amencan ^tatejsmen 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 JOHN T. MORSE, JK 
 
 
 -)C 
 

 >r 
 
3Cmcncatt J^tatc^mcn 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 
 
 i 
 
 y 
 
 y 
 
 BOSTON 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLTN AND COMPANY 
 
 New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 
 1883 
 
 3 
 
E'B2Z 
 
 Copyright, 1883, 
 By JOHN T. MOUSE, JR. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 D ^ Mr 
 
 The Eirersirle. Prexs, Cambridge: 
 Electrotyped and Printed by II. 0. Uoughton & Co. 
 
COISTTENTS. 
 
 « 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Youth 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 In the House of Burgesses 17 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 In Congress 26 
 
 CHAPtSl W. 
 
 Again in the House of JBurgesseb . . . .41 
 
 V^' *'» ■ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Governor of Virginia ,55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 In Congress Again 70 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Minister to France ^ . 77 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Secretary of State. — Domestic Affairs . , 96 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Secretary of State. — Growth of Dissensions .111 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEll X. p^o. 
 
 Secretary op State. — Foreign Affairs . . 146 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 In Retreat 166 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Vice-President 173 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 President : First Term. — Offices. — Callender . 209 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 President : First Term. — Louisiana . . .231 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 President : First Term. — Impeachments, — Re- 
 election 259 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 President : Second Term. — Randolph's Defec- 
 tion. — Burr's Treason 272 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 President: Second Term. — Embargo . . . 286 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 At Monticello : Political Opinions . . . 321 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 At Monticello : Personal Matters. — Death . 331 
 
 INDEX 345 
 
THOMAS JEFFEESOl!^. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 YOUTH. 
 
 Little more than a century ago a civilized 
 nation without an aristocracy was a pitiful 
 spectacle scarcely to be witnessed in the world. 
 The American colonists, having brought no 
 dukes and barons with them to the rugged wil- 
 derness, fell in some sort under a moral com- 
 pulsion to set up an imitation of the genuine 
 creatures, and as their best makeshift in the 
 emergency they ennobled in a kind of local 
 fashion the richer Virginian planters. These 
 gentlemen were not without many qualifica- 
 tions for playing the agreeable part assigned 
 to them ; they gambled recklessly over cards 
 and at the horse-racings and cock-fightings 
 which formed their chief pleasures ; they ca- 
 roused to excess at taverns and at each other's 
 houses ; they were very extravagant, very lazy, 
 very arrogant, and fully persuaded of their 
 
2 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 superiority over their fellows, whom they felt 
 it their duty and their privilege to direct and 
 govern ; they had large landed estates and pre- 
 served the custom of entailing them in favor of 
 eldest sons ; they were great genealogists, and 
 steeped in family pride; they occupied houses 
 which were very capacious and noted for un- 
 limited hospitality, but which were also ill-kept 
 and barren ; they were fond of field-sports and 
 were admirable horsemen; they respected the 
 code of honor and quarrelled and let blood as 
 gentlemen should ; they were generous, cour- 
 ageous and high-spirited ; a few of them were 
 liberally educated and well-read. We all know 
 that, when the days of trial came, the best of 
 them were little inferior to the best men whose 
 names are to be found in the history of any 
 people in the world ; ^ though when one studies 
 the antecedents and social surroundings whence 
 these noble figures emerged, it seems as if for 
 once men had gathered grapes from thorns, and 
 figs from thistles. 
 
 Rather upon the outskirts than actually 
 within the sacred limits of this charmed circle, 
 Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743. 
 
 1 It should be remembered that by good rights neither 
 Washington, Jefferson, nor even Madis5on, before they be- 
 came distinguished, would have been entitled to take rank in 
 the exclusive coterie of the best Virginian families. 
 
YOUTH. 6 
 
 The first American Jefferson was dimly sup- 
 posed to have immigrated from Snowdon, in 
 Wales ; such at least was the family *' tradi- 
 tion ; " while the only thing certainly to be 
 predicated concerning him is that he was one 
 of the earliest settlers, having arrived in Vir- 
 ginia before the Mayflower had brought the 
 first cargo of Puritans to the New England 
 coast. Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas, 
 gave the family its first impetus on the road 
 towards worldly success. He was a man of 
 superb physique and of correspondingly vigor- 
 ous intellect and enterprising temper. In early 
 life he became very intimate with William 
 Randolph of Tuckahoe ; he " patented " in the 
 wilderness a thousand acres of land adjoin- 
 ing the larger estate of Randolph, bought from 
 his friend four hundred acres more, paying 
 therefor the liberal price of *' Henry Weather- 
 bourne's biggest bowl of arrack punch," as is 
 jovially nominated in the deed ; and further 
 cemented the alliance by marrying William's 
 cousin, Jane Randolph, in 1738. The distinc- 
 tion which this infusion of patrician blood 
 brouglit to the commoner Jeffersonian stream 
 was afterwards slightingly referred to by 
 Thomas Jefferson, who said, with a character- 
 istic democratic sneer, that his mother's family 
 traced '' their pedigree far back in England and 
 
4 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Scotland, to which let every one ascribe the 
 faith and merit he chooses." 
 
 Peter Jefferson's plantation, or more prop- 
 erly his farm, for it seems to have been largely 
 devoted to the culture of wheat, lay on the 
 Rivanna near its junction with the James, ir- 
 cluding a large extent of plain and some of 
 the lower shoulders or spurs of the mountains 
 known as the Southwest Range. He named 
 it Shadwell, after the parish in London where 
 his wife had been born ; among its hills was 
 that of Monticello, upon which in after years 
 Thomas Jefferson built his house. Peter was 
 colonel of his county and a member of the 
 House of Burgesses, apparently a man of rising 
 note in the colony. But in August, 1757, in 
 the fiftieth year of what seemed a singularly 
 vigorous life, he suddenly died, leaving Thomas 
 only fourteen years old, with the advantages, 
 however, of a comfortable property and an 
 excellent family connection on the mother's 
 side, so that it would be his own fault if he 
 should not prosper well in the world. 
 
 Jefferson appears to have been sensibly 
 brought up, getting as good an education as 
 was possible in Virginia and paying also due 
 regard to his physical training. He grew to 
 be a slender and sinewy, or as some preferred 
 to say, a thin and raw-boned young man, six 
 
YOUTH. 5 
 
 feet two and one half inches tall, with hair 
 variously reported as red, reddish, and sandy, 
 and with eyes mixed of gray and hazel. Cer- 
 tainly he was not handsome, and in order to 
 establish his social attractiveness his friends fall 
 back on " his countenance, so highly expressive 
 of intelligence and benevolence," and upon his 
 " fluent and sensible conversation " intermingled 
 with a "vein of pleasantr3^" He is said to 
 have improved in appearance as he grew older, 
 and to have become " a very good-looking man 
 in middle age, and quite a handsome old man." ^ 
 He was athletic, fond of shooting, and a skilful 
 and daring horseman even for a Virginian. 
 He early developed a strong taste for music 
 and fiddled assiduously for many years. By 
 his own desire he entered William and Mary 
 College in 1760 at the age of seventeen. He 
 was now secure of every advantage possible for 
 a young Virginian. The college was at Wil- 
 liamsburg, then the capital of the colony, and 
 his relationship with the Randolphs made him 
 free of the best houses.^ A Scotch doctor, 
 
 1 Tucker's Life of Jefferson, i. 29. 
 
 2 But one must not draw too glowing a picture of the ad- 
 vantage of living in Williamsburg, which in fact was a village 
 containing about two hundred houses, " one thousand souls, 
 whites and negroes," and "ten or twelve gentlemen's families 
 constantly residing in it, besides merchants and tradesmen." 
 Only during the winter session of the legislature it became 
 
6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 "William Small, was Professor of Mathematics 
 and temporarily also of Philosophy. He ap- 
 pears to have had a happy gift of instruction, 
 and to have fired the mind of his pupil with a 
 great zeal for learning. Jefferson afterward 
 even said that the presence of this gentleman 
 at the University was "what probably fixed 
 the destinies of my life." 
 
 If we may take Jefferson's own word for it, he 
 habitually studied, during his second collegiate 
 year, fifteen hours a day, and for his only ex- 
 ercise ran, at twilight, a mile out of the city 
 and back again. Long afterward, in 1808, he 
 wrote to a grandson a sketch of this period of 
 his life, composed in his moral and didactic 
 vein ; in it he draws a beautiful picture of his 
 own precocious and unnatural virtue, and is 
 himself obliged to gaze in surprise upon one 
 so young and yet so good amid crowding temp- 
 tations. Without fully sharing in this generous 
 admiration, we must not doubt that he was 
 sufficiently studious and sensible, for he had a 
 natural thirst for information and he always 
 afterward appeared a broadly educated man. 
 His preference was for mathematics and nat- 
 ural philosophy, studies which he deemed " so 
 peculiarly engaging and delightful as would 
 
 "crowded with the gentry of the country." See Parton's 
 Life of Jefferson, 20. 
 
YOUTH, 7 
 
 induce every one to wish an acquaintance with 
 them." He was fond also of classics, and in- 
 deed eschewed with positive distaste no branch 
 of study save only ethics and metaphysics. At 
 these he sneered, and actually once had the 
 courage to say that it was " lost time " to 
 attend lectures on moral philosophy, since " he 
 who made us would have been a pitiful bungler 
 if he had made the rules of our moral conduct 
 a matter of science." Certainly morals never 
 became in his mind one of the exact sciences, 
 and the heretical notion of his youth remained 
 the conviction of his mature years. He appears 
 to have read quite extensively, with sound selec- 
 tion and liberal taste, among the acknowledged 
 classics in Greek, Latin, and English literature, 
 and to some extent also in French and Italian. 
 But novels he never fancied and rarely touched 
 at any period of his life, though not by reason 
 of a severe taste, since for a long while he was 
 nothing less than infatuated with the bom- 
 bast of Ossian. 
 
 After graduation, Jefferson read law in the 
 office of George Wythe, a gentleman whose 
 genial social qualities and high professional 
 attainments are attested by the friendly allu- 
 sions of many eminent contemporaries.^ His 
 
 1 John Marshall read law with him, and Henry Clay was 
 his private secretary. 
 
8 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 zeal in labor still continued, and again the 
 story is told that he habitually reached the 
 measure of fifteen hours of study daily. When 
 he was about twenty-one years old, Jefferson 
 drew up a plan of study and reading for a young 
 friend. Before eight o'clock in the morning 
 this poor fellow was to devote himself to " phys- 
 ical studies " ; eight to twelve o'clock, law ; 
 twelve to one, politics ; afternoon, history ; 
 " dark to bedtime," literature, oratory, etc., etc. 
 Yet there were cakes and ale in those days, 
 young girls and dancing at the Raleigh tavern, 
 cards and horses; and the young Virginians had 
 their full share of all these good things. Prob- 
 ably the fifteen hours stint, as a strictly regular 
 daily allowance, is fabulous. With Professor 
 Small and Mr. Wythe the young student formed 
 a " partie quarree " at the " palace " of Francis 
 Fauquier, then the gay, agreeable, accomplished, 
 free-thinking, gambling Governor of Virginia. 
 The four habitually dined together in spite of 
 the fifteen-hour rule, and it betokens no small 
 degree of intellectual maturity on the part of 
 Jefferson, that while a mere college lad he was 
 the selected companion of three such gentlemen. 
 Fortunately his sound common sense protected 
 him from the dangerous elements in the asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 A few letters written by Jefferson at this 
 
YOUTH. 9 
 
 time to his friend John Page, a member of the 
 well-known Virginian family of that name and 
 himself afterward Governor of Virginia, have 
 been preserved. Without showing much brill- 
 iancy, they abound in labored attempts at 
 humor and are thickly sown with fragments 
 from the classics and simple bits of original 
 Latinity. The chief burden of them all is the 
 girls, whose faces, it is to be hoped, were prettier 
 than their names, — Sukey Potter, Judy Bur- 
 well, and the like. One of them, *' Belinda," 
 as he called her, he treated in a rather peculiar 
 way. He told her that he loved her, but did 
 not desire at present to engage himself, since he 
 wished to go to Europe for an indefinite period ; 
 but he said that on his return, of course with 
 unchanged affections, he would finally and 
 openly commit himself. To this not very ardent 
 proposition the lady naturally said No, and soon 
 wedded another. The " laggard in love " wrote 
 a despairing letter or two, which fail to bring 
 tears to the reader's eyes ; remained in comfort- 
 able bachelorhood a few short years, and then 
 gave his hand, and doubtless also in all warmth 
 and sincerity his heart, to the young widow 
 of Bathurst Skelton. His marriage took place 
 January 1, 1772. If the accounts of gallant 
 chroniclers may be trusted, the bride had every 
 qualification which can make woman attractive ; 
 
 .^ ^ 
 
10 THOMAS JEFFERSON. ' 
 
 an exquisite feminine beauty, grace of man- 
 ners, loveliness of disposition, rare cleverness, 
 and many accomplishments. Furthermore, her 
 father, John Wayles, a rich lawyer, consider- 
 ately died about sixteen months after the mar- 
 riage, and so caused a handsome addition to 
 Jefferson's property. 
 
 Jefferson, however, had no need to marry for 
 money. Though not very rich, he was well off 
 and was rapidly multiplying his assets. At the 
 time of his marriage he had increased his pat- 
 rimony so that 1,900 acres had swelled by pur- 
 chases to 5,000 acres, and thirty slaves had 
 increased to fifty-two. He was getting consid- 
 erably upwards of 83,000 a year from his pro- 
 fession,^ and $2,000 from his farm. This made 
 a very good income in those days in Virginia. 
 The evidence is abundant that he was thrifty, 
 industrious, and successful. He seemed like one 
 destined to accumulate wealth, but he never 
 had a fair opportunity to show his capacity in 
 this direction, since he maintained a resolve not 
 to better his fortunes while in public life. 
 
 His career at the bar began in 1767, when he 
 was only twenty-four years old, and closed in 
 1774. If he had only been getting fairly into 
 business when he left the profession, he would 
 
 1 During the seven years that he was in practice his fees 
 averaged $3,000 per annum. 
 
YOUTH. 11 
 
 have had little right to complain. But appar- 
 ently he had stepped at once into an excellent 
 practice, and either the chief occupation of all 
 Virginians was litigation, or else he must have 
 enjoyed exceptional good fortune. In the first 
 year he had sixty eight cases in the " general 
 court," in the next year one hundred and fif- 
 teen, in the third year one hundred and nine- 
 ty-eight. Of causes before inferior tribunals 
 no record was kept. Yet Mr. Randall tells us 
 that he was chiefly an " ofiice-lawyer," for that 
 a husky weakness of the voice prevented him 
 from becoming very successful as an advocate. 
 
 The farming, though it contributed the 
 smaller fraction of his income, was the calling 
 which throughout life he loved with an inborn 
 fondness not to be quenched by all the cares 
 and interests of a public career, and his note- 
 books attest the unresting interest which he 
 brought to it in all times and places. A striking 
 paper, unfortunately incomplete and undated, 
 is published in the first volume of his works. 
 " I sometimes ask myself," he writes, " whether 
 my country is the better for my having lived 
 at all. ... I have been the instrument of 
 doing the following things." Then are enu- 
 merated such matters as the disestablishment 
 of the state church in Virginia, the putting an 
 end to entails, the prohibition of the importa- 
 
12 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tion of slaves, also the drafting of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and in the same not very- 
 long list, cheek by jowl with these momentous 
 achievements, follows the importation of olive 
 plants from Marseilles into Soutli Carolina and 
 Georgia, and of heavy upland rice from Africa 
 into the same States, in the hope that it might 
 supersede the culture of the wet rice so pesti- 
 lential in the summer. " The greatest service," 
 he comments, " which can be rendered to any 
 country is, to add a useful plant to its culture, 
 especially a bread grain ; next in value to bread 
 is oil." At another time he wrote : " Those 
 who labor in the earth are the chosen people 
 of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose 
 breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for 
 substantial and genuine virtue. . . . Corrup- 
 tion of morals in the mass of cultivators is 
 a phenomenon of which no age or nation has 
 furnished an example. . . . Generally speak- 
 ing, the proportion which the aggregate of 
 the other classes of citizens bears in any state 
 to that of the husbandmen is the proportion 
 of its unsound to its healthy parts, and is a 
 good enough barometer whereby to measure the 
 degree of its corruption." From these prem- 
 ises he draws the conclusion that it is an er- 
 ror to attract artificers or mechanics from for- 
 eign parts into this country. It will be better 
 
YOUTH, 13 
 
 and more wholesome, he says, to leave them in 
 their European workshops and " carry provisions 
 and materials to workmen there, than bring 
 them to the provisions and materials, and with 
 them their manners and principles." This 
 wonld hardly pass nowadays for sound political 
 economy ; but it is an excellent sample of the 
 simple impractical form into which Jefferson's 
 reflections were apt to develop when the mood 
 of dreamy virtue was upon him. During an 
 inroad of yellow fever he found " consolation " 
 in the reflection that Providence had so ordered 
 things " that most evils are the means of pro- 
 ducing some good. The yellow fever will dis- 
 courage the growth of great cities in our nation, 
 and I view great cities as pestilential to the 
 morals, the health, and the liberties of man." 
 Nor did wider experience of the world cause 
 him to change his views. In 1785 he wrote 
 from Paris : " Cultivators of the earth are the 
 most valuable citizens. They are the most vig- 
 orous, the most independent, the most virtuous ; 
 and they are tied to their country and wedded 
 to its libeity and interests by the most lasting 
 bonds, ... I consider the class of artificers as 
 the panders of vice, and the instruments by 
 which the liberties of a country are generally 
 overturned." " Were I to indulge in my own 
 theory," he again says, " I should wish them 
 
14 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 (the States) to practise neither commerce nor 
 navigation, but to stand with respect to Europe 
 precisely on the footing of China." 
 
 For his own personal part, Jefferson was 
 always an enthusiast in agriculture. He was 
 never too busy to find time to note the dates of 
 the planting and the ripening of his vegetables 
 and fruits. He left behind him a table enu- 
 merating thirty-seven esculents, and showing 
 the earliest date of the appearance of each one 
 of them in the Washington market in each of 
 eight successive years. He had ever a quick 
 observation and a keen intelligence ready for 
 every fragment of new knowledge or hint of a 
 useful invention in the way of field work. All 
 through his busy official life, abroad and at 
 home, he appears ceaselessly to have one eye on 
 the soil and one ear open to its cultivators ; he 
 is always comparing varying methods and re- 
 sults, sending new seeds hither and thither, 
 making suggestions, trying experiments, till, in 
 the presence of his enterprise and activity, one 
 begins to think that the stagnating character so 
 commonly attributed to the Virginian planters 
 must be fabulous. For, on the contrary, so far 
 was his temperament removed from the conser- 
 vatism of the Anglo-Saxon race that often he 
 seemed to take the fact that a thing had never 
 been done as a sufficient reason for doing it. 
 
YOUTH. 15 
 
 All his tendencies were utilitarian. Though 
 strangely devoid of any appreciation of fiction 
 in literature, yet he had a powerful imaginar 
 tion, which ranged wholly in the unromantie 
 domain of the useful, and ran riot in schemes 
 for conferring practical benefits on mankind. 
 He betrayed the same traits in agriculture and 
 in politics. In both he was often a dreamer, 
 but his dreams concerned the daily affairs of 
 his fellow men, and his life was devoted to re- 
 ducing his idealities to realities. It was largely 
 this sanguine taste for novelty, this dash of the 
 imaginative element, flavoring all his projects 
 and doctrines, which made them attractive to 
 the multitude, who, finding present facts to be 
 for the most part hard and uninviting, are ever 
 prone to be pleased with propositions for variety. 
 Only* once, under the combined influences of 
 Ossian, youth, and love, we find his fancy roving 
 in a melodramatic direction. He turns then 
 for a while from absorbing calculations of the 
 amount of work which a man can do with a 
 one-wheeled barrow and the amount he can do 
 with a two-wheeled barrow, the number and 
 cost of the nails required for a certain length of 
 paling, the amount of lime, or limestone, re- 
 quired for a perch of stone wall, and in place of 
 these useful computations he lays plans for 
 ornamental work. He will " choose out for a 
 
16 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 burying place some unfrequented vale in the 
 park," wlierein a bubbling brook alone shall 
 break the stillness, while around shall be " an- 
 cient and venerable oaks " interspersed with 
 "gloomy evergreens." In the centre shall be 
 a " small gothic temple of antique appearance." 
 He will " appropriate one half to the use of his 
 family," the other, with an odd manifestation of 
 Virginian hospitality, to the use of " strangers," 
 servants, etc. There shall be " pedestals, with 
 urns and proper inscriptions " and a " jDJ^'^'^^i^ 
 of the rough rockstone " over the " grave of a 
 favorite and faithful servant." There will be, 
 of course, a grotto, " spangled with translucent 
 pebbles and beautiful shells," with an ever 
 trickling stream, a mossy couch, a figure of a 
 sleeping nymph, and appropriate mottoes in 
 English and Latin. It is needless to say that 
 these idle fancies seem never to have been seri- 
 ously taken in hand. More important and 
 engrossing work than the preparation of an en- 
 ticing grave-yard was forthwith to claim Jeffer- 
 son's attention. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF BUEGESSES. 
 
 About the time when he entered college, 
 Jefferson made the acquaintance of Patrick 
 Henry, then a rather unprosperous, hilarious, 
 unknown young countryman, just admitted to 
 the bar, though profoundly ignorant of law. 
 An intimacy sprang up between them, and 
 when Henry became a member of the House 
 of Burgesses he often shared Jefferson's cham- 
 bers at Williamsburg. From them he went, in 
 May, 1765, to utter that ringing speech against 
 taxation without representation which made 
 him for a time foremost among Virginian pa- 
 triots. In the doorway of the hall stood Jeffer- 
 son, an entranced listener, thinking that Henry 
 spoke "as Homer wrote." The magnetic influ- 
 ence of this brilliant friend would have trans- 
 formed a more loyally disposed youth than 
 Jefferson into an arrant rebel. But no influ- 
 ence was needed for this purpose ; Jefferson 
 was by nature a bold and free thinker, want- 
 ing rather ballast than canvas. As he watched 
 the course of public events in those years when 
 
18 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the germs of the Revohition were swelling and 
 quickening in the land, all his sympathies were 
 warmly enlisted with the party of resistance. 
 By the year 1768, when the advent of a new 
 governor made necessary the election of a new 
 House of Burgesses, he already craved the op- 
 portunity to take an active part in affairs, and 
 at once offered himself as a candidate for Albe- 
 marle County. He kept open house, distributed 
 limitless punch, stood by the polls, politely 
 bowing to every voter who named him, all ac- 
 cording to the Virginian fashion of the day,^ 
 and had the good fortune, by these meritorious 
 efforts, to win success. On May 11, 1769, he 
 took his seat. Lord Botetourt delivered his 
 quasi-royal speech, and Jefferson drew the reso- 
 lutions constituting the basis of the repl}^; but 
 afterward, being deputed to draw the reply it- 
 self, he suffered the serious mortification of hav- 
 ing his document rejected. On the third day 
 the Burgesses passed another batch of resolu- 
 tions, so odiously like a Bill of Rights that the 
 Governor, much perturbed in his loyal mind, 
 dissolved them at once. The next day they 
 eked out this brief term of service by meeting 
 in the " Apollo," or long room of the Raleigh 
 tavern, where eighty-eight of them, of whom 
 Jefferson was one, formed a non-importation 
 1 See Partoa's description, in his Life of Jefferson, p. 88. 
 
IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 19 
 
 league as against British merchandise. All 
 the signers of this document were at once re- 
 elected by their constituents. 
 
 In March, 1773, the Burgesses again came to- 
 gether in no good humor. The destruction of 
 the Gaspee in Narragansett Bay had led to a 
 draconic act of Parliament whereby any colonist, 
 destroying so much as "the button of a mar- 
 iner's coat," might be carried to England for 
 trial and punished with death. Upon the as- 
 sembling of the Burgesses, Jefferson and some 
 five or six others, " not thinking our old and 
 leading members up to the point of forwardness 
 and zeal which the times required," met pri- 
 vately in consultation. The offspring of their 
 conference was a standing committee charged 
 to correspond with like committees which the 
 sister colonies were invited to appoint. An 
 idle controversy has arisen as to whether Mas- 
 sachusetts or Virginia was first to devise this 
 system of correspondence. Jefferson long aft- 
 erward averred that Virginia was the earlier, 
 and the evidence favors the substantial correct- 
 ness of his statement ; for, though Massachusetts 
 had suggested the idea some two years before, 
 she had not pushed it, and the suggestion, known 
 to few, had been forgotten by all. It naturally 
 resulted from this proceeding that the Bur- 
 gesses were at once dissolved by the Earl of 
 
20 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Dunmore. But the committee met on the next 
 day and issued their circular of invitation. 
 
 A year later, in the spring of 1774, news of 
 the Boston Port Bill came while the Burgesses 
 were in session. Again Jefferson and some 
 half dozen more, feeling that " the lead in the 
 House on these subjects [should] no longer be 
 left with the old members," and agreeing that 
 they " must boldly take an unequivocal stand 
 in the line with Massachusetts," ^ met in secret 
 to devise proper measures. They determined to 
 appoint a day of fasting and prayer, and in the 
 House they succeeded in carr^nng a resolution 
 to that effect. Again the Governor dissolved 
 them ; again they went over to the " Apollo," 
 and again passed there most disloyal resolutions. 
 Among these was one requesting the Commit- 
 tee of Correspondence to consult the other col- 
 
 1 The march of events, Jefferson afterward wrote, " favored 
 the bolder spirits of Henry, the Lees, Pages, Mason, etc., with 
 whom I went at all points. Sensible, however, of the impor- 
 tance of unanimity among our constituents, although we often 
 wished to have gone faster, we slackened our pace that our 
 less ardent colleagues might keep up with us; and they on 
 their part, differing nothing from us in principle, quickened 
 their gait somewhat beyond that which their priulence might, 
 of itself, have advised, and thus consolidated the phalanx which 
 breasted the power of Britain. By this harmony of the bold 
 with the cautions, we advanced with our constituents, in un- 
 divided mass, and with fewer examples of separation than, 
 perhaps, existed in any other part of the Union." 
 
IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 2i^ 
 
 onies on the expediency of holding annually a 
 general Congress ; also another, for the meeting 
 of representatives from the counties of Virginia 
 in convention at Williamsburg on August 1. 
 The freeholders of Albemarle elected Jefferson 
 again a Burgess, and also a deputy to this Con- 
 vention. 
 
 Jefferson started to attend the meeting of 
 the Convention, but upon the road was taken 
 so ill with a dysenter}^ that he could not go on. 
 He therefore forwarded a draft of instructions, 
 such as he hoped to see given by that body to 
 the delegates whom it was to send to the Gen- 
 eral Congress of the colonies. One copy of this 
 document was sent to Patrick Henry, who, 
 however, "communicated it to nobody;" per- 
 haps, says Jefferson, "because he disapproved 
 the ground taken," perhaps " because he was 
 too lazy to read it." Another copy was sent 
 with better fortune to Peyton Randolph, Presi- 
 dent of the Convention. It was laid by him 
 upon the table, was read by the members, and 
 was so well liked that it was printed in pamphlet 
 form under the title of " A Summary View of 
 the Rights of British America;" in this shape 
 it was sent over to Great Britain, was there 
 " taken up by the opposition, interpolated a 
 little by Mr. Burke," and then extensively cir- 
 culated, running " rapidly through several edi- 
 tions." 
 
^fi"J THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 Naturally that was the era of manifestoes in 
 the colonies, and many pens were busy prepar- 
 ing documents, public and private, famous and 
 neglected, but nearly all sound, spirited, gen- 
 eralizing, and declamatory. Jefferson's instruc- 
 tions did not wholly escape the prevalent faults, 
 and had their share of rodomontade about the 
 rights of freemen and the oppressions of mon- 
 archs. But these were slight blemishes in a 
 paper singularly radical, audacious, and well 
 argued. The migration of the " Saxon ances- 
 tors" of the present English people, he said, 
 had been made ^'in like manner with that of 
 the British immigrants to the American col- 
 onies." 
 
 *' Nor was ever any claim of superiority or depend- 
 ence asserted over [the English] by that Mother 
 Country from which they had migrated; and were 
 such a claim made, it is believed his Majesty's subjects 
 in Great Britain have too firm a feeling of the rights 
 derived to them from their ancestors, to bow down the 
 sovereignty of their State before such visionary pre- 
 tensions. And it is thought that no circumstance has 
 occurred to distinguish materially the British from 
 the Saxon emigration. America was conquered and 
 her settlements made and firmly estabHshed at the 
 expense of individuals, and not of the British public." 
 
 This was laying the axe at the very root of 
 the tree with tolerable force ; and more blows 
 
IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 23 
 
 of the same sort followed. The connection un- 
 deniably existing between the colonies and the 
 mother country was reduced to a minimum by 
 an ingenious explanation. The emigrants, Jef- 
 ferson said, had " thought proper " to " continue 
 their union with England" *'by submitting 
 themselves to the same sovereign," who was 
 a " central link " or " mediatory power " be- 
 tween *' the several parts of the Empire," so 
 that " the relation between Great Britain and 
 these colonies was exactly the same as that of 
 England and Scotland after the accession of 
 James and until the union, and the same as her 
 present relations with Hanover, having the same 
 executive chief, but no other necessary connec- 
 tion." The corollary was " that the British 
 Parliament has no right to exercise authority 
 over us," and when it endeavored to do so 
 " one free and independent legislature " took 
 upon itself *' to suspend the powers of another, 
 free and independent as itself." 
 
 These were revolutionary words, and fell 
 short by ever so little of that direct declara- 
 tion of independence which they anticipated 
 by less than two years. They would have cost 
 Jefferson his head had it been less inconvenient 
 to bring him to Westminster Hall, and even 
 that inconvenience would probably have been 
 overcome had forcible opposition been a little 
 
24 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 longer deferred in the colonies. As it was, the 
 pamphlet "procured him the honor of having 
 his name inserted in a long list of proscriptions 
 enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced in one 
 of the Houses of Parliament, but suppressed in 
 embryo by the hasty step of events, which 
 warned them to be a little cautious." 
 
 One can hardly be surprised that this Jeffer- 
 sonian " leap was too long, as yet, for the mass 
 of our citizens," and that "tamer sentiments 
 were preferred" by the Convention. Jeffer- 
 son himself frankly admitted, many years after- 
 ward, that the preference was wise. But his 
 colleagues so well liked a boldness somewhat 
 in excess of their own, that six months later, in 
 view of the chance of Peyton Randolph being 
 called away from service in the Colonial Con- 
 gress, they elected Jefferson as a deputy to 
 fill the vacancy in case it should occur. Not 
 many weeks later it did occur. But Jeffer- 
 son was detained for a short time in order to 
 draw the reply of the Burgesses to the cele- 
 brated " conciliatory proposition," or so called 
 " olive branch," of Lord North. Otherwise it 
 was " feared that Mr. Nicholas, whose mind 
 was not yet up to the mark of the times," 
 would undertake it. On June 10, 1775, the 
 Burgesses accepted Jefferson's draft " with 
 long and doubtful scruples from Nicholas and 
 
IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 25 
 
 Mercer," only making some slight amendments 
 which Jefferson described as " throwing a dash 
 of cold water on it here and there, enfeeblinsr 
 it somewhat." The day after its passage Jef- 
 ferson set forth to take his seat in Congress, 
 bearing with him the document, which had 
 been anxiously expected by that body as be- 
 ing the earliest reply from any colony to the 
 ministerial proposition. Its closing paragraph 
 referred the matter for ultimate action to the 
 General Congress. 
 
CHAPTER IIL 
 
 IN CONGRESS. 
 
 Jefferson arrived in Philadelphia on the 
 tenth day of his journey, and on June 21 be- 
 came one of that assembly concerning which 
 Lord Chatham truly said that its members had 
 never been excelled " in solidity of reasoning, 
 force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion." 
 Jefferson, at the age of thirty-two, was among 
 the younger deputies^ in a body which, by the 
 aid of Dr. Franklin, aged seventy-one, and Ed- 
 ward Rutledge, aged twenty-six, represented 
 all the adult generations of the country. He 
 brought with him a considerable reputation as 
 a ready and eloquent writer, and was justly ex- 
 pected, by his counsel, his pen, and his vote, to 
 bring substantial reinforcement to the more ad- 
 vanced party. In debate, however, not much 
 was to be anticipated from him, for he was 
 never able to talk even moderately well in a 
 deliberative body. Not only was his poor 
 
 1 Not, as he himself with wonted inaccuracy says, "the 
 youngest man but one ; " for besides Edward Rutledge, born in 
 1749, there was also John Jay, born in 1745. 
 
IN CONGRESS. 27 
 
 voice an impediment, but he was a man who 
 instinctively abhorred contest. Daringly as 
 he wrote, yet he shrank from that contention 
 which pitted him face to face against another, 
 thougli the only weapons were the "winged 
 words " of parliamentary argumentation. Tur- 
 moil and confusion he detested ; amid wrang- 
 ling and disputing he preferred to be silent ; 
 it was in conversation, in the committee-room, 
 and preeminently when he had pen, ink, and 
 paper before him, that he amply justified his 
 presence among the three-score chosen ones of 
 the thirteen colonies. In his appropriate de- 
 partment he quickly superseded Jay as docu- 
 ment-writer to Congress. 
 
 Yet his first endeavor did not point to this 
 distinction. When news of the fight at Bun- 
 ker's Hill arrived in Philadelphia, Congress felt 
 obliged to publish a manifesto setting before 
 the world the justification of this now bloody 
 rebellion. Jefferson, as a member of the com- 
 mittee, undertook to draw the paper ; but he 
 made it much too vigorous for the conciliatory 
 and anxious temper of Dickinson ; so that 
 partly out of regard for this courteous and popu- 
 lar gentleman, partly from a politic desire not 
 to outstrip too far the slower ranks, Jefferson's 
 sheets were submitted to Dickinson himself for 
 revision. Not content with modification, that 
 
28 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 reluctant patriot prepared an entire substitute 
 which was reported and accepted. But its 
 closing four and one half clauses were borrowed 
 from the draft of Jefferson, whose admirers 
 think that these alone save the document 
 from being altogether feeble and inadequate. 
 Among them were the following significant 
 words : " We mean not to dissolve that union 
 which has so long and so happily subsisted be- 
 tween us, and which we sincerely wish to see 
 restored. Necessity has not yet [note the preg- 
 nant word] driven us into that desperate meas- 
 ure." 1 
 
 A month afterward Jefferson had better luck 
 with his composition. He was second on the 
 committee — of which the members were chosen 
 by ballot and took rank according to the num- 
 ber of votes received by them respectively — 
 deputed to draw the reply of Congress to Lord 
 North's " conciliatory proposition." He based 
 his paper on the reply already drawn by him 
 
 1 The authorship of these closing paragraphs has been 
 denied to Jefferson and attributed to Dickinson. But the 
 evidence would establish only a small measure of probabil- 
 ity in favor of Dickinson, if it stood wholly uncontradicted ; 
 and it utterly fails to meet and control Jefferson's direct asser- 
 tion, made in his Autobiography, p. 11, that these words were 
 retained from his own draft. The anxiety to claim them for 
 Dickinson shows the comparative estimation in which they 
 are held. See Magazine of Amer. Hist. viii. 514. 
 
IN CONGRESS. 29 
 
 for the Virginian Burgesses, and was gratified 
 by seeing it readily accepted. A few days later 
 Congress adjourned, and Jefferson resumed his 
 seat and duties in the State Convention, by 
 which he was at once reelected to Congress, 
 this time standing third on the list of dele- 
 gates. 
 
 Much time has been wasted in idle efforts to 
 determine precisely when and by whom the 
 idea of separation and consequent independence 
 of the provinces was first broached before the 
 Colonial Congress, The inquiry is. useless for 
 many reasons, but conclusively so because all 
 the evidence which the world is ever likely to 
 see has been already adduced and has not suf- 
 ficed to remove the question out of the domain 
 of discussion. The truth is that while no in- 
 telligent man could help contemplating this 
 probable conclusion, all deprecated it, many 
 with more of anxiety than resolution, but not 
 a few with a more daring spirit. In varjdng 
 moods even the same individual might have 
 different feelings. In his habitual frame of 
 mind Jefferson thought separation to be daily 
 approaching, and in the near presence of so 
 momentous an event he was so far grave and 
 dubious as to express a strong disinclination for 
 it, though avowedly preferring it with all its 
 possible train of woes to a continuance of the 
 
30 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 present oppression. He was too thoughtful not 
 to be a reluctant revolutionist, but for the same 
 reason he was sure to be a determined one. 
 His relative, John Randolph, Attorney-General 
 of the colony, was a loyalist, and in the sum- 
 mer of 1775 was about to remove to England. 
 Jefferson wrote to him a friendly, serious letter, 
 suggesting some considerations which he hoped 
 that Randolph might have opportunity to lay 
 before the English government, advantageously 
 for both parties. He deprecates the present 
 " contention " and the " continuance of confu- 
 sion," which for him constitute, '' of all states 
 hut one., the most horrid." He says that Eng- 
 land 
 
 " would be certainly unwise, by trying the event 
 of another campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign 
 aid, which perhaps may not be obtainable but on con- 
 dition of everlasting avulsion from Great Britain. 
 This would be thought a hard condition to those who 
 still wish for a re-union with their parent country. I 
 am sincerely one of those, and would rather be in de- 
 pendence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on 
 any other nation on earth, or than on no nation. But 
 I am one of those, too, who, rather than submit to the 
 rights of legislating for us assumed by the British 
 Parliament, and which late experience has shown 
 they will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to 
 sink the whole island in the ocean." 
 
IN CONGRESS. 31 
 
 This was written August 25, 1775 ; three 
 months later he wrote, with a perceptible in- 
 crease of feeling : — 
 
 " It is an immense misfortune to the whole empire 
 to have a king of such a disposition at such a time. 
 ... In an earlier part of this contest our petitions 
 told him that from our King there was but one appeal. 
 The admonition was despised and that appeal forced 
 on us. To undo his empire, he has but one truth 
 more to learn, — that, after colonies have drawn the 
 sword, there is but one step more they can take. 
 That step is now pressed upon us by the measures 
 adopted, as if they were afraid we would not take it. 
 Believe me, dear sir, there is not in the British Em- 
 pire a man who more cordially loves a union with 
 Great Britain than I do. But by the God that made 
 me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection 
 on such terms as the British Parliament propose ; and 
 in this I think I speak the sentiments of America. 
 We want neither inducement nor power to declare 
 and assert a separation. It is will alone that is 
 wanting, and that is growing apace under the fostering 
 hand of our King. One bloody campaign will prob- 
 ably decide, everlastingly, our future course ; and I 
 am sorry to find a bloody campaign is decided on." 
 
 In the autumn of 1775 Jefferson was again 
 attending Congress in Philadelphia ; early in 
 1776 he came home; but on May 13, 1776, he 
 was back in his seat as a delegate from the Col- 
 ony, soon to be the State, of Virginia. Events, 
 
32 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 which ten years ago had begun a sort of glacial 
 movement, slow and powerful, were now advan- 
 cing fast. On this side of the Atlantic, Thomas 
 Paine had sent " Common Sense " abroad among 
 the people, and had stirred them profoundly. 
 Since the bloodshed at Lexington and Charles- 
 town, Falmouth had been burned, Norfolk bom- 
 barded, and General Washington, concluding 
 triumphantly the leaguer around Boston, was 
 as open and efficient an enemy of England as if 
 he had been a Frenchman or a Spaniard. It 
 was time to transmute him from a rebel into a 
 foreigner. Nor had the members of Congress 
 any chance of escaping the hangman's rope un- 
 less this alteration could be accomplished for all 
 the colonists. For all prominent men, alike in 
 military and in civil life, it was now independ- 
 ence or destruction. Virginia instructed her 
 delegates to move that Congress should declare 
 " the United Colonies, free and independent 
 States," and on June 7 Richard Henry Lee 
 offered resolutions accordingly. In debate upon 
 these on June 8 and 10 it appeared, says Jef- 
 ferson, that certain of the colonies " were not 
 yet matured for falling from the parent stem, 
 but that they were fast advancing to that state." 
 To give the laggards time to catch up with 
 the vanguard, further discussion was postponed 
 until July 1. But to prevent loss of time, when 
 
IN CONGRESS. 83 
 
 debate should be resumed, Congress on June 11 
 appointed a committee charged to prepare a 
 Declaration of Independence, so that it might 
 be ready at once when it should be wanted. 
 The members, in the order of choice by ballot, 
 were ; Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben- 
 jamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. 
 Livingston. 
 
 For the last hundred years one of the first 
 facts taught to any child of American birth is, 
 that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. The original draft in his handwrit- 
 ing was afterward deposited in the State De- 
 partment. It shows two or three trifling 
 alterations, interlined in the handwritings of 
 Franklin and Adams. Otherwise it came be- 
 fore Congress precisely^ as Jefferson wrote it. 
 Many years afterward' John Adanis 'ga^e an ac- 
 count of the way in which Jefferson came to be 
 the composer of this momentous document, dif- 
 fering slightly from the story told by Jefferson. 
 But the variance is imm^jt€']ftBl^|jhg8SHy greater 
 than any experienced lawyer would expect to 
 find between the testimony of two honest wit- 
 nesses to any transaction, especially when given 
 after the lapse of many years, and when one at 
 least had no memoranda for refreshing his 
 memory. Jefferson's statement seems the bet- 
 ter entitled to credit, and what little corrobora- 
 
34 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tion is to be obtained for either narrator is 
 wholly in his favor. He says simply that when 
 the Committee came together he was pressed 
 by his colleagues unanimously to undertake the 
 draft ; that he did so ; that, when he had pre- 
 pared it, he submitted it to Dr. Franklin and 
 Mr. Adams, separately, requesting their correc- 
 tions, " which were two or three only and 
 merely verbal," " interlined in their own hand- 
 writings ; " that the report in this shape was 
 adopted by the committee, and a " fair copy," 
 written out by Mr. Jefferson, was then laid be- 
 fore Congress. 
 
 A somewhat more interesting discussion con- 
 cerns the question, how Jefferson came to be 
 named first on the committee, to the entire ex- 
 clusion of Lee, to whom, as mover of the reso- 
 lution, parliamentary etiquette would have as- 
 signed the chairmanship. Many explanations 
 have been given, of which some at least appear 
 the outgrowth of personal likings and dislik- 
 ings. It is certain that Jefferson was not only 
 preeminently fitted for the very difficult task 
 of this peculiar composition, but also that he 
 was a man without an enemy. His abstinence 
 from any active share in debate had saved him 
 from giving irritation; and it is a truth not to 
 be concealed, that there were cabals, bickerings, 
 heart-burnings, perhaps actual enmities among 
 
IN CONGRESS. 35 
 
 the members of that famous body, which, 
 grandly as it looms up, and rightly too, in the 
 mind's eye, was after all composed of jarring 
 human ingredients. It was well believed that 
 there was a faction opposed to Washington, 
 and it was generally suspected that irascible, 
 vain, and jealous John Adams, then just rising 
 from the ranks of the people, made in this mat- 
 ter common cause with the aristocratic Virginian 
 Lees against their fellow-countryman. Adams 
 frankly says that he himself was very unpopu- 
 lar ; and therefore it did not help Lee to be his 
 friend. Furthermore, the anti-Washingtonians 
 were rather a clique or faction than a party, 
 and were greatly outnumbered. Jay, too, had 
 his little private pique against Lee. So it is 
 likely enough that a timely illness of Lee's wife 
 was a fortunate excuse for passing him by, and 
 that partly by reason of admitted aptitude, 
 partly because no risk could be run of any in- 
 terference of personal feelings in so weighty a 
 matter, Jefferson was placed first on the com- 
 mittee with the natural result of doing the bulk 
 of its labor. 
 
 On July 1, pursuant to assignment, Congress, 
 in committee of the whole, resumed consider- 
 ation of Mr. Lee's resolution, and carried it by 
 the votes of nine colonies. South Carolina and 
 Pennsylvania voted against it. The two dele- 
 
36 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 gates from Delaware were divided. Those 
 from New York said that personally they were 
 in favor of it and believed their constituents to 
 be so, but they were hampered by instructions 
 drawn a twelvemonth since and strictly forbid- 
 ding any action obstructive of reconciliation, 
 which was then still desired. The committee 
 reported, and then Edward Rutledge moved an 
 adjournment to the next day, when his col- 
 leagues, though disapproving the resolution, 
 would probably join in it for the sake of unan- 
 imity. This motion was carried, and on the day 
 following the South Carolinians were found to be 
 converted ; also a third member " had come post 
 from the Delaware counties " and caused the 
 vote of that colony to be given with the rest ; 
 Pennsylvania changed her vote ; and a few days 
 later the Convention of New York approved 
 the resolution, " thus supplying the void occa- 
 sioned by the withdrawing of her delegates 
 from the vote." 
 
 On the same day, July 2, the House took 
 up Mr. Jefferson's draft of the Declaration, 
 and debated it during that and the following 
 day and until a late hour on July 4. Many 
 verbal changes were made, most of which were 
 conducive to closer accuracy of statement, and 
 were improvements. Two or three substan- 
 tial amendments were made by the omission 
 
IN CONGRESS. 37 
 
 of passages ; notably there was stricken out a 
 passage in which George III. was denounced for 
 encouraging the slave-trade. It was thought 
 disingenuous to attack him for tolerating a 
 traffic conducted by Northern ship-owners and 
 sustained by Southern purchasers, though it was 
 true that sundry attempts of the Southern colo- 
 nies to check it by legislation had been brought 
 to naught by the king's refusal or neglect to 
 ratify the enactments. Congress also struck 
 out the passage in which Jefferson declared that 
 the hiring of foreign mercenaries by the English 
 must " bid us renounce forever these unfeeling 
 brethren," and cause us to " endeavor to forget 
 our former love for them, and hold them as 
 we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, 
 in peace friends." It was thought better to say 
 nothing which could be construed as an animad- 
 version on the English people. No interpolation 
 of any consequence was made. 
 
 Jefferson had ample cause to congratulate 
 himself upon this event of the discussion. While 
 it was in progress and his paper was undergoing 
 sharp criticism during nearly three days, he felt 
 far from cheerful. He himself spoke not a 
 word in the debate, partly, perhaps, from a sense 
 of incapacity to hold his own in so strenuous a 
 contest of tongues, but also deeming it a " duty 
 to be . . . a passive auditor of the opinions of 
 
38 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 others, more impartial judges." Dr. Franklin 
 sat by him, and, seeing him " writhing a little 
 under the acrimonious criticisms on some of its 
 parts," told him, " by way of comfort," the 
 since famous story of the sign of John Thomp- 
 son, the hatter. The burden of argument, from 
 which Jefferson wisely shrank, was gallantly 
 borne by John Adams, whom Jefferson grate- 
 fully called " the colossus of that debate." 
 Jefferson used afterward to take pleasure in 
 tingeing the real solemnity of the occasion with 
 a coloring of the ludicrous. The debate, he 
 saidj seemed as though it might run on inter- 
 minably and probably would have done so at a 
 dift'erent season of the year. But the weather 
 was oppressively warm and the room occupied 
 by the deputies was hard by a stable, whence 
 the hungry flies swarmed thick and fierce, 
 alighting on the legs of the delegates and biting 
 hard through their thin silk stockings. Treason 
 was preferable to discomfort, and the members 
 voted for the Declaration and hastened to the 
 table to sign it and escape from the horse-fly. 
 John Hancock, making his great familiar signa- 
 ture, jestingly said that John Bull could read 
 that without spectacles ; then, becoming more 
 serious, began to impress on his comrades the 
 necessity of their " all hanging together in this 
 matter." " Yes, indeed," interrupted Franklin, 
 
IN CONGRESS. 39 
 
 " we must all hang together, or assuredly we 
 shall all hang separately." " When it comes 
 to the hanging," said Harrison, the " luxurious 
 heavy gentleman " from Virginia, to the little 
 meagre Gerry of Massachusetts, " I shall have 
 the advantage of you ; it will be all over with 
 me, long before you have done kicking in the 
 air." Amid such trifling, concealing grave 
 thoughts, Jefferson saw his momentous docu- 
 ment signed at the close of that summer after- 
 noon ; he had acted as undertaker for the royal 
 colonies and as midwife for the United States 
 of America. 
 
 It is a work of supererogation to criticise a 
 paper with which fifty millions of people are to- 
 day as familiar as with the Lord's Prayer. The 
 faults which it has are chiefly of style and are 
 due to the spirit of those times, a spirit bold, 
 energetic, sensible, independent, in action the 
 very best but in talk and writing much too 
 tolerant of broad and high sounding generaliza- 
 tion. John Adams and Pickering long after- 
 ward, when they had come to hate Jefferson as 
 a sort of political arch-fiend, blamed it for lack 
 of originality. Every idea in it, they said, had 
 become " hackneyed " and was to be found in 
 half a dozen earlier expressions of public opin- 
 ion. The assertion was equally true, absurd, 
 and malicious. No intelligent man could sup- 
 
40 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 pose that the Americans had been concerned in 
 a rebellious discussion for years, and engaged in 
 actual war for months, without having fully 
 comprehended the principles, the causes, and 
 the justification on which their conduct was 
 based. It was preposterous to demand new dis- 
 coveries in these particulars. Had such been 
 possible, they would have been undesirable; 
 it would have been extreme folly for Jefferson 
 to open new and unsettling discussions at this 
 late date. Of this charge against his produc- 
 tion Jefferson said, with perfect wisdom and fair- 
 ness, " I did not consider it as any part of my 
 charge to invent new ideas altogether and to of- 
 fer no sentiment which had ever been expressed 
 before." 
 
 The statement that all men are created 
 ''equal" has been declared liable to miscon- 
 struction ; but no intelligent man has ever mis- 
 construed it, unless intentionally. So the crit- 
 icism may be disregarded as trivial. Professor 
 Tucker justly remarks of the whole paper that 
 it is " consecrated in the affections of Ameri- 
 cans, and praise may seem as superfluous as 
 censure would be unavailing." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BUEGESSES. 
 
 Jefferson was reelected to Congress on 
 June 20, 1776, but declined to serve. At the 
 time he assigned as his reason "the situation 
 of his domestic affairs " and " private causes," 
 into which " the delicacy of the House would 
 not require him to enter minutely." Many 
 years afterward he declared a different motive : 
 " When I left Congress, in 1776, it was in the 
 persuasion that our whole code must be re- 
 viewed and adapted to our republican form of 
 government, and now that we had no negative 
 of councils, governors, and kings, to restrain us 
 from doing right, that it should be corrected 
 in all its parts, with a single eye to reason and 
 the good sense of those for whose government 
 it was framed." " I knew that our legislation, 
 under the regal government, had many very vi- 
 cious poiats which urgently required reforma- 
 tion, and I thought I could be of more use in for- 
 warding that work." 
 
 The ex-colonies reorganized themselves in the 
 shape of independent states very readily. On 
 
42 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 August 13, 1777, Jefferson wrote to Franklin 
 that, "with respect to the State of Virginia . . . 
 the people seemed to have laid aside the mon- 
 archical, and taken up the republican, govern- 
 ment with as much ease as would have at- 
 tended their throwing off an old and putting on 
 a new suit of clothes. We are at present in the 
 complete and quiet exercise of well-organized 
 government." Times which made this trans- 
 figuration so easy were naturally ripe for other 
 changes also. It was the era of revolution, of 
 destruction and re-creation, in orderly fashion 
 to be sure, so far as possible ; but still the tem- 
 per of the hour was favorable for a general 
 revision of all the established laws and forms 
 of society. The people were like a ploughed 
 field in which the political sower might scatter 
 broadcast new ideas and innovating doctrines 
 with fair hope of an early harvest. Jefferson, 
 reformer and radical by nature, instinctively 
 knew his opportunity and went forth zealously 
 to this task. Certainly he cast strong and 
 wholesome seed, and with liberal hand, into 
 the ready social furrows around him. Much 
 of his planting struck root at once ; much more 
 lay in the ground for a long period, so that it 
 was ten years before some of the bills intro- 
 duced by him during the two years of his ser- 
 vice were actually passed into laws; only a 
 
AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 43 
 
 little unfortunately never fructified. The re- 
 sults of his labor changed not only the sur- 
 face but the fundamental strata of the social 
 and economical system of Virginia. Of course 
 he did not accomplish so much without assist- 
 ance. George Mason, George Wythe, and Mad- 
 ison, then a " new member and young," were 
 efficient coadjutors. But they were coadjutors 
 and lieutenants only ; Jefferson was the princi- 
 pal and the leader. 
 
 On October 7, 1776, he took his seat in the 
 House of Delegates and at once was placed on 
 many committees. On October 11 he obtained 
 leave to bring in a bill establishing Courts of 
 Justice throughout the new State. On the next 
 day he obtained leave to bring in a bill to en- 
 able tenants in tail to convey entailed property 
 in fee simple. Two days later he reported a 
 bill doing away with the whole system of en- 
 tail. It was an audacious move. From gener- 
 ation to generation lands and slaves ^- almost 
 the only valuable kind of property in Virginia 
 — had been handed down protected against 
 creditors, even against the very extravagance 
 of spendthrift owners ; and it was largely by 
 this means that the quasi-nobility of the colony 
 had succeeded in establishing and maintaining 
 itself. A great groan seemed to go up from 
 all respectable society at the terrible suggestion 
 
44 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of Jefferson, a suggestion daringly cast before 
 an Assembly thickly sprinkled with influential 
 delegates strongly bound by family ties and 
 self-interest to defend the present system. Rec- 
 ords of the times fail to explain the sudden and 
 surprising success of a reform, which there was 
 every reason to suppose could be carried through 
 only very slowly and by desperate contests ; we 
 know little more than the strange fact that the 
 whole system of entail in Virginia crashed to 
 pieces almost literally in a day, carrying with 
 it an "aristocracy" somewhat brummagem, but 
 the only one which has ever existed in the terri- 
 tory now of the United States. 
 
 The cognate principle of primogeniture fol- 
 lowed, assailed by the same vigorous hand. At 
 least, implored Pendleton, if the eldest son may 
 no longer inherit all the lands and the slaves of 
 his father, let him take a double share. No, 
 said Jefferson, the leveller, not till he can eat 
 a double allowance of food and do a double al- 
 lowance of work. So an equal distribution of 
 property was established among the children of 
 intestates ; and though by will any one might 
 still prefer an eldest son, yet the effect of the 
 law upon public opinion was so great that all 
 distinctions of this kind rapidly faded away. 
 
 Thus was a great social revolution wrought 
 in a few months by one man. In his grandiose, 
 
AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 45 
 
 humanitarian, self-laudatory vein, Jefferson aft- 
 erward wrote that his purpose was, " instead of 
 an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and 
 danger than benefit to society, to make an open- 
 ing for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, 
 which nature has wisely provided for the direc- 
 tion of the interests of society, and scattered 
 with equal hand through all its conditions." 
 But his brilliant triumph cost him a price. 
 That distinguished class, whose existence as a 
 social caste had been forever destroyed, reviled 
 the destroyer from this time forth wdth relent- 
 less animosity ; and, even to the second and 
 third generations, the descendants of many of 
 these patrician families vindictively cursed the 
 statesman who had placed them on a level with 
 the rest of their countrymen. 
 
