by Andrea Wulf
62 flowers from England: Elizabeth Cranch to AA, 23 September 1787; AA to Thomas Brand Hollis, 5 April 1788; Thomas Brand Hollis, 7 April 1788, AFC, vol. 8, pp. 170, 252–53.
63 flowers in the garden: AA to Mary Smith Cranch, 24–26 April 1800, American Antiquarian Society; AA to Catherine Nuth Johnson, 8 May 1801 MHS AP reel 400.
64 Thomas Boylston Adams brings seeds: AA to JA, 20 February 1799, MHS online.
65 JA worrying he would not have garden: JA to Richard Cranch, 27 April 1785, AFC, vol. 6, p. 111.
66 “I shall mourn my garden”: AA to Elizabeth Cranch, 8 May 1785, AFC, vol. 6, pp. 131–32.
67 “in as good an Air”: JA to Richard Cranch, 22 August 1785, AFC, vol. 6, p. 294.
68 “one of the pleasantest squares”: AA to Mary Smith Cranch, c. July or August 1785, AFC, vol. 6, p. 242.
69 “a folly”: JA Diary, MHS, 26 July 1786, 45:5, MHS online.
70 JA’s ha-ha: JA Diary, MHS, 21 and 27 July 1796, 46:38, 42, MHS online.
71 “ornamented Farm … an Innocent”: AA to Elizabeth Cranch, 18 July 1786, AFC, vol. 7, p. 256. AA wrote “half a Million of Money.”
72 ornamental farms cost a fortune in England: AA to Elizabeth Cranch, 18 July 1786, AFC, vol. 7, p. 257.
73 JA and Addison’s essay: This was Addison’s “On the Pleasures of the Imagination,” LibraryThing: John Adams’s Library (online).
74 JA and Whately’s Observations: LibraryThing: John Adams’s Library (online); giving Whately as present, see AA to Elizabeth Cranch, 18 July 1786, AFC, vol. 7, p. 257.
75 “To blend the useful”: Whately 1770, p. 161.
76 “We have opened the Prospect” and fifty cedars: JA Diary, 15 July 1796, 46:33, MHS online.
77 “opening the garden”: Whately 1770, p. 161.
78 “mere Ostentations of Vanity”: JA Diary, 20 April 1786, 44:10, MHS online.
79 “the farm of a Patriot”: JA to Thomas Brand-Hollis, 3 December 1788, MHS AP reel 371.
80 naming Peacefield: JA Diary, 8 September 1796, 46:61–62, MHS online.
81 JA and GW’s retirement: and JA’s internal battles see JA to AA, 5, 12, 20, 21 January; 2, 20 February; 1 March 1796, MHS online.
82 “Think of it and say nothing”: JA to AA, 12 January 1796, MHS online.
83 “I hate to live in Philadelphia”: JA to AA, 1 March 1796, MHS; see also JA to AA, 2 and 20 February 1796, MHS online.
84 “I sighed, sobbed”: JA to Harrison Gray Otis, 29 March 1823, MHS AP reel 124.
85 JA releasing tension: JA to AA, 3 August 1777, MHS online. See also JA Diary, 24 October 1762, 8:10 MHS online; JA to Cotton Tufts, 26 December 1800, MHS, Misc. Bound Coll.
86 “My Time … might have been improved”: JA to AA, 1 July 1774, MHS online.
87 “keeps his Spirits in action” and following quote: AA to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 August 1796, MHS AP reel 382.
88 “pale, withered, haggard”: JA to AA, 28 April 1796, MHS online.
89 “the little spice of ambition”: TJ to JM, 27 April 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 339.
90 “I have not seen Jefferson”: JM to James Monroe, 29 September 1796, JM Papers, vol. 16, p. 404.
91 GW plans retirement: GW to JM, 20 May 1792, GW Papers PS, vol. 10, pp. 400–1; GW to James Anderson, 7 April 1797, GW Papers RS, vol. 1, p. 79; GW to Oliver Wolcott, 15 May 1797, GW Papers RS, vol. 1, pp. 142–43; GW to Thomas Pinckney, 28 May 1797, GW Papers RS, vol. 1, p. 157.
