sided almost always with Hamilton,
+and Randolph was an inconstant supporter
+of Jefferson. Though an able and learned
+man, he was given to hair-splitting and hesitation,
+and, in allusion to his habit of arguing
+on one side, but finally voting upon the other,
+Jefferson once remarked that he usually gave
+the shell to his friends, and reserved the
+oyster for his opponents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The political opinions of Jefferson and
+Hamilton were so diametrically opposed that
+the cabinet was soon torn by dissension.
+Hamilton was for a strong government, for
+surrounding the President with pomp and
+etiquette, for a central authority as against
+the authority of the States. In pursuance of
+these ideas, he brought forward his famous
+measures for assumption of the state debts
+by the national government, for the funding
+of the national debt, and finally for the creation
+of a national bank. Jefferson opposed
+<pb n="89"/><anchor id="Pg89"/>these measures, and, although the assumption
+and the funding laws had grave faults, and
+led to speculation, and in the case of many
+persons to financial ruin, yet it must be admitted
+that Jefferson never appreciated their
+merits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The truth is that both Hamilton and Jefferson
+were essential to the development of
+this country; and the principles of each have
+been adopted in part, and rejected in part.
+Hamilton’s conception of a central government
+predominating over the state governments
+has been realized, though not nearly
+to the extent to which he would have carried
+it. On the other hand, his various schemes
+for making the government into an aristocracy
+instead of a democracy have all been
+abandoned, or, like the Electoral College,
+turned to a use the opposite of what he intended.
+So, Jefferson’s view of state rights
+has not strictly been maintained; but his
+fundamental principles of popular government
+and popular education have made the
+United States what it is, and are destined,
+we hope, when fully developed, to make it
+something better yet.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="90"/><anchor id="Pg90"/>
+
+<p>
+No less an authority than that of Washington,
+who appreciated the merits of both
+men, could have kept the peace between
+them. Hamilton under an assumed name
+attacked Jefferson in the public prints. Jefferson
+never published a line unsigned; but
+he permitted Philip Freneau, who had slight
+employment as a translator in his department,
+and the trifling salary of $250 a year,
+to wage war against Hamilton in the gazette
+which Freneau published; and he even stood
+by while Freneau attacked Washington.
+Washington indeed once gave Jefferson a
+hint on this subject, which the latter refused
+to take. <q>He was evidently sore and warm,</q>
+wrote Jefferson, <q>and I took his intention to
+be that I should interfere in some way with
+Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment
+of translating clerk to my office. But I will
+not do it. His paper has saved our constitution,
+which was galloping fast into monarchy....
+And the President has not, ...
+with his usual good sense and <hi rend="italic">sang froid</hi>,
+... seen that, though some bad things had
+passed through it to the public, yet the good
+have predominated immensely.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n="91"/><anchor id="Pg91"/>
+
+<p>
+In the spring of 1792, Jefferson, who had
+now been two years in office, was extremely
+anxious to retire, not only because his situation
+at Washington was unpleasant, but
+because his affairs at home had been so neglected
+during his long absences that he was
+in danger of bankruptcy. His estate was
+large, but it was incumbered by a debt to
+English creditors of $13,000. Some years
+before he had sold for cash a farm near
+Monticello in order to discharge this debt;
+but at that time the Revolutionary war had
+begun, and the Virginia legislature passed
+an act inviting all men owing money to English
+creditors to deposit the same in the state
+treasury, the State agreeing to pay it over to
+the English creditors after the war. Jefferson
+accordingly deposited the $13,000 in gold
+which he had just received. Later, however,
+this law was rescinded, and the money received
+under it was paid back, not in gold,
+but in paper money of the State, which was
+then so depreciated as to be almost worthless.
+In riding by the farm thus disposed
+of, Jefferson in after years would sometimes
+<pb n="92"/><anchor id="Pg92"/>point to it and say: <q>That farm I once sold
+for an overcoat;</q>—the price of the overcoat
+having been the $13,000 in paper money.
+Cornwallis, as we have seen, destroyed Jefferson’s
+property to an amount more than
+double this debt, which might be considered
+as a second payment of it; but Jefferson
+finally paid it the third time,—and this
+time into the hands of the actual creditor.
+Meanwhile, he wrote: <q>The torment of
+mind I endure till the moment shall arrive
+when I shall not owe a shilling on earth is
+such really as to render life of little value.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Urged by all these motives, Jefferson had
+resolved to resign his office in 1792, notwithstanding
+the remonstrances of Washington;
+but the attacks made upon him by
+the Federalists, especially those made in the
+newspapers, were so violent that a retirement
+at that time would have given the public
+cause to believe that he had been driven
+from office by his enemies. Jefferson,
+therefore, concluded to remain Secretary of
+State a few months longer; and those few,
+as it happened, were the most important of
+the whole term.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="93"/><anchor id="Pg93"/>
+
+<p>
+On January 21, 1793, King Louis of
+France was executed, and within a week
+thereafter England was at war with the new
+rulers of the French. Difficult questions at
+once arose under our treaties with France.
+The French people thought that we were in
+honor bound to assist them in their struggle
+against Great Britain, as they had assisted
+us; and they sent over as minister <q>Citizen</q>
+Genet, in the frigate L’Embuscade.
+The frigate, carrying forty guns and three
+hundred men, sailed into the harbor of
+Charleston, April 8, <anchor id="corr093"/><corr sic="1795">1793</corr>, with a liberty-cap
+for her figure-head, and a British prize in
+her wake. Citizen Genet, even for a Frenchman,
+was a most indiscreet and hot-headed
+person, and before he had been a week on
+shore he had issued commissions to privateers
+manned by American citizens. L’Embuscade
+then proceeded to Philadelphia,
+where, as in Charleston, Citizen Genet was
+welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm. His
+coming was hailed by the Republicans generally
+with rapture; and their cry was for
+war. <q>I wish,</q> wrote Jefferson, in a con<pb n="94"/><anchor id="Pg94"/>fidential letter to Monroe, <q>that we may be
+able to repress the people within the limits
+of a fair neutrality.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was the position taken also by
+Washington and the whole cabinet; and it
+is a striking example of Jefferson’s wisdom,
+justice, and firmness, that, although the
+bulk of the Republicans were carried off
+their feet by sympathy with France and
+with Genet, he, the very person in the United
+States who most loved the French and best
+understood the causes and motives of the
+French Revolution, withstood the storm, and
+kept his eye fixed upon the interests of his
+own country. England, contrary to the
+treaty which closed the Revolutionary War,
+still retained her military posts in the west;
+and she was the undisputed mistress of the
+sea. War with her would therefore have
+been suicidal for the United States. The
+time for that had not yet come. Moreover,
+if the United States had taken sides with
+France, a war with Spain also would inevitably
+have followed; and Spain then held
+Florida and the mouth of the Mississippi.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="95"/><anchor id="Pg95"/>
+
+<p>
+Nevertheless, there were different ways of
+preserving neutrality: there were the offensive
+way and the friendly way. Hamilton,
+whose extreme bias toward England made
+him bitter against France, was always for
+the one; Jefferson for the other. A single
+example will suffice as an illustration. M.
+Genet asked as a favor that the United
+States should advance an installment of its
+debt to France. Hamilton advised that the
+request be refused without a word of explanation.
+Jefferson’s opinion was that the
+request should be granted, if that were lawful,
+and if it were found to be unlawful, them
+that the refusal should be explained. Mr.
+Jefferson’s advice was followed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jefferson, also, though he firmly withstood
+the many illegal and unwarrantable
+acts attempted by Genet, did so in such a
+manner as not to lose the friendship of the
+minister or even a degree of control over
+him. To Madison Jefferson wrote of Genet:
+<q>He renders my position immensely difficult.
+He does me justice personally; and giving
+him time to vent himself and become more
+<pb n="96"/><anchor id="Pg96"/>cool, I am on a footing to advise him freely,
+and he respects it; but he will break out
+again on the very first occasion.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally Citizen Genet, becoming desperate,
+fitted out one of L’Embuscade’s prizes
+as a frigate to be used against England,
+which amounted on the part of the United
+States to a breach of neutrality; and being
+hindered in sending her to sea, he threatened
+to appeal from the President to the
+people of the United States. Thereupon
+the question arose, what shall be done with
+Genet? and upon this question the cabinet
+divided with more than usual acrimony.
+Knox was for sending him out of the country
+without ceremony; Hamilton for publishing
+the whole correspondence between
+him and the government, with a statement
+of his proceedings. Jefferson was for sending
+an account of the affair to the French
+government, with copies of the correspondence,
+and a request for Genet’s recall.
+Meanwhile the whole country was thrown
+into a state of tumultuous excitement. There
+was a riot in Philadelphia; and even the
+<pb n="97"/><anchor id="Pg97"/>sacred character of Washington was assailed
+in prose and verse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The President decided to adopt the course
+proposed by Jefferson; France appointed
+another minister, and the Genet episode
+ended by his marriage to a daughter of
+George Clinton, governor of New York, in
+which State he lived thereafter as a respectable
+citizen and a patron of agriculture.
+He died in the year 1834.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The summer of delirium at Philadelphia
+culminated in the panic and desolation of
+the yellow fever, and every member of the
+government fled from the city, Jefferson being
+the last to depart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When, in the next year, the correspondence
+between Genet and Jefferson, and between
+the English minister and Jefferson,
+was published, the Secretary was seen to
+have conducted it on his part with so much
+ability, discretion, and tact, and with so
+true a sense of what was due to each nation
+concerned, that he may be said to have retired
+to his farm in a blaze of glory.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="98"/><anchor id="Pg98"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="IX. The Two Parties"/><index index="pdf" level1="IX. The Two Parties"/>
+<head>IX</head>
+
+<head type="sub">THE TWO PARTIES</head>
+
+<p>
+When Jefferson at last found himself at
+Monticello, having resigned his office as
+Secretary of State, he declared and believed
+that he had done with politics forever. To
+various correspondents he wrote as follows:
+<q>I think that I shall never take another
+newspaper of any sort. I find my mind
+totally absorbed in my rural occupations....
+No <anchor id="corr098"/><corr sic="circumtances">circumstances</corr>, my dear sir, will ever
+more tempt me to engage in anything public....
+I would not give up my retirement for
+the empire of the universe.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Madison wrote in 1795, soliciting
+him to accept the Republican nomination
+for the presidency, Mr. Jefferson replied:
+<q>The little spice of ambition which I had
+in my younger days has long since evaporated,
+and I set still less store by a posthumous
+than present fame. The question
+<pb n="99"/><anchor id="Pg99"/>is forever closed with me.</q> Nevertheless,
+within a few months Mr. Jefferson accepted
+the nomination, chiefly, it is probable, because,
+with his usual sagacity, he foresaw that the
+Republican candidate would be defeated as
+President, but elected as Vice-President. It
+must be remembered that at that time the
+candidate receiving the next to the highest
+number of electoral votes was declared to be
+Vice-President; so that there was always a
+probability that the presidential candidate
+of the party defeated would be chosen to the
+second office.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were several reasons why Jefferson
+would have been glad to receive the office of
+Vice-President. It involved no disagreeable
+responsibility; it called for no great expenditure
+of money in the way of entertainments;
+it carried a good salary; it required
+only a few months’ residence at Washington.
+<q>Mr. Jefferson often told me,</q> remarks
+Mr. Bacon, <q>that the office of Vice-President
+was far preferable to that of President.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jefferson therefore became the Republican
+nominee for President, and, as he doubt<pb n="100"/><anchor id="Pg100"/>less expected, was elected Vice-President,
+the vote standing as follows: Adams, 71;
+Jefferson, 68; Pinckney, 59; Burr, 30.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is significant of Mr. Jefferson’s high
+standing in the country that many people
+believed that he would not deign to accept
+the office of Vice-President; and Madison
+wrote advising him to come to Washington
+on the 4th of March, and take the oath of
+office, in order that this belief might be dispelled.
+Jefferson accordingly did so, bringing
+with him the bones of a mastodon, lately
+discovered, and a little manuscript book written
+in his law-student days, marked <q>Parliamentary
+Pocket-Book.</q> This was the basis
+of that careful and elaborate <q>Manual of
+Parliamentary Practice</q> which Jefferson left
+as his legacy to the Senate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon receiving news of the election Jefferson
+had written to Madison: <q>If Mr.
+Adams can be induced to administer the government
+on its true principles, and to relinquish
+his bias to an English Constitution, it
+is to be considered whether it would not be,
+on the whole, for the public good to come to
+<pb n="101"/><anchor id="Pg101"/>a good understanding with him as to his
+future elections. He is perhaps the only
+sure barrier against Hamilton’s getting in.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Adams, indeed, at the outset of his
+administration, was inclined to be confidential
+with Mr. Jefferson; but soon, by one of
+those sudden turns not infrequent with him,
+he took a different course, and thenceforth
+treated the Vice-President with nothing more
+than bare civility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a time, indeed, when cordial relations
+between Federalist and Republican were almost
+impossible. In a letter written at this
+period to Mr. Edward Rutledge, Jefferson
+said: <q>You and I have formerly seen warm
+debates, and high political passions. But
+gentlemen of different politics would then
+speak to each other, and separate the business
+of the Senate from that of society. It is not
+so now. Men who have been intimate all
+their lives cross the street to avoid meeting,
+and turn their heads another way, lest they
+should be obliged to touch their hats.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These party feelings were intensified in the
+year 1798 by what is known as the X Y Z
+<pb n="102"/><anchor id="Pg102"/>business. Mr. Adams had sent three commissioners
+to Paris to negotiate a treaty.
+Talleyrand, the French Minister for Foreign
+Affairs, held aloof from them; but they were
+informed by certain mysterious agents that
+a treaty could be had on three conditions,
+(1) that the President should apologize for
+certain expressions in his recent message to
+Congress; (2) that the United States should
+loan a large sum of money to the French
+government; (3) that a <hi rend="italic">douceur</hi> of $25,000
+should be given to Talleyrand’s agents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These insulting proposals were indignantly
+rejected by the commissioners, and being reported
+in this country, they aroused a storm
+of popular indignation. Preparations for war
+were made forthwith. General Washington,
+though in failing health, was appointed
+commander-in-chief,—the real command being
+expected to devolve upon Hamilton, who
+was named second; men and supplies were
+voted; letters of marque were issued, and war
+actually prevailed upon the high seas. The
+situation redounded greatly to the advantage
+of the Federalists, for they were always as
+<pb n="103"/><anchor id="Pg103"/>eager to go to war with France as they were
+reluctant to go to war with England. The
+newly appointed officers were drawn almost,
+if not quite, without exception from the Federalist
+party, and Hamilton seemed to be on
+the verge of that military career which he
+had long hoped for. He trusted, as his most
+intimate friend, Gouverneur Morris, said after
+his death, <q>that in the changes and chances
+of time we would be involved in some war
+which might strengthen our union and nerve
+our executive.</q> So late as 1802, Hamilton
+wrote to Morris, <q>there must be a systematic
+and persevering endeavor to establish the
+future of a great empire on foundations much
+firmer than have yet been devised.</q> At this
+very time he was negotiating with Miranda
+and with the British government, his design
+being to use against Mexico the army raised
+in expectation of a war with France.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hamilton was not the man to overturn
+the government out of personal ambition,
+nor even in order to set up a monarchy in
+place of a republic. But he had convinced
+himself that the republic must some day fall
+<pb n="104"/><anchor id="Pg104"/>of its own weight. He was always anticipating
+a <q>crisis,</q> and this word is repeated
+over and over again in his correspondence.
+It even occurs in the crucial sentence of that
+pathetic document which he wrote on the eve
+of his fatal duel. When the <q>crisis</q> came,
+Hamilton meant to be on hand; and, if possible,
+at the head of an army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However, the X Y Z affair ended peacefully.
+The warlike spirit shown by the people
+of the United States had a wholesome effect
+upon the French government; and at their
+suggestion new envoys were sent over by the
+President, by whom a treaty was negotiated.
+This wise and patriotic act upon the part of
+Mr. Adams was a benefit to his country, but
+it aroused the bitter anger of the Federalists
+and ruined his position in that party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But what was Mr. Jefferson’s attitude
+during this business? He was not for war,
+and he contended that a distinction should
+be made between the acts of Talleyrand and
+his agents, and the real disposition of the
+French people. He wrote as follows: <q>Inexperienced
+in such manœuvres, the people
+<pb n="105"/><anchor id="Pg105"/>did not permit themselves even to suspect
+that the turpitude of private swindlers might
+mingle itself unobserved, and give its own
+hue to the communications of the French
+government, of whose participation there was
+neither proof nor probability.</q> And again:
+<q>But as I view a peace between France and
+England the ensuing winter to be certain,
+I have thought it would have been better for
+us to have contrived to bear from France
+through the present summer what we have
+been bearing both from her and from England
+these four years, and still continue to
+bear from England, and to have required indemnification
+in the hour of peace, when, I
+firmly believe, it would have been yielded
+by both.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But this is bad political philosophy. A
+nation cannot obtain justice by submitting
+to wrongs or insults even for a time. Jefferson
+himself had written long before: <q>I
+think it is our interest to punish the first
+insult, because an insult unpunished is the
+parent of many others.</q> It is possible that
+he was misled at this juncture by his liking
+<pb n="106"/><anchor id="Pg106"/>for France, and by his dislike of the Federalists
+and of their British proclivities. It is
+true that the bribe demanded by Talleyrand’s
+agents might be considered, to use
+Mr. Jefferson’s words, as <q>the turpitude of
+private swindlers;</q> but the demand for a
+loan and for a retraction could be regarded
+only as national acts, being acts of the
+French government, although the bulk of
+the French people might repudiate them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whether Jefferson was right or wrong in
+the position which he took, he maintained it
+with superb self-confidence and aplomb. For
+the moment, the Federalists had everything
+their own way. They carried the election.
+Hamilton’s oft-anticipated <q>crisis</q> seemed
+to have arrived at last. But Jefferson coolly
+waited till the storm should blow over. <q>Our
+countrymen,</q> he wrote to a friend, <q>are essentially
+Republicans. They retain unadulterated
+the principles of ’76, and those who
+are conscious of no change in themselves
+have nothing to fear in the long run.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so it proved. The ascendency of
+the Federalists was soon destroyed, and de<pb n="107"/><anchor id="Pg107"/>stroyed forever, by the political crimes and
+follies which they committed; and especially
+by the alien and sedition laws. The reader
+need hardly be reminded that the alien law
+gave the President authority to banish from
+the country <q>all such aliens as <hi rend="italic">he</hi> should
+judge dangerous to the peace and safety
+of the United States,</q>—a despotic power
+which no king of England ever possessed.
+The sedition act made it a crime, punishable
+by fine and imprisonment, to speak or write
+anything <q>false, scandalous, and malicious,</q>
+with intent to excite against either House of
+Congress or against the President, <q>the hatred
+of the good people of the United States.</q>
+It can readily be seen what gross oppression
+was possible under this elastic law, interpreted
+by judges who, to a man, were members
+of the Federal party. Matthew Lyon, of
+Vermont, ventured to read aloud at a political
+meeting a letter which he had received
+expressing astonishment that the President’s
+recent address to the House of Representatives
+had not been answered by <q>an order
+to send him to a mad-house.</q> For this Mr.
+<pb n="108"/><anchor id="Pg108"/>Lyon was fined $1,000, and imprisoned in a
+veritable dungeon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These unconstitutional and un-American
+laws were vigorously opposed by Jefferson
+and Madison. In October, 1798, Jefferson
+wrote: <q>For my own part I consider those
+laws as merely an experiment on the American
+mind to see how far it will bear an
+avowed violation of the Constitution. If
+this goes down, we shall immediately see
+attempted another act of Congress declaring
+that the President shall continue in office
+during life, reserving to another occasion
+the transfer of the succession to his heirs,
+and the establishment of the Senate for
+life.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson also prepared the famous Kentucky
+resolutions, which were adopted by
+the legislature of that State,—the authorship,
+however, being kept secret till Jefferson
+avowed it, twenty years later. These
+much-discussed resolutions have been said
+to have originated the doctrine of nullification,
+and to contain that principle of secession
+upon which the South acted in 1861.
+<pb n="109"/><anchor id="Pg109"/>They may be summed up roughly as follows:
+The source of all political power is in
+the people. The people have, by the compact
+known as the Constitution, granted certain
+specified powers to the federal government;
+all other powers, if not granted to the several
+state governments, are retained by the
+people. The alien and sedition laws assume
+the exercise by the federal government of
+powers not granted to it by the Constitution.
+They are therefore void.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus far there can be no question that
+Jefferson’s argument was sound, and its
+soundness would not be denied, even at the
+present day. But the question then arose:
+what next? May the laws be disregarded
+and disobeyed by the States or by individuals,
+or must they be obeyed until some competent
+authority has pronounced them void?
+and if so, what is that authority? We understand
+now that the Supreme Court has
+sole authority to decide upon the constitutionality
+of the acts of Congress. It was so
+held, for the first time, in the year 1803, in
+the case of Marbury <hi rend="italic">v.</hi> Madison, by Chief
+<pb n="110"/><anchor id="Pg110"/>Justice Marshall and his associates; and that
+decision, though resisted at the time, has
+long been accepted by the country as a
+whole. But this case did not arise until
+several years after the Kentucky Resolutions
+were written. Moreover, Marshall was an
+extreme Federalist, and his view was by no
+means the commonly accepted view. Jefferson
+scouted it. He protested all his life
+against the assumption that the Supreme
+Court, a body of men appointed for life, and
+thus removed from all control by the people,
+should have the enormous power of construing
+the Constitution and of passing upon
+the validity of national laws. In a letter
+written in 1804, he said: <q>You seem to
+think it devolved on the judges to decide
+the validity of the sedition law. But nothing
+in the Constitution has given them a
+right to decide for the executive more than
+the executive to decide for them. But the
+opinion which gives to the judges the right
+to decide what laws are constitutional and
+what not—not only for themselves in their
+own sphere of action, but for the legislature
+<pb n="111"/><anchor id="Pg111"/>and executive also in their spheres—would
+make the judiciary a despotic branch.</q><note place="foot">Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:—<q>But
+if the policy of the government upon a vital
+question affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably
+fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the moment
+they are made, the people will cease to be their own
+masters; having to that extent resigned their government
+into the hands of that eminent tribunal.</q></note>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the Kentucky resolutions, Jefferson
+argued, first, that the Constitution was a
+compact between the States; secondly, that
+no person or body had been appointed by
+the Constitution as a common judge in respect
+to questions arising under the Constitution
+between any one State and Congress,
+or between the people and Congress; and
+thirdly, <q>as in all other cases of compact
+among powers having no common judge,
+each party has an equal right to judge for
+itself, as well of infractions as of the mode
+and measure of redress.</q> It was open to
+him to take this view, because it had not
+yet been decided that the Supreme Court
+was the <q>common judge</q> appointed by the
+Constitution; and the Constitution itself
+<pb n="112"/><anchor id="Pg112"/>was not explicit upon the point. Moreover,
+the laws in question had not been passed
+upon by the Supreme Court,—they expired
+by limitation before that stage was reached.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be admitted, then, that the Kentucky
+resolutions do contain the principles
+of nullification. But at the time when they
+were written, nullification was a permissible
+doctrine, because it was not certainly excluded
+by the Constitution. In 1803, as we
+have seen, the Constitution was interpreted
+by the Supreme Court as excluding this
+doctrine; and that decision having been reaffirmed
+repeatedly, and having been acquiesced
+in by the nation for fifty years, may
+fairly be said to have become by the year
+1861 the law of the land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson, however, by no means intended
+to push matters to their logical conclusion.
+His resolutions were intended for moral
+effect, as he explained in the following letter
+to Madison:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I think we should distinctly affirm all
+the important principles they contain, so as
+to hold to that ground in future, and leave
+<pb n="113"/><anchor id="Pg113"/>the matter in such a train that we may not
+be committed absolutely to push the matter
+to extremities, and yet may be free to push
+as far as events will render prudent.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to the charge that the Kentucky Resolutions
+imply the doctrine of secession, as
+well as that of nullification, it has no basis.
+The two doctrines do not stand or fall together.
+There is nothing in the resolutions
+which implies the right of secession. Jefferson,
+like most Americans of his day, contemplated
+with indifference the possibility of an
+ultimate separation of the region beyond the
+Mississippi from the United States. But
+nobody placed a higher value than he did on
+what he described <q>as our union, the last
+anchor of our hope, and that alone which is
+to prevent this heavenly country from becoming
+an arena of gladiators.</q>
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="114"/><anchor id="Pg114"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="X. President Jefferson"/><index index="pdf" level1="X. President Jefferson"/>
+<head>X</head>
+
+<head type="sub">PRESIDENT JEFFERSON</head>
+
+<p>
+For the presidential election of 1800,
+Adams was again the candidate on the Federal
+side, and Jefferson on the Republican
+side. Jefferson, by interviews, by long and
+numerous letters, by the commanding force
+of his own intellect and character, had at
+last welded the anti-Federal elements into a
+compact and disciplined Republican party.
+The contest was waged with the utmost bitterness,
+and especially with bitterness against
+Jefferson. For this there were several causes.
+Jefferson had deeply offended two powerful
+classes in Virginia, the old aristocratic and
+Tory element, and—excluding the dissenters—the
+religious element; the former, by
+the repeal of the law of entail, and the latter
+by the statute for freedom of religion in Virginia.
+These were among the most meritorious
+acts of his life, but they produced an
+<pb n="115"/><anchor id="Pg115"/>intense enmity which lasted till his death
+and even beyond his death. Jefferson, also,
+though at times over-cautious, was at times
+rash and indiscreet, and the freedom of his
+comments upon men and measures often got
+him into trouble. His career will be misunderstood
+unless it is remembered that he
+was an impulsive man. His judgments were
+intuitive, and though usually correct, yet
+sometimes hasty and ill-considered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Above all, Jefferson was both for friends
+and foes the embodiment of Republicanism.