 Jefferson's next important assault was upon 
 the Established Church. Jefferson's religious 
 views have given no small trouble to his biog- 
 raphers, who have been at much pains to make 
 him out a sound Christian in the teeth of many 
 charges of free-thinking. There is little evi- 
 dence to show what his belief was at this period 
 of his life. Certainly he did not flout or openly 
 reject Christianity; not improbably he had a 
 liberal tolerance for its tenets rather than any 
 profound faith in them. On August 10, 1787, 
 in a letter of advice to his young ward, Peter 
 
46 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Carr, lie dwelt upon religion at much length, 
 telling Carr to examine the question independ- 
 ently. He added instructions so colorless that 
 they resemble the charge of a painfully impar- 
 tial judge to a jury. But in this especial mat- 
 ter labored impartiality usually signifies a nega- 
 tive prejudice. At least Jefferson showed that 
 he did not regard Christianity as so established 
 a truth that it was to be asserted dogmatically, 
 and though he so carefully seeks to conceal his 
 own bias, yet one instinctively feels that this 
 letter was not written by a believer. Had he 
 believed^ in the proper sense of the word, he 
 would have been unable to place a very young 
 man midway between the two doors of belief 
 and unbelief, setting both wide open, and fur- 
 nishing no indication as to which led to error. 
 Yet as any inference may possibly be wrong, it 
 is perhaps safer to admit that the problem of 
 his present faith or unfaith is not surely soluble, 
 and to rest content with saying — what alone 
 is now necessary — that he certainly viewed 
 with just abhorrence the mediseval condition of 
 religious legislation in Virginia in 1777. 
 
 He set about the task of clearing away this 
 dead wood no less vigorously and extensively 
 than he had hewed at the obstructive social 
 timbers. But, strange to say, the apparently 
 sapless limbs gave the stouter resistance. He 
 
AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 47 
 
 aimed at complete religious freedom, substan- 
 tially such as now exists throughout the United 
 States ; but he was able only to induce a legis- 
 lature, in which churchmen largely predomi- 
 nated, to take some initial steps in that direction. 
 Yet the impetus which he gave, refreshed by 
 others during a few succeeding years, at last 
 brought the law-makers to the goal, so that in 
 1786 the full length of his reform was reached 
 and his original " bill for establishing religious 
 freedom " was passed, with immaterial amend- 
 ments. 
 
 Here again it is to be said that Jefferson was 
 in that position in which alone he ever won 
 success ; he was the mouthpiece of multitudes 
 too numerous not to be heard, the leader of a 
 popular movement too massive to be obstructed. 
 The majority of citizens were dissenters from 
 the established Episcopal Church, and were re- 
 solved no longer to contribute of their funds for 
 its support. Jefferson says that " the first re- 
 publican legislature . . . was crowded with pe- 
 titions to abolish this spiritual tyranny." This 
 fact gave him the strength that he needed. He 
 only required, but he always did require, that 
 confidence and inspiration which came to him 
 from the sense of having at his back largely su- 
 perior numbers ; it mattered not that they were 
 ignorant, so that they were much the greater 
 
48 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 number. It is impossible to imagine Jefferson 
 combating a popular error, controlling a mis- 
 taken people, encountering a great clamor of 
 the masses. From these earliest days of his 
 public career we find hiui always moving and 
 feeling with the huge multitude, catching with 
 sensitive ear the deep mutterings of its will, 
 long before the inarticulate sound was intelli- 
 gible to others in high places, encouraged by its 
 later and hoarser outcry, gathering his force and 
 power from its presence, his incentive and per- 
 sistence from its laudation. 
 
 Almost immediately after taking his seat 
 among the delegates, Jefferson had been placed 
 at the head of a committee of five, charged with 
 the general revision of all the laws of Virginia. 
 It was an enormous task, of which he did much 
 more than his just share. Some of the legisla- 
 tion referred to in the preceding pages found 
 its place in the report of this committee. Other 
 important matters, also included in the same re- 
 port, can only be mentioned. The seat of gov- 
 ernment was removed from the commercial 
 metropolis of Williamsburg to the small but 
 central village of Richmond. The like princi- 
 ple has since prevailed in the selection of much 
 the largest proportion of our state capitals. A 
 bill for promoting the prompt naturalization of 
 foreigners gave form to the subsequent practice 
 
JGAIN- nV THE HOUSE Oh' hvrgesses. 49 
 
 of the country in this matter, and was only 
 blameworthy because it failed to protect a large 
 and easy admission by any checks of fitness in the 
 way of knowledge and intelligence. Like much 
 of Jefferson's work it was too democratic, as if all 
 men must be fit for all things ; also, like some 
 of his work, it was not justified by his own 
 principles declared at other times when his 
 thoughts happened to be taking a different 
 direction. A code of punishment for crime was 
 drawn up, which was a vast improvement upon 
 the merciless severity of preceding laws, but 
 which retained to an unjustifiable extent and 
 against the washes of Jefferson tlie principle of 
 retaliation. An elaborate school system was also 
 devised ; but the narrow prejudice of the rich 
 planters prevented it from ever being fully 
 adopted and properly set in working order. 
 
 As has been intimated, this mass of legisla- 
 tion, of which only the more prominent portions 
 have been mentioned, was not all enacted dur- 
 ing the two years of Jefferson's presence in the 
 House of Delegates. Much of it, notably in 
 the criminal department, lay untouched for a 
 long time ; but the laws reported by Jefferson 
 formed a sort of rtservolr from which the Leg- 
 islature di-ew from time to time, during many 
 following yoars, so much as they had leisure or 
 inclination to use. It was not until the close 
 4 
 
60 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of the Reyolutionai'}^ War that leisure was found 
 really to finish the whole business. But when 
 at last the end was reached, few serious altera- 
 tions had been made ; and though it would be 
 an exaggeration to assert that by 1786-87 the 
 statute-book of Virginia had become a Jeffer- 
 sonian code, yet it is within the truth to say 
 that the impress of his mind was in every part 
 of the volume, and that especially the social 
 legislation was due chiefly to his influence. 
 
 Only in one grave matter — gravest, indeed, 
 of all — he and a few humane and noble co- 
 adjutors encountered an utter defeat, which cost 
 Virginia a great price of retribution in years 
 thereafter. This concerned negro slavery. 
 Though Jefferson did not, like his friend 
 Wythe, emancipate his own slaves, yet from his 
 early years he had been strongl}^ opposed to 
 slavery, as were many of the best and wisest 
 Virginians of that day. Now the committee of 
 revisers, pondering deeply on tliis difficult prob- 
 lem, and having it very much in their hearts to 
 cleanse theii- State from a malady which they 
 foresaw must otherwise prove fatal, contented 
 themselves in the first instance with returning 
 in their repoit a " mere digest of the existing 
 laws . . . without any intimation of a plan for 
 a future and general emancipation. It was 
 thought better that this should be kept back, 
 
AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 51 
 
 and attempted only by way of amendment, 
 whenever the bill should be brought on. The 
 principles of the amendment, however, were 
 agreed on, that is to say, the freedom of all born 
 after a certain day, and deportation at a proper 
 age." But all this strategy was of no avail. 
 " It was found that the public mind would not 
 yet bear the proposition, nor will it bear it even 
 to this day ; yet," continues Jefferson, writing 
 in his autobiography in 1821, " the day is not 
 distant when it must bear and adopt it, or worse 
 will follow. Nothing is more certainly written 
 in the book of fate than that these people are 
 to be free." How fortunate had it been for 
 Virginia could she have been persuaded by 
 the words spoken by her son, wise beyond his 
 time, and by his fellow prophets in this great 
 cause. 
 
 Yet when one examines Jefferson's scheme 
 in its details, its primordial destiny of failure 
 becomes at once evident. His project was as 
 follows: — All negroes born of slave parents 
 after the passing of the act were to be free, but 
 to a certain age were to remain with their par- 
 ents, and were " then to be brought up at the 
 public expense to tillage, arts, or sciences, 
 according to their geniuses, till the females 
 should be eighteen and the males twenty-one 
 years of age, when they should be colonized to 
 
52 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 such place as the circumstances of the time 
 should render most proper, sending them out 
 with arms, implements of household and of the 
 handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domes- 
 tic animals, etc." The United States were 
 then " to declare them a free and independent 
 people, and extend to them our alliance and 
 protection, till they have acquired strength ; and 
 to send vessels at the same time to other parts 
 of the world for an equal number of white in- 
 habitants, to induce whom to migrate hither 
 proper encouragements were to be proposed." 
 
 In the notion that such a costly and elabo- 
 rate scheme might be carried into effect we get 
 a manifestation of the most dangerous weakness 
 of Jefferson's mind. His visionary tendency 
 would thus often get the better of his shrewder 
 sense, and the line of demarcation between the 
 practicable and the impracticable would then 
 become shadowy or wholly obliterated for him. 
 In palliation it can onl}^ be remembered that he 
 lived in an age of social and political theorizing, 
 and that he was a man eminently characteristic 
 of his era, sensitive to its influences and broadly 
 reflecting its blunders not less than its wisdom. 
 
 Probably even at this early date the slavery 
 problem had become insoluble. Certainly Jef- 
 ferson's opinions concerning the two races in 
 their possible relations towards each other ren- 
 
AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 53 
 
 dered it insoluble by bim. His observation 
 had tliorouglily convinced him of a truth, which 
 all wbite men always have believed and prob- 
 ably always will believe in the private depths 
 of their hearts, that the negro is inferior to the 
 white in mental capacity. He also felt sure 
 that '' the two races, equally free, cannot live 
 in the same government." The attempt, he 
 predicted, would " divide Virginians into parties 
 and produce convulsions which would probably 
 never end but in the extermination of the one 
 or the other race." Perhaps in this he was 
 wrong. Yet holding these two firm convictions 
 it is impossible to see what better plan he could 
 have adopted than that which he did adopt, 
 impossible though it was of execution. At 
 least his prescience of a condition of things at 
 which, as he said, " human nature must shud- 
 der," proves his social and political foresight. 
 One practical measure he did carry. Vir- 
 ginia, while still a colony, had made many 
 efforts, rendered futile by royal obstruction, to 
 stop the importation of slaves. In 1778, "in 
 the very first session held under the republican 
 government," Jefferson introduced a bill for 
 this purpose which was readily passed without 
 opposition. With this he was much and justly 
 pleased, saying, " it will in some measure stop 
 the increase of this great political and moral 
 
54 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 evil, while the iiiincls of our citizens may be 
 ripening for a complete emancipation of human 
 nature." What he meant by this vague and 
 abyuid phrase, so characteristic of his habits of 
 expression, it is not easy to say, and for the 
 moment one almost forgets the high deserts of 
 the reformer in irritation at his chatter about 
 " the complete emancipation of human nature," 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 Patrick Henry, first Governor of the inde- 
 pendent State of Virginia, served, by reelections, 
 three successive years, and was then, by the 
 constitution, ineligible for another term. In 
 January, 1779, the Legislature chose Jefferson 
 to succeed him on the following June 1. The 
 honor was not greatly to be coveted, yet Jeffer- 
 son found a competitor for it in the friend of 
 his youth, John Page, over whom he triumphed 
 by a very few votes. The old good feeling be- 
 tween the two contestants was very creditably 
 preserved throughout the political campaign, 
 and perhaps by the time Jefferson left office he 
 would have been glad if Page had been the suc- 
 cessful candidate, and Page might rejoice at the 
 opposite conclusion. For in this chapter of 
 Jeffei'son's life the task of his biographers has 
 been, to encounter the widespread impression 
 that his administration was disgracefully inef- 
 ficient. Mr. Randall especially has discussed this 
 matter elaborately, and his facts and arguments, 
 when rescued dripping from the sea of rhetoric 
 
56 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and fine writing in which he nearly drowns 
 them, appear to establish a satisfactor}^ defence. 
 Yet a man in public life does not acliieve a 
 complete success when he can be defended 
 against charges of gross incompetency ; and the 
 negative assertion that Jefferson did not make a 
 bad governor is by no means equivalent to the 
 positive commendation that he made a really 
 good one. The truth is, that he was not fitted 
 to be a '' war-governor," and though he did as 
 well as he could, he did not do so well as some 
 others might have done. 
 
 Until very nearly the close of Henry's third 
 term, Virginia had enjoyed a happy immunity 
 from invasion. Otherwise, however, she had 
 borne her full share of patriotic burdens, and it 
 may be imagined that the willing steed, spurred 
 for three years by so hard a rider as Henry, 
 was somewhat breathless and exhausted when 
 he left the saddle. So, indeed, Jefferson found 
 it. Men, horses, and food, Virginia had lavishly 
 given ; also arms and money, so far as she had 
 been able. At last the point was close at hand 
 at which further contributions involved such 
 severe suffering that they must inevitabl}^ come 
 slowly and reluctantly. Nevertheless Jeffer- 
 son's sole business was to keep the stream still 
 flowing and replenished. At first he was able 
 to do surprisingly well. When he called for re- 
 
GOVERNOR OF VIRGfNIA. 57 
 
 emits for Greene's army in the Carolinas, many 
 farmers came gallantly forward from the al- 
 ready sorely depleted fields. By September, 
 1780, there were not muskets foi- the men who 
 were willing to march ; neither a shilling in 
 the treasury ; wagons and horses could be had 
 only by impressment, a hazardous pressure to 
 put upon a people fighting for freedom. But it 
 was inevitable, and it was applied to all alike ; 
 a wagon, a pair of horses, and two negro drivers 
 were taken from Governor Jefferson's own farm. 
 A month later he hopes the new levies '^ will be 
 all shod," and cannot say " what proportion 
 will have blankets," though he is purchasing 
 " every one which can be found out ; there is a 
 prospect of furnishing about half of them with 
 tents." 
 
 It was a cruel blow, soon after, to learn that 
 a large proportion of these scarce and valuable 
 supplies were destroyed or captured, and that 
 Cornwallis, with his face set northward, was 
 leading a victorious army towards Virginia. It 
 was an almost miraculous srood fortune which 
 checked his march a short distance from the 
 border. But in the moment of apprehension 
 Jefferson was bitterly blamed for having use- 
 lessly expended Virginian resources in Carolina. 
 The accusation was grossly unjust. The Gov- 
 ernor had been perfectly right in sending all 
 
68 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the men and supplies he could muster to the 
 places where the fighting was going forward. 
 HoAV else wasthew^ar to be maintained? What 
 better couise could be devised, not only for 
 securing a general and ultimate success but also 
 for keeping actual war at a distance from Vir- 
 ginia? The blunder would have been to send 
 meagre supplies, and retain a still insufficient 
 reserve at home, thus allowing the English to 
 conquer in detail. 
 
 In another matter, more in his line, Jefferson 
 again showed good judgment. The enterprising 
 frontier fighter. General George Rogers Clarke, 
 by a bold and soldierly movement in the far 
 northwestern part of the State, captured the 
 British Colonel Hamilton. This officer had 
 been accused of many atrocities, and though the 
 charges probably outran the truth, yet Jefferson 
 was justified in believing him a guilty man.^ He 
 accordingly ordered the Colonel and two more 
 officers to be put in irons and closely confined. 
 The British General, Phillips, protested. Jef- 
 ferson referred the matter to Washington, who, 
 with much hesitation and apparent reluctance, 
 
 1 Professor Tucker in his Life of Jefferson undertakes to 
 defend Hamilton. But his defence amounts to little or nothing 
 more than that he knew Hamilton, and thought him quite too 
 good a fellow and too much of a gentleman to have been 
 guilty of the behavior alleged against him. 
 
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 59 
 
 advised a mitigation of the extreme severity. 
 But the dose was wholesome and Jefferson's 
 stern readiness to administer it hiid'a salutary 
 effect. He had in his keeping a hirge number 
 of British prisoners, including many of high 
 rank, nnd his avowed purpose, thus substantially 
 enforced, to repay cruelty in kind and to re- 
 taliate hangings, irons, close confinement, and 
 prison ships with identical measures upon his 
 own part, undoubtedly checked the brutal ten- 
 dencies of too many of the English officers. 
 
 Almost the last occurrence in Virginia under 
 Governor Henry's administration had been a 
 British raid. A dozen vessels landed some two 
 thousand troops, who burned and ravaged ex- 
 tensively for a few days, wholly unmolested, 
 and then returned as they had come. The 
 affair was a dangerous indication to the Eng- 
 lish of the destruction whicli they could easily 
 accomplish in this great reservoir of supplies. 
 Yet it was not until late in October, 1780, that 
 they repeated the enterprise. On the 22d of 
 that month news came to Governor Jefferson 
 that a fleet of sixty sail had anchored in Hamp- 
 ton Roads ; four of the vessels were armed, while 
 transports were putting on shore a land force 
 roughly estimated at upwards of twenty-five 
 hundred men. This was terrible intelligence in 
 a thinly-settled country, where it must be long 
 
60 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 before an adequate defensive array could be 
 assembled. Yet even men were more plentiful 
 than muskets, and Jefferson sadly wrote : '' it is 
 mortifying to suppose that a people, able and 
 zealous to contend with their enemy, should be 
 reduced to fold their arms for want of the 
 means of defence." Two or three weeks later 
 ** the prospect of arms " continued to be " very 
 bad indeed." Moreover, in Albemarle County, 
 hard by the anchorage ground, there were 
 some four thousand prisoners of war, Bur- 
 goyne's army, who had been consigned to Vir- 
 ginia for safe-keeping. Cornwallis having 
 lately defeated Gates badly at Camden, was 
 less than one hundred and fifty miles from the 
 Virginian border. A messenger from General 
 Leslie, the commander of the invading body, 
 was captured, having in his mouth a little quid 
 containing a note to Cornwallis indicating a 
 plan to unite both armies. In such imminent 
 jeopardy the State and the Governor stood help- 
 less, but ultimately were saved by good fortune 
 and lack of enterprise on the part of the Eng- 
 lish. The North Carolina patriots harassed 
 Cornwallis till he actually fell back to the 
 southward. Leslie lay a month in camp, mak- 
 ing no movement, then embarked and sailed 
 away. Viiginia had another surprising respite. 
 The third time the State was to fare worse. 
 
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 61 
 
 On the morning of Sunday, December 31, 1780, 
 Jefferson again received intelligence that a fleet 
 of twenty-seven vessels had entered Chesapeake 
 Bay on the preceding day. Whatever may 
 have been the case heretofore, it cannot be de- 
 nied that he was now culpably remiss. It is 
 true that he did not know that the fleet might 
 not be French, or that its destination might not 
 be Baltimore. But he did know that it cer- 
 tainly might be British, that its destination 
 might be Williamsburg, Petersburg, or Rich- 
 mond, and that in such event the best speed 
 could not collect the Virginian levies rapidly 
 enouo^h. It was the dead of winter, not a se- 
 vere season in Virginia, and when the husband- 
 man is idle. It is impossible to suggest a satis- 
 factory reason why Jefferson should not, in such 
 probable and instant emergency, have prepared 
 at once for the worst. He did not ; he simply 
 dispatched General Nelson, with abundant au- 
 thority, to the lower river counties. Then he 
 waited. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, fifty valuable but 
 wasted hours after the first news reached him, 
 he at last got definite information which showed 
 him how stupid he had been. The fleet was 
 hostile and was coming up the James. Then 
 he did what he ought to have done at eight 
 o'clock A. M. of the preceding Sunday ; he or- 
 
62 THOMAS JEFFERSON. ^ 
 
 dered out forty-seven hundred militia-men from 
 the nearest counties. Furthermore, having at 
 last got fairly at work, he showed considerable 
 personal energy. He got the public papers and 
 some stores and articles of value across the 
 river to a less exposed place, and he galloped 
 about the country terribly hxx^y and excited, till 
 he killed his horse and was obliged to mount an 
 unbroken colt. Eighty-four hours he was in 
 the saddle. But the enemy cared little for all 
 his prancing to and fro on blooded steed or 
 raw colt. They ascended the river and entered 
 Richmond, burned and destroyed to their 
 hearts' content, reembarked and dropped down 
 stream again. The militia were only beginning 
 to assemble when the British were back en- 
 trencl]ing themselves in Leslie's deserted camp. 
 The Governor returned to the devastated village 
 which constituted his capital. He had shown 
 that he was deficient in prompt decision; in a 
 word, that he was not the man for the place and 
 the times. 
 
 The invaders seemed to be established for a 
 long stay and with slight chance of being dis- 
 turbed ; for the *' fatal want of arms " still con- 
 tinued. There was not a regular soldier in the 
 State, nor arras to put in the hands of the mil- 
 itia. Matters were nearly as bad as in North 
 Carolina where, Jefferson wrote, the Americans 
 
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 63 
 
 could be saved only by the " moderation and 
 caution " of their adversaries — a slender de- 
 pendence indeed ! It added to the exasperation 
 of the Virginians that the traitor, Arnold, was 
 in command upon their soil. Jefferson tried to 
 devise a scheme for kidnapping him ; but it 
 may be conceived that such a bird was not to 
 be snared by such a fowler. 
 
 For several months the British kept Virginia 
 in a state of nervous inquietude. It is easy to 
 imagine how Jefferson, as the winter and spring 
 crept forward on leaden heels, must have count- 
 ed first the months, then the weeks, then even 
 the very days, which had yet to elapse before 
 his painful responsibility would reach its end. 
 For the second year of his administration would 
 close on June 1, and he had wisely resolved not 
 to be a candidate for reelection. Possibly mut- 
 terings of dissatisfaction alarmed him for his 
 success. But in his autobiography he says : 
 " From a belief that, under the pressure of the 
 invasion under which we were then laboring, 
 the public would have more confidence in a 
 military chief; and that, the military com- 
 mander being invested with the civil power 
 also, both might be wielded with more energy, 
 promptitude, and effect for the defence of the 
 State, I resigned the administration at the end 
 of my second year." There was some talk 
 
64 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 among tlie discouraged Virginians, during the 
 dark days now close at band, of setting over 
 themselves a dictator. This classic but mis- 
 taken expedient Jefferson had the good sense 
 to ojDpose ; he afterward said that " the very 
 thought alone was treason against the people, 
 was treason against mankind in general." For- 
 tunately, his remonstrances prevailed in due 
 season. 
 
 April came and was fast passing. Only May 
 remained before the wearied Governor would be 
 governor no longer. But fortune had yet one 
 more buffet to deal him at parting. In the lat- 
 ter part of April, Cornwallis set out on a north- 
 ward march, and, laying waste as he advanced, 
 came into Virginia ; b}^ May 20 he was in Pe- 
 tersburg. The State lay at his mercy. Jeffer- 
 son could devise nothing better than to implore 
 Washington to hasten to its rescue. The Legis- 
 lature, which had thrice already since the year 
 came in fled in alarm from Richmond, had been 
 adjourned to meet on May 24 at the safer vil- 
 lage of Charlottesville, at the foot of the hills 
 on which was Monticello. It was not till May 
 28 that a quorum came together and then they 
 deferred from day to day the election of a new 
 governor. Jefferson's term expired, but still he 
 had to hold over, since no successor had been 
 chosen. Things were in this condition when, 
 
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 65 
 
 on June 4, the early summer sun not having 
 yet risen, a hard-ridden steed was reined up at 
 the Governor's door. The rider had galloped 
 in the night from an eastward county-town to 
 say that a small body of British cavalry under 
 the dreaded Tarlton was pushing rapidly along 
 the road to Charlottesville and Monticello ; 
 they would probably be hardly three hours be- 
 hind him. In this emergency Jefferson cer- 
 tainly showed no lack of personal courage. 
 That is to say, he was not panic-stricken. He 
 did not go to Charlottesville, because he wisely 
 reflected that the members of the Legislature 
 were able to run away from the town without 
 his assistance. He stayed tranquilly at home, 
 breakfasted, sent away his family, and concealed 
 his plate and papers, all very leisurely. Indeed, 
 he owed his escape fiom capture more to good 
 luck than to any intelligent precaution on his 
 own part. Had he fallen into the enemy'o 
 hands he "would have been thought to have 
 acted stupidly. As it turned out he did get 
 safely away into the woods, and Colonel Tarl- 
 ton, disappointed of his prey, had only to ride 
 back again. But the ignominious scattering of 
 all the ruling officials of the State served to 
 fasten still another irritating, though really un- 
 deserved, stigma upon Jefferson's administra- 
 tion. It was the more vexatious because he 
 5 
 
66 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ought to have been freed several days before 
 from so much as a technical responsibility. He 
 was also then, and long afterward, made very 
 angry by imputations upon his courage, as 
 though his flight had been ignominious. It is 
 needless to say that it was not so. He could 
 hardly have been expected to stand alone in his 
 doorway and shoot at the body of dragoons. 
 
 Tarlton's men appear to have taken nothing 
 at Jefferson's house beyond food and drink, in 
 which refreshment even the owner himself could 
 hardly have wished to stint them in that land 
 of unquestioning hospitality. Jefferson after- 
 ward said : " Tarlton behaved very genteelly 
 with me." But at another of his farms, which 
 fell within reach of Cornwallis' force, Jefferson 
 fared worse. It was not long since certain Brit- 
 ish commissioners, nominally sent on a futile 
 errand of reconciliation, had declared that the 
 inevitable conclusion of events must be that the 
 colonies would become dependents of the French 
 crown, and that England designed to make the 
 gain of as little value to France as possible. 
 The innuendo of this announcement was soon 
 made the basis of practical operations ; and th« 
 British armies, devoting themselves more to 
 devastation than to warfare, harried the country 
 upon all sides. Jefferson suffered with the rest, 
 and has left a formidable record of the pillage. 
 
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 67 
 
 All his husbanded crops and one hundred and 
 fifty cattle, sheep, and hogs were seized for 
 food ; all his growing crops were wantonly 
 destroyed, and all his fences were burned ; not 
 only were his many valuable horses taken, but 
 the throats of colts too young to be used were 
 barbarously cut. Thirty slaves also were car- 
 ried away. " Had this been to give them free- 
 dom," Jefferson said, Cornwallis *■* would have 
 done right; but it was to consign them to in- 
 evitable death from the small-pox and putrid 
 fever then raging in his camps," as in fact be- 
 came their wretched fate. It is not surprising 
 that in later days Jefferson cherished a bitter 
 hostility towards a nation which had not only 
 curtailed his popularity and reputation among 
 his countrymen, but had also attacked his prop- 
 erty in a spirit of extermination. 
 
 The censorious temper which many Virgin- 
 ians felt towards Jefferson found open expres- 
 sion in the Legislature daring the last few 
 months of his administration ; and even some 
 preparation, though just how much cannot be 
 accurately ascertained, was made for an investi- 
 gation. Certain it is that Mr, George Nich- 
 olas moved for an inquiry at the next session,^ 
 
 1 Jefferson afterward was on friendly terms with Nicholas, 
 saying that he was an able and honest man, and that this 
 motion was the blunder of an ardent youth, Nicholas also 
 afterward made the amende honorable to Jefferson. 
 
68 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and that he was by no means without support- 
 ers. The prevalence of this sort of talk cut 
 Jefferson deeply and he went out of office in a 
 very bitter frame of mind, resolved to leave for- 
 ever the public service. He only wished to re- 
 turn to the next session of the Legislature in 
 order to court the threatened inquiry. To 
 enable him to do this a member resigned, and 
 then Albemarle County paid him the Iiandsome 
 honor of electing him one of its delegates, 
 actually by an unanimous vote. Having taken 
 his seat, he stated to the House his wish to 
 meet the charges lately made against him. No 
 one replied. He then read certain " objections " 
 which had been informally furnished to him by 
 Nicholas, and gave his reply to them. Still no 
 one rose to assail him. It was in December, 
 1781, and the recent surrender of Cornwallis at 
 Yorktown had probabl}?^ softened somewhat the 
 recent asperities. His friends became sutii- 
 ciently emboldened to offer a resolution, wliich 
 was readily passed, thaidving him for his 'im- 
 partial, upright, and attentive " administration, 
 bearing testimony to his " ability, rectitude, and 
 integrity," and avowing a purpose thus to re- 
 move "all unmerited censure." The closing 
 phrase might mean much or little, and tlie ad- 
 jectives and nouns, shrewdly selected, did not 
 express exhaustive praise of an aduiinistration 
 
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 69 
 
 in time of war. But the whole constituted a 
 mollifying application and an agreement to 
 have done with unkindly criticism. Washington 
 also had closed with some courteous words a let- 
 ter, which he had lately found occasion to write 
 to Jefferson, making a sort of certificate of good 
 character. With such comfort as he could find 
 in tliese testimonials, Jefferson withdrew to 
 private life. He had had the misfortune to be 
 placed in a position for which he was ill adapt- 
 ed, and in which perhaps no one could have 
 given satisfaction. He had merited some praise 
 and some censure, and got less of the former 
 and more of the latter than was quite just. Al- 
 together he had had decidedly hard fortune. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN CONGRESS AGAIN. 
 
 The ex-Governor had experienced a wound 
 far too deep to be healed by the gentle pallia- 
 tive administered b}^ the Legislature. In an 
 extremely bitter and resentful frame of mind, 
 he moodily secluded himself at home, and 
 reiterated upon every opportunity his resolve 
 never again to be drawn forth into public life. 
 He busied himself with his plantations, the 
 education of his children, and the care of his 
 invalid wife. In the winter months, early in 
 1782, he put the finishing touches to a labor 
 which he had begun in the preceding spring, his 
 well-known and useful "Notes on Virginia." 
 In the spring of the same year he obstinately 
 refused to attend the session of the Legislature 
 though he was still a member. His enemies se- 
 verely criticised this conduct, which his friends 
 could not easily defend : Madison privately de- 
 plored such a display of irreconcilable temper, 
 and Monroe more openly wrote him a plain 
 letter of rebuke. But he was not to be moved ; 
 bis only reply was a reiteration of his rankling 
 
IN CONGRESS AGAIN. 71 
 
 sense of injniy and his obstinate purpose to 
 have done forever with the public service. 
 
 Yet it is probable that a more amiable incen- 
 tive for such conduct mingled with his anger, 
 though he was too proud and too hurt to name 
 it. For his wife was in very ill health. In 
 May, 1782, she lay in with her sixth child, 
 and thereafter there could be no real hope of 
 her recovery. Jefferson was tender and assid- 
 uous in his care of her as it was possible for 
 man to be, and when at last, in September, the 
 final day came, the scene was a terrible one. 
 For three weeks after she died he did not leave 
 his room ; afterward he had recourse to long 
 wanderings in tlie solitary wood-paths of the 
 mountain. His oldest daughter was his constant 
 companion during these weeks of intense grief, 
 of which she has left a harrowing picture, show- 
 ing Jefferson to have been not only affectionate 
 but very emotional in temperament. 
 
 It is said that Mrs. Jefferson, almost in the 
 extreme moment, begged her husband never to 
 give her children a stepmother, and the pledge 
 which he then so solemnly made, he ever 
 faithfully kept. Henceforth Martha, his first- 
 born child, was to hold the warmest corner in 
 his heart. She and Mary, the fourth child, 
 were the only ones of six that were born to him 
 who lived to mature years, and only Martha 
 
72 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 survived liim. But the children of his brother- 
 in-law, Dabney Carr, who had died young and 
 poor, had been taken into his home, and re- 
 niaint-d there like his own. He was not only 
 very kind and fond towards all these young 
 people of his household, but he gave to their 
 bringing up a conscientious and untiring care.^ 
 The letters which he wn-ote to them, and which 
 lia\e been reproduced with encomiums by ad- 
 miring biographers, are always absurdly didac- 
 tic and often remind the reader of the effusions 
 of the late Mrs. Barbauld, or of the virtue and 
 wisdom enshrined in the pages of " Sanford and 
 Meiton ; " but they aie kindly and indicative of 
 a lively interest. 
 
 In September, 1776, Congress nominated 
 Jefferson, with Franklin and Deane, to frame 
 a treaty of alliance and commerce with France ; 
 but he declined the mission. In June, 1781, he 
 was again deputed to go abroad, with Franklin, 
 Adams, Jay, and Laurens, to negotiate a treaty 
 
 1 The list of Jefferson's children is as follows : — Martha 
 Jefferson, born September 27, 1772, married to Thomas Mann 
 RandoIi)h on February 23, 1790, died October 10, 1836 ; Jane 
 Randolph -lefferson, born April 3, 1774, died September 1775; 
 a son, liorn May 28, 1777, died June 14, 1777; Mary (or 
 I\Iaria) Jeffcrt«on, born August I, 1778, married to John W. 
 Eppes on October 13, 1797, and died April 17, 1804 ; a daugh- 
 ter, born November 3, 1780, died April 15, 1781 ; Lucy Eliza- 
 beth Jefferson, born May 8, 1782, died 1784. 
 
IN CONGRESS AGAIN. 73 
 
 of peace; but again he pleaded personal reasons 
 as an excuse. Two months after the death of 
 his wife news came to him at the seat of his 
 friend Colonel Gary, at Ampthill, where he was 
 nursing his own children and the young Carrs 
 throngh the process of inoculation, that he had 
 been again appointed upon the same duty. The 
 proposition came opportunely, offering an ac- 
 tivity and change of scene at once wholesome 
 and agreeable. He accepted, and made ready 
 for departure ; but the presence of French 
 cruisers off the coast delayed the sailing of 
 vessels, and before he could get away news 
 came showing that the negotiations were so far 
 advanced that his presence would be substan- 
 tially useless. So in February, 1783, he again 
 returned home. 
 
 But another door for reen trance into public 
 life was forthwith opened. On June 6, 1783, 
 he was chosen by the Virginia Legislature a 
 member of Congress, whither he repaired in 
 November following. That body had fallen 
 into something very like contempt, and many 
 gentlemen conceived that the honor, such as it 
 was, of membership need not entail the trouble 
 of attendance. So it happened that, though 
 the treaty of peace was to be ratified before a 
 certain near date, only seven States were rep- 
 resented, whereas the assent of nine was neces- 
 
74 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sary. Some members proposed that the seven 
 should ratify, upon the chance that Great Brit- 
 ain would never detect the insufficiency. But 
 this dishonorable expedient was vigorously op- 
 posed by Jefferson and others. At last an ur- 
 gent appeal brought in some of the delinquent 
 members ; and Jefferson had the pleasure of 
 signing the treaty which established the In- 
 dependence declared in his document seven 
 years before. It fell to him, also, to play an 
 important part in arranging the ceremonial of 
 Washington's resignation. 
 
 The need of an executive power more per- 
 manent than this intermittent Congress led 
 Jefferson to propose a " committee of the 
 States," to be composed of one member from 
 each State and to remain in session during the 
 recesses. The plan was adopted, but resulted 
 in complete failure by reason of factions in the 
 committee. He showed a sounder wisdom in 
 his criticism of Morris' report on the national 
 finances. That gentleman, by ingenious figur- 
 ing, had devised a money unit which was a 
 perfectly accurate common measure between 
 the currencies of all the States. This was the 
 ^_u_ part of a dollar. Jefferson justly found 
 fault with a system w^iich would make all the 
 little computations of daily life ridiculously 
 vast and complex. For example, he said, the 
 
IN CONGRESS AGAIN. 75 
 
 price of a loaf of bread, ^V of a dollar, would 
 be 72 units ; of a pound of butter, ^ of a dol- 
 lar, 288 units ; of a horse, worth |80, 115,200 
 units; while a national debt of 880,000,000 
 would be 115,200,000,000 units. To escape such 
 palpable folly he suggested the dollar as the 
 unit. 
 
 Jefferson further had the pleasure of tender- 
 ing to Congress Virginia's deed, ceding her vast 
 northwestern territory to be held as the com- 
 mon property of all the States. Directly after- 
 ward he was made one of the committee charged 
 to prepare a plan for the government of this 
 region. The report was doubtless composed by 
 him, since the draft in the State Department is 
 in his handwriting. It contains the substance 
 of the famous Ordinance of the Northwestern 
 Territory. Its most honorable provision is, 
 " 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," etc. Yet be- 
 side this humane and noble piece of statesman- 
 ship we have a glimpse of that absurd element 
 in Jefferson's mind which his admirers sought 
 to excuse by calling him a "philosopher." The 
 matter is small to be sure, but suggestive. He 
 proposed as names for the several subdivisions 
 of this territory : Sylvania, Michigania, Cher- 
 
76 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ronesns, Assenisippia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, 
 Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia, and Peli- 
 sipia. Fortunatel}' these wondrous classic titles 
 have not afflicted the children of our common 
 schools. But much less happily the clause pro 
 hibiting slavery was lost, only six of the North- 
 eastern and Middle States voting for it. 
 
 Such were the last legislative undertakings 
 of Mr. Jefferson. On May 7, 1784, he left 
 Congress. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MINISTER TO FRANCE. 
 
 Simultaneously with his retirement from 
 Congress Jefferson was for the fourth time ap- 
 pointed to a foreign mission. His errand was 
 to aid Dr. Franklin and John Adams in nego- 
 tiating treaties of commerce. He sailed from 
 Boston July 5, 1784, and arrived in Portsmouth 
 July 30. He proceeded at once to Paris, and 
 soon established himself there in a handsome 
 house, which he afterward exchanged for one of 
 considerable magnificence, and in all respects 
 he made arrangements for living in very good 
 style. His salary was nine thousand dollars a 
 year, and with all the aid he could get from 
 his private fortune he was hard pushed to meet 
 his expenses. His daughter Martha he placed 
 at the most fashionable and exclusive convent- 
 scliool in the country. 
 
 He soon found that he could do little for the 
 United States beyond representing them credit- 
 ably and serving as a respectable sample of the 
 new ti-ans-Atlantic people. Nor were his duties 
 much changed when, in the following spring, 
 
78 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the trio of diplomatists was broken up by the 
 departure of Franklin for home and of John 
 Adams for England, and by his own appoint- 
 ment as resident minister to France. The un- 
 pleasant truth was that the ancient monarchies 
 of Europe knew little and cared less for the 
 parvenu republics of a distant continent, and 
 were indifferent concerning commercial treaties 
 with a people whose commerce was an unknown 
 and unvalued quantity. " Lady Rockminster 
 has took us up," said the Begum Clavering to 
 Pendennis ; and very much in the same way 
 France had taken up the North American 
 States. She vouched for their respectability, 
 treated them publicly with pointed courtes}'', 
 and affably extended to their representatives 
 the hospitalities of her court for holding diplo- 
 matic intercourse with other powers. But when 
 these other powers, though civil enough, were 
 wholly uninterested, France could not further 
 help her proteges. Indeed, she herself dis- 
 appointed expectation when it came to actual 
 business. Jefferson, who had decided notions 
 about the advantages of free trade, was untiring 
 in his efforts to mitigate the severity of the 
 French regulations, and his diplomatic corre- 
 spondence with Vergennes and Montmorin 
 faiily reeks with the flavors of whale oils, salt- 
 fish, and tobacco. Yet he was able to accom- 
 plish scarcely anything. 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. *79 
 
 He had also to encounter the usual humili- 
 ations which beset all American envoys for 
 many years by reason of the financial embar- 
 rassments of the States. He lived in a hive of 
 creditors of his nation, who seemed resolved, if 
 they could not extort from him payment of 
 their demands, at least to have their money's 
 worth in tormenting him. He was further 
 much irritated at being compelled to aid in 
 arranging, on behalf of his countrymen, that 
 disgraceful tribute which powerful civilized na- 
 tions were wont to pay to the corsair states of 
 Northern Africa. He strenuously urged that 
 war would be more effectual, more honorable, 
 and in the end not more costly, and he proposed 
 to form a league of commercial nations to sus- 
 tain a combined naval armament sufficient to 
 overawe those pirates in their own waters. But 
 his spirited and sensible efforts did not meet 
 with the success which they deserved. 
 
 In the early spring of 1786 another unpleas- 
 ant task awaited him. He was obliged to spend 
 a few weeks in London in the hope of aiding 
 Mr. Adams in sundry commercial negotiations 
 there pending. He was presented, he says, 
 " as usual, to the King and Queen at their 
 levees, and it was impossible for anything to 
 be more ungracious than their notice of Mr. 
 Adams and myself." Also the Marquis of Caer- 
 
8Q THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 marthen, Minister of Foreign AfPairs, was so 
 vague and evasive as to confirm Mr. Jefferson 
 in his belief of the English " aversion to have 
 anything to do with us." Naturally he achieved 
 nothing and went away in no pleasant frame of 
 mind, carrying personal reminiscences chiefly 
 of coldness and insolence. His contempt and 
 hatred towards England, much intensified by 
 this trip, and his belief in the bitter hostilit}^ of 
 that country towards the States, hereafter find 
 frequent and vigorous expression in his corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 " That nation hate us," he wrote, " their ministers 
 hate us, and their King more than all other men. . . . 
 Our overtures of commercial arrangements have been 
 treated with derision. ... I think their hostility to- 
 wards us is much more deeply rooted at present than 
 during the war." 
 
 " In spite of treaties, England is still our enemy. 
 Her hatred is deep-rooted and cordial, and nothing is 
 wanting with her but the power to wipe us and the 
 land we live in out of existence." 
 
 The English "do not conceive that any circum- 
 stance will arise which shall render it expedient for 
 them to have any political connection with us. They 
 think we shall be glad of their commerce on their 
 own terms. There is no party in our favor here, 
 either in power or out of power. Even the opposi- 
 tion concur with the ministry and the nation in this." 
 
 " I think the King, ministers, and nation are more 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 81 
 
 bitterly hostile to us at present than at any period of 
 the late war." 
 
 "The spirit of hostility to us has always existed 
 in the mind of the King, hut it has now extended it- 
 self through the whole mass of the people and the 
 majority in the public councils." 
 
 " I had never concealed . . . that I consi<lered 
 the British as our natural enemies and as the only 
 nation on earth who wished us ill from the bottom of 
 their souls. And I am satisfied that, were our con- 
 tinent to be swallowed up by the ocean. Great Britain 
 would be in a bonfire from one side to the other." 
 
 So excessive was his distrust that be even 
 "thought the English capable of administering 
 aid to the Algerines." 
 
 He was further profoundly incensed at the 
 bad character which persistent abuse by the 
 English press was fastening upon his country 
 among Europeans. *' There was," he says, "• an 
 enthusiasm towards us all over Europe at the 
 moment of the peace. The torrent of lies pub- 
 lished unremittingly in every day's London 
 papers first made an impression and produced 
 a coolness. The republication of these lies in 
 most of the papers of Europe . . . carried them 
 home to the belief of every mind." The wretch- 
 ed credit of the States abroad is, he says, 
 " partly owing to their real deficiencies, and 
 partly to the lies propagated by the London 
 
82 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 papers, which are probably paid for by the 
 minister to reconcile the people to the loss of 
 us. No paper, therefore, comes out without a 
 dose of paragraphs against America." 
 
 This state of popular feeling in England 
 filled Jefferson with forebodings for the future. 
 "In a country where the voice of the people 
 influences so much the measures of administra- 
 tion, and where it coincides with the private 
 temper of the King, there is no pronouncing on 
 future events." ''A like disposition [of hostility] 
 on our part has been rising for some time. . . . 
 Our countrymen are eager in their passions and 
 enterprises and not disposed to calculate their 
 interests against these." Reflecting that the 
 animosities " which seize the whole body of a 
 people, and of a people too who dictate their 
 own measures, produce calamities of long dura- 
 tion," he said that he should " not wonder to 
 see the scenes of ancient Rome and Carthage 
 renewed in our days." But he consoled himself 
 with the reflection that " we are young and can 
 survive them ; but their rotten machine must 
 crush under the trial." 
 
 Jefferson was preeminently a man of peace ; 
 he instinctively loved it, and he knew that his 
 own abilities fitted hiin only for peaceful scenes. 
 About the time of which we are writing he re- 
 marked that " the most successful war seldom 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 83 
 
 pays for its losses," and tlirongliont life he 
 hated everything which did nob pay. He there- 
 fore deprecated a war even with England ; yet 
 he abominated her with that peculiar bitterness 
 which is seldom cherislied b}^ move combative 
 natures, but has a strange way of lurking in 
 the obscure depths of pacific characters. Al- 
 lowing for a little excess in this feeling, he was 
 in the main perfectly right. It is necessary to 
 dip very little beneath the tranquil surface of 
 history to find a vast reservoir of evidence in 
 corroboration of his views and justification of 
 his feelings. He read English sentiments and 
 purposes with perfect accuracy. But further, 
 besides their enmity he plainly saw that per- 
 verse and obstinate dulness which was so long 
 a marked trait in their intercourse with this 
 country. With bitter justice he said, "our 
 enemies (for such they are in fact) have for 
 twelve years past followed but one uniform 
 rule, that of doing exactly the contrary of what 
 reason points out. Having early during our 
 contest observed this in the British conduct, I 
 governed myself by it in all prognostications of 
 their measures ; and I can say with truth it 
 never failed me but in the circumstance of their 
 making peace with us." He further ventured 
 to say that the English *' require to be kicked 
 into common good manners." Yet he retained 
 
84 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sufficient fairness to admit the excellence of the 
 English sj^stem of government, reserving bis 
 condemnation chiefly for the behavior of the 
 ministry and prominent men. 
 
 From this futile and exasperating English 
 trip Jefferson returned to a thoroughly congen- 
 ial society. If, as these Parisian years glided 
 pleasantly by, they seemed fraught with little 
 matter of importance for the States, and to be 
 chiefly instrumental in promoting Jefferson's 
 personal gratification, it was only because their 
 true bearing was not yet apparent. It was 
 seed-time, and the harvest w^as not to ripen 
 until Jefferson should become the leader of a 
 powerful party in the United States. Then Eng- 
 lish insolence and French courtesy began sever- 
 ally to bear their appropriate fruits, and the 
 gathering was a matter of some consequence to 
 all concerned. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's stay in France extended 
 through five j^ears. When he arrived, the mon- 
 archy seemed firmly established as ever ; before 
 he left, the Bastille had been destroyed, blood 
 had been freely spilled in the streets, mobs had 
 overawed the King and slain cabinet ministers. 
 No Frenchman watched events with more pro- 
 found interest than did Jefferson, and none had 
 better opportunities than he enjoyed for observ- 
 ing the gradual advance of revolutionary feel- 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 85 
 
 ing. His own predilections and his natural in- 
 timacy with Lafayette brought him from the 
 outset into the society of the liberal or patriotic 
 party. These men, moderate and reasonable 
 reformers and not at all identical with the vio- 
 lent revolutionists of later stages, found in him 
 a kindred spirit, long accustomed to think the 
 thoughts which they were just beginning to 
 think, and to hold the beliefs which they were 
 now acquiring. They made of him at once an 
 instructor, counsellor, and sympathizing friend. 
 They recognized him as one of themselves, a 
 speculative thinker concerning the rights of 
 mankind, a preacher of extreme doctrines of 
 political freedom, a deviser of theories of gov- 
 ernment, a propounder of vague but imposing 
 generalizations, a condemner of the fetters of 
 practicability, in a word, in the slang of that 
 day, a " philosopher ; " and they liked him ac- 
 cordingly. Upon his own part, his interest in 
 the reformation of their odious royal despotism 
 could hardly have been greater, had he himself 
 been a Frenchman. He went daily to Versailles 
 to attend the debates of the National Assembly. 
 Lafayette and others sought his suggestions. 
 The Archbishop of Bordeaux, as head of a 
 committee of the National Assembly, charged 
 to draft the projet of a constitution, actually 
 invited him " to attend and assist at their delib- 
 
86 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 erations." This he wisel}^ declined to do. But 
 later, in private conference with one or two 
 personal friends, he proposed an important step, 
 ' — that " the King, in a seance 7'oyale^ should 
 come forward with a charter of rights in his 
 hand, to be signed by himself and by every 
 member " of the Assembly ; and he actually 
 sketched the chief heads of such a " charter." 
 
 If these acts seem an interference of ques- 
 tionable propriet}?-, yet upon the whole it must 
 be admitted that he behaved with excellent 
 discretion and self-control, though the tempta- 
 tion to mingle in affairs w^as rendered excep- 
 tionally great by his real interest in them, by 
 the abnormal state of political matters, by his 
 friendship with Lafayette and others, and by 
 the deference wliich was shown to him person- 
 ally, indicative of the influence which he might 
 exert. Only once did he appear in danger of 
 being seriously compromised, and then it was 
 through the blunder of another. Lafayette, 
 without previously consulting him, arranged 
 that six or eight discordant chiefs of different 
 sections of the liberal party in the Assembly 
 should dine at Jefferson's house, in the hope 
 that they might reach an agreement. Jefferson 
 was much annoyed at this *' inadvertence " on 
 the part of his friend, and waited on Count 
 Montmorin the next morning with an explana- 
 tion. The Count replied that 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 87 
 
 "he already knew everything which had passed, 
 that so far from taking umbrage at the use made of 
 my house on that occasion he earnestly wished I 
 would habitually assist at sucli conferences, being 
 sure I should be useful in moderating the warmer 
 spirits and promoting a wholesome and practicable 
 reformation only. I told him I knew too well the 
 duties I owed to the King, to the nation, and to my 
 own country, to take any part in councils concerning 
 their internal government, and that I should perse- 
 vere with care in the character of a neutral and 
 passive spectator, with wishes only and very sincere 
 oneS; that those measures might prevail which would 
 be for the greatest good of the nation." 
 
 It has been the fashion to say that the feel- 
 ings and ideas gathered by Jefferson in France 
 constituted the predominant influence through- 
 out his subsequent political career. In this 
 there is much exaggeration, and towards him 
 much injustice. His character was more inde- 
 pendent. Moreover, he was a mature man when 
 he went abroad, and had been busied from early- 
 youth, alike in the way of theory and practice, 
 with the political and social problems of govern- 
 ment. The originating disposition and radical 
 temper of his mind had appeared from the out- 
 set, and were only confirmed, not created, by his 
 foreign experience. Neither was his affection 
 for France, nor bis antipathy to England, then 
 
88 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 first implanted. Both sentiments were strong 
 before he crossed the Atlantic ; they were only 
 encouraged by the pleasures of his long resi- 
 dence in the one country, and the convictions 
 borne in npon him during his brief visit to the 
 other. His character would be ill understood 
 if it were supposed that his subsequent politi- 
 cal career was the exotic growth of French 
 seeds, instead of being developed in ordinary 
 course from the native root. He would always 
 have been a radical, an extreme democrat, a 
 hater of England, a lover of France, a sympa- 
 thizer with the French revolutionists, though 
 he had never sailed out of sight of American 
 shores. The only effect of his European life 
 was to corroborate preexisting opinions, and 
 somewhat to intensify sentiments already en- 
 tertained. Perhaps these were naturally so 
 strong that a counteracting influence would 
 have been more wholesome ; and this might 
 have been experienced had he remained to wit- 
 ness the Reign of Terror and the ascendency 
 of Robespierre. This, however, was not to be. 
 In September, 1789, he sailed for home from 
 Havre, upon what he supposed to be a short 
 leave of absence granted at his urgent request. 
 But events, as will be seen, rendered his stay 
 at home permanent. 
 
 Jefferson ought to have been a happy man 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 89 
 
 when he set sail on this return trip. Never did 
 an involuntary exile glorify, in imagination, his 
 lost home as Jefferson had been glorifying the 
 States for five years past. All tlie charms of 
 Paris were to him as nothing in comparison 
 with the merits of his dear native land. ^' Lon- 
 don," he said, '•^ thougli handsomer than Paris, 
 is not so handsome as Philadelphia ! " In the 
 way of education, only vice and modern lan- 
 guages were better taught in Europe than at 
 home ; instruction was just as.good at William 
 and Mary College as at the most famous seats 
 of learning abroad ! He begged Monroe to 
 come to France, because " it will make you 
 adore your own country, its soil, its climate, 
 its equality, liberty, laws, people, and manners." 
 He predicted that many Europeans would settle 
 in America, but " no man now living will ever 
 see an instance of an American removing to 
 settle in Europe and continuing there." The 
 virtues of his fellow-citizens he attributes to the 
 fact that they have " been separated from their 
 parent stock and kept from contamination, 
 either from them or the other people of the old 
 world, by the intervention of so wide an ocean." 
 " With all the defects of our Constitution, . . . 
 the comparison of our governments with those 
 of Europe is like a comparison of heaven and 
 hell. England, like the earth, may be allowed 
 to take the intermediate station " 
 
90 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 To the gaze of such a patriot ever3^thing 
 wliich took place in his own country set^med 
 admirable. Even Sliays's insurrection in Mas- 
 sachusetts, which, by the alarm that it spread 
 among all thinking men, contributed largely to 
 the adoption of the new Constitution, seemed 
 to Jefferson a commendable occurrence. Un- 
 deniably he talked some very bad nonsense 
 about it. 
 
 " The commotions offer nothing threatening ; they 
 are a proof that the people have liberty enough, 
 and I could not wish them less than they have. If 
 the happiness of the mass of the people can be 
 secured at the expense of a little tempest, now and 
 then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious 
 purchase." " To punish these errors too severely 
 would be to suppress the only safeguard of the pub- 
 lic liberty." " A little rebellion now and then is a 
 good thing, ... an observation of this truth should 
 render honest republican governors so mild in their 
 punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too 
 much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound 
 health of government." " Thus I calculate, — an in- 
 surrection in one of thirteen States in the course of 
 eleven years that they have subsisted, amounts to one 
 in any particular State in one hundred and forty- 
 three years, say a century and a half. This would 
 not be near as many as have happened in every other 
 government that has ever existed. So that we shall 
 have the difference between a light and a heavy gov- 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 91 
 
 ernment as clear gain." " Can history produce an 
 instance of rebellion so honorably conducted ? . . . 
 God forbid we should ever be twenty years without 
 such a rebellion. . . . What signify a few lives lost 
 in a century or two ? The tree of liberty must be 
 refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots 
 and tyrants. It is its natural manure." 
 
 It shakes one's faith in mankind to find a 
 really great statesman uttering such folly ! It 
 had not even the poor excuse of being caught 
 from the French revolutionists ; for the latest 
 of these sentences was uttered in November, 
 1787, when Jefferson was more probably en- 
 gaged in imparting such extravagant notions 
 to the moderate French reformers than in 
 receiving these wild ideas from them. In truth, 
 Jefferson was recoiling too far from the " con- 
 spiracy of kings and nobles," and was cast for 
 a time into the ridiculous position of advocat- 
 ing a " no government" theory. " The basis of 
 our governments," he said, "being the opinion 
 of the people, the very first object should be to 
 keep that right," — a sound postulate which 
 he makes the pedestal for a preposterous super- 
 structure ; for he adds, '' were it left to me to 
 decide whether we should have a government 
 without newspapers, or newspapers without a 
 government, I should not hesitate a moment to 
 prefer the latter," — the newspapers of the latter 
 
92 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 half of the eighteenth century! ''I am con- 
 vinced,'* he says, " that those societies (as the 
 Indians) which live without government enjoy 
 in their general mass an infinitely greater de- 
 gree of happiness than those who live under 
 the European governments. Among the former 
 public opinion is in the place of law, and re- 
 straining morals as powerfully as laws ever did 
 anywhere." '^ Societies exist under three forms; 
 . . . 1. Without government as among our In- 
 dians. 2. Under governments wherein the will 
 of every one has a just influence. ... 3. Under 
 governments of force. ... It is a problem not 
 clear in my mind that the first condition is not 
 the best." One loses patience with an intelli- 
 gent man talking such stuff. 
 
