Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

by Jon Meacham

  My own view is that economics clearly—even self-evidently—played a critical role for Jefferson and many others. It would be folly to deny this, for arguments about power and rights are obviously of a piece with matters of property and wealth. I do not believe, however, that the American Revolution was only about the rich preserving their riches. Harrell (to whom I am indebted for his work on this subject in relation to Virginia) put it well, noting that pointing out the economic factors was not to

  underestimate the political theories involved in the American Revolution, to question the devotion of Washington, the patriotism of Henry, or the political astuteness of Jefferson. But an examination of the constitutional principles that appealed to leading citizens does not afford a complete explanation of the momentous movement which transformed Virginia, the most ultra-British colony in North America, into a staunch supporter of the Revolutionary doctrines. Lands to the west, claimed by Virginia under charters, won from France partly by Virginia men and with Virginia money, and sorely needed by Virginia in 1775, were being exploited by an irresponsive government—bartered and pawned to court favorites, politicians, and speculators. The rapid contraction of the currency to meet the demands of the British trading interests and the ruinous trend of Virginia exchange accentuated the diverse economic interests of the colony and the mother country. The planters were hopelessly in debt to the British merchants. Current political theories in the colonies and the economic interests of the planters were in harmony. (Harrell, Loyalism in Virginia, 28–29.)

  Also illuminating is Jack P. Greene, “William Knox’s Explanation for the American Revolution,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 30, no. 2 (April 1973): 293–306.

  BEFORE 1729, NO ROYAL GOVERNOR Harrell, Loyalism in Virginia, 4. I am indebted to Harrell for these statISTICS.

  GOVERNORS INTERVENED FEWER THAN IBID.

  BETWEEN 1764 AND 1773, THERE WERE IBID.

  ANNOUNCED THE BOSTON PORT ACT PTJ, I, 106.

  AGREED “WE MUST BOLDLY” IBID.

  JOINED JEFFERSON IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER IbID.

  “WE WERE UNDER [THE] CONVICTION” Ibid. “No example of such a solemnity had existed since the days of our distresses in ’55, since which a new generation had grown up,” Jefferson said, alluding to a difficult period in the French and IndiaN WAR.

  “RUMMAGED” THROUGH RUSHWORTH’S COLLECTION IBID.

  “COOKED UP A RESOLUTION” IBid.

  FROM “THE EVILS OF CIVIL WAR” Ibid. The proclamation passed on Tuesday the twenty-fourth; on Thursday the twenty-sixth, Lord Dunmore called the House to the Council Room where the document had originated. The governor was direct. “I have in my hand a paper published by order of your House, conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon his Majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain; which makes it necessary for me to dissolve you; and you are dissolved accordingly.” (Ibid.) Off the burgesses went to the Raleigh, from which, on May 27, 1774, they called for a “general congress … to deliberate on those general measures which the united interests of America may from time to time require.” (Ibid., 108.)

  Then, on Sunday the twenty-ninth, came a plea from Boston: All the colonies, Massachusetts hoped, would join in what amounted to an economic boycott of Great Britain through nonimportation and nonexportation agreements. (Ibid., 110.) At ten o’clock on Monday morning, Peyton Randolph summoned the remaining burgesses to the Raleigh (there were, both the resolution and The Virginia Gazette reported, twenty-five still in the area), where the group chose a moderate course. Under Randolph’s leadership, the Virginians said they would schedule a meeting of “the late Members of the House of Burgesses” for August 1. An “Association against Importations,” the Monday caucus said, would “probably be entered into” once enough burgesses arrived back in Williamsburg, and “perhaps against Exportations also after a certain time.” (Ibid.)

  The caution was understandable. With so many burgesses out of town, the remaining legislators could not risk the appearance of usurpation nor were they yet ready to contemplate all-out war. On that day in late May 1774, Peyton Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and others were declining to commit themselves until they absolutely had to. The exports—tobacco, really—were the key. To end that trade would cost Virginia untold economic and political pain. Just before leaving Williamsburg for Monticello on the thirty-first, Jefferson added his name to the call for the August 1 meeting: “We fixed this distant day in hopes of accommodating the meeting to every gentleman’s private affairs, and that they might, in the meantime, have an opportunity of collecting the sense of their respective counties.” (Ibid., 111.)

  AWARE OF THE STAKES Ibid., 111.

  MONTICELLO’S CHERRIES HAD RIPENED GB, 55.

  A LETTER TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS PTJ, I, 116–17.

  THE REVEREND CHARLES CLAY Ibid., 117.

  “THE NEW CHURCH” ON HARDWARE RIVER Ibid., 116.