+He represented those ideas which the Federalists,
+and especially the New England lawyers
+and clergy, really believed to be subversive
+of law and order, of government and
+religion. To them he figured as <q>a fanatic
+in politics, and an atheist in religion;</q> and
+they were so disposed to believe everything
+bad of him that they swallowed whole the
+worst slanders which the political violence
+of the times, far exceeding that of the present
+day, could invent. We have seen with
+what tenderness Jefferson treated his widowed
+sister, Mrs. Carr, and her children.
+<pb n="116"/><anchor id="Pg116"/>It was in reference to this very family that
+the Rev. Mr. Cotton Mather Smith, of Connecticut,
+declared that Jefferson had gained
+his estate by robbery, namely, by robbing a
+widow and her children of £10,000, <q>all of
+which can be proved.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson, as we have said, was a deist.
+He was a religious man and a daily reader
+of the Bible, far less extreme in his notions,
+less hostile to orthodox Christianity than
+John Adams. Nevertheless,—partly, perhaps,
+because he had procured the disestablishment
+of the Virginia Church, partly on
+account of his scientific tastes and his liking
+for French notions,—the Federalists
+had convinced themselves that he was a violent
+atheist and anti-Christian. It was a
+humorous saying of the time that the old
+women of New England hid their Bibles in
+the well when Jefferson’s election in 1800
+became known.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The vote was as follows:—Jefferson, 73,
+Burr, 73; Adams, 65; C. C. Pinckney, 64;
+Jay, 1. There being a tie between Jefferson
+and Burr, the Republican candidate for
+<pb n="117"/><anchor id="Pg117"/>Vice-President, the election was thrown
+into the House of Representatives, voting by
+States. In that House the Federalists were
+in the majority, but they did not have a majority
+by States. They could not, therefore,
+elect Adams; but it was possible for them
+to make Burr President instead of Jefferson.
+At first, the leaders were inclined to do
+this, some believing that Burr’s utter want
+of principle was less dangerous than the pernicious
+principles which they ascribed to
+Jefferson, and others thinking that Burr, if
+elected by Federal votes, would pursue a
+Federal policy. It was feared that Jefferson
+would wipe out the national debt, abolish
+the navy, and remove every Federal officeholder
+in the land. He was approached from
+many quarters, and even President Adams
+desired him to give some intimation of his
+intended policy on these points, but Jefferson
+firmly refused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to one such interview, with Gouverneur
+Morris, Jefferson wrote afterward: <q>I told
+him that I should leave the world to judge
+of the course I meant to pursue, by that
+<pb n="118"/><anchor id="Pg118"/>which I had pursued hitherto, believing it
+to be my duty to be passive and silent during
+the present scene; that I should certainly
+make no terms; should never go into the
+office of President by capitulation, nor with
+my hands tied by any conditions which
+would hinder me from pursuing the measures
+which I should deem for the public good.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Federalists had a characteristic plan:
+they proposed to pass a law devolving the
+Presidency upon the chairman of the Senate,
+in case the office of President should become
+vacant; and this vacancy they would be able
+to bring about by prolonging the election
+until Mr. Adams’s term of office had expired.
+The chairman of the Senate, a Federalist, of
+course, would then become President. This
+scheme Jefferson and his friends were prepared
+to resist by force. <q>Because,</q> as he
+afterward explained, <q>that precedent once
+set, it would be artificially reproduced, and
+would soon end in a dictator.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hamilton, to his credit, be it said, strongly
+advocated the election of Jefferson; and
+finally, through the action of Mr. Bayard,
+<pb n="119"/><anchor id="Pg119"/>of Delaware, a leading Federalist, who had
+sounded an intimate friend of Mr. Jefferson
+as to his views upon the points already mentioned,
+Mr. Jefferson was elected President,
+and the threatening civil war was averted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Adams, who was deeply chagrined by
+his defeat, did not attend the inauguration
+of his successor, but left Washington
+in his carriage, at sunrise, on the fourth of
+March; and Jefferson rode on horseback to
+the Capitol, unattended, and dismounting,
+fastened his horse to the fence with his own
+hands. The inaugural address, brief, and
+beautifully worded, surprised most of those
+who heard it by the moderation and liberality
+of its tone. <q>Let us,</q> said the new President,
+<q>restore to social intercourse that harmony
+and affection without which liberty,
+and even life itself, are but dreary things.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson served two terms, and he was
+succeeded first by Madison, and then by
+Monroe, both of whom were his friends and
+disciples, and imbued with his ideas. They,
+also, were reëlected. For
+twenty-four years,
+therefore, Jefferson and Jeffersonian De<pb n="120"/><anchor id="Pg120"/>mocracy predominated in the government of
+the United States, and the period was an
+exceedingly prosperous one. Not one of the
+dismal forebodings of the Federalists was
+fulfilled; and the practicability of popular
+government was proved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first problem with which Jefferson
+had to deal was that of appointments to
+office. The situation was much like that
+which afterward confronted President Cleveland
+when he entered upon his first term,—that
+is, every place was filled by a member
+of the party opposed to the new administration.
+The principle which Mr. Jefferson
+adopted closely resembles that afterward
+adopted by Mr. Cleveland, namely, no officeholder
+was to be displaced on account of his
+political belief; but if he acted aggressively
+in politics, that was to be sufficient ground
+for removal. <q>Electioneering activity</q> was
+the phrase used in Mr. Jefferson’s time, and
+<q>offensive partisanship</q> in Mr. Cleveland’s.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following letter from President Jefferson
+to the Secretary of the Treasury will
+show how the rule was construed by him:—
+</p>
+
+<pb n="121"/><anchor id="Pg121"/>
+
+<p>
+<q>The allegations against Pope [collector]
+of New Bedford are insufficient. Although
+meddling in political caucuses is no part of
+that freedom of personal suffrage which
+ought to be allowed him, yet his mere presence
+at a caucus does not necessarily involve
+an active and official influence in opposition
+to the government which employs
+him.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were some lapses, but, on the whole,
+Mr. Jefferson’s rule was adhered to; and it
+is difficult to say whether he received more
+abuse from the Federalists on account of the
+removals which he did make, or from a faction
+in his own party on account of the
+removals which he refused to make.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His principle was thus stated in a letter:
+<q>If a due participation of office is a matter
+of right, how are vacancies to be obtained?
+Those by death are few; by resignation,
+none.... It would have been to me a
+circumstance of great relief, had I found a
+moderate participation of office in the hands
+of the majority. I should gladly have left
+to time and accident to raise them to their
+<pb n="122"/><anchor id="Pg122"/>just share. But their total exclusion calls
+for prompter corrections. I shall correct
+the procedure; but that done, disdain to
+follow it. I shall return with joy to that
+state of things when the only questions concerning
+a candidate shall be, Is he honest?
+Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ascendency of Jefferson and of the
+Republican party produced a great change
+in the government and in national feeling,
+but it was a change the most important part
+of which was intangible, and is therefore
+hard to describe. It was such a change as
+takes place in the career of an individual,
+when he shakes off some controlling force,
+and sets up in life for himself. The common
+people felt an independence, a pride, an élan,
+which sent a thrill of vigor through every
+department of industry and adventure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The simplicity of the forms which President
+Jefferson adopted were a symbol to the
+national imagination of the change which
+had taken place. He gave up the royal custom
+of levees; he stopped the celebration
+<pb n="123"/><anchor id="Pg123"/>of the President’s birthday; he substituted
+a written message for the speech to Congress
+delivered in person at the Capitol, and
+the reply by Congress, delivered in person
+at the White House. The President’s residence
+ceased to be called the Palace. He
+cut down the army and navy. He introduced
+economy in all the departments of the
+government, and paid off thirty-three millions
+of the national debt. He procured the
+abolition of internal taxes and the repeal of
+the bankruptcy law—two measures which
+greatly decreased his own patronage, and
+which called forth John Randolph’s encomium
+long afterward: <q>I have never seen
+but one administration which seriously and
+in good faith was disposed to give up its
+patronage, and was willing to go farther
+than Congress or even the people themselves
+... desired; and that was the first administration
+of Thomas Jefferson.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two most important measures of the
+first administration were, however, the repression
+of the Barbary pirates and the
+acquisition of Louisiana. Mr. Jefferson’s
+<pb n="124"/><anchor id="Pg124"/>ineffectual efforts, while he was minister to
+France, to put down by force Mediterranean
+piracy have already been rehearsed. During
+Mr. Adams’s term, two million dollars were
+expended in bribing the bucaneers. One
+item in the account was as follows, <q>A frigate
+to carry thirty-six guns for the Dey of
+Algiers;</q> and this frigate went crammed
+with a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of
+powder, lead, timber, rope, canvas, and other
+means of piracy. One hundred and twenty-two
+captives came home in that year, 1796,
+of whom ten had been held in slavery for
+eleven years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s first important act as President
+was to dispatch to the Mediterranean three
+frigates and a sloop-of-war to overawe the
+pirates, and to cruise in protection of American
+commerce. Thus began that series of
+events which finally rendered the commerce
+of the world as safe from piracy in the
+Mediterranean as it was in the British channel.
+How brilliantly Decatur and his gallant
+comrades carried out this policy, and how at
+last the tardy naval powers of Europe fol<pb n="125"/><anchor id="Pg125"/>lowed an example which they ought to have
+set, every one is supposed to know.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The second important event was the acquisition
+of Louisiana. Louisiana meant the
+whole territory from the Mississippi River to
+the Pacific Ocean, embracing about one million
+square miles. All this region belonged
+to Spain by right of discovery; and early
+in the year 1801 news came from the American
+minister at Paris that Spain had ceded
+or was about to cede it to France. The
+Spanish ownership of the mouth of the Mississippi
+had long been a source of annoyance
+to the settlers on the Mississippi River; and
+it had begun to be felt that the United States
+must control New Orleans at least. If this
+vast territory should come into the hands of
+France, and Napoleon should colonize it, as
+was said to be his intention,—France then
+being the greatest power in Europe,—the
+United States would have a powerful rival on
+its borders, and in control of a seaport absolutely
+necessary for its commerce. We can
+see this now plainly enough, but even so able
+a man as Mr. Livingston, the American
+<pb n="126"/><anchor id="Pg126"/>minister at Paris, did not see it then. On
+the contrary, he wrote to the government at
+Washington: <q>... I have, however, on all
+occasions, declared that as long as France
+conforms to the existing treaty between us
+and Spain, the government of the United
+States does not consider itself as having any
+interest in opposing the exchange.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jefferson’s very different view was
+expressed in the following letter to Mr.
+Livingston: <q>... France, placing herself
+in that door, assumes to us the attitude of
+defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly
+for years. Her pacific disposition, her feeble
+state would induce her to increase our facilities
+there.... Not so can it ever be in the
+hands of France; the impetuosity of her
+temper, the energy and restlessness of her
+character, placed in a point of eternal friction
+with us and our character, which,
+though quiet and loving peace and the pursuit
+of wealth, is high-minded, despising
+wealth in competition with insult or injury,
+enterprising and energetic as any nation on
+earth,—these circumstances render it im<pb n="127"/><anchor id="Pg127"/>possible that France and the United States
+can continue long friends when they meet
+in so irritable a position.... The day that
+France takes possession of New Orleans fixes
+the sentence which is to restrain her forever
+within her low-water mark.... From that
+moment we must marry ourselves to the
+British fleet and nation.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus, at a moment’s notice, and in obedience
+to a vital change in circumstance, Jefferson
+threw aside the policy of a lifetime,
+suppressed his liking for France and his dislike
+for England, and entered upon that
+radically new course which, as he foresaw,
+the interests of the United States would require.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Livingston, thus primed, began negotiations
+for the purchase of New Orleans; and
+Jefferson hastily dispatched Monroe, as a
+special envoy, for the same purpose, armed,
+it is supposed, with secret verbal instructions,
+to buy, if possible, not only New Orleans,
+but the whole of Louisiana. Monroe had
+not a word in writing to show that in purchasing
+Louisiana—if the act should be
+<pb n="128"/><anchor id="Pg128"/>repudiated by the nation—he did not exceed
+his instructions. But, as Mr. Henry
+Adams remarks, <q>Jefferson’s friends always
+trusted him perfectly.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The moment was most propitious, for
+England and France were about to close in
+that terrific struggle which ended at Waterloo,
+and Napoleon was desperately in need of
+money. After some haggling the bargain
+was concluded, and, for the very moderate
+sum of fifteen million dollars, the United
+States became possessed of a territory which
+more than doubled its area.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The purchase of Louisiana was confessedly
+an unconstitutional, or at least an extra-constitutional
+act, for the Constitution gave no
+authority to the President to acquire new
+territory, or to pledge the credit of the
+United States in payment. Jefferson himself
+thought that the Constitution ought to
+be amended in order to make the purchase
+legal; but in this he was overruled by his
+advisers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus, Jefferson’s first administration ended
+with a brilliant achievement; but this public
+<pb n="129"/><anchor id="Pg129"/>glory was far more than outweighed by a private
+loss. The President’s younger daughter,
+Mrs. Eppes, died in April, 1804; and
+in a letter to his old friend, John Page,
+he said: <q>Others may lose of their abundance,
+but I, of my wants, have, lost even
+the half of all I had. My evening prospects
+now hang on the slender thread of a single
+life. Perhaps I may be destined to see even
+this last cord of parental affection broken.
+The hope with which I have looked forward
+to the moment when, resigning public cares
+to younger hands, I was to retire to that
+domestic comfort from which the last great
+step is to be taken, is fearfully blighted.</q>
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="130"/><anchor id="Pg130"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XI. Second Presidential Term"/><index index="pdf" level1="XI. Second Presidential Term"/>
+<head>XI</head>
+
+<head type="sub">SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM</head>
+
+<p>
+The purchase of Louisiana increased Jefferson’s
+popularity, and in 1805, at the age
+of sixty-two, he was elected to his second term
+as President by an overwhelming majority.
+Even Massachusetts was carried by the Republicans,
+and the total vote in the electoral
+college stood: 162 for Jefferson and Clinton;
+14 for C. C. Pinckney and Rufus
+King, the Federal candidates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This result was due in part to the fact
+that Jefferson had stolen the thunder of the
+Federalists. His Louisiana purchase, though
+bitterly opposed by the leading Federalists,
+who were blinded by their hatred of the
+President, was far more consonant with Federal
+than with Republican principles; and in
+his second inaugural address Jefferson went
+even farther in the direction of a strong central
+government, for he said: <q>Redemption
+<pb n="131"/><anchor id="Pg131"/>once effected, the revenue thereby liberated
+may, by a just repartition among the States,
+and a corresponding amendment of the Constitution,
+be applied <hi rend="italic">in time of peace</hi> to
+rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education,
+and other great objects within each
+State. In time of war, ... aided by other
+measures reserved for that crisis, it may meet
+within the year all the expenses of the year
+without encroaching on the rights of future
+generations by burdening them with the debts
+of the past.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This proposal flatly contradicted what the
+President had said in his first inaugural address,
+and was in strange contrast with his
+criticism made years before upon a similar
+Federal scheme of public improvement, that
+the mines of Peru would not supply the
+moneys which would be wasted on this object.
+In later years, after his permanent
+retirement to Monticello, Jefferson seems to
+have reverted to his earlier views, and he
+condemned the measures of John Quincy
+Adams for making public improvements with
+national funds.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="132"/><anchor id="Pg132"/>
+
+<p>
+But the President was no longer to enjoy
+a smooth course. One domestic affair gave
+him much annoyance, and our foreign relations
+were a continual source of anxiety and
+mortification.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Aaron Burr had been a brilliant soldier
+of the Revolution, a highly successful lawyer
+and politician, and finally, during Mr. Jefferson’s
+first administration, Vice-President
+of the United States. But in the year 1805
+he found himself, owing to a complication of
+causes, most of which, however, could be
+traced to his own moral defects, a bankrupt
+in reputation and in purse. Such being his
+condition, he applied to the President for
+a foreign appointment; and Mr. Jefferson
+very properly refused it, frankly explaining
+that Burr, whether justly or unjustly, had
+lost the confidence of the public.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Burr took this rebuff with the easy good-humor
+which characterized him, dined with
+the President a few days later, and then
+started westward to carry out a scheme which
+he had been preparing for a year. His plans
+were so shrouded in mystery that it is diffi<pb n="133"/><anchor id="Pg133"/>cult to say exactly what they were, but it is
+certain that he contemplated an expedition
+against Mexico, with the intention of making
+himself the ruler of that country; and
+it is possible that he hoped to capture New
+Orleans, and, after dividing the United
+States, to annex the western half to his
+Mexican empire. Burr had got together a
+small supply of men and arms, and he floated
+down the Ohio, gathering recruits as he went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson, with his usual good sense, perceived
+the futility of Burr’s designs, which
+were based upon a false belief as to the want
+of loyalty among the western people; but he
+took all needful precautions. General Wilkinson
+was ordered to protect New Orleans,
+Burr’s proceedings were denounced by a
+proclamation, and finally Burr himself was
+arrested in Alabama, and brought to Richmond
+for trial.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The trial at once became a political affair,
+the Federalists, to spite the President, making
+Burr’s cause their own, though he had
+killed Alexander Hamilton but three years
+before, and pretending to regard him as an
+<pb n="134"/><anchor id="Pg134"/>innocent man persecuted by the President
+for political reasons. Jefferson himself took
+a hand in the prosecution to the extent of
+writing letters to the district attorney full of
+advice and suggestions. It would have been
+more dignified had he held aloof, but the
+provocation which he received was very great.
+Burr and his counsel used every possible
+means of throwing odium upon the President;
+and in this they were assisted by Chief
+Justice Marshall, who presided at the trial.
+Marshall, though in the main a just man,
+was bitterly opposed to Jefferson in political
+affairs, and in this case he harshly blamed
+the executive for not procuring evidence with
+a celerity which, under the circumstances,
+was impossible. He also summoned the
+President into court as a witness. The President,
+however, declined to attend, and the
+matter was not pressed. Burr was acquitted,
+chiefly on technical grounds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Burr affair, however, was but a trifle
+compared with the difficulties arising from
+our relations with England. That country
+had always asserted over the United States
+<pb n="135"/><anchor id="Pg135"/>the right of impressment, a right, namely, to
+search American ships, and to take therefrom
+any Englishmen found among the crew. In
+many cases, Englishmen who had been naturalized
+in the United States were thus taken.
+This alleged right had always been denied
+by the United States, and British perseverance
+in it finally led to the war of 1812.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another source of contention was the neutral
+trade. During the European wars in
+the early part of the century the seaport
+towns of the United States did an immense
+and profitable business in carrying goods to
+European ports, and from one European port
+to another. Great Britain, after various
+attempts to discourage American commerce
+with her enemies, undertook to put it down
+by confiscating vessels of the United States
+on the ground that their cargoes were not
+neutral but belligerent property,—the property,
+that is, of nations at war with Great
+Britain. And, no doubt, in some cases this
+was the fact,—foreign merchandise having
+been imported to this country to get a neutral
+name for it, and thence exported to a
+<pb n="136"/><anchor id="Pg136"/>country to which it could not have been
+shipped directly from its place of origin. In
+April, 1806, the President dispatched Mr.
+Monroe to London in order, if possible, to
+settle these disputed matters by a treaty.
+Monroe, in conjunction with Mr. Pinckney,
+our minister to England, sent back a treaty
+which contained no reference whatever to
+the matter of impressments. It was the best
+treaty which they could obtain, but it was
+silent upon this vital point.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The situation was a perilous one; England
+had fought the battle of Trafalgar the
+year before; and was now able to carry
+everything before her upon the high seas.
+Nevertheless, the President’s conduct was
+bold and prompt. The treaty had been negotiated
+mainly by his own envoy and friend,
+Monroe, and great pressure was exerted in
+favor of it,—especially by the merchants
+and shipowners of the east. But Jefferson
+refused even to lay it before the Senate,
+and at once sent it back to England. His
+position, and history has justified it, was
+that to accept a treaty which might be con<pb n="137"/><anchor id="Pg137"/>strued as tacitly admitting the right of impressment
+would be a disgrace to the country.
+The other questions at issue were more
+nearly legal and technical, but this one
+touched the national honor; and with the
+same right instinct which Jefferson showed
+in 1807, the people of the United States,
+five years later, fixed upon this grievance,
+out of the fog in which diplomacy had enveloped
+our relations with England, as the
+true and sufficient cause of the war of 1812.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nevertheless, Jefferson treated Monroe
+with the greatest consideration. At this
+period Monroe and Madison were both
+candidates for the Republican nomination
+for the presidency. Jefferson’s choice was
+Madison, but he remained impartial between
+them; and he withheld Monroe’s treaty from
+publication at a time when to publish it would
+have given a fatal blow to Monroe’s prospects.
+In every way, in fact, he exerted himself to
+disguise and soften Monroe’s discredit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wisdom of Jefferson’s course as to the
+treaty was shown before three months had
+elapsed by an act of British aggression, which,
+<pb n="138"/><anchor id="Pg138"/>had the Monroe treaty been accepted, might
+fairly have been laid to its door. In June,
+1807, the British frigate Leopard, having
+been refused permission to search the American
+frigate Chesapeake, fired upon the Chesapeake,
+which was totally unprepared for
+action, and, after killing three men and
+wounding eighteen, refused to accept the
+surrender of the ship, but carried off three
+alleged deserters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This event roused a storm of indignation,
+which never quite subsided until the insult
+had been effaced by the blood which was
+shed in the war of 1812. <q>For the first
+time in their history,</q> says Mr. Henry Adams,
+<q>the people of the United States learned in
+June, 1807, the feeling of a true national
+emotion.</q> <q>Never since the battle of Lexington,</q>
+wrote Jefferson, <q>have I seen this
+country in such a state of exasperation as at
+present.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+War might easily have been precipitated,
+had Jefferson been carried away by the popular
+excitement. He immediately dispatched
+a frigate to England demanding reparation,
+<pb n="139"/><anchor id="Pg139"/>and he issued a proclamation forbidding all
+British men-of-war to enter the waters of the
+United States, unless in distress or bearing
+dispatches. Jefferson expected war, but he
+meant to delay it for a while.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To his son-in-law, John Eppes, he wrote:
+<q>Reason and the usage of civilized nations
+require that we should give them an opportunity
+of disavowal and reparation. Our
+own interests, too, the very means of making
+war, require that we should give time to our
+merchants to gather in their vessels and
+property and our seamen now afloat.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury,
+even criticised the President’s annual message
+at this time as being too warlike and <q>not
+in the style of the proclamation, which has
+been almost universally approved at home
+and abroad.</q> It cannot truly be said, therefore,
+that Jefferson had any unconquerable
+aversion to war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Canning, the British Foreign Minister,
+went through the form of expressing his
+regrets for the Chesapeake affair, and sent a
+special envoy to Washington to settle the
+<pb n="140"/><anchor id="Pg140"/>difficulty. Reparation was made at last, but
+not till the year 1811.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the mean time, both Great Britain and
+France had given other causes of offense,
+which may be summarized as follows: In
+May, 1806, Great Britain declared the
+French ports from Brest to the Elbe closed to
+American as to all other shipping. In the
+following November, Napoleon retorted with
+a decree issued from Berlin, prohibiting all
+commerce with Great Britain. That power
+immediately forbade the coasting trade between
+one port and another in the possession
+of her enemies. And in November, 1807,
+Great Britain issued the famous Orders in
+Council, which forbade all trade whatsoever
+with France and her allies, except on payment
+of a tribute to Great Britain, each vessel to
+pay according to the value of its cargo. Then
+followed Napoleon’s Milan decree prohibiting
+trade with Great Britain, and declaring that
+all vessels which paid the tribute demanded
+were lawful prizes to the French marine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the series of acts which assailed
+the foreign commerce of the United States,
+<pb n="141"/><anchor id="Pg141"/>and wounded the national honor by attempting
+to prostrate the country at the mercy of
+the European powers. Diplomacy had been
+exhausted. The Chesapeake affair, the right
+of impressment, the British decrees and orders
+directed against our commerce,—all these
+causes of offense had been tangled into a
+complication which no man could unravel.
+Retaliation on our part had become absolutely
+necessary. What form should it take? Jefferson
+rejected war, and proposed an embargo
+which prohibited commerce between
+the United States and Europe. The measure
+was bitterly opposed by the New England
+Federalists; but the President’s influence
+was so great that Congress adopted it
+almost without discussion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s design, to use his own words,
+was <q>to introduce between nations another
+umpire than arms;</q> and he expected that
+England would be starved into submission.
+The annual British exports to the United
+States amounted to $50,000,000. Cutting
+off this trade meant the throwing out of
+work of thousands of British sailors and tens
+<pb n="142"/><anchor id="Pg142"/>of thousands of British factory hands, who
+had no other means of livelihood. Mr. Jefferson
+felt confident that the starvation of
+this class would bring such pressure to bear
+upon the English government, then engaged
+in a death struggle with Bonaparte, that it
+would be forced to repeal the laws which
+obstructed American commerce. It is possible
+that this would have been the result
+had the embargo been observed faithfully
+by all citizens of the United States. Jefferson
+maintained till the day of his death that
+such would have been the case; and Madison,
+no enthusiast, long afterward asserted
+that the American state department had
+proofs that the English government was on
+the point of yielding. The embargo pressed
+hardest of all upon Virginia, for it stopped
+the exportation of her staples,—wheat and
+tobacco. It brought about, by the way, the
+financial ruin of Jefferson himself and of his
+son-in-law, Colonel Randolph. But the Virginians
+bore it without a murmur. <q>They
+drained the poison which their own President
+held obstinately to their lips.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n="143"/><anchor id="Pg143"/>
+
+<p>
+It was otherwise in New England. There
+the disastrous effect of the embargo was not
+only indirect but direct. The New England
+farmers, it is true, could at least exist
+upon the produce of their farms; but the
+mariners, the sea-captains, and the merchants
+of the coast towns, saw a total suspension of
+the industry by which they lived. New
+England evaded the embargo by smuggling,
+and resisted it tooth and nail. Some of the
+Federal leaders in that section believing, or
+pretending to believe, that it was a pro-French
+measure, were in secret correspondence
+with the British government, and meditated
+a secession of the eastern States from
+the rest of the country. They went so far,
+in private conversation at least, as to maintain
+the British right of impressment; and
+even the Orders in Council were defended
+by Gardenier, a leading Federalist, and a
+member of Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The present generation has witnessed a
+similar exhibition of anglomania, when, upon
+the assertion of the Monroe doctrine in respect
+to Venezuela, by President Cleveland,
+<pb n="144"/><anchor id="Pg144"/>his attitude was criticised more severely by
+a group in New York and Boston than it
+was by the English themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s effort to enforce the embargo
+and his calm resistance to New England
+fury showed extraordinary firmness of will
+and tenacity of purpose. In August, 1808,
+he wrote to General Dearborn, Secretary of
+War, who was then in Maine: <q>The Tories
+of Boston openly threaten insurrection if
+their importation of flour is stopped. The
+next post will stop it.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Blood was soon shed; but Jefferson did
+not shrink. The army was stationed along
+the Canadian frontier, to prevent smuggling;
+gunboats and frigates patrolled the coast.