 Jefferson's experience abroad, in attempting 
 to form commercial treaties, had taught him the 
 necessity of a closer union of the States for 
 purposes of foreign relationships ; but when the 
 lesson of Shays's insurrection was even read 
 backwards by him, it is easy to see that he was 
 far fi'om comprehending the domestic necessity 
 for a much firmer consolidation. " My general 
 plan," he said, " would be to make the States 
 one as to everything connected with foreign 
 nations, and several as to everything purely do- 
 mestic." Such being his opinion, it was inevit- 
 able that when the Constitution of the United 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 93 
 
 State was published, he found much in it which 
 seemed to him very unsound and objectionable. 
 There are in the document, he said, " things 
 which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe 
 to what such an assembly has proposed," and 
 his earliest criticisms were very severe. Further 
 consideration, however, the arguments of the 
 Federalist, and correspondence with Madison 
 and Monroe, gradually induced him to modify 
 his views. By May, 1788, he was able to say : 
 " I look forward to the general adoption of the 
 new Constitution with anxiet}^, as necessary 
 for us under our present circumstances." If 
 in many particulars he was still imperfectly 
 pleased, he was only of the like sentiment with 
 most of the zealous advocates of adoption. 
 Probably every prominent man among the Fed- 
 eralists could, in his own opinion, have sug- 
 gested improvements. Jefferson finally took 
 the national charter as its other supporters did, 
 *' contented with the ground which it will gain 
 for us, and hoping that a favorable moment will 
 come for correcting what is amiss in it." His 
 earlier wish was that nine States would adopt 
 it, " in order to insure what was good in it, and 
 that the others might, by liolding off, produce 
 the necessary amendments." But later he de- 
 clared the plan of Massacliusetts to be '' far 
 preferable," and expressed the hope that it 
 
94 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 would " be followed by those who are yet to de- 
 cide." Finally on December 4, 1788, he writes, 
 "I have seen with infinite pleasure our new 
 Constitution accepted by eleven States, not re- 
 jected by the twelfth ; and that the thirteenth 
 happens to be a State of the least importance." 
 The preceding extracts, which might be 
 multiplied by many more of identical tenor, 
 abundantly show Jefferson's real sentiments 
 concerning the Constitution, and refute the un- 
 fair charge afterward brought against him by 
 his enemies, that he was opposed to it. His 
 own characteristic statement was, " I am not a 
 Federalist, because I never submitted the whole 
 system of my opiiiicms to tlie creed of any 
 party of men whatever, in religion, in philoso- 
 phy, in politics, or in anything else where I was 
 ca[)able of thinking for myself. Such an addic- 
 tion is the last degradation of a free and moral 
 agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a 
 party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I 
 am not of the party of the Federalists. But I am 
 much farther from that of the aijti-Federalists. 
 I approved, from the first moment, of the great 
 mass of what is in tlie new Constitution." He 
 then continues at great length to show how his 
 objections gradually gave way before argument, 
 until a confession of faith, too rigid to have 
 been repeated by him, could have been repeated 
 
MINISTER TO FRANCE. 95 
 
 by very few individuals in the States. It is 
 probable that the Constitution was nearer to his 
 ideal upon the oue side than it was to Hamil- 
 ton's ideal upon the other. The only serious 
 objections, which he retained to the end, were 
 the absence of a bill of rights and the reeligi- 
 bility of the President. The former real defect 
 was promptly and wisely cured ; the latter has 
 been practically controlled by a wise custom 
 which he himself helped to inaugurate. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SECRETARY OF STATE. — DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 
 
 On October 23, 1789, Mr. Jefferson sailed 
 from Cowes, and on December 23 he was wel- 
 comed by his slaves at Monticello. At his de- 
 parture he had supposed that he was returning 
 home for a visit of a few months onl}^, and that 
 he should speedily go back to watch the prog- 
 ress of the French Revolution. He was now 
 so much more interested in this movement than 
 in any other matter, that he was by no means 
 gratified to find awaiting him, upon his arrival, 
 an invitation from President Washington to 
 fill the place of secretary of state. He replied 
 that he did not prefer the change, but that he 
 would be governed by the President's wishes. 
 Washington thereupon wrote again in very 
 urorent fashion, and Madison made a visit to 
 Monticello for the express purpose of exerting 
 his personal influence. Beneath such pressure 
 Jefferson reluctantly abandoned his hope of re- 
 maining abroad, and accepted the secretaryship, 
 only stipulating for a few weeks for setting 
 in order his private affairs. It was not until 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 97 
 
 March 21, 1790, tliat he arrived in New York 
 and entered upon the duties of his office. 
 
 In those days the cabinet consisted of only 
 four persons. John Jay had been acting tem- 
 porarily as secretary of state, but with the un- 
 derstanding tliat he should be made chief jus- 
 tice so soon as a permanent secretary could be 
 appointed ; Hamilton had been made secretary 
 of the treasui-y immediately after Washing- 
 ton's inauguration ; about the same time Knox 
 had been appointed secretary of war, and later 
 Edmund Randolph had been made attorney- 
 general. The great brunt of the labor in the 
 organization of public affairs had fallen and 
 still rested upon Hamilton, who had encoun- 
 tered the vast and complex task with mag- 
 nificent spirit and ability. By the time that 
 Jefferson came to share in the business of gov- 
 ernment, all questions concerning the foreign 
 debt and the domestic national debt had been 
 disposed of by Congress in accordance with 
 Hamilton's recommendations. But there still 
 remained, as a bone of fierce contention, the 
 secretary's scheme for the assumption by the 
 United States of the war debts of the individ- 
 ual States ; and concerning this the opposing 
 parties had been wrought up to a pitch of ex- 
 ceeding bitterness and excitement. In com- 
 mittee of the whole in the House of Repre- 
 7 
 
98 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sentatives the assumption had been carried by 
 thirty-one yeas to twenty-one nays ; but when 
 the question came to be taken in the House 
 proper the representatives from North Carolina 
 had arrived, and aided in turning the scale, so 
 that on March 29 the measure was voted down. 
 From the condition of feeling it was evident 
 that a serious crisis already menaced the young 
 nation. Congress met daily and adjourned 
 without transacting any business ; the hostile 
 factions could not work together upon any sub- 
 ject, and, indeed, nobody cared to think or talk 
 of anything save assumption. Threats of dis- 
 union were heard on all sides. Hamilton con- 
 templated the emergency with profound anxi- 
 ety, for the Treasury Department carried within 
 itself the fate of the new government ; and upon 
 his financiering really depended the existence 
 of a people. The momentous struggle called 
 forth all the resources of his ingenious and fer- 
 tile mind. While he kept up a steady fight all 
 along the front, he also set hiinself to devise a 
 flank movement, and in this manoeuvre he re- 
 solved to make use of Mr. Jefferson. 
 
 It happened opportunely that the selection 
 of a site for the nation h1 capital had given rise 
 to an eager sectional division in Congress. The 
 Southern States wanted it on the Potomac ; the 
 Middle and Eastern States wished it to be 
 
SECRETARY OE STATE, 99 
 
 farther north. The northern party had pre- 
 vailed by a narrow majority. Now it was for- 
 tunately the case that the parties in the assump- 
 tion debate had divided by the like sectional 
 lines; the Middle and Eastern States were in 
 favor of assumption ; the Southern States were 
 opposed to it ; and in this matter the South 
 had prevailed, also by a slender majority. The 
 opportunity for a bargain was obvious ; the 
 temptation to it was irresistible ; the justifica- 
 tion was sufficiently satisfactory. Hamilton ac- 
 cordingly resolved to buy two or three votes 
 for his assumption scheme at the price of the 
 required number of votes for the Potomac site. 
 In this bit of political commerce he selected Jef- 
 ferson as an efficient partner. So one day, meet- 
 ing Jefferson in the street, Hamilton walked 
 with him and discussed the matter. He de- 
 picted the national jeopardy in woful colors, 
 and movingly besought Jefferson to use his in- 
 fluence with some of his friends and to save the 
 Union. Jefferson replied that he was " really 
 a stranger to the whole subject," but that the 
 preservation of the country touched him nearly, 
 and he begged Hamilton to dine with him the 
 next day, to meet one or two more whom he 
 would invite, in the hope that together they 
 might devise some acceptable ''compromise." 
 The dinner came off, Jefferson afterward wrote 
 
100 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 that he himself "could take no part in [the 
 discussion] but an exbortatory one," because 
 he was a " stranger to the circumstances which 
 should govern it." But the bargain was then 
 and there struck ; and at that dinner-table as- 
 sumption was bouglit for a capital on the Poto- 
 mac. The terms of the agreement were punct- 
 ually fulfilled. The requisite number of votes 
 were delivered, so to speak, on both sides, and 
 Hamilton's financial policy prevailed without 
 mutilation. 
 
 Soon, however, Jefferson found himself deeply 
 repenting his share in this transaction. He be- 
 gan to doubt whether the measure was really 
 wise and right, and he plainly saw that from a 
 personal and selfish point of view he had blun- 
 dered seriously. For he had greatly aided the 
 prestige and influence of one who soon became 
 his most formidable political opponent, and he 
 had been largely efficient in achieving the suc- 
 cess of a measure which his party was forth- 
 with to single out for especial denunciation. 
 When, therefore, he was pushed ere long to 
 find explanations of this compromising fellow- 
 ship with Hamilton, he behaved like the fox 
 who gnaws off his own leg to escape from the 
 trap ; he sacrificed, by denial, one of the most 
 marked of his mental traits, his political astute- 
 ness; he said that he had been tricked by Ham- 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 101 
 
 ilton, and made a dupe and tool in a department 
 of business with which he was unfamiliar, that 
 he had been ''most ignorantly and innocently 
 made to hold the candle " for the wicked game 
 of the Secretary of the Treasury. Such a de- 
 fence seemed a bad advertisement of his fitness 
 for poUtical leadership, and was otherwise so 
 poor and incredible that it would not have been 
 resorted to, could any other have been devised. 
 The bargain which had been made was per- 
 fectly plain and simple, at least in respect of 
 political morality, and so far as this went could 
 be explained and comprehended in five min- 
 utes. As for the soundness of the policy of as- 
 sumption, Jefferson could have heard little else 
 talked about since his arrival at New York. He 
 knew the bitterness of the contest concerning 
 it, and if he had not made up his mind about 
 it, he was rash in taking sides so decisively. 
 But if he had been rash he was not therefore 
 entitled to abuse Hamilton for setting forth 
 and promoting his own vievvs.^ The truth is 
 not, however, buried out of sight beneath his 
 excuses and explanation of his action. This 
 truth is, that he was asked and that he con- 
 
 1 As evidence that Jefferson understood very well what he 
 was about, and had his own wishes in the matter, see his letter 
 to Monroe of June 20, 1790, and letter to Gilmer of June 27, 
 1790. 
 
102 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sented to take a part before lie comprehended 
 or even suspected the powerful formative en- 
 ergies which ran under the surface of Hamil- 
 ton's financial measures, like sinews beneath 
 the skin. He was, therefore, willing enough to 
 help forward a measure upon which seemed to 
 depend the continuance of the Union, and of 
 whi(;h the remoter bearing and effects lay be- 
 yond his vision. A little later he appreciated 
 that Hamilton had not only been handling the 
 finances with singular technical skill, but had 
 also been so shaping all his measures that they 
 had constituted so many tonic doses adminis- 
 tered to the national government, strengthen- 
 ing it, confirming it in the interests of an influ- 
 ential portion of the community, and exercising 
 a powerful centralizing influence. When all 
 this dawned upon Jefferson's understanding, he 
 was filled with horror and indignation at the 
 share he had unwittingly taken in promoting 
 principles of government which he abominated. 
 Also he was seriously irritated at the incon- 
 venient light in which he had thus been made 
 to appear before those with whom he sought 
 political fellowship and authority. Then, his 
 eyes being at last opened, anger against Ham- 
 ilton induced him to assert that Hamilton had 
 outwitted him by taking unfair advantage of 
 his inexperience. 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 103 
 
 Jefferson was no financier. The shrewd good 
 sense which he bad displayed in managing his 
 own business, as a planter, was superseded by 
 an uncontrollable passion for theorizing, when 
 he came to grapple with the great and intri- 
 cate problems of national finances. At times 
 he wandered into the wildest and most absurd 
 vagaries. Thus, only a few months before he 
 took his seat in the cabinet, he had been much 
 pleased with a novel idea that had struck him 
 concerning " a question of such consequences 
 as not only to merit decision, but place also 
 among the fundamental principles of every gov- 
 ernment." It is with some astonishment that 
 the patient reader follows through several pages 
 of guileless argument the development of this 
 grand, fundamental, newly-discovered truth, and 
 finally learns the confounding doctrine that no 
 public debt can rightfully survive the genera- 
 tion which contracts it! The daring and orig- 
 inal logician starts with the " self-evident '* 
 proposition that '* the earth belongs in usufruct 
 to the living ; that the dead have neither pow- 
 ers nor rights over it." But, he says, if a debt 
 survives the generation which contracts it, then 
 the subsequent generation takes " the earth " 
 subject to a burden imposed by and for the 
 dead. This must needs be wrong, since it is 
 counter to a " self-evident " premise. Now as- 
 
104 THOMAS JEFFERSOK 
 
 sumiiig that men come of age at twenty-one, 
 and that the nuijority of those who are alive at 
 twenty-one will live tliirty-four years more, it 
 follows that a generation may contract debts to 
 run thirty-four years and no longer. This pe- 
 riod he aftei'ward reduced to nineteen years ; 
 for *' a generation consisting of all ages, and 
 which legislates by all its members above the 
 age of twentj^-one years, cannot contract for so 
 long a time, because their majority will be dead 
 much sooner." It is at once ludicrous, pitiful, 
 and alarming to hear such rubbish from an in- 
 fluential leader of the people. After listening 
 to it one is not surprised to hear that in criti- 
 cising the work of one of the greatest financiers 
 whom the world has ever seen, Jefferson made 
 but a sorry show. 
 
 Nevertheless, being profoundly unconscious 
 of his own incapacity in this department of 
 knowledge, Jefferson did not refrain from free 
 indulgence in such dangerous criticism. He 
 was wont to say that Hamilton's financial sys- 
 tem was designed to serve as a puzzle for ex- 
 cluding popular understanding and inquiry. In 
 1802 he wrote to Gallatin concerning Hamil- 
 ton : — ' 
 
 **In order that he might have the entire govern- 
 ment of his machine, he determined so to complicate 
 it as that neither the President nor Congress should 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 105 
 
 be able to understand it or to control him. He suc- 
 ceeded in doing this, not only beyond their reach, 
 but so that he himself could not unravel it. He gave 
 to the debt in the first instance, in funding it, the 
 most artificial and mysterious form he could devise. 
 He then moulded up his appropriations of a number 
 of scraps and remnants, many of which were nothing 
 at all, and applied them to different objects in rever- 
 sion and remainder, until the whole system was in- 
 volved in impenetrable fog.'* 
 
 He actually reiterated tbis declaration so late 
 as 1818, long after the perfect practical success 
 of that renowned system had constituted its 
 unanswerable vindication. But it is not proba- 
 ble that he was disingenuous in his abuse, for 
 certainly Hamilton's financiering was from the 
 beginning, and ever remained, a "puzzle" ut- 
 terly insoluble for Mr. Jefferson. Nevertheless 
 he persisted in a blind hatred and denunciation, 
 eloquent enough while he confined himself to 
 generalities, but, so often as he turned to more 
 specific fault-finding, manifesting a surprising 
 ignorance of economic principles and a hopeless 
 confusion of thought. Yet a distinguished feat- 
 ure of Hamilton's system was its grand, plain 
 simplicity, not only in its broad outlines, but in 
 matters of detail and technique. His reports to 
 Congress were lucid to a degree which makes 
 them comprehensible to a woman or a child. 
 
106 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 It befell, however, very fortunately for Jeffer- 
 son, that lie had not much fighting to do in a 
 field in which he was so little at home. By 
 the time that the antagonism between him 
 and Hamilton had become fairly developed, all 
 the principal features of Hamilton's financial 
 scheme, except only the national bank, had be- 
 come complete and adopted parts of the gov- 
 ernmental machinery. There was no need, 
 therefore, to encounter them with argument, 
 but only to revile them in a broad way. 
 
 It has been said that Washington formed his 
 cabinet with a deliberate purpose of amalgama- 
 ting parties by bringing together, as political 
 comrades, the two chief representatives of op- 
 posing opinions. This erroneous statement has 
 been sustained by two other incorrect proposi- 
 tions, namely, (1) that Jefferson was opposed 
 to the Constitution which Hamilton befriended, 
 a theory already shown to be untrue ; (2) that 
 he and Hamilton had respectively from the be- 
 ginning established policies antagonistic to each 
 other, which is a palpable misrepresentation. 
 For a while all was doubtful and tentative con- 
 cerning both men and measures in the new gov- 
 ernment, although the outcome now appears to 
 have been so strictly in accordance with the 
 logic of circumstances, and the native bent and 
 qualities of the different individuals, that it is 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 107 
 
 difficult not to carry back the later opinions and 
 knowledge to a date at which neither could 
 have existed. It took some time for this logic 
 and these qualities to become apparent to the 
 chief actors, who learned each other's ways of 
 thinking only by degrees. Meanwhile Hamil- 
 ton and Jefferson met upon a friendly footing, 
 and for a time apparently entertained no sus- 
 picion that they would not be able to pursue an 
 harmonious policy. Indeed, there hardly were 
 at first two parties or two systems of national 
 politics in the country. The material for form- 
 ing these lay ready at hand in the natural con- 
 stitution of men's minds, but it still reposed like 
 ore in the mine, half uns#en and wholly un- 
 shaped. There were those who always instinc- 
 tively said Nay to all proposals coming from 
 Hamilton ; but they were not an organized 
 party, and had no defined policy of their own. 
 It was very gradually that what deserved to be 
 called a hostile school of political thought was 
 developed by the measures of the government. 
 Only as the Hamiltonian structure grew piece 
 by piece did the design of the builder appear 
 to be much more comprehensive than had been 
 at first understood. Then it was seen that 
 Hamilton, besides substituting order for con- 
 fusion, and solvency for insolvency, had also 
 been creating a very powerful governmental 
 
108 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 machine ; then men saw how deep down in the 
 nation he liad succeeded in setting the founda- 
 tions of the government, and what extensive 
 powers he had grasped for it, b)^ construing the 
 Constitution to his purpose. The}^ remembered 
 that he theoretically believed in a monarchical 
 form, and they saw that he was fast making 
 this republican government not less strong and 
 centralized than a limited monarchy. Then 
 the men of democratic minds became combined 
 together thiou2:h their common alarm ; and as 
 no man was more thoroughly democratic than 
 Jefferson, so no man was more profoundly 
 alarmed. We have but to recall his talk about 
 the charms of ne;*vspapers without a govern- 
 ment, and about the excellence of the Indian 
 form of polity, to conceive the horror with 
 which he beheld this rapid transformation of a 
 federal league into a national unit. No sooner 
 did he get a notion of the ruinous course by 
 w;hich Hamilton was steering the ship, than he 
 began to whisper warnings among the passen- 
 gei-s, to organize a species of mutiny against 
 one who, in truth, had no more exclusive right 
 to the helm than he himself had. So the pe- 
 riod of confidence between Hamilton and Jef- 
 ferson endured only for a limited time, and 
 though they remained personal friends for a 
 short while after they had become political op- 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 109 
 
 ponents, yet such accusations and personalities 
 as were soon cast against each by the friends 
 and followers of the other ere long destroyed 
 all traces of good feeling, and they distrusted 
 and hated each other, and fought and denounced 
 each other bitterly, and believed every possible 
 ill of each otlier during the rest of their lives. 
 
 Most unfortunately for his own good fame, 
 Jefferson allowed himself to be drawn by this 
 feud into the preparation of the famous "Anas/' 
 His friends have hardly dared to undertake a 
 defence of those terrible records, and the very 
 manner of those apologies which souie have ven- 
 tured to present has been fatal to their efficacy. 
 The editor of the Congressional edition of Jef- 
 ferson's works excuses the insertion of these 
 post-mortuary slanders on the ground of edito- 
 rial duty, and only reluctantly suffers himself to 
 become the formal agent of their perpetuation. 
 But there is no symptom that Jefferson thought 
 that it was unbecoming in him to set down all 
 the idle rumors, the slander and gossip received 
 at third and fourth hand, the malicious tales of 
 enemies, aimed at the good fame of an adver- 
 sary who, at least, had never dealt him an un- 
 fair blow, and to leave this odious collection of 
 poisonous scraps to be published not only after 
 the death of that adversary, and so late that 
 no substantial opportunity of contradictions by 
 
110 THOMAS jepfehson: 
 
 contemporary evidence remained, but also after 
 his own death, so that he could not be called 
 upon to sustain his statements, or punished for 
 faikire to do so. It must be confessed that the 
 compilation of these unfortunate and most dis- 
 reputable fragments is among the meanest acts 
 recorded by history, and that it has more im- 
 paired Jefferson's good name than all the other 
 mistakes of his life and all the assaults of his 
 enemies. Had he been able to resist the temp- 
 tation to seek such an ignoble revenge on a 
 dead foe, he would have lived in history as a 
 man of a far more honorable spirit than can 
 now be attributed to him. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SECRETAKY OF STATE. — GROWTH OF DISSEN- 
 SIONS. 
 
 Jefferson was the most astute and success- 
 ful politician who has j^et flourished in a coun- 
 try singularly and unfortunately prolific of this 
 not very estimable race. But he was very much 
 more than a politician, and he added something 
 even to the essential traits of a statesman ; he 
 was a profound thinker concerning the theory 
 of government and the principles of social and 
 political organization. In full accord with the 
 new spirit of his era, he was a radical even 
 among radicals, and a democrat of the ex- 
 treme class. He could hardly bring himself to 
 declare that the people should govern, because 
 he had a lurking notion that there should be 
 no government at all. " The rights of man," 
 the favorite slang phrase of the day, signified 
 to his mind an almost entire absence of govern- 
 mental control. His milder opponents called 
 him a visionary, and the hopeless impractica- 
 bility of many of his theories almost justified 
 the term. His more bitter assailants stigma- 
 
112 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tized him as dishonest ; and there certainly was 
 an element of disingenuonsness in his charac- 
 ter, a covert habit in his dealings, and a care- 
 lessness concerning the truth in small matters. 
 But his belief in the doctrines of human free- 
 dom was a pure and deep conviction, an inerad- 
 icable portion of his nature. His faith in the 
 laxest form of democracy, scarcely removed 
 from anarchy, stood to him in the place of a 
 religion ; he preached it with a fervor, inten- 
 sity, and constancy worthy of Mahomet or 
 Wesley. It was an inevitable consequence of 
 this vehement conviction that he regarded sup- 
 porters of contiar^^ principles with distrust and 
 abhorrence as wicked men, cons'jious promulga- 
 tors of falsehood in the most impoi'tant of all 
 human concerns. Evil reports concerning them 
 seemed so intrinsically probable as always to 
 command his ready belief ; and there is no evi- 
 dence that he ever refused to credit any mali- 
 cious tale repeated against them, no matter how 
 tainted in its origin or progress. He was ob- 
 servant and quick-witted, and soon appreciated 
 the skill with which Hamilton was rapidly con- 
 structing a powerful centralized government. 
 At Hamilton's back he beheld a disciplined 
 body of able and ambitious men, some filling 
 places of public trust and power, others absorb- 
 ing wealth, all in one shape or another acquir- 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 113 
 
 ing an extensive and irresistible influence in 
 the body politic and social. Jefferson gazed 
 upon this portentous growth with dread and re- 
 pulsion. He saw enough to induce him fear- 
 fully to anticipate the destruction of human 
 freedom in the United States, and he suspected 
 much more than he saw. As he peered into 
 the mystery of the Federalist policy, the vision 
 of monarchy took shape before his eyes and 
 long remained with him, an ever present and 
 vivid terror. Henceforth in every measure of 
 the Secretary of the Treasury he discerned an 
 artful move in the monarchical game ; at every 
 social gathering of Federalists he seemed to 
 hear the whispered plots of " Monocrats." If 
 gentlemen, flushed with wine after dinner, 
 made statements far outrunning their sober be- 
 liefs, their extravagant words were borne in 
 exaggerated form to Jefferson's ears, were mag- 
 nified by his excited mind, and were stored 
 away by him as conclusive evidence of mon- 
 archical projects. The idea became a mono- 
 mania with him. He wrote it to his friends, 
 he jotted it down on the scraps of paper 
 which afterward were gathered together for 
 the "Anas;" he mournfully bore the gossip to 
 Washington, and was not to be deterred from 
 repeating it, though the President told him 
 that he was talking nonsense. 
 8 
 
114 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Long afterward, looking back upon this pe- 
 riod, Jefferson declared that these dreadful 
 monarchical tendencies had been visible to 
 him from the earliest days of his arrival in 
 New York. 
 
 " The President," he says, " received me cor- 
 dially, and my colleagues and the whole circle of 
 principal citizens apparently with welcome. The 
 courtesies of both political parties, given me as a 
 stranger newly arrived among them, placed me at 
 once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe 
 the wonder and mortification with which the table 
 conversations filled me. Politics were the chief 
 topic, and a preference of kingly over republican 
 government was evidently the favorite sentiment. 
 An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite ; and 
 I found myself, for the most part, the only advocate 
 on the republican side of the question, unless among 
 the guests there chanced to be some member of that 
 party from the legislative houses." 
 
 These sentences linger in that debatable land, 
 somewhere in which exaggeration passes into 
 falsehood. Evidentl}^ in looking back down 
 the long vista of nearly thirty years, Jeffer- 
 son's vision was indistinct. If he had really 
 been plunged into such a chilling bath of mon- 
 archy at once upon his arrival in New York, he 
 would have cried out promptly at the sudden 
 shock, and left contemporaneous evidence of it; 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 115 
 
 whereas, in fact, some time elapsed before he 
 began to give perceptible symptoms of distress 
 at the unsound political faith about him. Mon- 
 archy was doubtless spoken of in a manner of- 
 fensive to his democratic ears. The Constitu- 
 tion was a compromise wholly satisfactory to 
 no one; the government was undeniably an ex- 
 periment ; and its probable efficiency was often 
 discussed as an open question. Sentiments of 
 loyalty, pride, and affection had not had time 
 to strike deep root. But Jefferson made a mis- 
 take in construing an anxious doubt as equiv- 
 alent to active disaffection ; and was guilty of 
 a gross, though certainly an unintentional, in- 
 justice in charging the advocates of a strong 
 system with a design of changing the form of 
 government. He was driven beyond his reason 
 by foolish terrors when he spoke of Hamilton 
 as the enemy of the Constitution. Every one 
 has long since agreed that the Constitution had 
 no other friend nearly so efficient as Hamilton. 
 No man living had better means of knowledge 
 concerning these matters than Washington, 
 and no man was intellectually more capable of 
 forming a correct judgment. Yet even Jeffer- 
 son could not in his '*Anas" set down the lan- 
 guage, which the President held to him, in 
 shape more corroborative of his views than 
 this: "That with respect to the existing causes 
 
116 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of uneasiness, he [Washington] thought there 
 were suspicions against a particular party which 
 had been carried a great deal too far. There 
 might be desires, but he did not believe there 
 were designs, to change the form of govern- 
 ment into a monarchy ; that there might be a 
 few who wished it in the higher walks of life, 
 particularly in the great cities, but that the 
 main body of the people in the Eastern States 
 were as steadily for republicanism as in the 
 Southern." Making ever so slight allowance 
 for refraction by reason of the transmission of 
 these words through the Jelfersonian medium, 
 we see the most inadequate basis for the vast 
 pile of Jefferson's suspicion. 
 
 But in dealing with Jefferson's conduct, it is 
 not the truth which must be sought so much as 
 Jefferson's idea of the truth. That he had an 
 honest belief in the monarchical conspiracy, 
 and in the treasonable designs of the Hamil- 
 tonian clique, appears certain. Indeed, if he 
 began with a faith like a grain of mustard seed, 
 he must soon have caused it to expand into a 
 vigorous tree, so liberally did he water it with 
 the ceaseless iteration and reiteration of his own 
 assertions. Frequent repetition of a statement 
 assumes in time the aspect of evidence ; and 
 what he said so often he probably at last came 
 to believe. Unquestionably he induced others 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 117 
 
 to believe it. For years his talk was of " mon- 
 archists " and " monocrats," till the reader of 
 his letters and memoirs regards these people 
 like the sea-serpent, feels that it would be in- 
 congruous if so familiar a name did not repre- 
 sent some real existence, and in a way permits 
 the fiction to be asserted into a reality. There 
 was an earnestness, or, as he himself would have 
 said, a venom, in Jefferson's language, when he 
 dealt with this topic, indicating a force and 
 depth of feeling hardly to be adequately con- 
 veyed by description, and which is so utterly 
 inappropriate for a fable that it seems suffi- 
 ciently to imply truth. 
 
 If the purpose of the monarchical party was 
 abhorrent to Jefferson, so their means appeared 
 consonantly base. The decision to pay in full not 
 only the principal of the domestic debt, but also 
 the arrears of interest, followed by the assump- 
 tion of the State indebtedness, furnished, during 
 a year and a half, opportunities for speculation 
 which were availed of with an ardor that has 
 not been surpassed in Wall Street in our own 
 generation. Naturally those who gathered in 
 the securities at low prices were the men of 
 capital, sagacity, aVid enterprise, who lived in 
 cities, more especially residents in New York 
 and Philadelphia, who could best forecast con- 
 gressional action. Naturally, too, those who 
 
118 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 had most faith in Hamilton plunged most 
 boldly into the venture. Jefferson, therefore, 
 and others who had taken fright at the mon- 
 archical scarecrow, were scandalized and alarmed 
 as they saw the supporters of Hamiltonian meas- 
 ures reaping a great harvest of wealth, and 
 consequently of political power and social con- 
 sideration. They began to charge the Secretary 
 of the Treasury with winning adherents by 
 giving opportunities of growing suddenly and 
 enormously rich. That great financial system 
 which, in a few brief months, had raised the 
 United States from a condition of pitiful and 
 ignoble bankruptcy to the status of a solvent 
 power in excellent credit, wore, to Jefferson's 
 suspicious eyes, the aspect of a great, complex, 
 and terribly eflBicient machine for building up 
 in the State the most dangerous kind of aristo- 
 cratical party. 
 
 His dissatisfaction was further nourished by 
 other measures ; the military establishment dis- 
 gusted him, because he abhorred every manifes- 
 tation of governmental ppwer or control. The 
 excise seemed odious, because he thought that 
 all branches of internal taxation ought to be 
 left to the States. But most of all the propo- 
 sition for a national bank appeared to bristle 
 with objectionable traits. By the time that 
 Hamilton was prepared to push this project, the 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 119 
 
 political operation of his financial policy was 
 fully appreciated and, indeed, greatly exagger- 
 ated by Jefferson ; nor was it longer possible 
 for the treasury party to coerce support by de- 
 claring the existence of the Union to be at 
 stake. This bank act involved first a question 
 of law and then one of expediency. In the 
 former aspect it presented much difficulty, and 
 Washington asked for written opinions from his 
 cabinet officers. Hamilton supported it in an 
 argument which is one of the most famous of 
 our state papers. Jefferson took the other side 
 and argued the legal point, which alone he un- 
 derstood, with much force and ability. After 
 great hesitation Washington decided to sign the 
 bill. He was always reluctant to interfere with 
 his secretaries in their respective departments ; 
 furthermore, if he was making a constitutional 
 error it could be corrected by the Supreme 
 Court. In due time that tribunal sustained the 
 constitutionality of the bank, Chief Justice 
 Marshall delivering an opinion in which he 
 added nothing to the reasoning of Hamilton. 
 But though the views of Jefferson were thus 
 finally rejected, it must be acknowledged that 
 the question, regarded as one purely of law, 
 might just as well or better have been deter- 
 mined the other way. The issue was, whether 
 a rigid or a liberal construction should be given 
 
120 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to the general clauses of the Constitution ; and a 
 bench of strict constructionists would have en- 
 countered no insuperable legal obstacles in the 
 way of sustaining Jefferson. 
 
 But if the legal and constitutional aspects 
 and the political bearing of this measure were 
 easily within Jefferson's comprehension, its rela- 
 tions to the finances and business of the coun- 
 try were far beyond his understanding. He 
 proclaimed the most ignorant theories and 
 talked the most absurd twaddle about its mis- 
 chievous introduction of paper money, and the 
 consequent banishment of gold and silver from 
 circulation. When the subscription books were 
 opened, he saw with melancholy forebodings the 
 capitalists rushing forward in such eager com- 
 petition that much more than the capital stock 
 was quickly subscribed. He wrote gloomily to 
 Monroe : " Thus it is that we shall be paying 
 thirteen per cent, per annum for eight millions 
 of paper money, instead of having that circula- 
 tion of gold and silver for nothing. . . . For 
 the paper emitted from the bank, seven per 
 cent, profits will be received by the subscribers 
 for it as bank paper, . . . and six per cent, in 
 the public paper of which it is the representa- 
 tive. Nor is there any reason to believe that 
 either the six millions of paper or the two mil- 
 lions of specie deposited will not be suffered to 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 121 
 
 be withdrawn, and the paper thrown into cir- 
 culation. The cash deposited by strangers for 
 safe-keeping will probably suffice for cash de- 
 mands." He was probably ignorant that such 
 special deposits could not lawfully be used by 
 the bank at all ; and this is only a sample of 
 his general lack of knowledge in all matters of 
 business. 
 
 There is no doubt that the bank, whether 
 constitutional or not, was of immense advan- 
 tage to the country ; but Jefferson could see 
 in it only a prolific machine for turning out 
 more corrupt supporters of that dangerous and 
 designing monarchist, the Secretary of the 
 Treasury. Henceforth his abuse of the " treas- 
 ury party," as he called it, redoubled ; nor did 
 he ever modify this opinion to the end of his 
 life. In his introduction to the " Anas," in 
 1818, he recorded that "Hamilton was not only 
 a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on 
 corruption ; " and he said that the bank was 
 designed as an "engine of influence more perma- 
 nent," for corrupting the Legislature, than the 
 funding system and assumption could be. Ac- 
 cordingly " members of both houses," he said, 
 " were constantly kept as directors who, on 
 every question interesting to that institution 
 or to the views of the Federal head, voted at 
 the will of that head ; and, together with the 
 
122 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 stockholding members, could always make the 
 Federal vote that of the majority." On March 
 3, 1793, discussing Giles' famous resolutions of 
 censure on Hamilton, he notes " the composi- 
 tion of the House, 1, of bank directors; 2, 
 holders of bank stock ; 3, stock jobbers ; 4, 
 blind devotees ; 5, ignorant persons who did 
 not comprehend them ; 6, lazy and good hu- 
 mored persons, who comprehended and acknowl- 
 edged them, yet were too lazy to examine, or 
 unwilling to pronounce censure ; the persons 
 who knew these characters foresaw that, the 
 three first descriptions making one third of the 
 House, the three latter would make one half 
 of the residue." It was thus that he endeav- 
 ored to account for the ignominious failure of 
 the anti-Federalist attempt to establish definite 
 charges of dishonesty againt Hamilton ; and ad- 
 mitted his sympathy with the blunder of that 
 unfortunate and disastrous measure. 
 
 Another thing which Jefferson beheld with 
 horror was the national debt. Besides the spec- 
 ulation which soon ended in widespread ruin, he 
 conceived that he detected a purpose on Hamil- 
 ton's part to use this debt permanently, in some 
 ingenious and covert way, as a perpetual re- 
 source for corrupting the Legislature. The fact 
 that a portion of it had been made "deferred" 
 for a few years, convinced him that Hamilton 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 123 
 
 intended never to let the people pay what they 
 owed and get clear of obligation. Everybody, 
 he said, stood in dread of the " chickens of the 
 treasury " and their " many contrivances." " As 
 the doctrine is that a public debt is a public 
 blessing, so they think a perpetual one is a per- 
 petual blessing, and therefore wish to make it 
 so large that we can never pay it off." He 
 could not be induced to renounce this suspicion, 
 even when a scheme was brought forward by 
 Hamilton to promote payment within a short 
 period. No evidence ever could persuade him 
 that Hamilton was politically honest, and no 
 lapse of time could allay his prejudices. 
 
 Washington, meanwhile, watched with pro- 
 found concern the development of a spirit of 
 antagonism and distrust between his chief sec- 
 retaries, and the coincident organization of 
 hostile political parties. He himself, elevated 
 to office by the whole nation, was resolved to 
 hold aloof from any party connections. But he 
 could not close his ears to the ceaseless din of 
 accusations, arguments, and complaints which 
 the opposing leaders insisted upon making him 
 hear. On May 23, 1792, Jefferson wrote to the 
 President a long letter " disburthening" him- 
 self concerning a '' subject of inquietude " al- 
 most coextensive with the whole national affairs. 
 He introduced his strictures by saying "it has 
 
124 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 been urged," but soon he warmed with his 
 work, threw off the impersonality of this phrase, 
 and openly delivered his own sentiments. A 
 public debt, he said, too great to be paid before 
 it would inevitably be increased by new cir- 
 cumstances, had been "artificially created by 
 adding together the whole amount of the debtor 
 and creditor sides of accounts ; " the finances 
 had been managed not only extravagantly but 
 so as to create "a corrupt squadron, deciding 
 the voice of the Legislature," and manifesting 
 " a disposition to get rid of the limitations im- 
 posed by the Constitution ; " " that the ultimate 
 object of all this is to prepare the way for a 
 change from the present republican form of gov- 
 ernment to that of a monarchy." He was pos- 
 itive that "the corruption of the Legislature" 
 would prove " the instrument for producing in 
 future a king, lords, and commons, or whatever 
 else those who direct it may choose." " The 
 owers of the debt are in the southern and the 
 holders of it in the northern division," so that 
 a sectional distribution exists fraught with im- 
 minent danger of dissolution of the Union. He 
 is so convinced that nothing save Washington's 
 continuance in office can avert this peril, that 
 he lays aside his objections to a second term, 
 and implores the President not to think of re- 
 tiring. 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 125 
 
 These same apprehensions he reiterated 
 whenever occasion offered. On July 10, 1792, 
 he urged upon the President "that the na- 
 tional debt was unnecessarily increased and 
 that it had furnished the means of corrupting 
 both branches of the Legislature ; that . . . 
 there was a considerable squadron in both, 
 whose votes were devoted to the paper and 
 stock-jobbing interests, . . . that on examining 
 the votes of these men they would be found 
 uniformly for every treasury measure, and that 
 as most of these measures had been carried by 
 small majorities, they were carried by these 
 very votes." 
 
 Two or three months earlier he had told 
 Washington that all existing discontents were 
 to be attributed to the Treasury Department : 
 
 " that a system had there been contrived for delug- 
 ing the States with paper money instead of gold and 
 silver, for withdrawing our citizens from the pur- 
 suits of commerce, manufactures, building, and other 
 branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves 
 and their capitals in a species of gambling, destruc- 
 tive of morality, and which had introduced its poison 
 into the government itself. That it was a fact . . . 
 that particular members of the Legislature, while 
 those laws were on the carpet, had feathered their 
 nests with paper, had then voted for the laws ; . . . 
 that they had now brought forward a proposition far 
 
126 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 beyond any one ever yet advanced, and to which the 
 eyes of many were turned as the decision which was 
 to let us know whether we live under a limited or an 
 unlimited government." 
 
 This reference bore upon that part of Hamil- 
 ton's famous report on manufactures "which, 
 under color of giving bounties for the encour- 
 agement of particular manufactures," was de- 
 signed to grasp for Congress control of all 
 matters " which they should deem for the pub- 
 lic welfare and which [were] susceptible of the 
 application of money," as certainly few matters 
 were not. On October 1, 1792, he says that 
 he told Washington 
 
 " that though the people were sound, there were a 
 numerous sect who had monarchy in contemplation ; 
 that the Secretary of the Treasury was one of these. 
 That I had heard him say that this Constitution was 
 a shilly-shally thing of mere milk and water, which 
 could not last and was only good as a step to some- 
 thing better. That when we reflected that he had 
 endeavored in the Convention to make an English 
 Constitution of it, and when failing in that we saw 
 all his measures tending to bring it to the same 
 thing, it was natural for us to be jealous ; and par- 
 ticularly when ^ we saw that these measures had es- 
 tablished corruption in the Legislature, where there 
 was a squadron devoted to the nod of the Treasury, 
 doing whatever he had directed and ready to do what 
 he should direct." 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 127 
 
 On February 7, 1793, he again said that the 
 ill-feeling at the South was due to a belief in 
 the existence " of a corrupt squadron of voters 
 in Congress, at the command of the Treasury," 
 sufficiently numerous to make the laws the 
 reverse of what they would have been had only 
 honest votes been cast. 
 
 It was seldom that Jefferson was at the 
 trouble to aim a shaft directly at any one save 
 Hamilton, but once. May 8, 1791, he took an 
 insidious side-shot at John Adams. "I am 
 afraid," he wrote to Washington, "the indiscre- 
 tion of a printer has committed me with my 
 friend, Mr. Adams, for whom, as one of the 
 most honest and disinterested men alive, I have 
 a cordial esteem, increased by long habits of 
 concurrence in opinion in the days of his re- 
 publicanism ; and even since his apostasy to 
 hereditary monarchy and nobility, though we 
 differ, we differ as friends should do." 
 
 What he said to Washington, he said and 
 wrote also to others. So early as February 4, 
 1791, he wrote to Colonel Mason, that, "It 
 cannot be denied that we have among us a sect 
 who believe it [the English Constitution] to 
 contain whatever is perfect in human institu- 
 tions; that the members of this sect have, many 
 of them, names and offices which stand high in 
 the estimation of our countrymen." July 29, 
 
128 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 1791, "writing to Thomas Paine, he speaks of a 
 ''sect here, high in name, but small in num- 
 bers," who had been indulging a false hope 
 that the people were undergoing conversion 
 " to the doctrine of kings, lords, and com- 
 mons ; " but he politely adds that this delu- 
 sion has been " checked at least," and the 
 people *' confirmed in their good old faith," by 
 the recent publication of Paine's " Rights of 
 Man." To Lafayette he writes, June 16, 1792: 
 " A sect has shown itself among us who declare 
 they espoused our new Constitution, not as a 
 good and sufficient thing in itself, but only as 
 a step to an English Constitution, the only 
 thing good and sufficient in itself in their eye. 
 . . . Too many of these stock-jobbers and king- 
 jobbers have come into our Legislature ; or, 
 rather, too many of our Legislature have be- 
 come stock-jobbers and king-jobbers." 
 
 During this prolonged stress of anxiety and 
 alarm, Jefferson, who was unquestionably a sin- 
 cere patriot and honest in his opinions, sought 
 encouragement in such evidence of republican 
 sentiment as he could discover in the mass of 
 the people. His faith and reliance were always 
 y in numbers, and in the vast bulk of the popu- 
 lation, rather than in the politicians and upper 
 classes of society, who appeared more promi- 
 nently upon the surface. Accordingly lie never 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 129 
 
 missed an opportunity of dropping his plummet 
 into the mighty depths beneath ; and if he dis- 
 covered those profound currents to be in accord 
 with his own tendencies, as he always expected 
 to and generally did, he refreshed his wearied 
 spirit with the instinctive anticipation that 
 these would control the course of the country 
 at no distant time. Herein lay his deep wis- 
 dom : he enjoyed a political vision penetrating 
 deeper down into the inevitable movement of 
 popular government, and further forward into 
 the future trend of free institutions, than was 
 possessed by any other man in public life in his 
 day. He had sound confidence that the multi- 
 tude, led by a single able strategist like him- 
 self, was sure in time to outvote and overpower 
 the much smaller body of educated men who 
 understood and admired the statesmanship of 
 Hamilton. 
 
 But concerning this confidence of Jefferson in 
 the people, which must be so constantly borne 
 in mind in order to comprehend his character, 
 some observations should be made. Not merely 
 did he appreciate and foresee their invincible 
 power in politics, but he had perfect faith in 
 the desirability of the exercise of that power ; 
 he anticipated that in this exercise the masses 
 would always show wisdom and discrimination, 
 that they would select the most able and most 
 
 9 
 
180 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 honest men in the country to preside over the 
 national affairs, men like himself and Mr. Mad- 
 ison. It was a delightful ideal of a bod}^ politic 
 which he had before his eyes, wherein a huge 
 volume of human poverty and ignorance would 
 be always pleased to recognize and set over it- 
 self a few exalted individuals of lofty character 
 and distinguished intelligence. In his day it 
 was still a question how poverty and ignorance 
 would behave in politics ; and it was his firm 
 expectation that they would behave with mod- 
 esty and self-abnegation. It was a kindly belief, 
 but indicative of the enthusiast. He deserves 
 the praise of thinking better of his fellow-men 
 than they deserve. If he could see what sort 
 of men have in fact satisfied the people since 
 his doctrines have become developed, he would 
 probably gieatly modify them. His notion of a 
 democratic polity had as its main principle that 
 the multitude should select the best men, and 
 after that expectation had been once disproved 
 by fair and sufficient experience, he would al- 
 most undoubtedly have abandoned his doctrine 
 in disappointment and indignation. But though 
 this is matter of speculation, and may be correct 
 or not, one thing at least is certain, that democ- 
 racy has not worked as Jefferson expected it to 
 work, and that the two generations, or more, 
 which have passed away since his day hav« 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 131 
 
 brought forth results which would have aston- 
 ished and shocked him, if presented as the out- 
 growth of his teachings. 
 
 It was the custom of that period for men 
 holding high official positions to contribute 
 anonymous political communications to the 
 newspapers, — a custom which, among some 
 advantages, possessed the serious disadvantage 
 that out of it arose much suspicion, ill-blood, 
 and personal resentment. The misunderstand- 
 ing with John Adams, already referred to, had its 
 origin in an episode of this kind, Avherein Jef- 
 ferson made an absurd, though natural, blunder. 
 Adams' " Discourses of Davila " appear to-day 
 as stupid reading as one could discover in a 
 large library; but in the times of which we are 
 writing, several persons read them through ; and 
 readers of democratic proclivities were even 
 more incensed than bored by them. The doc- 
 trines therein proclaimed were mercilessly cas- 
 tigated in Paine's " Rights of Man," of which 
 it so happened that *' the only copy " in the 
 United States was sent to Jefferson, with the 
 request that, after reading it, he would "send 
 it to a Mr. J. B. Smith, who had asked ib for 
 his brother to reprint it." " Being an utter 
 stranger to J. B. Smith," says Jefferson, "I 
 wrote a note to explain to him why I (a 
 stranger to him) sent him a pamphlet; . . • 
 
132 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and to take off a little of the dryness of the 
 note, I wrote that I was glad to find it was to 
 be reprinted ; that something would at length 
 be publicly said against the political heresies 
 which had lately sprung up among us," etc. 
 To Jefferson's "great astonishment," the printer 
 " prefixed " this note to the volume. At once 
 the Federalist writers settled like a hive of 
 hornets upon the unfortunate sponsor of " Tom " 
 Paine, and a peculiarly vigorous sting was sent 
 in by one Publicola. Jefferson hastened to 
 write two letters of explanation to Mr. Adams, 
 deprecating any quarrel, and speaking with 
 especial animosity and contempt of the mis- 
 chief-making Publicola. Little did he think 
 with what a freight he had laden his peaceful 
 missives, for Publicola was none other than 
 John Quincy Adams himself, whose family 
 were very proud of this early filial exploit. 
 Such were some of the perils of this darkling 
 habit of anonymous newspaper writing. Isaac 
 had actually been made a peace-offering to 
 Abraham. 
 
 But difficulties much more grave than such 
 comical errors were often promoted by the 
 newspapers of the day. Shortly after Jefferson 
 was appointed Secretary of State, he received 
 from Madison a letter commending for a clerk- 
 ship one Philip Freneau, a democratic scribbler 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 133 
 
 of verses rather better than most Americans 
 could write in those days. Jefferson had then 
 no vacancy ; but a little later he found a "clerk- 
 ship for foreign languages," carrying only the 
 petty salary of " two hundred and fifty dollars 
 a year," but giving " so little to do as not to 
 interfere with any other calling" which the 
 clerk might choose to carry on. In a very kind 
 note Jefferson conferred this modest position 
 upon Freneau, and in so doing wrote the first 
 stanza in a long Iliad of troubles. For it so 
 happened that the " other calling " which the 
 ill-paid translating clerk selected for eking out 
 his subsistence was the editorship of a news- 
 paper; and it further so happened that Mr, 
 Freneau had a zealous faith in the chief of his 
 own department, and a correspondingly intense 
 aversion towards the rival Secretary of the 
 Treasury. Hitherto Fenno's " Gazette " had 
 represented "the Treasury" without an equal 
 opponent ; but the new " National Gazette " 
 now sustained the Department of State with 
 not inferior ardor, with an appalling courage 
 in the use of abusive language, and with terrible 
 enterprise in preferring outrageous accusations. 
 For Freneau had not only extreme convictions, 
 but a trenchant pen. Hamilton and his friends 
 were soon wincing beneath his attacks; but 
 they preferred to pass by the writer as a being 
 
134 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 too insignificant for their wrath, and to de- 
 nounce his alleged patron and protector, the 
 Secretary of State, in person. He it was, they 
 said, who insidiously furnished material and in- 
 formation to the disaffected and scurrilous sheet 
 which was issued, as they chose to declare, al- 
 most actually from his department. He was 
 responsible for its malicious temper, for its 
 reckless aspersions of his honorable colleagues, 
 and even of the President himself. Jefferson 
 angrily repelled these assertions, declaring that 
 he had nothing whatsoever to do, directly or 
 indirectly, with the management of the paper ; 
 but at the same time having the courage not 
 to conceal that he thought the *' Gazette" to 
 be in the main sound in its doctrines, and 
 doing good work. He neither dismissed nor 
 rebuked Freneau. It is reasonable to suppose 
 that a rebuke would have been effectual ; but 
 his obligation to give it is by no means clear. 
 His asseveration that he did not interfere, even 
 indirectly, in the conduct of the sheet, derives 
 credit from the probability that, if he had in- 
 terfered, he would have been sufficiently wise 
 and politic to discourage the personal attacks 
 upon Washington, which he must have seen to 
 be blunders. But in a broad and very forcible 
 way the paper advocated his views ; and in 
 return he generally spoke well of it, and was 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 185 
 
 interested in its success. It is difficult to say 
 that he was positively wrong in this. Pos- 
 sibly he occasionally "inspired" it, to use the 
 ingenious, indefinite slang of our day ; but it 
 was going too far when he was treated as a 
 responsible member of the editorial staff. 
 Whether it was becoming in him to retain in 
 his department a writer whose daily business 
 was to defame the policy and character of a 
 colleague in the cabinet, is a part of the gen- 
 eral question, soon to be discussed, of the rela- 
 tionship which those colleagues were bound, 
 under the peculiar circumstances then existing, 
 to maintain towards each other and their chief. 
 At last, in August, 1792, Hamilton was pro- 
 voked into coming down to the lists and him- 
 self taking a hand in the fray. He descended 
 like a giant among the pigmies, and startled all 
 by his sudden apparition in the guise of " An 
 American." Though he thus wore his visor 
 down, every one at once knew the blows of 
 that terrible hand. In his first article he bit- 
 terly assailed Jefferson for retaining his office 
 and at the same time continuing his connection 
 with Freneau. Further, he charged Jefferson 
 with disloyalty to the Constitution and the 
 administration. Jefferson was absent when 
 this powerful diatribe appeared ; but Freneau 
 printed an affidavit, saying that he had had 
 
136 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 no negotiations wifh Jefferson concerning the 
 establishment of his paper, and that Jefferson 
 bad never controlled it in the least, or written 
 or dictated a line for it. Hamilton, in replica- 
 tion, contemptuously declined to seek any other 
 antagonist than Jefferson himself. His argu- 
 ments were powerful, and a great wrath in- 
 spired his pen. But defenders of the Secretary 
 of State were not lacking; and Hamilton, being 
 once in the field, had perforce to lay about 
 him among a throng of small assailants, for 
 whose destruction he cared little, while Jeffer- 
 son himself, with exasperating caution, declined 
 to be drawn into the furious arena. 
 
 Washington beheld this sudden melee with 
 extreme annoyance, and made a noble, pathetic, 
 hopeless effort to close a chasm which the forces 
 of nature herself had opened. He wrote to each 
 Secretary a short letter of personal appeal, 
 breathing a beautiful spirit of concord and 
 patriotism. From each he received a note- 
 worthy and characteristic response, courteous 
 and considerate towards himself, but showing 
 plainly the impossibility of harmony between 
 two representatives so adverse in intellectual 
 constitution. Hamilton briefly justified what 
 he had done, and said that he must now go 
 through with this conflict, but that he would 
 try not to become so involved again. Jefferson 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 137 
 
 sent an elaborate argument, defending himself 
 and his party, and arraigning the policy and 
 the character of the Federalists. The letter is 
 such an ample exposition of the anti-Federalist 
 tenets, such a forcible apologia of the writer, 
 that it ought not to be mutilated by excerpts ; 
 yet it is much too long for reproduction here. 
 
