Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

by Jon Meacham

  NAPOLEON WAS IN HIS BATH Ibid.

  “YOU WILL HAVE NO NEED” Ibid.

  “THE FIELD OPEN TO US” Ibid.

  HE AND MONROE NEGOTIATED A TREATY Jon Kukla, A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America (New York, 2004), 265–83.

  WORD REACHED JEFFERSON Ibid., 285.

  A TREATY WITH FRANCE ON APRIL 30 TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., July 5, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “IT IS SOMETHING LARGER” Ibid.

  “THIS REMOVES FROM US” Ibid.

  “IT MUST … STRIKE” Horatio Gates to TJ, July 7, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “EVERY FACE” Andrew Jackson to TJ, August 7, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “THE THING IS NEW” Arthur Campbell to TJ, January 17, 1804, Letters of Application and Recommendation, 1801–1809, General Records of the Department of State, National Archives.

  HE WROTE MERIWETHER LEWIS TJ to Meriwether Lewis, July 4, 1803, Clark Family Collection, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. Jefferson wrote:

  In the journey which you are about to undertake for the discovery of the course and source of the Mississippi, and of the most convenient water communication from thence to the Pacific ocean, your party being small, it is to be expected that you will encounter considerable dangers from the Indian inhabitants. Should you escape those dangers and reach the Pacific ocean, you may find it imprudent to hazard a return the same way, and be forced to seek a passage round by sea, in such vessels as you may find on the Western coast. But you will be without money, without clothes, and other necessaries; as a sufficient supply cannot be carried with you from hence. Your resource in that case can only be in the credit of the U.S. for which purpose I hereby authorize you to draw on the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of War and of the Navy of the U.S. according as you may find your draughts will be most negotiable, for the purpose of obtaining money or necessaries for yourself and your men: and I solemnly pledge the faith of the United States that these draughts shall be paid punctually at the date they are made payable. I also ask of the Consuls, agents, merchants and citizens of any nation with which we have intercourse or amity to furnish you with those supplies which your necessities may call for, assuring them of honorable and prompt retribution. And our own Consuls in foreign parts where you may happen to be, are hereby instructed and required to be aiding and assisting to you in whatsoever may be necessary for procuring your return back to the United States. And to give more entire satisfaction and confidence to those who may be disposed to aid you, I, Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America, have written this letter of general credit for you with my own hand, and signed it with my name. (Ibid.)

  JEFFERSON HAD WRITTEN DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS Ronda, Jefferson’s West, 36–39.

  FILLED WITH FESTIVE CALLERS Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 38–39.

  “ENLIVENED TOO BY THE PRESENCE” Ibid., 39.

  “THE FUTURE INHABITANTS” TJ to John Breckinridge, August 12, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “I VERY EARLY SAW” TJ to Joseph Priestley, January 29, 1804, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW WORK OF MALTHUS” Ibid.

  HAD TO BE RATIFIED BY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1803 The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXXI (New Orleans, 1948), 269.

  “GREAT AND WEIGHTY MATTERS” Proclamation for Special Session of Congress, 1803, LOC: Broadside Collection, portfolio 227, no. 3.

  REQUIRED A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PTJ, XXXIX, 327–28. “There is no constitutional difficulty as to the acquisition of territory: and whether, when acquired, it may be taken into the union by the constitution as it now stands, will become a question of expediency,” Jefferson had written Gallatin in January 1803. “I think it will be safer not to permit the enlargement of the Union but by amendment of the constitution.” (Peterson, Jefferson and the New Nation, 770.) Ibid.

  “THIS TREATY MUST OF COURSE” TJ to John Breckinridge, August 12, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “THE EXECUTIVE IN SEIZING” Ibid.

  “IT IS THE CASE” Ibid.

  “I WROTE YOU” TJ to John Breckinridge, August 18, 1803, Breckinridge Family Papers, LOC.

  THE UNWELCOME LETTER OF AUGUST 17 TJ to Albert Gallatin, August 23, 1803, Gallatin Papers, New-York Historical Society, New York City. The letter itself is Robert R. Livingston to TJ, June 2, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “YOU WILL FIND THAT” Ibid.

  “WHATEVER CONGRESS SHALL THINK” TJ to Wilson Cary Nicholas, September 7, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “IS THERE NOT DANGER” PTJ, XXXIX, 304.

  THOMAS PAINE SUGGESTED Thomas Paine to TJ, September 23, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC. Paine also wrote Jefferson a compelling brief against seeking an amendment for Louisiana. “It appears to me to be one of those cases with which the Constitution had nothing to do, and which can be judged of only by the circumstances of the times when such a case shall occur,” Paine wrote from Stonington, Connecticut, on September 23, 1803. (Ibid.)

