Thomas Jefferson on 3 January 1799 wrote
to James Madison on the current situation.
I arrived here on Christmas day, not a single bill or other
article of business having yet been brought into Senate.
The President’s speech, so unlike himself in point of
moderation, is supposed to have been written by the
military conclave & particularly Hamilton.
When the Senate gratuitously hint Logan to him,
you see him in his reply come out in his genuine colors.
The debates on that subject & Logan’s declaration
you will see in the papers.
The republican spirit is supposed to be gaining ground
in this state & Massachusetts.
The tax-gatherer has already excited discontent.
Gerry’s correspondence with Talleyrand,
promised by the President at the opening of the session,
is still kept back.
It is known to show France in a very conciliatory attitude
and to contradict some executive assertions.
Therefore it is supposed they will get their war measures
well taken before they will produce this damper.
Vans Murray writes them that the French government is
sincere in their overtures for reconciliation & have agreed,
if these fail, to admit the mediation
offered by the Dutch government.
In the meantime the raising the army is to go on,
& it is said they propose to build twelve 74’s.
Insurance is now higher in all the commercial towns
against British than French capture.
The impressment of seamen from one of our
armed vessels by a British man of war has
occasioned Mr. Pickering to bristle up it is said.
But this cannot proceed to any effect.
The capture by the French of the Retaliation
(an armed vessel we had taken from them)
will probably be played off to the best advantage.
Lyon is re-elected.
His majority is great.
Reports vary from 600 to 900.
Logan was elected into the Pennsylvania legislature
against F. A. Mulenburg by 1256 to 769.
Livermore has been reelected in New Hampshire by
a majority of 1 in the lower & 2 in the upper house.
General Knox has become bankrupt for $400,000
& has resigned his military commission.
He took in General Lincoln for $150,000 which breaks him.
Col. Jackson also sank with him.
It seems generally admitted that several cases
of the yellow fever still exist in the city, and the
apprehension is that it will re-appear early in the spring.
You promised me a copy of McGee’s bill of prices.
Be so good as to send it on to me here.1
Jefferson on 26 January 1799 in a letter to Elbridge Gerry
wrote about his political principles.
Our very long intimacy as fellow-laborers in the
same cause, the recent expressions of mutual
confidence which had preceded your mission,
the interesting course which that had taken, &
particularly & personally as it regarded yourself,
made me anxious to hear from you on your return.
I was the more so too, as I had myself during the
whole of your absence, as well as since your return,
been a constant butt for every shaft of calumny
which malice & falsehood could form, & the presses,
public speakers, or private letters disseminate.
One of these too was of a nature to touch yourself;
as if, wanting confidence in your efforts, I had been
capable of usurping powers committed to you,
& authorizing negotiations private & collateral to yours.
The real truth is that though Dr. Logan, the pretended
missionary, about 4 or 5 days before he sailed for Hamburg,
told me he was going there & thence to Paris, & asked
& received from me a certificate of his citizenship,
character, & circumstances of life, merely as a protection
should he be molested on his journey in the present
turbulent & suspicious state of Europe, yet I had been led
to consider his object as relative to his private affairs;
and though from an intimacy of some standing, he knew
well my wishes for peace and my political sentiments in general,
he nevertheless received then no particular declaration of them,
no authority to communicate them to any mortal,
nor to speak to any one in my name,
or in anybody’s name on that or any other subject whatever;
nor did I write by him a scrip of a pen to any person whatever.
This he has himself honestly & publicly declared since his
return; & from his well-known character & every other
circumstance, every candid man must perceive that his
enterprise was dictated by his own enthusiasm without
consultation or communication with any one; that he
acted in Paris on his own ground & made his own way.
Yet to give some color to his proceedings which
might implicate the republicans in general & myself
particularly, they have not been ashamed to bring
forward a suppositious paper drawn by one of their own
party in the name of Logan, & falsely pretended to have
been presented by him to the government of France;
counting that the bare mention of my name therein would
connect that in the eye of the public with this transaction.
In confutation of these & all future calumnies by way of
anticipation, I shall make to you a profession of my
political faith; in confidence that you will consider
every future imputation on me of a contrary complexion
as bearing on its front the mask of falsehood & calumny.