  THE “PLACE … THOUGHT THE MOST” IBiD.

  “THE PEOPLE MET GENERALLY” Jefferson, WritiNGS, 9.

  THE FREEHOLDERS OF ALBEMARLE PTJ, I, 117–19.

  COMPOSED BY JEFFERSON Ibid., 119.

  “THE COMMON RIGHTS OF MANKIND” Ibid., 117.

  “WE WILL EVER BE READY” IBID.

  AN IMMEDIATE BAN Ibid., 117–18. As he drafted the Albemarle resolutions he also wrote a proposed Declaration of Rights for the approaching August 1 meeting. (Ibid., 119–20.)

  FRESH CUCUMBERS AND LETTUCE GB, 56.

  INSTRUCTIONS TO THE DELEGATES PTJ, I, 121–37. See also Anthony M. Lewis, “Jefferson’s ‘Summary View’ as a Chart of Political Union,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 5, no. 1 (January 1948): 34–51. Kristofer Ray, “Thomas Jefferson and ‘A Summary View of the Rights of British North America,’ ” in Cogliano, ed., A Companion to Thomas Jefferson, 32–43, is also valUABlE.

  WITH THESE PAGES PTJ, I, 121–37.

  “THAT OUR ANCESTORS” Jefferson, Writings, 105–6.

  CONCLUDED WITH A PASSAGE Ibid., 121.

  “IT IS NEITHER OUR WISH” Ibid., 121–22.

  STRICKEN WITH DYSENTERY Jefferson, WritiNGS, 9.

  WITH TWO COPIES IbID.

  THE ASSEMBLED BURGESSES APPLAUDED PTJ, I, 671.

  HAND-PULLED PRESS Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, http://www.history.org/almanack/life/trades/tradepri.cfm (accessed 2012).

  “WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE” PTJ, I, 672.

  “IT IS THE INDISPENSABLE DUTY” IBID.

  GEORGE WASHINGTON PAID 3S 9D IBID.

  LOANED HIS TO WILLIAM PRESTON IBID.

  URGING HIM TO READ “THE ENCLOSED” IbID.

  TOO STARKLY FOR SOME AT THAT HOUR Randall, Jefferson, I, 90. See also Hayes, Road to Monticello, 159. One man was apparently unimpressed: Patrick Henry. “Whether Mr. Henry disapproved the ground taken, or was too lazy to read it (for he was the laziest man in reading I ever knew), I never learned; but he communicated it to nobody,” wrote Jefferson. (Jefferson, Writings, 9.) In the way of politics, the Summary View’s most immediate practical use for Virginia lay in the fact that it was not adopted; it instead served as a warning. “It will evince to the world the moderation of our late convention, who have only touched with tenderness many of the claims insisted on in this pamphlet, though every heart acknowledged their justice,” read the editors’ preface of Jefferson’s pamphlet. Translation: Take care, Your Majesty, for things could be worse. (PTJ, I, 672.)

  Still, in private, Jefferson was furious that his draft had had so little impact at Williamsburg. Using the language of the General Confession of Sin in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, he said: “We have done those things which we ought not to have done. And we have not done those things which we ought to have done.” Writing on a copy of the final “Instructions” as passed, Jefferson was merciless, listing four technical “defects” on the import/export question. More
broadly, he was unhappy with the failure of rhetoric and what was to his mind a fatal political flaw. “The American grievances are not defined,” he wrote. Without them, he believed, such a document lost potency. Looking ahead to the Continental Congress about to assemble in Philadelphia, he wrote: “We are to conform to such resolutions only of the Congress as our deputies assent to: which totally destroys that union of conduct in the several colonies which was the very purpose of calling a Congress.” (Ibid., 143.)

  ADDED TO A BILL OF ATTAINDER IN LONDON Jefferson, Writings, 10. See also JHT, I, 189–90.

  “DEATH IS THE WORST” Jefferson’s Literary Commonplace Book, 87. See also Garrett Ward Sheldon, The Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson (Baltimore, Md., 1993), 19–21.

  “A VERY HANDSOME PUBLIC PAPER” Randall, Jefferson, I, 188.

  SEVEN · THERE IS NO PEACE

  “BLOWS MUST DECIDE” John Ferling, Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence (New York, 2009), 28.

  THE PEACH TREES WERE BLOSSOMING GB, 66. Jefferson noted the blossoms on March 10, 1775. (IBID.)

  PREPARING TO LEAVE FOR RICHMOND MB, I, 392.

  ST. JOHN’S JHT, I, 194. See also Mayer, Son of Thunder, 241. The church, Henry Mayer wrote, was “a spare wooden building with a peaked roof and squat belfry.” (IBID.)

