Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

by Jon Meacham

  “HERE, EVERYTHING IS” TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., December 13, 1808, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  “NEVER WILL IT BE” JHT, V, 666.

  LEFT THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE Ibid.

  DEPARTED THE MANSION QUICKLY Ibid.

  THOUGHT THE SETTING Bowers, Jefferson in Power, 504–5.

  MRS. MADISON LOOKED Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 58.

  STOOD AT THE DRAWING ROOM DOOR Ibid.

  CROWDED WITH CARRIAGES Ibid.

  A HALF HOUR’S WAIT Ibid.

  JEFFERSON SAW MARGARET BAYARD SMITH Ibid.

  REACHED FOR HER HAND Ibid., 58–59.

  “REMEMBER THE PROMISE” Ibid., 59.

  MRS. SMITH, OF COURSE, REASSURED HIM Ibid.

  “YOU HAVE NOW RESIGNED” Ibid.

  “YES INDEED” Ibid.

  TOLD THAT “THE LADIES” Ibid.

  “THAT IS RIGHT” Ibid.

  HE JOINED CELEBRATING REPUBLICANS Ibid., 60–61.

  “THE CROWD WAS EXCESSIVE” Diary of John Quincy Adams, 58.

  “I AM FULL OF PLANS” TJ to Charles Thomson, December 25, 1808, Charles Thomson Papers, LOC.

  HE HAD SUGGESTED Martha Jefferson Randolph to TJ, March 2, 1809, Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, Massachusetts Historical Society.

  “AS TO AUNT MARKS” Ibid.

  ORDERED AN ABRIDGMENT MB, II, 1242.

  SENT A GERANIUM PTJRS, I, 29.

  ARRANGED PAYMENT MB, II, 1242–43.

  BACON HAD COME TO WASHINGTON Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 104–8. See also MB, II, 1243.

  JEFFERSON REACHED MONTICELLO MB, II, 1243.

  JULIEN CAME TO TEACH Ibid., 1244.

  FORTY · MY BODY, MIND, AND AFFAIRS

  “I STEER MY BARK” Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 467.

  “AMIDST THE DIN OF WAR” PTJRS, I, 359.

  RED BED CURTAINS HUNG James A. Bear, “The Last Few Days in the Life of Thomas Jefferson,” Magazine of Albemarle County History 32 (1974): 63–79. See especially page 68.

  THE ROOMS WERE PEACEFUL Author observation. My description of Jefferson’s quarters and his routine owe much to the kindness of the president, the trustees, and the staff of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. At my request I was granted unusual access to Monticello in the overnight and early morning hours in order to observe as closely as possible the material culture in which Jefferson lived and worked, including the sounds he heard and the possible play of light as he awoke in the mornings. I am particularly indebted to Susan R. Stein for her counsel and for her “Notes on Jefferson’s Bed Chamber,” Memorandum to author, November 10, 2011.

  A 1790 CLOCK MOUNTED BETWEEN TWO OBELISKS “Notes on Jefferson’s Bed Chamber,” Memorandum of Susan R. Stein to author.

  HUNG A SWORD Bear, “Last Few Days in the Life of Thomas Jefferson,” 68.

  “A LONG FORGOTTEN ARABIAN PRINCE” Ibid.

  JEFFERSON’S UBIQUITOUS MOCKINGBIRDS “Notes on Jefferson’s Bed Chamber,” Memorandum of Susan R. Stein to author.

  OVERNIGHT THE SILENCE OF THE CHAMBER Author observation.

  THE TICK-TICK-TICK OF THE TALL CLOCK Ibid.

  HIS WIFE’S WALNUT DRESSING TABLE “Notes on Jefferson’s Bed Chamber,” Memorandum of Susan R. Stein to author. I am also grateful to Elizabeth Chew of the Monticello curatorial office for showing me the dresser.

  JEFFERSON HAD HIS OWN PRIVY JUST STEPS AWAY Ibid.

  HE USED PIECES OF SCRAP PAPER Ibid.

  EXAMPLES WERE COLLECTED FROM HIS PRIVY Ibid.

  FIVE TO EIGHT HOURS OF SLEEP A NIGHT Randall, Jefferson, III, 450.