92 “untrodden ground”: GW to Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, 9 January 1790, GW Papers PS, vol. 4, p. 552; see also GW to JM, 5 May 1789, GW Papers PS, vol. 2, pp. 216–17.
93 instructions for garden to be in “prime order”: GW to William Pearce, 15, 29 May; 5, 26 June 1796, Conway 1889, pp. 248, 252–53, 256.
94 plants in Mount Vernon: The description of plants is based on visitor accounts, Bartram’s list of plants and GW’s diary entries; see for example List of Plants from John Bartram’s Garden, March 1792, GW Papers PS, vol. 10, pp. 175–83; Julian Ursin Niemcewicz, 2 June 1798, Lee 2006, pp. 70–71, 74–75.
95 “A thousand other bushes”: Julian Ursin Niemcewicz, 2 June 1798, Lee 2006, p. 75.
96 oval beds and Bartram’s plants: Tobias Lear to Clement Biddle, 2 October 1789, GW Papers PS, vol. 4, pp. 124–25; List of Plants from John Bartram’s Nursery, March 1792, GW Papers PS, vol. 10, pp. 175–83; George Augustine Washington to GW, 8–9 April 1792, GW Papers PS, vol. 10, p. 231; George Augustine Washington to GW, 15–16 April 1792, GW Papers PS, vol. 10, p. 272; GW’s Directive to John Christian Ehlers, 7 November 1792, GW Papers PS, vol. 11, pp. 354–55. For GW’s visits to Bartram’s Garden, GW, 10 June and 2 September 1787, GW Diaries, vol. 5, pp. 166–67, 183.
97 “rising clumps”: Miller 1752, entry “Wilderness.”
98 birds in Mount Vernon: Julian Ursin Niemcewicz, 2 June 1798, Lee 2006, pp. 74, 85; Winthrop Sargent, 13 October 1793, MV Folder “Early Descriptions ante 1800,” Mount Vernon Library.
99 AH’s draft for GW’s Farewell Address: AH to GW, 5 and 30 July 1796, AH Papers, vol. 20, p. 170.
100 “considerable changes”: GW to AH, 15 May 1796, AH Papers, vol. 20, p. 169.
101 “honest; unaffected”: Ibid., p. 175.
102 GW wants radical change of management: GW, “Terms on which the Farms at Mount Vernon may be obtained,” 1 February 1796, Conway 1889, p. 286.
103 GW and slaves: 316 slaves were living on the plantation in 1799, of whom 201 were regarded as fit for work. (Pogue 2002, p. 5.)
104 GW’s proposals: GW, “Terms on which the Farms at Mount Vernon may be obtained,” 1 February 1796, Conway 1889, p. 286.
105 farm “for amusement”: GW to John Sinclair, 20 February 1796, GWW, vol. 34, p. 469.
106 “separate the Negroes from the Land”: GW to William Pearce, 20 March 1796, GWW, vol. 34, p. 501.
107 “the Neighbouring Negros”: GW to William Pearce, 27 January and 7 February 1796, GWW, vol. 34, pp. 427, 448; GW wanted to avoid splitting slave families, GW to Robert Lewis, 17 August 1799, GW Papers RS, vol. 4, p. 256; see also GW to David Stuart, 7 February 1796, GWW, vol. 34, p. 452.
108 “liberate a certain species of property”: GW to Tobias Lear, 6 May 1794, GWW, vol. 33, p. 358.
109 GW’s advertisements: GW to David Stuart, 7 February 1796; GW to William Pearce, 7 February 1796; GW to Jeremiah Wadsworth, 11 February 1796; Western lands: GW to Isaac Craig, 13 February 1796; GW to Thomas Lewis, 13 February 1796; GW to Rufus Putnam, 13 February 1796, GWW, vol. 34, pp. 451–52, 456–57, 459–60, 462.
110 “I shall be able to”: GW to David Stuart, 7 February 1796, GWW, vol. 34, pp. 433–47, 453.
111 “slovenly farmers of this country”: GW to William Strickland, 20 February 1796, GWW, vol. 34, p. 468.
112 seed drills “violently opposed”: Willich 1802, vol. 2, p. 166.
113 “a lazy, ignorant sett”: JA to AA, 25 May 1777, MHS online.
114 “abuse” of the land: GW to Arthur Young, 1 November 1787, GW Papers CS, vol. 5, p. 404.