+The embargo failed; but Mr. Henry Adams,
+the ablest and fairest historian of this period,
+declares that it <q>was an experiment in politics
+well worth making. In the scheme of
+President Jefferson, non-intercourse was the
+substitute for war.... Failure of the embargo
+meant in his mind not only a recurrence
+to the practice of war, but to every
+political and social evil that war had always
+<pb n="145"/><anchor id="Pg145"/>brought in its train. In such a case the
+crimes and corruptions of Europe, which
+had been the object of his political fears,
+must, as he believed, sooner or later, teem
+in the fat soil of America. To avert a disaster
+so vast was a proper motive for statesmanship,
+and justified disregard for smaller
+interests.</q> Mr. Parton observes, with almost
+as much truth as humor, that the
+embargo was approved by the two highest
+authorities in Europe, namely, Napoleon
+Bonaparte and the <q>Edinburgh Review.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Perhaps the fundamental error in Jefferson’s
+theory was that nations are governed
+mainly by motives of self-interest. He
+thought that England would cease to legislate
+against American commerce, when it
+was once made plain that such a course was
+prejudicial to her own interests. But nations,
+like individuals, are influenced in their
+relations to others far more by pride and
+patriotism, and even by prejudice, than by
+material self-interest. The only way in
+which America could win respect and fair
+treatment from Europe was by fighting, or
+<pb n="146"/><anchor id="Pg146"/>at least by showing a perfect readiness to
+fight. This she did by the war of 1812.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The embargo was an academic policy,—the
+policy of a philosopher rather than that
+of a practical man of affairs. Turreau, the
+French ambassador, wrote to Talleyrand,
+in May, 1806, that the President <q>has little
+energy and still less of that audacity which
+is indispensable in a place so eminent, whatever
+may be the form of government. The
+slightest event makes him lose his balance,
+and he does not even know how to disguise
+the impression which he receives.... He
+has made himself ill, and has grown ten
+years older.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson had energy and audacity,—but
+he was energetic and audacious only by fits
+and starts. He was too sensitive, too full of
+ideas, too far-sighted, too conscious of all
+possible results for a man of action. During
+the last three months of his term he made
+no attempt to settle the difficulties in which
+the country was involved, declaring that he
+felt bound to do nothing which might embarrass
+his successor. But it may be doubted
+<pb n="147"/><anchor id="Pg147"/>if he did not unconsciously decline the task
+rather from its difficulty than because he
+felt precluded from undertaking it. Self-knowledge
+was never Mr. Jefferson’s strong
+point.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But he had done his best, and if his
+scheme had failed, the failure was not an
+ignoble one. He was still the most beloved,
+as well as the best hated man in the United
+States; and he could have had a third term,
+if he would have taken it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He retired, permanently, as it proved, to
+Monticello, wearied and harassed, but glad
+to be back on his farm, in the bosom of his
+family, and among his neighbors. His fellow-citizens
+of Albemarle County desired to
+meet the returning President, and escort
+him to his home; but Mr. Jefferson, characteristically,
+avoided this demonstration, and
+received instead an address, to which he
+made a reply that closed in a fit and pathetic
+manner his public career. <q>... The
+part which I have acted on the theatre of
+public life has been before them [his countrymen],
+and to their sentence I submit it;
+<pb n="148"/><anchor id="Pg148"/>but the testimony of my native county, of
+the individuals who have known me in
+private life, to my conduct in its various
+duties and relations, is the more grateful as
+proceeding from eyewitnesses and observers,
+from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then,
+my neighbors, I may ask in the face of the
+world, <q>whose ox have I taken, or whom
+have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed,
+or of whose hand have I received a bribe to
+blind mine eyes therewith?</q> On your verdict
+I rest with conscious security.</q>
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="149"/><anchor id="Pg149"/>
+<index index="toc" level1="XII. A Public Man in Private Life"/><index index="pdf" level1="XII. A Public Man in Private Life"/>
+<head>XII</head>
+
+<head type="sub">A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE</head>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s second term as President
+ended March 4, 1809, and during the rest
+of his life he lived at Monticello, with occasional
+visits to his more retired estate at Poplar
+Forest, and to the homes of his friends,
+but never going beyond the confines of Virginia.
+Just before leaving Washington, he
+had written: <q>Never did a prisoner released
+from his chains feel such relief as I shall on
+shaking off the shackles of power. Nature
+intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science
+by rendering them my supreme delight.
+But the enormities of the times in which
+I have lived have forced me to take a part
+in resisting them, and to commit myself on
+the boisterous ocean of political passions.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though no longer in office, Jefferson remained
+till his death the chief personage in
+the United States, and his authority continued
+<pb n="150"/><anchor id="Pg150"/>to be almost supreme among the leaders as
+well as among the rank and file of the Republican
+party. Madison first, and Monroe
+afterward, consulted him in all the most
+important matters which arose during the
+sixteen years of their double terms as President.
+Long and frequent letters passed between
+them; and both Madison and Monroe
+often visited Jefferson at Monticello.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Monroe doctrine, as it is called, was
+first broached by Jefferson. In a letter of
+August 4, 1820, to William Short, he
+said: <q>The day is not far distant, when we
+may formally require a meridian through
+the ocean which separates the two hemispheres
+on the hither side of which no
+European gun shall ever be heard, nor an
+American on the other;</q> and he spoke of
+<q>the essential policy of interdicting in the
+seas and territories of both Americas the
+ferocious and sanguinary contests of Europe.</q>
+Later, when applied to by Monroe himself,
+in October, 1823, Jefferson wrote to him:
+<q>Our first and fundamental maxim should
+be never to entangle ourselves in the broils
+<pb n="151"/><anchor id="Pg151"/>of Europe. Our second, never to suffer
+Europe to meddle in cisatlantic affairs.</q>
+The whole letter, a long one, deserves to be
+read as the first exposition of what has since
+become a famous doctrine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The darling object of Mr. Jefferson’s last
+years was the founding of the University of
+Virginia at Charlottesville. For this purpose
+he gave $1000; many of his neighbors
+in Albemarle County joined him with gifts;
+and through Jefferson’s influence, the legislature
+appropriated considerable sums. But
+money was the least of Jefferson’s endowment
+of the University. He gave of the maturity
+of his judgment and a great part of
+his time. He was made regent. He drew
+the plans for the buildings, and overlooked
+their construction, riding to the University
+grounds almost every day, a distance of four
+miles, and back, and watching with paternal
+solicitude the laying of every brick and
+stone. His design was the perhaps over-ambitious
+one of displaying in the University
+buildings the various leading styles of
+architecture; and certain practical inconven<pb n="152"/><anchor id="Pg152"/>iences, such as the entire absence of closets
+from the houses of the professors, marred
+the result. Some offense also was given to
+the more religious people of Virginia, by the
+selection of a Unitarian as the first professor.
+However, Jefferson’s enthusiasm, ingenuity,
+and thoroughness carried the scheme through
+with success; and the University still stands
+as a monument to its founder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It should be recorded, moreover, that
+under Jefferson’s regency the University of
+Virginia adopted certain reforms, which even
+Harvard, the most progressive of eastern
+universities, did not attain till more than
+half a century later. These were, an elective
+system of studies; the abolition of rules and
+penalties for the preservation of order, and
+the abolition of compulsory attendance at
+religious services.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Jefferson’s daily life was simple and
+methodical. He rose as soon as it was light
+enough for him to see the hands of a clock
+which was opposite his bed. Till breakfast
+time, which was about nine o’clock, he
+employed himself in writing. The whole
+<pb n="153"/><anchor id="Pg153"/>morning was devoted to an immense correspondence;
+the discharge of which was not
+only mentally, but physically distressing,
+inasmuch as his crippled hands, each wrist
+having been fractured, could not be used
+without pain. In a letter to his old friend,
+John Adams, he wrote: <q>I can read by
+candle-light only, and stealing long hours
+from my rest; nor would that time be indulged
+to me could I by that light see to
+write. From sunrise to one or two o’clock,
+and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging
+at the writing-table. And all this to
+answer letters, in which neither interest nor
+inclination on my part enters; and often
+from persons whose names I have never
+before heard. Yet writing civilly, it is hard
+to refuse them civil answers.</q> At his death
+Jefferson left copies of 16,000 letters, being
+only a part of those written by himself, and
+26,000 letters written by others to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At one o’clock he set out upon horseback,
+and was gone for one or two hours,—never
+attended by a servant, even when he became
+old and infirm. He continued these rides
+<pb n="154"/><anchor id="Pg154"/>until he had become so feeble that he had
+to be lifted to the saddle; and his mount
+was always a fiery one. Once, in Mr. Jefferson’s
+old age, news came that a serious
+accident had happened in the neighboring
+village to one of his grandsons. Immediately
+he ordered his horse to be brought
+round, and though it was night and very
+dark, he mounted, despite the protests of
+the household, and, at a run, dashed down
+the steep ascent by which Monticello is
+reached. The family held their breath till
+the tramp of his horse’s feet, on the level
+ground below, could faintly be heard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At half past three or four he dined; and
+at six he returned to the drawing-room,
+where coffee was served. The evening was
+spent in reading or conversation, and at
+nine he went to bed. <q>His diet,</q> relates a
+distinguished visitor, Daniel Webster, <q>is
+simple, but he seems restrained only by his
+taste. His breakfast is tea and coffee, bread
+always fresh from the oven, of which he
+does not seem afraid, with at times a slight
+accompaniment of cold meat. He enjoys
+<pb n="155"/><anchor id="Pg155"/>his dinner well, taking with his meat a large
+proportion of vegetables.</q> The fact is that
+he used meat only as a sort of condiment to
+vegetables. <q>He has a strong preference
+for the wines of the continent, of which he
+has many sorts of excellent quality....
+Dinner is served in half Virginian, half
+French style, in good taste and abundance.
+No wine is put on the table till the cloth is
+removed. In conversation, Mr. Jefferson is
+easy and natural, and apparently not ambitious;
+it is not loud as challenging general
+attention, but usually addressed to the person
+next him.</q> His health remained good till
+within a few months of his death, and he
+never lost a tooth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarcely less burdensome than his correspondence
+was the throng of visitors at Monticello,
+of all nationalities, from every State
+in the Union, some coming from veneration,
+some from curiosity, some from a desire to
+obtain free quarters. Groups of people often
+stood about the house and in the halls to see
+Jefferson pass from his study to his dining-room.
+It is recorded that <q>a female once
+<pb n="156"/><anchor id="Pg156"/>punched through a window-pane of the house
+with her parasol to get a better view of him.</q>
+As many as fifty guests sometimes lodged
+in the house. <q>As a specimen of Virginia
+life,</q> relates one biographer, <q>we will
+mention that a friend from abroad came to
+Monticello, with a family of six persons, and
+remained ten months.... Accomplished
+young kinswomen habitually passed two or
+three of the summer months there, as they
+would now at a fashionable watering-place.
+They married the sons of Mr. Jefferson’s
+friends, and then came with their families.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The immense expense entailed by these
+hospitalities, added to the debt, amounting
+to $20,000, which Mr. Jefferson owed when
+he left Washington, crippled him financially.
+Moreover, Colonel Randolph, who managed
+his estate for many years, though a good
+farmer, was a poor man of business. It was
+a common saying in the neighborhood that
+nobody raised better crops or got less money
+for them than Colonel Randolph. The embargo,
+and the period of depression which
+followed the war of 1812, went far to impov<pb n="157"/><anchor id="Pg157"/>erish the Virginia planters. Monroe died
+a bankrupt, and Madison’s widow was left
+almost in want of bread. Jefferson himself
+wrote in 1814: <q>What can we raise for the
+market? Wheat? we can only give it to our
+horses, as we have been doing since harvest.
+Tobacco? It is not worth the pipe it is
+smoked in. Some say whiskey, but all mankind
+must become drunkards to consume it.</q>
+Jefferson, also, was so anxious lest his slaves
+should be overworked, that the amount of
+labor performed upon his plantation was
+much less than it should have been. And,
+to cap the climax of his financial troubles, he
+lost $20,000 by indorsing to that amount
+for his intimate friend, Governor Nicholas,
+an honorable but unfortunate man. It
+should be added that Mr. Nicholas, in his last
+hours, <q>declared with unspeakable emotion
+that Mr. Jefferson had never by a word, by
+a look, or in any other way, made any allusion
+to his loss by him.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In 1814, Mr. Jefferson sold his library
+to Congress for $23,950, about one half its
+cost; and in the very year of his death he
+<pb n="158"/><anchor id="Pg158"/>requested of the Virginia legislature that a
+law might be passed permitting him to sell
+some of his farms by means of a lottery,—the
+times being such that they could be
+disposed of in no other way. He even published
+some <q>Thoughts on Lotteries,</q>—by
+way of advancing this project. The legislature
+granted his request, with reluctance;
+but in the mean time his necessities became
+known throughout the country, and subscriptions
+were made for his relief. The lottery
+was suspended, and Jefferson died in the
+belief that Monticello would be saved as a
+home for his family.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In March, 1826, Mr. Jefferson’s health
+began to fail; but so late as June 24 he
+was well enough to write a long letter in
+reply to an invitation to attend the fiftieth
+celebration, at Washington, of the 4th of
+July. During the 3d of July he dozed hour
+after hour under the influence of opiates,
+rousing occasionally, and uttering a few
+words. It was evident that his end was
+very near. His family and he himself fervently
+desired that he might live till the 4th
+<pb n="159"/><anchor id="Pg159"/>of July. At eleven in the evening of July 3
+he whispered to Mr. Trist, the husband of
+one of his granddaughters, who sat by him:
+<q>This is the fourth?</q> Not bearing to disappoint
+him, Mr. Trist remained silent; and
+Mr. Jefferson feebly asked a second time:
+<q>This is the fourth?</q> Mr. Trist nodded assent.
+<q>Ah!</q> he breathed, and sank into a
+slumber from which he never awoke; but his
+end did not come till half past twelve in the
+afternoon of Independence Day. On the
+same day, at Quincy, died John Adams, his
+last words being, <q>Thomas Jefferson still
+lives!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The double coincidence made a strong impression
+upon the imagination of the American
+people. <q>When it became known,</q> says
+Mr. Parton, <q>that the author of the Declaration
+and its most powerful defender had
+both breathed their last on the Fourth of
+July, the fiftieth since they had set it apart
+from the roll of common days, it seemed as
+if Heaven had given its visible and unerring
+sanction to the work which they had done.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s body was buried at Monticello,
+<pb n="160"/><anchor id="Pg160"/>and on the tombstone is inscribed, as he
+desired, the following: <q>Here was buried
+Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration
+of American Independence, of the Statute of
+Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father
+of the University of Virginia.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s expectation that Monticello
+would remain the property of his descendants
+was not fulfilled. His debts were paid
+to the uttermost farthing by his executor
+and grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph;
+but Martha Randolph and her family were
+left homeless and penniless. When this became
+known, the legislatures of South Carolina
+and Louisiana each voted to Mrs. Randolph
+a gift of $10,000. She died suddenly,
+in 1836, at the age of sixty-three. Monticello
+passed into the hands of strangers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson had his faults and defects. As
+a statesman and ruler, he showed at times
+irresolution, want of energy and of audacity,
+and a misunderstanding of human nature;
+and at times his judgment was clouded by
+the political prejudices which were common
+in his day. His attitude in the X Y Z
+<pb n="161"/><anchor id="Pg161"/>business, his embargo policy, and his policy
+or want of policy after the failure of the
+embargo,—in these cases, and perhaps in
+these alone, his defects are exhibited. It
+is certain also that although at times frank
+and outspoken to a fault, he was at other
+times over-complaisant and insincere. To
+Aaron Burr, for example, he expressed himself
+in terms of friendship which he could
+hardly have felt; and, once, in writing to a
+minister of the gospel he implied, upon his
+own part, a belief in revelation which he did
+not really feel. It seems to be true also that
+Jefferson had an overweening desire to win
+the approbation of his fellow-countrymen;
+and at times, though quite unconsciously to
+himself, this motive led him into courses
+which were rather selfish than patriotic.
+This was the case, perhaps, in his negotiations
+with the English minister after the failure
+of the embargo. It is charged against
+him, also, that he avoided unpleasant situations;
+and that he said or did nothing to
+check the Republican slanders which were
+cast upon Washington and upon John
+<pb n="162"/><anchor id="Pg162"/>Adams. But when this much has been
+said, all has been said. As a citizen, husband,
+father, friend, and master, Jefferson
+was almost an ideal character. No man was
+ever more kind, more amiable, more tender,
+more just, more generous. To her children,
+Mrs. Randolph declared that never, never
+had she witnessed a <hi rend="italic">particle</hi> of injustice in
+her father,—never had she heard him say a
+word or seen him do an act which she at the
+time or afterward regretted. He was magnanimous,—as
+when he frankly forgave
+John Adams for the injustice of his midnight
+appointments. Though easily provoked,
+he never bore malice. In matters of
+business and in matters of politics he was
+punctiliously honorable. How many times
+he paid his British debt has already been related.
+On one occasion he drew his cheque
+to pay the duties on certain imported wines
+which might have come in free,—yet made
+no merit of the action, for it never came to
+light until long after his death. In the presidential
+campaigns when he was a candidate,
+he never wrote a letter or made a sign
+<pb n="163"/><anchor id="Pg163"/>to influence the result. He would not say
+a word by way of promise in 1801, when a
+word would have given him the presidency,
+and when so honorable a man as John Adams
+thought that he did wrong to withhold it.
+There was no vanity or smallness in his
+character. It was he and not Dickinson
+who wrote the address to the King, set forth
+by the Continental Congress of 1775; but
+Dickinson enjoyed the fame of it throughout
+Jefferson’s lifetime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Above all, he was patriotic and conscientious.
+When he lapsed, it was in some
+subordinate matter, and because a little self-deception
+clouded his sight. But in all important
+matters, in all emergencies, he stood
+firm as a rock for what he considered to
+be right, unmoved by the entreaties of his
+friends or by the jeers, threats, and taunts of
+his enemies. He shrank with almost feminine
+repugnance from censure and turmoil,
+but when the occasion demanded it, he
+faced even these with perfect courage and
+resolution. His course as Secretary of State,
+and his enforcement of the embargo, are
+examples.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="164"/><anchor id="Pg164"/>
+
+<p>
+Jefferson’s political career was bottomed
+upon a great principle which he never, for
+one moment, lost sight of or doubted, no
+matter how difficult the present, or how dark
+the future. He believed in the people, in
+their capacity for self-government, and in their
+right to enjoy it. This belief shaped his
+course, and, in spite of minor inconsistencies,
+made it consistent. It was on account of
+this belief, and of the faith and courage with
+which he put it in practice, that he became
+the idol of his countrymen, and attained a
+unique position in the history of the world.
+</p>
+        </div></body>
+        <back>
+<div>
+            <pgIf output="pdf">
+                <then/>
+                <else>
+                    <div id="footnotes" rend="page-break-before: right">
+                        <head>Footnotes</head>
+                        <divGen type="footnotes"/>
+                    </div>
+                </else>
+            </pgIf>
+            </div>
+<div rend="page-break-before:right; x-class: boxed">
+                <index index="pdf"/><index index="toc"/>
+                <head>Transcriber’s Note</head>
+                <pgIf output="txt"><then><p>Italic type is marked by underscore (_), black letter by asterisk (*).</p></then>
+                <else><p>Black letter has been rendered as boldface.</p></else>
+                </pgIf>
+                
+                <p>The following changes have been made to the text:</p>
+            <list>
+                <item><ref target="corr065">page 65</ref>, <q>Charlotteville</q> changed to <q>Charlottesville</q></item>
+                <item><ref target="corr073">page 73</ref>, <q>goverment</q> changed to <q>government</q></item>
+                <item><ref target="corr093">page 93</ref>, <q>1795</q> changed to <q>1793</q></item>
+                <item><ref target="corr098">page 98</ref>, <q>circumtances</q> changed to <q>circumstances</q></item>
+                </list>
+                <p>Both <q>draught</q> and <q>draft</q> are used in the text.</p>
+</div>
+            <div rend="page-break-before: right">
+    <divGen type="pgfooter" />
+  </div>
+        </back>
+    </text>
+</TEI.2>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Jefferson by Henry Childs Merwin
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Henry Childs Merwin
+
+Release Date: June 28, 2010 [Ebook #33011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS JEFFERSON***
+
+
+
+
+
+                   *The Riverside Biographical Series*
+
+                                 NUMBER 5
+
+                             THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+                                    BY
+
+                           HENRY CHILDS MERWIN
+
+                      [Illustration: Th. Jefferson]
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           HENRY CHILDS MERWIN
+
+
+                           [Publisher's emblem]
+
+
+HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street
+Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Avenue
+*The Riverside Press, Cambridge*
+
+
+
+
+
+                   COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HENRY C. MERWIN
+
+                           ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAP.                                        PAGE
+    I.   YOUTH AND TRAINING                      1
+   II.   VIRGINIA IN JEFFERSON'S DAY            16
+  III.   MONTICELLO AND ITS HOUSEHOLD           28
+   IV.   JEFFERSON IN THE REVOLUTION            36
+    V.   REFORM WORK IN VIRGINIA                45
+   VI.   GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA                   59
+  VII.   ENVOY AT PARIS                         71
+ VIII.   SECRETARY OF STATE                     82
+   IX.   THE TWO PARTIES                        98
+    X.   PRESIDENT JEFFERSON                   114
+   XI.   SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM              130
+  XII.   A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE          149
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THOMAS JEFFERSON
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    I
+
+
+                            YOUTH AND TRAINING
+
+
+Thomas Jefferson was born upon a frontier estate in Albemarle County,
+Virginia, April 13, 1743. His father, Peter Jefferson, was of Welsh
+descent, not of aristocratic birth, but of that yeoman class which
+constitutes the backbone of all societies. The elder Jefferson had
+uncommon powers both of mind and body. His strength was such that he could
+simultaneously "head up"--that is, raise from their sides to an upright
+position--two hogsheads of tobacco, weighing nearly one thousand pounds
+apiece. Like Washington, he was a surveyor; and there is a tradition that
+once, while running his lines through a vast wilderness, his assistants
+gave out from famine and fatigue, and Peter Jefferson pushed on alone,
+sleeping at night in hollow trees, amidst howling beasts of prey, and
+subsisting on the flesh of a pack mule which he had been obliged to kill.
+
+Thomas Jefferson inherited from his father a love of mathematics and of
+literature. Peter Jefferson had not received a classical education, but he
+was a diligent reader of a few good books, chiefly Shakespeare, The
+Spectator, Pope, and Swift; and in mastering these he was forming his mind
+on great literature after the manner of many another Virginian,--for the
+houses of that colony held English books as they held English furniture.
+The edition of Shakespeare (and it is a handsome one) which Peter
+Jefferson used is still preserved among the heirlooms of his descendants.
+
+It was probably in his capacity of surveyor that Mr. Jefferson made the
+acquaintance of the Randolph family, and he soon became the bosom friend
+of William Randolph, the young proprietor of Tuckahoe. The Randolphs had
+been for ages a family of consideration in the midland counties of
+England, claiming descent from the Scotch Earls of Murray, and connected
+by blood or marriage with many of the English nobility. In 1735 Peter
+Jefferson established himself as a planter by patenting a thousand acres
+of land in Goochland County, his estate lying near and partly including
+the outlying hills, which form a sort of picket line for the Blue Mountain
+range. At the same time his friend William Randolph patented an adjoining
+estate of twenty-four hundred acres; and inasmuch as there was no good
+site for a house on Jefferson's estate, Mr. Randolph conveyed to him four
+hundred acres for that purpose, the consideration expressed in the deed,
+which is still extant, being "Henry Weatherbourne's biggest bowl of Arrack
+punch."
+
+Here Peter Jefferson built his house, and here, three years later, he
+brought his bride,--a handsome girl of nineteen, and a kinswoman of William
+Randolph, being Jane, oldest child of Isham Randolph, then
+Adjutant-General of Virginia. She was born in London, in the parish of
+Shadwell, and Shadwell was the name given by Peter Jefferson to his
+estate. This marriage was a fortunate union of the best aristocratic and
+yeoman strains in Virginia.
+
+In the year 1744 the new County of Albemarle was carved out of Goochland
+County, and Peter Jefferson was appointed one of the three justices who
+constituted the county court and were the real rulers of the shire. He was
+made also Surveyor, and later Colonel of the county. This last office was
+regarded as the chief provincial honor in Virginia, and it was especially
+important when he held it, for it was the time of the French war, and
+Albemarle was in the debatable land.