 Jefferson began by saying that when he "em- 
 barked in the government, it was with a deter- 
 mination to intermeddle not at all with the 
 Legislature, and as little as possible with my 
 co-departments." For the most part he had 
 scrupulously observed this wise resolution, 
 though he bitterly recalled his share in the 
 assumption measure. Into this " I was duped 
 by the Secretary of the Treasury, and made a 
 tool for forwarding his schemes, not then suffi- 
 ciently understood by me ; and of all the errors 
 of my political life this has occasioned me the 
 deepest regret." He acknowledged that he 
 had " utterly, in his private conversations, dis- 
 approved of the system of the Secretary of 
 the Treasury," which "flowed from principles 
 adverse to liberty, and was calculated to under- 
 mine and demolish the republic, by creating 
 an influence of his department over the mem- 
 bers of the Legislature." He then developed 
 fully his favorite theory of a " corrupt squad- 
 ron" in Congress, whose votes could always 
 
138 THOMAS JEFFERSON, ' 
 
 turn the scale, who were under the command 
 of the Secretary of tlie Treasury, and were by 
 him used *' for the purpose of subverting, step 
 by step, the prhiciples of the Constitution, 
 which he had so often declared to be a thing 
 of nothing which must be changed." He com- 
 plained that his own abstinence from interfer- 
 ence with the Treasury Department had not 
 been reciprocated by Hamilton, who had re- 
 peatedly intermeddled in the foreign affairs, 
 and always in the way of friendship to England 
 and hostility to France, a policy " exactly the 
 reverse " of that of Jefferson, and, as Jefferson 
 believed, also of that of Washington. He then 
 passed to the attacks made by Hamilton, as 
 "An American," in Fenno's " Gazette." For 
 the charge of disloyalty to the Constitution, he 
 denied that he had been more an opponent of 
 the Constitution than Hamilton, and showed 
 that his objections to it had been vindicated by 
 the subsequent adoption of amendments almost 
 wholly coextensive with his criticism ; whereas 
 Hamilton had been dissatisfied because " it 
 wanted a king and house of lords." Hamilton, 
 he said, wished the national debt " never to be 
 paid, but always to be a thing wherewith to 
 corrupt and manage the Legislature," whereas 
 he himself would like to see it "paid to- 
 morrow." Still harping on corruption, he 
 
SECRET ART OF STATE. 139 
 
 said : " I have never inquired what number of 
 sons, relatives, and friends of senators,' repre- 
 sentatives, printers, or other useful partisans, 
 Colonel Hamilton has provided for among the 
 hundred clerks of his department, the thousand 
 excisemen at his nod, and spread over the 
 Union ; nor could ever have imagined that the 
 man vrho has the shuffling of millions back- 
 wards and forwards from paper into money, and 
 money into paper, from Europe to America, 
 and America to Europe ; the dealing out of 
 treasury secrets among his friends in what time 
 and measure he pleases ; and who never slips 
 an occasion of making friends with his means, 
 — that such an one, I say, would have brought 
 forward a charge against me for having ap- 
 pointed the poet Freneau a translating clerk to 
 my office, with a salary of two hundred and 
 fifty dollars a year." He tells the story of the 
 starting of Freneau's paper in a way to excul- 
 pate himself ; and, concerning its subsequent 
 conduct, says : " I can protest, in the presence 
 of Heaven, that I never did, by myself or any 
 other, say a syllable, nor attempt any kind of 
 influence. I can further protest, in the same 
 awful Presence, that I never did, by myself or 
 any other, directly or indirectly, write, dictate, 
 or procure any one sentence or sentiment to be 
 inserted in his or any other gazette to which 
 
140 . THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 my name was not affixed, or that of my office." 
 He concluded : " When I came into this office 
 it was with a resolution to retire from it as 
 soon as I could with decency. It pretty early 
 appeared to me that the proper moment would 
 be the first of those epochs at which the Con- 
 stitution seems to have contemplated a peri- 
 odical change or renewal of the public ser- 
 vants. ... I look to that period with the 
 longing of a wave- worn mariner who has at 
 length the land in view, and shall count the 
 days and hours which still lie between me and 
 it." But, he says, though he has a " thorough 
 disregard for the honors and emoluments of 
 office," he has a great value "for the esteem 
 of his countrymen ; and, conscious of having 
 merited it," he " will not suffer his retirement 
 to be clouded by the slanders of a man whose 
 history, from the moment at which history can 
 stoop to notice him, is a tissue of machinations 
 against the liberty of the country which has not 
 only received and given him bread, but heaped 
 its honors on his head." For himself, he declares 
 his belief, with obvious innuendo, that the peo- 
 ple do not regard him as "an enemy of the 
 republic, nor an intriguer against it, nor a 
 waster of its revenue, nor prostitutor of it to 
 the purposes of corruption." 
 
 The letter is a characteristic and very re- 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 141 
 
 markable document ; it deserves to have become 
 as famous as a great speech, so plausible was it 
 in defensive argument, so imposing in denunci- 
 ation, so bitter in personal invective, so skilful 
 and yet earnest in its interweaving of truth 
 with gross misrepresentations, so spirited at 
 once and pathetic in its protestations of recti- 
 tude. It contained some falsehoods, yet it 
 was honestly written. It did not induce Wash- 
 ington to abjure Hamilton, but it proved to 
 him that each side was too much in the right 
 to yield, and that each had such an honest con- 
 fidence in the wickedness of the other, that 
 reconciliation was hopeless ; matters had gone 
 far beyond that stage when Jefferson had the 
 audacity to talk of the moment when history 
 could first stoop to notice his distinguished 
 rival, and could actually twit Hamilton with 
 having had bread " given " to him by the coun- 
 try ! 
 
 Federalist historians have always lost their 
 tempers over this most aggravating epistle, and 
 are accustomed to compare the replies of the 
 two secretaries vastly to Jefferson's discredit. 
 Hamilton, they say, did not malign his oppon- 
 ent in private correspondence with their com- 
 mon chief. But the fact that Hamilton did 
 not see fit to write an elaborate, argumentative, 
 ofEensive and defensive letter does not establish 
 
142 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the fact that Jefferson ought not to have done 
 so. Neither, when writing, knew what course 
 the other would pursue in this respect, so that 
 no unfair advantage was taken. It may be 
 well suspected that the real cause of the Fed- 
 eralist vexation is, that Hamilton left no cor- 
 rective antidote to Jefferson's powerful docu- 
 ment. In the long struggle between Hamilton 
 and Jefferson, the Hamiltonians always inti- 
 mated that Jefferson was a darkling underhand 
 antagonist, who would covertly traduce and 
 vilify, and employ underlings to take the re- 
 sponsibilities and encounter the perils which he 
 himself should have assumed. Thus they de- 
 pict him as a contemptible and cowardly char- 
 acter ; but, as it seems, with a great exaggera- 
 tion of the truth, if not altogether without any 
 truth. Hamilton was by his nature a fighter, 
 ardent, defiant, self-confident, always ready to 
 change blows with one or with a host, half 
 winning victory by his sanguine anticipation of 
 it. Jefferson on the other hand was as non- 
 combatant as a Quaker, seldom and reluctantly 
 entering a debate either in words or in print. 
 But his detractors were of opinion that if he 
 would not make a political speech, he ought not 
 to talk politics with his friends after dinner ; if 
 he would not write political articles for the 
 newspapers, he ought never to put an expres* 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 143 
 
 sion of political opinion into his correspond- 
 ence. They laid down for him an absurd rule 
 which was followed by no man in those days, or 
 indeed in an}^ days. It does not appear that 
 Jefferson ever concealed his sentiments, or 
 that he often conciliated any man in public and 
 defamed him in private ; observing these prin- 
 ciples, he had a perfect right to declare his 
 beliefs about public men and measures, in con- 
 versation or in letter-writing, to any person 
 whomsoever. 
 
 So long as the department of national finances, 
 the liquidation of the national debt and pro- 
 vision for its payment, the establishment of 
 the bank and of the mint, the arrangement of 
 the tariff, and the organization of taxes consti- 
 tuted the chief business of the government, it 
 was impossible for Jefferson to encounter Ham- 
 ilton with any hope of success. For even if 
 Hamilton's financiering had been as unsound as 
 in fact it was sound, Jefferson was too much of 
 a novice in such matters to expose any errors. 
 In other matters, also, Hamilton enjoyed great 
 influence and prestige induced by his admirable 
 management of his preeminently important 
 department. It was not without reason that 
 Jefferson complained that his colleague en- 
 croached on his functions. Hamilton had the 
 
144 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 mind of a ruler, and could not help placing 
 himself substantially at the head of the nation, 
 with a policy on every subject and an uncon- 
 querable habit of making that policy felt. It 
 was not surprising that Jefferson became irri- 
 tated and discouraged ; for it was evident that 
 he had no reasonable hope of holding his own 
 unless the struggle could be transferred to some 
 new field better suited to his abilities. For- 
 tunately for him, precisely this movement was 
 already going rapidly forward. Just about the 
 time when the opponents of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury had become consolidated and trained 
 by- the severe lessons of repeated disasters, and 
 when Jefferson's position as their leader had 
 become universally admitted, questions of do- 
 mestic policy began to be superseded by the 
 foreign relations of the United States. The 
 new problems soon took such shape that Jeffer- 
 son and his followers regained courage. They 
 had become an organized party and had as- 
 sumed a good part}^ name ; known at first only 
 in a negative way as anti-Federalists, they had 
 seized upon the monarchical heresy as afford- 
 ing them a better designation, and now signi- 
 fied their loyalty to the Constitution by calling 
 themselves Republicans. Their doctrine, how- 
 ever, was properly democratic ; and very soon 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 145 
 
 a portion of their party described itself as the 
 democratic-republicans, and then of this double 
 phrase the less appropriate half was lopped off 
 and the name of " Democrats " has ever since 
 been permanently retained. 
 
 10 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SECRETARY OF STATE : FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 
 
 It was the wild gales of the French Revolu- 
 tion, whirling witli hardly diminished fury 
 across the Atlantic, which at last filled the 
 swelling sails of the Democrats. The story of 
 the political excitement caused in the United 
 States by that momentous upheaval is a tale so 
 much more than twice told, that in this small 
 volume it may properly be treated with a brev- 
 ity disproportioned to its great importance. In 
 its earlier stages the movement was watched 
 with intense and unanimous approbation by all 
 persons in this country. But as events went on 
 this harmony vanished ; men of conservative 
 temper and orderly instincts began to look dis- 
 trustfully upon anarchy, bloodshed, and that 
 miscalled equalization which was really a turn- 
 ing upside down. Hamilton and the Federal- 
 ists inclined to repudiate a sister republic of 
 such doubtful aspect, and to consider French 
 republicanism not much more akin to Ameri- 
 can republicanism than the faithless wife in a 
 French novel is like the puritan matron of New 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE, 147 
 
 England. Jefferson, on the other hand, re- 
 mained steadfast in his adhesion to the cause of 
 the people, even the worst and lowest people, 
 in a land which he loved scarcely less ardently 
 than his own. In his letters from France he 
 had vigorously expressed his hearty abhorrence 
 of the universal and hideous wretchedness be- 
 gotten of the monarchical system. It was now 
 impossible for him to be appalled by the most 
 destructive storms which promised to clear the 
 guilt-laden atmosphere. With him felt the great 
 mass of the American people, who maintained 
 a constant good-will towards the revolutionists, 
 even through the massacres of September, and 
 applauded in turn Lafayette and Danton, the 
 Girondins who overthrew the old monarchy, 
 and the Jacobins who overthrew the Girondins. 
 This extravagant ardor was early raised to 
 the frenzy point by the French declaration of 
 war against England, which country was still 
 profoundly hated by nine tenths of the inhabit- 
 ants of the United States. With mingled alarm 
 and disgust Hamilton and his party saw this 
 mighty wave of passion sweeping across the 
 land, nor were they reassured at beholding 
 prominent on the top of this resistless surge 
 the Secretary of State, sustained in triumph by 
 the vast force of popular numbers. Jefferson, 
 on the other hand, was naturally well content ; 
 
148 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 he always understood the dynamics of politics, 
 and now while Hamilton marshalled the intel- 
 ligence and wealth of the country into an army 
 of political followers, unequalled in the quality 
 of its material by any party which has ever 
 existed in the country, Jefferson gazed with in- 
 stinctive confidence over the sea of ignorant but 
 countless faces upturned towards himself. He 
 knew that with dull numbers at his back he 
 could in time outmatch the educated but too 
 thin ranks of federalism. He was quite right. 
 In a much blinder way, because he was intel- 
 lectually immeasurably below Jefferson, but 
 with the same sure instinct, Andrew Jackson 
 afterward repeated the triumphs of Jefferson by 
 V the aid of the same classes of the community. 
 So now at last, after having faithfully endured 
 through the disconsolate period of domestic 
 politics, the Republican leader seemed in a fair 
 way to gain the upper hand when foreign poli- 
 tics usurped the attention of every one. Had 
 it only been a measured Gallic craze instead of 
 absolute madness that ruled the hour, he might 
 not have been obliged even to abide the inter- 
 val of John Adams' incumbency, but might 
 have been the second President of the United 
 States. 
 
 On April 4, 1793, news arrived in the United 
 States that France had proclaimed war against 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 149 
 
 England. Five days later Genet, the new 
 French minister, landed at Charleston. An 
 anxious and stormy period was opened for the 
 administration by these two events. The duty, 
 which was also the honest wish, of the govern- 
 ment to maintain a strict neutrality was of un- 
 usual difficulty for many reasons. (1.) There 
 were entangling treaty obligations towards 
 France, which bound the United States to 
 guarantee her in the maintenance of her West 
 Indian islands in any defensive war ; and nice 
 questions were : whether the war declared by 
 France should be considered, as she claimed, 
 defensive ; also, whether treaties entered into 
 with the royal government were binding to- 
 wards its successor. (2.) Both combatants soon 
 manifested a resolution to have no neutrals ; 
 and each, committing outrageous infractions of 
 neutral rights, treated any nation not taking 
 part with it as being against it. (3.) Genet 
 cherished and carried out, in the most unscrupu- 
 lous and energetic way, the deliberate purpose 
 of embroiling the United States with Great 
 Britain. (4.) Very few persons in the United 
 States really had the neutral temper ; Hamil- 
 ton led an English party, Jefferson led a French 
 party, and the passions which, in those strange 
 times, set all Europe aflame blazed with equal 
 fury in the United States. 
 
150 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 A cabinet meeting decided, as was inevitable, 
 that a pioclamation substantially of neutrality 
 should be issued by the President. Jefferson 
 succeeded in bringing about that the word 
 " neutrality " should not appear in it, so that 
 the document might not be avowedly, and in 
 terras, what it was in fact. He thought it bet- 
 ter to hold back the formal annunciation of 
 neutrality, as a " thing worth something to the 
 powers at war, that they would bid for it, and 
 we might reason abl}^ ask a price, the broadest 
 privileges of neutral nations." His policy, pos- 
 sibly open to some criticism in point of princi- 
 ple, was imperfectly adopted. The paper, as it 
 was finally issued, did not half please him. To 
 his chagrin, he had not been permitted to draft 
 it, though it fell naturally within his depart- 
 ment, the more neutral temper of Attorney- 
 General Randolph being deemed better fitted 
 for the task. In cabinet divisions Knox always 
 gave his vote to Hamilton ; Randolph so often 
 gave his to Jefferson as to provoke that secre- 
 tary extremely by his unwillingness always to 
 do so. He seemed so near to the character of 
 a thorough-going partisan, that he was more 
 hated for not being entirely so than thanked 
 for the partial allegiance which he actually ren- 
 dered. Jefferson said : " He always contrives 
 %o agree in principle with me, but in conclu- 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 151 
 
 sion with the other ; " and again, '' The fact is, 
 that he has generally given his principles to 
 the one party, and his practice to the other, the 
 oyster to one, the shell to the other. Unfortu- 
 nately the shell was generally the lot of his 
 friends, the French and Republicans, and the 
 oyster of their antagonists." Hnmilton thought 
 much worse than this of Randolph. But the 
 truth is that the Attorney-General was a clear- 
 headed, dispassionate adviser, of an excellent 
 shrewdness in matters of international law, 
 and, as in the present instance, much more 
 often right than either of the extremists be- 
 tween whom he stood. The dissatisfied Secre- 
 tary of State, however, wrote in disgust to 
 Madison : " I dare say you will have judged 
 from the pusillanimity of the proclamation 
 from whose pen it came. A fear lest any af- 
 fection should be discovered is distinguishable 
 enough. This base fear will produce the very 
 evil they wish to avoid. For our constituents, 
 seeing that the government does not express 
 their mind, perhaps rather leans the other way, 
 are coming forward to express it themselves." 
 
 This prophecy was true enough. Before 
 Genet left Charleston he had dispatched priva- 
 teers and issued officers' commissions ; and the 
 very vessel in which he arrived was taking 
 prizes in American waters before he had been 
 
152 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 presented to the President. Yet in spite of 
 these strange doings, his slow progress north- 
 ward was made through exulting and triumph- 
 ant crowds, who set no bounds to their French 
 ecstasies. He was received at a civic banquet 
 in Philadelphia at which the guests sang the 
 Marseillaise, passed around the red liberty cap, 
 and hailed each other as " citizen." Jefferson, 
 though wisely refraining from attendance at 
 these ceremonies, watched them with perfect 
 sympathy, and with sanguine and swelling in- 
 dignation against Hamilton and the British 
 party. Henceforth to the abusive epithets of 
 " monarchists " and " monocrats " he added 
 those of " Anglomaniacs " and " Anglomen," 
 as conveying at least an equal measure of re- 
 proach. He described to Monroe with pleas- 
 ure, and without a word of reprobation, the 
 boisterous throngs which hailed the French 
 Ambuscade, when she brought in as a prize 
 The Grange, captured in flagrant defiance of 
 international law actually inside the capes of 
 Delaware. " I wish we may be able," he said, 
 *' to repress the spirit of the people within the 
 limits of a fair neutrality. In the mean time 
 Hamilton is panic-struck if we refuse our 
 breech to every kick which England may 
 choose to give it. He is for proclaiming at 
 once the most abject principles, such as would 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 153 
 
 invite and merit habitual insults ; and, indeed, 
 every inch of ground must be fought in our 
 councils to desperation, in order to hold up 
 even a sneaking neutrality ; for our votes are 
 generally two and a half against one and a 
 half," — another slap at Randolph's even-mind- 
 edness. He adds with evident satisfaction that 
 immense bankruptcies have taken place in Eng- 
 land, "the last advices made them amount to 
 eleven millions sterling and still going on." 
 By like remarks the antipathy which he enter- 
 tained for the enemies of France is constantly 
 made to appear. December 15, 1792, he writes 
 triumphantly : " We have just received the glo- 
 rious news of the Prussian army being obliged 
 to retreat, and hope it will be followed by some 
 proper catastrophe on them. This news has 
 given wry faces to our monocrats here, but sin- 
 cere joy to the great body of our citizens. It 
 arrived only in the afternoon of yesterday, and 
 the bells were rung, and some illuminations 
 took place in the evening." June 28, 1793, he 
 cheerfully anticipates that the English bank- 
 ruptcies will " proceed to the length of an uni- 
 versal crash of their paper." England, he says, 
 "is emitting assignats also, that is to say, 
 exchequer bills . . . not founded on land as 
 the French assignats are, but on pins, thread, 
 buckles, hops, and whatever else you will pawn 
 
154 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 in the exchequer of double, the estimated value. 
 But we all know that five millions of such stuff, 
 forced for sale on the market of London where 
 there will be neither cash nor credit, will not 
 pay storage. This paper must rest then ulti- 
 mately on the credit of the nation, as the rest 
 of their public paper does, and will sink with 
 that." 
 
 On the other hand, no acts of the French 
 shocked Jefferson's sensibilities or weakened 
 his faith. December 19, 1792, he notes with 
 satisfaction that his party are " taking to them- 
 selves the name of Jacobins, which, two months 
 ago, was fixed upon them by way of stigma.'* 
 A few days later he writes, concerning the 
 massacres committed by that infamous French 
 Club, that the "struggle" was "necessary," 
 though in it " many guilty persons fell without 
 the forms of trial, and with them some inno- 
 cent. These I deplore as much as anybody, 
 and shall deplore some of them to the day of 
 my death. But I deplore them as I should 
 have done had they fallen in battle. It was 
 necessary to use the arm of the people, — a 
 machine not quite so blind as balls and bombs, 
 but blind to a certain degree. . . . My own 
 affections have been deeply wounded by some 
 of the martyrs to this cause ; but rather than 
 it should have failed, I would have seen half 
 
SECRET ART OF STATE. 155 
 
 the earth desolated; were there but an Adam 
 and Eve left in every country, and left free, it 
 would be better than as it now is ; " with much 
 more of like tenor. 
 
 Yet, amid all this gratification, he was 
 obliged, with unwilling hand, to write to the 
 French minister that The Grange had been un- 
 lawfully captured and must be returned ; also 
 he had to check many other enterprises of that 
 enthusiast, and to demand much reparation. 
 Still to his credit it must be said, that, however 
 distasteful these duties were, he performed them 
 all fairly enough. Nevertheless, it is true that 
 he could not bring himself to express any posi- 
 tive indignation at one of the most lawless and 
 insulting acts ever committed towards a neutral 
 nation ; and in the many letters which he was 
 obliged to write to Genet concerning the equip- 
 ment, dispatch, and subsequent conduct of the 
 Franco- American privateers, he invariably used 
 language as colorless as if he had been inditing 
 a treatise on international law. 
 
 When Genet presented his letters of cre- 
 dence, Jefferson wrote to Madison : *' It is im- 
 possible for anything to be more affectionate, 
 more magnanimous, than the purport of his 
 mission. . . . He offers everything and asks 
 nothing." But the laggard Virginian post 
 Qould hardly have brought this letter to Madi- 
 
156 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 son's hands before even its writer would have 
 had to reverse the last-quoted sentence. For, 
 in truth, Genet very promptly made it apparent 
 that he came to offer nothing and to grasp 
 everything ; and that his mission, instead of 
 being one of unalloyed affection and magnan- 
 imity, was really to bring all the resources of 
 the American people to the aid of France, and 
 to transmute the neutral ports of the United 
 States into bases of naval operations against 
 England. He had a trunk full not only of 
 blank letters of marque for privateers to be 
 unlawfully equipped in our ports, but even 
 blank commissions, naval and military, for 
 American citizens who should recruit men to 
 take part in the war. Nay, he even dared to 
 set up French admiralty tribunals in this coun- 
 try, actually conferring on the French consuls 
 the power to try and condemn such prizes as 
 the French privateers should capture and bring 
 in. Jefferson was obliged to inform him that 
 these doings were all wrong and utterly intol- 
 erable. It was a disagreeable duty, but if the 
 Secretary wrote his letters dispassionately, he 
 at least wrote them plainly and manfully, and 
 contented himself with advancing on the French 
 side in the cabinet such arguments upon other 
 issues as opportunity made possible from time 
 to time. For example, a most urgent request 
 
SECRET ARY OF STATE. 157 
 
 was preferred by the needy revolutionary gov- 
 ernment of France that the United States would 
 pay, in anticipation of maturity, the indebted- 
 ness incurred to France during the late war for 
 American independence. In October, 1792, Jef- 
 ferson wrote to Gouverneur Morris, then min- 
 ister to France, that payment must be tem- 
 porarily suspended, "since there is no person 
 authorized to receive it and give us an unob- 
 jectionable acquittal." But on June 6, 1793, 
 the republic being then established, he advised 
 Washington : " I think it very material myself 
 to keep alive the friendly sentiments of that 
 country as far as can be done, without risking 
 war or double payment. If the instalments 
 falling due this year can be advanced, without 
 incurring those dangers, I should be for doing 
 it." 
 
 For a brief period now Jefferson felt san- 
 guine. He declared cheerfully that his senti- 
 ments were *' really those of ninety-nine in a 
 hundred of our citizens ; " that the prospects of 
 the Anglican party " have certainly not bright- 
 ened ; " that, except for that " little party," 
 which has sought a "stepping stone to mon- 
 archy," "this country is entirely republican, 
 friends to the Constitution," etc. Yet even 
 amid these few weeks of triumph and hope the 
 indomitable temper of the hard-fighting Secre- 
 
158 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tary of the Treasury harassed Jefferson with 
 daily vexations. May 13, 1793, he complains 
 bitterly that Hamilton is encroaching on his 
 department, actually proposing to instruct the 
 collectors of customs to watch for infractions of 
 neutrality by French vessels, and to report them 
 secretly to him (Hamilton). To deliver the 
 country from a "mere English neutrality," he is 
 obliged to rely on the fact " that the penchant 
 of the President is not that way, and, above 
 all, the ardent spirit of our constituents." 
 
 But the largest cloud which darkened the 
 prospect was blown from a quarter to which 
 Jefferson had been looking only for floods of 
 glorious sunlight. From the hour when Genet 
 first set foot in the country, that restless emis- 
 sary of discord allowed scarcely a day to glide 
 by without a fresh indiscretion or a new breach 
 of law. The energetic friendliness of the Sec- 
 retary of State rapidly changed to anxiety, and 
 soon anxiety became anger. His letters to 
 Genet, at first so significantly dispassionate, 
 came soon to express genuine indignation and 
 rebuke. For Jefferson could not quite bring his 
 pacific nature to the ]3oint of wishing to find 
 his country committed to actual war, and he 
 appreciated with regret that Genet was aiming 
 at that end. Further, with his unerring polit- 
 ical sagacity, Jefferson saw plainly that Genet 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 159 
 
 was so recklessly contemning the laws and in- 
 dependence of this country, that an Anglican 
 reaction must inevitably soon set in. He wrote 
 to Monroe that Genet's "conduct is indefen- 
 sible by the most furious Jacobin." When at 
 last the blind arrogance of the excited French- 
 man led him to insult Washington with the 
 threat that he himself, foreigner as he was, 
 and bound by diplomatic courtesies, would pub- 
 licly appeal from the President to the people, 
 actually saying that he would only respect 
 the political opinions of the President till the 
 representatives should have confirmed or re- 
 jected them, Jefferson's wrath at this fatal 
 blundering could no longer be restrained. He 
 denounced with asperity the unfortunate fa- 
 natic whose boundless folly was turning back 
 the republican party in its rapid march towards 
 triumph. He admitted that Genet's recall must 
 be demanded, and indeed heartily longed to see 
 him depart ; he only begged that the dis- 
 missal might not be personally insulting in 
 form. He wrote a letter to Morris, at Paris, 
 reviewing Genet's behavior, from the landing 
 at Charleston, in language that ought to have 
 been gratifying even to the " Anglomen.'' " If 
 our citizens," he concluded, " have not already 
 been shedding each other's blood, it is not owing 
 to the moderation of Mr. Genet." On the other 
 
160 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 hand, it should be said that Genet afterward 
 spoke very severely of Jefferson, as one who 
 had privately incited and encouraged him, and 
 afterward publicly abandoned him. Probably 
 Jefferson's objections lay not so much to the 
 political morality as to the ill-advised lack of 
 tact which distinguished the envoy's doings. 
 Certainly his indignation was strictly limited 
 to the individual offender, and did not in the 
 least affect his French sympathies. Writing to 
 Madison, September 1, 1793, he spoke of *' the 
 friendly nation " and " the hostile one," mean- 
 ing respectively France and England. He was 
 even less neutral than ever before. 
 
 Throughout the harassing alternations of 
 hope, irritation, and disappointment which 
 filled up this period of Genet's mission, Jef- 
 ferson's conduct as a statesman was upon the 
 whole sound and praiseworthy. He was bent 
 upon going as far in aid of France as was pos- 
 sible without falling into war with England; 
 but that danger line he was honestly resolved 
 not to cross. In the cabinet meetings, when 
 Hamilton tossed arguments into the British 
 scale, he tossed counter-balancing arguments 
 into the French scale. The result was a set 
 of neutrality rules which have served as prece- 
 dents for the action of civilized nations ever 
 since, and of which a large proportion were 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 161 
 
 asserted and justified in his official letters. But 
 his consummate political tact is more interest- 
 ing to the student of his character. This was 
 shown most prominently by the way in which 
 he first led the French movement, and then 
 managed to stand aside for a brief period, when 
 it was no longer possible to remain in front 
 without losing his prestige, and compromising 
 his right to resume his leading position at an 
 appropriate moment. Excited as his frame of 
 mind was at this time, still he was toa shrewd 
 to make a blunder in the political game. Peo- 
 ple may dispute whether he was on the right 
 side or the wrong, but every one must concede 
 his extraordinary personal astuteness. He saw 
 a considerable section of his party, — the lead- 
 ing and conspicuous section, — justifying nearly 
 all Genet's lawless and foolish acts, running 
 wild in democratic clubs and fraternizations, 
 wearing liberty caps, and aping revolutionary 
 slang. To eyes less sagacious than his, these 
 extremists seemed to constitute the van of the 
 party. But Jefferson knew more correctly the 
 character of such a body and the destiny of it^ 
 movement. He believed that they were not 
 leaders who were going to be followed and in 
 time overtaken by the nation ; and he surely 
 knew that they were striking a pace with which 
 the people could not keep up, and at which 
 11 
 
162 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 they themselves would inevitably topple over. 
 But while he recognized these facts, he did not 
 proclaim them ; nor did he make a futile effort 
 to check the headlong rush. He had no notion 
 of being run over by his own troops, or of mak- 
 ing himself unpopular by displaying an un- 
 timely sagacity. Though he regretted to see 
 a disaster precipitated, he well knew that its 
 mischief would not exceed a temporary delay. 
 When the disaster came, his precaution pre- 
 vented it from involving him. As its effect 
 passed over, the great mass of his party, remem- 
 bering that he had not lost his head, trusted 
 him more implicitly than ever ; while the reck- 
 less members were obliged to respect his supe- 
 rior shrewdness, and felt grateful to him for 
 having spared them public rebukes. He had 
 pursued his usual and moderate course ; he had 
 shunned the easy mistake of cherishing dissen- 
 sions or jealousies in his party ; he had made 
 no enemies ; and especially he had shown that 
 rare power of accurately appreciating the true, 
 safe, and permanent volume of a popular move- 
 ment which distinguishes him above all the 
 statesmen of his generation. 
 
 But in spite of the strength of the Frencb 
 party among the people at large, and in spite 
 of his own prudence, Jefferson's official position 
 in the cabinet remained very unpleasant. A 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 163 
 
 man of bis temper could find little comfort in 
 unceasing antagonism with such a hard-hitting, 
 untiring combatant as Hamilton. His occa- 
 sional victories, far too few to satisfy him, were 
 conquered by such incessant and desperate con- 
 flict as was most wearing and odious to him. 
 From such a life he longed to escape, and few 
 men have sought so earnestly to get into oflSce 
 as he sought to get out of it. So early as 
 March 18, 1792, he writes to Short of an in- 
 tention, which he describes as having been al- 
 ready expressed, to retire at the end of Wash- 
 ington's first term. September 9, 1792, in the 
 famous anti-Hamilton letter to Washington, he 
 repeats the remark, saying, " I look to that pe- 
 riod with the longing of a wave-worn mariner, 
 who has at length the land in view, and shall 
 count the days and hours which still lie be- 
 tween me and it." He spoke more honestly 
 than officials often do who hold such language, 
 and it was with real reluctance that he con- 
 sented to remain beyond this established bound. 
 He was resolved, however, to make the delay 
 as short as possible, and on July 31, 1793, he 
 wrote to Washington that " the close of the 
 present quarter seems to be a convenient pe- 
 riod." But Washington's importunity almost 
 took away his liberty of action, and absolutely 
 compelled him to stay till the end of the year. 
 
164 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Then at last he escaped, and set out for Monti- 
 cello with the joy of one freed from prison. 
 
 Of course nothing which Jefferson could do 
 at this juncture could escape censure. He was 
 even blamed now for getting out of office as he 
 had long been blamed for remaining in it. The 
 same people who had been stigmatizing him as 
 the chief of an opposition within the adminis- 
 tration, obstinately retaining governmental of- 
 fice for the express purpose of thwarting the 
 administration policy, now said that he ought 
 not to have resigned until Hamilton also should 
 find it convenient to resign. They declared 
 that Washington was embarrassed by the ne- 
 cessity for rebuilding his cabinet piece-meal ; 
 that Hamilton still had some matters in his de- 
 partment to be completed, and Jefferson should 
 have stayed till these were finished; that then 
 the two rivals could properly go out together. 
 Both charges were wholly unjust. Washing- 
 ton, fully cognizant of the condition of affairs 
 in his cabinet, had exerted all the pressure 
 which he decently could to retain Jefferson in 
 office, which, indeed, apart from this considera- 
 tion, Jefferson was not required to abandon by 
 any obligation not equally binding upon Ham- 
 ilton ; for it was a fair struggle between the 
 two. Nor was it better than ridiculous to ex- 
 pect Jefferson to withhold his own resignation 
 
SECRETARY OF STATE. 165 
 
 for an indefinite period out of complaisance for 
 the convenience of his chief personal and polit- 
 ical enemy. How did he know that Hamilton 
 would resign at all ? He was not in Hamilton's 
 confidence, and did not trust him, nor did he 
 deem it desirable that Hamilton should remain 
 in office at all. It was absurd to expect him to 
 promote such remaining. If his own resigna- 
 tion put a pressure on Hamilton also to resign, 
 it seemed so much the better. In a word, Jef- 
 ferson's behavior was thoroughly proper, and 
 the two charges brought against him by his 
 accusers were so inconsistent with each other 
 as to be mutually destructive. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 IN EETREAT. 
 
 At home on his plantations Jefferson was 
 supremely happy. " The principles," he said, 
 "on which I calculated the value of life are 
 entirely in favor of my present course. I re- 
 turn to farming with an ardor which I scarcely 
 knew in my youth, and which has got the bet- 
 ter entirely of my love of study." He puts off 
 answering his letters, " farmer-like, till a rainy 
 day." He does not " take a single newspaper, 
 nor read one a month," and he finds himself 
 "infinitely the happier for it." He indulges 
 himself " on one political topic only, that is, in 
 declaring to my countrymen the shameless cor- 
 ruption of a portion of the representatives to 
 the first and second Congresses, and their im- 
 plicit devotion to the Treasury." 
 
 But even without newspapers the farmer 
 managed to keep his knowledge and his inter- 
 est fresh in all matters of foreign and domestic 
 politics. He saw with regret his " countrymen 
 groaning under the insults of Great Britain." 
 He hoped that the triumphs of the French 
 
IN RETREAT, 167 
 
 armies would " kindle the wrath of the people 
 of Europe against those who have dared to em- 
 broil them in such wickedness, and would bring 
 at length kings, nobles, and priests to the scaf- 
 folds which they have been so long deluging 
 with human blood. I am still warm whenever 
 I think of these scoundrels, though I do it as 
 seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to con- 
 template the tranquil growth of my lucerne and 
 potatoes." He hopes that *'some means will 
 turn up of reconciling our faith and honor with 
 peace" with England; and he is "in love" with 
 the " proposition of cutting off all communica- 
 tion with the nation which has conducted itself 
 so atrociously." When the Non-Importation 
 Bill was lost in the Senate, he testily wrote that 
 the senatorial "body was intended as a check on 
 the will of the representatives when too hasty. 
 They are not only that, but completely so on 
 that of the people also ; and in my opinion are 
 heaping coals of fire, not only on their persons, 
 but on their body as a branch of the Legisla- 
 ture." 
 
 He had left behind him a famous report on 
 commerce which was bitterly fought over in 
 Congress, Madison and Giles backing it against 
 the united force of the Federalists and the mer- 
 cantile interest. It sought to encourage trade 
 with France and to curtail the established busi- 
 
168 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ness relations with England. Jefferson's theory 
 was that business should not be controlled by- 
 sentiment ; but he firmly believed that the true 
 commercial interests of the country could be bet- 
 ter aided by a French than by an English com- 
 merce. His arguments were very plausible, but 
 did not suffice to induce our merchants to un- 
 dergo the labor and risk of deserting familiar 
 channels in search of new ones. The resolu- 
 tions based on the report only served as the 
 field for a long and obstinate battle between 
 the Gallic and the Anglican factions. 
 
 Jefferson was greatly vexed at the " denunci- 
 ation " of those democratic societies which had 
 been recently instituted here in imitation of the 
 Jacobin Club, and declared this persecution to 
 be " one of the extraordinary acts of boldness 
 of which we have seen so many from the faction 
 of monocrats." When Washington, reluctantly 
 yielding to strong pressure, included in his mes- 
 sage an unfavorable reference to these organiza- 
 tions, Jefferson thought it " wonderful, indeed, 
 that the President should have permitted him- 
 self to be the organ of such an attack on the 
 freedom of discussion, the freedom of writing, 
 printing, and publishing." He was watching 
 Washington's course with profound anxiety and 
 some jealous distrust. For he thought that the 
 President was losing his judicial impartiality, 
 
IN RETREAT, 169 
 
 and changing from the head of the nation to 
 the head of a party. He lamented this pros- 
 pect, and seriously feared that the time might 
 come when Washington's "honesty and his po- 
 litical errors " might give the people a second 
 occasion to exclaim " curse on his virtues ! they 
 have undone his country." 
 
 The " whiskey insurrection " in Western 
 Pennsylvania very nearly commanded actual 
 sympathy from Jefferson. He writes to Madi- 
 son, December 28, 1794, that he is unable to 
 see that the transactions " have been anything 
 more than riotous. There was, indeed, a meet- 
 ing to consult about a separation. But to con- 
 sult on a question does not amount to a deter- 
 mination of that question in the affirmative, 
 still less to the acting on such a determination." 
 " But," he continues, " we shall see, I suppose, 
 what the court lawyers, and courtly judges 
 and would-be ambassadors will make of it. The 
 excise law is an infernal one. The first error 
 was to admit it by the Constitution ; the sec- 
 ond, to act on that admission ; the third and 
 last will be, to make it the instrument of dis- 
 membering the Union, and setting us all afloat 
 to determine what part of it we will adhere 
 to." 
 
 It was inevitable that Jay's treaty should 
 seem to Jefferson absolutely odious ; and in the 
 
170 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 storm which it launched across the country, and 
 which threatened for a time to bring even Wash- 
 ington's administration into grave jeopard}^ Jef- 
 ferson was among the most irreconcilable of the 
 malcontents. At first a "slight notice" of it 
 was sufficient " to decide [his] mind against 
 it." As the discussion grew heated, and the 
 result seemed so important and so doubtful 
 that Hamilton, in the armor of " Curtius " and 
 " Camillus," came down into the lists, Jefferson 
 became greatly agitated. He beheld with dis- 
 may the " only middling performances " of the 
 writers on his side, and implored Madison to 
 take part. *' Hamilton," he said, " is really a 
 Colossus to the anti-republican party ; without 
 numbers he is an host within himself. They 
 have got themselves into a defile, where they 
 might be finished ; but too much security will 
 give time to his talents and indefatigable- 
 ness to extricate them. ... In truth, when he 
 comes forward, there is nobody but yourself 
 can meet him. . . . For God's sake take up 
 your pen, and give a fundamental reply to 
 Curtius and Camillus." True to his reluctance 
 to become personally involved in such conflicts, 
 he seems never to have contemplated the possi- 
 bility of taking his own pen in hand. 
 
 The " execrable thing," as he called the 
 treaty, was at last ratified, under the influence 
 
IN RETREAT. 171 
 
 of Washington's discovery of Randolph's per- 
 fidy. Bat an equally fierce and much more 
 dangerous crisis was created by the effort of 
 its opponents in the House of Representatives 
 to obtain the diplomatic papers concerning it, 
 and to obstruct its fulfilment by refusing the 
 necessary legislation. Here again Jefferson 
 went heartily to the extreme length upon 
 which his party ventured. He was led into 
 some inconsistencies ; but the excitement was 
 so great and the political opportunity so prom- 
 ising, that no party leader could have been 
 expected to respect the trammels of dispas- 
 sionate opinions on merely cognate questions 
 of principle given by him at cabinet consulta- 
 tions in quieter times. Yet the ultimate tri- 
 umph of the Federalists in these treaty disputes 
 left Jefferson cheerful under defeat. " It has 
 been to them," he said, "a dear-bought vic- 
 tory ; it has given the most radical shock to 
 their party which it has ever received." It 
 leaves them so " that nothing can support them 
 but the Colossus of the President's merits with 
 the people ; and the moment he retires, his suc- 
 cessor, if a monocrat, will be overborne by the 
 republican sense of his constituents ; if a Re- 
 publican, he will of course give fair play to 
 that sense, and lead things into the channel of 
 harmony between the governors and governed. 
 In the mean time, patience." 
 
172 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The prospect of Republicanism was brighten- 
 ing when this shrewd judge could contemplate 
 the possibility of Washington being succeeded 
 by a professor of that faith. Such, indeed, was 
 the state of feeling in the nation at large, and 
 so much were the sympathy with France and 
 the aversion toward England stimulated by 
 hatred of the treaty, that a Republican victory 
 would have been less wonderful than many 
 things which happen in popular politics. The 
 Federal party had been forcing many unpopular 
 measures, and making many enemies. It was 
 visibly losing ground ; but it did not lose quite 
 fast enough to give the Republicans control of 
 the next election. Jefferson must have " pa- 
 tience " yet a little longer. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that at the time 
 of the third presidential election, 1, the electors 
 were still permitted to exercise some individual 
 discretion and independence; 2, the votes for 
 President and Vice-President were not sepa- 
 rately cast, but the person receiving the highest 
 number of votes was President, and the person 
 receiving the next highest number was Vice- 
 President. In spite of the hopes of Jefferson 
 and the fears of Adams, the Federalists were 
 abundantly able to control the choice of both 
 officers. But the lack of harmony in their 
 councils created a danger which they under- 
 valued and failed properly to guard against. 
 Upon the whole, Adams deserved to win in 
 the competition which existed within his own 
 party ; and after some discussion it became 
 generally understood that he should be re- 
 garded as the Federalist candidate for the 
 first place, and that Thomas Pinckney should 
 have the second position. But the Federalist 
 party was preeminently a party of leaders, and 
 
174 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 could easily have furnished at least a dozen 
 men, each abundantly fit for the presidency. 
 Among so many Adams was not so palpably 
 and undeniably first that all had to admit his 
 claim ; on the contrary, many questioned it and 
 many were personally his enemies. In this con- 
 dition of feeling, his followers became naturally 
 but unfortunately suspicious that one or more 
 of the Federalist votes might be diverted from 
 him by machinations of Hamilton, or that some 
 southern Republican, more attached to his sec- 
 tion than to his partj^, might vote for Pinckney. 
 In either contingency Adams might, of course, 
 have been only Vice-President. The Republi- 
 cans, on the other hand, had no such difficulties; 
 Jefferson was their unquestioned leader ; Madi- 
 son was greatly his inferior in the science of 
 practical politics, and Clinton, Burr, Monroe, 
 and Gallatin were all second-rate men. So the 
 Republicans went into the colleges thoroughly 
 united, while the Federalists, distrusting each 
 other, sought not only a party but a partisan 
 success. Some of the Adams men, to defend 
 him against the suspected hostility and schemes 
 of Pinckney's friends, threw away their second 
 votes. The result was that Jefferson came in 
 ahead of Pinckney, and was even within four 
 votes of beating Adams himself.^ Thus by in- 
 
 1 Adams received 71 votes, Jefferson 68, Pinckney 59, Burr 
 30 ; the rest were scattering. 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 175 
 
 excusable bad faith and bad management the 
 Federalists lost the second place and gravely 
 imperilled the first. Jefferson would have 
 permitted no such bungling in a party led by 
 him. 
 
 December 17, 1796, Jefferson wrote to Madi- 
 son : "The first wish of my heart was, that you 
 should have been proposed for the administra- 
 tion of the government. On your declining it, 
 I wish anybody rather than myself ; and there 
 is nothing I so anxiously hope, as that my name 
 may come out either second or third." Ten 
 days later he wrote to Rutledge : " My name, 
 however, was again brought forward without 
 concert or expectation on my part; (on my 
 salvation I declare it.) ... I protest before 
 my God that I shall from the bottom of my 
 heart rejoice at escaping. ... I have no ambi- 
 tion to govern men ; no passion which would 
 lead me to delight to ride in a storm. . . . My 
 attachment is to my home," etc., etc. January 
 1, 1797, he told Madison : " No motive could 
 have induced me to undertake the first [office.] 
 . . . The second is the only office in the world 
 about which I cannot decide in my own mind, 
 whether I had rather have it or not have it." 
 Undoubtedly in these passages the " lady doth 
 protest too much ; " but Jefferson only behaved 
 as nine men out of ten, in like situations, always 
 
176 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 have behaved and always will behave. He dep- 
 recated the idea that he coveted anything so 
 much as the lot of living quietly at home ; but 
 he took all he could get once, twice, and thrice, 
 and spent twelve years at the national capital 
 without any determined efforts to escape. 
 
 While he played the great game of the Re- 
 publicans with consummate skill and in the best 
 of spirits, Jefferson never neglected those little 
 affectations which win the confidence of shal- 
 low lookers-on. He now took pains to arrange 
 that no special messenger should be sent to 
 notify him of his election, but that the simple, 
 inexpensive, eminently republican means of the 
 post-office should be employed. Concerning 
 the inauguration he said : " I hope I shall be 
 made a part of no ceremony whatever. I shall 
 escape into the city as covertly as possible. If 
 Governor Mifflin should show any symptoms of 
 ceremony, pray contrive to parry them." He 
 succeeded in carrying out this plan of slipping 
 as it were unobserved into office ; and Adams, 
 who had quite the contrary taste, absorbed the 
 popular attention. 
 
 Jefferson came to the vice-presidency in a 
 cheerful and sanguine temper. He saw plainly 
 that Hamilton was no longer to hold supreme 
 control over a united party, and Hamilton was 
 the only man among the federalists whom he 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 177 
 
 really feared. Neither was he sorry to have 
 Washington also out of the way, for he had 
 long regarded Washington as a Federalist, mod- 
 erate, patriotic, and honest indeed, but vastly 
 more dangerous than better partisans, because 
 of his overshadowing influence. June 17, 1797, 
 he acknowledged in a letter to Burr that he 
 had " always hoped that, the popularity of the 
 late President being once withdrawn from act- 
 ive effect, the natural feelings of the people 
 towards liberty would restore the equilibrium 
 between the executive and legislative depart- 
 ments, which had been destroyed by the supe- 
 rior weight and effect of that popularity." For 
 a few weeks now he even ventured to contem- 
 plate the possibility of harmonious relations 
 between Mr. Adams and himself, which signi- 
 fied, of course, that by his astuteness he would 
 achieve an influence over the blunt, impetuous, 
 and egotistical President. As the best intro- 
 duction to this friendliness, he had quickly 
 formed the clever design of making hatred of 
 Hamilton a bond of union between Adams and 
 himself, and he promptly set about strengthen- 
 ing in Adams' jealous and suspicious nature a 
 sentiment which would put the hot-headed 
 New Englander quite within his control. On 
 December 28, 1796, he wrote to Adams : " It is 
 possible, indeed, that even you may be cheated 
 
 12 
 
178 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 of your succession by a trick worthy tlie sub- 
 tlety of your arch friend of New York, who 
 has been able to make of your real friends tools 
 for defeating their and your just wishes." From 
 this time until they met he studiously made the 
 most cordial professions, and cast abroad suave 
 and pleasant remarks like decoys to the very 
 uncertain old bird whom he was hopeful to 
 lure. For a da}'' or two after his arrival at the 
 seat of government his anticipations seemed 
 correct. He came to Philadelphia on March 2, 
 "and called instantly on Mr. Adams. . . . The 
 next morning he returned my visit. . . . He 
 found me alone in my rooms, and shutting the 
 door himself, he said he was glad to find me 
 alone, for that he wished a fiee conversation 
 with me.*' The " free conversation " must 
 have been most grateful ; for the President ex- 
 pressed his wish to avoid the imminent rupture 
 with France, and to send an "immediate mis- 
 sion to the Directory." Nay, it was even " the 
 first wish of his heart " to make Jefferson the 
 envoy; but since both agreed that this was 
 impossible, Adams suggested that Gerry and 
 Madison, Republicans both, should be joined 
 with Pinckney as commissioners. Such for- 
 tune was too good to last. Three days later 
 Jefferson walked home with Adams from a din- 
 ner party at General Washington's house, and 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 179 
 
 was obliged to say that Madison's refusal was 
 positive. Thereupon Mr. Adams '* immedi- 
 ately said that, on consultation, some objec- 
 tions to that nomination had been raised which 
 he had not contemplated ; and was going on 
 with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, 
 when . . . our road separated, . . . and we 
 took leave ; and he never after that said one 
 word to me on the subject, or ever consulted 
 me as to any measures of the government." 
 Thus, after such fleeting courtesies, the Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President fell permanently asun- 
 der ; and somewhat later we find Jefferson 
 wholly uninformed concerning most interesting 
 items of foreign diplomatic proceedings. In 
 fact, Adams came not bringing peace, but a 
 sword ; and the animosities of parties and of 
 individuals have never been fiercer in this 
 country than they were during his administra- 
 tion. 
 
 Very soon it seemed as though a real sword 
 would be drawn in what the Republicans 
 deemed an unholy, if not quite a fratricidal, 
 conflict with France. The Director}^, crazed 
 with Napoleon's victories, were finding causes 
 of war against all mankind. A rumor had even 
 gained currency that the failure to elect Jeffer- 
 son President would be construed as the suffi- 
 cient inducement for hostilities against the 
 
180 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 United States. The question no longer was 
 whether this country should be driven into de- 
 claring war, but whether France would begin it. 
 She professed to consider the recent treaty with 
 England as a breach of treaties previously made 
 with herself. When Pinckney arrived to suc- 
 ceed Monroe as minister, she insolently turned 
 him away ; she issued most extraordinary de- 
 crees against American commerce, and com- 
 mitted intolerable depredations upon American 
 shipping ; her Directory dismissed Monroe with 
 compliments to himself so framed as to be also 
 insults to the government which had recalled 
 him, and declared that no successor would be 
 received until the United States should have 
 made a satisfactory redress of grievances, 
 though what grievances had occurred was un- 
 known. Such exasperating items of news, 
 coming in rapid succession, fired the hot tem- 
 per of Mr. Adams, disgusted moderate citizens, 
 and of course strengthened the party hostile to 
 France. An extra session of Congress was con- 
 vened in May, and was advised by the Presi- 
 dent to create a navy, to fortify harbors, and 
 generally to prepare for defensive war. The 
 Vice-President's party, on the other hand, be- 
 came anxious and despondent. Things seemed 
 to be going against them. Jefferson noted that 
 " the changes in the late election have been 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 181 
 
 unfavorable to the Republican interest ; " and 
 though " peace was the universal wish," yet he 
 was fearful that Congress might " now raise 
 their tone to that of the Executive, and embark 
 in all the measures indicative of war, and, by- 
 taking a threatening posture, provoke hostili- 
 ties from the opposite party." " War, " he 
 said, " is not the best engine for us to resort 
 to. Nature has given us one in our commerce, 
 which, if properly managed, will be a better in- 
 strument for obliging the interested nations of 
 Europe to treat us with justice." He was in 
 favor of an embargo. Further, he thought that 
 the warlike cry was " raised by a faction com- 
 posed of English subjects residing among us, 
 or such as are English in all their relations and 
 sentiments." By June 17 he noted with pleas- 
 ure that " Bonaparte's victories and those on 
 the Rhine, the Austrian peace, British bank- 
 ruptcy, mutiny of the seamen,^ and Mr. King's 
 exhortations to pacific measures," had alarmed 
 people into more submissive sentiments. 
 
 Adams, though naturally combative, justly 
 felt it his duty to keep the peace if possible. 
 Accordingly, while France still lingered in the 
 stage of threats and outrages, he appointed 
 Gerry and Marshall to join Pinckney in Paris 
 as envoys extraordinary. Jefferson earnestly 
 1 The famous mutiny at the Nore. 
 
182 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 implored Gerry to go. He wrote : " Peace is 
 undoubtedly at present the first object of our 
 nation. Interest and honor are also national 
 considei-ations. But interest, duly weighed, is 
 in favor of peace even at the expense of spolia- 
 tions past and future ; and honor cannot now 
 be an object. The insults and injuries commit- 
 ted on us by both the belligerent parties, from 
 the beginning of 1793 to this day, and still con- 
 tinuing, cannot now be wiped off by engaging 
 in war with one of them." Nor is his old fear 
 of the monarchists banished ; " be assured," he 
 says, '' that if we engage in a war during our 
 present passions and our present weakness in 
 some quarters, our Union runs the greatest risk 
 of not coming out of that war in the same 
 shape in which it enters it. My reliance for 
 our preservation is on your acceptance of this 
 mission." Under such pressure Gerry accepted, 
 but in an evil hour for himself. 
 
 Jefferson has left a gloomy picture of the 
 times. The " present passions," he says, were 
 such that political opponents could no longer 
 *' separate the business of the state from that 
 of society," and "speak to each other." "Men 
 who have been intimate all their lives cross the 
 street to avoid meeting, and turn tbi^ir heads 
 another way lest tbey should be obliged to 
 touch their hats." All this, he says, is " afflict- 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 183 
 
 ing" to him, since " tranquillity is the old man'3 
 milk." Certainly it did not advance his tran- 
 quillity that, in this summer of 1797, his famous 
 letter to Mazzei found its way before the pub- 
 lic. This had been written April 24, 1796, to 
 his old fiiend and neighbor in Virginia, the 
 Italian Mazzei, then in Europe ; had been 
 translated " from English into Italian, from 
 Italian into French, and from French into Eng- 
 lish." In its original form its important para- 
 graph was as follows : — 
 
 "The aspect of our politics has wonderfully changed 
 since you left us. In place of that noble love of lib- 
 erty and republican government which carried us tri- 
 umphantly thi-Qugh the war, an Anglican monarchical 
 aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed ob- 
 ject is to draw over us the substance, as they have 
 already done the forms, of the British government. 
 The main body of our citizens, however, remain true 
 to their republican principles; the whole landed inter- 
 est is republican, and so is a great mass of talents. 
 Against us are the Executive, the Judiciary, two out 
 of three branches of the Legislature, all the officers 
 of the government, all who want to be officers, all 
 timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the 
 boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants, and 
 Americans trading on British capitals, speculators 
 and holders in the banks and public funds, a con- 
 trivance invented for the purpose of corruption, and 
 for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well 
 
184 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 as the sound parts of the British model. It would 
 give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates 
 who have gone over to these heresies, men who were 
 Samsons in the field and Solomons in the council, but 
 who have had their heads shorn by the harlot, Eng- 
 land. In short, we are liliely to preserve the liberty 
 we have obtained, only by unremitting labors and 
 perils. But we shall preserve it ; and our mass of 
 weight and wealth on the good side is so great as to 
 leave no danger that force will ever be attempted 
 against us. We have only to awake and snap the 
 Lilliputian cords with which they have been entan- 
 gling us during the first sleep which succeeded our 
 labors." 
 
 In the shape in which this letter at last came 
 into print in the United States, the " general 
 substance," as Jefferson admitted, remained his, 
 and only one mistake was worth correction. 
 The Federalists at once raised a howl of indig- 
 nation. Washington had been traduced, they 
 said, falsely, basely, perfidiously, by an appar- 
 ent friend. Unquestionably there was a dis- 
 agreeable aspect about the matter, which it 
 would have been pleasant to be able to remove, 
 but presumably there were difficulties in the 
 way of a thorough removal ; at least Jefferson 
 wisely refrained from entangling explanations.^ 
 
 1 See his letter to Madison of August 3, 1797; Works 
 (Cong, ed.), iv. 193. 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 185 
 
 Many years afterward he alleged ^ that his 
 strictures were not aimed at Washington, bat 
 at the other members of the Cincinnati; and 
 that Washington himself could not have mis- 
 construed the letter. But Federalist historians 
 have taken these tardy glosses no more kindly 
 than the party at the time took the letter. 
 Afterward a story was circulated, that Wash- 
 ington, with much severity, called Jefferson to 
 account, that Jefferson humbly apologized or 
 explained, but that the correspondence and a 
 volume of Washington's " Diary " had disap- 
 peared, presumably through the aid of the pri- 
 vate secretary, Lear, with whom Jefferson was 
 on a footing of friendship, which in this con- 
 nection seemed suspicious. All this Jefferson 
 vigorously denied, and even such a partisan as 
 Mr. Hildieth admits that *' the evidence of the 
 story is wholly insufficient." Federalists then, 
 however, and Federalist writers ever since, have 
 strenuously asserted that Jefferson forfeited 
 Wasliington's confidence, as if this fact, if true, 
 would involve a like withdrawal of confidence 
 by every one else. It has always seemed to 
 the thorough Federalist that to question the 
 perfect wisdom of Washington in matters po- 
 
 1 See his letter to Van Buren of June 29, 1824 {Works 
 (Cong, ed.), vii. 362), which contains Jefferson's side of this 
 famous controversy, very carefully and fully stated. 
 