I do then with sincere zeal wish an inviolable
preservation of our present federal Constitution,
according to the true sense in which it was adopted
by the states, that in which it was advocated by its friends,
& not that which its enemies apprehended, who
therefore became its enemies: and I am opposed to the
monarchising its features by the forms of its administration,
with a view to conciliate a first transition to a President
& Senate for life, & from that to a hereditary tenure
of these offices, & thus to worm out the elective principle.
I am for preserving to the states the powers not
yielded by them to the Union & to the legislature
of the Union its constitutional share in the division
of powers: and I am not for transferring all the
powers of the states to the general government,
& all those of that government to the Executive branch.
I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple,
applying all the possible savings of the public revenue
to the discharge of the national debt: and not for a
multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make
partisans, & for increasing by every device the public
debt on the principle of its being a public blessing.
I am for relying for internal defense on our militia
solely till actual invasion, and for such a naval force
only as may protect our coasts and harbors from such
depredations as we have experienced: and not for a
standing army in time of peace which may overawe the
public sentiment; nor for a navy which by its own expenses
and the eternal wars in which it will implicate us,
will grind us with public burthens & sink us under them.
I am for free commerce with all nations, political connection
with none, & little or no diplomatic establishment:
and I am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with
the quarrels of Europe, entering that field of slaughter
to preserve their balance, or joining in the confederacy
of kings to war against the principles of liberty.
I am for freedom of religion & against all maneuvers
to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another:
for freedom of the press, & against all violations of
the Constitution to silence by force & not by reason
the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust,
of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.
And I am for encouraging the progress of science in all its
branches; and not for raising a hue and cry against the
sacred name of philosophy, for awing the human mind by
stories of raw-head & bloody bones, to a distrust of its
own vision & to repose implicitly on that of others; to go
backwards instead of forwards to look for improvement,
to believe that government, religion, morality & every other
science were in the highest perfection in ages of the darkest
ignorance, and that nothing can ever be devised more
perfect than what was established by our forefathers.
To these I will add that I was a sincere well-wisher to
the success of the French revolution, and still wish it may
end in the establishment of a free & well-ordered republic:
but I have not been insensible under the atrocious
depredations they have committed on our commerce.
The first object of my heart is my own country.
In that is embarked my family, my fortune,
& my own existence.
I have not one farthing of interest, nor one fiber of
attachment out of it, nor a single motive of preference
of any one nation to another but in proportion
as they are more or less friendly to us.
But though deeply feeling the injuries of France,
I did not think war the surest mode of redressing them.
I did believe that a mission sincerely disposed to preserve
peace would obtain for us a peaceable & honorable
settlement and retribution; & I appeal to you to say
whether this might not have been obtained, if either of your
colleagues had been of the same sentiment with yourself.
These, my friend, are my principles;
they are unquestionably the principles of the
great body of our fellow citizens, and I know
there is not one of them which is not yours also.
In truth we never differed but on one ground, the funding
system; and as from the moment of its being adopted by
the constituted authorities, I became religiously principled
in the sacred discharge of it to the uttermost farthing,
we are now united even on that single ground of difference.
I turn now to your inquiries.
The enclosed paper will answer one of them.
But you also ask for such political information
as may be possessed by me & interesting
to yourself in regard to your embassy.
As a proof of my entire confidence in you
I shall give it fully & candidly.
When Pinckney, Marshall, and Dana were nominated to
settle our differences with France, it was suspected by
many from what was understood of their dispositions, that
their mission would not result in a settlement of differences;
but would produce circumstances tending to widen
the breach and to provoke our citizens to consent
to a war with that nation & union with England.
Dana’s resignation & your appointment gave the
first gleam of hope of a peaceable issue to the mission.
For it was believed that you were sincerely disposed
to accommodation: & it was not long after your arrival
there before symptoms were observed of that
difference of views which had been suspected to exist.
In the meantime however the aspect of our government
towards the French republic had become so ardent
that the people of America generally took the alarm.
To the Southward their apprehensions were early excited.
In the Eastern states also they at length began to break out.
Meetings were held in many of your towns & addresses
to the government agreed on in opposition to war.
The example was spreading like wild fire.
Other meetings were called in other places, & a
general concurrence of sentiment against the apparent
inclinations of the government was imminent,
when most critically for the government, the dispatches
of October 22 prepared by your colleague Marshall with
a view to their being made public, dropped into their laps.
It was truly a God-send to them,
& they made the most of it.