+
+In the midst of that war, in August, 1757, Peter Jefferson died suddenly,
+of a disease which is not recorded, but which was probably produced by
+fatigue and exposure. He was a strong, just, kindly man, sought for as a
+protector of the widow and the orphan, and respected and loved by Indians
+as well as white men. Upon his deathbed he left two injunctions regarding
+his son Thomas: one, that he should receive a classical education; the
+other, that he should never be permitted to neglect the physical exercises
+necessary for health and strength. Of these dying commands his son often
+spoke with gratitude; and he used to say that if he were obliged to choose
+between the education and the estate which his father gave him, he would
+choose the education. Peter Jefferson left eight children, but only one
+son besides Thomas, and that one died in infancy. Less is known of
+Jefferson's mother; but he derived from her a love of music, an
+extraordinary keenness of susceptibility, and a corresponding refinement
+of taste.
+
+His father's death left Jefferson his own master. In one of his later
+letters he says: "At fourteen years of age the whole care and direction of
+myself were thrown on myself entirely, without a relative or a friend
+qualified to advise or guide me."
+
+The first use that he made of his liberty was to change his school, and to
+become a pupil of the Rev. James Maury,--an excellent clergyman and
+scholar, of Huguenot descent, who had recently settled in Albemarle
+County. With him young Jefferson continued for two years, studying Greek
+and Latin, and becoming noted, as a schoolmate afterward reported, for
+scholarship, industry, and shyness. He was a good runner, a keen
+fox-hunter, and a bold and graceful rider.
+
+At the age of sixteen, in the spring of 1760, he set out on horseback for
+Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, where he proposed to enter the
+college of William and Mary. Up to this time he had never seen a town, or
+even a village, except the hamlet of Charlottesville, which is about four
+miles from Shadwell. Williamsburg--described in contemporary language as
+"the centre of taste, fashion, and refinement"--was an unpaved village, of
+about one thousand inhabitants, surrounded by an expanse of dark green
+tobacco fields as far as the eye could reach. It was, however, well
+situated upon a plateau midway between the York and James rivers, and was
+swept by breezes which tempered the heat of the summer sun and kept the
+town free from mosquitoes.
+
+Williamsburg was also well laid out, and it has the honor of having served
+as a model for the city of Washington. It consisted chiefly of a single
+street, one hundred feet broad and three quarters of a mile long, with the
+capitol at one end, the college at the other, and a ten-acre square with
+public buildings in the middle. Here in his palace lived the colonial
+governor. The town also contained "ten or twelve gentlemen's families,
+besides merchants and tradesmen." These were the permanent inhabitants;
+and during the "season"--the midwinter months--the planters' families came
+to town in their coaches, the gentlemen on horseback, and the little
+capital was then a scene of gayety and dissipation.
+
+Such was Williamsburg in 1760 when Thomas Jefferson, the frontier
+planter's son, rode slowly into town at the close of an early spring day,
+surveying with the outward indifference, but keen inward curiosity of a
+countryman, the place which was to be his residence for seven years,--in
+one sense the most important, because the most formative, period of his
+life. He was a tall stripling, rather slightly built,--after the model of
+the Randolphs,--but extremely well-knit, muscular, and agile. His face was
+freckled, and his features were somewhat pointed. His hair is variously
+described as red, reddish, and sandy, and the color of his eyes as blue,
+gray, and also hazel. The expression of his face was frank, cheerful, and
+engaging. He was not handsome in youth, but "a very good-looking man in
+middle age, and quite a handsome old man." At maturity he stood six feet
+two and a half inches. "Mr. Jefferson," said Mr. Bacon, at one time the
+superintendent of his estate, "was well proportioned and straight as a
+gun-barrel. He was like a fine horse, he had no surplus flesh. He had an
+iron constitution, and was very strong."
+
+Jefferson was always the most cheerful and optimistic of men. He once
+said, after remarking that something must depend "on the chapter of
+events:" "I am in the habit of turning over the next leaf with hope, and,
+though it often fails me, there is still another and another behind." No
+doubt this sanguine trait was due in part at least to his almost perfect
+health. He was, to use his own language, "blessed with organs of digestion
+which accepted and concocted, without ever murmuring, whatever the palate
+chose to consign to them." His habits through life were good. He never
+smoked, he drank wine in moderation, he went to bed early, he was regular
+in taking exercise, either by walking or, more commonly, by riding on
+horseback.
+
+The college of William and Mary in Jefferson's day is described by Mr.
+Parton as "a medley of college, Indian mission, and grammar school,
+ill-governed, and distracted by dissensions among its ruling powers." But
+Jefferson had a thirst for knowledge and a capacity for acquiring it,
+which made him almost independent of institutions of learning. Moreover,
+there was one professor who had a large share in the formation of his
+mind. "It was my great good fortune," he wrote in his brief autobiography,
+"and what probably fixed the destinies of my life, that Dr. William Small,
+of Scotland, was then professor of mathematics; a man profound in most of
+the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication and
+an enlarged liberal mind. He, most happily for me, soon became attached to
+me, and made me his daily companion when not engaged in the school; and
+from his conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science,
+and of the system of things in which we are placed."
+
+Jefferson, like all well-bred Virginians, was brought up as an
+Episcopalian; but as a young man, perhaps owing in part to the influence
+of Dr. Small, he ceased to believe in Christianity as a religion, though
+he always at home attended the Episcopal church, and though his daughters
+were brought up in that faith. If any theological term is to be applied to
+him, he should be called a Deist. Upon the subject of his religious faith,
+Jefferson was always extremely reticent. To one or two friends only did he
+disclose his creed, and that was in letters which were published after his
+death. When asked, even by one of his own family, for his opinion upon any
+religious matter, he invariably refused to express it, saying that every
+person was bound to look into the subject for himself, and to decide upon
+it conscientiously, unbiased by the opinions of others.
+
+Dr. Small introduced Jefferson to other valuable acquaintances; and, boy
+though he was, he soon became the fourth in a group of friends which
+embraced the three most notable men in the little metropolis. These were,
+beside Dr. Small, Francis Fauquier, the acting governor of the province,
+appointed by the crown, and George Wythe. Fauquier was a courtly,
+honorable, highly cultivated man of the world, a disciple of Voltaire, and
+a confirmed gambler, who had in this respect an unfortunate influence upon
+the Virginia gentry,--not, however, upon Jefferson, who, though a lover of
+horses, and a frequenter of races, never in his life gambled or even
+played cards. Wythe was then just beginning a long and honorable career as
+lawyer, statesman, professor, and judge. He remained always a firm and
+intimate friend of Jefferson, who spoke of him, after his death, as "my
+second father." It is an interesting fact that Thomas Jefferson, John
+Marshall, and Henry Clay were all, in succession, law students in the
+office of George Wythe.
+
+Many of the government officials and planters who flocked to Williamsburg
+in the winter were related to Jefferson on his mother's side, and they
+opened their houses to him with Virginia hospitality. We read also of
+dances in the "Apollo," the ball-room of the old Raleigh tavern, and of
+musical parties at Gov. Fauquier's house, in which Jefferson, who was a
+skillful and enthusiastic fiddler, always took part. "I suppose," he
+remarked in his old age, "that during at least a dozen years of my life, I
+played no less than three hours a day."
+
+At this period he was somewhat of a dandy, very particular about his
+clothes and equipage, and devoted, as indeed he remained through life, to
+fine horses. Virginia imported more thoroughbred horses than any other
+colony, and to this day there is probably a greater admixture of
+thoroughbred blood there than in any other State. Diomed, winner of the
+first English Derby, was brought over to Virginia in 1799, and founded a
+family which, even now, is highly esteemed as a source of speed and
+endurance. Jefferson had some of his colts; and both for the saddle and
+for his carriage he always used high-bred horses.
+
+Referring to the Williamsburg period of his life, he wrote once to a
+grandson: "When I recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I
+associated from time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some
+of them, and become as worthless to society as they were.... But I had the
+good fortune to become acquainted very early with some characters of very
+high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever become
+what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself
+what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situation?
+What course in it will assure me their approbation? I am certain that this
+mode of deciding on my conduct tended more to correctness than any
+reasoning powers that I possesed."
+
+This passage throws a light upon Jefferson's character. It does not seem
+to occur to him that a young man might require some stronger motive to
+keep his passions in check than could be furnished either by the wish to
+imitate a good example or by his "reasoning powers." To Jefferson's
+well-regulated mind the desire for approbation was a sufficient motive. He
+was particularly sensitive, perhaps morbidly so, to disapprobation. The
+respect, the good-will, the affection of his countrymen were so dear to
+him that the desire to retain them exercised a great, it may be at times,
+an undue influence upon him. "I find," he once said, "the pain of a little
+censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of
+much praise."
+
+During his second year at college, Jefferson laid aside all frivolities.
+He sent home his horses, contenting himself with a mile run out and back
+at nightfall for exercise, and studying, if we may believe the biographer,
+no less than fifteen hours a day. This intense application reduced the
+time of his college course by one half; and after the second winter at
+Williamsburg he went home with a degree in his pocket, and a volume of
+Coke upon Lytleton in his trunk.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    II
+
+
+                       VIRGINIA IN JEFFERSON'S DAY
+
+
+To a young Virginian of Jefferson's standing but two active careers were
+open, law and politics, and in almost every case these two, sooner or
+later, merged in one. The condition of Virginia was very different from
+that of New England,--neither the clerical nor the medical profession was
+held in esteem. There were no manufactures, and there was no general
+commerce.
+
+Nature has divided Virginia into two parts: the mountainous region to the
+west and the broad level plain between the mountains and the sea,
+intersected by numerous rivers, in which, far back from the ocean, the
+tide ebbs and flows. In this tide-water region were situated the tobacco
+plantations which constituted the wealth and were inhabited by the
+aristocracy of the colony. Almost every planter lived near a river and had
+his own wharf, whence a schooner carried his tobacco to London, and
+brought back wines, silks, velvets, guns, saddles, and shoes.
+
+The small proprietors of land were comparatively few in number, and the
+whole constitution of the colony, political and social, was aristocratic.
+Both real estate and slaves descended by force of law to the eldest son,
+so that the great properties were kept intact. There were no townships and
+no town meetings. The political unit was the parish; for the Episcopal
+church was the established church,--a state institution; and the parishes
+were of great extent, there being, as a rule, but one or two parishes in a
+county.
+
+The clergy, though belonging to an establishment, were poorly paid, and
+not revered as a class. They held the same position of inferiority in
+respect to the rich planters which the clergy of England held in respect
+to the country gentry at the same period. Being appointed by the crown,
+they were selected without much regard to fitness, and they were
+demoralized by want of supervision, for there were no resident bishops,
+and, further, by the uncertain character of their incomes, which, being
+paid in tobacco, were subject to great fluctuations. A few were men of
+learning and virtue who performed their duties faithfully, and eked out
+their incomes by taking pupils. "It was these few," remarks Mr. Parton,
+"who saved civilization in the colony." A few others became cultivators of
+tobacco, and acquired wealth. But the greater part of the clergy were
+companions and hangers-on of the rich planters,--examples of that type
+which Thackeray so well describes in the character of Parson Sampson in
+"The Virginians." Strange tales were told of these old Virginia parsons.
+One is spoken of as pocketing annually a hundred dollars, the revenue of a
+legacy for preaching four sermons a year against atheism, gambling,
+racing, and swearing,--for all of which vices, except the first, he was
+notorious.
+
+This period, the middle half of the eighteenth century, was, as the reader
+need not be reminded, that in which the English church sank to its lowest
+point. It was the era when the typical country parson was a convivial
+fox-hunter; when the Fellows of colleges sat over their wine from four
+o'clock, their dinner hour, till midnight or after; when the highest type
+of bishop was a learned man who spent more time in his private studies
+than in the duties of his office; when the cathedrals were neglected and
+dirty, and the parish churches were closed from Sunday to Sunday. In
+England, the reaction produced Methodism, and, later, the Tractarian
+movement; and we are told that even in Virginia, "swarms of Methodists,
+Moravians, and New-Light Presbyterians came over the border from
+Pennsylvania, and pervaded the colony."
+
+Taxation pressed with very unequal force upon the poor, and the right of
+voting was confined to freeholders. There was no system of public schools,
+and the great mass of the people were ignorant and coarse, but morally and
+physically sound,--a good substructure for an aristocratic society. Wealth
+being concentrated mainly in the hands of a few, Virginia presented
+striking contrasts of luxury and destitution, whereas in the neighboring
+colony of Pennsylvania, where wealth was more distributed and society more
+democratic, thrift and prosperity were far more common.
+
+"In Pennsylvania," relates a foreign traveler, "one sees great numbers of
+wagons drawn by four or more fine fat horses.... In the slave States we
+sometimes meet a ragged black boy or girl driving a team consisting of a
+lean cow and a mule; and I have seen a mule, a bull, and a cow, each
+miserable in its appearance, composing one team, with a half-naked black
+slave or two riding or driving as occasion suited." And yet between
+Richmond and Fredericksburg, "in the afternoon, as our road lay through
+the woods, I was surprised to meet a family party traveling along in as
+elegant a coach as is usually met with in the neighborhood of London, and
+attended by several gayly dressed footmen."
+
+Virginia society just before the Revolution perfectly illustrated Buckle's
+remark about leisure: "Without leisure, science is impossible; and when
+leisure has been won, most of the class possessing it will waste it in the
+pursuit of pleasure, and a _few_ will employ it in the pursuit of
+knowledge." Men like Jefferson, George Wythe, and Madison used their
+leisure for the good of their fellow-beings and for the cultivation of
+their minds; whereas the greater part of the planters--and the poor whites
+imitated them--spent their ample leisure in sports, in drinking, and in
+absolute idleness. "In spite of the Virginians' love for dissipation,"
+wrote a famous French traveler, "the taste for reading is commoner among
+men of the first rank than in any other part of America; but the populace
+is perhaps more ignorant there than elsewhere." "The Virginia virtues,"
+says Mr. Henry Adams, "were those of the field and farm--the simple and
+straightforward mind, the notions of courage and truth, the absence of
+mercantile sharpness and quickness, the rusticity and open-handed
+hospitality." Virginians of the upper class were remarkable for their
+high-bred courtesy,--a trait so inherent that it rarely disappeared even in
+the bitterness of political disputes and divisions. This, too, was the
+natural product of a society based not on trade or commerce, but on land.
+"I blush for my own people," wrote Dr. Channing, from Virginia, in 1791,
+"when I compare the selfish prudence of a Yankee with the generous
+confidence of a Virginian. Here I find great vices, but greater virtues
+than I left behind me." There was a largeness of temper and of feeling in
+the Virginia aristocracy, which seems to be inseparable from people living
+in a new country, upon the outskirts of civilization. They had the pride
+of birth, but they recognized other claims to consideration, and were as
+far as possible from estimating a man according to the amount of his
+wealth.
+
+Slavery itself was probably a factor for good in the character of such a
+man as Jefferson,--it afforded a daily exercise in the virtues of
+benevolence and self-control. How he treated the blacks may be gathered
+from a story, told by his superintendent, of a slave named Jim who had
+been caught stealing nails from the nail-factory: "When Mr. Jefferson
+came, I sent for Jim, and I never saw any person, white or black, feel as
+badly as he did when he saw his master. The tears streamed down his face,
+and he begged for pardon over and over again. I felt very badly myself.
+Mr. Jefferson turned to me and said, 'Ah, sir, we can't punish him. He has
+suffered enough already.' He then talked to him, gave him a heap of good
+advice, and sent him to the shop.... Jim said: 'Well I'se been a-seeking
+religion a long time, but I never heard anything before that sounded so,
+or made me feel so, as I did when Master said, "Go, and don't do so any
+more," and now I'se determined to seek religion till I find it;' and sure
+enough he afterwards came to me for a permit to go and be baptized.... He
+was always a good servant afterward."
+
+Another element that contributed to the efficiency and the high standard
+of the early Virginia statesman was a good, old-fashioned classical
+education. They were familiar, to use Matthew Arnold's famous expression,
+"with the best that has ever been said or done." This was no small
+advantage to men who were called upon to act as founders of a republic
+different indeed from the republics of Greece and Rome, but still based
+upon the same principles, and demanding an exercise of the same heroic
+virtues. The American Revolution would never have cut quite the figure in
+the world which history assigns to it, had it not been conducted with a
+kind of classic dignity and decency; and to this result nobody contributed
+more than Jefferson.
+
+Such was Virginia in the eighteenth century,--at the base of society, the
+slaves; next, a lower class, rough, ignorant, and somewhat brutal, but
+still wholesome, and possessing the primitive virtues of courage and
+truth; and at the top, the landed gentry, luxurious, proud, idle and
+dissipated for the most part, and yet blossoming into a few characters of
+a type so high that the world has hardly seen a better. Had he been born
+in Europe, Jefferson would doubtless have devoted himself to music, or to
+architecture, or to literature, or to science,--for in all these directions
+his taste was nearly equally strong; but these careers being closed to him
+by the circumstances of the colony, he became a lawyer, and then, under
+pressure of the Revolution, a politician and statesman.
+
+During the four years following his graduation, Jefferson spent most of
+the winter months at Williamsburg, pursuing his legal and other studies,
+and the rest of the year upon the family plantation, the management of
+which had devolved upon him. Now, as always, he was the most industrious
+of men. He lived, as Mr. Parton remarks, "with a pen in his hand." He kept
+a garden book, a farm book, a weather book, a receipt book, a cash book,
+and, while he practiced law, a fee book. Many of these books are still
+preserved, and the entries are as legible now as when they were first
+written down in Jefferson's small but clear and graceful hand,--the hand of
+an artist. Jefferson, as one of his old friends once remarked, _hated_
+superficial knowledge; and he dug to the roots of the common law, reading
+deeply in old reports written in law French and law Latin, and especially
+studying Magna Charta and Bracton.
+
+He found time also for riding, for music, and dancing; and in his
+twentieth year he became enamored of Miss Rebecca Burwell, a Williamsburg
+belle more distinguished, tradition reports, for beauty than for
+cleverness. But Jefferson was not yet in a position to marry,--he even
+contemplated a foreign tour; and the girl, somewhat abruptly, married
+another lover. The wound seems not to have been a deep one. Jefferson, in
+fact, though he found his chief happiness in family affection, and though
+capable of strong and lasting attachments, was not the man for a romantic
+passion. He was a philosopher of the reasonable, eighteenth-century type.
+No one was more kind and just in the treatment of his slaves, but he did
+not free them, as George Wythe, perhaps foolishly, did; and he was even
+cautious about promulgating his views as to the folly and wickedness of
+slavery, though he did his best to promote its abolition by legislative
+measures. There was not in Jefferson the material for a martyr or a Don
+Quixote; but that was Nature's fault, not his. It may be said of every
+particular man that there is a certain depth to which he cannot sink, and
+there is a certain height to which he cannot rise. Within the intermediate
+zone there is ample exercise for free-will; and no man struggled harder
+than Jefferson to fulfill all the obligations which, as he conceived, were
+laid upon him.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   III
+
+
+                       MONTICELLO AND ITS HOUSEHOLD
+
+
+In April, 1764, Jefferson came of age, and his first public act was a
+characteristic one. For the benefit of the neighborhood, he procured the
+passage of a statute to authorize the dredging of the Rivanna River upon
+which his own estate bordered in part. He then by private subscriptions
+raised a sum sufficient for carrying out this purpose; and in a short time
+the stream, upon which before a bark canoe would hardly have floated, was
+made available for the transportation of farm produce to the James River,
+and thence to the sea.
+
+In 1766, he made a journey to Philadelphia, in order to be inoculated for
+smallpox, traveling in a light gig drawn by a high-spirited horse, and
+narrowly escaping death by drowning in one of the numerous rivers which
+had to be forded between Charlottesville and Philadelphia. In the
+following year, about the time of his twenty-fourth birthday, he was
+admitted to the bar, and entered almost immediately upon a large and
+lucrative practice. He remained at the bar only seven years, but during
+most of this time his professional income averaged more than L2500 a year;
+and he increased his paternal estate from 1900 acres to 5000 acres. He
+argued with force and fluency, but his voice was not suitable for public
+speaking, and soon became husky. Moreover, Jefferson had an intense
+repugnance to the arena. He shrank with a kind of nervous horror from a
+personal contest, and hated to be drawn into a discussion. The turmoil and
+confusion of a public body were hideous to him;--it was as a writer, not as
+a speaker, that he won fame, first in the Virginia Assembly, and afterward
+in the Continental Congress.
+
+In October, 1768, Jefferson was chosen to represent Albemarle County in
+the House of Burgesses of Virginia; and thus began his long political
+career of forty years. A resolution which he formed at the outset is
+stated in the following letter written in 1792 to a friend who had offered
+him a share in an undertaking which promised to be profitable:--
+
+"When I first entered on the stage of public life (now twenty-four years
+ago) I came to a resolution never to engage, while in public office, in
+any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor to wear any
+other character than that of a farmer. I have never departed from it in a
+single instance; and I have in multiplied instances found myself happy in
+being able to decide and to act as a public servant, clear of all
+interest, in the multiform questions that have arisen, wherein I have seen
+others embarrassed and biased by having got themselves in a more
+interested situation."
+
+During the next few years there was a lull in political affairs,--a sullen
+calm before the storm of the Revolution; but they were important years in
+Mr. Jefferson's life. In February, 1770, the house at Shadwell, where he
+lived with his mother and sisters, was burned to the ground, while the
+family were away. "Were none of my books saved?" Jefferson asked of the
+negro who came to him, breathless, with news of the disaster. "No,
+master," was the reply, "but we saved the fiddle."
+
+In giving his friend Page an account of the fire, Jefferson wrote: "On a
+reasonable estimate, I calculate the cost of the books burned to have been
+L200. Would to God it had been the money,--then had it never cost me a
+sigh!" Beside the books, Jefferson lost most of his notes and papers; but
+no mishap, not caused by his own fault, ever troubled his peace of mind.
+
+After the fire, his mother and the children took temporary refuge in the
+home of an overseer, and Jefferson repaired to Monticello,--as he had named
+the elevated spot on the paternal estate where he had already begun to
+build the house which was his home for the remainder of his life.
+
+Monticello is a small outlying peak, upon the outskirts of the mountainous
+part of Virginia, west of the tide-water region, and rising 580 feet above
+the plain at its foot. Upon its summit there is a space of about six
+acres, leveled partly by nature and partly by art; and here, one hundred
+feet back from the brow of the hill, Jefferson built his house. It is a
+long, low building,--still standing,--with a Grecian portico in front,
+surmounted by a cupola. The road by which it is approached winds round and
+round, so as to make the ascent less difficult. In front of the house
+three long terraces, terminating in small pavilions, were constructed; and
+upon the northern terrace, or in its pavilion, Jefferson and his friends
+used to sit on summer nights gazing off toward the Blue Ridge, some eighty
+miles distant, or upon the nearer peaks of the Ragged Mountains. The
+altitude is such that neither dew nor mosquitoes can reach it.
+
+To this beautiful but as yet uncompleted mountain home, Jefferson, in
+January, 1772, brought his bride. She was Martha Skelton, who had been
+left a widow at nineteen, and was now twenty-two, a daughter of John
+Wayles, a leading and opulent lawyer. Martha Skelton was a tall,
+beautiful, highly educated young woman, of graceful carriage, with hazel
+eyes, literary in her tastes, a skillful performer upon the spinnet, and a
+notable housewife whose neatly kept account books are still preserved.
+They were married at "The Forest," her father's estate in Charles City
+County, and immediately set out for Monticello.
+
+Two years later, in 1774, died Dabney Carr, a brilliant and patriotic
+young lawyer, Jefferson's most intimate friend, and the husband of his
+sister Martha. Dabney Carr left six small children, whom, with their
+mother, Jefferson took under his wing, and they were brought up at
+Monticello as if they had been his own children. Jefferson loved children,
+and he had, in common with that very different character, Aaron Burr, an
+instinct for teaching. While still a young man himself, he was often
+called upon to direct the studies of other young men,--Madison and Monroe
+were in this sense his pupils; and the founding of the University of
+Virginia was an achievement long anticipated by him and enthusiastically
+performed.
+
+Jefferson was somewhat unfortunate in his own children, for, of the six
+that were born to him, only two, Martha and Maria, lived to grow up. Maria
+married but died young, leaving one child. Martha, the first-born, was a
+brilliant, cheerful, wholesome woman. She married Thomas Mann Randolph,
+afterward governor of Virginia. "She was just like her father, in this
+respect," says Mr. Bacon, the superintendent,--"she was always busy. If she
+wasn't reading or writing, she was always doing something. She used to sit
+in Mr. Jefferson's room a great deal, and sew, or read, or talk, as he
+would be busy about something else." John Randolph of Roanoke once toasted
+her--and it was after his quarrel with her father--as the sweetest woman in
+Virginia. She left ten children, and many of her descendants are still
+living.
+
+To her, and to his other daughter, Maria, who is described as being more
+beautiful and no less amiable than her sister, but not so intellectual,
+Jefferson owed the chief happiness of his life. Like many another man who
+has won fame and a high position in the world, he counted these things but
+as dust and ashes in comparison with family affection.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IV
+
+
+                       JEFFERSON IN THE REVOLUTION
+
+
+Shortly after Mr. Jefferson's marriage, the preliminary movements of the
+Revolution began, and though he took an active part in them it was not
+without reluctance. Even after the battle of Bunker Hill, namely, in
+November, 1775, he wrote to a kinsman that there was not a man in the
+British Empire who more cordially loved a union with Great Britain than he
+did. John Jay said after the Revolution: "During the course of my life,
+and until the second petition of Congress in 1775, I never did hear any
+American of any class or description express a wish for the independence
+of the colonies."
+
+But these friendly feelings were first outraged and then extinguished by a
+long series of ill-considered and oppressive acts, covering, with some
+intermissions, a period of about twelve years. Of these the most
+noteworthy were the Stamp Act, which amounted to taxation without
+representation, and the impost on tea, which was coupled with a provision
+that the receipts should be applied to the salaries of officers of the
+crown, thus placing them beyond the control of the local assemblies. The
+crown officers were also authorized to grant salaries and pensions at
+their discretion; and a board of revenue commissioners for the whole
+country was established at Boston, and armed with despotic powers. These
+proceedings amounted to a deprivation of liberty, and they were aggravated
+by the king's contemptuous rejection of the petitions addressed to him by
+the colonists. We know what followed,--the burning of the British war
+schooner, Gaspee, by leading citizens of Providence, and the famous
+tea-party in Boston harbor.