  A HILLTOP WOODEN ANGLICAN CHURCH Virginia Writers’ Project, Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion (Richmond, Va., 1992), Virginia State Library and Archives. See also Lewis W. Burton, Annals of Henrico Parish (Richmond, Va., 1904), 18–19.

  THE LARGEST STRUCTURE IN RICHMOND Robert Douthat Meade, Patrick Henry: Practical Revolutionary (Philadelphia, 1969), 17–18.

  SAT BEHIND THE COMMUNION RAIL Burton, Annals of Henrico PariSH, 22.

  THE TOUGH-MINDED, SCOTTISH-BORN Benjamin Quarles, “Lord Dunmore as Liberator,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 15, no. 4 (October 1958): 494–507.

  HAD FORBIDDEN VIRGINIANS John E. Selby, The Revolution in Virginia, 1775–1783 (Williamsburg, Va., 1988), 1–2.

  NEITHER SIDE SHOWED JHT, I, 194. Militia were also forming across ViRGINiA.

  WARM ENOUGH FOR THE WINDOWS Meade, Patrick HenRY, 23.

  CALLED ON VIRGINIA Mayer, Son of Thunder, 243–47.

  STANDING IN PEW 47 Burton, Annals of Henrico Parish, 23–24.

  THE EASTERN AISLE Ibid. Henry “stood, according to tradition, near the present corner of the east transept and the nave, or more exactly, as it is commonly stated, in pew 47, in the east aisle of the nave, the third one from the transept aisle. He … faced the eastern wall of the transept, where were then two windows.” (IBID.)

  “GENTLEMEN MAY CRY” Mayer, Son of Thunder, 245.

  “HIS ELOQUENCE WAS PECULIAR” The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, XVII, ed. Fletcher Webster (Boston, 1903), 367.

  A COMMITTEE THAT INCLUDED JEFFERSON JHT, I, 195.

  THE COMMITTEE RESOLVED PTJ, I, 161. In Richmond, Jefferson also wrote a resolution authorizing the creation of a committee to investigate Lord Dunmore’s March 21 proclamation on lands, writing George Wythe, who was in Williamsburg, for counsel. (Ibid., 115–16, 162–63.)

  POSSIBLE FISSURES Ibid., 159.

  DRINKING AT MRS. YOUNGHUSBAND’S MB, I, 392.

  DINING AT GUNN’S IBID.

  BUYING BOOK MUSLIN IBID.

  ELECTED AS A DEPUTY Ibid. He was to serve if, as expected, Peyton Randolph had to be in Richmond for the revision of the Virginia constitUTiON.

  THE FIRST CONGRESS HAD BEEN CALLED “America During the Age of Revolution, 1764–1775,” Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/continental/timeline1e.html (accessed 2012). See also Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress (New York, 1979).

  BRITISH TROOPS TOOK CONTROL OF POWDER MAGAZINES Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 270. “During the autumn and winter [Gage] had received a series of surprises which persuaded him that only force could bring the Americans to heel,” Middlekauff wrote. (IBID.)

  “FORCE,” THE GOVERNMENT ADVISED GAGE Ibid., 272.

  LEAVE VIRGINIA IN “EVIDENT DANGER” PTJ, I, 160.

  AT LEXINGTON AND CONCORD Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 273–81. See also George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats (New York, 1957), 17–40.

  A SHIFTING SIXTEEN-MILE FRONT Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 279.

  273 BRITISH AND 95 AMERICAN CASUALTIES IbID.

  THE EXACT SEQUENCE OF THE BATTLE IS UNCLEAR Ibid., 276.

  ANY “LAST HOPES OF RECONCILIATION” Ibid., 281. See also PTJ, I, 165.

  “A FRENZY OF REVENGE” Ibid., 279.

  “THE FLAME OF CIVIL WAR” Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and RedcoaTS, 45.

  CONTENDING WITH SLAVE VIOLENCE McDonnell, Politics of War, 47–53. See also Quarles, “Lord Dunmore as LibeRATOR.”

  SUPPLIES OF GUNPOWDER McDonnell, Politics of War, 49–50.

  WHITES WERE “ALARMED” Ibid., 47.

  IN NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY Ibid., 49.

  AS THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1775 Ibid., 52–54.

  ROYAL MARINES REMOVED FIFTEEN HALF BARRELS IBID.

  A FURIOUS CROWD OF COLONISTS Ibid. Peyton Randolph and others won some time before violence could break out by convincing the Virginians to allow a delegation to confront Dunmore for an explanation. (IbID.)

  AT THE PALACE, DUNMORE ANNOUNCED IBiD.

  “ONE OF THE HIGHEST INSULTS” IBID.