  READING FOR HALF AN HOUR Ibid.

  DIFFICULTY HEARING DIFFERENT VOICES Ibid.

  SUFFERING FROM EXTREMELY RARE FEVERS Ibid., 451.

  “NOW TO HAVE LEFT ME” Ibid.

  HIS BEDTIME READING Ibid.

  IN THE SUN’S DIRECT PATH Author observation.

  MUCH OF HIS FIRST SENSE OF LIGHT Ibid.

  ELEVEN-THOUSAND-SQUARE-FOOT, THIRTY-THREE-ROOM HOUSE TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/monticello-house-faq#rooms (accessed 2012).

  TEN OTHER ROOMS IN THE PAVILIONS AND UNDER THE SOUTH TERRACE Ibid.

  WALKING INTO THE ENTRANCE HALL My descriptions of the rooms in the house are the result of my observation; Stein, Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello; and the very fine digital records and accounts at http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens (accessed 2012).

  THE FLOOR Stein, Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, 63. Her complete account of the entrance hall is on pages 61–71.

  WHITEWASHED WITH A YELLOW-ORANGE DADO TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/entrance-hall (accessed 2012).

  ANTLERS OF MOOSE AND ELK Ibid.

  THE UPPER JAWBONE OF A MASTODON Ibid.

  FORTY INDIAN OBJECTS Ibid.

  CARVED STONE SCULPTURES Ibid.

  SMALL PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG SACK CHIEF Ibid.

  THE FRY-JEFFERSON MAP OF VIRGINIA Ibid.

  OF NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE, AFRICA, AND ASIA Ibid.

  WAS A SCALE MODEL OF THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS Ibid.

  A SCULPTURE, ARIADNE Ibid.

  LONG MISTOOK FOR ONE OF CLEOPATRA Ibid.

  ST. JEROME IN MEDITATION AND JESUS IN THE PRAETORIUM Ibid.

  “JESUS … STRIPPED OF THE PURPLE” TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/jesus-praetorium-painting (accessed 2012).

  THERE WERE PORTRAITS TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/entrance-hall (accessed 2012).

  TWO ENGRAVINGS Ibid.

  AND BUSTS OF Ibid.

  “MEMORIALS OF THOSE WORTHIES” TJ to James Bowdoin, April 27, 1805, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

  A PLASTER RELIEF OF AN EAGLE TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/plaster-eagle-and-stars (accessed 2012).

  UNDER A BRASS ARGAND-STYLE LAMP TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/entrance-hall (accessed 2012).

  FLOOR OF CHERRY AND BEECH TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/parlor (accessed 2012).

  JEFFERSON PERSONALLY DESIGNED Ibid.

  THE PARLOR IS EIGHTEEN FEET, TWO INCHES Ibid.

  CARD TABLES, CHAIRS, SOFAS, A CHESS SET Ibid.

  “PORTRAITS—24” Ibid.

  HERE HUNG PAINTINGS AND HERE SAT SCULPTURES Ibid.

  THE BRILLIANTLY YELLOW DINING ROOM TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/monticello-dining-room (accessed 2012).

  DOUBLE POCKET DOORS ON ROLLERS TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/tea-room (accessed 2012).

  THE SMALL OCTAGONAL TEA ROOM Ibid.

  HE CALLED HIS “MOST HONORABLE SUITE” Ibid.

  BUSTS OF WASHINGTON, FRANKLIN, LAFAYETTE, AND JOHN PAUL JONES Ibid.

  PATSY HAD A BLUE SITTING ROOM TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/monticello-south-square-room (accessed 2012).

  A NORTH OCTAGONAL ROOM TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/north-octagonal-room (accessed 2012).

  DOME ROOM ATOP THE HOUSE TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/dome-room (accessed 2012).

  A SERIES OF SMALL BEDROOMS Author observation.

  CONSTRUCTED VENETIAN PORCHES Gordon-Reed, Hemingses of Monticello, 613–14.

  “IF IT HAD NOT BEEN CALLED MONTICELLO” Stein, Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, 50. See also Andrew Burstein, “Jefferson in Retirement,” in Cogliano, ed., A Companion to Thomas Jefferson, 218–33.