Many thousands of copies were printed & dispersed
gratis at the public expense; & the zealots for war
co-operated so heartily that there were instances
of single individuals who printed & dispersed
10 or 12,000 copies at their own expense.
The odiousness of the corruption supposed in those papers
excited a general & high indignation among the people.
Unexperienced in such maneuvers, they did not permit
themselves even to suspect that the turpitude of private
swindlers might mingle itself unobserved & give its own
hue to the communications of the French government, of
whose participation there was neither proof nor probability.
It served however for a time the purpose intended.
The people in many places gave a loose to the
expressions of their warm indignation, & of their
honest preference of war to dishonor.
The fever was long & successfully kept up, and
in the meantime war measures as ardently crowded.
Still however as it was known that your colleagues were
coming away, & yourself to stay, though disclaiming a
separate power to conclude a treaty, it was hoped by the
lovers of peace that a project of treaty would have been
prepared, ad referendum, on principles which would
have satisfied our citizens, & overawed any bias
of the government towards a different policy.
But the expedition of the Sophia, and as was supposed,
the suggestions of the person charged with your dispatches,
& his probable misrepresentations of the real wishes
of the American people, prevented these hopes.
They had then only to look forward to your return for such
information either through the Executive, or from yourself,
as might present to our view the other side of the medal.
The dispatches of October 22, 1797 had presented one face.
That information to a certain degree is now received;
& the public will see from your correspondence with
Talleyrand that France, as you testify, “was sincere &
anxious to obtain a reconciliation, not wishing us to
break the British treaty, but only to give her equivalent
stipulations, and in general was disposed to a liberal treaty.”
And they will judge whether Mr. Pickering’s report
shows an inflexible determination to believe no
declarations the French government can make,
nor any opinion which you, judging on the spot
& from actual view can give of their sincerity, and
to meet their designs of peace with operations of war.
The alien & sedition acts have already operated in
the South as powerful sedatives of the X Y Z inflammation.
In your quarter, where violations of principle are either less
regarded or more concealed, the direct tax is likely to have
the same effect, & to excite inquiries into the object of
the enormous expenses & taxes we are bringing on.
And your information supervening that we might have a
liberal accommodation if we would, there can be little doubt
of the reproduction of that general movement which had
been changed for a moment by the dispatches of October 22
and though small checks & stops, like Logan’s pretended
embassy, may be thrown in the way from time to time, &
may a little retard its motion; yet the tide is already turned
and will sweep before it all the feeble obstacles of art.
The unquestionable republicanism of the American mind
will break through the mist under which it has been clouded,
and will oblige its agents to reform the principles
& practices of their administration.
You suppose that you have been abused by both parties,
as far as has come to my knowledge you are misinformed.
I have never seen or heard a sentence of blame uttered
against you by the republicans, unless we were so to
construe their wishes that you had more boldly cooperated
in a project of a treaty and would more explicitly state
whether there was in your colleagues that flexibility
which persons earnest after peace would have practiced?
Whether, on the contrary, their demeanor was not cold,
reserved and distant at least, if not backward?
And whether, if they had yielded to those informal
conferences which Talleyrand seems to have courted,
the liberal accommodation you suppose might not
have been effected, even with their agency?
Your fellow citizens think they have a right to full
information in a case of such great concernment to them.
It is their sweat which is to earn all the expenses of the war,
and their blood which is to flow
in expiation of the causes of it.
It may be in your power to save them from these
miseries by full communications and unrestrained details,
postponing motives of delicacy to those of duty.
It rests with you to come forward independently
to take your stand on the high ground of your own
character, to disregard calumny, and to be borne above it
on the shoulders of your grateful fellow citizens, or
to sink into the humble oblivion to which the Federalists
(self-called) have secretly condemned you, and even
to be happy if they will indulge you with oblivion while
they have beamed on your colleagues meridian splendor.
Pardon me, my dear Sir, if my expressions are strong.
My feelings are so much more so, that it is with difficulty
I reduce them even to the tone I use.
If you doubt the dispositions towards you,
look into the papers on both sides for the toasts which
were given through all the states on the 4th of July.
You will there see whose hearts were with you
and whose were ulcerated against you.
Indeed as soon as it was known that you had consented
to stay in Paris, there was no measure observed
in the execrations of the war-party, they openly
wished you might be guillotined, or sent to Cayenne,
or anything else: and these expressions were finally
stifled from a principle of policy only, & to prevent you
from being urged to a justification of yourself.