  “I CONFESS … I THINK IT” TJ to Wilson Cary Nicholas, September 7, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC. He also had to figure out how to pay the bills. To Robert Smith, he wrote:

  You know the importance of our being enabled to announce in the message that the interest of the Louisiana purchase (800,000.d) can be paid without a new tax, and what advantage the necessity of a new tax would give the opposition to the ratification of the treaty, where two or three desertions would reject it. To avoid a new tax we had a deficiency (on the estimates as given in) of about 400,000. D. Our colleagues have set their shoulders heartily to the work: Mr. Madison has struck us off 100,000. D. Genl Dearborn something upwards of that, and we still want 180,000. D. to be quite secure. The estimate received from your office, which I enclose you, amounts probably to 770, or 780. And were it possible to reduce it to 600. it would place us at ease. (TJ to Robert Smith, October 10, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.)

  UP TO TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND SQUARE MILES Wallace, Jefferson and the Indians, 239.

  ENCOURAGE WHITE SETTLEMENT Ibid., 206–7.

  THE INDIANS “WILL IN TIME” Ibid., 273.

  ANY ATTACKING TRIBES BY “SEIZING” Ibid.

  “OUR BUSINESS IS TO MARCH” TJ to George Clinton, December 31, 1803, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “THE [REPUBLICANS] HAVE” Gouverneur Morris to Roger Griswold, November 25, 1803, William Lane Griswold Memorial Collection, Yale University. Of a planned festival to celebrate the Purchase, Simeon Baldwin wrote on January 22, 1804: “It will be a great day among the Democrats here. Few or none of the Federalists will join them—they are not yet satisfied there is occasion for joy—They fear the effect of so great an extension of our territory.… They fear the easy introduction of French men, French politics and French intrigue. Northern men fear the influence of such an additional weight to the politics of the South.”

  “IF, I SAY, FEDERALISM IS CRUMBLING” Pickering to George Cabot, January 29, 1804, Henry Adams, ed., Documents Relating to New-England Federalism: 1800–1815 (Boston, 1905), 341.

  “A REUNION OF THE NORTHERN STATES” Ibid., 357.

  “THE PEOPLE OF THE EAST” Ibid., 339.

  “MANY PERSONS ARE AT THIS MOMENT” Letter of Roger Griswold, January 10, 1804, William Lane Griswold Memorial Collection, Yale University.

  THIRTY-SIX · THE PEOPLE WERE NEVER MORE HAPPY

  “IF WE CAN KEEP” TJ to Elbridge Gerry, March 3, 1804, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “I THINK YOU OUGHT” Anonymous to Thomas Jefferson, on or before June 15, 1804, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  AROUND THREE THIRTY OR FOUR O’CLOCK JHT, IV, 370.

  HE ENTERTAINED CONSTANTLY Merry Ellen Scofield, “The Fatigues of His Table: The Politics of
Presidential Dining During the Jefferson Administration,” Journal of the Early Republic 26, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 449–69. Scofield made a particular study of records of Jefferson’s dinner guests from 1804 to 1809.

  SOCIABILITY WAS ESSENTIAL See, for instance, Wood, Revolutionary Characters, 105–7.

  JEFFERSON DISLIKED CONFRONTATION Scofield, “Fatigues of His Table,” 465–66.

  HE PREFERRED “PELL-MELL” Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, 44.

  REVELED IN HIS FIRST DINNER TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/dinner-etiquette (accessed 2011). Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy, was also impressed. “The entertainment was handsome,” she said. “French servants in livery, a French butler, a French cuisine, and a buffet full of choice wine.” (JHT, IV, 374.) Margaret Bayard Smith saw the Jefferson dinners as democratic metaphors. “At Mr. Jefferson’s table the conversation was general; every guest was entertained and interested in whatever topic was discussed,” she wrote. “To each an opportunity was offered for the exercise of his colloquial powers and the stream of conversation thus enriched by such various contributions flowed on full, free and animated.” (Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 389.)

  “IT IS A LONG TIME SINCE” TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/dinner-etiquette (accessed 2011).

  THE RAPIDLY DEPLETING NUMBER OF TREES Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 11.

  “SUCH AS GREW” Ibid.

  “HOW I WISH” Ibid.

  “AND HAVE YOU NOT” Ibid., 12.

  “NO,” SAID JEFFERSON Ibid.