+
+Meanwhile Virginia had not been inactive. In March, 1772, a few young men,
+members of the House of Burgesses, met at the Raleigh Tavern in
+Williamsburg. They were Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and his brother,
+Thomas Jefferson, and a few others. They drew up several resolutions, the
+most important of which called for the appointment of a standing committee
+and for an invitation to the other colonies to appoint like committees for
+mutual information and assistance in the struggle against the crown. A
+similar resolution had been adopted in Massachusetts two years before, but
+without any practical result. The Virginia resolution was passed the next
+day by the House of Burgesses, and it gave rise to those proceedings which
+ushered in the Revolution.
+
+The first Continental Congress was to meet in Philadelphia, in September,
+1774; and Jefferson, in anticipation, prepared a draft of instructions for
+the delegates who were to be elected by Virginia. Being taken ill himself,
+on his way to the convention, he sent forward a copy of these
+instructions. They were considered too drastic to be adopted by the
+convention; but some of the members caused them to be published under the
+title of "A Summary View of the Rights of America." The pamphlet was
+extensively read in this country, and a copy which had been sent to London
+falling into the hands of Edmund Burke, he had it reprinted in England,
+where it ran through edition after edition. Jefferson's name thus became
+known throughout the colonies and in England.
+
+The "Summary View" is in reality a political essay. Its author wasted no
+time in discussing the specific legal and constitutional questions which
+had arisen between the colonies and the crown; but he went to the root of
+the matter, and with one or two generalizations as bold and original as if
+they had been made by Rousseau, he cut the Gordian knot, and severed
+America from the Parliament of Great Britain. He admitted some sort of
+dependence upon the crown, but his two main principles were these: (1)
+that the soil of this country belonged to the people who had settled and
+improved it, and that the crown had no right to sell or give it away; (2)
+that the right of self-government was a right natural to every people, and
+that Parliament, therefore, had no authority to make laws for America.
+Jefferson was always about a century in advance of his time; and the
+"Summary View" substantially anticipated what is now the acknowledged
+relation of England to her colonies.
+
+Jefferson was elected a member of the Continental Congress at its second
+session; and he made a rapid journey to Philadelphia in a chaise, with two
+led horses behind, reaching there the night before Washington set out for
+Cambridge. The Congress was composed mainly of young men. Franklin, the
+oldest member, was seventy-one, and a few others were past sixty.
+Washington was forty-three; John Adams, forty; Patrick Henry, a year or
+two younger; John Rutledge, thirty-six; his brother, twenty-six; John
+Langdon and William Paca, thirty-five, John Jay, thirty; Thomas Stone,
+thirty-two, and Jefferson, thirty-two.
+
+Jefferson soon became intimate with John Adams, who in later years said of
+him: "Though a silent member of Congress, he was so prompt, frank,
+explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation--not even Samuel
+Adams was more so--that he soon seized upon my heart."
+
+Jefferson, as we have seen, was not fitted to shine as an orator, still
+less in debate. But as a writer he had that capacity for style which
+comes, if it comes at all, as a gift of nature; which needs to be
+supplemented, but which cannot be supplied, by practice and study. In some
+of his early letters there are slight reminders of Dr. Johnson's manner,
+and still more of Sterne's. Sterne indeed was one of his favorite authors.
+However, these early traces of imitation were absorbed very quickly; and,
+before he was thirty, Jefferson became master of a clear, smooth,
+polished, picturesque, and individual style. To him, therefore, his
+associates naturally turned when they needed such a proclamation to the
+world as the Declaration of Independence; and that document is very
+characteristic of its author. It was imagination that gave distinction to
+Jefferson both as a man and as a writer. He never dashed off a letter
+which did not contain some play of fancy; and whether he was inventing a
+plough or forecasting the destinies of a great Democracy, imagination
+qualified the performance.
+
+One of the most effective forms in which imagination displays itself in
+prose is by the use of a common word in such a manner and context that it
+conveys an uncommon meaning. There are many examples of this rhetorical
+art in Jefferson's writings, but the most notable one occurs in the noble
+first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: "When, in the course
+of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
+political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume
+among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the
+Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
+opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
+impel them to the separation."
+
+Upon this paragraph Mr. Parton eloquently observes: "The noblest utterance
+of the whole composition is the reason given for making the
+Declaration,--'_A decent __respect for the opinions of mankind_.' This
+touches the heart. Among the best emotions that human nature knows is the
+veneration of man for man. This recognition of the public opinion of the
+world--the sum of human sense--as the final arbiter in all such
+controversies is the single phrase of the document which Jefferson alone,
+perhaps, of all the Congress, could have originated; and in point of merit
+it was worth all the rest."
+
+Franklin and John Adams, who were on the committee with Jefferson, made a
+few verbal changes in his draught of the Declaration, and it was then
+discussed and reviewed by Congress for three days. Congress made eighteen
+suppressions, six additions, and ten alterations; and it must be admitted
+that most of these were improvements. For example, Jefferson had framed a
+paragraph in which the king was severely censured for opposing certain
+measures looking to the suppression of the slave trade. This would have
+come with an ill grace from the Americans, since for a century New England
+had been enriching herself by that trade, and the southern colonies had
+subsisted upon the labor which it brought them. Congress wisely struck out
+the paragraph.
+
+The Declaration of Independence was received with rapture throughout the
+country. Everywhere it was read aloud to the people who gathered to hear
+it, amid the booming of guns, the ringing of bells, and the display of
+fireworks. In Philadelphia, after the reading, the late king's coat of
+arms was burned in Independence Square; in New York the leaden statue, in
+Bowling Green, of George III. was "laid prostrate in the dust," and
+ordered to be run into bullets. Virginia had already stricken the king's
+name from her prayer-book; and Rhode Island now forbade her people to pray
+for the king, as king, under a penalty of one hundred thousand pounds! The
+Declaration of Independence, both as a political and literary document,
+has stood the test of time. It has all the classic qualities of an oration
+by Demosthenes; and even that passage in it which has been
+criticised--that, namely, which pronounces all men to be created equal--is
+true in a sense, the truth of which it will take a century or two yet to
+develop.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    V
+
+
+                         REFORM WORK IN VIRGINIA
+
+
+In September, 1776, Jefferson, having resigned his seat in Congress to
+engage in duties nearer home, returned to Monticello. A few weeks later, a
+messenger from Congress arrived to inform him that he had been elected a
+joint commissioner with Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane to represent at Paris
+the newly formed nation. His heart had long been set upon foreign travel;
+but he felt obliged to decline this appointment, first on account of the
+ill health of his wife, and secondly, because he was needed in Virginia as
+a legislator. Not since Lycurgus gave laws to the Spartans had there been
+such an opportunity as then existed in the United States. John Adams
+declared: "The best lawgivers of antiquity would rejoice to live at a
+period like this when, for the first time in the history of the world,
+three millions of people are deliberately _choosing_ their government and
+institutions."
+
+Of all the colonies, Virginia offered the best field for reform, because,
+as we have already seen, she had by far the most aristocratic political
+and social system; and it is extraordinary how quickly the reform was
+effected by Jefferson and his friends. In ordinary times of peace the task
+would have been impossible; but in throwing off the English yoke, the
+colonists had opened their minds to new ideas; change had become familiar
+to them, and in the general upheaval the rights of the people were
+recognized. A year later, Jefferson wrote to Franklin: "With respect to
+the State of Virginia, in particular, the people seem to have laid aside
+the monarchical and taken up the republican government with as much ease
+as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new set
+of clothes."
+
+Jefferson's greatness lay in this, that he was the first statesman who
+trusted the mass of the people. He alone had divined the fact that they
+were competent, morally and mentally, for self-government. It is almost
+impossible for us to appreciate Jefferson's originality in this respect,
+because the bold and untried theories for which he contended are now
+regarded as commonplace maxims. He may have derived his political ideas in
+part from the French philosophical writers of the eighteenth century,
+although there is no evidence to that effect; but he was certainly the
+first statesman to grasp the idea of democracy as a form of government,
+just as, at a later day, Walt Whitman was the first poet to grasp the idea
+of equality as a social system. Hamilton, John Adams, Pinckney, Gouverneur
+Morris, even Washington himself, all believed that popular government
+would be unsafe and revolutionary unless held in check by a strong
+executive and by an aristocratic senate.
+
+Jefferson in his lifetime was often charged with gross inconsistency in
+his political views and conduct; but the inconsistency was more apparent
+than real. At times he strictly construed, and at times he almost set
+aside the Constitution; but the clue to his conduct can usually be found
+in the fundamental principle that the only proper function of government
+or constitutions is to express the will of the people, and that the people
+are morally and mentally competent to govern. "I am sure," he wrote in
+1796, "that the mass of citizens in these United States mean well, and I
+firmly believe that they will always act well, whenever they can obtain a
+right understanding of matters." And Jefferson's lifelong endeavor was to
+enable the people to form this "right understanding" by educating them.
+His ideas of the scope of public education went far beyond those which
+prevailed in his time, and considerably beyond those which prevail even
+now. For example, a free university course for the most apt pupils
+graduated at the grammar schools made part of his scheme,--an idea most
+nearly realized in the Western States; and those States received their
+impetus in educational matters from the Ordinance of 1787, which was
+largely the product of Jefferson's foresight.
+
+Happily for Virginia, she did not become a scene of war until the year
+1779, and, meanwhile, Jefferson and his friends lost no time in remodeling
+her constitution. There were no common schools, and the mass of the people
+were more ignorant and rough than their contemporaries in any other
+colony. Elections were scenes of bribery, intimidation, and riot,
+surpassing even those which Hogarth depicted in England. Elkanah Watson,
+of Massachusetts, describes what he saw at Hanover Court House, Patrick
+Henry's county, in 1778: "The whole county was assembled. The moment I
+alighted, a wretched, pug-nosed fellow assailed me to swap watches. I had
+hardly shaken him off, when I was attacked by a wild Irishman who insisted
+on my swapping horses with him.... With him I came near being involved in
+a boxing-match, the Irishman swearing, I 'did not trate him like a
+jintleman.' I had hardly escaped this dilemma when my attention was
+attracted by a fight between two very unwieldy fat men, foaming and
+puffing like two furies, until one succeeded in twisting a forefinger in a
+sidelock of the other's hair, and in the act of thrusting by this purchase
+his thumb into the latter's eye, he bawled out, 'King's Cruise,'
+equivalent in technical language to 'Enough.'"
+
+Quakers were put in the pillory, scolding women were ducked, and it is
+said that a woman was burned to death in Princess Anne County for
+witchcraft. The English church, as we have seen, was an established
+church; and all taxpayers, dissenters as well as churchmen, were compelled
+to contribute to its support. Baptist preachers were arrested, and fined
+as disturbers of the peace. The law of entail, both as respects land and
+slaves, was so strict that their descent to the eldest son could not be
+prevented even by agreement between the owner and his heir.
+
+In his reformation of the laws, Jefferson was supported by Patrick Henry,
+now governor, and inhabiting what was still called the palace; by George
+Mason, a patriotic lawyer who drew the famous Virginia Bill of Rights; by
+George Wythe, his old preceptor, and by James Madison, Jefferson's friend,
+pupil, and successor, who in this year began his political career as a
+member of the House of Burgesses.
+
+Opposed to them were the conservative party led by R. C. Nicholas, head of
+the Virginia bar, a stanch churchman and gentleman of the old school, and
+Edward Pendleton, whom Jefferson described as "full of resource, never
+vanquished; for if he lost the main battle he returned upon you, and
+regained so much of it as to make it a drawn one, by dexterous manoeuvres,
+skirmishes in detail, and the recovery of small advantages, which, little
+singly, were important all together. You never knew when you were clear of
+him."
+
+Intense as the controversy was, fundamental as were the points at issue,
+the speakers never lost that courtesy for which the Virginians were
+remarkable; John Randolph being perhaps the only exception. Even Patrick
+Henry--though from his humble origin and impetuous oratory one might have
+expected otherwise--was never guilty of any rudeness to his opponents. What
+Jefferson said of Madison was true of the Virginia orators in
+general,--"soothing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities
+and softnesses of expression."
+
+Jefferson struck first at the system of entail. After a three weeks'
+struggle, land and slaves were put upon the same footing as all other
+property,--they might be sold or bequeathed according to the will of the
+possessor. Then came a longer and more bitter contest. Jefferson was for
+abolishing all connection between church and state, and for establishing
+complete freedom of religion. Nine years elapsed before Virginia could be
+brought to that point; but at this session he procured a repeal of the law
+which imposed penalties for attendance at a dissenting meeting-house, and
+also of the law compelling dissenters to pay tithes. The fight was,
+therefore, substantially won; and in 1786, Jefferson's "Act for
+establishing religion" became the law of Virginia.(1)
+
+Another far-reaching law introduced by Jefferson at this memorable session
+of 1776 provided for the naturalization of foreigners in Virginia, after a
+two years' residence in the State, and upon a declaration of their
+intention to become American citizens. The bill provided also that the
+minor children of naturalized parents should be citizens of the United
+States when they came of age. The principles of this measure were
+afterward embodied in the statutes of the United States, and they are in
+force to-day.
+
+At this session Jefferson also drew an act for establishing courts of law
+in Virginia, the royal courts having necessarily passed out of existence
+when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Moreover, he set on foot
+a revision of all the statutes of Virginia, a committee with him at the
+head being appointed for this purpose; and finally he procured the removal
+of the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond.
+
+All this was accomplished, mainly by Jefferson's efforts; and yet the two
+bills upon which he set most store failed entirely. These were, first, a
+comprehensive measure of state education, running up through primary
+schools and grammar schools to a state university, and, secondly, a bill
+providing that all who were born in slavery after the passage of the bill
+should be free.
+
+This was Jefferson's second ineffectual attempt to promote the abolition
+of slavery. During the year 1768, when he first became a member of the
+House of Burgesses, he had endeavored to procure the passage of a law
+enabling slave-owners to free their slaves, He induced Colonel Bland, one
+of the ablest, oldest, and most respected members to propose the law, and
+he seconded the proposal; but it was overwhelmingly rejected. "I, as a
+younger member," related Jefferson afterward, "was more spared in the
+debate; but he was denounced as an enemy to his country, and was treated
+with the greatest indecorum."
+
+In 1778 Jefferson made another attempt:--he brought in a bill forbidding
+the further importation of slaves in Virginia, and this was passed without
+opposition. Again, in 1784, when Virginia ceded to the United States her
+immense northwestern territory, Jefferson drew up a scheme of government
+for the States to be carved out of it which included a provision "that
+after the year 1800 of the Christian Era, there shall be neither slavery
+nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in
+punishment of crimes." The provision was rejected by Congress.
+
+In his "Notes on Virginia," written in the year 1781, but published in
+1787, he said: "The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual
+exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism,
+on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. Our children see
+this, and learn to imitate it.... With the morals of the people their
+industry also is destroyed. For in a warm climate no one will labor for
+himself who can make another labor for him.... Indeed, I tremble for my
+country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep
+forever.... The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in
+such a contest."
+
+When the Missouri Compromise question came up, in 1820, Jefferson rightly
+predicted that a controversy had begun which would end in disruption; but
+he made the mistake of supposing that the Northern party were actuated in
+that matter solely by political motives. April 22, 1820, he wrote: "This
+momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me
+with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.... A
+geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and
+political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will
+never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper.... The cession of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is
+a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought if, in that way, a
+general emancipation and expatriation could be effected; and gradually and
+with due sacrifices I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by
+the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in
+one scale, and self-preservation in the other."
+
+And later, he wrote of the Missouri Compromise, as a "question having just
+enough of the semblance of morality to throw dust into the eyes of the
+people.... The Federalists, unable to rise again under the old division of
+Whig and Tory, have invented a geographical division which gives them
+fourteen States against ten, and seduces their old opponents into a
+coalition with them. Real morality is on the other side. For while the
+removal of the slaves from one State to another adds no more to their
+numbers than their removal from one country to another, the spreading them
+over a larger surface adds to their happiness, and renders their future
+emancipation more practicable."
+
+These misconceptions as to Northern motives might be ascribed to
+Jefferson's advanced age, for, as he himself graphically expressed it, he
+then had "one foot in the grave, and the other lifted to follow it;" but
+it would probably be more just to say that they were due, in part, to his
+prejudice against the New England people and especially the New England
+clergy, and in part to the fact that his long retirement in Virginia had
+somewhat contracted his views and sympathies. Jefferson was a man of
+intense local attachments, and he took color from his surroundings. He
+never ceased, however, to regard slavery as morally wrong and socially
+ruinous; and in the brief autobiography which he left behind him he made
+these predictions: "Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate
+than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two
+races, equally free, cannot live in the same government."
+
+History has justified the second as well as the first of these
+declarations, for, excepting that brief period of anarchy known as "the
+carpet-bag era," it cannot be maintained that the colored race in the
+Southern States have been at any time, even since their emancipation,
+"equally free," in the sense of politically free, with their white fellow
+citizens.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    VI
+
+
+                           GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
+
+
+For three years Jefferson was occupied with the legislative duties already
+described, and especially with a revision of the Virginia statutes, and
+then, in June, 1779, he succeeded Patrick Henry as governor of the State.
+It has often been remarked that he was, all through life, a lucky man, but
+in this case fortune did not favor him, for the ensuing two years proved
+to be, so far as Virginia was concerned, by much the worst period of the
+war.
+
+The French alliance, though no doubt an ultimate benefit to the colonies,
+had at first two bad effects: it relaxed the energy of the Americans, who
+trusted that France would fight their battles for them; and it stimulated
+the British to increased exertions. The British commissioners announced
+that henceforth England would employ, in the prosecution of the war, all
+those agencies which "God and nature had placed in her hands." This meant
+that the ferocity of the Indians would be invoked, a matter of special
+moment to Virginia, since her western frontier swarmed with Indians, the
+bravest of their race.
+
+The colony, it must be remembered, was then of immense extent; for beside
+the present Virginia and West Virginia, Kentucky and the greater part of
+Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were embraced in it. It stretched, in short,
+from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. Upon the seaboard
+Virginia was especially vulnerable, the tide-water region being penetrated
+by numerous bays and rivers, which the enemy's ships could easily ascend,
+for they were undefended by forts or men. The total navy of the colony was
+four vessels, mounting sixty-two guns, and a few armed boats. The flower
+of the Virginia soldiery, to the number of ten thousand, were in
+Washington's army, and supplies of men, of arms, of ammunition and food
+were urgently called for by General Gates, who was battling against
+Cornwallis in North Carolina. The militia were supposed to number fifty
+thousand, which included every man between sixteen and fifty years of age;
+but this was only one man for every square mile of territory in the
+present State of Virginia, and of these militiamen it was estimated that,
+east of the Blue Ridge, only about one in five was armed with a gun. The
+treasury was practically bankrupt, and there was a dearth of every kind of
+warlike material.
+
+Such was the situation which confronted, as Mr. Parton puts it, "a lawyer
+of thirty-six, with a talent for music, a taste for art, a love of
+science, literature, and gardening." The task was one calling rather for a
+soldier than a statesman; but Mr. Jefferson faced it with courage, and on
+the whole with success. In retaliating the cruel measures of the British,
+he showed a firmness which must have been especially difficult for a man
+of his temperament. He put in irons and confined in a dungeon Colonel
+Henry Hamilton and two subordinate officers who had committed atrocities
+upon American prisoners. He caused a prison-ship, like the ships of
+infamous memory which were employed as prisons by the British at New York,
+to be prepared; and the exchange of captives between Virginia and the
+British was stopped. "Humane conduct on our part," wrote Jefferson, "was
+found to produce no effect. The contrary, therefore, is to be tried. Iron
+will be retaliated by iron, prison-ships for prison-ships, and like for
+like in general." But in November, 1779, notice was received that the
+English, under their new leader, Sir Henry Clinton, had adopted a less
+barbarous system of warfare; and fortunately Jefferson's measures of
+reprisal became unnecessary.
+
+Hampered as he was by want of men and money, Jefferson did all that he
+could to supply the needs of the Virginia soldiers with Washington, of the
+army in North Carolina, led by Gates, and of George Rogers Clarke, the
+heroic commander who put down the Indian uprising on the western frontier,
+and captured the English officer who instigated it,--that same Colonel
+Hamilton of whom mention has already been made. The story of Clarke's
+adventures in the wilderness,--he was a neighbor of Jefferson, only
+twenty-six years old,--of his forced marches, of his masterful dealing with
+the Indians, and finally of his capture of the British force, forms a
+thrilling chapter in the history of the American Revolution.
+
+Many indeed of Jefferson's constituents censured him as being over-zealous
+in his support of the army of Gates. He stripped Virginia, they said, of
+troops and resources which, as it proved afterward, were needed at home.
+But if Cornwallis were not defeated in North Carolina, it was certain that
+he would overrun the much more exposed Virginia. If he could be defeated
+anywhere, it would be in the Carolinas. Jefferson's course, it is
+sufficient to say, was that recommended by Washington; and his exertions
+in behalf of the Continental armies were commended in the highest terms
+not only by Washington, but also by Generals Gates, Greene, Steuben, and
+Lafayette. The militia were called out, leaving behind only so many men as
+were required to cultivate the land, wagons were impressed, including two
+belonging to the governor, and attempts were even made--extraordinary for
+Virginia--to manufacture certain much-needed articles. "Our smiths," wrote
+Jefferson, "are making five hundred axes and some tomahawks for General
+Gates."
+
+Thus fared the year 1779, and in 1780 things went from bad to worse. In
+April came a letter from Madison, saying that Washington's army was on the
+verge of dissolution, being only half-clothed, and in a way to be starved.
+The public treasury was empty and the public credit gone. In August
+occurred the disastrous defeat of General Gates at Camden, which left
+Virginia at the mercy of Cornwallis. In October a British fleet under
+Leslie ravaged the country about Portsmouth, but failing to effect a
+juncture with Cornwallis, who was detained in North Carolina by illness
+among his troops, did no further harm. Two months later, however, Benedict
+Arnold sailed up the James River with another fleet, and, after committing
+some depredations at Richmond, sailed down again, escaping by the aid of a
+favorable wind, which hauled from east to west just in the nick of time
+for him.
+
+In June, 1781, Cornwallis invaded Virginia, and no one suffered more than
+Jefferson from his depredations. Tarleton was dispatched to seize the
+governor at Monticello; but the latter was forewarned by a citizen of
+Charlottesville, who, being in a tavern at Louisa when Tarleton and his
+troop swept by on the main road, immediately guessed their destination,
+and mounting his horse, a fleet Virginia thoroughbred, rode by a short cut
+through the woods straight to Monticello, arriving there about three hours
+ahead of Tarleton.
+
+Jefferson took the matter coolly. He first dispatched his family to a
+place of safety, sent his best horse to be shod at a neighboring smithy,
+and then proceeded to sort and separate his papers. He left the house only
+about five minutes before the soldiers entered it.
+
+Two slaves, Martin, Mr. Jefferson's body servant, and Caesar, were engaged
+in hiding plate and other articles under the floor of the portico, a
+single plank having been raised for that purpose. As Martin, above, handed
+the last article to Caesar under the floor, the tramp of the approaching
+cavalry was heard. Down went the plank, shutting in Caesar, and there he
+remained, without making any outcry, for eighteen hours, in darkness, and
+of course without food or water. One of the soldiers, to try Martin's
+nerve, clapped a pistol to his breast, and threatened to fire unless he
+would tell which way his master had fled. "Fire away, then," retorted the
+black, fiercely answering glance for glance, and not receding a hair's
+breath.
+
+Tarleton and his men scrupulously refrained from injuring Jefferson's
+property. Cornwallis, on the other hand, who encamped on Jefferson's
+estate of Elk Hill, lying opposite Elk Island in the James River,
+destroyed the growing crops, burned all the barns and fences, carried
+off--"as was to be expected," said Mr. Jefferson--the cattle and horses, and
+committed the barbarity of killing the colts that were too young to be of
+service. He carried off, also, about thirty slaves. "Had this been to give
+them freedom," wrote Jefferson, "he would have done right; but it was to
+consign them to inevitable death from the smallpox and putrid fever, then
+raging in his camp."
+
+"Some of the miserable wretches crawled home to die," Mr. Randall relates,
+"and giving information where others lay perishing in hovels or in the
+open air, by the wayside, these were sent for by their generous master;
+and the last moments of all of them were made as comfortable as could be
+done by proper nursing and medical attendance."
+
+These dreadful scenes, added to the agitation of having twice been
+obliged, at a moment's notice, to flee from the enemy, to say nothing of
+the anxieties which she must have endured on her husband's account, were
+too much for Mrs. Jefferson's already enfeebled constitution. She died on
+September 6, 1782.
+
+Six slave women who were household servants enjoyed for thirty years a
+kind of humble distinction at Monticello as "the servants who were in the
+room when Mrs. Jefferson died;" and the fact that they were there attests
+the affectionate relations which must have existed between them and their
+master and mistress. "They have often told my wife," relates Mr. Bacon,
+"that when Mrs. Jefferson died they stood around the bed. Mr. Jefferson
+sat by her, and she gave him directions about a good many things that she
+wanted done. When she came to the children, she wept, and could not speak
+for some time. Finally she held up her hand, and, spreading out her four
+fingers, she told him she could not die happy if she thought her four
+children were ever to have a stepmother brought in over them. Holding her
+other hand in his, Mr. Jefferson promised her solemnly that he would never
+marry again;" and the promise was kept.