115 “green manure”: However, no one had yet discovered the chemical principle behind the effect of green manure whereby plants such as clover and vetch fix atmospheric nitrogen, which can then be used by crops that require high amounts of nitrogen, such as wheat.
116 GW and Arthur Young: GW Papers; the correspondence between GW and Arthur Young began in 1786.
117 crop rotation and no tobacco: Plan for Crop Rotation annexed to GW “Terms on which the Farms at Mount Vernon may be obtained,” 1 February 1796, Conway 1889, pp. 285, 287–88.
118 “particularly from Great Britain”: GW to Earl of Buchan, 20 February 1796, GWW, vol. 34, p. 471.
119 GW and English estate managers: GW, 21 April 1786, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 315; GW to George William Fairfax, 30 June 1785; Articles of Agreement with James Bloxham, 31 May 1786, GW Papers CS, vol. 4, pp. 86–87.
120 “His favourite subject”: Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, 1798, Lee 2006, p. 81.
121 “ver
y minute account of the Hessian fly”: Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 16–17 July 1796, Lee 2006, p. 63.
122 GW’s observation during the Whiskey Rebellion: GW to William Pearce, 1 October 1794, GWW, vol. 33, pp. 517–18.
123 “Our welfare and prosperity depend”: GW to Samuel Chamberline, 3 April 1788, GW Papers CS, vol. 6, p. 190.
124 “common farmer will not depart”: GW to John Beale Bordley, 17 August 1788, GW Papers CS, vol. 6, p. 450.
125 “making Experiments”: “U” to the Boston Gazette, 18 July 1763, JA Papers, vol. 1, p. 68.
126 JA growing clover, grasses and hemp: JA Diary, 24 October 1762, 8:11, MHS online; JA to Henry Guest, 5 September 1809, Rutgers, New Brunswick, N.J.
127 “the few who can afford it”: TJ to JM, 13 May 1810, TJ RS, vol. 2, p. 388; and TJ to Joseph Dougherty, 27 June 1810, TJ Papers RS, vol. 2, pp. 490–91.
128 TJ, crop rotation and fodder crops: TJ to GW, 28 June 1793; TJ to JM, 29 June 1793; TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, 28 July 1793; TJ to GW, 14 May 1794; John Taylor to TJ, 5 March 1795, TJ to JM, 5 March 1795; TJ to GW, 12 September 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 26, pp. 396–97, 401–3, 576–78; vol. 28, pp. 74–75, 291–301, 464–65; TJ, Questions on the Cow Pea, with Answers by Philip Tabb, 1796, TJ Papers, vol. 29, p. 179.
129 “the best farmers of all”: TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, 28 July 1793; see also TJ to JM, 29 June 1793; TJ to GW, 28 June 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 26, pp. 396–97, 402–3, 576–78.
130 founding fathers advising one another on crop rotation: JM to TJ, 23 March 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 315. The pamphlet was J. Beale Bordley’s “Sketches on Rotations of Crops” (1791); TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, 11 August 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 26, p. 658; TJ to John Taylor, 29 December 1794, TJ Papers, vol. 28, pp. 232–33; GW to Arthur Young, 1 November 1787, GW Papers CS, vol. 5, pp. 403–4; GW to Arthur Young, 4 December 1788, GW Papers PS, vol. 1, pp. 159–62; GW to John Beale Bordley, 17 August 1788, GW Papers CS, vol. 6, pp. 450ff; GW to William Pearce, 18 December 1793, 26 January 1794, Conway 1889, pp. 11, 34.
131 TJ’s ravaged fields: TJ to GW, 14 May 1794; see also TJ to Madame de Tessé, 6 September 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, pp. 75, 451.
132 “best Farmer in the State”: Samuel Powell, October 1787, Lee 2006, p. 53; for other praise see Edward Thornton to James Bland Burges, 3 October 1792, MV Folder, “Early Descriptions ante 1800,” Mount Vernon Library; Robert Hunter, November 1785; Lee 2006, p. 31.
133 TJ too theoretical: Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, 1796, Peterson 1993, p. 23; Sir Augustus Foster, 1805–7, Davis 1954, p. 147.
134 “I am but a learner”: TJ to William Branch Giles, 27 April 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 337.
