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diff --git a/33011-h/33011-h.html b/33011-h/33011-h.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42b2cfa --- /dev/null +++ b/33011-h/33011-h.html @@ -0,0 +1,5195 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /><link rel="schema.DC" href="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" /><meta name="DC.Creator" content="Henry Childs Merwin" /><meta name="DC.Title" content="Thomas Jefferson" /><meta name="DC.Date" content="June 28, 2010" /><meta name="DC.Language" content="English" /><meta name="DC.Publisher" content="Project Gutenberg" /><meta name="DC.Identifier" content="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/33011" /><meta name="DC.Rights" content="This text is in the public domain." /><title>The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Jefferson by Henry Childs Merwin</title><style type="text/css">/* +The Gnutenberg Press - default CSS2 stylesheet + +Any generated element will have a class "tei" and a class "tei-elem" +where elem is the element name in TEI. +The order of statements is important !!! 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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; 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