186 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 litical was a sort of secular profanity, and of 
 tliis crime Jefferson was on some few occasions 
 guilty. Yet in the main Jefferson undoubtedly 
 had a sincere and honest reverence for Wash- 
 ington's character, and was not hypocritical in 
 treating him with respect and regard. Though 
 at times he deplored to his f liends the use and 
 effect of the President's influence, and though, 
 also, he probably underrated Washington's in- 
 tellectual ability, yet in his strictly personal 
 behavior and relations towards Washington he 
 compares very favorably even with the Feder- 
 alist John Adams ; neither did he leave behind 
 him any opinions concerning Washington's men- 
 tal powers nearly so derogatory as those which 
 Timothy Pickering, most stalwart of Federal- 
 ists, has bequeathed in his manuscripts. He 
 was furtlier very bitterly reproached for not 
 controlling or ostracizing certain notorious Re- 
 publican writers, who assailed Washington with 
 such a coarse and brntal atrocit}'' as recalls the 
 worst days of Grub Street. It was unfortunate 
 that he did not use his influence to restrain 
 these men, or that he did not venture to visit 
 them with his personal disfavor. It may bo 
 fairly questioned how far the head of a party 
 can be held responsible for the tail ; but Amer- 
 icans alwa^^s have thought, and always will 
 think, that the case of Washington was peculiar 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 187 
 
 and deserved a rule for itself. It was unpar- 
 donable to permit such gross libels as were ut- 
 tered concerning him, if they could be stopped ; 
 this has been the sober judgment of posterity 
 no less than of all dispassionate contempora- 
 ries ; and it has always been believed that 
 Jefferson could have safely and efficiently ex- 
 ercised such a restraining authority. In his ex- 
 culpation it can only be said that he was never 
 coercive in handling his followers, and tliat his 
 policy was to allow the extreme of freedom in 
 abuse as well as in more commendable matters. 
 He himself often endured malignant and false 
 assaults in silence. Nevertheless the American 
 people have never forgiven him for standing 
 by with apparent unconcern while Washington 
 was writhing under tfee villainous calumnies of 
 the Republican news-wi iters. At the time the 
 opportunity to represent that Jefferson was ha- 
 bitually backbiting Washington, that he was 
 at last detected flagrante delicto^ and that there 
 was consequent alienation between the two, was 
 a useful weapon vigorously used b}^ the Feder- 
 alists with, perhaps, as much honesty as is con- 
 sidered necessary in political controversy. 
 
 Meantime the envoys, Pinckney, Marshall, 
 and Gerry, were very ill received in Paris, or 
 rather were not diplomatically received at all. 
 The Directory refused to treat until their mys- 
 
188 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 terious grievances should have been redressed, 
 and apologies made for offensive language in 
 Mr. Adams' speech to Congress. The unfortu- 
 nate trio, indignant, harassed, and despairing, 
 were already contemplating an ignominious re- 
 turn from a bootless errand, when they were 
 surprised by a visit from certain private emis- 
 saries of Talleyrand. In a series of interviews 
 these go-betweens proposed that the United 
 States should make a public loan to the Direc- 
 tory, and pay a handsome bribe into the hands 
 of Talleyrand, whereupon injuries and excuses 
 might be prsetermitted, and negotiations would 
 advance prosperously. Much talk was wasted 
 on this shameless proposition which, fortunately, 
 came to nothing. Then at last Marshall and 
 Pinckney withdrew in disgust. Gerry fool- 
 ishly, though not altogether without some spe- 
 cious excuse, suffered himself to be persuaded 
 into remaining for a while alone ; an action 
 upon his part, which was doubtless honestly in- 
 tended, but which was at best of questionable 
 propriety, and which subjected him to fierce de- 
 nunciation from the Federalists, who declared 
 that he was either the dupe or the willing tool 
 of the Directory. 
 
 In March, 1798, the President, in a state of 
 great irritation, announced to Congress and to 
 the country the failure of the mission. The 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 189 
 
 excitement was intense. The Federalists hur- 
 ried forward with motions for defensive prep- 
 arations, and for strengthening and organizing 
 the army and the navy ; they no longer admit- 
 ted a possibility of avoiding war. The Repub- 
 licans were greatly disturbed, but maintained 
 a stout opposition, not absolutely devoid of ef- 
 fect ; they resembled a brake grating upon 
 wheels which may be impeded, but cannot be 
 stayed. Very soon, however, the wheels seemed 
 to free themselves from all check. For in re- 
 sponse to a demand upon the President for the 
 correspondence of the envoys, the whole dis- 
 graceful story of the proceedings at Paris was 
 made public. Only in place of the real names 
 of the go-betweens there were substituted the 
 letters X, Y, Z, which thereafterward gave a 
 name to the whole affair. The country burst 
 into furious indignation. The President, losing 
 his head as usual when the hot blood surged to- 
 wards his brain, made his famous and foolish 
 assertion that no minister should again be sent 
 to France without previous assurance that he 
 should be received as the envoy of a ''great, 
 free, independent, and powerful people." The 
 Federalists in Congress pushed through one 
 vigorous war measure after another ; the mass 
 of the people, who oscillate in the middle space 
 between the decided partisans, now went over 
 
190 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 in full force to the Federal side ; the Republi- 
 cans were discomfited and almost despairing ; 
 some held their peace in temporary despair and 
 confusion, while a few kept up the fight, in the 
 desperate temper of the Spartans at Thermo- 
 pylae. Scarcely any one of either party dared 
 to doubt that war was close at hand. 
 
 Amid all this turmoil, madness, and Repub- 
 lican demoralization, Jefferson displayed a cool- 
 ness and ability quite rare and admirable. 
 Like others of his way of thinking, he received 
 at first a painful shock from the X Y Z de- 
 velopments, but rallied with superb courage 
 and promptness. The occurrence proved to 
 him that Talleyrand was a rascal, but not that 
 alienation Avas either necessary or proper be- 
 tween France and the United States. For Jef- 
 ferson's political faith was a profound, immuta- 
 ble conviction, not to be overthrown by isolated 
 miscarriages however unfortunate. His eternal 
 confidence in the cause of freedom and of the 
 people was never shaken by the blunders of 
 honest but wrong-headed colleagues, such as 
 Genet had been, nor by the crimes or treachery 
 of base individuals like Talle^n-and and the Di- 
 rectory. He did not lose belief in principles be- 
 cause their prominent advocates now and again 
 lacked wisdom or integrit3\ His abiding con- 
 stancy proves that he was not a hypocrite, time- 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 191 
 
 server, and demagogue, but a thorough and sin- 
 cere believer in the political doctrines which he 
 publicly professed. In matters of detail he was 
 politic, not always ingenuous, not rigidly truth- 
 ful, not altogether incapable of subterfuge and 
 even of meanness. But he never in any stress 
 deserted, or even temporarily disavowed, his 
 main principles. He never lost faith or cour- 
 age. Democrats might commit follies, errors, 
 and crimes, but he stood steadfastly by democ- 
 racy. He did not trim his sail to every flaw 
 on the political ocean, but awaited through the 
 longest unpromising days, with a noble patience, 
 the powerful and steady gale which he was con- 
 vinced would in time carry the nation upon the 
 true course. For though a master of political 
 craft he was not merely a politician ; he was a 
 great statesman, with broad views and grand 
 purposes, whether sound or not. Periods like 
 that through which he was now passing proved 
 these facts. While narrower intellectual visions 
 were filled by the ugly panel of the panorama 
 directly before them, Jefferson said: this will 
 soon glide into the limbo of past scenes, and 
 must not alone fasten a character upon the 
 whole spectacle ; the odiousness of this special 
 display is no reason for condemning the entire 
 show, which, as a whole, is noble and improv- 
 ing. So all his efforts were aimed at gaining 
 
192 THOMAS JEFFERSON, ' 
 
 time, and lie urged a relentless opposition to all 
 measures in the way of warlike preparation. 
 
 Events justified Jefferson's policy ; yet for the 
 time there seemed so little likelihood of such 
 a result that it is difficult to say that he was 
 right in opposing all precautionary measures. 
 The result did not come about in the way that 
 he expected. Nor were his hopes of an agree- 
 able kind ; for he anticipated that a series of 
 French victories would soon so discourage the 
 people that they would prefer to submit to un- 
 just French demands rather than to encounter 
 invincible French troops. In fact the escape 
 came not in this humiliating shape, but through 
 the different and surprising channel of concili- 
 atory advances on the part of France and an 
 extraordinary response from Mr. Adams. Tal- 
 leyrand, confounded by the publication of his 
 knavery, but too wise to fall into a rage, which 
 would have been substantially a plea of guilty, 
 declared that the whole X Y Z episode had 
 been a huge mistake. Soon he further inti- 
 mated to Vans Murray, the American minister 
 at the Hague, that France desired to reopen 
 negotiations on a friendly footing. The whole 
 story is one of th.e most interesting in the his- 
 tory of the United States, but as it is also one 
 of the most familiar, there can be no excuse for 
 appropriating any of our limited space to its 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 193 
 
 repetition. The result was, as every one knows, 
 that Mr. Adams, of his own motion, dispatched 
 a new embassy to France, succeeded in making 
 a treaty and avoiding a war, and by his cour- 
 age, independence, and obstinacy conferred upon 
 the United States as great a good as the coun- 
 try has ever received at the hands of a Presi- 
 dent. At the same time he split the ah-eady 
 inharmonious Federal party into two hostile di- 
 visions, which for the future hated each other 
 with that peculiar virulence which marks a fam- 
 ily feud. 
 
 During Mr. Adams' administration the Fed- 
 eralists, besides falling into many foolish quar- 
 rels and blunders, were guilty of one real polit- 
 ical crime. This was the passage, amid the 
 French excitement, of the Alien and Sedition 
 acts, statutes probably contrary to the letter 
 and certainly grossly discordant with the spirit 
 of the Constitution. Under the extreme prov- 
 ocation thus given, Jefferson's wonted coolness 
 and sagacity deserted him, and he concocted a 
 Republican antidote far worse than the Federal- 
 ist poison. He drew the wicked " Kentucky res- 
 olutions." Intending them as a protest against 
 unconstitutional enactments, he far outran the 
 constitutional limits of the most vigorous pro- 
 test, and wrote a document which was simply 
 revolutionary. Even the reckless frontier Legis- 
 
 13 
 
194 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 lature administered a severe blood-letting to it 
 before they would pass it. Yet even in its 
 modified form it remained a foundation and 
 sufficient precedent and authority for all the 
 subsequent secession doctrines of the Eastern 
 States, for the nullification proceedings of South 
 Carolina, almost, if not quite, for the rebellion 
 of 1861. Reacting against extreme oppression, 
 Jefferson fell into the abyss of what has since 
 been regarded as treason. The misfortune is 
 attributable to his theorizing argumentative 
 habit of laying down abstract doctrines of 
 right and wrong in matters of government. In 
 his defence it can only be said that nullifica- 
 tion and secession appeared less heinous in his 
 day than in later times. Even Madison soon 
 afterward drew the Virginia resolutions, only a 
 little less objectionable than the work of Jeffer- 
 son. It is indicative of the light in which such 
 doctrines were then regarded, that these pro- 
 ceedings did not seriously injure either their 
 authors or the party which adopted them. 
 
 Yet when it was the other party that found 
 threats of secession convenient, Jefferson was 
 fully sensible of the folly of such schemes. In 
 June, 1798, he wrote : — 
 
 " If on a temporary superiority of one of the 
 parties the other is to resort to a scission of the 
 union, no federal government can ever exist. If to 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 195 
 
 rid ourselves of the present rule of Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut, we break the Union, will the evil 
 stop there ? Suppose the New England States alone 
 cut off, will our nature be changed ? Are we not 
 men still to the south of that, and with all the pas- 
 sions of men? Immediately we shall see a Penn- 
 sylvania and a Virginia party arise in the residuary 
 confederacy, and the public mind will be distracted 
 with the same party spirit. What a game, too, will 
 the one party have in their hands by eternally threat- 
 ening the other that unless they do so and so they 
 will immediately join their northern neighbors. If 
 we reduce our Union to Virginia and North Carolina, 
 immediately the conflict will be established between 
 the representatives of these two States, and they will 
 end by breaking into their simple units." 
 
 In other words, secession was a medicine 
 which only one physician could be allowed to 
 prescribe. 
 
 In March, 1800, both parties were already 
 eagerly forecasting the chances of the autum- 
 nal elections. Jefferson wrote : " The Federal- 
 ists begin to be very seriously alarmed about 
 their election next fall. Their speeches in 
 private, as well as their public and private 
 demeanor to me, indicate it strongly." After 
 a careful discussion of the chances in the doubt- 
 ful States, he cautiously declared his own con- 
 clusion : " Upon the whole I consider it as 
 rather more doubtful than the last election, in 
 
196 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 which I was not deceived in more than a vote 
 or two ; " but he allows it to be plainlj^ read 
 between the lines that, though stopping short 
 of actually predicting a Republican success, he 
 is really very sanguine of it. He had abundant 
 ground for stronger hopes than he expressed. 
 
 The Federalists threw aside all scruples in 
 conducting their campaign. A sample of the 
 abuse and falsehood in which they dealt may be 
 seen in one of the stoiies which they circulated 
 concerning Jefferson, charging that " he had ob- 
 tained his property by fraud and robbery ; 
 that in one instance he had defrauded and 
 robbed a widow and fatherless children of an 
 estate to which he was executor, of ten thou- 
 sand pounds sterling, by keeping the property 
 and paying them in money at the nominal rate, 
 when it was worth no more than forty to one." 
 The facts were stated by Jefferson to one of his 
 friends as follows : — 
 
 " I never was executor but in two instances, both 
 of which having taken place about the beginning of 
 the Revolution, which withdrew me immediately from 
 all private pursuits, I never meddled in either exec- 
 utorship. In one of the cases only were there a 
 widow and children. She was my sister. She re- 
 tained and managed the estate in her own hands, and 
 no part of it was ever in mine. In the other I was a 
 copartner and only received on a division the equal 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 197 
 
 portion allotted me. . . . Again, my property is all 
 patrimonial, except about seven or eight hundred 
 pounds' worth of lands, purchased by myself and 
 paid for, not to widows and orphans, but to the very 
 gentleman from whom I purchased." 
 
 These denials, he said, he would vouchsafe 
 to his friend, but added, " I only pray that my 
 letter may not go out of your hands, lest it 
 should get into the newspapers, a bear-garden 
 scene into which I have made it a point to enter 
 on no provocation." He was probably the bet- 
 ter able to keep this wise resolution, because he 
 shrewdly appreciated that the rancor and per- 
 sonal malignity of his opponents were a sure 
 indication of their sense of weakness and of 
 coming defeat. The party which indulges most 
 freely in false personal vituperation almost in- 
 variably finds itself beaten at the polls. 
 
 This result grew steadily more certain as the 
 election drew nearer. The Federalists were dis- 
 heartened and fore-doomed by the internal dis- 
 sensions which split their party into factions 
 more hostile and jealous towards each other 
 than towards the common foe. The schism 
 which Adams had opened could not be closed, 
 and inevitable destruction awaited a house so 
 divided against itself. Defeat was further in- 
 sured by the admirable condition of the Repub- 
 lican party. It seems probable that for some 
 
198 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 time before the autumn of 1800, a fair polling 
 of the people would have shown many more 
 voters of Republican than of Federalist procliv- 
 ities. It had been the ability and individual 
 force of the Federalist leaders which had enabled 
 them to maintain the party supremacy so long. 
 But at last the Republicans had become thor- 
 oughly consolidated, and now, cheered by the 
 spectacle presented by their discordant adver- 
 saries, they were united, enthusiastic, and con- 
 fident. It had taken time for discipline and 
 organization to become perfectly established 
 throughout their masses, more especially be- 
 cause the labor had fallen almost exclusively 
 upon one man. For Jefferson had been obhged 
 to assume the task with very little assistance. 
 Burr alone, in New York, had proved a really 
 able political lieutenant. At last, however, by 
 tactics and policy intangible and indescribable 
 but wonderfully efficient, the immense multi- 
 tudes which constituted the Republican raw 
 material had been moulded into an irresistible 
 array, and he who had done this feat still justly 
 enjoys the reputation of being the ablest polit- 
 ical leader who has ever lived in this country. 
 The seciet of Jefferson's control of the igno- 
 rant populace was undoubtedly his honest faith 
 in them ; they instinctively felt that his pro- 
 fession of belief in the lower two thirds of the 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 199 
 
 community was genuine ; in return they gave 
 gratitude and confidence, and for years patiently 
 submitted to the drill, which he conducted with 
 admirable temper and untiring perseverance. 
 Thus he had now at length made them an in- 
 vincible body, accomplishing in politics with 
 the voters of the United States very much the 
 same thing that Napoleon was doing in military 
 matters with the untutored militia of France, 
 inspiring them with the irresistible spirit of vic- 
 tory. 
 
 This comparative condition of the two par- 
 ties was so well understood that no intelligent 
 observer was surprised at the result of the elec- 
 tions. There had been some talk of the old 
 manoeuvre of withdrawing a few Federalist votes 
 from Adams in order to bring in Charles C. 
 Pinckney ahead of him ; but the leaders became 
 aware of the peril of their situation in time to 
 shun this folly. There had also been some 
 danger that a few Republican votes might be 
 thrown away, in order to prevent the occur- 
 rence of a tie between the two Republican 
 candidates. On December 15 Jefferson wrote : 
 *' Decency required that I should be so entirely 
 passive during the late contest, that I never 
 once asked whether arrangements had been 
 made to prevent so many from dropping votes 
 intentionally as might frustrate half the Re- 
 
200 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 publican wish ; nor did I doubt, till lately, that 
 such had been made." In spite of this protes- 
 tation, it is altogether incredible that a party 
 led by Jefferson would ever have been permit- 
 ted to lapse into so unpardonable a blunder as 
 that which had made him Vice-President, es- 
 pecially after the palpable warning of that oc- 
 currence. In fact, when the time came neither 
 party wasted any strength, and the votes of the 
 electoral colleges showed for Jefferson 73 votes, 
 for Burr 73, for Adams 65, for C. C. Pinckney 
 64, for Jay 1. The equality between Jefferson 
 and Burr of course cast the election into the 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 A period of extreme anxiety had now to be 
 endured, scarcely more by Jefferson than by the 
 whole people of the United States. For the po- 
 litical composition of the House was such that 
 the Republicans could not control the choice, 
 and the Federalists, though of course still more 
 unable to do so, yet had the power by holding 
 steadily together to prevent any election what- 
 soever. Momentous as such a political crime 
 would be, nevertheless many influential Fed- 
 eralists soon showed themselves sufficiently 
 embittered and vindictive to contemplate it. 
 " Several of the high-flying Federalists," wrote 
 Jefferson, December 15, 1800, " have expressed 
 their determination ... to prevent a choice by 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 201 
 
 the House of Representatives . . . and let the 
 government devolve on a President of the Sen- 
 ate." This threat naturally produced "great 
 dismay and gloom on the Republican gentlemen 
 here, and exultation in the Federalists, who 
 openly declare they . . . will name a President 
 of the Senate pro tern, by what they say would 
 only be a stretch of the Constitution." Some 
 Federalists asserted that even anarchy was pref- 
 erable to the success of Jefferson. December 
 31, Jefferson wrote : " We do not see what is to 
 be the end of the present difficulty. The Fed- 
 eralists . . . propose to prevent an election in 
 Congress, and to transfer the government by 
 an act to the Chief Justice [Jay] or Secretary 
 of State [Marshall], or to let it devolve on the 
 Secretary pro tern, of the Senate till next De- 
 cember, which gives them another year's pre- 
 dominance and the chances of future events. 
 The Republicans propose to press forward to 
 an election. If they fail in this, a concert be- 
 tween the two higher candidates may prevent 
 the dissolution of the government and danger 
 of anarchy, by an operation bungling indeed 
 and imperfect, but better than letting the Leg- 
 islature take the nomination of the Executive 
 entirely from the people." This " operation " 
 was explained, after the crisis had passed, as 
 follows : " I have been above all things solaced 
 
202 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 by the prospect which opened on us in the event 
 of a non-election of a President, in which case 
 the federal government would have been in 
 the situation of a clock or watch run down. 
 There was no idea of force, nor of any occa- 
 sion for it. A convention, invited by the Repub- 
 lican members of Congress, with the virtual 
 President and Vice-President, would have been 
 on the ground in eight weeks, would have re- 
 paired the Constitution where it was defective, 
 and wound it up again." It was easy for Jef- 
 ferson to write thus tranquilly and to settle a 
 terrible jeopardy by an obvious simile, after the 
 substantial peril had passed away and he had 
 been occupying the presidential chair for up- 
 wards of a fortnight. But it was most fortu- 
 nate for the country that he and his friends 
 were not driven to this " peaceable and legiti- 
 mate resource ; " they would hardly have suc- 
 ceeded in such an extra-constitutional process 
 of national watch-winding in the teeth of the 
 daring and vindictive men who led the power- 
 ful Federal minority. Still worse would it have 
 been for the existence of the infant nation if 
 force had been resorted to, of which there was 
 some threatening talk if the scheme of making 
 Jay or Marshall President should be seriously 
 undertaken. "If they could have been per- 
 mitted," wrote Jefferson, " to pass a law for 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 203 
 
 putting the government into the hands of an 
 ofl&cer, they would certainly have prevented an 
 election. But we thought it best to declare 
 openly and firmly, once for all, that the day 
 euch an act passed, the Middle States would 
 arm, and that no such usurpation, even for a 
 single day, should be submitted to. This first 
 shook them ; and they were completely alarmed 
 at the resource for which we declared, to wit, a 
 convention to reorganize the government and to 
 amend it. The very word ' convention ' gives 
 them the horrors." These letters present an 
 example of the contradictions into which Jef- 
 ferson was constantly led by his unconquerable 
 passion for construing facts to suit his purpose 
 or feelings of the moment. If it was so seri- 
 ously threatened that " the Middle States would 
 arm," that the Federalists were overawed by 
 the threat, he was not justified in complacently 
 saying that there was " no idea of force nor of 
 any occasion for it." It was his disingenuous 
 way of making any allegation which would re- 
 dound to the credit of his party and his polit- 
 ical creed. 
 
 Perhaps through a fear of some of the con- 
 sequences above indicated, or perhaps by reason 
 of a revival of good sense and patriotic feeling 
 among the Federalist leaders, the more extrava- 
 gant plans were gradually superseded by a proj- 
 
204 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ect marked by nothing worse than petty mal- 
 ice. Before the voting in the House was begun, 
 the Federalists had determined to rest content 
 with the personal defeat of Jefferson. Though 
 the electors could not designate which of the 
 two persons for whom they voted they intended 
 for President and which for Vice-President, 
 yet it was perfectly well known that the whole 
 Republican party had been of one mind in de- 
 signing the first place for Jefferson. Indeed, 
 for this position Burr would have been by no 
 means even their second choice; it was not 
 without reluctance and hesitation that they 
 had brought themselves to give him the vice- 
 presidency, as the price of his local influence. 
 But the Federalists, of course, cared not at all 
 for these facts ; they only cherished a hatred 
 and fear of Jefferson proportioned to the love 
 and trust felt towards him by the Republicans. 
 To throw him out would seem half a victory ; 
 and further, many Federalists would have been 
 so much pleased to see Adams defeated, that 
 they would have been almost reconciled to the 
 success of a Republican candidate really unde- 
 sired by his own party. A revenge, which hurt 
 so many of those whom they disliked, seemed 
 likely to tempt the anti-Adams Federalists be- 
 yond their strength of resistance. Happily 
 they were stayed from the immediate acoom- 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 205 
 
 plisliment of the plan by the impossibility of so 
 dividing the Republican members as to effect 
 the necessary combinations ; and during this 
 fortunate delay strong influences were at work 
 to save the party from the stigma of such dis- 
 graceful conduct. Hamilton strenuously and 
 nobly exerted the great authority which he still 
 wielded, and though at first few would listen to 
 him, yet in time his wonderful force triumphed 
 again as it had so often done in years gone by. 
 It is one of the strangest tales that history has 
 to tell, that Alexander Hamilton was a chief in- 
 fluence in making Thomas Jefferson President 
 of the United States. In so doing, the great 
 Federalist acted from a strict sense of duty, not 
 from any good-will towards Jefferson person- 
 ally, and perhaps this fact absolved Jefferson 
 from any sense of gratitude, which certainly he 
 never manifested in the faintest degree, even in 
 a negative way. Upon the seventh day of the 
 balloting, February 17, 1801, the long anxiety 
 which had weighed terribly not more upon Jef- 
 ferson individually than upon the people of the 
 whole country, was brought to an end. The 
 Federalist representative from Vermont absent- 
 ed himself ; the two Federalists from Maryland 
 put in blank ballots. So ten States, a sufficient 
 number, voted for Jefferson for President. No 
 one, as Jefferson declared with some pleasure, 
 
206 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 had changed sides ; the result had been achieved 
 not by apostate votes but by the more agree- 
 able process of abstention. The Constitution 
 had passed through a strain of such severity as 
 it has never but once since then encountered. 
 The recurrence of the danger was soon averted 
 by an amendment providing that henceforth the 
 electors should designate in their ballots their 
 choice for President and for Vice-President. 
 
 Federalist writers have alleged that " terms " 
 were made with Jefferson before his election 
 was permitted to take place. But this asser- 
 tion, intended to cast a blot upon his behavior, 
 has the most insignificant foundation, if, indeed, 
 it has any at all. He himself said, February 
 15, 1801, *' I have declared to them unequivo- 
 cally, that I would not receive the government 
 on capitulation, that I would not go into it with 
 my hands tied." He did not do so. He was 
 not a man who could ever have been induced 
 to such a transaction. The most that passed, 
 if anything at all did really pass, was a state- 
 ment made by one of his friends that, if elected, 
 he did not intend to set himself to overthrow 
 all the important Federalist legislation of the 
 past twelve j^ears, or to make a clean sweep of 
 Federalist incumbents from government offices. 
 That this exposition of his eminently proper 
 intentions could bring any reassurance to the 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT. 207 
 
 Federalists only shows how absurdly they were 
 frightened. Jefferson had. been through a try- 
 ing ordeal in a very honorable and clean-handed 
 way ; and in obtaining the presidency he got 
 no more than he was righteously entitled to. 
 
 Burr came out as badly as Jefferson came 
 well. Pie had been perfectly willing to acquire 
 the presidency by the foul means of a Federal 
 alliance, in direct contravention of the well- 
 known wishes of his own party. A more gross 
 betrayal of confidence could hardly be con- 
 ceived, even in political life. He had made it 
 clear that his heart was set upon personal ag- 
 grandizement and not upon a Republican suc- 
 cess. His untrustworthiness appeared the more 
 despicable by comparison with the strictly hon- 
 orable conduct of Jefferson, who might have 
 excused endeavors on his own behalf upon the 
 plausible ground that he was only forwarding 
 the avowed will of the party. The antipathy 
 with which many persons had long since learned 
 to regard Burr now became the sentiment of 
 all honest and intelligent men in the nation. 
 The time was not far distant when he was 
 sorely to need faithful friends ; but his conduct 
 in these days of temptation had alienated all 
 upright men. His behavior was the more base 
 because Jefferson had behaved handsomely to- 
 wards him throughout, and, while the question 
 
208 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 was still unsettled, wrote to liim that " it was 
 to be expected that the enemy would endeavor 
 to sow tares between us, that they might divide 
 us and our friends. Every consideration satis- 
 fies me that you will be on your guard against 
 this, as I assure you I am strongly." But how- 
 ever Jefferson might deprecate quarrels in the 
 party, both on political and personal considera- 
 tions, it was not in human nature that his faith 
 in Burr should not be gravely impaired, and 
 his private good-will towards such an unscrupu- 
 lous competitor completely undermined. 
 
CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 PRESIDENT : PIEST TERM. — OFFICES. — CAL- 
 LENDER. 
 
 On the evening of March 3, 1801, being the 
 last day of Federalist domination in the United 
 States, the functionaries of the moribund party- 
 were busy in a not very reputable way. Presi- 
 dent Adams was making Federalist nomina- 
 tions to official positions, and sending them in 
 to the Senate, which was rapidly confirming 
 them, and John Marshall, Secretary of State, 
 was signing commissions with zealous dispatch. 
 The hour of midnight came upon liini while 
 thus employed, and a dramatic tale represents 
 Levi Lincoln, who was to be Attorney-General 
 under Jefferson, walking into Marshall's othee, 
 with Mr. Jefferson's watch in his hand, and 
 staying this process of office-filling precisely at 
 twelve o'clock, though many unsigned commis- 
 sions still lay on the table. This behavior of 
 the Federalists would have been unhandsome 
 enough under any c:ircumst;inces, but was ren- 
 dered doubly so by the fact that they professed 
 to regard Jefferson as pledged not to interfere 
 
210 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 with the persons whom he should find oc- 
 cupying governmental posts at his accession. 
 Adams added his own little personal insult by- 
 driving out of Washington during the night, in 
 order to avoid the spectacle of the following 
 day. In one sense of the word that spectacle 
 was sufheiently extraordinary to be worth see- 
 ing, for Jefferson had resolved that no pageant 
 should give the lie to his democratic principles, 
 and accordingly he rode on horseback, clad in 
 studiously plain clothes, without attendants, to 
 the capitol, dismounted, tied his horse to the 
 fence, and walked unceremoniously into the 
 senate chamber. There he delivered his in- 
 augural address, an effusion rhetorical to excess 
 and breathing boundless philanthropy. One 
 can read between the lines of his declamatory 
 harangue the conviction of the speaker that 
 his accession to office marked the opening of a 
 glorious epoch in human progress. When he 
 had concluded the delivery he was sworn into 
 office by the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 Court, and the simple business was over. 
 
 This careful abstinence from display marked 
 the new President's whole official career, and 
 at times was carried to an extreme which was, 
 perhaps, even more pretentious and ill-judged 
 than was the contrar}^ fashion which he so 
 pointedly endeavored to condemn. For in- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 211 
 
 stance, when Mr. Merry, the British minister, 
 was to be presented, and went " in full official 
 costume " at the appointed day and hour, in 
 company with Mr. Madison, the Secretary of 
 State, to the presidential mansion, he was aston- 
 ished by a scene which he described as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " On arriving at the hnll of audience wo found it 
 empty, at which Mr. Madison seemed surprised, and 
 proceeded to an entry leading to the President's 
 study. I followed him, supposing the introduction 
 was to take place in the adjoining room. At this 
 moment Mr. Jefferson entered the entry at the other 
 end, and all three of us were packed in this narrow 
 space, from which, to make room, I was obliged to 
 back out. In this awkward position my introductioa 
 to tho President was made by Mr. Madison, Mr, 
 Jefferson's appearance soon explained to me that the 
 general circumstances of my reception had not been 
 accidental, but studied. I, in my othcial costume, 
 found myself, at the hour of reception he had him- 
 self appointed, introduced to a man as tho President 
 of the United States, not merely in an undress, but 
 actually standing in slippers down at the heels, and 
 both pantaloons, coat, and underclothes indicative of 
 utter slovenliness and indifference to appearances, 
 and in a state of negligence actually studied." 
 
 This was the ostentation of simplicity; and 
 whether it shall be thouglit better than the os- 
 tentation of ceremonial is a mere question of 
 
212 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 the form in which personal vanity happens to 
 be developed, though Jefferson preferred to ex- 
 alt it into matter of principle. But beyond 
 being an affectation, it had, in this instance at 
 least, a serious effect ; for it incensed the min- 
 ister, who " could not doubt that the whole 
 scene was prepared and intended as an insult, 
 not, perhaps, to himself personally, but to the 
 sovereign whom he represented." Jefferson's 
 object, however, was not to please either Mr. 
 Merry or George III. ; he aimed his dress and 
 deportment at that section of society in which 
 his constituents were chiefly to be found, and 
 with the skill of a good actor he divined ac- 
 curately the taste of his audience. 
 
 When Jefferson was Vice-President he had 
 said : " The second office of the government is 
 honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid 
 misery." From the foregoing anecdotes it may 
 be conceived that he succeeded in escaping the 
 splendor, and upon the misery he certainly en- 
 tered in a remarkably cheerful frame of mind. 
 He was justified in doing so, since, in respect 
 alike of the foreign and domestic outlook, he 
 had every reason to anticipate a tranquil and 
 prosperous administration. Not only was his 
 party dominant for the time, but he could dis- 
 tinctly foresee that it was likely to retain and 
 increase its power through many years to come. 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 213 
 
 In this ruling party he was supreme ; he in- 
 tended that his sway should be gentle, reason- 
 able, and beneficent, but he knew that it would 
 be none the less absolute because his own mod- 
 eration might hold it free from the traditional 
 evil characteristics of a despotism. Beneath 
 such genial influences his philanthropic good- 
 will towards mankind expanded liberally. All 
 his thoughts and words were of comprehensive 
 love and universal benevolence. He designed 
 to be master of a political menagerie in which 
 Federalist lions should lie down peacefully 
 among his flocks of Republican lambs, and only 
 a very few irredeemable " monarchist " snakes 
 would have to be shut up in a secure cage by 
 themselves. " My hope," he said, " is that the 
 distinction will be soon lost, or, at most, that it 
 will be only of republican and monarchist ; that 
 the body of the nation, even that part which 
 French excesses forced over to the P'ederal side, 
 will rejoin the Republicans, leaving only those 
 who were pure monarchists, and who will be 
 too few to form a sect." Amid the exalted 
 sentiments of his florid inaugural address he 
 declared that " every difference of opinion is 
 not a difference of principle. We have called 
 by different names brethren of the same princi- 
 ple. We are all republicans — we are all fed- 
 eralists. . . . Let us, then, with courage and 
 
214 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 confidence, pursue our own federal and repub- 
 lican principles, our attachment to our Union 
 and representative government." 
 
 In the like spirit ho sought in his private ut- 
 terances to erase all dividing lines, and to pro- 
 duce an harmonious coalition of both parties. 
 A fortnight before his inauguration, he ac- 
 knowledged that the behavior of certain Fed- 
 eralist representatives during the election must 
 be construed as a ''declaration of war." "But," 
 be said, " their conduct appears to have brought 
 over to us the whole body of Federalists, who, 
 being alarmed with the danger of a dissolution 
 of the government, had been made most anx- 
 iously to wish the very administration they had 
 opposed, and to view it, when obtained, as a 
 child of their own." A few days later he said 
 again of the Federalists : '' These people (I al- 
 ways exclude their leaders) are now aggregated 
 with us ; they look with a certain degree of 
 affection and confidence to the administration, 
 read}^ to become attached to it, if it avoids in 
 the outset acts which might revolt and throw 
 them off. To give time for a perfect consolida- 
 tion seems prudent." March 14 he says that 
 the many citizens who had been thrown into a 
 panic by the revolutionary movements in Eu- 
 rope had " pretty thoroughly recovered," and 
 " the recovery bids fair to be complete, and to 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 215 
 
 obliterate entirely the line of party division 
 whi(;h bad been so strongly drawn. Not that 
 their leaders have come over, or ever can come 
 over. But they stand at present almost with- 
 out followers." 
 
 Jefferson was notoriously a political vision- 
 ary, and this Utopia of harmony was only one 
 among many day-dreams. Yet it was rather 
 an exaggeration of the facts than an invention. 
 For he was really a shrewd observer, though 
 with a sanguine temperament ; and in the struc- 
 tures which his imagination reared the blocks 
 were all actualities. Thus, now, he was per- 
 fectly right in his prediction that his party Avas 
 destined to absorb the great bulk of the nation, 
 and to enjoy an ascendency so complete and so 
 long as to produce nearly all the practical ef- 
 fects of a universal fusion of opinions. If it 
 was to the credit of his ability as a statesman 
 that he so surely foresaw this future, it was no 
 less to the credit of his heart that he antici- 
 pated it in no spirit of ungenerous triumph. 
 His gratification was honorable and patriotic, 
 with little tinge of selfisliness and none of ma- 
 lignity. His joy was for the people rather than 
 for himself, and was really based on the estab- 
 lishment of sound principles more than on his 
 own elevation. On August 26. 1801, he wrote, 
 " the moment which should convince me that a 
 
216 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 healing of the nation into one is impracticable 
 would be the last moment of my wishing to 
 remain where I am." To this noble end he 
 bent all bis thoughts and efforts. The mass of 
 the Federalists, he said, " now find themselves 
 separated from their quondam leaders. If we 
 can but avoid shocking their feelings by unnec- 
 essary acts of severity against their late friends, 
 they will in a little time cement and form one 
 mass with us, and by these means harmony and 
 union be restored to our country, which would 
 be the greatest good we could effect." 
 
 The indications of success in this grand en- 
 deavor were from time to time hailed by Jef- 
 ferson in a gladsome spirit. New England had 
 always been the stronghold of ultra Federal- 
 ism, an Egyptian realm of political darkness, 
 according to his notions. In his letter of June 
 1, 1798, already quoted, concerning the folly 
 of secession,^ he had written : " Seeing that 
 we must have somebody to quarrel with, I had 
 rather keep our New England associates for that 
 purpose than to see our bickerings transferred 
 to others. They are circumscribed w^ithin such 
 narrow limits, and their population so full that 
 their numbers will ever be the minority, and 
 they are marked, like the Jews, with such a 
 perversity of character as to constitute, from 
 
 I Ante, -p. 194. 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 217 
 
 that circumstance, the natural division of our 
 parties." But by May 3, 1801, he was noting 
 with delight symptoms of improving intelli- 
 gence even in this obnoxious region. " A new 
 subject of congratulation has arisen," he said, 
 " I mean the regeneration of Rhode Island. I 
 hope it is the beginning of that resurrection of 
 the genuine spirit of New England which rises 
 for life eternal. According to natural order, 
 Vermont will emerge next, because least, after 
 Rhode Island, under the yoke of hierocracy." 
 It was the preachers of New England, much ac- 
 customed to meddle in matters political, whom 
 Jefferson regarded as the most dangerous en- 
 emies of sound doctrines. " From the clergy," 
 he declared, " I expect no mercy. They cruci- 
 fied their Saviour, who preached that their 
 kingdom was not of this world ; and all who 
 practice on that precept must expect the ex- 
 treme of their wrath. The laws of the present 
 day withhold their hands from blood ; but lies 
 and slander still remain to them." Yet, in spite 
 of these misguiding obstructionists, the time was 
 not far distant when Massachusetts herself was 
 to become for a time a Republican State. After 
 he had been President a single year Jefferson 
 was able to say : " Our majority in the House 
 of Representatives has been almost two to one ; 
 in the Senate, eighteen to fifteen. After an- 
 
218 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 other election it will be of two to one in tlie 
 Senate, and it would not be for the public good 
 to have it greater. . . . The candid Federalists 
 acknowledge that their party can never more 
 raise its head." But he wisely added : *' We 
 shall now be so strong that we shall certainly 
 split again ; . . . but it must be under another 
 name ; that of Federalism is become so odious 
 that no party can rise under it." 
 
 This result had been greatly furthered by 
 Jefferson's wise moderation in the matter of 
 removals from office. He has been accused of 
 having planted the villainous seed which has 
 since grown into the huge wickedness of the so- 
 called " spoils system," but the charge is un- 
 justifiable. The conduct of the Federalists in 
 the matter of filling offices prior to his inaug- 
 uration gave him such provocation and excuse 
 as would have induced mau}^ men to set about 
 an extensive proscription. He did nothing of 
 the kind, but on the contrary behaved with a 
 liberality towards his opponents which has 
 never ,been rivalled by any of his successors, 
 save only John Quincy Adams, and which since 
 the evil days of Andrew Jackson would be re- 
 garded as nothing less than quixotic. On Feb- 
 ruary 14, 1801, in reply to a letter concerning 
 this interesting subject, he wrote : *' No man 
 who has conducted himself according to his 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 219 
 
 duties would have anything to fear from me, 
 as those who have done ill would have nothing 
 to hope, be their political principles what they 
 might. . . . The Republicans have been ex- 
 cluded from all offices from the first origin of 
 the division into Republican and Federalist. 
 They have a reasonable claim to vacancies till 
 they occupy their due share." The righteous- 
 ness of this proposition could hardly be contro- 
 verted, and Jefferson was justified in expecting 
 the " justice and good sense of the Federal- 
 ists " to induce them to " concur in the fairness 
 of the position, that after they have been in 
 the exclusive possession of all offices from the 
 very first origin of party among us to the 3d 
 of March at nine o'clock in the night, no Re- 
 publican ever admitted, ... it is now perfectly 
 just that the Republicans should come in for 
 the vacancies which may fall in, until something 
 like an equilibrium in office be restored." 
 
 The serious question, however, was not how 
 vacancies should be filled, but how they should 
 be created ; whether the gradual operation of 
 deaths, resignations, and expirations of terms 
 of office should be awaited, or whether numer- 
 ous removals should be made. Jefferson met 
 this problem at once, boldly and frankly. Re- 
 movals " must be as few as possible, done grad- 
 ually, and bottomed on some malversation or 
 
220 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 inherent disqualification." One class only of 
 Federalist incumbents and appointees were to 
 be cleanly swept away, en masse^ and with un- 
 questionable propriety. These were "the new 
 appointments which Mr. Adams crowded in 
 with whip and spur from the 12th of Decem- 
 ber, when the event of the election was known, 
 and consequently that he was making appoint- 
 ments not for himself but for his successor, 
 until nine o'clock of the night at twelve o'clock 
 of which he was to go out of ofl5ce. This out- 
 rage on decency should not have its effect, ex- 
 cept in the life appointments ; ... as to the 
 others I consider the nominations as nullities." 
 " Official mal-conduct " was of course added as 
 an undeniably proper cause of removal. Other- 
 wise " good men, to whom there is no objection 
 but a difference of political principle, practised 
 on only as far as the right of a private citizen 
 will justify, are not proper subjects of re- 
 moval." The onl}^ exception which Jefferson 
 was inclined to make to this rule was " in the 
 case of attorneys and marshals." Since the 
 courts were " decidedly federal and irremov- 
 able," he believed " that Republican attorneys 
 and marshals, being the doors of entrance into 
 the courts, are indispensably necessary as a 
 shield to the Republican part of our fellow-citi- 
 zens which, I believe, is the main body of the 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 221 
 
 people." Though it is needless to say that the 
 Judiciary department was both honest and able, 
 yet there was fair ground for a Republican to 
 entertain this jealousy and distrust towards it. 
 The Supreme Court, by virtue of its power to 
 construe the new Constitution, was of scarcely 
 less political importance than the Executive. 
 Yet the judges of all the courts of the United 
 States, the district attorneys and the marshals, 
 almost to a man, were Federalists, and undeni- 
 ably, also, most of them were partisans in their 
 temper. Even a new and superfluous body of 
 judges had been recently created by the Federal 
 Congress, and all the seats had been filled by 
 Mr. Adams with strong friends of his own, hold- 
 ing of course by a life tenure. Very properly 
 this extra bench was abolished by the Republi- 
 can Congress shortly after Mr. Jefferson's acces- 
 sion. But the other courts could not be abol- 
 ished with equal propriety, and the attorney- 
 ships and marshalships could only be emptied 
 by removals. There was abundant justification 
 for Jefferson's assertion that the Republican 
 party ought to have some foothold in the great 
 and omnipresent department of justice. The 
 desire to base removals upon official misconduct 
 doubtless induced an extreme readiness to be- 
 lieve vague and doubtful charges, such, for ex- 
 ample, as the common one of " packing ju- 
 
222 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ries ; " but this signified only a wish to throw 
 a cloak of decency about a transaction not sub- 
 stantially blameworthy. 
 
 Upon such principles concerning offices did 
 Jeffeison start, principles which he not only 
 professed in words but carried out in practice. 
 In time, as he came to feel a little more accus- 
 tomed to exercise power, and perhaps a trifle 
 weary of resisting importunities, he modified his 
 views a little, but only a little, for the worse. 
 His real kindness of heart made it always dis- 
 agreeable to him to turn any one out of office; 
 he spoke of it as "a dreadful operation to per 
 form," a " painful operation." He suspected 
 that " the heaping of abuse on me personally 
 has been with the design and the hope of pro- 
 voking me to make a general sweep of all Fed- 
 eralists out of office," to the end that thus he 
 might be rendered unpopular and the Federalist 
 party regain through persecution the consolida- 
 tion which it was so rapidl}' losing. " But," 
 he said, "as I have carried no passion into the 
 execution of this disagreeable daty, I shall suf- 
 fer none to be excited." After he had been 
 somewhat more than two years in office, he 
 wrote : '' Some removals, to wit, sixteen, to the 
 end of our first session of Congress, were made 
 on political principles alone, in very urgent 
 cases ; and we determined to make no more 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 223 
 
 but for delinquency or active and bitter oppo- 
 sition to the order of things which the public 
 ■will had established. On this last ground nine 
 were removed from tlie end of tlie first to the 
 end of the second session of Congress ; and one 
 since that. So that sixteen [twenty-six?] only 
 have been removed in the whole for political 
 principles, that is to say, to make room for 
 some participation for the Republicans." On 
 May 80, 1804, he was willing to state as a 
 cause for removal, " that the patronage of pub- 
 lic offices should no longer be confided to one 
 who uses it for active opposition to the national 
 will," which, of course, was only a clever way 
 of describing hostility to the dominant party. 
 Yet it must be admitted that Jefferson never 
 drifted far from the honorable doctrines which 
 he first proclaimed, and that he showed great 
 courage and honesty in permitting their offices 
 to be retained by the mass of incumbents be 
 longing to a party which had rigidly proscribed 
 Republicans. Had positions been reversed, it 
 is rather to be hoped than asserted that a Fed- 
 eralist President would have emulated this con- 
 duct of the Republican leader. Among the 
 removals which Jefferson did make was that of 
 John Quincy Adams from the place of commis- 
 sioner of bankruptcy at Boston. The Federal- 
 ists regarded this as a very petty manifestation 
 
224 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of personal malice ; but Jefferson afterward, in 
 a letter to Mrs. John Adams, apparently in 
 reply to her reproaches, declared that he was 
 ignorant that Mr. Adams held the position 
 when he caused the place to be vacated. 
 
 In the important and very difficult matter of 
 selecting appointees President Jefferson acted 
 with painstaking conscientiousness. " There is 
 nothing," he said, " that I am so anxous about 
 as good nominations." "No duty ... is more 
 difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of characters 
 possessed by a single individual is, of necessity, 
 limited." Accordingly he begs friends in whom 
 he can trust to aid him with information. Some- 
 times, though apparently very seldom, he made 
 mistakes. He was severely attacked for giving 
 the collectorship of New Haven to one Samuel 
 Bishop, who was said to be grossly incapaci- 
 tated by old ago ; but he defended the appoint- 
 ment with very plausible justifications. We 
 never find him treating past political services 
 as a recommendation to office, and he rigor- 
 ously condemned any active interference in 
 politics by the incumbents of federal offices. 
 February 2, 1801, he wrote : " One thing I will 
 say, that as to the future, interferences with 
 elections, whether of the state or general gov- 
 ernment, by officers of the latter, should be 
 deemed cause for removal ; because the consti- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 225 
 
 tutional remedy by the elective principle be- 
 comes nothing, if it may be smothered by the 
 enormous patronage of the federal government." 
 He afterward treated " electioneering activity, 
 and open and industrious opposition to the prin- 
 ciples of the present government," as among 
 the proper causes for removing Federalists from 
 office. But the rules which he enforced against 
 Federalist placemen he laid down equally 
 against Republican incumbents, and carried 
 into effect as far probably as could be fairly ex- 
 pected. In September, 1804, he notified the 
 Secretary of the Treasury that " the officers 
 of the federal government are meddling too 
 much with the public elections. Will it be 
 best to admonish them privately or by procla- 
 mation ? This for consideration till we meet." 
 
 The Federalist newspapers were far from re- 
 ciprocating the generosity displayed by Jeffer- 
 son towards the office-holders of their party. 
 It is to this period that the pitiful story of Cal- 
 lender's malicious defamation belongs. This 
 miserable fellow was a Scotchman by birth, but 
 had been compelled to seek refuge in this coun- 
 try in order to escape prosecution for the con- 
 tents of a pamphlet which he had written 
 concerning '^ The Political Progress of Great 
 Britain." In the United States he brought his 
 pen to the service of the Republican party. At 
 15 
 
226 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 first Jefferson esteemed him an able and useful 
 writer ; for his assaults, though coarse, were 
 forcible ; and he was willing to say vigorously 
 things which persons of higher position were 
 not unwilling to have said by others on their 
 behalf. Morally he was a thoroughly low and 
 contemptible creature, utterly devoid of any re- 
 straints of honor or decency. It was he who 
 first got upon the scent of Hamilton's amour 
 with Mrs. Reynolds, and at once published the 
 evidence which he had dishonorably secured; 
 and it was he who wrote the most infamous of 
 those attacks upon Washington which were, in 
 the opinion not only of contemporaries, but of 
 posterity, the preeminently unjustifiable and 
 unpardonable offence of the new party. As 
 his scurrility increased, his ability diminished ; 
 while of discretion he was utterly void. Soon 
 his diatribes degenerated to the low level to be 
 expected from a political hack-writer who was 
 also an habitual drunkard. Jefferson, according 
 to his own account, became heartily disgusted 
 with a protege who had become mischievous as 
 well as repulsive, and would have given more to 
 stop so impious a pen than to keep it moving. 
 Yet, whether from softness of heart, as he pro- 
 tested, or from a secret gratification at the work 
 Callender was doing, as the Federalists charged, 
 Jefferson continued from time to time to assist 
 the wretch with small sums of money. 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 227 
 
 Under Adams' administration Callender had 
 the good fortune to become a martyr, being one 
 of half a dozen defendants who were found 
 guilty, imprisoned, and fined under the Sedition 
 law. Jefferson, as soon as he came into office, 
 remitted the short remainder of the term of im- 
 prisonment, and caused the fine to be repaid, 
 ''by a somewhat doubtful exercise of power," as 
 the Federalists very properly said. But Jeffer- 
 son considered the Sedition law " to be a nullity, 
 as absolute and as palpable as if Congress had 
 ordered us to fall down and worship a golden 
 image ; and that it was as much [hisj duty to 
 arrest its execution in every stage as it would 
 have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace 
 those who should have been cast into it for re- 
 fusing to worship the image." Despite his dread 
 of embroilments, Jefferson never shirked the re- 
 sponsibilities imposed upon him by such strong 
 convictions ; and Callender now had the advan- 
 tage of the President's courage, as before of his 
 liberality. But a nature more greedy than 
 grateful only hungered for additional favors. 
 The liberated man hastened to urge the Presi- 
 dent to remove the postmaster at Richmond 
 and give him the office. The postmaster was 
 a Federalist editor, but Jefferson very honor- 
 ably refused to displace him. For this behav- 
 ior he speedily suffered in a fashion which cer- 
 
228 THOAfAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tainly hardly encourages men in public life to 
 be scrupulously upright. Callender immedi- 
 ately allied himself with the editorial staff of 
 the Richmond " Recorder," and filled that 
 paper, day after day, with countless stories — 
 partly his own, partly contributed by others 
 — derogatory to Jefferson. The sheet, hitherto 
 a petty local publication, quickly found its way 
 to the remotest corners of the country; for Cal- 
 lender's characteristic onslaught was of the 
 most ignoble, but certainly of the most effec- 
 tive, kind. He charged Jefferson with having 
 been his friend and financial assistant, and his 
 confederate in the libels upon Washington ; but 
 his chief topic was Jefferson's private life, and 
 his many tales were scandalous and revolt- 
 ing to the last degree. Naturally these slanders 
 will not bear repetition here ; for they were 
 worse than mere charges of simple amours. 
 Apart from the fact that no decent man would 
 have wished to dip his hands in such filth, one 
 would think that the transaction which had in- 
 stigated Callender to this conduct would have 
 induced any Federalist editor of moderately 
 good feeling to discountenance so base a re- 
 venge. At least these gentlemen might have 
 remembered that they had lately stigmatized 
 Callender as a low and untrustworthy liar, when 
 Hamilton and Washington had been his vie- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 229 
 
 tims. But, to the discredit of the journalists 
 of that period, it must be confessed that th^r 
 conduct was contrary both to gratitude and to 
 decency. Every Federalist writer hastened to 
 draw for his own use bucketful after bucketful 
 from Callender's foul reservoir, and the gos- 
 sip about Jefferson's graceless debaucheries was 
 sent into every household in the United States. 
 Jefferson never undertook to deny any of these 
 narratives ; and Federalist historians, from 
 whom a fairer judgment might have been ex- 
 pected, have seen fit to treat this silence as evi- 
 dence of guilt. Obviously it was not so. The 
 President of the United States could hardly 
 stoop to give the lie to a fellow like Callender, 
 especially in such a department of calumny. It 
 would be pleasanter for us also to have ignored 
 the matter ; but this was scarcely possible, since 
 the charges gravely affected Jefferson's happi- 
 ness and reputation at the time, and have ever 
 since been repeated to his discredit by writers 
 upon that period. He will probably always be 
 thought of as a man who carried licentiousness 
 far beyond the limit which a grateful nation 
 has tried hard to condone in the cases of Frank- 
 lin, Hamilton, and many another among the 
 sages and patriots even of those virtuous and 
 simple days. Nevertheless there is no sufficient 
 and unquestionable proof that Jefferson was one 
 
230 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 whit worse than the majority of his compeers. 
 Nor is it probable that any one would ever have 
 thought him so if he could have brought him- 
 self to make a political removal and appoint- 
 ment such as in these days would be regarded 
 as matter of course. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PRESIDENT ; FIRST TERM. — LOUISIANA. 
 
 Jefferson had a fair measure of respect for 
 the Constitution, — perhaps a little more than 
 is ordinarily felt towards a common statute. 
 He was far from regarding it with a blind 
 homage, as if it were the sacred principle of the 
 national life. This was not alone attributable 
 to the facts that tradition had not yet lent to it 
 a sort of consecration, and that prosperity be- 
 neath it had not endured long enough to give 
 it a reputation ; the feeling was more largely 
 due to Jefferson's abstract views concerning 
 government. A constitution might too often 
 have the effect of fetters upon the nation. The 
 will of the people, which had made the Consti- 
 tution, might at any time modify or abrogate it. 
 That will ought to be the ultimate rule of de- 
 cision in any matter sufficiently momentous to 
 justify an appeal to it. Therefore, if the will 
 of the people was with him in an unconstitu- 
 tional policy which he believed to be sound, 
 Jefferson did not hesitate to speak respectfully 
 of the Constitution, and to disregard it. Per- 
 
232 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 haps lie is the only President of the United 
 States who has ever avowedly and with pre- 
 meditation carried through an important extra- 
 constitutional measure, relying for justification 
 simply upon the wisdom of the act and the 
 wish of the nation. Such was the real charac- 
 ter of his purchase of Louisiana. 
 