  HAD BEGUN HIS WASHINGTON CAREER Lynn W. Turner, “Thomas Jefferson Through the Eyes of a New Hampshire Politician,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 30, no. 2 (September 1943): 205–14, charts Plumer’s shifting opinion of Jefferson. “At the end of his five years in Congress,” Turner writes, “he had sloughed off most of [his] bias and was, indeed, about to transfer his political allegiance to Jefferson’s party. Because he recorded this transformation in shrewd and faithful detail, Plumer’s story provides an interesting study of the impact of Jefferson’s personality upon his own.” (Ibid., 206.)

  “I HAVE A CURIOSITY” Ibid., 211.

  JEFFERSON GAVE PLUMER SOME “ILLINOIS NUTS” Ibid., 210.

  “I SHALL, THEN” Ibid., 211.

  THE WIFE OF THE MAYOR OF GEORGETOWN Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 390.

  SHE ASKED JEFFERSON IF HE LIVED NEAR CARTERS MOUNTAIN Ibid.

  “VERY CLOSE” Ibid.

  “I SUPPOSE IT’S” Ibid.

  “WHY, YES” Ibid., 391.

  DESCRIBED AS “DISTINGUISHED PERSONS” Ibid., 389.

  “EARNEST AND ANIMATED” Ibid.

  ONE GUEST, WHO HAD LIVED IN EUROPE Ibid.

  “SILENT AND UNNOTICED” Ibid.

  “A STRANGER IN HIS OWN COUNTRY” Ibid.

  “TO YOU, MR. C., WE ARE INDEBTED” Ibid. The guest was Nathaniel Cutting.

  SUDDENLY ATTENTION WARMED Ibid., 389–90.

  “YES, SIR” Ibid., 390.

  “A PERSON OF IMPORTANCE” Ibid.

  ANTHONY MERRY, THE NEW MINISTER FROM BRITAIN JHT, IV, 367–92, covers the Merry affair.

  THE PRESIDENT’S RECEPTION Henry Adams, History, 549–51.

  MRS. MADISON WAS THE HOSTESS Ibid., 551–52.

  “A VIRAGO, AND IN THE SHORT COURSE” TJ to James Monroe, January 8, 1804, James Monroe Papers, LOC. The Madisons asked the Merrys to dinner after the evening at the president’s; the secretary of state also practiced “pell-mell,” but the Merrys were not to be stymied a second time. As Jefferson heard the story, Mrs. Merry was “not to be the foremost,” prompting her husband to action. Merry “seized her by the hand, led her to the head of the table, where Mrs. Gallatin … politely offered her place to Mrs. Merry, who took it without … apology.” That was enough for Mrs. Merry, who thereafter, Jefferson said, “declined dining, except at one or two private citizens’, where it is said there were previous stipulations.” TJ to William Short, January 23, 1804, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

  “WE SAY TO THEM, NO” Ibid.

  “WE ARE NOT AS FRIENDLY NOW” TJ to James Monroe, January 8, 1804, James Monroe Papers, LOC.

  “THIS IS TOTALLY WITHOUT FOUNDATION” Ibid.

  HE WAS RENOMINATED APE, I, 83.

  SENATOR PICKERING OF MASSACHUSETTS SAT DOWN Timothy Pickering to Theodore Lyman, February 11, 1804, Timothy Pickering Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  “TO RESIST THE TORRENT” Ibid.

  “IT IS NOT UNUSUAL FOR TWO FRIENDS Ibid.

  “WE ARE DEMOCRATIC ALTOGETHER” Adams, Documents Relating to New-England Federalism, 346.

  “I AM DISGUSTED” Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, IV, 364.

  “THAT THE SHORTEST AND BEATEN ROAD” Ibid., 438.

  “OUGHT TO FIX THE ATTENTION” Henry Adams, History, 422. On the evening of Sunday, April 8, 1804, John Quincy Adams called on King in New York. There he joined King and Pickering in King’s library. The subject was separation. Pickering took his leave; afterward, King made himself clear to Adams. “I disapprove entirely of the project; and so, I am happy to tell you, does General Hamilton.” (Ibid., 425.)

  MERRY HEARD THEM AND REPORTED JHT, IV, 406.

  “THE POSSIBILITY OF A DIVISION” Augustus Foster to mother, June 30, 1805, Augustus Foster Papers, LOC.

  BURR CALLED ON JEFFERSON “Notes on a Conversation with Aaron Burr,” January 26, 1804, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC. “He began by recapitulating summarily that he had come to N. Y. a stranger some years ago, that he found the country in possession of two rich families, (the Livingstons and Clintons), that his pursuits were not political and he meddled not,” Jefferson wrote of their conversation. “When the crisis however of 1800 came on, they found their influence worn out, and solicited his aid with the people. He lent it without any views of promotion that his being named a candidate for V.P. was unexpected by him. He acceded to it with a view to promote my fame and advancement, and from a desire to be with me whose company and conversation had always been fascinating to him.”