+
+After his wife's death Jefferson sank into what he afterward described as
+"a stupor of mind;" and even before that he had been, for the first and
+last time in his life, in a somewhat morbid mental condition. He was an
+excessively sensitive man, and reflections upon his conduct as governor,
+during the raids into Virginia by Arnold and Cornwallis, coming at a time
+when he was overwrought, rankled in his mind. He refused to serve again as
+governor, and desiring to defend his course when in that office, became a
+member of the House of Burgesses in 1781, in order that he might answer
+his critics there; but not a voice was raised against him. In 1782, he was
+again elected to the House, but he did not attend; and both Madison and
+Monroe endeavored in vain to draw him from his seclusion. To Monroe he
+replied: "Before I ventured to declare to my countrymen my determination
+to retire from public employment, I examined well my heart to know whether
+it were thoroughly cured of every principle of political ambition, whether
+no lurking particle remained which might leave me uneasy, when reduced
+within the limits of mere private life. I became satisfied that every
+fibre of that passion was thoroughly eradicated."
+
+Jefferson was an impulsive man,--in some respects a creature of the moment;
+certainly often, in his own case, mistaking, as a permanent feeling, what
+was really a transitory impression. His language to Monroe must,
+therefore, be taken as the sincere deliverance of a man who, at that time,
+had not the remotest expectation of receiving, or the least ambition to
+attain, the highest offices in the gift of the American people.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   VII
+
+
+                              ENVOY AT PARIS
+
+
+Two years after his wife's death, namely, in 1784, Jefferson was chosen by
+Congress to serve as envoy at Paris, with John Adams and Benjamin
+Franklin. The appointment came at an opportune moment, when his mind was
+beginning to recover its tone, and he gladly accepted it. It was deemed
+necessary that the new Confederacy should make treaties with the various
+governments of Europe, and as soon as the envoys reached Paris, they drew
+up a treaty such as they hoped might be negotiated. It has been described
+as "the first serious attempt ever made to conduct the intercourse of
+nations on Christian principles;" and, on that account, it failed. To this
+failure there was, however, one exception. "Old Frederick of Prussia," as
+Jefferson styled him, "met us cordially;" and with him a treaty was soon
+concluded.
+
+In May, 1785, Franklin returned to the United States, and Jefferson was
+appointed minister. "You replace Dr. Franklin," said the Count of
+Vergennes when Jefferson announced his appointment. "I succeed,--no one can
+replace him," was the reply.
+
+Jefferson's residence in Paris at this critical period was a fortunate
+occurrence. It would be a mistake to suppose that he derived his political
+principles from France:--he carried them there; but he was confirmed in
+them by witnessing the injustice and misery which resulted to the common
+people from the monarchical governments of Europe. To James Monroe he
+wrote in June, 1785: "The pleasure of the trip [to Europe] will be less
+than you expect, but the utility greater. It will make you adore your own
+country,--its soil, its climate, its equality, laws, people, and manners.
+My God! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are
+in possession of and which no other people on earth enjoy! I confess I had
+no idea of it myself."
+
+To George Wythe he wrote in August, 1786: "Preach, my dear sir, a crusade
+against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common
+people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us
+against these evils; and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose
+is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings,
+priests, and nobles, who will rise up among us if we leave the people in
+ignorance." To Madison, he wrote in January, 1787: "This is a government
+of wolves over sheep." Jefferson took the greatest pains to ascertain the
+condition of the laboring classes. In the course of a journey in the south
+of France, he wrote to Lafayette, begging him to survey the condition of
+the people for himself. "To do it most effectually," he said, "you must be
+absolutely incognito; you must ferret the people out of their hovels, as I
+have done; look into their kettles; eat their bread; loll on their beds on
+pretense of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft. You
+will feel a sublime pleasure in the course of the investigation, and a
+sublimer one hereafter, when you shall be able to apply your knowledge to
+the softening of their beds, or the throwing a morsel of meat into their
+kettle of vegetables."
+
+These excursions among the French peasantry, who, as Jefferson well knew,
+were ruinously taxed in order to support an extravagant court and an idle
+and insolent nobility, made him a fierce Republican. "There is not a
+crowned head in Europe," he wrote to General Washington, in 1788, "whose
+talents or merits would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the
+people of America."
+
+But for the French race Jefferson had an affinity. He was glad to live
+with people among whom, as he said, "a man might pass a life without
+encountering a single rudeness." He liked their polished manners and gay
+disposition, their aptitude for science, for philosophy, and for art; even
+their wines and cookery suited his taste, and his preference in this
+respect was so well known that Patrick Henry once humorously stigmatized
+him as "a man who had abjured his native victuals."
+
+Jefferson's stay in Paris corresponded exactly with the "glorious" period
+of the French Revolution. He was present at the Assembly of the Notables
+in 1787, and he witnessed the destruction of the Bastille in 1789.
+
+"The change in this country," he wrote in March, 1789, "is such as you can
+form no idea of. The frivolities of conversation have given way entirely
+to politics. Men, women, and children talk nothing else ... and mode has
+acted a wonderful part in the present instance. All the handsome young
+women, for example, are for the _tiers etat_, and this is an army more
+powerful in France than the 200,000 men of the king."
+
+The truth is that an intellectual and moral revolution preceded in France
+the outbreak of the populace. There was an interior conviction that the
+government of the country was excessively unjust and oppressive. A love of
+liberty, a feeling of fraternity, a passion for equality moved the
+intellect and even the aristocracy of France. In this crisis the reformers
+looked toward America, for the United States had just trodden the path
+upon which France was entering. "Our proceedings," wrote Jefferson to
+Madison in 1789, "have been viewed as a model for them on every
+occasion.... Our [authority] has been treated like that of the Bible, open
+to explanation, but not to question."
+
+Jefferson's advice was continually sought by Lafayette and others; and his
+house, maintained in the easy, liberal style of Virginia, was a meeting
+place for the Revolutionary statesmen. Jefferson dined at three or four
+o'clock; and after the cloth had been removed he and his guests sat over
+their wine till nine or ten in the evening.
+
+In July, 1789, the National Assembly appointed a committee to draught a
+constitution, and the committee formally invited the American minister to
+assist at their sessions and favor them with his advice. This function he
+felt obliged to decline, as being inconsistent with his post of minister
+to the king. No man had a nicer sense of propriety than Jefferson; and he
+punctiliously observed the requirements of his somewhat difficult
+situation in Paris.
+
+What gave Mr. Jefferson the greatest anxiety and trouble, was our
+relations with the piratical Barbary powers who held the keys of the
+Mediterranean and sometimes extended their depredations even into the
+Atlantic. It was a question of paying tribute or going to war; and most of
+the European powers paid tribute. In 1784, for example, the Dutch
+contributed to "the high, glorious, mighty, and most noble, King, Prince,
+and Emperor of Morocco," a mass of material which included thirty cables,
+seventy cannon, sixty-nine masts, twenty-one anchors, fifty dozen
+sail-needles, twenty-four tons of pitch, two hundred and eighty loaves of
+sugar, twenty-four China punch-bowls, three clocks, and one "very large
+watch."
+
+Jefferson ascertained that the pirates would require of the United States,
+as the price of immunity for its commerce, a tribute of about three
+hundred thousand dollars per annum. "Surely," he wrote home, "our people
+will not give this. Would it not be better to offer them an equal treaty?
+If they refuse, why not go to war with them?" And he pressed upon Mr. Jay,
+who held the secretaryship of foreign affairs, as the office was then
+called, the immediate establishment of a navy. But Congress would do
+nothing; and it was not till Jefferson himself became President that the
+Barbary pirates were dealt with in a wholesome and stringent manner.
+During the whole term of his residence at Paris he was negotiating with
+the Mediterranean powers for the release of unfortunate Americans, many of
+whom spent the best part of their lives in horrible captivity.
+
+Mr. Jefferson's self-imposed duties were no less arduous. He kept four
+colleges informed of the most valuable new inventions, discoveries, and
+books. He had a Yankee talent for mechanical improvements, and he was
+always on the alert to obtain anything of this nature which he thought
+might be useful at home. Jefferson himself, by the way, invented the
+revolving armchair, the buggy-top, and a mould board for a plough. He
+bought books for Franklin, Madison, Monroe, Wythe, and himself. He
+informed one correspondent about Watt's engine, another about the new
+system of canals. He smuggled rice from Turin in his coat pockets; and he
+was continually dispatching to agricultural societies in America seeds,
+roots, nuts, and plants. Houdin was sent over by him to make the statue of
+Washington; and he forwarded designs for the new capitol at Richmond. For
+Buffon he procured the skin of an American panther, and also the bones and
+hide of a New Hampshire moose, to obtain which Governor Sullivan of that
+State organized a hunting-party in the depth of winter and cut a road
+through the forest for twenty miles in order to bring out his quarry.
+
+Jefferson was the most indefatigable of men, and he did not relax in
+Paris. He had rooms at a Carthusian monastery to which he repaired when he
+had some special work on hand. He kept a carriage and horses, but could
+not afford a saddle horse. Instead of riding, he took a walk every
+afternoon, usually of six or seven miles, occasionally twice as long. It
+was while returning with a friend from one of these excursions that he
+fell and fractured his right wrist; and the fracture was set so
+imperfectly that it troubled him ever afterward. It was characteristic of
+Jefferson that he said nothing to his friend as to the injury until they
+reached home, though his suffering from it was great; and, also, that he
+at once began to write with the other hand, making numerous entries, on
+the very night of the accident, in a writing which, though stiff, was, and
+remains, perfectly clear.
+
+Mr. Jefferson's two daughters had been placed at a convent school near
+Paris, and he was surprised one day to receive a note from Martha, the
+elder, asking his permission to remain in the convent for the rest of her
+life as a nun. For a day or two she received no answer. Then her father
+called in his carriage, and after a short interview with the abbess took
+his daughters away; and thenceforth Martha presided, so far as her age
+permitted, over her father's household. Not a word upon the subject of her
+request ever passed between them; and long afterward, in telling the story
+to her own children, she praised Mr. Jefferson's tact in dealing with what
+she described as a transient impulse.
+
+After this incident, Jefferson, thinking that it was time to take his
+daughters home, obtained leave of absence for six months; and the little
+family landed at Norfolk, November 18, 1789. They journeyed slowly
+homeward, stopping at one friend's house after another, and, two days
+before Christmas, arrived at Monticello, where they were rapturously
+greeted by the slaves, who took the four horses from the carriage and drew
+it up the steep incline themselves; and when he alighted, Mr. Jefferson,
+in spite of himself, was carried into the house on the arms of his black
+servants and friends.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   VIII
+
+
+                            SECRETARY OF STATE
+
+
+Mr. Jefferson had a strong desire to resume his post as minister to
+France, but he yielded to Washington's earnest request that he should
+become Secretary of State in the new government. He lingered long enough
+at Monticello to witness the marriage of his daughter Martha to Thomas
+Mann Randolph, and then set out upon a cold, wet journey of twenty-one
+days, reaching New York, which was then the seat of government, late in
+March, 1790. He hired a small house at No. 57 Maiden Lane, and immediately
+attacked the arrears of work which had been accumulating for six months.
+The unusual confinement, aggravated, perhaps, by a homesickness, clearly
+revealed in his letters, for his daughters and for Monticello, brought on
+what seems to have been a neuralgic headache which lasted for three weeks.
+It may have been caused in part by the climate of New York, as to which
+Mr. Jefferson observed: "Spring and fall they never have, so far as I can
+learn. They have ten months of winter, two of summer, with some winter
+days interspersed." But there were other causes beside homesickness and
+headache which made Jefferson unhappy in his new position. Long afterward
+he described them as follows:--
+
+"I had left France in the first year of her Revolution, in the fervor of
+natural rights and zeal for reformation. My conscientious devotion to
+those rights could not be heightened, but it had been aroused and excited
+by daily exercise. The President received me cordially, and my colleagues
+and the circle of principal citizens apparently with welcome. The
+courtesies of dinners given to me, as a stranger newly arrived among them,
+placed me at once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe the
+wonder and mortification with which the table conversations filled me.
+Politics were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over republican
+government was evidently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not
+be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I found myself for the most part the only
+advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among the guests
+there chanced to be some member of that party from the legislative
+houses."
+
+It must be remembered that Jefferson's absence in France had been the
+period of the Confederacy, when the inability of Congress to enforce its
+laws and to control the States was so evident and so disastrous that the
+need of a stronger central government had been impressed on men's minds.
+The new Constitution had been devised to supply that need, but it was
+elastic in its terms, and it avoided all details. Should it be construed
+in an aristocratic or in a democratic spirit, and should the new nation be
+given an aristocratic or a democratic twist? This was a burning question,
+and it gave rise to that long struggle led by Hamilton on one side and by
+Jefferson on the other, which ended with the election of Jefferson as
+President in the year 1800.
+
+Hamilton and his party utterly disbelieved in government by the people.(2)
+John Adams declared that the English Constitution, barring its element of
+corruption, was an ideal constitution. Hamilton went farther and asserted
+that the English form of government, corruption and all, was the best
+practicable form. An aristocratic senate, chosen for a long term, if not
+for life, was thought to be essential even by Mr. Adams. Hamilton's notion
+was that mankind were incapable of self-government, and must be governed
+in one or two ways,--by force or by fraud. Property was, in his view, the
+ideal basis of government; and he was inclined to fix the possession of "a
+thousand Spanish dollars" as the proper qualification for a voter.
+
+The difference between the Hamiltonian and the Jeffersonian view arises
+chiefly from a different belief as to the connection between education and
+morality. All aristocratic systems must, in the last analysis, be founded
+either upon brute force or else upon the assumption that education and
+morality go hand-in-hand, and that the well-to-do and best educated class
+is morally superior to the less educated. Jefferson rejected this
+assumption, and all real believers in democracy must take their stand with
+him. He once stated his creed upon this point in a letter as follows:--
+
+"The moral sense or conscience is as much a part of man as his leg or
+arm.... It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of
+the body. This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree to the guidance
+of reason, but it is a small stock which is required for this, even a less
+one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and
+a professor. The former will decide it as well and often better than the
+latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules."
+
+This is sound philosophy. The great problems in government, whether they
+relate to matters external or internal, are moral, not intellectual. There
+are, indeed, purely intellectual problems, such as the question between
+free silver and a gold standard; and as to these problems, the people may
+go wrong. But they are not vital. No nation ever yet achieved glory or
+incurred destruction by taking one course rather than another in a matter
+of trade or finance. The crucial questions are moral questions, and
+experience has shown that as to such matters the people can be trusted. As
+Jefferson himself said, "The will of the majority, the natural law of
+every society, is the only sure guardian of the rights of man. Perhaps
+even this may sometimes err; but its errors are honest, solitary, and
+short-lived."
+
+Washington's cabinet was made up on the theory that it should represent
+not the party in power, but both parties,--for two parties already existed,
+the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, who, under Jefferson's
+influence, soon became known by the better name of Republicans. The
+cabinet consisted of four members, Jefferson, Secretary of State,
+Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox, Secretary of War, and
+Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General.
+
+Knox sided almost always with Hamilton, and Randolph was an inconstant
+supporter of Jefferson. Though an able and learned man, he was given to
+hair-splitting and hesitation, and, in allusion to his habit of arguing on
+one side, but finally voting upon the other, Jefferson once remarked that
+he usually gave the shell to his friends, and reserved the oyster for his
+opponents.
+
+The political opinions of Jefferson and Hamilton were so diametrically
+opposed that the cabinet was soon torn by dissension. Hamilton was for a
+strong government, for surrounding the President with pomp and etiquette,
+for a central authority as against the authority of the States. In
+pursuance of these ideas, he brought forward his famous measures for
+assumption of the state debts by the national government, for the funding
+of the national debt, and finally for the creation of a national bank.
+Jefferson opposed these measures, and, although the assumption and the
+funding laws had grave faults, and led to speculation, and in the case of
+many persons to financial ruin, yet it must be admitted that Jefferson
+never appreciated their merits.
+
+The truth is that both Hamilton and Jefferson were essential to the
+development of this country; and the principles of each have been adopted
+in part, and rejected in part. Hamilton's conception of a central
+government predominating over the state governments has been realized,
+though not nearly to the extent to which he would have carried it. On the
+other hand, his various schemes for making the government into an
+aristocracy instead of a democracy have all been abandoned, or, like the
+Electoral College, turned to a use the opposite of what he intended. So,
+Jefferson's view of state rights has not strictly been maintained; but his
+fundamental principles of popular government and popular education have
+made the United States what it is, and are destined, we hope, when fully
+developed, to make it something better yet.
+
+No less an authority than that of Washington, who appreciated the merits
+of both men, could have kept the peace between them. Hamilton under an
+assumed name attacked Jefferson in the public prints. Jefferson never
+published a line unsigned; but he permitted Philip Freneau, who had slight
+employment as a translator in his department, and the trifling salary of
+$250 a year, to wage war against Hamilton in the gazette which Freneau
+published; and he even stood by while Freneau attacked Washington.
+Washington indeed once gave Jefferson a hint on this subject, which the
+latter refused to take. "He was evidently sore and warm," wrote Jefferson,
+"and I took his intention to be that I should interfere in some way with
+Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment of translating clerk to my
+office. But I will not do it. His paper has saved our constitution, which
+was galloping fast into monarchy.... And the President has not, ... with
+his usual good sense and _sang froid_, ... seen that, though some bad
+things had passed through it to the public, yet the good have predominated
+immensely."
+
+In the spring of 1792, Jefferson, who had now been two years in office,
+was extremely anxious to retire, not only because his situation at
+Washington was unpleasant, but because his affairs at home had been so
+neglected during his long absences that he was in danger of bankruptcy.
+His estate was large, but it was incumbered by a debt to English creditors
+of $13,000. Some years before he had sold for cash a farm near Monticello
+in order to discharge this debt; but at that time the Revolutionary war
+had begun, and the Virginia legislature passed an act inviting all men
+owing money to English creditors to deposit the same in the state
+treasury, the State agreeing to pay it over to the English creditors after
+the war. Jefferson accordingly deposited the $13,000 in gold which he had
+just received. Later, however, this law was rescinded, and the money
+received under it was paid back, not in gold, but in paper money of the
+State, which was then so depreciated as to be almost worthless. In riding
+by the farm thus disposed of, Jefferson in after years would sometimes
+point to it and say: "That farm I once sold for an overcoat;"--the price of
+the overcoat having been the $13,000 in paper money. Cornwallis, as we
+have seen, destroyed Jefferson's property to an amount more than double
+this debt, which might be considered as a second payment of it; but
+Jefferson finally paid it the third time,--and this time into the hands of
+the actual creditor. Meanwhile, he wrote: "The torment of mind I endure
+till the moment shall arrive when I shall not owe a shilling on earth is
+such really as to render life of little value."
+
+Urged by all these motives, Jefferson had resolved to resign his office in
+1792, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Washington; but the attacks
+made upon him by the Federalists, especially those made in the newspapers,
+were so violent that a retirement at that time would have given the public
+cause to believe that he had been driven from office by his enemies.
+Jefferson, therefore, concluded to remain Secretary of State a few months
+longer; and those few, as it happened, were the most important of the
+whole term.
+
+On January 21, 1793, King Louis of France was executed, and within a week
+thereafter England was at war with the new rulers of the French. Difficult
+questions at once arose under our treaties with France. The French people
+thought that we were in honor bound to assist them in their struggle
+against Great Britain, as they had assisted us; and they sent over as
+minister "Citizen" Genet, in the frigate L'Embuscade. The frigate,
+carrying forty guns and three hundred men, sailed into the harbor of
+Charleston, April 8, 1793, with a liberty-cap for her figure-head, and a
+British prize in her wake. Citizen Genet, even for a Frenchman, was a most
+indiscreet and hot-headed person, and before he had been a week on shore
+he had issued commissions to privateers manned by American citizens.
+L'Embuscade then proceeded to Philadelphia, where, as in Charleston,
+Citizen Genet was welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm. His coming was
+hailed by the Republicans generally with rapture; and their cry was for
+war. "I wish," wrote Jefferson, in a confidential letter to Monroe, "that
+we may be able to repress the people within the limits of a fair
+neutrality."
+
+This was the position taken also by Washington and the whole cabinet; and
+it is a striking example of Jefferson's wisdom, justice, and firmness,
+that, although the bulk of the Republicans were carried off their feet by
+sympathy with France and with Genet, he, the very person in the United
+States who most loved the French and best understood the causes and
+motives of the French Revolution, withstood the storm, and kept his eye
+fixed upon the interests of his own country. England, contrary to the
+treaty which closed the Revolutionary War, still retained her military
+posts in the west; and she was the undisputed mistress of the sea. War
+with her would therefore have been suicidal for the United States. The
+time for that had not yet come. Moreover, if the United States had taken
+sides with France, a war with Spain also would inevitably have followed;
+and Spain then held Florida and the mouth of the Mississippi.
+
+Nevertheless, there were different ways of preserving neutrality: there
+were the offensive way and the friendly way. Hamilton, whose extreme bias
+toward England made him bitter against France, was always for the one;
+Jefferson for the other. A single example will suffice as an illustration.
+M. Genet asked as a favor that the United States should advance an
+installment of its debt to France. Hamilton advised that the request be
+refused without a word of explanation. Jefferson's opinion was that the
+request should be granted, if that were lawful, and if it were found to be
+unlawful, them that the refusal should be explained. Mr. Jefferson's
+advice was followed.
+
+Mr. Jefferson, also, though he firmly withstood the many illegal and
+unwarrantable acts attempted by Genet, did so in such a manner as not to
+lose the friendship of the minister or even a degree of control over him.
+To Madison Jefferson wrote of Genet: "He renders my position immensely
+difficult. He does me justice personally; and giving him time to vent
+himself and become more cool, I am on a footing to advise him freely, and
+he respects it; but he will break out again on the very first occasion."
+
+Finally Citizen Genet, becoming desperate, fitted out one of L'Embuscade's
+prizes as a frigate to be used against England, which amounted on the part
+of the United States to a breach of neutrality; and being hindered in
+sending her to sea, he threatened to appeal from the President to the
+people of the United States. Thereupon the question arose, what shall be
+done with Genet? and upon this question the cabinet divided with more than
+usual acrimony. Knox was for sending him out of the country without
+ceremony; Hamilton for publishing the whole correspondence between him and
+the government, with a statement of his proceedings. Jefferson was for
+sending an account of the affair to the French government, with copies of
+the correspondence, and a request for Genet's recall. Meanwhile the whole
+country was thrown into a state of tumultuous excitement. There was a riot
+in Philadelphia; and even the sacred character of Washington was assailed
+in prose and verse.
+
+The President decided to adopt the course proposed by Jefferson; France
+appointed another minister, and the Genet episode ended by his marriage to
+a daughter of George Clinton, governor of New York, in which State he
+lived thereafter as a respectable citizen and a patron of agriculture. He
+died in the year 1834.
+
+The summer of delirium at Philadelphia culminated in the panic and
+desolation of the yellow fever, and every member of the government fled
+from the city, Jefferson being the last to depart.
+
+When, in the next year, the correspondence between Genet and Jefferson,
+and between the English minister and Jefferson, was published, the
+Secretary was seen to have conducted it on his part with so much ability,
+discretion, and tact, and with so true a sense of what was due to each
+nation concerned, that he may be said to have retired to his farm in a
+blaze of glory.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IX
+
+
+                             THE TWO PARTIES
+
+
+When Jefferson at last found himself at Monticello, having resigned his
+office as Secretary of State, he declared and believed that he had done
+with politics forever. To various correspondents he wrote as follows: "I
+think that I shall never take another newspaper of any sort. I find my
+mind totally absorbed in my rural occupations.... No circumstances, my
+dear sir, will ever more tempt me to engage in anything public.... I would
+not give up my retirement for the empire of the universe."
+
+When Madison wrote in 1795, soliciting him to accept the Republican
+nomination for the presidency, Mr. Jefferson replied: "The little spice of
+ambition which I had in my younger days has long since evaporated, and I
+set still less store by a posthumous than present fame. The question is
+forever closed with me." Nevertheless, within a few months Mr. Jefferson
+accepted the nomination, chiefly, it is probable, because, with his usual
+sagacity, he foresaw that the Republican candidate would be defeated as
+President, but elected as Vice-President. It must be remembered that at
+that time the candidate receiving the next to the highest number of
+electoral votes was declared to be Vice-President; so that there was
+always a probability that the presidential candidate of the party defeated
+would be chosen to the second office.
+
+There were several reasons why Jefferson would have been glad to receive
+the office of Vice-President. It involved no disagreeable responsibility;
+it called for no great expenditure of money in the way of entertainments;
+it carried a good salary; it required only a few months' residence at
+Washington. "Mr. Jefferson often told me," remarks Mr. Bacon, "that the
+office of Vice-President was far preferable to that of President."
+
+Mr. Jefferson therefore became the Republican nominee for President, and,
+as he doubtless expected, was elected Vice-President, the vote standing as
+follows: Adams, 71; Jefferson, 68; Pinckney, 59; Burr, 30.
+
+It is significant of Mr. Jefferson's high standing in the country that
+many people believed that he would not deign to accept the office of
+Vice-President; and Madison wrote advising him to come to Washington on
+the 4th of March, and take the oath of office, in order that this belief
+might be dispelled. Jefferson accordingly did so, bringing with him the
+bones of a mastodon, lately discovered, and a little manuscript book
+written in his law-student days, marked "Parliamentary Pocket-Book." This
+was the basis of that careful and elaborate "Manual of Parliamentary
+Practice" which Jefferson left as his legacy to the Senate.
+
+Upon receiving news of the election Jefferson had written to Madison: "If
+Mr. Adams can be induced to administer the government on its true
+principles, and to relinquish his bias to an English Constitution, it is
+to be considered whether it would not be, on the whole, for the public
+good to come to a good understanding with him as to his future elections.
+He is perhaps the only sure barrier against Hamilton's getting in."
+
+Mr. Adams, indeed, at the outset of his administration, was inclined to be
+confidential with Mr. Jefferson; but soon, by one of those sudden turns
+not infrequent with him, he took a different course, and thenceforth
+treated the Vice-President with nothing more than bare civility.
+
+It was a time, indeed, when cordial relations between Federalist and
+Republican were almost impossible. In a letter written at this period to
+Mr. Edward Rutledge, Jefferson said: "You and I have formerly seen warm
+debates, and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics
+would then speak to each other, and separate the business of the Senate
+from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate all
+their lives cross the street to avoid meeting, and turn their heads
+another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats."