 From the first moment, many years before 
 the time with which we are now dealing, when 
 his attention had been called to the rights of 
 the United States concerning tlje Mississippi 
 Eiver, Jefferson had been fully alive to their 
 vast importance. Indeed his estimate of the 
 probable traffic upon that stream, and the con- 
 sequent growth of New Orleans as a commer- 
 cial metropolis, has since appeared exaggerated, 
 at least in comparison with the proportionate 
 growth of the rest of the countr}^ In the sum- 
 mer of 1790 a rupture between England and 
 Spain seemed imminent, and Jefferson promptly 
 made ready to seize the opportune moment for 
 compelling a settlement of the open question 
 of navigation. Spain owned both sides of the 
 mouth of the river ; but the United States had 
 always asserted that this ownership gave the 
 Spaniards no right to close the stream to the 
 free passage of American vessels. In August, 
 1790, Jefferson, being then Secretary of State, 
 wrote a vigorous letter to Carmichael, the rep- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 233 
 
 resentative of the United States at the Court 
 of Madrid. He directed that gentleman to im- 
 press the Spanish minister " thoroughly with 
 the necessity of an early and even an immediate 
 settlement of this matter ; " though " a resump- 
 tion of the negotiation is not desired on our 
 part, unless he can determine, in the opening 
 of it, to yield the immediate and full enjoy- 
 mejit of that navigation." But if this point 
 was to be yielded in the outset, what further 
 subject for negotiation remained ? Jefferson 
 boldly said that it was "a port, where the sea 
 and river vessels may meet and exchange loads, 
 and where those employed about them may be 
 safe and unmolested." There must be no dally- 
 ing about this business, he added, since ''it is 
 impossible to answer for the forbearance of our 
 Western citizens. We endeavor to quiet them 
 with an expectation of an attainment of their 
 ends by peaceable means. But should they, in 
 a moment of impatience, hazard others, there is 
 no saying how far we may be led ; for neither 
 themselves nor their rights will ever be aban- 
 doned by us." 
 
 With an admirable zeal and persistence Jef- 
 ferson pushed this demand for many months. 
 He rapidly developed his notion concerning the 
 port ; he declared the obvious necessity that it 
 should "be so well separated from the terri' 
 
234 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tories of Spain and her jurisdiction as not to 
 engender daily disputes and broils between us," 
 such as must inevitably " end in war." " Na- 
 ture," he then cleverly added, '-'- has decided 
 what shall be the geography of that in the end, 
 whatever it might be in the beginning, by cut- 
 ting off from the adjacent countries of Florida 
 and Louisiana, and inclosing between two of its 
 channels, a long and narrow slip of land, called 
 the Island of New Orleans." He admitted that 
 this audacious proposition " could not be haz- 
 arded to Spain in the first step ; it would be 
 too disagreeable at first view ; because this isl- 
 and, with its town, constitutes at present their 
 principal settlement in that part of their domin- 
 ions." But he cheerfully reflected that '' rea- 
 son and events may by little and little familiar- 
 ize them to it." He was right ; in due time 
 "reason and events," having had the way 
 opened for them by the diplomatic skill and 
 pertinacity of the Secretary of State, did famil- 
 iarize the Spanish Court with this " idea." The 
 right of navigation was conceded by the treaty 
 of 1795, and with it a right to the free use of 
 the port of New Orleans upon reasonably satis- 
 factory terms for a period of three years, and 
 thereafterward until some other equally con- 
 venient harbor should be allotted. The credit 
 of this ultimate achievement was Mr. Jeffer- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 235 
 
 son's, none the less because the treaty was not 
 signed until he had retired from office. It was 
 really his statesmanship which had secured it, 
 not only in spite of the natural repugnance of 
 Spain, but also in spite of the obstacles indi- 
 rectly thrown in his way in the earlier stages 
 by many persons in the United States, who pri- 
 vately gave the Spanish minister to understand 
 that the country cared little about tlie Missis- 
 sippi, and would not support the Secretary in 
 his demands. 
 
 It is curious to note that in the course of this 
 business there was already a faint foreshadow- 
 ing of that principle, which many years after- 
 wards was christened with the name of Monroe. 
 For a brief time it was thought, not without 
 reason, that so soon as hostilities should break 
 out between England and Spain, the former 
 power would seize upon the North American 
 possessions of the latter. Jefferson wrote to 
 Gouverneur Morris : " We wish you, therefore, 
 to intimate to them [the British ministry] that 
 we cannot be indifferent to enterprises of this 
 kind. That we should contemplate a change 
 of neighbors with extreme uneasiness. That a 
 due balance on our borders is not less desirable 
 to us than a balance of power in Europe has 
 always appeared to them." 
 
 The arrangements at last consummated in 
 
236 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 1795 remained in force, working fairly well, for 
 many years. But the wiser men in the United 
 States were not so much satisfied as they were 
 biding their time to get a more permanent foot- 
 hold. In 1802-3 the opportunity came, cer- 
 tainly by a very peculiar introduction. So 
 early as 1790 there had been suspicions that 
 France would like to regain her possessions on 
 the Gulf of Mexico. Thus at that time Jeffer- 
 son, though seeking French aid to assist him 
 in enforcing the demands of the United States 
 against Spain, had been afraid to expose the 
 full extent of his designs ; for, he said, "it is 
 believed here that the Count de Moustier, dur- 
 ing his residence with us, conceived the project 
 of again engaging France in a colony upon our 
 continent, and that he directed his views to 
 some of the country on the Mississippi, and ob- 
 tained and communicated a good deal of matter 
 on the subject to his court." For some years 
 afterward the project slept, but rumors of like 
 purport started into fresh life early in 1800. 
 Apparently these gave at first little serious un- 
 easiness, though later in the year instructions 
 were sent to the American ministers at Lon- 
 don, Paris, and Madrid to do all in their power 
 to prevent any cession of territory by Spain to 
 France. Interference, however, came too late. 
 Before the instructions reached our ministers 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 237 
 
 the deed had been done. On October 1, 1800, 
 Spain ceded all Louisiana to France. The 
 treaty, however, was kept secret for a while, 
 so that not until the spring of 1802 did it be- 
 come really known in the United States as an 
 assured fact. Jefferson then was profoundly 
 chagrined. He appreciated more fully than 
 any other public man of the day the immeas- 
 urable value of that region to the States ; and 
 he was proportionately disturbed to see it pass 
 from weak into strong hands. 
 
 The vexation felt by Jefferson, in his public 
 capacity, might have been partially allayed by 
 a consolation afforded to him as an individual. 
 For the situation at least gave him an oppor- 
 tunity to clear his character from the aspersions 
 of those Federalists who had so bitterly accused 
 him of loving France better than his native 
 land. No sooner did he conceive that the in- 
 terests of the two peoples menaced even a 
 future clashing, than he showed himself thor- 
 oughly and zealously American. Instantly his 
 French sympathy dwindled into a feeble ex- 
 pression of regret that France should be trans- 
 formed from a ''natural friend" into a "natural 
 enemy;" for this, he said, was the inevitable 
 consequence of what had occurred. April 18, 
 1802, he wrote to Robert R. Livingston, minis- 
 ter at Paris : — 
 
238 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 " The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by 
 Spain to France works most sorely on the United 
 States. On this subject the Secretary of State has 
 written to you fully, yet I cannot forbear recurring 
 to it personally, so deep is the impression it makes 
 on my mind. It completely reverses all the political 
 relations of the United States. . . . There is on the 
 globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our 
 natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans. 
 . . . It is impossible that France and the United 
 States can continue long friends, when they meet in 
 so irritable a position. . . . We must be very im- 
 provident if we do not begin to make arrangements 
 on that hypothesis. The day that France takes pos- 
 session of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is 
 to restrain her forever within her low water mark. 
 It seals the Union of two nations, who, in conjunc- 
 tion, can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. 
 From that moment we must marry ourselves to the 
 British fleet and nation." 
 
 One almost discredits his own senses as he 
 beholds Jefferson voluntarily proclaiming the 
 banns for these nuptials, which during so many 
 years past would have seemed to him worse 
 than illicit. Yet he was never more in earnest, 
 and betrays a striking solemnity and depth of 
 feeling throughout his letter, while obviously 
 writing under the influence of an unusual ex- 
 citement. Yet even beneath disappointment 
 he was sanguine, and amid indignation he was 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 239 
 
 diplomatic. " I should suppose," lie says, " that 
 all these considerations might, in some proper 
 form, be brought into view of the government 
 of France. Though stated by us it ought not 
 to give offence, because we do not bring them 
 forward as a menace, but as consequences not 
 controllable by us, but inevitable from the 
 course of things." As usual he turns to time 
 as his most efficient ally. The French troops, 
 he says, are to subdue St. Domingo before they 
 cross to receive delivery of Louisiana ; and he 
 complacently adds, " the conquest of St. Do- 
 mingo will not be a short work. It will take 
 considerable time and wear down a great num- 
 ber of soldiers." This interval he hopes to em- 
 ploy well in working upon the French govern- 
 ment. 
 
 But an untoward event, occurring a few 
 months after the receipt of news of the cession, 
 was near robbing Mr. Jefferson even of such 
 slight possibilities as might be contained in this 
 interval. At this most inopportune moment, in 
 October, 1802, the Spanish Intendant at New 
 Orleans issued an edict, in direct contravention 
 of treaty stipulations, cutting short the Ameri- 
 can privilege of deposit at that port. At once 
 the hot spirit of the Western country was in a 
 wild blaze. Those pioneers who kept their 
 rifles over their fire-places or behind their front 
 
240 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 doors, ready to shoot a catamount, an Indian, 
 or each other, at a moment's notice, now talked 
 fiercely of marching straight into New Orleans, 
 and making a prompt settlement with powder 
 and lead. Jefferson was much disturbed by 
 demonstrations which threatened serious inter- 
 ference with a plan which he had conceived. 
 War he rightly deemed the last resource. A 
 display of warlike spirit might be useful to em- 
 phasize his diplomacy ; but he was alarmed at 
 the prospect of this temper really bursting into 
 action. Yet he sympathized with the Western 
 men in their wrath, and bore them no grudge, 
 though they seemed so likely to derange his 
 schemes by their uncontrollable zeal. 
 
 The persons with whom the President was 
 reall}^ vexed, and fairly enough too, it must be 
 confessed, were the Federalists. The remnant 
 of this party now for an instant imagined that 
 they saw a chance of being borne again into 
 power by hostilities with France. Careless of 
 the interests of the country as against the in- 
 terests of party, they became clamorous for 
 immediate war. Jefferson well described the 
 situation, January 13, 1803 : — 
 
 '' The agitation of the public mind ... is extreme. 
 In the Western country it is natural, and grounded 
 on honest motives. In the seaports it proceeds from 
 a desire for war, which increases the mercantile lot- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 241 
 
 tery ; in the Federalists generally, and especially 
 those of Congress, the object is to force us into war 
 if possible, in order to derange our finances ; or, if 
 this cannot be done, to attach the Western country to 
 them, as their best friends, and thus get again into 
 power. Remonstrances, memorials, etc., are now cir- 
 culating through the whole of the Western country, 
 and signed by the body of the people." 
 
 But the small and embittered faction into 
 which the Federalist party had rapidly degener- 
 ated could not beat Jefferson, intrenched in the 
 confidence of the nation, and backed by a hand- 
 some majority in Congress. 
 
 In the House of Representatives this ma- 
 jority was imperiously led by Jc^hn Randolph, 
 whose faith in Jefferson was still blindly im- 
 plicit. In the latter part of 1802 he carried 
 the House into secret sessiim, against vehement 
 opposition from the Federalists, in order to 
 give the President an opportunity for making 
 certain private communications, and obtaining 
 legislation thereon. Precisely what took place 
 behind the closed doors was never fully di- 
 vulged ; but the substance of the whole work 
 done publicly and privately during a few weeks 
 of that winter was thoroughly satisfactory to 
 the Executive. Many resolutions offered by the 
 Fedei'alists, designed at once to obstruct a 
 peaceable settlement and to win the allegiance 
 16 
 
242 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of the West by a show of angry zeal, were voted 
 down by loyal majorities. Finally, the manage- 
 ment of the whole business was left to the Presi- 
 dent, who was further provided with the sum of 
 two million dollars, to be used as he should see 
 fit. 
 
 Jefferson's plans were by this time well un- 
 derstood to be the purchase of New Orleans, 
 and probably also something more on the east 
 side of the river. He had early adopted this 
 scheme, justly thinking that it would be cheaper, 
 wiser, more humane, in every way more becom- 
 ing a civilized and mercantile people, to buy the 
 fee of such territory as they needed, rather than 
 to engage in a war simply for the purpose of 
 establishing an easement in an island. The two 
 million dollars were required to pave the way ; 
 in other words, to bribe some of the more influ- 
 ential among those virtuous legislators who had 
 succeeded the wicked monarchs of France. Jef- 
 ferson had already taken initial steps towards 
 this bargain through Livingston at Paris. But 
 that minister, before he had learned the execu- 
 tive purpose, had unfortunately expressed very 
 different views of his own. He had told the 
 French government that the United States cared 
 not at all whether their neighbor at the mouth 
 of the Mississippi was to be France or Spain, 
 provided the right of navigation and privileges 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 243 
 
 of deposit should not be interfered with. After 
 correction, indeed, he began to discuss a pur- 
 chase, and in time would probably have con- 
 cluded it; but Jefferson, for many reasons, 
 chose to send a special emissary. Apart from 
 the point of sympathetic conviction, it was 
 desirable to make a show of energy before the 
 West and the Federalists, who had little con- 
 fidence in Livingston. Further, it was an un- 
 comfortable task to put into the dangerous 
 black and white of diplomatic instructions all 
 which the President wished to say. He accord- 
 ingly bethought him of Monroe, whose term as 
 Governor of Virginia had just expired, and on 
 February 11, 1803, nominated that gentleman 
 envoy-extraordinary to France. The nomina- 
 tion was promptly confirmed, in spite of the 
 malicious suggestion of the Federalists, who 
 averred that it was made only to provide a 
 place for a personal and political friend, who 
 was in financial difficulties. In sundry inter- 
 views with Jefferson, Monroe became fully in- 
 formed as to the President's projects, and de- 
 parted on his delicate errand apparently without 
 a word in writing upon which he could rely, 
 should his principal choose later to disavow his 
 doings. But Jefferson's friends always trusted 
 him. 
 
 At this same point in the business Jefferson 
 
244 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 manifested a mercantile cleverness of whicli 
 any tradesman might have been proud. He 
 wrote to Dupont de Nemours, urging him to 
 smooth the wa}^ towards settlement, and throw- 
 ing out divers shrewd suggestions : — 
 
 " Our circumstances are so imperious as to admit 
 of no delay as to our course ; and the use of the 
 Mississippi is so indispensable that we cannot hesi- 
 tate one moment to hazard our existence for its main- 
 tenance." This for a timely hint of the " dernier 
 ressort.*' Then he adds : " It may be said, if this 
 object be so all-important to us, why do we not offer 
 such a sum as to insure its purchase ? The answer 
 is simple. We are an agricultural peo[)le, poor in 
 money and owing great debts. These will be falling 
 due by instalments for fifteen years to come, and 
 require from us the practice of a rigorous economy 
 to accomplish their payment; and it is our principle 
 to pay to a moment whatever we have engaged, 
 and never to ensrasfe what we cannot and mean not 
 faithfully to pay. We have calculated our resources, 
 and find the sum to be moderate which they would 
 enable us to pay, and we know from lajte trials that 
 little can be added to it by borrowing. The country, 
 too, which we wish to purchase, ... is a barren 
 sand. . . . We cannot, then, make anything by a 
 sale of the land to individuals. So that it is peace 
 alone which makes it an object with us, and which 
 ought to make the cession of it desirable to France." 
 
 Could a Jew or an attorney drive a bargain 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 245 
 
 more skilfully ? A willing but very poor pur- 
 chaser, absolutely sure to pay his notes at ma- 
 turity, shunning discord rather than seeking 
 profit ; indirect but valuable advantages to ac- 
 crue to the seller from the sale, in addition to 
 the price; an unmarketable piece of property; 
 a misty vision of war in the background ! Yet, 
 in spite of such plausible persuasions, it is not 
 probable that Monroe would have had much 
 success in his negotiations, had not European 
 politics come opportunely to his aid. Napoleon, 
 who already exercised the powers of an em- 
 peror under the title of First Consul, had set 
 his heart upon establishing a great French col- 
 ony on the North American continent. Under 
 this impulse he had laughed to scorn the first 
 proposals for a purchase of his territory. It 
 would have been easier for Monroe to buy up 
 his advisers than for those advisers to induce 
 him to abandon a favorite whim. Neither was 
 there much use in threatening the conqueror 
 of Europe with the wrath of our trans-Alle- 
 ghanian population. But as Jefferson's usual 
 good fortune arranged it, by the time Monroe 
 arrived the short-lived peace of Amiens was 
 obviously about to be broken. On the verge of 
 extensive military operations Napoleon forgot 
 his colonial schemes. In the contemplation of 
 a hungry treasury he became as eager to sell 
 
246 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 as the envoys were to buy. Monroe's instruc- 
 tions had contemplated only a moderate pur- 
 chase, of the island and some land upon the 
 easterly side of the river, nothing more being 
 thought possible. But Napoleon's notion now 
 was to turn his most available assets into money 
 with all speed. He intimated that he would 
 sell all Louisiana. He asked, indeed, a great 
 price ; but where both parties are eager, trading 
 is usually rapid. Monroe had gauged Jeffer- 
 son's views with perfect accuracy, and felt no 
 fear. In a few days he and Livingston closed 
 the bargain, buying Louisiana outright for sixty 
 million livres, with the stipulation that the 
 United States should pay sundry claims of its 
 merchants against France to the amount of 
 twenty million livres more, and that certain 
 privileges should be allowed to French and 
 Spanish vessels in the port of New Orleans for 
 twelve years to come. 
 
 In their dispatches, communicating this 
 treaty, the envoys acknowledged that they had 
 exceeded their instructions, and humbly hoped 
 that they had not erred. This was literally 
 true, but it was only the letter not the spirit of 
 their instructions which had been overstepped. 
 Monroe well knew that he had only fulfilled 
 Jefferson's real wishes. But since this was not 
 apparent on the surface, the Federalists after- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM, 247 
 
 ward pretended to regard these professions of 
 the negotiators as indicating that any credit 
 there might be in the purchase was due to them 
 rather than to the President. This, however, 
 was an unfair artifice, which at best could 
 amount to nothing more than saying that the 
 presidential policy had succeeded even beyond 
 the hopes of its projector. The entire credit 
 — or discredit, if such there were — of the 
 achievement belonged exclusively to Jefferson. 
 
 Of course fault-finding began at once. No 
 great ingenuity was needed on the part of the 
 opposition to devise the gravest objections to 
 the transaction both as a whole and in detail. 
 The government was without constitutional au- 
 thority to make the purchase upon terms which 
 substantially involved the speedy admission of 
 the purchased territory, in the shape of new 
 States, to the Union. It was directly contrary 
 to the Constitution to grant peculiar privileges 
 in the port of New Orleans to Spanish and 
 French commerce. The boundaries of Louisi- 
 ana, both upon the east and upon the west, 
 were in dispute, and in time would probably 
 have to be settled by a war. Spain had insisted 
 as a condition of her own transfer that France 
 should not sell ; Spain was still in possession 
 and might now well be expected to decline to 
 part with the property. These criticisms each 
 
248 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and all were perfectly true ; yet they were 
 certainly each and all of very little conse- 
 quence, when set against an acquisition so enor- 
 mously valuable in so many different ways to 
 the United States. The practical objections 
 Jefferson met by practical suggestions. The 
 boundaries were doubtful, but boundaries in 
 wild lands constantly remain doubtful for many 
 years without engendering serious hostilities. 
 In this interval, the natural growth of the 
 United States and the inevitable decadence of 
 Spain upon this continent would ultimately in- 
 sure a peaceful yielding to American demands. 
 A little later he proposed, in pursuance of this 
 view, that the government should offer bounties 
 to attract a large body of vigorous and intelli- 
 gent American colonists into Louisiana, to the 
 end that a population of such numbers, char- 
 acter, and national sympathies should be estab- 
 lished in that quarter as woidd discourage 
 contumacious neighbors. It would have been 
 better, some said, to have bought the Floridas 
 rather than Louisiana. But could not another 
 purchase be made? The American claims of 
 boundary 
 
 * will be a subject of negotiation with Spain, and 
 if, as soon as she is at war, we push them strongly 
 with one hand, holding out a price in the other, we 
 shall certainly obtain the Floridas, and all in good 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 249 
 
 time. ... Propositions are made to exchange Lou- 
 isiana, or a part of it, for the Floridas. But, as I 
 have said, we shall get the Floridas without ; and I 
 would not give one inch of the waters of the Missis- 
 sippi to any nation, because I see in a light very 
 important to our peace the exclusive right to its 
 navigation, and the admission of no nation into it 
 but as into the Potomac or Delaware, with our con- 
 sent and under our police." 
 
 Time proved the perfect truth of all this. 
 
 As for the chance of Spain refusing to de- 
 liver possession to the United States, Jefferson 
 intended to have no trifling in that matter. 
 So soon as the treaty was ratified he 
 
 " sent off orders to the Governor of the Mississippi 
 territory and General Wilkinson to move down with 
 the troops at hand to New Orleans, and receive pos- 
 session from M. Laussat. If he is heartily disposed 
 to carry the order of the Consul into execution, he 
 can probably command a volunteer force at New 
 Orleans, and will have the aid of ours also, if he 
 desires it, to take the possession and deliver it to us. 
 If he is not so disposed, we shall take the possession, 
 and it will rest with the government of France by 
 adopting the act as their own and obtaining the con- 
 firmation of Spain, to supply the non-execution of 
 their agreement to deliver and to entitle themselves 
 to the complete execution of our part of the agree- 
 ments." 
 
260 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 For the other objections of law and theory, 
 Jefferson was inclined to override them very 
 cavalierly. In truth it was the only way. It 
 was not worth while to enter into a debate, pre- 
 destined to obvious defeat, nor to engage in ar- 
 gument when the whole weight of logic rested 
 with the other side. The prompt vote of a 
 silent majority was the best policy. *' The 
 less that is said about any constitutional diffi- 
 culty, the better ; ... it will be desirable for 
 Congress to do what is necessary in silence." 
 " Whatever Congress shall think it necessary to 
 do, should be done with as little debate as pos- 
 sible, and particularly so far as respects the 
 constitutional difficulty." Thus Jefferson wrote. 
 The opposition, on the other hand, tried hard to 
 force a prolonged discussion, but with slender 
 effect. The outnumbering administrationists 
 cared not to hear long lectures, designed to 
 show only that a wise act, which they had al- 
 ready determined to do, was against the law. 
 So the Federalist speeches, though calling forth 
 only a few replies and certainly no answers, 
 went for nothing. In the Senate a powerful 
 and delighted Republican majority hastened to 
 ratify the treaty by a vote of twenty-four to 
 seven, — ten votes more than were necessary, 
 as Jefferson triumphantly noted. In the House 
 of Representatives the overwhelming ranks of 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 251 
 
 the same party, under the spirited leadership 
 of Randolph, first made the necessary appro- 
 priations, and then provided temporarily for the 
 government of the territory by the President, 
 even giving him for the time all the powers 
 of the late Spanish monarchs, an odd position 
 for Jefferson truly, but which he did not reject. 
 Thus did Jefferson accomplish a most mo- 
 mentous transaction in direct contravention of 
 all those grand principles which for many years 
 he had been eloquently preaching as the po- 
 litical faith of the great party which he had 
 formed and led. What henceforth could he 
 and his followers say about Washington's aris- 
 tocratic ceremonial at his levees ; what about 
 Hamilton's establishment of a United States 
 Bank ; what about all the alleged twistings 
 and wrenchings of the Constitution by the free- 
 constructionists and the "monarchists"? Here 
 was an act, done by the great Republican doc- 
 trinaire-president, utterly beyond the Constitu- 
 tion in substance and contrary to it in detail ; 
 monarchical, beyond what any " monocrat " 
 had ever dared to dream of. There was ^ no 
 denying these facts, at least without self-stulti- 
 fication. John Randolph, dictating to his great 
 majority in the House, became ridiculous when 
 he endeavored to reconcile the treaty with the 
 organic charter of the United States. The 
 
252 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 plain truth was that Jefferson had simply shat- 
 tered into fragments his previous theories, and 
 every one in the United States saw and knew 
 it. In August, 1800, he had declared that ''the 
 true theory of our Constitution is surely the 
 wisest and best: that the States are independ- 
 ent as to everything within themselves, and 
 united as to everything respecting foreign na- 
 tions." By this theory " our general govern- 
 ment may be reduced to a very simple organi- 
 zation and a ver}^ inexpensive one ; a few plain 
 duties to be performed by a few servants." 
 The doctrine of a simple league of independent 
 powers, devised only for the specific purpose of 
 foreign intercourse, could not have been better 
 set forth. Yet it was hardly possible to imag- 
 ine a transaction more at variance with the 
 principle of such a league than was this pur- 
 chase of an enormous property for the common 
 tenancy and at the common charge of the po- 
 litical partnership. It produced a welding and 
 unifying of domestic interests to as great an 
 extent as an isolated act could do. 
 
 Still more surprising is it to remember that 
 Jefferson was the chief expositor of states' 
 rights. He declares them in the foregoing sen- 
 tences ; he had declared them again and again, 
 in public and private, directly and indirectly. 
 He was the author of the Kentucky resolutions. 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 253 
 
 But the justification upon whicli he had relied 
 to sustain nullification and secession by Ken- 
 tucky was as nothing compared to the justifica- 
 tion which he himself, by this purchase, now 
 created for nullification and secession on the 
 part of the dissatisfied Eastern States. The 
 Constitution, he had always insisted, was a con- 
 tract between independent parties, not binding 
 upon any one of them beyond its distinct stipu- 
 lations. It was not among those stipulations 
 that a majority might purchase new territory, 
 and out of it create and admit new parties to 
 the contract. It was the inevitable outcome of 
 his own logic that any State might now law- 
 fully withdraw from the league upon this op- 
 portunity which he himself had furnished. 
 
 Yet by a singular inconsistency, which, per- 
 haps, he did not appreciate, he managed to 
 reiterate his old principles, even while he stood 
 among the very ruins into which he had pros- 
 trated them. He actually seized this extraor- 
 dinary moment for an extreme assertion of the 
 doctrine of states' rights, accompanied by some 
 of that mawkish sentimentality and political 
 rubbish which so constantly excite a revulsion 
 of feeling when one most wishes to admire him. 
 The Federalists, he says, " see in this acquisi- 
 tion the formation of a new Confederacy, era- 
 bracing all the waters of the Mississippi, on 
 
254 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 both sides of it, and a separation of its east- 
 ern waters from us." This result he thinks 
 improbable. But the possibility of its happen- 
 ing does not appear to him an argument against 
 that purchase which may promote it. For 
 "the future inhabitants of the Atlantic and 
 Mississippi States will be our sons. We leave 
 them in distinct but bordering establishments ; 
 we think we see their happiness in their union, 
 and we wish it. Events may prove it other- 
 wise ; and if they see their interest in separa- 
 tion, why should we take sides with our Atlan- 
 tic rather than our Mississippi descendants? 
 It is the elder and the younger son differing. 
 God bless them both, and keep them in union, 
 if it be for their good, but separate them if it 
 be better." This is the piety of states' rights 
 and the statesmanship of secession, very plausi- 
 bly put under the peculiar circumstances. He 
 reiterated it again with something less of holi- 
 ness in his language about six months later. 
 " Whether we remain one confederacy, or form 
 into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I 
 believe not very important to the happiness of 
 either part. Those of the western confederacy 
 will be as much our children and descendants 
 as those of the eastern," etc. It is inevitable 
 that one pauses a moment to speculate upon 
 the problem, what gospel Jefferson would have 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 255 
 
 had to preach to the people in 1861. Would 
 he have been among those whose text was " Let 
 them go in peace " ? Probably not, for he 
 would have preferred inconsistency to unpopu- 
 larity. 
 
 Yet these matters of argument and logic, 
 theory and consistency, may easily be dwelt 
 upon unfairly. For every one must admit that 
 the government ought to have bought Louis- 
 iana, and must equally admit that the propriety 
 of the purchase did not alone suffice to annihi- 
 late all those broad political theories of the Re- 
 publican party which would have forbidden it. 
 It was simply a proper case for breaking, with- 
 out discrediting, a rule, a case which will occur 
 under any and all rules. So far as Jefferson 
 personally was concerned. Destiny, that goddess 
 who loves nothing so much as irony, had led 
 him to the point to which she so often leads 
 the profoundest statesmen and the wisest phi- 
 losophers, the point where the choice must be 
 made betwixt a sound abstract doctrine and 
 a sensible act inconsistent therewith. In the 
 dilemma Jefferson did what all really great 
 statesmen and philosophers always have done, 
 and always will do in such an emergency ; he 
 turned his back upon the doctrine and did the 
 act. He preferred sound sense to sound logic, 
 and set intelligent statesmanship above political 
 
256 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 consistenc3^ Of course he laid himself open to 
 reproach and ridicule. Throughout the coun- 
 try every Federalist throat sent forth a howl of 
 abuse against the democrat who liad turned au- 
 tocrat ; every Federalist finger was pointed in 
 scorn at the strict constructionist who, in an in- 
 stant, had thrown overboard the whole Consti- 
 tution. But Jefferson bore these taunts with 
 much tranquillity. He could afford to do so. 
 If his political philosophy had become some- 
 what emaciated beneath the severe treatment 
 to which he had subjected it, his popularity as 
 a statesman had waxed hugely fat upon the 
 same food. " The treaty," he said, " has ob- 
 tained nearly general approbation. The Fed- 
 eralists spoke and voted against it; but they 
 are now so reduced in their numbers as to be 
 nothing." Yet he behaved really very well. 
 He did not try to carry off his lawlessness with 
 a high hand, as the applause of the people 
 might have tempted and enabled him to do. 
 He did not endeavor to put upon the transac- 
 tion any sophistical gloss, which his dialectic 
 cleverness would have made easy for him, espe- 
 cially in the presence of a well-disposed audi- 
 ence. But he frankly acknowledged that the 
 necessities of the case had compelled him to do 
 what was unlawful. Abjuring such sophistries 
 as the administrationists in Congress had put 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 257 
 
 forth, he honestly said, even while the matter 
 was still pending : — 
 
 " The Constitution has made no provision for our 
 holding foreign territory, still less for incorporating 
 foreign nations into our Union. The Executive, in 
 seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much ad- 
 vances the good of their country, have done an act 
 beyond the Constitution. The Legislature, in cast- 
 ing behind them metaphysical subtleties, and risking 
 themselves like faithful servants, must ratify and pay 
 for it, and throw themselves on their country for do- 
 ing for them unauthorized, what we know they would 
 have done for themselves had they been in a situa- 
 tion to do it." 
 
 Loath to leave his justification solely to the 
 wisdom of his act, he desired to be put, techni- 
 cally, in as sound a position as possible. To 
 this end he was very anxious that there should 
 be a formal ratification by the people in the 
 shape of a constitutional amendment. He even 
 drew up one, and intimated to his friends in the 
 cabinet and in Congress that he hoped to see it 
 put upon its passage. They were less scrupu- 
 lous than he, and w^ould not concern themselves 
 much about it, so that it was allowed to drop. 
 Perhaps he was not so urgent in pushing the 
 scheme as he might have been ; but at least he 
 did not disguise his opinions and his wishes, 
 which were undeniably correct and becoming. 
 17 
 
258 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Yet it may be said that in a certain way Jef- 
 ferson had been true to his fundamental and 
 grandest principles, even in breaking those 
 which were in a sense secondary. He believed 
 primarily in the will of the people, and sought 
 primarily the good of the people. The Consti- 
 tution commanded his respect, because it for- 
 mally expressed that will and substantially ad- 
 vanced that good. In a peculiar crisis, where 
 this written law seemed to lose these distinctive 
 characteristics, it seemed also for the time to 
 lose much of its title to obedience. It was true 
 he had no technical or definite expression of 
 the people's will, but it would have been absurd 
 to pretend to doubt that he executed that will 
 in acquiring Louisiana upon favorable terms, 
 by, against, or outside of the Constitution. If 
 the necessary constitutional amendment could 
 have been made by an immediate popular vote, 
 it would have been accomplished in a week. 
 This is a hazardous doctrine, and so was Jef- 
 ferson's action, though right, a dangerous 
 precedent. But certainly the history of the 
 transaction puts it beyond a question that the 
 statesman predominated over the doctrinaire in 
 his composition, though his enemies to this day 
 assert the contrary. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PEESIDENT: first term. — IMPEACHMENTS. 
 — REELECTION. 
 
 Jefferson's personal aniniosities were few. 
 They were limited to the small body of sup- 
 posed " monocrats," the New England clergy, 
 and the Federalist judges in the courts of the 
 United States. In all his preachings of uni- 
 versal benevolence and political brotherhood 
 there must be understood a tacit reservation 
 against these three classes of the community. 
 Of these the judges presented tlie most definite 
 mark. It has already been seen how he felfc 
 about the exclusive possession of the courts by 
 the Federalists. There is no doubt that he 
 wished, if he could not effect a radical change 
 in the judicial personnel^ at least to give an 
 impressive lesson to the life-tenants of the 
 benches. His first experiment was certainly 
 made in corpore vili. He sent to the Represen- 
 tatives a special message concerning the short- 
 comings a;nd vices of Pickering of New Hamp- 
 shire, judge of the District Court, a worthless 
 fellow morally and mentally. Pickering was 
 
260 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 at once impeached before the Senate by order 
 of the House, was found guilty and removed, 
 the Federalist senators doing themselves little 
 credit by voting in favor of so wretched a crea- 
 ture. 
 
 But this was only light practising; much 
 higher game was aimed at in the person of 
 Judge Chase of Maryland, a justice of the Su- 
 preme Court. He was of unquestioned integ- 
 rity and ability ; but he was a Federalist of 
 the extreme type, and found it as impossible to 
 keep his Federalism out of his charges to juries 
 as Copperfield says that Mr. Dick did to keep 
 King Charles' head out of his memorials. There 
 is no doubt that he erred gravely in this partic- 
 ular, and used his judicial position in a manner 
 improper even in those times, and which in our 
 day would be deemed intolerable. That he 
 was ever led to the commission of an actual in- 
 justice does not appear; and whether his of- 
 fences against official decorum, when they could 
 not be proved ever to have resulted in practical 
 wrong, ought to have been regarded as ground 
 for impeachment was at best doubtful. But 
 Jefferson and his friends resolved to make the 
 trial ; in addition to the political advantage 
 which success might bring them, they were in- 
 censed against Chase personally, by reason of 
 a speech which he had lately delivered to the 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 261 
 
 grand jury, wherein he had very soundly be- 
 rated the Democratic party for having repealed 
 the Judiciary Act. However unjustifiable this 
 tirade was, yet it made a narrow foundation for 
 an impeachment. Other charges were there- 
 fore sought, and the Republican managers went 
 back nearly five years to the trials of Fries 
 and of Callender, at which Chase had certainly 
 shown his political bias in a manner deserving 
 of reprehension. But these were old stories, 
 and if they were so heinous as was now alleged, 
 at least it followed that the Republicans had 
 been guilty of gross laches in not having long 
 since made them the basis of proceedings for re- 
 moval. Attaching them to the later causes of 
 complaint constituted a virtual acknowledgment 
 of the insufficiency of these later causes when 
 taken by themselves. Nor was there any ob- 
 ject in gathering together many improprieties, 
 all which in conjunction might suffice to show, 
 in a general way, that the judge was unfit for 
 his office. For the question which the Senate 
 must decide was not, whether upon the whole 
 Chase was fit or unfit for his judicial posi- 
 tion ; but whether upon any one of the spe- 
 cific charges of the impeachment the evidence 
 showed him to be a guilty man. 
 
 Jefferson's behavior in this affair was shrewd 
 and selfish. The end which he desired to at- 
 
262 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tain was so desirable that even a small prospect 
 of success justified the endeavor. But a de- 
 feat would bring so much condemnation on the 
 losers, and there was so much chance of defeat, 
 that he had no notion of subjecting his own 
 person and fortunes to the risk. Perhaps he 
 felt about his prestige in politics as great gen- 
 erals are entitled to feel about their own lives 
 in battle, that it was too valuable to his party 
 to be jeoparded. Certain it is that he played 
 only the part of an instigator. He did not send 
 in a message, as in the more clear and wholly 
 unimportant case of Pickering. But his faith- 
 ful bench Qian, the hot-headed Randolph, equally 
 devoid of caution and of judgment, stood ready 
 at a word from the chief to plunge into any 
 dubious fray. The signal was given to him 
 May 13, 1803, through Nicholas, who was Ran- 
 dolph's personal friend, and acted as his chief 
 of staff in the House of Representatives. To 
 this gentleman Jefferson wrote : " You must 
 have heard of the extraordinary charge of 
 Chase to the grand jury at Baltimore. Ought 
 this seditious and official attack on the princi- 
 ples of our Constitution and on the proceed- 
 ings of a State to go unpunished ? And to 
 whom so pointedly as yourself will the public 
 look for the necessary measures ? I ask these 
 questions for your consideration \ for myself it? 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 263 
 
 is better that I should not interfere." Accord- 
 ingly to the end he did not interfere ; he only- 
 watched with profound interest. But he had 
 the disappointment to see the veteran judge, 
 aided by the ablest counsel in the country, 
 prove altogether too much for Randolph. As 
 the cause proceeded, he was compelled to recog- 
 nize that only the most merciless use of the 
 party whip could dragoon the requisite two 
 thirds of the senators into sustaining the im- 
 peachment ; and he dared not exert his influ- 
 ence in a cause which it would be so difficult to 
 justify. In silent chagrin he averted his coun- 
 tenance, while Randolph met a severe defeat 
 after a very bitter contest. The adjninistra- 
 tion party was worsted, but its astute leader 
 had been externally so indifferent that he was 
 not compromised in the popular opinion by the 
 blunder of his friends. But he had learned the 
 lesson and made no further attempts to meddle 
 with the bench. It remained to the end an 
 immovable obstacle in the way of the complete 
 triumph of his political theories. 
 
 Jefferson's first term in the presidency was 
 a great success. This was not so much due 
 to what he had really done as to what he ap- 
 peared to have done. For in fact no funda- 
 mental changes had been made in the system 
 of administering the national affairs. A differ- 
 
264 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ent atmosphere prevailed at the capital, but it 
 had affected rather the external aspect than 
 the inner constitution of the government. The 
 •work of the Federalist party had not been un- 
 done in a single particular of any importance. 
 A certain relaxation was discernible, a certain 
 air of carelessness ; but except for the hostility 
 to the army and navy little practical result was 
 observable. All the great constructive meas- 
 ures of that party remained unaltered ; the gov- 
 ernmental machinery which it had devised was 
 worked by the new hands much as it had been 
 by the old ones. In an}^ matters of substantial 
 importance there was very little more real de- 
 mocracy under the sway of the Democrats than 
 there had been under that of the Federalists. 
 The democrat Jefferson enjoyed and exercised 
 a personal authority infinitely greater than had 
 been wielded by the "monocrat " Adams. In- 
 deed, even to this day no President since Wash° 
 ington has ever been able to dictate to Congress 
 as Jefferson could do, and upon sufficient occa- 
 sion actually did. No President since Wash- 
 ington has ever led the people in such unques- 
 tioning obedience. But these facts were not 
 clearly recognized at the time. Congress did 
 not appreciate that it was receiving orders ; the 
 people had not the slightest notion that they 
 were being guided. For Jefferson never used 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 265 
 
 the accent of command or assumed the bear- 
 ing of a leader. His influence was singularly 
 shadowy and mysterious. He simply commu- 
 nicated suggestions and opinions to this or that 
 selected one among those who believed in him. 
 The suggestions and opinions were followed not 
 with any consciousness of discipline, but from 
 a true feeling of admiration and confidence 
 towards the great and good statesman who 
 seemed always to speak wisely and to think 
 virtuously ; who, at least, had many times been 
 proved to plan with unrivalled astuteness for 
 the good of his party. That party had already 
 begun to abjure the name of Republicans in 
 order to adopt exclusively that of Democrats : 
 the title has ever since been kept, and the iden- 
 tity of the party has been preserved, while its 
 political opponents have had a variety of appel- 
 lations and have undergone some breaks in con- 
 tinuity, if not some mutations of principle. But 
 it is a singular circumstance that the body which 
 has chosen to declare itself the guardian of demo- 
 cratic principles has always from the outset 
 been peculiarly prone to fall beneath the dicta- 
 tion of a single individual. No leader among 
 the Federalists, the Whigs, or the Republicans 
 (the present party of that name) has ever had 
 a personal supremacy equal to that of Jeffer- 
 son or that of Andrew Jackson. The Demo- 
 
266 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 crats have invariably been most powerful under 
 the sway of a monocrat, and have always taken 
 kindly to that sway. 
 
 Jefferson was able from time to time in his 
 first four years to make a very good showing in 
 those matters of detail which were much more 
 definite and obvious than were the generalities 
 of political theories. Thus every one could see 
 that he dressed with ostentatious shabbiness on 
 occasions when dress was likely to be noticed ; 
 every one knew that the monarchical levees of 
 Washington and Adams were discontinued. It 
 was also well known that the army had been 
 subjected to such a " chaste reformation " that 
 the smallest remnant only remained. The Fed- 
 eralists allowed no one to forget that the har- 
 bors were not properly fortified, and that the 
 navy was not kept up as it should be. Like 
 economies were practised in all other depart- 
 ments. When the odious internal taxes were 
 done awa}^ with, and even without them the 
 treasury prospered wonderfully and reduced 
 the national debt with surprising rapidity, the 
 credit for these achievements was given to the 
 economy of the administration and to its able 
 financial management. Really more efficient 
 causes were the growth and prosperity of the 
 country and the soundness of the financial pol- 
 icy which Hamilton had inaugurated. But Jef- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 267 
 
 ferson would have been more than a Quixote 
 in politics had he frankly admitted that he was 
 only reaping the fields which Hamilton had 
 sowed. In like manner the freedom from anx- 
 iety about European complications was alto- 
 gether due to causes entirely beyond the reach 
 of Jefferson's influence. But fortune had be- 
 come his friend more than ever before, and 
 everything redounded to his good fame and 
 popularity. 1 The nation did not concern itself 
 too critically with the connections of cause and 
 effect, but feeling very comfortable and good- 
 natured amid the broad visible facts of the 
 passing time, gave credit for the condition of 
 
 1 Jefferson did not hesitate to claim credit for all that he 
 plausibly could. In April, 1802, he wrote: "The session of 
 the first Congress convened since Republicanism has recov- 
 ered its ascendency is now drawing to a close. They will 
 pretty completely fulfil all the desires of the people. They 
 have reduced the army and navy to what is barely necessary 
 They are disarming executive patronage and preponderance 
 by putting down one half the offices of the United States 
 which are no longer necessary. These economies have en- 
 abled them to suppress all the internal taxes, and still to 
 make such provision for the payment of their public debt as 
 to discharge that in eighteen years. They have lopped off a 
 parasite limb, planted by their predecessors on their judici- 
 ary body for party purposes ; they are opening the doors of 
 hospitality to fugitives from the oppression of other countries; 
 and we have suppressed all those public forms and ceremonies 
 which tended to familiarize the public eye to the harbingers 
 of another form of government. The people are nearly all 
 united." 
 
268 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 affairs to the rulers for tlie time being. Had 
 not Jefferson always preached economy, and re- 
 viled the financial management of the Federal- 
 ists ; and now were not expenses curtailed, and 
 taxes reduced, and debts being rapidly dimin- 
 ished ? Had not Jefferson always desired peace- 
 ful relations with foreign powers, and had the 
 country been for many years past so free from 
 irritation and anxiety growing out of foreign 
 affairs ? Had not Jefferson always declared 
 that he sought unity of feeling and the preva- 
 lence of universal good- will among the people 
 themselves, and had political kindliness ever 
 before permeated the nation as it did to-day ? 
 Four years of prosperity and tranquillity left 
 little room for discontent with the government. 
 Amid such influences political opposition pined 
 and almost died. The Federalist party shrank 
 to insignificant dimensions, indeed, since it 
 flourished chiefly in a narrow locality, and was 
 largely recruited from those peculiar spirits 
 who seem to be by nature malcontents and 
 grumblers, it seemed on the verge of becoming 
 rather a faction than a party. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when the 
 fifth presidential election took place. At the 
 close of Februar}^ 1804, tbe Republican mem- 
 bers of Congress held a caucus and nominated 
 Jefferson as the party candidate for the presi- 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 269 
 
 dency at the next election. They also very 
 gladly felt that they could safely throw Burr 
 overboard, and they accordingly named George 
 Clinton for the second place. Jefferson could 
 not bring himself to decline a second term. He 
 can hardly be seriously blamed for this, though 
 certainly he became guilty of still another in- 
 consistency which he defended only by so-called 
 reasons which deserved the less honorable name 
 of excuses. His opinion " originally " had been, 
 " that the President of the United States 
 should have been elected for seven years, and 
 be forever ineligible afterwards." But he had 
 " since become sensible that seven years is too 
 long to be irremovable. . . . The service for 
 eight years, with a power to remove at the end 
 of the first four, comes nearer to my principle 
 as corrected by experience." Admirable hap- 
 piness of expression, that might have planted 
 envy in the breast of the most subtle Jesuit ! 
 In adherence to this principle, he adds : " I de- 
 termine to withdraw at the end of my second 
 term. . . . General Washington set the exam- 
 ple of retirement at the end of eight years. I 
 shall follow it ; and a few more precedents will 
 oppose the obstacle of habit to any one after a 
 while who shall endeavor to extend his term." 
 So much for his abstract principles. His more 
 specific motives he stated as follows : — 
 
270 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 " I sincerely regret that the unbounded calumnies 
 of the Federal party have obliged me to throw my- 
 self on the verdict of my country for trial, my great 
 desire having been to retire, at the end of the pres- 
 ent term, to a life of tranquillity ; and it was my 
 decided purpose when I entered into office. They 
 force my continuance. If we can keep the vessel of 
 state as steadily in her course for another four years, 
 my earthly purposes will be accomplished, and I shall 
 be free to enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my 
 farm, and my books." 
 
 So the Federalists had themselves to thank 
 for the continuance of their macli hated oppo- 
 nent in the presidency. They must seek such 
 comfort as they could find in his asseveration 
 that he was very unhappy about it. 
 
 A party so large and so omnipotent as the 
 Republicans, or Democrats, had now become, 
 could not long remain wholly free froui intes- 
 tine feuds. Some rifts seemed already to be- 
 come visible. The followers of Burr were 
 angry at his ignominious displacement ; there 
 were dissensions in New York ; and symptoms 
 which soon ripened into ill blood were discerni- 
 ble in Pennsylvania. Even the Democrats in 
 the Eastern States were getting much disgusted 
 with the Virginian ascendency. In view of 
 these hopeful facts the Federalists began to 
 cherish schemes of detaching from the main 
 
PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 271 
 
 body of Republicans a considerable number of 
 malcontents ; then an alliance, in which they 
 would be the more weighty partner, might re- 
 store them to power. Jefferson was well aware 
 of these intrigues, but watched them with just 
 contempt. Nothing came of them. When the 
 time arrived, the Republican party in all sec- 
 tions of the country voted solidly and won an 
 overwhelming victory. Even Massachusetts 
 was for once carried by them, to the iuimense 
 surprise and chagrin of the Federalists. In the 
 electoral colleges one hundred and sixty-two 
 votes were cast for Jefferson and Clinton ; four- 
 teen faithful Federalists gave their ballots for 
 C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King, It was a 
 glorious triumph. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PKESIDENT : 
 
 DEFECTION. — BURR's TREASON. 
 
 A LONG life of singular good fortune, almost 
 unprecedented in a land of popular government, 
 checkered by few serious and no enduring dis- 
 appointments, found its culmination in the bril- 
 liant victory of the election of 1804. Had Jef- 
 ferson been as wise as the prince in the fable 
 he would have been alarmed at his own for- 
 tune, and have felt reluctant further to test the 
 constancy of his good Genius, knowing how diffi- 
 cult it is to perch long upon the giddy pinnacle 
 of supreme success. Apparently he felt no such 
 boding instinct, but approached his second term 
 with tranquil confidence. This temper was not 
 properly attributable to personal vanity, nor to 
 the overweening ambition which his detractors 
 ascribed to him. Rather it was due to his firm 
 belief that his theories of government were so 
 founded in eternal truth that success and pop- 
 ularity^ naturally attended upon him as their 
 expositor. So far as he was egotistical and self- 
 confident, he was so because he honestly con- 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 273 
 
 ceived himself to be a genniiie and successful 
 benefactor of mankind. Yet some misgivings 
 and self-distrust would have been more timely, 
 for whatever were his deserts he was about to 
 meet such reverses as experience shows almost 
 inevitably succeed to long continued prosperity. 
 Not many days after Monroe and Living- 
 ston had agreed to purchase Louisiana, war had 
 again broken out in Europe. Nor did hostili- 
 ties advance far before tlie ill effects attendant 
 upon all those Napoleonic struggles began to 
 be experienced by the United States, in the too 
 familiar shape of naval outrages and lawless ag- 
 gressions upon their neutral commerce. Seri- 
 ous complaints were heard, and the outlook was 
 far from cheerful during many months before 
 Jefferson's second inauguration. Yet he ob- 
 stinately maintained a sanguine temper. Re- 
 solved to preserve a fair neutralit}^ he would 
 not doubt that his just dealing would be recip- 
 rocated, and the neutral rights of the United 
 States be respected with moderate honesty. 
 The career in which the French people had 
 sustained Napoleon for many years past had to 
 a great extent cured Jefferson of those Galil- 
 ean predilections which in Washington's day 
 had given such an unneutral bias to his feel- 
 ings. Now he had been for some time inclin- 
 ing towards England, not so much with warmth 
 18 
 
274 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of sentiment as from a respect for her position 
 as the chief obstacle in the way of Bonaparte's 
 military despotism. Even so far back as Octo- 
 ber, 1802, he had written rather bitterly to 
 Livingston : " It is well, however, to be able to 
 inform you generally . . . that we stand com- 
 pletely corrected of the error that either the 
 government or the nation of France has any re- 
 mains of friendship for us." In the summer of 
 1803 he said: "We see . . . with great con» 
 cern the position in which Great Britain is 
 placed, and should be sincerely afflicted were 
 any disaster to deprive mankind of the benefit 
 of such a bulwark against the torrent which 
 has for some time been bearing down all before 
 it." Again : " We are friendly, cordially and 
 conscientiously friendly, to England. We are 
 not hostile to France. We will be rigorously 
 just and sincerely friendly to both. I do not 
 believe we shall have as much to swallow from 
 them as our predecessors had." In this spirit 
 towards the warring powers, Jefferson felt "a 
 perfect horror at everything like connecting our- 
 selves with the politics of Europe." His wish 
 was that, while the nations of the old world 
 were fighting, the United States should stand 
 by indifferent, or at least impartial, but rapidly 
 amassing riches through the abundant channel 
 of a vast neutral commerce. It was a pleas- 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 275 
 
 ing and sufficiently honorable project to gather 
 wealth, increase, and power through peace. 
 " The day," he wrote, in one of his happy 
 dreamings, '* is within my time as well as 
 yours, when we may say by what laws other 
 nations shall treat us on the sea. And we will 
 say it. In the mean time we wish to let every 
 treaty we have drop off without renewal." It 
 was a civilized policy worthy of respect. More- 
 over it was a sensible policy. Jefferson alone 
 understood in that time the truth, which is 
 now more generally appreciated, that by sheer 
 growth in population, wealth, and industry a 
 nation gains the highest degree of substantial 
 power and authority. 
 
 But Jefferson's attitude was that of a mer- 
 cantile Quaker seeking an amicable trade with 
 infuriated highwaymen, hardly a feasible atti- 
 tude to be long maintained. Rage and imme- 
 diate self-interest alone ruled the combatants, 
 who were about as much influenced by Mr. 
 Jefferson's reasonable and pacific protestations 
 as they were by the Sermon on the Mount. 
 Peace and neutrality were contemptible phrases 
 in their ears. The British cabinet determined 
 that the United States should either become an 
 ally of England or be plundered by English 
 cruisers. France pursued the same policy so 
 far as she could. But Jefferson, r^olutely bent 
 
276 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 upon tranquillity and prosperity, clung to liis 
 chosen course, and persisted in protest and ne- 
 gotiation. His expressions of good-will towards 
 England increased. " No two countries upon 
 earth," he said, " have so many points of com- 
 mon interest and friendship, and their rulers 
 must be great bunglers indeed, if, with such 
 dispositions, they break them asunder." It 
 was cruel indeed to have only violence and 
 robbery returned for such resolute amiability. 
 But so it was; and the battle of Trafalgar 
 occurring October 21, 1805, and leaving Eng- 
 land supreme upon the ocean, proved a farther 
 serious misfortune for the United States, who 
 soon began to suffer more intolerable injuries 
 than any yet inflicted. 
 
 Another incident in the first year of his sec- 
 ond term gave the President grave tliough tem- 
 porary annoyance. Spain, backed by France, 
 threatened to make serious trouble concerning 
 the eastern boundaries of Louisiana. Jeffer- 
 son, though irritated and ready to fight if need 
 be, was yet sufficiently true to his principles to 
 prefer the peaceful remedy of a purchase. On 
 December 6, 1805, he sent a j^rivate message 
 to the House, with the design that it should 
 lead up to such another appropriation as had 
 been placed at his disposal in the case of Louis- 
 iana. But to the surprise and discomfiture of 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 277 
 
 the administrationists, a report of a very differ- 
 ent tenor was made by the committee to whom 
 the message was referred ; and the chairman of 
 that committee was John Randolph. Here was 
 indeed an alarming defection ; for Randolph 
 had long been accustomed to lead the House for 
 the government. He was esteemed daring, 
 able, and influential ; and those traits, which 
 later gave him the character of a mere politi- 
 cal free lance, had not yet been fully recog- 
 nized. He had carried through the Louisiana 
 measures with a contempt for logic and law 
 which proved him the best of partisans ; he 
 had endured castigation and defeat in the 
 Chase impeachment with a gallantry that made 
 him seem the most loyal of followers. Now 
 suddenly he sprang up on the wrong side and 
 poured forth the most vituperative harangues 
 not only against the policy but even against the 
 political integrity of the President. Jefferson 
 might well be taken aback by this singular 
 behavior, for he had a right to expect the same 
 support in buying the Floridas which had been 
 accorded in buying Louisiana. What then was 
 to be the extent of this scission, this rebellion ? 
 For a short time he watched the debates in the 
 House with anxiety. But ere long the votes 
 reassured him ; only eleven of the party went 
 off under Randolph's banner ; eighty-seven 
 
278 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 maintained their allegiance to the President. 
 Evidently Randolph's personal influence had 
 been overrated. Not all even of his eleven re- 
 mained faithful to him, when it appeared that 
 his purpose was not merely a difference upon 
 this single occasion but extended to a perma- 
 nent opposition. The President took courage, 
 and declared the House to be 
 
 " as well disposed as ever I saw one. The defection 
 of so prominent a leader threw them into dismay and 
 confusion for a moment ; but they soon raUied to 
 their own principles and let him go off with five or 
 six followers only. . . . The alarm . . . from this 
 schism has produced a rallying together and a har- 
 mony, which carelessness and security had begun to 
 endanger. On the whole this little trial of the firm- 
 ness of our representatives in their principles . . . 
 has added much to my confidence in the stability of 
 our government, and to my conviction that should 
 things go wrong at any time, the people will set them 
 to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective 
 rights." 
 