  HIS “CHEERFULNESS AND AFFECTION” Randall, Jefferson, III, 349.

  LIKE A “PATRIARCH OF OLD” TDLTJ, 374.

  “OUR MOTHER EDUCATED ALL” Ibid., 342.

 
THEY FOLLOWED HIM ON GARDEN WALKS Randall, Jefferson, III, 349.

  “WOULD VIOLATE ONE OF HIS RULES” Ibid.

  HE NEVER HAD TO RAISE HIS VOICE Ibid.

  HE PICKED FRUIT FOR THEM Ibid.

  HE ORGANIZED AND PRESIDED OVER RACES Ibid.

  ON SOME SUMMER NIGHTS Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge to Henry S. Randall, February 22, 1856. Extract published at Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series Digital Archive, http://www.monticello.org/familyletters.com (accessed 2011).

  IT HAD BEEN MADE BY JOHN HEMINGS Ibid.

  “WHEN IT GREW TOO DARK TO READ” Randall, Jefferson, III, 350.

  “CROSS QUESTIONS AND CROOKED ANSWERS” Ibid.

  “I LOVE MY LOVE WITH A” Ibid.

  THE ARRIVAL OF CANDLES Ibid.

  WHEN HE WAS SNOWED IN AT POPLAR FOREST PTJRS, III, 394.

  ON JOURNEYS TO BEDFORD Randall, Jefferson, III, 344.

  SHE HAD NEVER HAD A SILK DRESS Ibid., 350.

  HE MIGHT HEAR A CHILD Ibid., 348–49.

  “OUR GRANDFATHER SEEMED TO READ” TDLTJ, 345.

  “SO EMINENTLY SYMPATHETIC” Ibid., 348.

  “MR. JEFFERSON CALLED LAST WEEK” Elizabeth Trist to [Elizabeth Kortright Monroe], April 3, 1809, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Extract Published at Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series Digital Archive, www.monticello.org/familyletters (accessed 2011).

  “THE SUN NEVER SEES HIM” PTJRS, I, 392–93.

  “THERE IS A TRANQUILITY ABOUT HIM” Ibid., 395.

  “WE HAVE BEEN PERMITTED” Ibid., 4.

  “YOU HAVE, IN YOUR PUBLIC CAPACITY” Ibid., 69.

  “THOUGH I AM CONVINCED” Ibid., 263.

  “NO ONE KNOWS BETTER” Ibid., 471.

  “WHAT WOULD BECOME OF MANKIND” Ibid., III, 58.

  WROTE WITH HIS LEGS STRETCHED OUT I am grateful to Elizabeth Chew of the Monticello curatorial office for this detail.

  “MY PRESENT COURSE OF LIFE” PTJRS, III, 304.

  SAMPLINGS OF THE ENGLISH MULBERRY Ibid., I, 40, 467.

  “I AM NOW ON HORSEBACK” Ibid., III, 315. See also Lucia Stanton, “Jefferson: Planter and Farmer,” in Cogliano, ed., A Companion to Thomas Jefferson, 253–70.

  “I FEEL A MUCH GREATER INTEREST” Randall, Jefferson, III, 450.

  “IF THERE BE A GOD” PTJRS, III, 315.

  HE SUBSCRIBED TO THE PAPERS Ibid., I, 214. Jefferson offered counsel to Madison from time to time, but the third president’s influence over the fourth has sometimes been exaggerated. See Roy J. Honeywell, “President Jefferson and His Successor,” American Historical Review 46, no. 1 (October 1940): 64–75. They exchanged at least 39 letters in Madison’s first year as president (Madison wrote 22, Jefferson 17), but the number dropped off as the years passed. Madison appears to have written Jefferson just eight times during the second term. The two men spoke personally when they could, of course, but such contact was necessarily limited by Madison’s duties and Jefferson’s decision to stay largely at home in retirement. (Ibid., 66.)

  “READING THE NEWSPAPERS” PTJRS, I, 154.

  THE “INEFFABLE LUXURY” Ibid., 475.

  “THE BUNDLE BEING TOO LARGE” Ibid., 327–28. See also ibid., 510, for Jefferson’s note of thanks to Clark for the sheepskin and an Indian blanket.