+
+These party feelings were intensified in the year 1798 by what is known as
+the X Y Z business. Mr. Adams had sent three commissioners to Paris to
+negotiate a treaty. Talleyrand, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs,
+held aloof from them; but they were informed by certain mysterious agents
+that a treaty could be had on three conditions, (1) that the President
+should apologize for certain expressions in his recent message to
+Congress; (2) that the United States should loan a large sum of money to
+the French government; (3) that a _douceur_ of $25,000 should be given to
+Talleyrand's agents.
+
+These insulting proposals were indignantly rejected by the commissioners,
+and being reported in this country, they aroused a storm of popular
+indignation. Preparations for war were made forthwith. General Washington,
+though in failing health, was appointed commander-in-chief,--the real
+command being expected to devolve upon Hamilton, who was named second; men
+and supplies were voted; letters of marque were issued, and war actually
+prevailed upon the high seas. The situation redounded greatly to the
+advantage of the Federalists, for they were always as eager to go to war
+with France as they were reluctant to go to war with England. The newly
+appointed officers were drawn almost, if not quite, without exception from
+the Federalist party, and Hamilton seemed to be on the verge of that
+military career which he had long hoped for. He trusted, as his most
+intimate friend, Gouverneur Morris, said after his death, "that in the
+changes and chances of time we would be involved in some war which might
+strengthen our union and nerve our executive." So late as 1802, Hamilton
+wrote to Morris, "there must be a systematic and persevering endeavor to
+establish the future of a great empire on foundations much firmer than
+have yet been devised." At this very time he was negotiating with Miranda
+and with the British government, his design being to use against Mexico
+the army raised in expectation of a war with France.
+
+Hamilton was not the man to overturn the government out of personal
+ambition, nor even in order to set up a monarchy in place of a republic.
+But he had convinced himself that the republic must some day fall of its
+own weight. He was always anticipating a "crisis," and this word is
+repeated over and over again in his correspondence. It even occurs in the
+crucial sentence of that pathetic document which he wrote on the eve of
+his fatal duel. When the "crisis" came, Hamilton meant to be on hand; and,
+if possible, at the head of an army.
+
+However, the X Y Z affair ended peacefully. The warlike spirit shown by
+the people of the United States had a wholesome effect upon the French
+government; and at their suggestion new envoys were sent over by the
+President, by whom a treaty was negotiated. This wise and patriotic act
+upon the part of Mr. Adams was a benefit to his country, but it aroused
+the bitter anger of the Federalists and ruined his position in that party.
+
+But what was Mr. Jefferson's attitude during this business? He was not for
+war, and he contended that a distinction should be made between the acts
+of Talleyrand and his agents, and the real disposition of the French
+people. He wrote as follows: "Inexperienced in such manoeuvres, the people
+did not permit themselves even to suspect that the turpitude of private
+swindlers might mingle itself unobserved, and give its own hue to the
+communications of the French government, of whose participation there was
+neither proof nor probability." And again: "But as I view a peace between
+France and England the ensuing winter to be certain, I have thought it
+would have been better for us to have contrived to bear from France
+through the present summer what we have been bearing both from her and
+from England these four years, and still continue to bear from England,
+and to have required indemnification in the hour of peace, when, I firmly
+believe, it would have been yielded by both."
+
+But this is bad political philosophy. A nation cannot obtain justice by
+submitting to wrongs or insults even for a time. Jefferson himself had
+written long before: "I think it is our interest to punish the first
+insult, because an insult unpunished is the parent of many others." It is
+possible that he was misled at this juncture by his liking for France, and
+by his dislike of the Federalists and of their British proclivities. It is
+true that the bribe demanded by Talleyrand's agents might be considered,
+to use Mr. Jefferson's words, as "the turpitude of private swindlers;" but
+the demand for a loan and for a retraction could be regarded only as
+national acts, being acts of the French government, although the bulk of
+the French people might repudiate them.
+
+Whether Jefferson was right or wrong in the position which he took, he
+maintained it with superb self-confidence and aplomb. For the moment, the
+Federalists had everything their own way. They carried the election.
+Hamilton's oft-anticipated "crisis" seemed to have arrived at last. But
+Jefferson coolly waited till the storm should blow over. "Our countrymen,"
+he wrote to a friend, "are essentially Republicans. They retain
+unadulterated the principles of '76, and those who are conscious of no
+change in themselves have nothing to fear in the long run."
+
+And so it proved. The ascendency of the Federalists was soon destroyed,
+and destroyed forever, by the political crimes and follies which they
+committed; and especially by the alien and sedition laws. The reader need
+hardly be reminded that the alien law gave the President authority to
+banish from the country "all such aliens as _he_ should judge dangerous to
+the peace and safety of the United States,"--a despotic power which no king
+of England ever possessed. The sedition act made it a crime, punishable by
+fine and imprisonment, to speak or write anything "false, scandalous, and
+malicious," with intent to excite against either House of Congress or
+against the President, "the hatred of the good people of the United
+States." It can readily be seen what gross oppression was possible under
+this elastic law, interpreted by judges who, to a man, were members of the
+Federal party. Matthew Lyon, of Vermont, ventured to read aloud at a
+political meeting a letter which he had received expressing astonishment
+that the President's recent address to the House of Representatives had
+not been answered by "an order to send him to a mad-house." For this Mr.
+Lyon was fined $1,000, and imprisoned in a veritable dungeon.
+
+These unconstitutional and un-American laws were vigorously opposed by
+Jefferson and Madison. In October, 1798, Jefferson wrote: "For my own part
+I consider those laws as merely an experiment on the American mind to see
+how far it will bear an avowed violation of the Constitution. If this goes
+down, we shall immediately see attempted another act of Congress declaring
+that the President shall continue in office during life, reserving to
+another occasion the transfer of the succession to his heirs, and the
+establishment of the Senate for life."
+
+Jefferson also prepared the famous Kentucky resolutions, which were
+adopted by the legislature of that State,--the authorship, however, being
+kept secret till Jefferson avowed it, twenty years later. These
+much-discussed resolutions have been said to have originated the doctrine
+of nullification, and to contain that principle of secession upon which
+the South acted in 1861. They may be summed up roughly as follows: The
+source of all political power is in the people. The people have, by the
+compact known as the Constitution, granted certain specified powers to the
+federal government; all other powers, if not granted to the several state
+governments, are retained by the people. The alien and sedition laws
+assume the exercise by the federal government of powers not granted to it
+by the Constitution. They are therefore void.
+
+Thus far there can be no question that Jefferson's argument was sound, and
+its soundness would not be denied, even at the present day. But the
+question then arose: what next? May the laws be disregarded and disobeyed
+by the States or by individuals, or must they be obeyed until some
+competent authority has pronounced them void? and if so, what is that
+authority? We understand now that the Supreme Court has sole authority to
+decide upon the constitutionality of the acts of Congress. It was so held,
+for the first time, in the year 1803, in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison,
+by Chief Justice Marshall and his associates; and that decision, though
+resisted at the time, has long been accepted by the country as a whole.
+But this case did not arise until several years after the Kentucky
+Resolutions were written. Moreover, Marshall was an extreme Federalist,
+and his view was by no means the commonly accepted view. Jefferson scouted
+it. He protested all his life against the assumption that the Supreme
+Court, a body of men appointed for life, and thus removed from all control
+by the people, should have the enormous power of construing the
+Constitution and of passing upon the validity of national laws. In a
+letter written in 1804, he said: "You seem to think it devolved on the
+judges to decide the validity of the sedition law. But nothing in the
+Constitution has given them a right to decide for the executive more than
+the executive to decide for them. But the opinion which gives to the
+judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not--not
+only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislature
+and executive also in their spheres--would make the judiciary a despotic
+branch."(3)
+
+In the Kentucky resolutions, Jefferson argued, first, that the
+Constitution was a compact between the States; secondly, that no person or
+body had been appointed by the Constitution as a common judge in respect
+to questions arising under the Constitution between any one State and
+Congress, or between the people and Congress; and thirdly, "as in all
+other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has
+an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode
+and measure of redress." It was open to him to take this view, because it
+had not yet been decided that the Supreme Court was the "common judge"
+appointed by the Constitution; and the Constitution itself was not
+explicit upon the point. Moreover, the laws in question had not been
+passed upon by the Supreme Court,--they expired by limitation before that
+stage was reached.
+
+It must be admitted, then, that the Kentucky resolutions do contain the
+principles of nullification. But at the time when they were written,
+nullification was a permissible doctrine, because it was not certainly
+excluded by the Constitution. In 1803, as we have seen, the Constitution
+was interpreted by the Supreme Court as excluding this doctrine; and that
+decision having been reaffirmed repeatedly, and having been acquiesced in
+by the nation for fifty years, may fairly be said to have become by the
+year 1861 the law of the land.
+
+Jefferson, however, by no means intended to push matters to their logical
+conclusion. His resolutions were intended for moral effect, as he
+explained in the following letter to Madison:--
+
+"I think we should distinctly affirm all the important principles they
+contain, so as to hold to that ground in future, and leave the matter in
+such a train that we may not be committed absolutely to push the matter to
+extremities, and yet may be free to push as far as events will render
+prudent."
+
+As to the charge that the Kentucky Resolutions imply the doctrine of
+secession, as well as that of nullification, it has no basis. The two
+doctrines do not stand or fall together. There is nothing in the
+resolutions which implies the right of secession. Jefferson, like most
+Americans of his day, contemplated with indifference the possibility of an
+ultimate separation of the region beyond the Mississippi from the United
+States. But nobody placed a higher value than he did on what he described
+"as our union, the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to
+prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    X
+
+
+                           PRESIDENT JEFFERSON
+
+
+For the presidential election of 1800, Adams was again the candidate on
+the Federal side, and Jefferson on the Republican side. Jefferson, by
+interviews, by long and numerous letters, by the commanding force of his
+own intellect and character, had at last welded the anti-Federal elements
+into a compact and disciplined Republican party. The contest was waged
+with the utmost bitterness, and especially with bitterness against
+Jefferson. For this there were several causes. Jefferson had deeply
+offended two powerful classes in Virginia, the old aristocratic and Tory
+element, and--excluding the dissenters--the religious element; the former,
+by the repeal of the law of entail, and the latter by the statute for
+freedom of religion in Virginia. These were among the most meritorious
+acts of his life, but they produced an intense enmity which lasted till
+his death and even beyond his death. Jefferson, also, though at times
+over-cautious, was at times rash and indiscreet, and the freedom of his
+comments upon men and measures often got him into trouble. His career will
+be misunderstood unless it is remembered that he was an impulsive man. His
+judgments were intuitive, and though usually correct, yet sometimes hasty
+and ill-considered.
+
+Above all, Jefferson was both for friends and foes the embodiment of
+Republicanism. He represented those ideas which the Federalists, and
+especially the New England lawyers and clergy, really believed to be
+subversive of law and order, of government and religion. To them he
+figured as "a fanatic in politics, and an atheist in religion;" and they
+were so disposed to believe everything bad of him that they swallowed
+whole the worst slanders which the political violence of the times, far
+exceeding that of the present day, could invent. We have seen with what
+tenderness Jefferson treated his widowed sister, Mrs. Carr, and her
+children. It was in reference to this very family that the Rev. Mr. Cotton
+Mather Smith, of Connecticut, declared that Jefferson had gained his
+estate by robbery, namely, by robbing a widow and her children of L10,000,
+"all of which can be proved."
+
+Jefferson, as we have said, was a deist. He was a religious man and a
+daily reader of the Bible, far less extreme in his notions, less hostile
+to orthodox Christianity than John Adams. Nevertheless,--partly, perhaps,
+because he had procured the disestablishment of the Virginia Church,
+partly on account of his scientific tastes and his liking for French
+notions,--the Federalists had convinced themselves that he was a violent
+atheist and anti-Christian. It was a humorous saying of the time that the
+old women of New England hid their Bibles in the well when Jefferson's
+election in 1800 became known.
+
+The vote was as follows:--Jefferson, 73, Burr, 73; Adams, 65; C. C.
+Pinckney, 64; Jay, 1. There being a tie between Jefferson and Burr, the
+Republican candidate for Vice-President, the election was thrown into the
+House of Representatives, voting by States. In that House the Federalists
+were in the majority, but they did not have a majority by States. They
+could not, therefore, elect Adams; but it was possible for them to make
+Burr President instead of Jefferson. At first, the leaders were inclined
+to do this, some believing that Burr's utter want of principle was less
+dangerous than the pernicious principles which they ascribed to Jefferson,
+and others thinking that Burr, if elected by Federal votes, would pursue a
+Federal policy. It was feared that Jefferson would wipe out the national
+debt, abolish the navy, and remove every Federal officeholder in the land.
+He was approached from many quarters, and even President Adams desired him
+to give some intimation of his intended policy on these points, but
+Jefferson firmly refused.
+
+As to one such interview, with Gouverneur Morris, Jefferson wrote
+afterward: "I told him that I should leave the world to judge of the
+course I meant to pursue, by that which I had pursued hitherto, believing
+it to be my duty to be passive and silent during the present scene; that I
+should certainly make no terms; should never go into the office of
+President by capitulation, nor with my hands tied by any conditions which
+would hinder me from pursuing the measures which I should deem for the
+public good."
+
+The Federalists had a characteristic plan: they proposed to pass a law
+devolving the Presidency upon the chairman of the Senate, in case the
+office of President should become vacant; and this vacancy they would be
+able to bring about by prolonging the election until Mr. Adams's term of
+office had expired. The chairman of the Senate, a Federalist, of course,
+would then become President. This scheme Jefferson and his friends were
+prepared to resist by force. "Because," as he afterward explained, "that
+precedent once set, it would be artificially reproduced, and would soon
+end in a dictator."
+
+Hamilton, to his credit, be it said, strongly advocated the election of
+Jefferson; and finally, through the action of Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, a
+leading Federalist, who had sounded an intimate friend of Mr. Jefferson as
+to his views upon the points already mentioned, Mr. Jefferson was elected
+President, and the threatening civil war was averted.
+
+Mr. Adams, who was deeply chagrined by his defeat, did not attend the
+inauguration of his successor, but left Washington in his carriage, at
+sunrise, on the fourth of March; and Jefferson rode on horseback to the
+Capitol, unattended, and dismounting, fastened his horse to the fence with
+his own hands. The inaugural address, brief, and beautifully worded,
+surprised most of those who heard it by the moderation and liberality of
+its tone. "Let us," said the new President, "restore to social intercourse
+that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself,
+are but dreary things."
+
+Jefferson served two terms, and he was succeeded first by Madison, and
+then by Monroe, both of whom were his friends and disciples, and imbued
+with his ideas. They, also, were reelected. For twenty-four years,
+therefore, Jefferson and Jeffersonian Democracy predominated in the
+government of the United States, and the period was an exceedingly
+prosperous one. Not one of the dismal forebodings of the Federalists was
+fulfilled; and the practicability of popular government was proved.
+
+The first problem with which Jefferson had to deal was that of
+appointments to office. The situation was much like that which afterward
+confronted President Cleveland when he entered upon his first term,--that
+is, every place was filled by a member of the party opposed to the new
+administration. The principle which Mr. Jefferson adopted closely
+resembles that afterward adopted by Mr. Cleveland, namely, no officeholder
+was to be displaced on account of his political belief; but if he acted
+aggressively in politics, that was to be sufficient ground for removal.
+"Electioneering activity" was the phrase used in Mr. Jefferson's time, and
+"offensive partisanship" in Mr. Cleveland's.
+
+The following letter from President Jefferson to the Secretary of the
+Treasury will show how the rule was construed by him:--
+
+"The allegations against Pope [collector] of New Bedford are insufficient.
+Although meddling in political caucuses is no part of that freedom of
+personal suffrage which ought to be allowed him, yet his mere presence at
+a caucus does not necessarily involve an active and official influence in
+opposition to the government which employs him."
+
+There were some lapses, but, on the whole, Mr. Jefferson's rule was
+adhered to; and it is difficult to say whether he received more abuse from
+the Federalists on account of the removals which he did make, or from a
+faction in his own party on account of the removals which he refused to
+make.
+
+His principle was thus stated in a letter: "If a due participation of
+office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by
+death are few; by resignation, none.... It would have been to me a
+circumstance of great relief, had I found a moderate participation of
+office in the hands of the majority. I should gladly have left to time and
+accident to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion
+calls for prompter corrections. I shall correct the procedure; but that
+done, disdain to follow it. I shall return with joy to that state of
+things when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be, Is he
+honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?"
+
+The ascendency of Jefferson and of the Republican party produced a great
+change in the government and in national feeling, but it was a change the
+most important part of which was intangible, and is therefore hard to
+describe. It was such a change as takes place in the career of an
+individual, when he shakes off some controlling force, and sets up in life
+for himself. The common people felt an independence, a pride, an elan,
+which sent a thrill of vigor through every department of industry and
+adventure.
+
+The simplicity of the forms which President Jefferson adopted were a
+symbol to the national imagination of the change which had taken place. He
+gave up the royal custom of levees; he stopped the celebration of the
+President's birthday; he substituted a written message for the speech to
+Congress delivered in person at the Capitol, and the reply by Congress,
+delivered in person at the White House. The President's residence ceased
+to be called the Palace. He cut down the army and navy. He introduced
+economy in all the departments of the government, and paid off
+thirty-three millions of the national debt. He procured the abolition of
+internal taxes and the repeal of the bankruptcy law--two measures which
+greatly decreased his own patronage, and which called forth John
+Randolph's encomium long afterward: "I have never seen but one
+administration which seriously and in good faith was disposed to give up
+its patronage, and was willing to go farther than Congress or even the
+people themselves ... desired; and that was the first administration of
+Thomas Jefferson."
+
+The two most important measures of the first administration were, however,
+the repression of the Barbary pirates and the acquisition of Louisiana.
+Mr. Jefferson's ineffectual efforts, while he was minister to France, to
+put down by force Mediterranean piracy have already been rehearsed. During
+Mr. Adams's term, two million dollars were expended in bribing the
+bucaneers. One item in the account was as follows, "A frigate to carry
+thirty-six guns for the Dey of Algiers;" and this frigate went crammed
+with a hundred thousand dollars' worth of powder, lead, timber, rope,
+canvas, and other means of piracy. One hundred and twenty-two captives
+came home in that year, 1796, of whom ten had been held in slavery for
+eleven years.
+
+Jefferson's first important act as President was to dispatch to the
+Mediterranean three frigates and a sloop-of-war to overawe the pirates,
+and to cruise in protection of American commerce. Thus began that series
+of events which finally rendered the commerce of the world as safe from
+piracy in the Mediterranean as it was in the British channel. How
+brilliantly Decatur and his gallant comrades carried out this policy, and
+how at last the tardy naval powers of Europe followed an example which
+they ought to have set, every one is supposed to know.
+
+The second important event was the acquisition of Louisiana. Louisiana
+meant the whole territory from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,
+embracing about one million square miles. All this region belonged to
+Spain by right of discovery; and early in the year 1801 news came from the
+American minister at Paris that Spain had ceded or was about to cede it to
+France. The Spanish ownership of the mouth of the Mississippi had long
+been a source of annoyance to the settlers on the Mississippi River; and
+it had begun to be felt that the United States must control New Orleans at
+least. If this vast territory should come into the hands of France, and
+Napoleon should colonize it, as was said to be his intention,--France then
+being the greatest power in Europe,--the United States would have a
+powerful rival on its borders, and in control of a seaport absolutely
+necessary for its commerce. We can see this now plainly enough, but even
+so able a man as Mr. Livingston, the American minister at Paris, did not
+see it then. On the contrary, he wrote to the government at Washington:
+"... I have, however, on all occasions, declared that as long as France
+conforms to the existing treaty between us and Spain, the government of
+the United States does not consider itself as having any interest in
+opposing the exchange."
+
+Mr. Jefferson's very different view was expressed in the following letter
+to Mr. Livingston: "... France, placing herself in that door, assumes to
+us the attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for
+years. Her pacific disposition, her feeble state would induce her to
+increase our facilities there.... Not so can it ever be in the hands of
+France; the impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her
+character, placed in a point of eternal friction with us and our
+character, which, though quiet and loving peace and the pursuit of wealth,
+is high-minded, despising wealth in competition with insult or injury,
+enterprising and energetic as any nation on earth,--these circumstances
+render it impossible that France and the United States can continue long
+friends when they meet in so irritable a position.... The day that France
+takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain
+her forever within her low-water mark.... From that moment we must marry
+ourselves to the British fleet and nation."
+
+Thus, at a moment's notice, and in obedience to a vital change in
+circumstance, Jefferson threw aside the policy of a lifetime, suppressed
+his liking for France and his dislike for England, and entered upon that
+radically new course which, as he foresaw, the interests of the United
+States would require.
+
+Livingston, thus primed, began negotiations for the purchase of New
+Orleans; and Jefferson hastily dispatched Monroe, as a special envoy, for
+the same purpose, armed, it is supposed, with secret verbal instructions,
+to buy, if possible, not only New Orleans, but the whole of Louisiana.
+Monroe had not a word in writing to show that in purchasing Louisiana--if
+the act should be repudiated by the nation--he did not exceed his
+instructions. But, as Mr. Henry Adams remarks, "Jefferson's friends always
+trusted him perfectly."
+
+The moment was most propitious, for England and France were about to close
+in that terrific struggle which ended at Waterloo, and Napoleon was
+desperately in need of money. After some haggling the bargain was
+concluded, and, for the very moderate sum of fifteen million dollars, the
+United States became possessed of a territory which more than doubled its
+area.
+
+The purchase of Louisiana was confessedly an unconstitutional, or at least
+an extra-constitutional act, for the Constitution gave no authority to the
+President to acquire new territory, or to pledge the credit of the United
+States in payment. Jefferson himself thought that the Constitution ought
+to be amended in order to make the purchase legal; but in this he was
+overruled by his advisers.
+
+Thus, Jefferson's first administration ended with a brilliant achievement;
+but this public glory was far more than outweighed by a private loss. The
+President's younger daughter, Mrs. Eppes, died in April, 1804; and in a
+letter to his old friend, John Page, he said: "Others may lose of their
+abundance, but I, of my wants, have, lost even the half of all I had. My
+evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of a single life. Perhaps
+I may be destined to see even this last cord of parental affection broken.
+The hope with which I have looked forward to the moment when, resigning
+public cares to younger hands, I was to retire to that domestic comfort
+from which the last great step is to be taken, is fearfully blighted."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    XI
+
+
+                         SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM
+
+
+The purchase of Louisiana increased Jefferson's popularity, and in 1805,
+at the age of sixty-two, he was elected to his second term as President by
+an overwhelming majority. Even Massachusetts was carried by the
+Republicans, and the total vote in the electoral college stood: 162 for
+Jefferson and Clinton; 14 for C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King, the Federal
+candidates.
+
+This result was due in part to the fact that Jefferson had stolen the
+thunder of the Federalists. His Louisiana purchase, though bitterly
+opposed by the leading Federalists, who were blinded by their hatred of
+the President, was far more consonant with Federal than with Republican
+principles; and in his second inaugural address Jefferson went even
+farther in the direction of a strong central government, for he said:
+"Redemption once effected, the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just
+repartition among the States, and a corresponding amendment of the
+Constitution, be applied _in time of peace_ to rivers, canals, roads,
+arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects within each State.
+In time of war, ... aided by other measures reserved for that crisis, it
+may meet within the year all the expenses of the year without encroaching
+on the rights of future generations by burdening them with the debts of
+the past."
+
+This proposal flatly contradicted what the President had said in his first
+inaugural address, and was in strange contrast with his criticism made
+years before upon a similar Federal scheme of public improvement, that the
+mines of Peru would not supply the moneys which would be wasted on this
+object. In later years, after his permanent retirement to Monticello,
+Jefferson seems to have reverted to his earlier views, and he condemned
+the measures of John Quincy Adams for making public improvements with
+national funds.
+
+But the President was no longer to enjoy a smooth course. One domestic
+affair gave him much annoyance, and our foreign relations were a continual
+source of anxiety and mortification.
+
+Aaron Burr had been a brilliant soldier of the Revolution, a highly
+successful lawyer and politician, and finally, during Mr. Jefferson's
+first administration, Vice-President of the United States. But in the year
+1805 he found himself, owing to a complication of causes, most of which,
+however, could be traced to his own moral defects, a bankrupt in
+reputation and in purse. Such being his condition, he applied to the
+President for a foreign appointment; and Mr. Jefferson very properly
+refused it, frankly explaining that Burr, whether justly or unjustly, had
+lost the confidence of the public.
+
+Burr took this rebuff with the easy good-humor which characterized him,
+dined with the President a few days later, and then started westward to
+carry out a scheme which he had been preparing for a year. His plans were
+so shrouded in mystery that it is difficult to say exactly what they were,
+but it is certain that he contemplated an expedition against Mexico, with
+the intention of making himself the ruler of that country; and it is
+possible that he hoped to capture New Orleans, and, after dividing the
+United States, to annex the western half to his Mexican empire. Burr had
+got together a small supply of men and arms, and he floated down the Ohio,
+gathering recruits as he went.
+
+Jefferson, with his usual good sense, perceived the futility of Burr's
+designs, which were based upon a false belief as to the want of loyalty
+among the western people; but he took all needful precautions. General
+Wilkinson was ordered to protect New Orleans, Burr's proceedings were
+denounced by a proclamation, and finally Burr himself was arrested in
+Alabama, and brought to Richmond for trial.