  Jefferson drily observed later, “Col. Burr must have thought I could swallow strong things in my own favor, when he founded his acquiescence in the nomination as V.P. to his desire of promoting my honor, the being with me whose company and conversation had always been fascinating to him etc. I had never seen Col. B. till he came as a member of Senate. His conduct very soon inspired me with distrust.” Ibid.

  “MANY LITTLE STORIES” Ibid.

  JEFFERSON’S REPLY Ibid.

  “THAT GREAT OPPOSITION” TJ to Thomas McKean, January 17, 1804, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

  A FIRE HAD DEVASTATED NORFOLK TJ to Thomas Newton, March 5, 1804, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “A THOUSAND JOYS TO YOU” TJ to Mary Jefferson Eppes, February 26, 1804, University of Virginia.

  HIGH WINDS AND ICE John Wayles Eppes to TJ, March 9, 1804, Edgehill-Randolph Papers, University of Virginia.

  “I FEEL DREADFULLY” John Wayles Eppes to TJ, March 19, 1804, Edgehill-Randolph Papers, University of Virginia.

  THE U.S. FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA In his Message to Congress on March 20, 1804, Jefferson said: “I communicate to Congress a letter received from Capt. Bainbridge Commander of the Philadelphia frigate informing us of the wreck of that vessel on the coast of Tripoli and that himself, his officers and men had fallen into the hands of the Tripolitans. This accident renders it expedient to increase our force and enlarge our expenses in the Mediterranean beyond what the last appropriation for the Naval service contemplated. I recommend therefore to the consideration of Congress such an addition to that appropriation as they may think the exigency requires.” Thomas Jefferson to Congress, March 20, 1804, DLC. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/
mtj.mtjbib013280.

  STEPHEN DECATUR LED A COURAGEOUS EXPEDITION Lambert, Barbary Wars, 142–44. See also EOL, 637–39.

  “THE MOST BOLD AND DARING” Sofaer, War, Foreign Affairs, and Constitutional Power, 217.

  “IN GENERAL I AM MORTIFIED” TJ to James Madison, April 15, 1804, James Madison Papers, LOC.

  TOOK CHARGE OF HER CARE TJ to James Madison, April 9, 1804, James Madison Papers, LOC. Jefferson wrote Madison:

  I found my daughter Eppes at Monticello, whither she had been brought on a litter by hand; so weak as barely to be able to stand, her stomach so disordered as to reject almost everything she took into it, a constant small fever, and an imposthume rising in her breast. The indulgence of her friends had permitted her to be uninformed of the importance of strict attention to the necessity of food, and its quality. I have been able to regulate this, and for some days she has taken food enough to support her, and of the kind only which her stomach bears without rejection.… Her spirits and confidence are favorably affected by my being with her, and aid the effects of regimen. (Ibid.)

  “OUR SPRING IS REMARKABLY” TJ to James Madison, April 13, 1804, James Madison Papers, LOC.

  JEFFERSON WROTE TO DEARBORN TJ to Henry Dearborn, April 17, 1804, Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  POLLY DIED Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 265.

  “HOW THE PRESIDENT” Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., to Caesar A. Rodney, April 16, 1804, Andre De Coppet Collection, Princeton University.

  “A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT” Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, 53.

  “I ARRIVED HERE” TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, May 14, 1804, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City.

  “IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME” Abigail Adams to TJ, May 20, 1804, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City. The complete correspondence between Abigail Adams and Jefferson, along with editorial commentary, can be found in Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 265–82. Jefferson sent the letter to John Wayles Eppes, saying that it proved the enduring attachment between the two families—and that he was going to reply to express his own esteem and “with a frank declaration that one act of his life, and never but one, gave me personal displeasure, his midnight appointments.” (TJ to John Wayles Eppes, June 4, 1804, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.) Eppes wrote his father-in-law a warm, insightful reply. “I re-enclose to you Mrs. Adams’s letter—If I may judge of its excellence from the sensibility excited by its perusal, it contains the generous effusions of an excellent heart… . In expressing towards her the sentiments of your heart you will of course know no limit but the extent of your feelings.” Eppes’s political counsel, however, echoed what Madison had advised Jefferson six years before, in the aftermath of the 1796 election. “How far under existing circumstances it may be prudent to indulge in the expression of any private feeling towards Mr. Adams is to me extremely doubtful—No possible event could I imagine excite in his bosom sympathy towards you—The thread of friendship between you is on his part broken never more to be united—He is extremely odious to your warmest friends and admirers.” (John Wayles Eppes to TJ, June 14, 1804, Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, Massachusetts Historical Society.)