 Characteristic sentences ! Jefferson presents 
 the unusual spectacle of one who grew more 
 optimistic with increasing years. 
 
 Yet Randolph's conduct, though of slight po- 
 litical consequence, ought to have given food 
 for reflection to the people. It was not the 
 outgrowth of selfish disappointment, but of a 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 279 
 
 genuine and honest dissatisfaction with the 
 career of the administration. Randolph was 
 really a purist in politics, as Jefferson had pro- 
 fessed to be. He had espoused Republicanism 
 and had become the devout disciple of Jefferson 
 because he had believed that absolute purity 
 would prevail beneath the sway of that party 
 and its admirable leader. A Republican tri- 
 umph was to inaugurate a golden age of virtue. 
 He had been slow to awake from this delu- 
 sion and to acknowledge that his idol was 
 adopting the ways of all politicians and that 
 the business of government was conducted now 
 much as it had been in the bad days of Feder- 
 alism. In the pain and anger of disillusion- 
 ment, the impetuous reformer saw no better 
 course than to abandon a chief whom he chose 
 to regard as forsworn. His criticism was not 
 just, because the critic had set up an ideal stand- 
 ard, and had expected more than could be 
 done. Yet there was a lesson to be learned from 
 his strictures ; it was apparent that Jefferson 
 in earlier times had found fault which he had 
 no right to find and raised hopes which he 
 could not fulfil. He had dreamed and prom- 
 ised probably with honesty, but he was not 
 transmuting his dreams into realities nor mak- 
 ing his promises good. In truth he could not 
 do so ; he had tried, but he had unfortunately 
 
280 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 talked about impossibilities in government so 
 far as that science bad yet been developed. 
 
 In 1805-6 another disturbance arose. Aaron 
 Burr had made up his mind that treason was 
 preferable to a condition of political failure. 
 For advancing the purposes of his boundless 
 ambition Burr possessed infinite audacity, a 
 singular capacity for personal fascination, and 
 great aptitude for the machinery of politics. 
 But he needed much weightier qualities to en- 
 able him to cope with such powerful leaders as 
 Hamilton and Jefferson, who both, hostile in 
 everything else, were of one mind concerning 
 the necessity of crushing him. Nor did Burr 
 improve matters, but, to his infinite surprise 
 and chagrin, made them vastly worse by the 
 method which he took to rid himself of Ham- 
 ilton. He only added universal odium to polit- 
 ical disaster and financial ruin. In this state of 
 his affairs he concocted his famous scheme for 
 seating himself upon the " throne of the Mon- 
 tezumas," and annexing to it all the territory 
 west of the Alleghanies. While the enterprise 
 was still unchecked and the wildest rumors of 
 its extent and progress were prevalent, Jeffer- 
 son maintained a tranquil confidence highly 
 creditable to his good sense. He omitted no 
 precaution, but he felt no doubt as to the re- 
 sult. Substantially his anticipations were jus- 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 281 
 
 tified by the prompt and easy shattering of the 
 meagre forces and the arrest of the prmcipal 
 traitor. 
 
 When Burr was brought to Richmond for 
 trial, the President took the liveliest interest in 
 the legal proceedings. Then indeed was wit- 
 nessed a singular spectacle. The Federalists, 
 forcjettins: that the hands of the criminal were 
 red with the hfe-blood of that distinguished 
 man to whom their party owed at once its exist- 
 ence and nearly all the measures upon which 
 it could base its good reputation, and seeing 
 in the alleged project of Burr only a scheme 
 which, if successful, would have overwhelmed 
 in disgrace the administration of Jefferson, now 
 received the wretch with every demonstration 
 of friendship and admiration. They pretended 
 to regard him as an innocent man persecuted 
 by the President from motives of personal spite. 
 It is highly improbable that they believed what 
 they said ; but even if they did, it ill became 
 them to be upholders of Burr. Accident made 
 it likely that the punishment of a traitor would 
 gratify a private animosity which it may be ad- 
 mitted that the President must have felt, since 
 he was human. But Burr was so unquestion- 
 ably guilty that Jefferson, as President, was in 
 duty bound to desire his conviction, and it was 
 impossible to say how far personal feeling min- 
 
282 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 gled with public motives. By established rules 
 the President was entitled to the benefit of the 
 doubt. But the Federalists, themselves most 
 shamefully condoning Hamilton's murder, gave 
 their enemy no benefit of any doubt, preferring 
 to pursue him with unbounded abuse. 
 
 Jefferson certainly made no secret of his 
 opinion ; but there was no reason why he should 
 do so ; there was no danger that the naked fact 
 that he thought Burr guilty would have any 
 undue weight in a court over which Marshall 
 was presiding. Indeed, if any influence at all 
 was perceptible in that tribunal, it was the in- 
 fluence of the Federalist friends of the accused. 
 Jefferson, of course, made no effort, as he had 
 no power, to affect the conduct of the trial di- 
 rectly or indirectly, save so far as that he com- 
 municated to the government counsel any facts 
 or suggestions which occurred to him. But he 
 watched the proceedings closely, and certainly 
 he had a right to be indignant at some inci- 
 dents in them. For instance, Luther Martin, 
 himself not untainted by suspicion of collusion 
 with his " highly-respected friend," as he took 
 pains to call Burr in open court, did not hesitate 
 to charge that the President, by *' tyrannical or- 
 ders " " contrary to the Constitution and the 
 laws," had endeavored to consign " to destruc- 
 tion " " the life and property of an innocent 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM, 283 
 
 man." The judges sat silent while the counsel 
 uttered this and more of the same sort. Then 
 application was made by the defendant's law- 
 yers for a subpoena duces tecum to compel the 
 President personally to attend as a witness, 
 bringing the letters and records of the War 
 Department. The court granted the request, 
 but admitted that it had no authority to enforce 
 such a summons. This singular assertion of a 
 right to command not backed by a power to en- 
 force made the Pi*esident angry. He was ready 
 to send any papers which might be pertinent, 
 but he repudiated the notion that the court 
 could properly order him to take the stand as a 
 witness. There is hardihood, if not profes- 
 sional profanity, in questioning a decision of 
 Marshall; but it certainly seems as though the 
 Federalist rather than the judge spoke on this 
 occasion ; and if all his rulings had been as 
 open to criticism and to suspicion as was this 
 one, he might have left a less formidable repu- 
 tation. 
 
 Jefferson wrote to Hay as follows : — 
 
 " Laying down the position generally, that all per- 
 sons owe obedience to subpoenas, he [Marshall] ad- 
 mits no exception unless it can be produced in his 
 law books. . . . The Constitution enjoins his [the 
 President's] constant agency in the concerns of six 
 millions of people. Is the law paramount to this, 
 
284 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 which calls on him on behalf of a single one ? Let 
 us apply the judge's own doctrine to the case of him- 
 self and his brethren. The sheriff of Henrico sum- 
 mons him from the bench to quell a riot somewhere 
 in his county. The federal judge is by the general 
 law a part of the posse of the state sheriff. Would 
 the judge abandon major duties to perform lesser 
 ones ? Again : the court of Orleans or Maine com- 
 mands by subpoenas the attendance of all the judges 
 of the Supreme Court. "Would they abandon their 
 posts as judges, and the interests of millions commit- 
 ted to them, to serve the purposes of a single indi- 
 vidual? The leading principle of our Constitution is 
 the independence of the Legislature, Executive, and 
 Judiciary of each other ; and none are more jealous 
 of this than the Judiciary. But would the Executive 
 be independent of the Judiciary, if he were subject to 
 the commands of the latter, and to imprisonment for 
 disobedience, if the several courts could bandy him 
 from pillar to post, keep him constantly trudging from 
 north to south and east to west, and withdraw him 
 entirely from his constitutional duties ? " 
 
 A striking exemplification of the force of 
 this argument would probably soon have been 
 furnished, bad not Burr escaped from a trial in 
 Ohio by forfeiting his bonds and fleeing abroad. 
 For the President would surely have been sum- 
 moned to that trial also, and, if he had obeyed 
 the summons, would have been kept far from 
 the seat of government, in a then very inacces- 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 285 
 
 sible region, at the moment when his presence 
 was of exceptional importance at the capital, 
 by reason of the doings of British cruisers on 
 the Virginian sea-coast, and of the perilous con- 
 dition of our relations with England. The de- 
 cision of Marshall was disregarded by the 
 President, and nothing more came of it. Only 
 the Federalists used his conduct as a further 
 support of their accusations of tyranny and 
 injustice. 
 
 When the final result was announced Jeffer- 
 son directed George Hay, of counsel for the 
 government, not to pay or dismiss any wit- 
 nesses until their testimony should have been 
 taken down in writing. " These whole pro- 
 ceedings," he said, " will be laid before Con- 
 gress, that they may decide whether the defect 
 has been in the evidence of guilt, or in the law, 
 or in the application of the law, and that they 
 may provide the proper remedy for the past 
 and the future." He was as good as his word, 
 calling the attention of Congress to the matter 
 in his next message in language of unmistakable 
 tenor. The result ultimately was the passage 
 of some usefid legislation concerning treason, 
 but, of course, nothing was done in relation to 
 this especial trial, or any individual engaged 
 therein. Matters of greater consequence than 
 the punishment of a ruined man demanded at- 
 tention. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PRESIDENT : SECOND TERM. — EMBARGO. 
 
 Angry clouds were rolling up thick and fast 
 from the Atlantic horizon over the benevolent 
 head of the most pacific of earthly rulers. Jef- 
 ferson seemed to make a modest and reasonable 
 request of the European powers when he asked 
 only that they would let the United States 
 alone. But it was a request which neither 
 France nor England had any mind to grant. 
 Napoleon would tolerate no neutrality; Great 
 Britain added to her natural vindictiveness to- 
 wards her quondam colonies a rapacious jeal- 
 ousy of their growing commerce. Her estab- 
 lished purpose was to make a double gain at 
 once by confiscation and extermination, and she 
 carried out this policy with brutal insolence, in 
 defiance of international law and natural right. 
 In November, 1804, Jefferson was obliged to 
 admit that even in our own harbors our vessels 
 were no longer safe from British guns. France, 
 thougli equally ready, was fortunately less able 
 to commit outrages. Yet the President hope- 
 fully added ; " The friendly conduct of the 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 287 
 
 gOYernments, from whose officers and subjects 
 these acts have proceeded, in other respects and 
 places more under their observation and con- 
 trol, gives us confidence that our representa- 
 tions on this subject will have been properly- 
 regarded." A vain hope ! A year passed and 
 matters were worse rather than better. In the 
 message of December 3, 1805, Jefferson could 
 say nothing more satisfactory than that 
 
 " our coasts have been infested and our harbors 
 watched by private armed vessels, some of them 
 without commissions, some with illegal commissions, 
 others with those of legal form, but committing pirat- 
 ical acts beyond the authority of their commissions. 
 They have captured in the very entrance of our har- 
 bors, as well as on the high seas, not only the vessels 
 of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own 
 also. They have carried them off under pretence of 
 legal adjudication ; but not daring to approach a court 
 of justice, they have plundered and sunk them by the 
 way, or in obscure places where no evidence could 
 arise against them ; maltreated the crews and aban- 
 doned them in boats in the open sea or on desert 
 shores without food or covering." 
 
 January 17, 1806, he was further obliged to 
 send in a special message on the same irritat- 
 ing subject, accompanied by the " memorials 
 of several bodies of merchants in the United 
 States." In the subsequent debates a singular 
 
288 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 alliance was struck between the Federalists 
 from tlie commercial districts of New England 
 and John Randolph, with his half dozen follow- 
 ers, — the " Quids " as they were called. That 
 there was no real community of interest be- 
 tween the malcontent planter and the Eastern 
 merchants may be gathered from Randolph's 
 bold declaration that, " if this great agricultural 
 nation is to be governed by Salem and Boston, 
 New York and Philadelphia, and Baltimore 
 and Norfolk and Charleston, let gentlemen 
 come out and say so." Nevertheless the two 
 bodies made common cause against the admin- 
 istration. But their strange coalition was of 
 no avail. The measure desired by the Presi- 
 dent was carried by very handsome majorities 
 in both Houses. It provided that after Novem- 
 ber 15, 1806, certain articles should not be im- 
 ported from the British dominions, nor, if of 
 British manufacture, from any other places. 
 Mr. Jefferson, still omnipotent, might well say, 
 " A majority of the Senate means well," and 
 " the House of Representatives is as well dis- 
 posed as I ever saw one." He believed in mer- 
 cantile pressure, and he was allowed to have his 
 way. 
 
 But his way worked poorly. Less than a 
 month after this act was passed the English war 
 ship Leander fired into an American coaster 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 289 
 
 near Sandy Hook and killed a man. The Presi- 
 dent ordered the Leander out of American wa- 
 ters, and directed the arrest of her commander, 
 which of course could not conveniently be made. 
 Then, alarmed at the possible effect of this very 
 moderate display of resentment, he wrote to 
 Mr. Monroe, minister at London, deprecating 
 the anger of the newly established and friendly 
 cabinet of Mr. Fox. Public sentiment, he said, 
 " did not permit us to do less than has been 
 done. It ought not to be viewed by the min- 
 istry as looking towards them at all, but merely 
 as the consequences of the measures of their 
 predecessors, which their nation has called on 
 them to correct. I hope, therefore, they will 
 come to just arrangements." Obviously Jef- 
 ferson had forgotten something of what he had 
 once learned concerning the British character, 
 and did not divine the antidotes appropriate to 
 its vices. It has been often said that if he had 
 refrained from his prattle about peace, reason, 
 and right, and instead thereof had hectored and 
 swaggered with a fair show of spirit at this 
 crucial period, the history of the next ten years 
 might have been changed and the war of 1812 
 might never have been fought. Probably this 
 would not have been the case, and England 
 would have fought in 1807, 1808, or 1809, as 
 readily as in 1812. But however this may be, 
 
 19 
 
f 
 
 290 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the high-tempered course was the only one of 
 any promise at all, and had it precipitated the 
 war by a few short years, at least the nation 
 would have escaped a long and weary journey 
 through a mud slough of humiliation. But it 
 is idle to talk of what might have been had 
 Jefferson acted differently. He could not act 
 differently. Though the people would proba- 
 bly have backed him in a warlike policy, he 
 could not adopt it. A great statesman amid 
 political storms, he was utterly helpless when 
 the clouds of war gathered. He was as miser- 
 ably out of place now as he had been in the 
 governorship of Virginia during the Revolu- 
 tion. He could not bring himself to entertain 
 any measures looking to so much as preparation 
 for serious conflict. A navy remained still, as 
 it had always been, his abhorrence. His ex- 
 tremest step in that direction was to build gun- 
 boats. Every one has heard of and nearly 
 every one has laughed at these playhouse flotil- 
 las, which were to be kept in sheds out of the 
 sun and rain until the enemy should appear, 
 aijd were then to be carted down to the water 
 and manned by the neighbors, to encounter, 
 perhaps, the fleets and crews which won the 
 fight at Trafalgar, shattered the French navy 
 at the Nile, and battered Copenhagen to ruins. 
 It almost seemed as though the very harmless- 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 291 
 
 ness of the craft constituted a recommendation 
 to Jefferson. At least they were very clieap, 
 and he rejoiced to reckon that nearlj^ a dozen 
 of them could be built for a hundred thousand 
 dollars. So he was always advising to build 
 more, while England, with all her fighting- 
 blood up, inflicted outrage after outrage upon 
 a country whose ruler cherished such singular 
 notions of naval affairs. 
 
 Yet Jefferson could vapor a little at times in 
 such a quiet private way as involved no sub- 
 stantial responsibility. He gave vent occasion- 
 ally to bellicose sentiments concerning Spain, 
 and at some moments was quite ready to fight 
 her about the Louisiana boundaries, or for the 
 Florid as. Once he said : *' We begin to broach 
 the idea that we consider the whole Gulf 
 Stream as of our waters, in which hostilities and 
 cruising are to be frowned on for the present, 
 and prohibited so soon as either consent or force 
 will permit us. We shall never permit another 
 privateer to cruise within it, and we shall for- 
 bid our harbors to national cruisers. This is 
 essential for our tranquillity and commerce." 
 This grandiloquence occurs in the very letter 
 in which he admits that American ships are 
 fired into, and American sailors are killed with 
 impunity at the very mouths of American har- 
 bors. Surely never was man more devoid of a 
 sense of humor ! 
 
292 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Meantime, though the British were infesting 
 the Atlantic seaboard lilve pirates, Jefferson's 
 perfect faith in his own measures and the peo- 
 ple's equal confidence in him were unshaken. 
 The Democrats continued to score gains in the 
 elections, until the whole country seemed on the 
 point of becoming solidly of that party. In 
 this state of affairs the Ninth Congress came 
 together on December 1, 1806 ; and on the 
 next day Jefferson sent in a message in which 
 he said ; '' The delays ... in our negotiations 
 with the British government appear to have 
 proceeded from causes which do not forbid the 
 expectation that during the course of the ses- 
 sion I may be enabled to lay before you their 
 final issue." Nevertheless a further appropria- 
 tion for more gunboats was recommended, as 
 matter of course. They were fully as good for 
 peace as for war ! 
 
 A noteworthy passage in this message, though 
 an episode in the present narrative, deserves a 
 word. It appeared likely that there would soon 
 be a surplus of income over expenditures, and 
 the President said that the use to be made of 
 that surplus demanded consideration. 
 
 " Shall wo suppress the impost and give that ad- 
 vantage to foreign over domestic manufactures ? On 
 a few articles of more general and necessary use the 
 suppression in due season will doubtless be right ; 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 293 
 
 but the great mass of the articles on which impost is 
 paid is foreign luxuries, purchased by those only 
 who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of 
 them. Tlieir patriotism would certainly prefer its 
 continuance and application to the great purposes of 
 the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such 
 other objects of public improvement as it may be 
 thought proper to add to the constitutional enumera- 
 tion of federal powers." 
 
 Here was a somersault indeed, which might 
 well confound those who remembered how Re- 
 publicans had always denounced the theory of 
 internal improvements. It helped the incon- 
 sistency not at all that Jefferson admitted the 
 necessity of a constitutional amendment in or- 
 der to render lawful the expenditures which he 
 contemplated. For his party had maintained 
 not only that such projects were, but also that 
 they ought to be, unconstitutional. Yet now 
 Jefferson, who had preached that the Union was 
 and ought to remain a league for the sole pur- 
 pose of foreign relationships, that the States 
 were and ought to remain supreme and inde- 
 pendent governments in respect of all internal 
 and domestic affairs, — Jefferson was actually 
 urging tliis doctrine of internal improvements, 
 on the very alleged ground that it would unify, 
 nationalize, centralize the people and the gov- 
 ernment ! " By these operations," he said, *' new 
 
294 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 channels of communication will be opened be- 
 tween the States ; the lines of separation will 
 disappear; their interests will be identified; 
 and their union cemented by new and indisso- 
 luble ties." Hamilton would have had some 
 entertaining comments for this extraordinary 
 politico-economical conversion to his principles. 
 To return to foreign affairs : on December 
 3, 1806, the President sent in a special message 
 advising the " further suspension " of the Non- 
 Importation Act which had not yet been put in 
 force. His motive was that Mr. Fox had be- 
 come prime minivster and was supposed to cher- 
 ish friendly sentiments towards the United 
 States. The obedient majority did his bidding, 
 encountering onl}'^ a trifling opposition from the 
 Federalists. February 19, 1807, tlie President 
 announced that Monroe and Pinckney liad at 
 last succeeded in coming to terms with Great 
 Britain ; though unfortunately the pleasure of 
 the news was seriously dashed by rumors that 
 impressment was not disposed of. Within a 
 few days this disappointment was made certain 
 by the receipt of the treaty, showing that the 
 negotiators had followed the example of Mr. 
 Jay in taking the best they could get rather 
 than nothing. But this best seemed to Jeffer- 
 son so bad that he Avould not for a moment 
 consider it. Loath to fight for the national 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 295 
 
 rights, at least he would not compromise them 
 even by remote inference. In negotiation he 
 had infinite courage and obstinacy. Accord- 
 ingly, without communicating the treaty to the 
 Senate, though that body was then in session, 
 he at once returned it to Monroe, stating that 
 it would not do at all, and that negotiations 
 should be resumed for a widely different con- 
 clusion. No one could find fault with his opin- 
 ion concerning the treaty, but the Federalists 
 assailed the manner of the rejection as high- 
 handed and autocratic. It had this character 
 rather in appearance than in substance; yet 
 such an act done by John Adams would not 
 have escaped Jefferson's bitter animadversion. 
 
 Though Jefferson sent back the treaty, he 
 took care, at the same time, to manifest his still 
 pacific temper by exercising the discretionary 
 power which Congress had vested in him further 
 to suspend the Non-Importation Act. Unfortu- 
 nately a Christian and commercial disposition 
 was hopelessly out of tune with the times. The 
 English policy was simple : since the Americans 
 would not fight, they were the easier objects of 
 plunder. The French principle was responsive: 
 since the Americans are to be robbed, we must 
 share in the booty. So from time to time came 
 British Orders in Council, and retaliatory 
 French decrees dated by the victorious Bona- 
 
296 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 parte from the conquered capitals, Berlin and 
 Milan. The ultimate result of all these taken 
 together was, that substantially nothing but 
 their own coasting trade was left open to Ameri- 
 can vessels. One half the mercantile world 
 was sealed up by the British ; the other half 
 by the French. Ships not complying with cer- 
 tain regulations were liable to capture by Eng- 
 lish cruisers ; ships complying with those 
 regulations were subject to seizure by French 
 vessels ; and vice versa. Nor could even the 
 trade betwixt their own ports be carried on by 
 the citizens of the United States with safety, for 
 British vessels prowled even in our home waters 
 in search of seamen, and in a few years carried 
 off thousands of victims. Their audacity was 
 even such that in June, 1807, the English war- 
 ship Leopard actually fired a broadside into 
 the American frigate Chesapeake, just outside 
 Hampton Roads, killing and wounding several 
 men. The Chesapeake, not prepared for ac- 
 tion, struck her colors ; the British commander 
 boarded her and carried off four sailors, Ameri- 
 can citizens, three of them at least being native 
 born. One of them was forthwith hanged at 
 Halifax. 
 
 The news of this outrage threw the nation 
 into a great rage. "Never," said Jefferson, 
 "since the battle of Lexington, have I seen this 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 297 
 
 country in such a state of exasperation as at 
 present." Some among the extrenie Federalists 
 of the New EngLmd States, terrified at the 
 prospect of hostilities with England, justified 
 the English commander ; but most of the party 
 ■were too high-spirited for such conduct, and 
 joined in the indignant outcry of the Republi- 
 cans. '* The Federalists themselves coalesce 
 with us as to the object, although they will re- 
 turn to their old trade of condenniing every step 
 we take towards obtaining it," said Jefferson. 
 He himself was deeply incensed, bat acknowl- 
 edged the obligation to take no irrevocable step 
 in the heat of passion. " Dut^^" he considered, 
 " requires that we do no act which shall commit 
 Congress in their choice between war, non-inter- 
 course, and other measures." But he at once 
 dispatched a vessel to England to demand rep- 
 aration, and summoned Congress to meet in 
 special session on October 26, by which time he 
 hoped to have a reply. *' Reason," he said, 
 "and the usage of civilized nations require that 
 we should give them an oppoitunity of disa- 
 vowal and reparation. Our own interest, too, 
 the very means of making war, requires that 
 "we sliould give time to our mercliants to gather 
 in their vessels and property and our seamen 
 now afloat." It is plain that at this time he 
 anticipated war. He declared that he was 
 
298 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 making " every preparation " for it " which 
 is within our power," and possibly he really 
 thought that he was getting the country into 
 warlike shape. But he was pitifully mistaken. 
 He only got out some gunboats, did some tri- 
 fling work on harbor fortifications, and gathered 
 a small amount of supplies. Congress afterward 
 made some petty appropriations to pay for these 
 things. 
 
 On October 26, 1807, Congress came to- 
 gether. In both Houses a majority, even more 
 overwhelming than ever before, consisted of ad- 
 ministrationists, a term quite as properly to be 
 used in describing them as either Republicans 
 or Democrats, for they were thoroughly subject 
 to the personal influence of Jefferson. It was 
 evident that whatever measures he should rec- 
 ommend would be promptly carried. Yet he 
 was content in his message only to communi- 
 cate the state of affairs, which was already well 
 knoAvn, and to let the development of his policy 
 await the English reply concerning the Chesa- 
 peake outrage. This reply did not arrive until 
 the second week in December, and then it was 
 only learned that England would send a special 
 envoy about the matter. 
 
 A few days later, on December 18, Mr. Jef- 
 ferson sent in a brief but momentous message. 
 The communications accompanying it, he said, 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 299 
 
 "would show "the great and increasing dan- 
 gers Tvith which our vessels, our seamen, and 
 merchandise are threatened on the high seas 
 and elsewhere from the belligerent powers of 
 Europe, and it being of great importance to 
 keep in safety these essential resources, I deem 
 it my duty to recommend the subject to the 
 consideration of Congress, who will doubtless 
 perceive all the advantages which may be ex- 
 pected from an inhibition of the departure of 
 our vessels from the ports of the United States." 
 It was afterwards made a serious question 
 whether or not, at the time of sending this 
 message, the President had information of the 
 British Orders in Council dated November 11, 
 held back from formal issuance until November 
 17, declaring a "paper blockade" of all the 
 ports of France and her allies. The English 
 ministry and their friends, the American Fed- 
 eralists, always maintained that Jefferson had 
 no proper knowledge of these Orders, and that 
 his recommendation of an embargo was a pre- 
 mature and unjustifiable act of unfriendliness. 
 The administrationists retorted that Jefferson 
 had tlie intelligence, though not in official form. 
 Really the point, if it could be made good, de- 
 served to be disregarded, and could have been 
 preferred only by the immeasurable insolence 
 of Mr. Canning. The communication would 
 
300 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 have been formally made if England liad not 
 behaved with shameful disingenuousness. She 
 pretended to send Mr. Rose as a special emis- 
 sary in the Chesapeake affair, but, besides ham- 
 pering him with such preposterous conditions 
 that he could only disclose them and sail home 
 again, she also held back these Orders in Coun- 
 cil, until literally a few hours after his depart- 
 ure from London. The honorable motive was 
 that the United States might receive and treat 
 with him in ignorance of them. It hardly be- 
 came a minister, guilty of such sharp practice, 
 to complain that Mr. Jefferson had been a little 
 too ready with a demonstration of unfriendli- 
 ness. 
 
 So now at last the presidential policy was an- 
 nounced, — not war, but commercial pressure, 
 an embargo. The history of the brief rem- 
 nant of Mr. Jefferson's administration is little 
 else than a narrative of Federalist attacks on 
 this measure, and its defence by the admin- 
 is trationists. At first it was surprisingly pop- 
 ular. In the Senate John Quincy Adams not 
 only deserted his party in order to vote for it, 
 but said : " The President has recommended 
 this measure on his high responsibility. I 
 would not consider, I would not deliberate, I 
 would act. Doubtless the President possesses 
 such further information as will justify the 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 301 
 
 measure." The senators accepted this reason 
 and this suggestion. Jefferson advised ; delib- 
 eration was superfluous. In a session of only- 
 four hours, behind closed doors, under a suspen- 
 sion of the rules, the bill was passed on the 
 same day on which the message was received. 
 In the House the Federalists kept up a debate 
 for three days, but also with closed doors. Ex- 
 cept for this brief delay they were powerless, 
 and the bill was carried by 82 to 44. The vote, 
 however, showed that some few Republicans 
 had for once gone over to the Federalists and 
 the " Quids." 
 
 It has been pretty generally agreed in subse- 
 quent times that the embargo was a blunder. 
 Certainly the world has outgrown such meas- 
 ures just as it has outgrown Jefferson's am- 
 phibious gunboats. It is hard to realize that 
 only three quarters of a century ago neither of 
 these ideas, more especially that of the em- 
 bargo, had become discredited. On the con- 
 trary, in 1807-8 an embargo was a reputable 
 measure of statecraft, supposed to be efficient 
 both defensively and offensively. In the United 
 States especially the people had been wont for 
 more than a generation to regard it with pecul- 
 iar favor. So now the policy was hailed with 
 approbation by an overwhelming majority. 
 Some Federalist newspapers had cried out for 
 
802 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 it; and even many of the most influential mer- 
 chants were strongly in favor of it, though pos- 
 sibly from the interested motive of weaving out 
 their poorer competitors. Moreover, it was 
 supposed by all that this embargo, like earlier 
 ones, would be of reasonably sliort duration ; 
 and though the Federalists called attention to 
 the fact that the present act, unlike its prede- 
 cessors, did not establish any limit of time, yet 
 few persons honestly feared that this omission 
 had any dangerous significance. 
 
 Jefferson ai'gued very fairly that we should 
 save the property of our citizens, and the per- 
 sons of our sailors, by keeping our ships in our 
 own harbors, whereas on the high seas both 
 merchandise and men would be stolen. The 
 device did not seem to him ignoble. Moreover, 
 since commerce was to be forbidden in foreign 
 no less than in domestic bottoms, he was able 
 to depict great numbers of British merchants 
 suffering loss and ruin, and throngs of British 
 artificers reduced to starvation by the conse- 
 quent curtailment of industry. English labor- 
 ers, he said, could not, like Americans, readily 
 adopt new occupations ; neither had they that 
 surplus of food which our farmers enjoyed. He 
 spoke as if all Americans were farmers ; and 
 gave no thought to the great seaboard popula- 
 tion wholly dependent upon trade. If they 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 303 
 
 were to be hurb, he at least expected them to 
 be kept silent by patriotism, while he antici- 
 pated that the clamors of the English mal- 
 contents would overawe Parliament and the 
 administration. A certain amount of sound 
 reason which really lay in these arguments, 
 backed by the confident assent of a vast ma- 
 jority of the nation, and soon corroborated by 
 cheering accounts from Mr. Pinckne}^ concern- 
 ing the effect of the pressure in England, con- 
 stituted perhaps a justification for Mr. Jefferson 
 in the outset. But in order to make this justi- 
 fication complete two things were necessary, 
 both obviously implied in the reasoning of the 
 administrationists. First : so far as the em- 
 bargo was a domestic measure, ^. e. designed to 
 save our ships and sailors, it should obviously 
 be accompanied by vigorous preparations for 
 war, since it was absurd to regard an embargo 
 as a permanently saving device ; before long it 
 would constitute destruction ; it could only be 
 used to save until the other means to that end 
 customary among nations could be resorted to. 
 Secondly : so far as the embargo had a foreign 
 aspect, i. e. was designed to influence British 
 legislation, it was properly experimental only, 
 and so soon as the working of the experiment 
 clearly promised failure, it should have been 
 abandoned. 
 
304 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Now in point of fact it was impossible long 
 to defend the measure in the former of these 
 two aspects, because the lapse of time showed 
 no serious purpose to protect by sufficient force 
 the men and property subjected to the embargo. 
 To save them by shutting them up until prepa- 
 ration could be made to protect them when 
 abroad was therefore clearly not the govern- 
 ment policy. Hence the measure, if it was to 
 be defended at all after the passing of a few 
 months, must be defended in its second or for- 
 eign character. But here, unfortunately, it was 
 utterly and hopelessly indefensible. The clamor 
 had been raised, and the British government 
 bad turned a deaf ear to it, for reasons alto- 
 gether too attractive to be readily rejected. 
 The merchants wdio were injured by the cessa- 
 tion of the American trade would probably 
 suffer only temporarily ; at any rate they were 
 only individual victims of a great national 
 policy, destined to work an immense and last- 
 ing benefit to the entire shipping and mercan- 
 tile interests of their country. It was the 
 established aim of the English government to 
 annihilate American commerce, which already 
 threatened a dangerous rivalry with their own. 
 In ministerial eyes the embargo was a welcome 
 and efficient aid, blindly furnished by their com- 
 petitor against itself. Jefferson ought to have 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 305 
 
 understood this, and appreciated that England 
 could play at his game longer and with much 
 more profit than the United States. For while 
 in England a few suffered, in the United States 
 the whole vast industries of shipping and com- 
 merce were subjected to a process of starvation 
 wliich in time would result in utter destruction. 
 The longer the United States endured, the more 
 they advanced the English scheme. That 
 scheme was a permanent policy, whereas the 
 United States were seeking only an immediate, 
 specific object, namely, a recognition of their 
 rights without enforcement by war. Failing 
 in this, as ultimately they did fail in it, they 
 were wholly losers. Even succeeding in it, 
 they would sustain a serious injur}^ because 
 they would return much weakened to a sharp 
 competition. Whereas in any possible event 
 the English must gain considerably ; for every 
 set-back encountered by American commerce 
 was a positive advancement of English com- 
 merce. 
 
 It may be further remarked that if the em- 
 bargo accomplished nothing as against England, 
 neither did it do better as against France. That 
 country, herself little hurt by the embargo, 
 was satisfied to have it continue in force. For 
 the permanent commercial ambition of England 
 disturbed Napoleon very little. He was con- 
 20 
 
306 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tent to see that for the immediate present his 
 foe was cut off from supplies, and subjected to 
 a partial impoverishment. 
 
 Unfortunately the English policy was by no 
 means intrinsically devoid of shrewdness or effi- 
 ciency. The discouragement which American 
 merchants endured for many years prior to the 
 war of 1812, followed by the dangers and losses 
 encountered during that war, constituted the 
 first and powerful influence operating to destroy 
 American commerce. Had the mercantile and 
 shipping interests not been weakened by the 
 prolonged emaciation inflicted by the home gov- 
 ernment, they might have remained sufficiently 
 powerful to keep within reasonable limits that 
 ill-advised legislation which has since completed 
 the destruction initiated by Jefferson's meas- 
 ures. Unintentionally he, who many years be- 
 fore had expressed his antipathy to commerce, 
 now did it an injury from which it never recov- 
 ered. But it was through sheer ignorance, not 
 in malice. 
 
 As Jefferson did not see that he was serving 
 the merchants very ill, so he would not admit 
 that he was being false to his own principles. 
 The Federalists said that no such example of 
 " strong government " had ever been seen while 
 they were in power. Their embargoes had 
 been brief and simple affairs in comparison wdth 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 307 
 
 this unlimited and monstrous one. But they 
 were talking of what was really matter of dis- 
 cretion rather than of principle ; for if an em- 
 bargo was a lawful measure, its duration in any 
 especial case was to be determined by a judg- 
 ment upon the exigencies of that case. The 
 argument that, because the act creating this 
 embargo did not specify its length, therefore it 
 did not "regulate" but destroyed commerce, 
 and was unconstitutional, was very properly 
 overruled by the Supreme Court. But Jeffer- 
 son was not true to his principles, because, of 
 his two reasons, one at least was thoroughly 
 undemocratic. The endeavor to take care of 
 the property and persons of American citizens 
 by shutting them up, as it were, within doors 
 was the extremity of paternal government. It 
 might have borne a different character had it 
 been a war measure, but within a very short 
 time every one knew that it was not a war 
 measure, but simply an act of paternity. Jef- 
 ferson constantly spoke of it in this light. As 
 such it was not only undemocratic, but emi- 
 nently foolish. Jefferson might wisely have left 
 to the merchants the care both of their profits 
 and of their principal. They were not a stupid 
 or a helpless class, and they understood their 
 business far better than he did. The argu- 
 ment was advanced by Quincy of Massachu- 
 
308 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 setts ; it could not be answered, but it was dis- 
 regarded. 
 
 Tlius it appears that when, through Jeffer- 
 son's influence, the embargo Avas imposed it was 
 not to be regarded as absolutely a sound and 
 wise measure. It required to be vindicated 
 either by the doing of certain things in the 
 United States, or the occurrence of certain 
 events in England. After a reasonable time 
 those things had not been done at home and 
 those events had not taken place abroad. For 
 the latter, Jefferson was not responsible ; for 
 the former, he was. For he had but to say the 
 word to Congress and he would have been 
 strictly obeyed. He was so supreme and so 
 well known to be a strong advocate of peace, 
 that had he asserted the necessity of creating 
 a nav}^ and build uig fortifications, or even be- 
 ginning hostilities, these steps would have been 
 taken at once. 
 
 Jefferson's biographers narrate with pleasure 
 the at first enthusiastic and afterward patient 
 support wliich Congress and the people yielded 
 to tlie embargo policy, as if this constituted his 
 justification. But the argument is unsatisfac- 
 tory. It was Jefferson's function to be wiser 
 than the people, to guide and instruct them ; or 
 at least lie assumed this duty. Congress and 
 the nation persevered in the embargo for the 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 309 
 
 same reason that they had enacted and ap- 
 plauded it in the first instance ; and that reason 
 had been forcibly and clearly expressed in Mr. 
 Adams' statement that his reliance was upon 
 the " President's responsibility." Such also 
 was the reliance of the embargo majorities in 
 and out of Congress. Jefferson at first invited 
 and afterward encouraged this faith. It was 
 not until after the miscarriage and unpopular- 
 ity of the measure had become unquestionable 
 that he began to find his " responsibility " irk- 
 some and to seek to shift it from his wearied 
 shoulders. One thing, however, it is fair to 
 say : when an administration blunders it usual- 
 ly receives sound instruction from the opposi- 
 tion ; Jefferson did not. The Federalists were 
 even blinder than the administrationists. They 
 showed their ignorance of the true bearing of 
 the embargo by their criticisms upon it. Their 
 horizon also was bounded by the immediate in- 
 jury to Great Britain, and they stigmatized the 
 measuie as a '' sly and cunning " endeavor to 
 render surreptitious aid to France. They were 
 even more opposed to warlike measures than 
 were the Democrats, and had no better advice 
 to give than an ignominious submission to all 
 English demands. 
 
 The embargo message, it will be remembered, 
 was sent in to Congress on December 18, 1807. 
 
810 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 On March 23, 1808, Jefferson wrote to Levi 
 Lincoln of Massachusetts, that " it appears to 
 be approved, even by the Federalists of every 
 quarter except yours. The alternative was be- 
 tween that and war, and in fact it is the last 
 card we have to play short of war." By June 
 23, 1808, he wrote, " the day is not distant 
 when that [war] will be preferable to a longer 
 continuance of the embargo." By August 9, 
 we get glimpses of serious popular discontent. 
 On that day the President writes to the Secre- 
 tary of War, in language wonderfully different 
 from that which he had held at the time of the 
 whiskey insurrection, and with a spirit that 
 would have been better displayed towards trans- 
 Atlantic enemies than towards suffering Ameri- 
 can citizens : — 
 
 " The Tories of Boston openly threaten insurrec- 
 tion if their importation of flour is stopped. The 
 next post will stop it. I fear your Governor is not 
 up to the tone of these parricides, and I hope, on the 
 first symptom of an open opposition of the law by 
 force, you will fly to the scene and aid in suppressing 
 any commotion." 
 
 Jefferson was neither awed nor instructed by 
 the loud grumbling in New England. The day 
 which in March he had described as " not dis- 
 tant" gave little promise of drawing nearer. 
 To the marine interest it seemed to be mys- 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 311 
 
 teriously established in a perpetual offing ; it 
 became in time as exasperating as a mirage. 
 
 By September, 1808, Jefferson had become 
 hopeless of affecting the policy of England by 
 longer persistence in the embargo. Mr. Pinck- 
 ney, he said, inferred from a conversation with 
 Canning that the orders might be repealed : 
 *' but I have little faith in diplomatic inferences 
 and less in Canning's good faith." Still the 
 time glided on until Congress met on November 
 7. The whole countrj^ waited anxiously to hear 
 what Jefferson would say to that body ; would 
 he declare that "not distant" day to be at 
 length near at hand ? would the disappointment 
 abroad, the discontent at home, and later the 
 loss by his party of all the New England States 
 save one at the Presidential election, have any 
 weight with him ? His message was non-com- 
 mittal. He stated that he had intimated to 
 England that a withdrawal of her Orders in 
 Council would be met by a suspension of the 
 embargo as to her, whatever might be the 
 action of France ; but he admitted that the 
 English cabinet had paid no attention to this 
 communication. In a word, he acknowledged 
 that his " candid and liberal experiment " had 
 "failed," and said that now it must "rest with 
 the wisdom of Congress to decide on the course 
 best adapted " to the existing state of affairs. 
 
312 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Apparently he meant to give no more advice 
 and te^ take no more responsibility. He pluQied 
 himself a little because the embargo had "dem- 
 onstrated to foreign nations the moderation and 
 firmness which govern our councils." But he 
 did not add that Great Britain had watched 
 with exasperating complacency this patient en- 
 durance with which the United States had 
 suffered for her benefit. Neither did he men- 
 tion that when our minister had made to Mr. 
 Canning the offer to repeal the embargo if 
 England would repeal the Orders, that sarcas- 
 tic gentleman had replied that he should like to 
 help the Americans to get rid of the restrictions 
 which they found so very " inconvenient," 
 though he really could not go so far as to with- 
 draw his Orders for that purpose. Bonaparte 
 also, with practical irony, had issued a decree 
 for the seizure of all American ships found 
 afloat, out of friendship, he said, to the United 
 States, to aid them in preventing the escape 
 of their vessels in contravention of their law. 
 Jefferson, having no humor in his composition, 
 did not amuse Congress by repeating these re- 
 marks. 
 
 By refraining from uttering a word pointing 
 towards war, Jefferson made it plain enough 
 that he did not desire it. The embargo, from 
 being a temporary measure, was beginning to 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 313 
 
 be embraced by him as a policy of indefinite 
 duration. The result was a surprising indica- 
 tion of his almost despotic supremacy. An 
 enormous majority in the House of Represen- 
 tatives adopted a series of resolutions indorsing 
 the continuance of the embargo. In the Sen- 
 ate a direct resolution to repeal it received 
 only six yeas against twenty -five nays ; and on 
 December 21 that body passed a very strong 
 enforcing bill. But it was not long before the 
 President and administrationists got alarming 
 evidence of their folly. The Massachusetts 
 Legislature condemned the enforcing bill as 
 " unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional, and 
 not legally binding," Governor Trumbull of 
 Connecticut refused to comply with the Presi- 
 dent's requisition for militia under the new act, 
 and sent to the Legislature a message breath- 
 ing the spirit of nullification. That body, in 
 response, passed resolutions similar to those of 
 Massachusetts. Evasions of the law were coun- 
 tenanced b}'- public opinion, and convictions 
 could not be got before juries. Many influ- 
 ential Federalists began to accustom their 
 minds to the idea of secession, if not actually 
 to form definite plans for it. Of this men- 
 acing temper Jefferson received information. 
 Whether or not it frightened him is doubtful. 
 His conduct henceforth becomes so wavering 
 
314 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 that his true sentiments cannot be accurately 
 ascertained. In November, 1808, he did not 
 desire a repeal. On January 14, 1809, he said 
 that the objects which the embargo was origi- 
 nally designed to subserve were nearly attained, 
 so that the measure was " now near its term." 
 A few days afterward a bill was passed for an 
 extra session of Congress in May next, with 
 the design of repealing the embargo on June 1, 
 and " then resuming and maintaining by force 
 our right of navigation." This apparently 
 ought to have pleased Jefferson, if he clung to 
 his opinion of January 14 ; but it did not. He 
 still hugged the vision of peace with painful 
 tenacity, and treated the policy of hostility as 
 men treat old age, pushing it always a little in 
 advance of the present day. He moaned some- 
 what, because the exceptional " situation of the 
 world," such as he declared never had been be- 
 fore and probably never would be again, had 
 defeated his fair ]3olicy. " If we go to war 
 now," he complained, '' I fear we may renounce 
 forever the hope of seeing an end of our na- 
 tional debt. If we can keep at peace eight 
 years longer, our income, liberated from debt, 
 will be adequate to any war, without new 
 taxes or loans, and our position and increasing 
 strength will put us hors d'insulte from any na- 
 tion." Yet it was his friend and the leader of 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 315 
 
 the administrationists in the House, Nicholas 
 of Virginia, who, on January 25, introduced 
 resohitions contemplating a repeal of the em- 
 bargo on June 1. An eager debate upon these 
 resulted in a breaking up and reorganizing of 
 parties and cliques which was quite kaleido- 
 scopic. The date was finally set at March 4. 
 This vote was regarded as a defeat of the ad- 
 ministration, but only in so far as it made the 
 date of repeal earlier than the contemplated 
 date of May 1 by nearly three months — not 
 a serious period. Yet eighteen months later, 
 partly probably in reference to this vote, and 
 partly to subsequent votes of a like tenor, Jef- 
 ferson wrote : " The Federalists during their 
 short-lived ascendency have nevertheless, by 
 forcing from us the repeal of the embargo, 
 inflicted a wound on our interests which can 
 never be cured." It looks very much as though 
 the President did not know his own mind ; if 
 he did, certainly he succeeded in preventing 
 posterity from finding it out. The truth is that 
 he knew his policy to have failed, yet could not 
 abandon it. He seems to have been bitterly 
 disappointed, and a little frightened. He was 
 pained to see his party defeated, but his chief 
 anxiety was becoming personal, centring in the 
 desire to escape from his embarrassing position. 
 He had not longed more to get out of the gov- 
 
316 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ernorship of Virginia than he now longed to 
 get out of the presidency. At times he resolved 
 not to try to make up his mind, not to do or 
 advise anything. Even in December, 1808, he 
 said : " I have thought it right to take no part 
 myself in proposing measures, the execution of 
 which will devolve on my successor. I am, 
 therefore, chiefly an un meddling listener to 
 what others say." In other words he renounced 
 the duty of governing the country for nearly 
 three months before he was lawfully relieved 
 from it. Toward the close of January he reit- 
 erated, " I am now so near retiring that I take 
 no part in affairs beyond the expression of an 
 opinion. I think it fair that my successor 
 should now originate those measures, of which 
 he will be charged with the execution and re- 
 sponsibility. . . . Five weeks more will relieve 
 me from a drudgery to which I am no longer 
 equal." 
 
 These protestations may be believed. Jef- 
 ferson appears in no degree responsible for the 
 subsequent action of Congress in curtailing the 
 duration of that measure which had originally 
 been his own. On March 4, 1809, he was prob- 
 ably almost as glad to leave the presidency as 
 eight years before he had been to enter it. He 
 was released from disappointment, from failure, 
 and from imminent humiliation. During the 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 317 
 
 closing months of his administration he liad pre- 
 sented a pitiable spectacle of a ruler helplessly 
 confounded by the miscarriage of a policy. Yet 
 his personal prestige, though diminished, was 
 still immense. Probably three quarters of the 
 nation believed him the greatest, wisest, and 
 most virtuous of living statesmen. He had the 
 rare pleasure of transmitting the government 
 to a successor over whom his personal influence 
 was very great, who was in thorough political 
 sympathy with him, and towards whom he suc- 
 ceeded in maintaining a personal friendliness 
 without example in the history of the country. 
 He had even to a considerable extent enjoyed 
 the rare privilege of naming that successor. It 
 is true that Madison was pointed out for the 
 place by his official position, his eminent ser- 
 vices, and his abundant ability ; yet at one time 
 a strong effort was made to set up Monroe as a 
 competitor. The movement made a brief show 
 of becoming formidable. Jefferson avowed that 
 he would take no sides as between two men, 
 each of whom he loved and trusted. But Mon- 
 roe entertained uncomfortable suspicions, which 
 were fostered by the malicious communications 
 of persons professing to be friends to him, and 
 who certainly were enemies of tlie President. 
 A slight coolness ensued in spite of Jefferson's 
 protestations 5 but it did not last long. Jef- 
 
318 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ferson was the most conciliatory of men, and 
 Monroe had really no choice but to be pacified. 
 Jefferson probably told the truth when he said 
 that he took no part for either competitor. 
 There is no evidence that he was in any way 
 active in Madison's behalf. On the other hand, 
 it cannot be denied that Madison had long be- 
 fore been designed by him for the position, that 
 this was perfectly well understood, and that the 
 knowledge of his wishes was conclusive. 
 
 Jefferson had been earnestly besought by 
 many and influential bodies of citizens to be- 
 come a candidate for a third term. Probably 
 he could have had the honor, had he sought it. 
 But he declined promptly and without the least 
 wavering. He had already stretched his 
 avowed principles concerning the duration of 
 incumbency quite far enough ; neither could he 
 now add anything to a fame so great that it 
 could be increased more by declining than by 
 accepting further distinctions. Moreover the 
 times began to look stormy and uncomfortable. 
 He would be sixty-five years old at the close of 
 his second term ; he had been in public life, 
 with trifling interruptions, for about forty years ; 
 he had enjoyed an amount and constancy of 
 good fortune rare in any polity and almost un- 
 precedented in a republic. He retired with 
 a reputation and popularity hardly inferior to 
 
PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 319 
 
 that of Washington. He could dictate the 
 foreign and domestic policy of seven millions of 
 free and critical people, simply by virtue of the 
 personal confidence reposed in his integrity and 
 judgment. It is difficult to suggest any other 
 example parallel to this. No personal influence 
 of a civilian, not nourished in any degree by 
 successful war, has ever been so great and so 
 permanent over our people. In a fair measure 
 this was deservedly the case, for with all his 
 faults Jefferson had very civilized ideas and was 
 the true friend of the commonalty. While he 
 regarded their welfare as the noblest object of 
 government, he did not confer benefits upon 
 them as boons, like a political charity done by 
 superiors to inferiors. He believed in them ; 
 he esteemed their intelligence ; he not only re- 
 spected their power, but he desired to see them 
 use it, because he was firmly convinced that 
 they would use it well. He was called a dema- 
 gogue, but he was not, if that word indicates 
 disingenuousness in preaching popular doc- 
 trines. Jefferson had a profound and honest 
 faith in his avowed principles, expecting indeed 
 to gain by them, but only because he thought 
 they were fundamentally right and therefore 
 sure in time to prevail. He differed from the 
 time-serving politician, because he staked his 
 individual success upon the success of what he 
 
320 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 deemed intrinsically right principles. He dif- 
 fered even from the statesman who acts con- 
 sScientiously upon every measure, inasmuch as, 
 bevond devising specific measures, he set forth 
 a broad faith or religion in statesmanship, mak- 
 ing special measures only single blocks in the 
 wide pavement of his road. He was sometimes 
 insincere, often inconsistent, generally prone to 
 shun hurt and danger to himself; but from the 
 time when he began his great reforms in the 
 Virginia House of Burgesses, the general ten- 
 dency and large lines of his purposes and policy 
 held with much steadiness in the noble direction 
 of a perfect humanitarianism. To this day the 
 multitude cherish and revere his memory, and 
 in so doing pay a just debt of gratitude to a 
 friend who not only served them, as man}^ have 
 done, but who honored and respected them, as 
 very few have done. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 AT MONTICELLO : POLITICAL OPINIONS. 
 
 Jefferson's interest in public affairs had be- 
 come a part of his naUire and could not sud- 
 denly cease. Accordingly in his retirement lie 
 corresponded constantly with the new Presi- 
 dent, exercising an authority in tlie Republican 
 party not altogetlier unlike that which had been 
 exercised by Hamilton, in private life, over 
 the Federalists. But in time this relationship 
 caused fault-finding, and gave rise to disagree- 
 able insinuations that Madison was only the 
 puppet of the ex-President. Of course Madi- 
 son was no man's puppet, but such language 
 was so fitted to wound his feelings and weaken 
 his prestige that Jefferson, from a sense of 
 delicacy, thereafterward gi-eatly curtailed his 
 communications. 
 
 A few of Jefferson's opinions on public affairs 
 deserve to be noted. He anticipated for the 
 new administration a peacefiil ai)d pi-o?perous 
 career. War, indeed, still hoveied in his view 
 as a possibly ''less losing business than unre- 
 stricted depredation;" but in his desire to avoid 
 21 
 
322 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 it he advised, in the " present maniac state of 
 Europe," not to " estimate the point of honor 
 by the ordinary scale." Yet he was against 
 making permanent concessions of principle ; and 
 when a commercial treaty was in prospect he 
 urged Madison not to allow the English to 
 " whip us into a treaty " as " they did in Jay's 
 case and were near doing in Monroe's." 
 
 He indulged in a wonderful vision of terri- 
 torial aggrandizement. Bonaparte, he said, 
 
 " would give us the Floridas to withhold inter- 
 course with the residue of those [the Spanish] colo- 
 nies. But that is no price ; because they are ours in 
 the first moment of the first war ; and until a war they 
 are of no particular necessity to us. But, although 
 with difficulty, he will consent to our receiving Cuba 
 into our Union. . . . That would be a price, and I 
 would immediately erect a column on the southern- 
 most limit of Cuba and inscribe on it ne plus ultra as 
 to us in that direction. We should then have only 
 to include the North in our confederacy, which would 
 be of course in the first war, and we should have 
 such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed 
 since the creation ; and I am persuaded no constitu- 
 tion was ever before so well calculated as ours for 
 extensive empire and self-government." 
 
 In 1809 this was tolerably gorgeous day- 
 dreaming ! 
 
 He had by this time so far modified his old 
 
AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS. 323 
 
 hostility to commerce and manufactures as to 
 say : " An equilibrium of agriculture, manu- 
 factures and commerce is certainly become 
 essential to our independence. Manufactures 
 sufficient for our consumption, of what we raise 
 the raw material, (and no more) ; commerce 
 sufficient to carry the surplus produce of agri- 
 culture beyond our own consumption, to a mar- 
 ket for exchanging it for articles we cannot 
 raise, (and no more)." 
 
 He wrote to Gallatin urging him to be per- 
 sistent in extinguishing the national debt. 
 " The discharge of the debt," he said, " is vital 
 to the destinies of our government, and it hangs 
 on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. ... I had 
 always cherished the idea that you would fix on 
 that object the measure of your fame and of the 
 gratitude which our country will owe you." He 
 had a warm regard for Gallatin, and when in 
 the winter of 1810-11 attacks were made on the 
 Secretary, and seams began to open in the party, 
 Jefferson exerted all his authority to sta,j the 
 disagreement. He preached conciliation elo- 
 quently, and laid down a rule of adherence to 
 party which expressed happily the middle 
 course between excessive individual independ- 
 ence and a sacrifice of conscientious opinion. 
 
 In the spring of 1812 Jefferson saw that war 
 was imminent. " Our two countries," he wrote 
 
324 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to an English friend, " are to be at war, but 
 not you and I. And why should our two coun- 
 tries be at war wlien by peace we can be so 
 much more useful to one another ? Surely the 
 world will acquit our government from having 
 sought it. Never before has there been an 
 instance of a nation bearuig so much as we 
 have borne." This was true enough ; Jefferson 
 and Madison had carried enduiance far past the 
 praiseworthy limit; they were not accountable 
 for the blood-letting to come. 
 