  OVERSAW THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION Ibid., III, 3–25.

  DEBATED THE ORIGINS OF THE POTATO Ibid., I, 196.

  WROTE FOR VINE CUTTINGS Ibid., 586.

  MUSED ON THE ROLE OF LIBRARIES Ibid., 205.

  JOHN WALKER, HIS ONETIME FRIEND Ibid., 498–99.

  HE SENT A GIFT OF A BASKET OF RIPE FIGS Ibid., 500.

  VIRGINIA HAD ALWAYS CONTRIBUTED “ABOVE PAR” Ibid., 383.

  THE BRUTAL DEATH OF HIS OLD SECRETARY MERIWETHER LEWIS Ibid., 602–4.

  AS JEFFERSON HEARD THE STORY Ibid., 632–33. For a biographical sketch of Lewis, see ibid., 436.

  AN UNSPARING ACCOUNT OF JEFFERSON Ibid., III, 610.

  RECORDED THE BIRTHS OF HEMINGS’S CHILDREN Gordon-Reed, Hemingses of Monticello, 15–16.

  “HE WAS NOT IN THE HABIT” Lewis and Onuf, eds., Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, 257.

  “AFFECTIONATE TOWARD HIS WHITE GRANDCHILDREN” Ibid.

  “THE ENJOYMENT OF” Lemire, “Miscegenation”: Making Race in America, 11.

  IN A LETTER TO JAMES PARTON Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, 254–57.

  RANDOLPH “SAID IN ONE CASE” Ibid., 254.

  “A GENTLEMAN DINING WITH MR. JEFFERSON” Ibid.

  A THEORY ULTIMATELY DISPROVED BY DNA RESEARCH http://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/report-research-committee-thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings (accessed 2012).

  “I ASKED COL. R[ANDOLPH]” Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, 255.

  “THE SECRETS OF AN OLD VIRGINIA MANOR” Ibid., 256.

  “I AM LITTLE ABLE” PTJRS, IV, 35.

  “IT IS WONDERFUL TO ME” Ibid., 87–88.

  “HOW DO YOU DO?” Ibid., 100.

  “SUCH AN INTERCOURSE” Ibid., III, 278. See also Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 283–89.

  “YOU REMEMBER THE MACHINERY” Ibid., 305.

  “MANY ARE THE EVILS” Ibid., 356.

  THE SECOND PRESIDENT SPENT TWO DAYS Ibid., IV, 314. The ensuing scene is drawn from this source.

  “THIS IS ENOUGH FOR ME” Ibid., 313.

  RUSH SENT WORD OF JEFFERSON’S SENTIMENTS Ibid., 389–91.

  “A LETTER FROM YOU” Ibid., 428–29.

  WHEN ADAMS ANSWERED Ibid., 483–85.

  “ON THE SUBJECT OF THE HISTORY” Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 452.

  “SO MANY SUBJECTS CROWD UPON ME” PTJRS, VI, 277.

  “YOU AND I OUGHT NOT TO DIE BEFORE” Ibid., 297.

  “MR. ADAMS AND MYSELF” Ibid., V, 670.

  “MY REPUTATION HAS BEEN” Ibid., VI, 227.

  “THE SUMMUM BONUM WITH ME” Ibid., 231.

  “MEN HAVE DIFFERED” Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 335.

  “AND SHALL YOU AND I” Ibid., 337.

  “I BELIEVE IN THE INTEGRITY” PTJRS, V, 3.

  “THE NATURAL ARISTOCRACY” Ibid., VI, 563.

  “I HAVE THUS” Ibid., 566–67.

  EXCHANGED A TOTAL OF 329 LETTERS Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, xxix.

  “WE HAVE HAD A WRETCHED WINTER” PTJRS, III, 437.

  “THE RANCOR OF PARTY” Ibid., 473.

  “WAR HOWEVER MAY BECOME” Ibid., I, 61. As ever, Jefferson worried about Congress. “I know no government which would be so embarrassing in war as ours,” he wrote Madison on March 17, 1809. “This would proceed very much from the lying and licentious character of our papers; but much also from the wonderful credulity of the members of Congress in the floating lies of the day. And in this no experience seems to correct them. I have never seen a Congress during the last 8 years a great majority of which I would not implicitly rely on in any question, could their minds have been purged of all errors of fact.” (Ibid.)