  “UNDER THE MUSKETS” IbID.

  TWO DAYS LATER DUNMORE ARRESTED IBID.

  ANNOUNCED THAT “BY THE LIVING GOD” Ibid., 55. Dunmore also said he would rally “a majority of white people and all the slaves on the side of the government.” (IBID.)

  SWIFT AND PREDICTABLE Ibid., 56. According to McDonnell, Dunmore, with some evident satisfaction, said: “My declaration that I would arm and set free such slaves as should assist me if I was attacked has stirred up fears in them which cannot easily subside.” (IBID.)

  “HELL ITSELF” Quarles, “Lord Dunmore as Liberator,” 495. Of Dunmore, George Washington wrote to Richard Henry Lee: “If that man is not crushed before spring, he will become the most formidable enemy America has; his strength will increase as a snow ball by rolling: and faster, if some expedient cannot be hit upon, to convince the slaves and servants of the impotency of his designs.” (Ibid.)

  Just how impotent those designs were was now the prevailing question. Jefferson was worried enough to speculate on how to evacuate his clan. On December 2, 1775, John Hancock called on Washington to “effectually repel [Dunmore’s] violences and secure the peace and safety of that colony.” On December 4 the Congress as a whole urged Virginia to resist the governor “to the utmost.” (IBId.)

  “BUT FOR GOD’S SAKE” PTJ, I, 167. He lined out the sentence in a draft of the letter. (IBID.)

  “WITHIN THIS WEEK” Ibid., 165.

  SEEMED TO DOOM IbID.

  THE MILITIA DECLARED McDonnell, Politics of War, 61–62.

  THE PARTICULAR MANIFESTATION In a section of the letter he composed but deleted from the version he sent to Small, Jefferson said:

  It is a lamentable thing that the persons entrusted by the king with the administration of government should have kept their employers under … constant delusion. It appears now by their letters laid before the Parliament that from the beginning they have labored to make the ministry believe that the whole ferment has been raised and constantly kept up by a few hot headed demagogues principal men in every colony, and that it might be expected to subside in a short time either of itself, or by the assistance of a coercive power. The reverse of this is most assuredly the truth: the utmost efforts of the more intelligent people having been requisite and exerted to moderate the almost ungovernable fury of the people. That the abler part has been pushed forwa
rd to support their rights in the field of reason is true; and it was there alone they wished to decide the contest. (PTJ, I, 166–67.)

  Jefferson thought “principal men” such as himself could ultimately control the Virginians. There was no central command, however, and different counties dispatched—or threatened to dispatch—troops to Williamsburg. Dunmore took no chances, sending his wife and children to live on board the HMS Fowey. (McDonnell, Politics of War, 61–62, 73–74.) Jefferson also held the king responsible for the haughty tone and tough tactics of the British. “It is a lamentable circumstance that the only mediatory power acknowledged by both parties”—that is, George III—“instead of leading to a reconciliation [of] his divided people, should pursue the incendiary purpose of still blowing up the flames as we find him constantly doing in every speech and public declaration,” Jefferson wrote Small. “This may perhaps be intended to intimidate into acquiescence, but the effect has been unfortunately otherwise.” (PTJ, I, 165.)

  “A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE” PTJ, I, 165–66.

  A SPIRITED SESSION McDonnell, Politics of War, 71. They were there at Dunmore’s invitation—or, more precisely, at the invitation of Lord North’s ministry, which had directed each colonial governor to convene the local legislatures. The business at hand: consideration of conciliatory proposals from North. London was asking that the colonists contribute toward the common defense and the support of the imperial government in each colony. In exchange, Britain would not tax the colonists for these services beyond the initial amount. (IBID.)

  CONCILIATORY PROPOSALS IBId.

  THREE VIRGINIA COLONISTS Ibid., 72–73.

  DUNMORE FELT THE SITUATION Ibid., 73. Dunmore said that his “house was kept in continual alarm and threatened every night with an assault.” (IBID.)

  SEEKING REFUGE ABOARD THE HMS FOWEY Quarles, “Lord Dunmore as Liberator,” 497.

  A MEASURED TONE PTJ, I, 170–74.

  AS JEFFERSON RECALLED IT Jefferson, Writings, 10–11.

  PEYTON RANDOLPH, WHO BELIEVED Ibid., 11. Randolph was just back from Philadelphia, where the sense of the Continental Congress opposed London’s proposals. It would be useful, then, for Virginia to be in the forefront of the movement against the overtures. Randolph, Jefferson said, “was anxious that the answer of our assembly … should harmonize with what he knew to be the sentiments and wishes of the body he had recently left.” (IBID.)