135 TJ on horseback all day: TJ to JA, 25 April 1794; TJ to JA, 6 February 1795; TJ to JM, 27 April 1795; TJ to Philip Mazzei, 30 May 1795; TJ to Henry Knox, 1 June 1795; TJ to Thomas Pinckney, 8 September 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, pp. 57, 261–62, 339–40, 370, 374, 458; Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, June 1796, Peterson 1993, p. 28.
136 “I have made researches”: TJ to Jonathan Williams, 3 July 1796, TJ Papers, vol. 29, p. 140.
137 “I am entirely a farmer”: TJ to Thomas Pinckney, 8 September 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 458.
138 JM searching for a vocation: Madison had studied law but did not want to practice. He also tried his luck in land speculation. (Ketcham 1990, p. 144.)
139 JM’s two farms: Madison acquired the Swaney’s Tract (sometimes called Edmondson Tract) from his father for a nominal $1 and bought Black Meadows in 1792. (Miller 1985, pp. 19–20, 22–23.)
140 JM’s letters and instructions: JM to JM Sr., 17 January, 21 February, 6 March, 13 March, 10 August 1796, JM Papers, vol. 16, pp. 192, 228, 248–49, 265–67, 390. For JM enjoying physical work, see Jennings 1983, p. 51.
141 “now immersed in farming”: TJ to JM, 29 June 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 26, p. 402.
142 ploughs and Jethro Tull: JM to TJ, 12 April 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 25, p. 534; TJ to JM, 9 June 1793; JM to TJ, 17 June 1793; JM to TJ, 30 July 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 26, pp. 241, 303, 586.
143 “patent plow”: JM to TJ, 30 July 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 26, p. 586.
144 “an Agrarian people is the best”: Aristotle 1992, p. 368.
145 “of all the occupations”: Cicero, De Officiis, Book 1:42.
146 French republican calendar: Schama 1989, pp. 768–74.
147 Republics and virtue: Wood 1987, pp. 65–70; McCoy 1980, pp. 69–75.
148 “Only a virtuous people”: BF to the Abbés Chalut and Arnoux, 17 April 1787, BF online.
149 “whether there is public Virtue enough”: JA to Mercy Warren, 8 January 1776, Adams 1917, vol. 1, p. 202.
150 public virtue and private virtue: JA to Mercy Warren, 16 April 1776. JA wrote that “Public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without Private.” (Adams 1917, vol. 1, p. 222.)
151 “Cultivators of the earth”: TJ to John Jay, 23 August 1785, TJ Papers, vol. 8, p. 426.
152 BF and independent farmers: BF, “The Interest of Great Britain Considered, With Regard to her Colonies, And the Acquisitions of Canada and Guadaloupe,” 1760, BF online.
153 “are less tied”: JM to Richard Peters, 22 February 1819, JM Papers RS, vol. 1, p. 423; JA to AA, December 1796, MHS online.
154 farmers “the true representatives”: TJ to Arthur Campbell, 1 September 1797, TJ Papers, vol. 29, p. 522.
155 merchants who “have no country”: TJ to Horatio Gates Spafford, 17 March 1814, DLC; TJ on ownership of land and morals, see Jefferson 1982, p. 165.
156 “The small landholders”: TJ to Madison, 28 October 1785, TJ Papers, vol. 8, p. 682.
157 fifty acres for each free man: TJ’s draft for the Virginia Constitution, before 13 June 1776 (all three drafts include this provision), TJ Papers, vol. 1, pp. 337ff.
158 “the more free”: JM, “Republican Distribution of Citizens,” National Gazette, 2 March 1792.
159 Legal base for elevation of agriculture: Constitution of Massachusetts, Chapter V, Section II, 1779.
160 duty “To promote the Progress”: Constitution of the United States, Article 1, Section 8; today “Useful Arts” is often interpreted as relating to crafts and manufacture but in the eighteenth century, agriculture was regarded as the most important; see for example JM to John S. Skinner, 14 April 1829, Mattern 1997, p. 12; BF draft reply written on Marquis de Ponçins to BF, 12 February 1785, BF online.