  NEWS OF A BRITISH FRIGATE AND SLOOP OF WAR Ibid., IV, 133.

  “OUR COUNTRY HAS TWICE” Ibid., 103.

  JEFFERSON RETURNED HOME Ibid., V, 82.

  “YOUR DECLARATION OF WAR” Ibid.

  SENT A WAR-PREPARATION MESSAGE TO CONGRESS EOL, 659–700.

  “WE ARE TO HAVE WAR THEN?” PTJRS, IV, 472.

  “YOUR MESSAGE HAD ALL” Ibid., 376–77.

  FORTY-ONE · TO FORM STATESMEN, LEGISLATORS AND JUDGES

  “IN A REPUBLICAN NATION” TJ to David Harding, April 20, 1824. Extract published at Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series Digital Archive, www.monticello.org/familyletters (accessed 2011).

  AS LATE AS 1810 EOL, 667.

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sp; “THE PEOPLE WILL NOT” Ibid.

  THE WAR OF 1812 WAS DISASTROUS Ibid., 659–700. See also JHT, VI, 107–36; Anthony S. Pitch, The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814 (Annapolis, Md., 1998), is a vivid account of the attack on the American capital.

  “NO GOVERNMENT CAN BE MAINTAINED” PTJRS, VII, 648.

  VICTORIES AT BALTIMORE AND AT PLATTSBURGH EOL, 690–91.

  THE HARTFORD CONVENTION Ibid., 692–95. See also JHT, VI, 126–27. Richard Buel, Jr., America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle Over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic (New York, 2005), chronicles the depth of the Federalist opposition to the Republican project in the first decade and a half of the nineteenth century.

  “THE CEMENT OF THE UNION” JHT, VI, 126.

  IN 1814 THE EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF SOUTH CAROLINA PTJRS, VII, 368.

  PATSY GUESSED Randall, Jefferson, III, 332.

  THE SMASHING OF GLASS ALERTED Ibid., 331.

  STRANGERS HOPING FOR A GLIMPSE Ibid.

  “APPROACH WITHIN A DOZEN YARDS” Ibid.

  HENRY RANDALL ONCE WALKED OVER Ibid., 332.

  A VIRGINIA GENTLEMAN WHO HAD FALLEN OUT Ibid., 333.

  HIS HEARING WAS FAILING A BIT Ibid., 426.

  ILL IN EARLY 1818 Ibid., 445.

  HE WROTE WARMLY TO JOHN ADAMS Ibid., 446.

  CHRONIC FINANCIAL TROUBLE See, for instance, JHT, VI, 453–56.

  APPEARS TO HAVE DRUNK TOO MUCH Alan Pell Crawford, Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 2008), 138.

  IS SAID TO HAVE GROWN JEALOUS Ibid., 137–38.

  THREE TERMS AS GOVERNOR JHT, VI, 341. See also http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/thomas-mann-randolph (accessed 2012).

  FELL OUT OVER THE FATE OF EDGEHILL Gordon-Reed, Hemingses of Monticello, 418.

  THE FATHER GREW ERRATIC Ibid., 416–18.

  SAID HE WAS “MORE FEROCIOUS” Ibid., 417.

  CHARLES L. BANKHEAD PTJRS, III, 633–34. See also Anne Z. Cockerham, Arlene W. Keeling, and Barbara Parker, “Seeking Refuge at Monticello: Domestic Violence in Thomas Jefferson’s Family.” Magazine of Albemarle County History 64 (2006): 29–52.

  “HE WAS A FINE-LOOKING” Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 94.

  “I HAVE SEEN HIM” Ibid.

  JEFFERSON TOOK BANKHEAD TO POPLAR FOREST Crawford, Twilight at Monticello, 70–72. See also Randall, Jefferson, III, 264.

  TO TREAT HIS OWN SON Ibid., 126–27. “Nothing less than his good, and the hope of restoring happiness to his family and friends and to yourself particularly could have induced me to the pain of this communication,” Jefferson wrote the senior Bankhead. Ibid., 127.