+
+The trial at once became a political affair, the Federalists, to spite the
+President, making Burr's cause their own, though he had killed Alexander
+Hamilton but three years before, and pretending to regard him as an
+innocent man persecuted by the President for political reasons. Jefferson
+himself took a hand in the prosecution to the extent of writing letters to
+the district attorney full of advice and suggestions. It would have been
+more dignified had he held aloof, but the provocation which he received
+was very great. Burr and his counsel used every possible means of throwing
+odium upon the President; and in this they were assisted by Chief Justice
+Marshall, who presided at the trial. Marshall, though in the main a just
+man, was bitterly opposed to Jefferson in political affairs, and in this
+case he harshly blamed the executive for not procuring evidence with a
+celerity which, under the circumstances, was impossible. He also summoned
+the President into court as a witness. The President, however, declined to
+attend, and the matter was not pressed. Burr was acquitted, chiefly on
+technical grounds.
+
+The Burr affair, however, was but a trifle compared with the difficulties
+arising from our relations with England. That country had always asserted
+over the United States the right of impressment, a right, namely, to
+search American ships, and to take therefrom any Englishmen found among
+the crew. In many cases, Englishmen who had been naturalized in the United
+States were thus taken. This alleged right had always been denied by the
+United States, and British perseverance in it finally led to the war of
+1812.
+
+Another source of contention was the neutral trade. During the European
+wars in the early part of the century the seaport towns of the United
+States did an immense and profitable business in carrying goods to
+European ports, and from one European port to another. Great Britain,
+after various attempts to discourage American commerce with her enemies,
+undertook to put it down by confiscating vessels of the United States on
+the ground that their cargoes were not neutral but belligerent
+property,--the property, that is, of nations at war with Great Britain.
+And, no doubt, in some cases this was the fact,--foreign merchandise having
+been imported to this country to get a neutral name for it, and thence
+exported to a country to which it could not have been shipped directly
+from its place of origin. In April, 1806, the President dispatched Mr.
+Monroe to London in order, if possible, to settle these disputed matters
+by a treaty. Monroe, in conjunction with Mr. Pinckney, our minister to
+England, sent back a treaty which contained no reference whatever to the
+matter of impressments. It was the best treaty which they could obtain,
+but it was silent upon this vital point.
+
+The situation was a perilous one; England had fought the battle of
+Trafalgar the year before; and was now able to carry everything before her
+upon the high seas. Nevertheless, the President's conduct was bold and
+prompt. The treaty had been negotiated mainly by his own envoy and friend,
+Monroe, and great pressure was exerted in favor of it,--especially by the
+merchants and shipowners of the east. But Jefferson refused even to lay it
+before the Senate, and at once sent it back to England. His position, and
+history has justified it, was that to accept a treaty which might be
+construed as tacitly admitting the right of impressment would be a
+disgrace to the country. The other questions at issue were more nearly
+legal and technical, but this one touched the national honor; and with the
+same right instinct which Jefferson showed in 1807, the people of the
+United States, five years later, fixed upon this grievance, out of the fog
+in which diplomacy had enveloped our relations with England, as the true
+and sufficient cause of the war of 1812.
+
+Nevertheless, Jefferson treated Monroe with the greatest consideration. At
+this period Monroe and Madison were both candidates for the Republican
+nomination for the presidency. Jefferson's choice was Madison, but he
+remained impartial between them; and he withheld Monroe's treaty from
+publication at a time when to publish it would have given a fatal blow to
+Monroe's prospects. In every way, in fact, he exerted himself to disguise
+and soften Monroe's discredit.
+
+The wisdom of Jefferson's course as to the treaty was shown before three
+months had elapsed by an act of British aggression, which, had the Monroe
+treaty been accepted, might fairly have been laid to its door. In June,
+1807, the British frigate Leopard, having been refused permission to
+search the American frigate Chesapeake, fired upon the Chesapeake, which
+was totally unprepared for action, and, after killing three men and
+wounding eighteen, refused to accept the surrender of the ship, but
+carried off three alleged deserters.
+
+This event roused a storm of indignation, which never quite subsided until
+the insult had been effaced by the blood which was shed in the war of
+1812. "For the first time in their history," says Mr. Henry Adams, "the
+people of the United States learned in June, 1807, the feeling of a true
+national emotion." "Never since the battle of Lexington," wrote Jefferson,
+"have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at present."
+
+War might easily have been precipitated, had Jefferson been carried away
+by the popular excitement. He immediately dispatched a frigate to England
+demanding reparation, and he issued a proclamation forbidding all British
+men-of-war to enter the waters of the United States, unless in distress or
+bearing dispatches. Jefferson expected war, but he meant to delay it for a
+while.
+
+To his son-in-law, John Eppes, he wrote: "Reason and the usage of
+civilized nations require that we should give them an opportunity of
+disavowal and reparation. Our own interests, too, the very means of making
+war, require that we should give time to our merchants to gather in their
+vessels and property and our seamen now afloat."
+
+Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, even criticised the President's
+annual message at this time as being too warlike and "not in the style of
+the proclamation, which has been almost universally approved at home and
+abroad." It cannot truly be said, therefore, that Jefferson had any
+unconquerable aversion to war.
+
+Mr. Canning, the British Foreign Minister, went through the form of
+expressing his regrets for the Chesapeake affair, and sent a special envoy
+to Washington to settle the difficulty. Reparation was made at last, but
+not till the year 1811.
+
+In the mean time, both Great Britain and France had given other causes of
+offense, which may be summarized as follows: In May, 1806, Great Britain
+declared the French ports from Brest to the Elbe closed to American as to
+all other shipping. In the following November, Napoleon retorted with a
+decree issued from Berlin, prohibiting all commerce with Great Britain.
+That power immediately forbade the coasting trade between one port and
+another in the possession of her enemies. And in November, 1807, Great
+Britain issued the famous Orders in Council, which forbade all trade
+whatsoever with France and her allies, except on payment of a tribute to
+Great Britain, each vessel to pay according to the value of its cargo.
+Then followed Napoleon's Milan decree prohibiting trade with Great
+Britain, and declaring that all vessels which paid the tribute demanded
+were lawful prizes to the French marine.
+
+Such was the series of acts which assailed the foreign commerce of the
+United States, and wounded the national honor by attempting to prostrate
+the country at the mercy of the European powers. Diplomacy had been
+exhausted. The Chesapeake affair, the right of impressment, the British
+decrees and orders directed against our commerce,--all these causes of
+offense had been tangled into a complication which no man could unravel.
+Retaliation on our part had become absolutely necessary. What form should
+it take? Jefferson rejected war, and proposed an embargo which prohibited
+commerce between the United States and Europe. The measure was bitterly
+opposed by the New England Federalists; but the President's influence was
+so great that Congress adopted it almost without discussion.
+
+Jefferson's design, to use his own words, was "to introduce between
+nations another umpire than arms;" and he expected that England would be
+starved into submission. The annual British exports to the United States
+amounted to $50,000,000. Cutting off this trade meant the throwing out of
+work of thousands of British sailors and tens of thousands of British
+factory hands, who had no other means of livelihood. Mr. Jefferson felt
+confident that the starvation of this class would bring such pressure to
+bear upon the English government, then engaged in a death struggle with
+Bonaparte, that it would be forced to repeal the laws which obstructed
+American commerce. It is possible that this would have been the result had
+the embargo been observed faithfully by all citizens of the United States.
+Jefferson maintained till the day of his death that such would have been
+the case; and Madison, no enthusiast, long afterward asserted that the
+American state department had proofs that the English government was on
+the point of yielding. The embargo pressed hardest of all upon Virginia,
+for it stopped the exportation of her staples,--wheat and tobacco. It
+brought about, by the way, the financial ruin of Jefferson himself and of
+his son-in-law, Colonel Randolph. But the Virginians bore it without a
+murmur. "They drained the poison which their own President held
+obstinately to their lips."
+
+It was otherwise in New England. There the disastrous effect of the
+embargo was not only indirect but direct. The New England farmers, it is
+true, could at least exist upon the produce of their farms; but the
+mariners, the sea-captains, and the merchants of the coast towns, saw a
+total suspension of the industry by which they lived. New England evaded
+the embargo by smuggling, and resisted it tooth and nail. Some of the
+Federal leaders in that section believing, or pretending to believe, that
+it was a pro-French measure, were in secret correspondence with the
+British government, and meditated a secession of the eastern States from
+the rest of the country. They went so far, in private conversation at
+least, as to maintain the British right of impressment; and even the
+Orders in Council were defended by Gardenier, a leading Federalist, and a
+member of Congress.
+
+The present generation has witnessed a similar exhibition of anglomania,
+when, upon the assertion of the Monroe doctrine in respect to Venezuela,
+by President Cleveland, his attitude was criticised more severely by a
+group in New York and Boston than it was by the English themselves.
+
+Jefferson's effort to enforce the embargo and his calm resistance to New
+England fury showed extraordinary firmness of will and tenacity of
+purpose. In August, 1808, he wrote to General Dearborn, Secretary of War,
+who was then in Maine: "The Tories of Boston openly threaten insurrection
+if their importation of flour is stopped. The next post will stop it."
+
+Blood was soon shed; but Jefferson did not shrink. The army was stationed
+along the Canadian frontier, to prevent smuggling; gunboats and frigates
+patrolled the coast. The embargo failed; but Mr. Henry Adams, the ablest
+and fairest historian of this period, declares that it "was an experiment
+in politics well worth making. In the scheme of President Jefferson,
+non-intercourse was the substitute for war.... Failure of the embargo
+meant in his mind not only a recurrence to the practice of war, but to
+every political and social evil that war had always brought in its train.
+In such a case the crimes and corruptions of Europe, which had been the
+object of his political fears, must, as he believed, sooner or later, teem
+in the fat soil of America. To avert a disaster so vast was a proper
+motive for statesmanship, and justified disregard for smaller interests."
+Mr. Parton observes, with almost as much truth as humor, that the embargo
+was approved by the two highest authorities in Europe, namely, Napoleon
+Bonaparte and the "Edinburgh Review."
+
+Perhaps the fundamental error in Jefferson's theory was that nations are
+governed mainly by motives of self-interest. He thought that England would
+cease to legislate against American commerce, when it was once made plain
+that such a course was prejudicial to her own interests. But nations, like
+individuals, are influenced in their relations to others far more by pride
+and patriotism, and even by prejudice, than by material self-interest. The
+only way in which America could win respect and fair treatment from Europe
+was by fighting, or at least by showing a perfect readiness to fight. This
+she did by the war of 1812.
+
+The embargo was an academic policy,--the policy of a philosopher rather
+than that of a practical man of affairs. Turreau, the French ambassador,
+wrote to Talleyrand, in May, 1806, that the President "has little energy
+and still less of that audacity which is indispensable in a place so
+eminent, whatever may be the form of government. The slightest event makes
+him lose his balance, and he does not even know how to disguise the
+impression which he receives.... He has made himself ill, and has grown
+ten years older."
+
+Jefferson had energy and audacity,--but he was energetic and audacious only
+by fits and starts. He was too sensitive, too full of ideas, too
+far-sighted, too conscious of all possible results for a man of action.
+During the last three months of his term he made no attempt to settle the
+difficulties in which the country was involved, declaring that he felt
+bound to do nothing which might embarrass his successor. But it may be
+doubted if he did not unconsciously decline the task rather from its
+difficulty than because he felt precluded from undertaking it.
+Self-knowledge was never Mr. Jefferson's strong point.
+
+But he had done his best, and if his scheme had failed, the failure was
+not an ignoble one. He was still the most beloved, as well as the best
+hated man in the United States; and he could have had a third term, if he
+would have taken it.
+
+He retired, permanently, as it proved, to Monticello, wearied and
+harassed, but glad to be back on his farm, in the bosom of his family, and
+among his neighbors. His fellow-citizens of Albemarle County desired to
+meet the returning President, and escort him to his home; but Mr.
+Jefferson, characteristically, avoided this demonstration, and received
+instead an address, to which he made a reply that closed in a fit and
+pathetic manner his public career. "... The part which I have acted on the
+theatre of public life has been before them [his countrymen], and to their
+sentence I submit it; but the testimony of my native county, of the
+individuals who have known me in private life, to my conduct in its
+various duties and relations, is the more grateful as proceeding from
+eyewitnesses and observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my
+neighbors, I may ask in the face of the world, 'whose ox have I taken, or
+whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I
+received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?' On your verdict I rest
+with conscious security."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   XII
+
+
+                       A PUBLIC MAN IN PRIVATE LIFE
+
+
+Jefferson's second term as President ended March 4, 1809, and during the
+rest of his life he lived at Monticello, with occasional visits to his
+more retired estate at Poplar Forest, and to the homes of his friends, but
+never going beyond the confines of Virginia. Just before leaving
+Washington, he had written: "Never did a prisoner released from his chains
+feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature
+intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my
+supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived
+have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on
+the boisterous ocean of political passions."
+
+Though no longer in office, Jefferson remained till his death the chief
+personage in the United States, and his authority continued to be almost
+supreme among the leaders as well as among the rank and file of the
+Republican party. Madison first, and Monroe afterward, consulted him in
+all the most important matters which arose during the sixteen years of
+their double terms as President. Long and frequent letters passed between
+them; and both Madison and Monroe often visited Jefferson at Monticello.
+
+The Monroe doctrine, as it is called, was first broached by Jefferson. In
+a letter of August 4, 1820, to William Short, he said: "The day is not far
+distant, when we may formally require a meridian through the ocean which
+separates the two hemispheres on the hither side of which no European gun
+shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other;" and he spoke of "the
+essential policy of interdicting in the seas and territories of both
+Americas the ferocious and sanguinary contests of Europe." Later, when
+applied to by Monroe himself, in October, 1823, Jefferson wrote to him:
+"Our first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves in
+the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to meddle in
+cisatlantic affairs." The whole letter, a long one, deserves to be read as
+the first exposition of what has since become a famous doctrine.
+
+The darling object of Mr. Jefferson's last years was the founding of the
+University of Virginia at Charlottesville. For this purpose he gave $1000;
+many of his neighbors in Albemarle County joined him with gifts; and
+through Jefferson's influence, the legislature appropriated considerable
+sums. But money was the least of Jefferson's endowment of the University.
+He gave of the maturity of his judgment and a great part of his time. He
+was made regent. He drew the plans for the buildings, and overlooked their
+construction, riding to the University grounds almost every day, a
+distance of four miles, and back, and watching with paternal solicitude
+the laying of every brick and stone. His design was the perhaps
+over-ambitious one of displaying in the University buildings the various
+leading styles of architecture; and certain practical inconveniences, such
+as the entire absence of closets from the houses of the professors, marred
+the result. Some offense also was given to the more religious people of
+Virginia, by the selection of a Unitarian as the first professor. However,
+Jefferson's enthusiasm, ingenuity, and thoroughness carried the scheme
+through with success; and the University still stands as a monument to its
+founder.
+
+It should be recorded, moreover, that under Jefferson's regency the
+University of Virginia adopted certain reforms, which even Harvard, the
+most progressive of eastern universities, did not attain till more than
+half a century later. These were, an elective system of studies; the
+abolition of rules and penalties for the preservation of order, and the
+abolition of compulsory attendance at religious services.
+
+Mr. Jefferson's daily life was simple and methodical. He rose as soon as
+it was light enough for him to see the hands of a clock which was opposite
+his bed. Till breakfast time, which was about nine o'clock, he employed
+himself in writing. The whole morning was devoted to an immense
+correspondence; the discharge of which was not only mentally, but
+physically distressing, inasmuch as his crippled hands, each wrist having
+been fractured, could not be used without pain. In a letter to his old
+friend, John Adams, he wrote: "I can read by candle-light only, and
+stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be indulged to me
+could I by that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o'clock,
+and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all
+this to answer letters, in which neither interest nor inclination on my
+part enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.
+Yet writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers." At his
+death Jefferson left copies of 16,000 letters, being only a part of those
+written by himself, and 26,000 letters written by others to him.
+
+At one o'clock he set out upon horseback, and was gone for one or two
+hours,--never attended by a servant, even when he became old and infirm. He
+continued these rides until he had become so feeble that he had to be
+lifted to the saddle; and his mount was always a fiery one. Once, in Mr.
+Jefferson's old age, news came that a serious accident had happened in the
+neighboring village to one of his grandsons. Immediately he ordered his
+horse to be brought round, and though it was night and very dark, he
+mounted, despite the protests of the household, and, at a run, dashed down
+the steep ascent by which Monticello is reached. The family held their
+breath till the tramp of his horse's feet, on the level ground below,
+could faintly be heard.
+
+At half past three or four he dined; and at six he returned to the
+drawing-room, where coffee was served. The evening was spent in reading or
+conversation, and at nine he went to bed. "His diet," relates a
+distinguished visitor, Daniel Webster, "is simple, but he seems restrained
+only by his taste. His breakfast is tea and coffee, bread always fresh
+from the oven, of which he does not seem afraid, with at times a slight
+accompaniment of cold meat. He enjoys his dinner well, taking with his
+meat a large proportion of vegetables." The fact is that he used meat only
+as a sort of condiment to vegetables. "He has a strong preference for the
+wines of the continent, of which he has many sorts of excellent
+quality.... Dinner is served in half Virginian, half French style, in good
+taste and abundance. No wine is put on the table till the cloth is
+removed. In conversation, Mr. Jefferson is easy and natural, and
+apparently not ambitious; it is not loud as challenging general attention,
+but usually addressed to the person next him." His health remained good
+till within a few months of his death, and he never lost a tooth.
+
+Scarcely less burdensome than his correspondence was the throng of
+visitors at Monticello, of all nationalities, from every State in the
+Union, some coming from veneration, some from curiosity, some from a
+desire to obtain free quarters. Groups of people often stood about the
+house and in the halls to see Jefferson pass from his study to his
+dining-room. It is recorded that "a female once punched through a
+window-pane of the house with her parasol to get a better view of him." As
+many as fifty guests sometimes lodged in the house. "As a specimen of
+Virginia life," relates one biographer, "we will mention that a friend
+from abroad came to Monticello, with a family of six persons, and remained
+ten months.... Accomplished young kinswomen habitually passed two or three
+of the summer months there, as they would now at a fashionable
+watering-place. They married the sons of Mr. Jefferson's friends, and then
+came with their families."
+
+The immense expense entailed by these hospitalities, added to the debt,
+amounting to $20,000, which Mr. Jefferson owed when he left Washington,
+crippled him financially. Moreover, Colonel Randolph, who managed his
+estate for many years, though a good farmer, was a poor man of business.
+It was a common saying in the neighborhood that nobody raised better crops
+or got less money for them than Colonel Randolph. The embargo, and the
+period of depression which followed the war of 1812, went far to
+impoverish the Virginia planters. Monroe died a bankrupt, and Madison's
+widow was left almost in want of bread. Jefferson himself wrote in 1814:
+"What can we raise for the market? Wheat? we can only give it to our
+horses, as we have been doing since harvest. Tobacco? It is not worth the
+pipe it is smoked in. Some say whiskey, but all mankind must become
+drunkards to consume it." Jefferson, also, was so anxious lest his slaves
+should be overworked, that the amount of labor performed upon his
+plantation was much less than it should have been. And, to cap the climax
+of his financial troubles, he lost $20,000 by indorsing to that amount for
+his intimate friend, Governor Nicholas, an honorable but unfortunate man.
+It should be added that Mr. Nicholas, in his last hours, "declared with
+unspeakable emotion that Mr. Jefferson had never by a word, by a look, or
+in any other way, made any allusion to his loss by him."
+
+In 1814, Mr. Jefferson sold his library to Congress for $23,950, about one
+half its cost; and in the very year of his death he requested of the
+Virginia legislature that a law might be passed permitting him to sell
+some of his farms by means of a lottery,--the times being such that they
+could be disposed of in no other way. He even published some "Thoughts on
+Lotteries,"--by way of advancing this project. The legislature granted his
+request, with reluctance; but in the mean time his necessities became
+known throughout the country, and subscriptions were made for his relief.
+The lottery was suspended, and Jefferson died in the belief that
+Monticello would be saved as a home for his family.
+
+In March, 1826, Mr. Jefferson's health began to fail; but so late as June
+24 he was well enough to write a long letter in reply to an invitation to
+attend the fiftieth celebration, at Washington, of the 4th of July. During
+the 3d of July he dozed hour after hour under the influence of opiates,
+rousing occasionally, and uttering a few words. It was evident that his
+end was very near. His family and he himself fervently desired that he
+might live till the 4th of July. At eleven in the evening of July 3 he
+whispered to Mr. Trist, the husband of one of his granddaughters, who sat
+by him: "This is the fourth?" Not bearing to disappoint him, Mr. Trist
+remained silent; and Mr. Jefferson feebly asked a second time: "This is
+the fourth?" Mr. Trist nodded assent. "Ah!" he breathed, and sank into a
+slumber from which he never awoke; but his end did not come till half past
+twelve in the afternoon of Independence Day. On the same day, at Quincy,
+died John Adams, his last words being, "Thomas Jefferson still lives!"
+
+The double coincidence made a strong impression upon the imagination of
+the American people. "When it became known," says Mr. Parton, "that the
+author of the Declaration and its most powerful defender had both breathed
+their last on the Fourth of July, the fiftieth since they had set it apart
+from the roll of common days, it seemed as if Heaven had given its visible
+and unerring sanction to the work which they had done."
+
+Jefferson's body was buried at Monticello, and on the tombstone is
+inscribed, as he desired, the following: "Here was buried Thomas
+Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the
+Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of
+Virginia."
+
+Jefferson's expectation that Monticello would remain the property of his
+descendants was not fulfilled. His debts were paid to the uttermost
+farthing by his executor and grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph; but
+Martha Randolph and her family were left homeless and penniless. When this
+became known, the legislatures of South Carolina and Louisiana each voted
+to Mrs. Randolph a gift of $10,000. She died suddenly, in 1836, at the age
+of sixty-three. Monticello passed into the hands of strangers.
+
+Jefferson had his faults and defects. As a statesman and ruler, he showed
+at times irresolution, want of energy and of audacity, and a
+misunderstanding of human nature; and at times his judgment was clouded by
+the political prejudices which were common in his day. His attitude in the
+X Y Z business, his embargo policy, and his policy or want of policy after
+the failure of the embargo,--in these cases, and perhaps in these alone,
+his defects are exhibited. It is certain also that although at times frank
+and outspoken to a fault, he was at other times over-complaisant and
+insincere. To Aaron Burr, for example, he expressed himself in terms of
+friendship which he could hardly have felt; and, once, in writing to a
+minister of the gospel he implied, upon his own part, a belief in
+revelation which he did not really feel. It seems to be true also that
+Jefferson had an overweening desire to win the approbation of his
+fellow-countrymen; and at times, though quite unconsciously to himself,
+this motive led him into courses which were rather selfish than patriotic.
+This was the case, perhaps, in his negotiations with the English minister
+after the failure of the embargo. It is charged against him, also, that he
+avoided unpleasant situations; and that he said or did nothing to check
+the Republican slanders which were cast upon Washington and upon John
+Adams. But when this much has been said, all has been said. As a citizen,
+husband, father, friend, and master, Jefferson was almost an ideal
+character. No man was ever more kind, more amiable, more tender, more
+just, more generous. To her children, Mrs. Randolph declared that never,
+never had she witnessed a _particle_ of injustice in her father,--never had
+she heard him say a word or seen him do an act which she at the time or
+afterward regretted. He was magnanimous,--as when he frankly forgave John
+Adams for the injustice of his midnight appointments. Though easily
+provoked, he never bore malice. In matters of business and in matters of
+politics he was punctiliously honorable. How many times he paid his
+British debt has already been related. On one occasion he drew his cheque
+to pay the duties on certain imported wines which might have come in
+free,--yet made no merit of the action, for it never came to light until
+long after his death. In the presidential campaigns when he was a
+candidate, he never wrote a letter or made a sign to influence the result.
+He would not say a word by way of promise in 1801, when a word would have
+given him the presidency, and when so honorable a man as John Adams
+thought that he did wrong to withhold it. There was no vanity or smallness
+in his character. It was he and not Dickinson who wrote the address to the
+King, set forth by the Continental Congress of 1775; but Dickinson enjoyed
+the fame of it throughout Jefferson's lifetime.
+
+Above all, he was patriotic and conscientious. When he lapsed, it was in
+some subordinate matter, and because a little self-deception clouded his
+sight. But in all important matters, in all emergencies, he stood firm as
+a rock for what he considered to be right, unmoved by the entreaties of
+his friends or by the jeers, threats, and taunts of his enemies. He shrank
+with almost feminine repugnance from censure and turmoil, but when the
+occasion demanded it, he faced even these with perfect courage and
+resolution. His course as Secretary of State, and his enforcement of the
+embargo, are examples.
+
+Jefferson's political career was bottomed upon a great principle which he
+never, for one moment, lost sight of or doubted, no matter how difficult
+the present, or how dark the future. He believed in the people, in their
+capacity for self-government, and in their right to enjoy it. This belief
+shaped his course, and, in spite of minor inconsistencies, made it
+consistent. It was on account of this belief, and of the faith and courage
+with which he put it in practice, that he became the idol of his
+countrymen, and attained a unique position in the history of the world.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 It is to be remembered that the support of public worship was
+      compulsory in Massachusetts--the inhabitants of certain cities
+      excepted--down to the year 1833. An attempt to free the people from
+      this burden, led by Dr. Childs, of Berkshire County, was defeated at
+      the Constitutional Convention of 1820.
+
+    2 The father of Miss Catherine Sedgwick was a leading Federalist, and
+      his daughter records that, though a most kind-hearted man, he
+      habitually spoke of the people as "Jacobins" and "miscreants."
+
+    3 Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:--"But if the
+      policy of the government upon a vital question affecting the whole
+      people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme
+      Court, the moment they are made, the people will cease to be their
+      own masters; having to that extent resigned their government into
+      the hands of that eminent tribunal."
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Italic type is marked by underscore (_), black letter by asterisk (*).
+
+The following changes have been made to the text:
+
+      page 65, "Charlotteville" changed to "Charlottesville"
+      page 73, "goverment" changed to "government"
+      page 93, "1795" changed to "1793"
+      page 98, "circumtances" changed to "circumstances"
+
+Both "draught" and "draft" are used in the text.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS JEFFERSON***
+
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