161 TJ and slavery: TJ to Edward Bancroft, 26 January 1789, TJ Papers, vol. 14, p. 492; TJ to William Short, 9 April 1788, TJ Papers, vol. 13, p. 48; GW Will, 9 July 1799, GW Papers RS, vol. 4, p. 480.
162 “as simple as those of a common farmer”: TJ to JM, 6 March 1796, TJ Papers, vol. 29, p. 6.
163 “Earth is grateful”: JA to TJ, 21 November 1794, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 208.
164 “slow and sure”: TJ to GW, 14 May 1794, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 75.
165 “patriotic individuals”: JM to George William Featherstonhaugh, June 1820, DLC.
166 “worshippers of Ceres”: JM to James Monroe, 29 October 1793, JM Papers, vol. 15, p. 132.
167 founding fathers and agricultural exchanges: GW to TJ, 13 May 1793; JM to TJ, 19 June 1793; JM to TJ, 23 March 1795; TJ to JA, 27 May 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 26, pp. 28, 323–24; vol. 28, pp. 315–18, 363; GW to JM, 8 February 1794, JM Papers, vol. 15, p. 253; Timothy Pinckney to JA, 6 August 1796, MHS AP reel 382; JM and wheat and beans: JM recalls this in 1824: JM to David Gelston, 11 September 1824, DLC; JA and wheat to Academy, Manasseh Cutler to JA, 5 February 1794, MHS AP reel 377. Adams had been elected president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791. (AFC, vol. 9, p. 390.) JA and GW and vineyard: Peter Legaux to JA, 15 May 1794, NA Record Group 46. Washington had visited Legaux during the Constitutional Convention: Peter Legaux to GW, 26 January 1791, GW Papers PS, vol. 7, p. 288. TJ “delighted” by Indian corn: JM to James Monroe, 29 October 1793, JM Papers, vol. 15, p. 132. TJ as GW’s courier: GW to William Pearce, 6 January 1794, Conway 1889, p. 30.
168 “where it forms
a”: JM to TJ, 1 July 1791, TJ Papers, vol. 20, p. 593.
169 “as one of the greatest”: TJ to GW, 12 September 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 464; TJ to David Bailie Warden, 8 July 1811, TJ Papers RS, vol. 4, p. 33.
170 agricultural books: LibraryThing: Thomas Jefferson’s Library (online), John Adams’s Library (online); George Washington’s Library (online); James Madison’s Library (online).
171 TJ and Miller’s Dictionary: William Strickland to TJ, 20 May 1796, TJ Papers, vol. 29, p. 103; TJ to JM, 5 February 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 259.
172 GW and agricultural books: Prussing 1927, p. 429.
173 founding fathers and Bordley’s Sketches on Rotations of Crops: JM’s copy: JM to TJ, 23 March 1795, TJ Papers, vol. 28, p. 315. TJ’s copy: TJ, 1783 Book Catalogue, MHS, LibraryThing: Thomas Jefferson’s Library (online). GW’s copy: LibraryThing: George Washington’s Library (online). JA’s copy: JA owned a later publication by Bordley called Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs, LibraryThing: John Adams’s Library (online).
174 GW’s sixteen-sided barn: Fusonie and Fusonie 1998, pp. 19–24.
175 GW and TJ inspected threshing machine: GW to TJ, 21 August 1791, TJ Papers, vol. 22, p. 57.
176 “I expect every day”: TJ to JM, 19 May 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 26, p. 62. Following quotes: TJ to JM, 9 June 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 26, p. 241; TJ to JM, 1 September 1793, TJ Papers, vol. 27, p. 7.
177 “great success”: TJ to William Booker, 4 October 1796; see also TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, 19 August 1796, TJ Papers, vol. 29, pp. 170, 187.
178 “mould-board of least resistance”: TJ to John Sinclair, 23 March 1798, TJ Papers, vol. 30, p. 202; TJ started using his moldboard in 1794.
179 plough “what the wand is to the sorcerer”: TJ to Charles Willson Peale, 17 April 1813, Betts 1944, p. 509.
180 TJ and gold medal: TJ to M. Silvestre, 29 May 1807; TJ to Charles Willson Peale, 13 June 1815, Betts 1944, pp. 332, 545.
181 TJ drawing plough: TJ to John Sinclair, 23 March 1798, TJ Papers, vol. 30, p. 199.