 Jefferson contemplated in his usual sanguine 
 temper a war Avhich turned out so very disas- 
 trously. He modestly hoped that we should 
 confine ourselves to the defence of our harbors 
 and to the conquest of the British possessions 
 in North America ! " The acquisition of Can- 
 ada," he said, " this year, as far as the neigh- 
 borhood of Quebec, would be a mere matter of 
 marching, and would give us experience for 
 the attack of Halifax the next, and the final 
 expulsion of England from the American conti- 
 nent." Of course he showed his native incapac- 
 ity for military affairs. " The partisans of Eng- 
 land here," he said, "have endeavored much to 
 goad us into the folly of choosing the ocean in- 
 stead of the land for the theatre of war. That 
 would be to meet their strength with our own 
 weakness, instead of their weakness with our 
 
AT MONTTCELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS. 325 
 
 strength." Quite the reverse of this proved to 
 be the case. Strange as it may seeiri, he was 
 " importuned from several quarters to become 
 a candidate for the presidency iu 1812." So 
 blind was the admiration of his partisans ! 
 Further, Mr. Randall also tells us, " on the 
 authority of an intimate friend of Mr. Madison, 
 who heard the fact from his own lips," that 
 Madison offered the position of Secretary of 
 State to Jefferson. Upon tliis subject Jefferson 
 wrote to Duane, October 1, 1812 : " I profess 
 so much of the Roman principle as to deem ifc 
 honorable for the general of yesterday to act as 
 a corporal to-day, if his services can be useful 
 to his country ; holding that to be false pride 
 which postpones the public good to any private 
 or personal considerations. But I am past ser- 
 vice. The hand of age is upon me. The de- 
 cay of bodily faculties apprises me that those of 
 the mind cannot bub be impaired." He con- 
 tinues in this melancholy strain, and concludes 
 by expressing his satisfaction that he " retains 
 understanding enough to be sensible how much 
 of it he has lost and to avoid exposing himself 
 as a spectacle for the pity of his friends; that 
 he has surmounted the difficult point of know- 
 incr when to retire." This mio^ht have been an 
 excuse, but probably was not ; for he was now 
 constantly harping upon the failure of his fac- 
 ulties. 
 
326 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 He was glad finally to have peace concluded ; 
 he hoped that, " having spared the pride of 
 England her formal acknowledgment of the 
 atrocity of impressment, . . . she will concur in 
 a convention for relinquishing it." Otherwise 
 the pacification could be nothing more than a 
 *' truce^ determinable on the first act of impress- 
 ment of an American citizen." He deprecated 
 " the maniac course of hostility and hatred " 
 pursued by England toward the United States. 
 
 " I hope in God she will change. There is not a 
 nation on the globe with whom I have more earn- 
 estly wished a friendly intercourse on equal condi- 
 tions. ... I know that their creatures represent me 
 as personally an enemy to England. But fools only 
 can believe this, or those who think me a fool. I am 
 an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an en- 
 emy to the flagitious principles of her administration, 
 and to those which govern her conduct towards other 
 nations. But would she give to morality some place 
 in her political code, and especially would she exer- 
 cise decency and, at least, neutral passions towards 
 us, there is not, I repeat it, a people on earth with 
 whom I would sacrifice so much to be in friend- 
 ship." 
 
 Certainly no man was ever less prone to 
 nourish a feud than was Jefferson. He always 
 wanted to conciliate, to forgive, to restore lost 
 or shattered friendshipso About this time he 
 
AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS. 327 
 
 made np his old quarrel with John Adams, and 
 was corresponding with him most cordially. 
 This is only one of many instances of an attrac- 
 tive trait in his character, giving a most ami- 
 able notion of him, — yet he left behind him 
 those venomous "Anas," among the most un- 
 fortunate of all deeds of the pen. Beneath an 
 universal good-will it is shocking to find rank- 
 ling a vindictiveness so relentless and so igno- 
 bly indulged. How differently could we think 
 of him were it not for this bequest which, like 
 the cloven foot, peeps out from beneath his ap- 
 parent guise of broad charity and kindliness. 
 
 In 1820 he was profoundly disturbed by the 
 Missouri Compromise, which seemed to him 
 pregnant with a brood of terrible retributive 
 disasters. 
 
 " This momentous question," he said, " like a fire- 
 bell iu the night, awakened and filled me with terror. 
 I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It 
 is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a 
 reprieve only, not a final sentence." " The coinci- 
 dence of a marked principle, moral and political, with 
 a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would 
 never more be obliterated from the mind ; that it 
 would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing 
 irritations until it would kindle such mutual and 
 mortal hatred as to render separation preferable to 
 eternal discord.." 
 
328 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 He foresaw civil war. "Are we then to see 
 again Athenian and Lacedsemonian confedera- 
 cies ? To wage another Peloponnesian war?" 
 Yet tliongh he was thus correctly prescient of 
 the awful future, he was sadly blind alike to 
 the character and to the result of the conflict, 
 " It is not," he said, " a moral question, but 
 one merely of power. Its object is to raise a 
 geographical principle for the choice of a Pres- 
 ident, and the noise will be kept up till that is 
 effected." The moral element was still far be- 
 neath the surface, and common men might not 
 have suspected its existence ; but Jefferson 
 should have done so. He was not more ex- 
 cusable when he anticipated that the North 
 would be the section to suffer most from the 
 schism. The Northerners, he predicted, " will 
 find the line of separation very different from 
 their 36° of latitude, and as manufacturing and 
 navigating States they will have quarrelled 
 with their bread and butter; and I fear not 
 that after a little trial they will think better of 
 it, and return to the embraces of their natural 
 and best friends." Such is prophecy in states- 
 manship. 
 
 Further, he was decidedly of the opinion that 
 in the compromise Congress interfered unjusti- 
 fiably with states' rights. He condemned the 
 endeavor " to regulate the condition of the dif- 
 
AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS. 329 
 
 ferent descriptions of men composing a State. 
 This certainly is the exclusive right of every 
 State, which nothing in the Constitution has 
 taken from them and given to the general gov- 
 ernment." His views concerning emancipation 
 had apparently undergone little change since 
 the early days when he had concocted a scheme 
 for it, except that apparentl}^ he gave greater 
 weight now than previously to the practical 
 difficulties. " The cession of that kind of prop- 
 erty [slaves], for so it is misnamed, is a baga- 
 telle which would not cost me a second thouo-ht, 
 if in that way a general emancipation and ex- 
 patriation could he effected ; and gradually and 
 with due care, I think, it might be. But as it 
 is we have the wolf by the ears, and can neither 
 hold him nor safely let him go." 
 
 In 1821 Jefferson had a sharp revival of his 
 old jealousy of the judiciary, and published 
 some letters on the subject. Later, during the 
 administration of J. Q. Adams, he was also 
 greatly annoyed by the complete victory of the 
 policy of internal improvement. He now gave 
 up this battle as hopelessly lost to his side. 
 *' The torrent of general opinion " he recog- 
 nized as " irresistible." He was very mournful 
 about it. He could not reconcile himself to a, 
 liberal construction which seemed to him a per- 
 version of the Constitution, no matter how 
 
830 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 great advantages could be gained thereby. Ap- 
 parently he was also much less tolerant of the 
 principle itself than he had been when the en- 
 terprises would have fallen beneath his own 
 control, and would have brought popularity to 
 his own administration. He suggested an ab- 
 surd way of preserving the sanctity of his doc- 
 trine in the abstract, while it was being shat- 
 tered to fragments in practice. He drew up 
 for the Virginia Legislature a verbose " Dec- 
 laration and Protest," reciting the powerless- 
 ness of Congress in the premises, and closing 
 with an enactment in general terms, whereby 
 the State ratified and indorsed, by virtue of its 
 own supreme power and authority in such mat- 
 ters, all the acts for internal improvements 
 which Congress should pass in the future. This 
 was silly, but Jefferson was greatly perturbed 
 by what he saw going forward. He deemed 
 the building of canals and roads with the na- 
 tional money a breach of the national compact 
 such as might in time even justify a dissolu- 
 tion. For this, he said, the provocation was not 
 yet sufficient ; it was " the last resource, not to 
 be thought of until much longer and greater 
 sufferings ;" but it was a possibility in the days 
 to come. His alarm was groundless, and his 
 cure useless. But Jefferson was growing old. 
 This is the last of his interferences in public 
 affairs which is worthy of mention. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTEES.— • 
 DEATH. 
 
 There was a strong theatrical tinge in Jef- 
 ferson's composition. When he retired from 
 the presidency it was to pose during his old 
 age as the " Sage of Monticello," the good and 
 wise old man, the benefactor of his kind, the 
 statesman-philosopher. He recognized that it 
 was proper, nay, incumbent, and even inevitable, 
 to assume this r61e ; he did it readily, without 
 anxiety as to his perfect success in the part, 
 and it must be acknowledged that he played it 
 to the end very well. He at first expected to 
 be the "hermit of Monticello;" but he soon 
 found that he was of that class of hermits 
 whose fame is so great among the nations that 
 all the world flocks to gaze at them, so that re- 
 treat becomes a series of popular levees. The 
 door of his mansion, hospitable even beyond 
 Virginian precedent, stood ever open, and the 
 stream of visitors passed ceaselessly in and out. 
 Relatives came and brought their families, 
 fathers and mothers with broods of children, 
 
832 THOMAS JEFFERSON'. 
 
 and stayed for months ; friends treated the 
 generous roof-tree as tlieir own ; people of dis- 
 tinction or good social position claimed and 
 received briefer entertainment. All this was 
 pleasant, and the gratification given by such 
 visitors generally more than offset the inconven- 
 iences. But it was less agreeable to have the 
 imperfectly civilized people at large behave as 
 if Monticello were the public domain where 
 the ex-President was kept always on exhibition. 
 Every one in the United States, of any enter- 
 prise, sooner or later found his way to this ex- 
 traordinary ''hermitage." The following amus- 
 ing sketch of the household occurs in a letter 
 quoted in Randall's Life : — 
 
 " We had persons from abroad, from all the States 
 of the Union, from every part of the State, men, 
 women, and children. In short, almost every day for 
 at least eight months of the year brought its contin- 
 gent of guests. People of wealth, fashion, men ia 
 office, professional men, military and civil, lawyers, 
 doctors, Protestant clergymen, Catholic priests, mem- 
 bers of Congress, foreign ministers, missionaries, In- 
 dian agents, tourists, travellers, artists, strangers, 
 friends. Some came from aflPection and respect, some 
 from curiosity, some to give or receive advice or in- 
 struction, some from idleness, some because others 
 set the example." 
 
 The crowds actually invaded the house itself, 
 
AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 333 
 
 and stood in the corridors to watch Jefferson 
 pass from one room to another ; they swarmed 
 over the grounds and gaped at him as he walked 
 beneath liis trees or sat on his piazza. All this 
 was flattering, but it was also extremely irk- 
 some ; it too closely resembled the existence of 
 the beast in the menagerie. Yet though Jeffer- 
 son sometimes fled from it for a few days of 
 hiding at a distant farm, he appears wonder- 
 fully seldom to have been lacking in the patient 
 benignity which his part imposed upon him. 
 The most impertinent had their gaze out unmo- 
 lested ; only a few complaints were made pri- 
 vately to friends. 
 
 In time that came to pass which Jefferson 
 ought to have foreseen in the early stages of 
 this fashion of life. He was keeping a large 
 and naturally a very popular hotel, at which no 
 guest ever thought of paying his score. The 
 housekeeper at times had to provide fifty beds ; 
 inevitably the detail of slaves for the house and 
 stables left few field hands for productive labor; 
 all the produce of the Monticello estate was 
 eaten up by the guests ; and of course much 
 other food and drink had to be purchased, and 
 much wear and tear to be made good. The 
 form of entertainment was necessarily simple ; 
 yet Jefferson lived in what was deemed good 
 style in that time and neighborhood. Inevita- 
 
334 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 bly beneath these reducing processes his fortune 
 steadily and much too rapidly shrank. He had 
 also experienced some severe blows. For ex- 
 ample, the pre-revolutionary debt upon his 
 wife's estate was due in England, and the story 
 of its payment was very hard, though very 
 honorable to him. In order to meet it he sold 
 some of her lands at a gold valuation, but 
 finally got the money in paper " worth two and 
 a half per cent, of its nominal value." This 
 sum he deposited in the state treasury under a 
 statute, made during the Revolution, whereby 
 debts owing to English subjects could be paid 
 to the State, which then assumed the indebt- 
 edness and acquitted the debtor. But after the 
 close of the war he declined to avail himself 
 of this acquittance. 
 
 " I am desirous of arranging with you," he wrote 
 to the creditors, "such just and practicable condi- 
 tions as will ascertain to you the terms at which you 
 will receive my part of your debt, and give me the 
 satisfaction of knowing that you are contented. 
 What the laws of Virginia are or may be, will in no 
 wise influence my conduct. Substantial justice is my 
 object, as decided by reason and not by authority 
 or compulsion. ... I am ready to remove all diffi- 
 culty arising from this deposit, to take back to myself 
 the demand against the State, and to consider the 
 deposit as originally made for myself and not for 
 you." 
 
AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 335 
 
 Thus the discharge of X3,749 12s. ultimately 
 "swept nearly half of his estate," while he got 
 back from the state treasury so little that he 
 was wont to say concerning the land which he 
 had parted with, that he had " sold it for a 
 great coat." This costly honesty appears the 
 more creditable, because Jefferson's financial 
 resources had been much diminished by the 
 ravages of the British troops, of which the 
 money value, says Mr. Randall, "more than 
 equalled the amount of his British debt and its 
 interest during the war." 
 
 Subsequently during his public life Jefferson 
 sometimes lived on his salary, sometimes ex- 
 ceeded it, and only while he was Vice-President 
 saved anything from it. Mr. Randall estimates 
 his property at $200,000 when he left the presi- 
 dency, but does not make it perfectly clear 
 whether or not this ought to be reduced by the 
 deduction of some indebtedness. It was a hand- 
 some amount ; but a part of it consisted of his 
 house and furniture, and a very expensive li- 
 brary ; the remainder was lands and slaves, 
 from which, after the Monticello estate and 
 negroes had been substantially neutralized, as 
 has been above explained, the net income was 
 far from equal to the demands upon it. Times 
 and crops also often went against him. When 
 the owner of property thus invested once begins 
 
336 THOMAS JEFFERSON". 
 
 to overrun his income, he enters on the road to 
 ruin. By degrees Jefferson became a poor man, 
 and indeed worse than poor, since he was in- 
 volved in pecuniary embarrassments. Beforo 
 matters had reached this stage he had sold his 
 library to Congress for §23,950 ; but this restor- 
 ative did not long check the decline. In 1819 
 an indorsement which he had made for his 
 friend, Wilson Gary Nicholas, cost him $20,000. 
 This blow consummated his ruin. Nicholas is 
 said to have been not blameworthy in the mat- 
 ter, but the victim of ill foitime; and to have 
 been crashed at the disaster which he brought 
 upon his friend. The kindness and delicacy 
 with which Jefferson took especial pains to treat 
 him were remarkable, and on one or two occa- 
 sions were actually touching. 
 
 But debts must be paid, no matter how hon- 
 ored, good, or distinguished is the debtor, and 
 ex-President Jefferson occupied no better posi- 
 tion than any other planter who was very near 
 insolvency. It was an unfavorable time for 
 turning a large estate into money ; and a sale in 
 ordinary fashion would leave Jefferson substan- 
 tially a pauper, even if not still a debtor. To 
 avoid this he desired to resort to a device then 
 scarcely obsolete in Virginia. He petitioned 
 the Legislature for leave to dispose of his prop- 
 erty at a fair valuation by lottery. By this 
 
AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 337 
 
 means, he said, " I can save the house of Monti- 
 cello, and a farm adjoining, to end my days in 
 and bury my bones. If not, I must sell house 
 and all here and carry my family to Bedford, 
 where I have not even a log hut to put my 
 head into." When the proposition was broached 
 some opposition was threatened, and its suc- 
 cess was not certain. Jefferson wrote, with evi- 
 dent humiliation, " I perceive there are greater 
 doubts than I had apprehended, whether the 
 Legislature will indulge my request to them. 
 It is a part of my mortification to perceive that 
 I had so far overvalued myself as to have 
 counted on it with too much confidence. I 
 see," he sadly adds, " in the failure of this 
 hope, a deadly blast of all my peace of mind 
 during my remaining days." But he was spared 
 a disappointuient so severe. The opposition 
 was feeble and the authorizing bill passed both 
 Houses by very gratifying majorities. The 
 scheme, however, was not carried out. When 
 the news of it spread through the country 
 many offers of money were made. Public 
 meetings were called, and subscriptions were 
 started in the large cities. It seemed as though 
 the people who, as Randall justly remarks, had 
 literally eaten up most of the ex-President's 
 property, would now restore it to him. Jeffer- 
 son had repudiated the idea of a loan or gift 
 
 22 
 
838 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 from the state treasury, saying : " In any case 
 I wish nothing from the treasury. The pecu- 
 niary compensations I have received for my 
 services from time to time have been fully to 
 my own satisfaction." But these offers of vol- 
 untary assistance from the people he was grate- 
 fully willing to accept. " I have spent three 
 times as much money, and given my whole life 
 to my countrymen," he said, " and now they 
 nobly come forward in the only way they can, 
 to repay me and save an old servant from be- 
 ing turned like a dog out of doors." " No cent 
 of this is wrung from the tax-payer ; it is the 
 pure and unsolicited offering of love." 
 
 But though this liberality smoothed Jeffer- 
 son's last days, it had little other effect ; for 
 before it had reached that stage at which it 
 could complete his relief, he died. The debts 
 still hung over his estate ; the subscriptions 
 of course ceased ; the lottery proved a failure, 
 and the executor had to dispose of all the as- 
 sets. The lands brought ridiculously low prices, 
 — three to ten dollars per acre, — and the pro- 
 ceeds did not pay the debts. But the executor 
 himself made good the deficit, so that no cred- 
 itor suffered through Jefferson's misfortunes. 
 
 The chief interest and occupation of Jeffer- 
 son's last years were concentrated in establish- 
 ing the University of Virginia, of which he 
 
AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 339 
 
 was made Rector. In this business he labored 
 with assiduity and success. But he encoun- 
 tered many obstacles and had some unworthy 
 mortifications. He was especially vexed at the 
 story which got abroad, and which impeded his 
 efforts not a little, that he designed to give 
 the college an anti-Christian character. It is 
 needless to say that he had no such purpose ; 
 though he certainly did not intend it to be in 
 the control of any especial creed. Jefferson's 
 religious opinions, both during his life-time and 
 since his death, have given rise to much contro- 
 versy. His opponents constantly charged him 
 with infidelity, his friends as vigorously denied 
 the charge. The discussion annoyed and irri- 
 tated him ; but he would not put an end to it 
 by making any statement concerning his belief. 
 It was his private affair, he said with some 
 temper, and he would not aid in establishing 
 an inquisition of conscience. His grandson says 
 that even his own family knew no more than 
 the rest of the world concerning his religious 
 opinions. One cannot but think that, had he 
 been a firm believer in Christianity, he would 
 probably not have regarded such reticence as 
 justifiable, but would have felt it his duty to 
 give to the faith the weight of his influence, 
 which he well knew to be considerable. Nearly 
 all the evidence which has been collected falls 
 
840 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 into the same scale, going to show that he was 
 not a Christian in any strict sense of that word. 
 It is true that the phrase bears widely differ- 
 ent meanings to different persons ; but proba- 
 bly the most liberal admissible interpretations 
 would hardly make it apply to Jefferson. Mr. 
 Randall says that he was a Christian, but 
 founds the statement on evidence which goes 
 to show only that Jefferson believed in a God 
 or Supreme Being who concerned himself about 
 the affairs of men. Of course this is by no 
 means proof, perhaps not properly even evi- 
 dence, of a belief in Christ. He went to church 
 with tolerable regularity ; he spoke with the 
 utmost reverence of Christ as a moral teacher ; 
 but he carefully refrained from speaking of 
 him as anything else than a human teacher. 
 In the most interesting letter which he ever 
 wrote on the subject, he says : " I am a Chris- 
 tian in the only sense in which he [Jesus] 
 wished any one to be ; sincerely attached to his 
 doctrines in preference to all others ; ascribing 
 to himself every human excellence ; and be- 
 lieving he never claimed any other." He com- 
 pares Christ with Socrates and Epictetus, and 
 says that when' he died at about thirty-three 
 years of age, his reason had " not yet attained 
 the maximum of its energy, nor the course of 
 his preaching, which was but of three years at 
 
AT MONTI CELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 341 
 
 most, presented occasions for developing a com- 
 plete system of morals. Hence the doctrines 
 which he really delivered were defective as a 
 whole ; and fragments only of what he did de- 
 liver have come to us, mutilated, misstated, and 
 often untelligible." This hardly describes the 
 Christian notion of God's revelation. After 
 such language it was not worth while to add 
 the saving clause, that " the question of his 
 being a member of the Godhead, or in direct 
 communication with it, . . . is foreign to the 
 present view." To my mind it is very clear 
 that Jefferson never believed that Christ was 
 other than a human moralist, having no pe- 
 culiar inspiration or divine connection, and dif- 
 fering from other moralists only as Shakespeare 
 differs from other dramatists, namely, as greatly 
 their superior in ability and fitness for his func- 
 tion. But those admirers of Jefferson, who 
 themselves believe in the divinity of Christ, 
 will probably refuse to accept this view, though 
 they find themselves without sufficient evidence 
 conclusively to confute it. 
 
 Jefferson, in his later years, became much 
 concerned about the proper historical presenta- 
 tion of his times, and of the part played by 
 himself and his party therein. He was proba- 
 bly the greatest letter writer who ever lived ; 
 he always wrote freely, and expressed himself 
 
842 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 vigorously. The latter part of his life was made 
 a burden by his rule to give a full and sufficient 
 answer to every civil letter which he received. 
 Inevitably he sometimes fell into inconsistencies 
 and errors ; and sometimes said things which 
 he would afterward wish unsaid. At times the 
 thought of all that he had committed to paper 
 alarmed him, and he declared that " the treach- 
 erous practice some people have of publishing 
 one's letters without leave " should be made 
 " a penitentiary felony." Yet generally he re- 
 garded his own letters, "all preserved," written 
 between 1790 and the close of his public life, 
 as a great reservoir from which correct infor- 
 mation could be drawn by posterity. He spoke 
 with extreme acrimony of Marshall's " Life of 
 Washington," as a purely partisan production. 
 He was very much disturbed at the prospect of 
 J. Q. Adams editing the writings of John Ad- 
 ams. " Doubtless," he said, " other things are 
 in preparation, unknown to us. On our part 
 we are depending on truth to make itself known, 
 while history is taking a contrary set which 
 may become too inveterate for correction." 
 Shortly before his death he wrote to Madison : 
 " To myself you have been a pillar of support 
 through life. Take care of me when dead." 
 All this anxiety lest the posthumous historical 
 literature of the Federalists should have an in- 
 
AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 343 
 
 fluence with posterity superior to that of the 
 Democrats, comes rather queerly from one who 
 had the " Anas " secretly locked up in his desk. 
 Yet his fears were justified by the event ; the 
 Federalists have to this day been more success- 
 ful than the Republicans in getting their side 
 forcibly and plausibly before the reading public. 
 The weaknesses of old age crept over Jeffer- 
 son very gradually, as they are wont to do over 
 sound and vigorous men. He had great dread 
 of a helpless, and especially of an imbecile, se- 
 nility, and watched for signs of mental decay 
 with an almost morbid apprehensiveness. Cer- 
 tainly he suspected more symptoms of this evil 
 than really existed ; for though inevitably the 
 vigor of his intellect became impaired in his 
 extreme years, yet the clearness of his mind re- 
 mained even until the weakness of the closing 
 hours began to deprive him of all knowledge 
 of things earthly. There is very little com- 
 plaining, at least in the published letters written 
 in his last years ; but there is a certain air of 
 sombreness and melancholy. He could not well 
 find fault with the career which had been allot- 
 ted to him ; but he could hardly recognize 
 cheerfully that his usefulness was over, his au- 
 thority a thing of the past, himself, while still 
 alive, almost a character of history. His power 
 had been too great to be cheerfully laid down. 
 
344 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 He appears to have been resigned, courage- 
 ous, tranquil, and yet one gets the idea that as 
 he drifted away from active affairs lie was not 
 happy, and that death must have lost its ter- 
 rors for him some time before it actually came. 
 The winter of 1826 found him evidently fast 
 breaking. In the middle of March he made 
 his will. In the spring we hear of him reading 
 in the Bible, and the Greek tragedies ; but he 
 was not much longer able to do even this. As 
 the 4th of July, 1826, approached he was 
 known by himself, and by all the affectionate 
 family-circle gathered around him, to be dying. 
 He expressed a strong desire to live until that 
 day should dawn ; yet he seemed so weak, and 
 the last laggard hours moved so slowly that his 
 friends, to whom this wish of his seemed to 
 have such a sanctity that they could not bear 
 to have him disappointed, even in the almost 
 unconscious hour of departure, feared that he 
 would not endure so long. But life ebbed 
 slowly from that strong frame. It was nearly 
 one o'clock on that great day when he expired. 
 John Adams was dead at Quincy a few hours 
 earlier, with the words, " Thomas Jefferson 
 still survives," struggling from his lips at the 
 moment before they became silent forever. 
 The triple coincidence is more singular than 
 anything else of the kind in history. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Adams, John, share in author- 
 ship of Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, 33; hostility to Washing- 
 ton, 35 ; unpopularity of, 35 ; 
 share in debate on Declaration, 
 38; finds fault with Declaration, 
 39 ; charged by Jefferson with 
 being a monarchist, 127 ; mis- 
 understandmg with Jefferson, 
 growing out of publication of 
 " Rights of Man," 131 ; elected 
 President, 173, 174 ; relations 
 with Jefferson at time of his 
 inauguration, 177-179 ; anger 
 against France, 180 ; but sends 
 new mission, in hopes of peace, 
 181 ; announces failure of French 
 mission, 188 ; behavior concern- 
 ing the X Y Z correspondence, 
 189 ; sends new mission to France, 
 and divides Federalist party, 193 ; 
 defeated in election of 1800, 200 ; 
 his "midnight appointments," 
 209 ; his retreat from Washing- 
 ton, 210 ; nominations of judges, 
 221 ; reconciliation with Jeffer- 
 son, 327 ; death, 344. 
 
 Adams, John Q., writes letters of 
 Publicola, 132 ; goes over to the 
 administrationists at time of the 
 Embargo BUI, 300. 
 
 Alien Act, passage of, 193. 
 
 Ambuscade, captures the Grange, 
 162. 
 
 " Anas," written by Jefferson, 109, 
 113 ; quoted, 115, 121, 125, 126. 
 
 Bishop, Samuel, appointment of, 224. 
 Bonaparte, Napoleon, schemes for 
 
 colonization in America, 245; 
 
 issues decrees of Berlin and 
 
 Milan, 296 ; remarks about the 
 
 embargo, 312. 
 Botetourt, Lord, dissolves the 
 
 House of Burgesses, 18. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, in the third presi- 
 dental election, 174 ; vote for, in 
 electoral colleges in 1800, 200 ; 
 schemes for making him Presi- 
 dent instead of Jefferson, 204 ; 
 his own behavior and its results, 
 207 ; loses nomination for vice- 
 presidency, 269 ; enterprise in 
 the Southwest, 280 ; circum- 
 stances of his trial, 281-284 ; 
 legislative results of the trial of, 
 285. 
 
 Callender, his connection and sub- 
 sequent quarrel with Jefferson, 
 225-230 ; the slanderer of Wash- 
 ington and Hamilton, 226. 
 
 Canning, disingenuous behavior of, 
 in the Chesapeake affair, 300 ; 
 remarks about the embargo, 312. 
 
 Chase, Judge, impeachment of, 
 260-263. 
 
 Chatham, Lord, Comments on Co- 
 lonial Congress, 26. 
 
 Chesapeake, The, fired into by the 
 Leopard, 296. 
 
 Church Establishment, assailed by 
 Jefferson, 45-47. 
 
 Clarke, George Rogers, captures 
 Colonel Hamilton, 58. 
 
 Clinton, George, nominated for 
 vice-presidency, 269. 
 
 Committees of Correspondence, 
 prior to the Revolution, origin of, 
 19. 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, marches upon 
 Virginia, 57, 60 ; repeats this 
 movement and comes to Peters- 
 burg, 64 ; pillages Jefferson's 
 farm, 66. 
 
 Cuba, Jefferson's views concerning, 
 322. 
 
 Declaration of Independence. See 
 Independence. 
 
346 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Democratic party, the origin of, 
 145 ; sjonpathizes with French 
 Revolution, 146 ; the prospects of, 
 at accession of Jefferson, 213-21G ; 
 progress of, in New England, 
 217 ; remarks concerning it at 
 close of Jefferson's first term, 
 265 ; signs of division in, 270 ; 
 gains in autmnn of 1806, 292. See 
 Republican party. 
 
 Dickinson, amends Jefferson's mani- 
 festo, 27, 28, note. 
 
 Embargo, recommended, 298 ; sketch 
 of Jefferson's connection with the 
 measure, 298 ; bill passed, 301 ; re- 
 marks concerning it, especially its 
 effect upon England, 301-306 ; do- 
 mestic effects of, 306 ; at first 
 well received, 308 ; Federalist 
 views of, 301, 309 ; threatened op- 
 position to, 310, 313 ; remarks of 
 Canning and Bonaparte about, 
 312. 
 
 Entails, abolished in Virginia, 43. 
 
 Fauquier, Francis, Governor of Vir- 
 ginia, a friend of Jefferson, 8. 
 
 Fenno, edits the "Gazette," 133. 
 
 Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, in Con- 
 gress, 26 ; share in authorship of 
 Declaration of Independence, 33 ; 
 share in proceedings concernmg 
 adoption of the Declaration, 38. 
 
 Freneau, Philip, story of his estab- 
 lishment of the "National Ga- 
 zette " and his connection with 
 Jefferson, 132-136, 139. 
 
 Gallatin, Albert, advice of Jeifer- 
 son to, 323 ; friendship of Jeffer- 
 son for, 323. 
 
 Gaspee, burning of the, 19. 
 
 (Jenet, lands in Charleston, 149 ; 
 equips privateers, 151, 156 ; makes 
 triumphant journey to Philadel- 
 phia, 152 ; rebuked by Jefferson, 
 155, 156, 158 ; his lawless conduct, 
 156 ; excites Jefferson's indigna- 
 tion, 158-160 ; criticises Jefferson, 
 160. 
 
 Gerry, appointed to French mission, 
 181 ; accepts, 182 ; stay in Paris, 
 187, 188. 
 
 Giles, introduces resolutions to cen- 
 sure Hamilton, 122 ; defends Jef- 
 ferson's report on commerce, 167. 
 
 Grange, The, captured by the Am- 
 buscade, 152 ; reparation demand- 
 ed, 155. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, position in 
 "Washington's cabinet, 97 ; manip- 
 ulates the matter of assumption 
 of state debts, 97-100 ; influence 
 of his measures, 102 ; his financial 
 system criticised by Jefferson, 
 104-106 ; relations with Jefferson, 
 107-109 ; charged with monarchi- 
 cal schemes, 113, 115, 138 ; pre- 
 pares argument in support of na- 
 tional bank, 119 ; charged with 
 schemes of corruption, 121, 125, 
 126, 127, 138 ; resolutions for cen- 
 suring, 122 ; charged with wish- 
 ing to make national debt perpet- 
 ual, 122, 125, 126, 138 ; report on 
 manufactures, 126 ; alleged re- 
 marks about the Constitution, 
 126 ; attacks Jefferson in news- 
 papers under name of " An Amer- 
 ican," 135 ; reply to Washington, 
 136 ; sentiments concerning the 
 French Revolution, 146, 147, 152 ; 
 defends Jay's treaty, 170 ; uses 
 his influence to make Jefferson 
 President, 205 ; the Reynolds 
 amour, 226. 
 
 Hamilton, Colonel, captured and 
 put in irons, 58, and note. 
 
 Hancock, John, anecdote of, when 
 signing Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, 38. 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, signs Declara- 
 tion of Independence, anecdote, 
 39. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, a personal friend of 
 Jefferson, 17 ; treatment of Jef- 
 ferson's draft of instructions, 21 ; 
 first governor of Virginia, 55, 56, 
 59. 
 
 Independence, Lee's motion in favor 
 of, 32 ; resolution in favor of, car- 
 ried, 35, 36 ; appointment of com- 
 mittee to draft Declaration of, 33 ; 
 account of this drafting, 33 ; de- 
 bate on the Declaration, 36-38 ; 
 anecdotes of final signature of 
 Declaration, 38 ; unfair criticisms 
 on form of Declaration, 39, 40. 
 
 Jacobins, name assumed by some 
 democrats in the United States, 
 154 ; Jefferson's sentiments to- 
 wards the American clubs, 168. 
 
 Jay, John, his English treaty, 169- 
 171 ; proposals to make him Presi- 
 dent in 1800, 201, 202. 
 
 Jefferson, Peter, his career, 3, 4; 
 conuectiou with the Randolph^, 3. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 347 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, born, 2; ances- 
 try, 3 ; appearance and habits in 
 youth, 4, 5 ; goes to college, 5 ; 
 habits there, G, 7 ; reads law, 7, 8 ; 
 his associates, 8 ; his youthful cor- 
 respondence and love affairs, 8, 
 9 ; marries, 9 ; his property, 10 ; 
 career at the bar, 10 ; love of 
 farming, 11-15; opinion of farm- 
 ers as compared with artificers, 
 12 et seq. ; views of yellow fever 
 and great cities, 13 ; wishes United 
 States to occupy position of China, 
 14 ; his utilitarianism and dreami- 
 ness, 15 ; his romantic graveyard, 
 15 ; relationship with Patrick 
 Henry, 17 ; first election to House 
 of Burgesses, 18 ; signs non-im- 
 portation agreement, 18; a sec- 
 ond time a member of the House 
 of Burgesses, 19 ; action upon 
 hearing of the Boston Port Bill, 
 20 ; an advanced patriot, 19, 20 ; 
 member of Virginia State Conven- 
 tion, 21 ; his draft of instructions 
 for Virginian members of Con- 
 gress, its fate and contents, 21- 
 24 ; becomes member of Colonial 
 Congress, 24-2G ; drafts reply of 
 Virginia to Lord North's "con- 
 ciliatory proposition," 24 ; drafts 
 manifesto after battle of Bmiker's 
 Hill, 27 ; drafts reply of Congress 
 to Lord North, 28 ; returns to 
 State Convention, 29 ; reelected 
 to Congress, 29 ; opinion concern- 
 ing separation and independence, 
 29-31, 32 ; letter to John Ran- 
 dolph, 30 ; in Congress, 31 ; chair- 
 man of Committee to draft Dec- 
 laration of Independence, 33; 
 claim to authorship of Declara- 
 tion, 33 ; reason of his prominent 
 position in this business, 34 ; be- 
 havior of, during debate on Dec- 
 laration, 36-38 ; reply to criti- 
 cisms on Declaration, 40 ; being 
 reelected to Congress, declines to 
 serve, 41 ; interest in reforming 
 internal ailairs of Virginia, 42 ; 
 reports bill to abolish entails, 43 ; 
 and primogeniture, 44 ; attack on 
 the Established Church, 45-47; 
 his religious views, 45 ; takes 
 charge of general revision of laws 
 of Virginia, 48-50 ; efforts to do 
 away with negro slavery, 50-53 ; 
 opinion of negroes, 53 ; stops im- 
 portation of slaves, 53 ; elected 
 governor of Virginia, 55; ardu- 
 
 ous duties, 56 ; his property im- 
 pressed, 57 ; assailed for sending 
 forces out of the Sti te, 57 ; puts 
 Colonel Hamilton in irons, 58; 
 behavior concerning invasion of 
 Virginia, 61 et seq. ; attempts to 
 capture Arnold, G3 ; r'j'.solves not 
 to be candidate for reelection, 63 ; 
 his term expires, but he has to 
 hold over, 04 ; driven from his 
 house by Colonel Tarlton, 65 ; his 
 farms pillaged, 66 ; threatened 
 with legislative investigation, 67 ; 
 his defence, and final exculpation, 
 68 ; harassed by public criticism, 
 70 ; finishes " Notes on Virginia," 
 70 ; rebuked by Monroe, 70 ; loses 
 his wife, 71 ; adopts children of 
 Dabney Carr, 72 ; list of his chil- 
 dren, 72 ; affection for them, 
 71, 72 ; nominated on mission to 
 France, 72, 73 ; chosen a member 
 of Congress, 73 ; takes part in 
 ratification of treaty of peace, 
 74 ; other services in Congress, 
 74 ; suggests substance of the or- 
 dinance of tlie Northwestern Ter- 
 ritory, 75 ; suggests extraordinary 
 names for Northwestern Territory, 
 76 ; leaves Congress, 76 ; a fourth 
 time appointed on mission to 
 France and departs, 77 ; his situa- 
 tion and duties in France, 77-79 ; 
 proposition concerning Algerine 
 corsairs, 79 ; makes diplomatic 
 visit to London, 79 ; opinion of 
 English feeling towards the States, 
 80-84 ; changes in condition of 
 France during his stay there, 84 ; 
 his interest and concern therein, 
 85-87 ; interview with Montniorin, 
 86 ; how far influenced by French 
 ideas, 87 ; returns home, 88, 96 ; 
 compares Europe with the United 
 States, 89 ; opinion of Shays' in- 
 surrection, 90 ; opinion as to 
 forms of government, 92 ; opinion 
 as to closer union of the States, 
 92 ; and concerning the new Con- 
 stitution, 93-95 ; accepts offer of 
 secretaryship of state, 96 ; share 
 in Hamilton's scheme for carry- 
 ing assumption of state debts, 
 97-100; afterwards regrets his 
 behavior and attacks Hamilton, 
 100-102 ; strange notions as to 
 national debts, 103 ; criticisms on 
 Hamilton's financiering, 104-106 ; 
 situation in Washington's cabinet, 
 106; relations with Hamilton, 
 
348 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 107-109; writes the "Anas," 
 109 ; faith in laxity of govern- 
 ment, 111 ; dread of the Hamil- 
 tonian a'ld monarchical parties, 
 112-117, 124, 126, 127, 128; 
 alarmed at successful speculation 
 of Federalists, 117 ; dissatisfied 
 with mi'itary establishrient, 118 ; 
 with excise, 118 ; opposes National 
 Bank Act, 118-121 ; charges 
 Hamilton with corruption, 121, 
 124, 127 ; sympathizes with res- 
 olutions of censure, 122 ; de- 
 scribes the House of Representa- 
 tives, 122, 125; declares that 
 Hamilton wishes to make the 
 national debt everlasting, 122, 
 124, 125; letter to Washington, 
 reviewing the political situation, 
 123 ; attacks Hamilton's report 
 on manufactures, 126 ; asperses 
 John Adams, 127 ; his faith in the 
 people, 128-131 ; difficulty grow- 
 ing out of publication of " Rights 
 of Man," 131 ; appoints Freneau 
 to a clerkship, 132, 133; and 
 gets into difficulties thereby, 134- 
 136; his famous letter to Wash- 
 ington, 136-141 ; his manner of 
 conducting his opposition to 
 Hamilton, 141-143 ; admitted 
 leader of the anti-Federalist or 
 Republican party, 144 ; sympa- 
 thizes with the French Revolu- 
 tionists, 147 ; sentiments as to 
 neutrality proclamation, 150, 151 ; 
 feelings towards Attorney-Gen- 
 eral Randolph, 150, 153 ; behav- 
 ior at the time of the Genet 
 reception, 152 ; talk about Anglo- 
 maniacs, 152; antipathy to Eng- 
 land, 153 ; feelings about the 
 Jacobins and the French massa- 
 cres, 154 ; rebukes Genet, 155, 158 ; 
 first opinion of Genet, 155, 156 ; 
 subsequent changes of opinion, 
 158-160 ; advice as to prepayment 
 of debt to France, 157 ; sanguine 
 expectations, 157, destroyed by 
 Genet's conduct, 159 ; his conduct 
 during Genet's mission reviewed, 
 160-162 ; efforts to resign, 163 ; 
 unjustly blamed for resigning, 164 ; 
 plantation life, 166 ; expressions 
 of feeling towards Great Britain, 
 and about war, 166, 167 ; assails 
 the Senate for rejecting the Non- 
 Importation Bill, 167 ; his report 
 on commerce, 167 ; vexed at 
 Washington's coudemuatiou of 
 
 Jacobin clubs, 168 ; feelings to- 
 wards Washington, 168, 171, 177, 
 186 ; defends the whiskey insur- 
 rection, 169 ; assails Jay's treaty, 
 109-171 ; his dread of Hamilton, 
 170, 176 ; in the third presidential 
 election, 174 ; protestations about 
 his own feelings, 175 ; arrange- 
 ments concerning notice of elec- 
 tion, etc., 176 ; anticipations of 
 Republican supremacy, 176 ; 
 schemes for influencing Adams, 
 177-179; discussion with Adams 
 concerning French mission, 178 ; 
 French interest in election of 
 Jefferson to presidency, 179 ; 
 fears trouble with France, 181 ; 
 urges Gerry to accept French 
 mission, 182 ; sketches state of 
 feeling at the capital, 182 ; letter 
 to Mazzei, 183-185 ; behavior at 
 time of X Y Z correspondence, 
 180 ; draws Kentucky Resolutions, 
 193 ; rebukes secession doctrines 
 of others, 194 ; expectations as to 
 elections of 1800, 195 ; slander- 
 ously assailed in the presidential 
 campaign, 196 ; drills the Repub- 
 lican, or Democratic, party, 197- 
 199 ; vote for, in electoral col- 
 leges, 1800, 200 ; anxiety and be- 
 havior during election by House of 
 Representatives, 200-205 ; elected, 
 205 ; charged with having made 
 terms, 206 ; behavior towards 
 Burr, 207 ; inauguration, 210 ; 
 interview with Mr. Merry, 211 ; 
 opinion as to political outlook, 
 212-216, 218; feeling towards 
 New England, 216 ; antipathy to- 
 wards the clergy, 217 ; action 
 concerning the filling of offices, 
 218 ; and as to removals from 
 office, 219-224 ; removal of J. Q. 
 Adams, 223 ; his appointments, 
 224 ; rule, in such matters con- 
 cerning political activity, 224; 
 appointment of Samuel Bishop, 
 224 ; story of his connection and 
 quarrel with Callender, 225-230; 
 opinion of the Sedition law, 227 ; 
 values highly the right of navi- 
 gating the Mississippi, 232 ; de- 
 mands the use of a port at the 
 river's mouth, 233-235 ; faintly 
 foreshadows Monroe doctrine, 
 235 ; objects to France regaining 
 Louisiana, 236, 237-239 ; difficul- 
 ties in way of his plans for gain- 
 ing Louisiana, 239-241 ; receives 
 
INDEX. 
 
 349 
 
 authority and money from Con- 
 gress, 242 ; instructs Monroe, 
 
 243 ; letter to Dupont de Nemours, 
 
 244 ; entitled to credit for pur- 
 chase of Louisiana, 246 ; answers 
 to the various objections raised 
 to the purchase, 247-250 ; plan 
 for colonization, 248 ; for taking 
 possession, 249 ; led into incon- 
 sistencies by this transaction, 
 251 ; remarks about states' rights 
 and secession in this connection, 
 253-255 ; justification for his 
 course, 255; efforts to obtain a 
 constitutional ratification, 256- 
 258 ; personal animosities, 25D ; 
 message concerning Judge Picker- 
 ing, 259 ; share in the impeach- 
 ment of Judge Chase, 2G0-2G3 ; re- 
 view of his position and record at 
 close of his first term, 2G3-2G8 ; 
 nominated for a second term, 2G8 ; 
 his feelings about a second term, 
 269 ; elected, 271 ; his sanguine 
 anticipations, 272 ; change of feel- 
 ing towards France and England, 
 273-276 ; designs for purchase of 
 Florida, 276 ; disturbed by defec- 
 tion of Randolph, 277, 278; be- 
 havior concerning Burr's enter- 
 prise, 280 ; and subsequently dur- 
 ing Burr's trial, 281-284 ; abused 
 by Luther Mirtin, 282 ; strictures 
 on Judge Marshall's summons, 
 283-285 ; communication to Con- 
 gress concerning the trial of 
 Burr, 285 ; sentiments concerning 
 French and English breaches of 
 American neutrality, 286, 287 ; 
 carries through a Non-Importa- 
 tion Act, 288 ; conciliatory course 
 towards England, 289 ; his gun- 
 boats, 290, 292, 298 ; anger 
 against Spain concerning Louis- 
 iana, 291 ; political theory about 
 the Gulf Stream, 291 ; sanguine 
 message of December 1, 1806, 
 292 ; remarks concerning internal 
 improvements, 292-294, 329, 330 ; 
 recommends suspension of Non- 
 Importation Act, 294, 295 ; rejects 
 treaty of Monroe and Pinckney 
 with England, 294 ; remarks and 
 doings concerning the Leopard- 
 Chesapeake outrage, 296 - 298 ; 
 message to extra session of Con- 
 gress in October, 1807, 298 ; recom- 
 mends an embargo, 298; arguments 
 in its favor, 302; inconsistency, 306; 
 his supremacy over Congress and 
 
 the country, 308 ; course of his 
 opinion about the embargo, 310- 
 316 ; message about it in Novem- 
 ber, 1808, 311 ; repudiates respon- 
 sibility, 316 ; influence concerning 
 choice of his own successor in the 
 presidency, 317 ; urged to accept 
 a third presidential term, 318; 
 popularity with the masses, 318- 
 320 ; relations with Madison, 321 ; 
 advice as to treaty with Eng- 
 land, 322 ; expectations concern- 
 ing Florida and Cuba, 322 ; modi- 
 fied opinions concerning com- 
 merce and manufactures, 322, 
 323 ; advice to Gallatin concern- 
 ing national debt, 323 ; friendship 
 for Gallatin, 323 ; anticipations 
 concerning war with England, 
 323-325 ; urged to become candi- 
 date for presidency in 1812, 325 ; 
 offered secretarysliip of state, 
 325 ; friendly sentiments towards 
 England, 32G ; reconciliation with 
 John Adams, 327 ; alarm concern- 
 ing Missouri Compromise, 327 ; 
 and forebodings of civil war, 328 ; 
 regards the compromise as incon- 
 sistent with states' rights, 328 ; 
 hostility to the judiciary, 329 ; 
 the sage of Monticello, 331 ; hos- 
 pitality at Monticello, 331-333; 
 payment of pre-revolutionary Eng- 
 lish debt, 334 ; financial affairs, 
 335, and embarrassments, 335- 
 338 ; connection with University 
 of Virginia, 338 ; opinions con- 
 cerning Christianity, 339-341; 
 anxiety concerning historical pres- 
 entation of his times, 341-343 ; 
 opinion of Mirshall's "Life of 
 Washington," 342 ; failing health, 
 343 ; death, 344. 
 
 Kentucky Resolutions, drafted by 
 Jetierson, 193. 
 
 Knox, General, a partisan of Ham- 
 ilton in Washington's cabinet, 
 150. 
 
 Leandee, The, outrage committed 
 by, 288, 289. 
 
 Lee, Richard Henry, moves that 
 Congress declare the Colonies in- 
 dependent, 32 ; reasons why he 
 was not chairman of committee 
 for drafting Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, 34. 
 
 Leopard, The, fires into the Chesa- 
 peake, 296. 
 
350 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Leslie, General, invades Virginia, 
 59, GO. 
 
 Lincoln, Leyi, interrupts Marshall 
 in signature of commissions, 209. 
 
 Livingston, services of, concerning 
 purcliase of Louisiana, 242, 243. 
 
 Louisiana, objections to France re- 
 gaining from Spain, 236, 237-239 ; 
 but it is ceded, 237 ; Napoleon 
 proposes to sell, 246 ; purchased 
 by United States, 246 ; constitu- 
 tional and other objections to pur- 
 chase of, 247, 253 ; threats of 
 trouble concerning eastern bound- 
 ary, 276, 291. 
 
 Madison, James, aids Jefferson in 
 reforming laws of "Virginia, 43 ; 
 blames Jefferson, 70 ; urges Jef- 
 ferson to accept secretaryship of 
 state, 96 ; recommends Freneau 
 to Jefferson , 133 ; defends Jeffer- 
 son's report on commerce, 167 ; 
 urged to encomiter Hamilton con- 
 cerning Jay's treaty, 170 ; sug- 
 gested for French mission, 178, 
 179 ; draws Virginia resolutions, 
 194 ; at interview of Jefferson and 
 Merry, 211 ; suggested as a suc- 
 cessor to Jefferson in the presi- 
 dency, 317 ; relations with Jeffer- 
 son, 321 ; offers to make Jefferson 
 Secretary of State, 325. 
 
 Marshall, John, opinion upholding 
 constitutionality of national bank, 
 119 ; appointed to French mission, 
 181 ; stay in Paris, 187, 188 ; pro- 
 posals to make him President in 
 1800, 201, 202 ; last acts as Secre- 
 tary of State, 209 ; at the trial of 
 Aaron Burr, 282, 283 ; Jefferson's 
 opinion of his "Life of Washing- 
 ton," 342. 
 
 Martin, Luther, behavior of, as 
 counsel for Aaron Burr, 282. 
 
 Mason, George, aids Jefferson in 
 reforming the laws of Virginia, 
 43. 
 
 Mazzei, Jefferson's famous letter to, 
 183. 
 
 Merry, the British minister, inter- 
 view with Jefferson, 211. 
 
 Mississippi, the, Spanish ownership 
 and American claims, 232. 
 
 Missouri Compromise, opinion of 
 Jefferson about, 327 : inconsistent 
 with Jefferson's states' rights the- 
 ories, 328. 
 
 Monroe, James, rebukes Jefferson, 
 70 ; return from French mission, 
 
 180 ; dispatched to France to buy 
 New Orleans, 243 ; his doings in 
 this business, 245, 246.; minister 
 in England, 289 ; makes treaty, 
 which is rejected by Jefferson, 294, 
 295 ; favored by Jefferson for suc- 
 cession to presidency, 317. 
 
 Monroe Doctrine, the, faintly fore- 
 shadowed by Jefferson, 235. 
 
 Montmorin, Co'Jnt, interview with 
 Jefferson, 86. 
 
 " National Gazette," the, estab- 
 lished by Freneau, 133 ; befriend- 
 ed by Jefferson, 134 ; Jefferson's 
 account of, 139. 
 
 New England, feeling of Jefferson 
 towards, 216. 
 
 New Orleans, Jefferson's views con- 
 cerning, 234 : privilege of deposit 
 at, cut off, 239. 
 
 Nicholas, George, moves investiga- 
 tion of Jefferson's conduct as Gov- 
 ernor, 67. 
 
 Nicholas, W. C, amends Jefferson's 
 reply to Lord North, 24 ; hastens 
 Jefferson's financial ruin, 321. 
 
 Non-Importation Act passed, 288 ; 
 suspended, 294, 295. 
 
 Page, John, correspondent of Jef- 
 ferson. 9 ; competitor for govern- 
 orship of Virginia, 1778-79, 55. 
 
 Paine, Thomas, publishes "Common 
 Sense," 32 ; effect of his " Rights 
 of Man," 128 ; it makes trouble 
 between Adams and Jefferson, 
 131. 
 
 Pickering, Judge, impeachment of, 
 259. 
 
 Pickering, Timothy, finds fault with 
 Declaration of Independence, 39. 
 
 Pinckney, C. C, vote for, in electo- 
 ral colleges in 1800, 200. 
 
 Pinckney, Thomas, in the third 
 presidential election, 173, 174. 
 
 Primogeniture abolished in Virginia, 
 44. 
 
 Randolph, Edmund, Attorney-Gen- 
 eral in Washington's cabinet, 97 ; 
 behavior and position in cabinet 
 concerning relations with France 
 and England, 150, 151, 153. 
 
 Randolph, Jane, marries Peter Jef- 
 ferson, 3. 
 
 Randolph, John, Jefferson's letter 
 to, 30 ; services of, concerning 
 purchase of Louisiana, 241, 251 ; 
 part in the impeachment of Judge 
 
INDEX. 
 
 351 
 
 Chase, 262, 263 ; secedes from the 
 administrationists, 277-279; alli- 
 ance with New England mer- 
 chants at time of Frencli and 
 English maritime outrages, 288. 
 
 Randolph, Peyton, President of Vir- 
 ginia State Convention, 21 ; leaves 
 Colonial Congress, 24. 
 
 Randolph, William, friendship with 
 Peter Jefferson, 3. 
 
 "Recorder" The, of Richmond, 
 slanders Jefferson, under influence 
 of Callender, 228. 
 
 Republican party, the, origin of, 144 ; 
 condition of, in election of 1800, 
 197-199. See Democratic party. 
 
 "Rights of Man." See Paine, 
 Thomas. 
 
 Rutledge, Edward, in Congress, 26. 
 
 Sedition Act, passage of, 193. 
 
 Shays' insurrection, Jefferson's 
 opinion of, 90. 
 
 Skelton, Mrs. Bathurst, Jefferson 
 marries, 9. 
 
 Slavery, efforts to abolish in Vir- 
 ginia, 50-53 ; Jefferson's opinion 
 concerning, 50-53. 
 
 Small, William, Jefferson's instruct- 
 or and friend, 6, 8. 
 
 Talleyrand, disgraceful advances to 
 American commissioners, 188 ; ex- 
 plains, and seeks renewal of nego- 
 tiations, 192. 
 
 Tucker, Professor, defence of Colo- 
 nel Hamilton, 57. 
 
 United States, hatred towards, in 
 England, 80 ; abused in English 
 newspapers, 81. 
 
 University of Virginia, Jefferson's 
 relations with, 338. 
 
 WASfflNGTON, George, hostility to, 
 35 ; orders concerning treatment 
 of British prisoners, 58 ; makes 
 Jefferson Secretary of State, 96; 
 composition of his cabinet, 97, 106; 
 rejects Jefferson's stories of mon- 
 archical plots, 115, 116 ; annoyed 
 at discussions in cabinet, 123 ; at- 
 tacked by Freneau in the "Na- 
 tional Gazette," 134; endeavors 
 to reconcile Hamilton and Jeffer- 
 son, 136 ; opposes Jefferson's res- 
 ignation, 163, 164 ; condemns the 
 democratic Jacobin clubs, 168; 
 Jefferson's feeling towards, 168, 
 171, 177, 186 ; and the Mazzei let- 
 ter, 185 ; feelings of Adams and 
 Pickering towards, 186. 
 
 Wayles, John, Jefferson's father-in- 
 law, dies, 10. 
 
 William and Mary College, Jeffer- 
 son a student in, 5. 
 
 Williamsburg, appearance of, in 
 1760, 5. 
 
 Wythe, George, the law ofl5ce of, 7, 
 8 ; aids Jefferson in reforming 
 laws of Virginia, 43 ; emancipates 
 his slaves, 50. 
 
 X Y Z, the so-called, correspond- 
 ence, 189, 192. 
 
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