From this principle alone proceeds the silence
& cold respect they observe towards you.
Still they cannot prevent at times the flames bursting
from under the embers, as Mr. Pickering’s letters,
report, & conversations testify as well as the
indecent expressions respecting you indulged
by some of them in the debate on these dispatches.
These sufficiently show that you are never more to be
honored or trusted by them, & that they wait to crush you
forever only till they can do it without danger to themselves.
When I sat down to answer your letter,
but two courses presented themselves.
Either to say nothing or everything;
for half-confidences are not in my character.
I could not hesitate which was due to you.
I have unbosomed myself fully; & it will certainly be
highly gratifying if I receive a like confidence from you.
For even if we differ in principle more than I believe we do,
you & I know too well the texture of the human mind,
& the slipperiness of human reason, to consider differences
of opinion otherwise than differences of form or feature.
Integrity of views, more than their soundness,
is the basis of esteem.
I shall follow your direction in conveying this by a private
hand; though I know not as yet when one worthy of
confidence will occur: & my trust in you leaves me without a
fear that this letter, meant as a confidential communication
of my impressions, may ever go out of your own hand,
or be suffered in any wise to commit my name.2
Jefferson on 5 February 1799 wrote to James Madison,
At the date of my letter I had only heard
the bill for the eventual army read once.
I conceived it additional to the Provisional army &c.
I must correct the error.
The bill for the Provisional army (about 10,000 men)
expires this session without having been
carried into execution.
The eventual army (about 30,000) is a substitute.
I say about 30,000 because some calculate the new
establishment of a regiment we are now passing to a
little over & some a little under 1000 officers & privates.
The whole land army contemplated
is the existing army 5000.
The additional army 9000.
The eventual army 30,000 and the volunteer army,
the amount of which is not known.
But besides that it is 44,000 men, and nobody
pretends to say that there is from any quarter
the least real danger of invasion.
These may surely be set down at 500 dollars
per annum a man, though they pretend that
the existing army costs but 300.
The reason of that is that there are not actually
above 3000 of them, the 5000 being merely on paper.
The bill for continuing the suspension of intercourse
with France & her dependencies is still before the Senate,
but will pass by a very great vote.
An attack is made on what is called Toussaint’s clause,
the object of which, as is charged by the one party
and admitted by the other, is to facilitate the
separation of the island from France.
The clause will pass however by about
19 to 8 or perhaps 18 to 9.
Rigaud at the head of the people of color
maintains his allegiance.
But they are only 25,000 souls against
500,000, the number of the blacks.
The treaty made with them by Maitland is
(if they are to be separated from France)
the best thing for us.
They must get their provisions from us.
It will indeed be in English bottoms
so that we shall lose the carriage.
But the English will probably forbid them the ocean,
confine them to their island & thus prevent
their becoming an American Algiers.
It must be admitted too that they may
play them off on us when they please.
Against this there is no remedy but timely
measures on our part to clear ourselves by degrees
of the matter on which that lever can work.
The opposition to Livermore was not republican.
I have however seen letters from New Hampshire
from which it appears that the public sentiment
there is no longer progressive in any direction,
but that at present it is dead water.
That during the whole of their late session not a word
has been heard of Jacobinism, disorganization &c.
No reproach of any kind cast on the republicans.
That there has been a general complaint among the
members that they could hear but one side of the question,
and a great anxiety to obtain a paper or papers
which would put them in possession of both sides.
From Massachusetts & Rhode Island I have no information.
Connecticut remains rivetted in her
political & religious bigotry.
Baldwin is elected by the legislature of Georgia a Senator
for 6 years in the room of Tatnal, whose want of firmness
had produced the effect of a change of sides.
We have had no report of Yard’s being dead.
He is certainly living.
A piece published in Bache’s paper on foreign influence
has had the greatest currency & effect.
To an extraordinary first impression, they have been obliged
to make a second & of an extraordinary number.
It is such things as these the public want.
They say so from all quarters, and that they wish to hear
reason instead of disgusting blackguardism.
The public sentiment being now on the screen and many
heavy circumstances about to fall into the republican scale,
we are sensible that this summer is the season
for systematic energies & sacrifices.
The engine is the press.
Every man must lay his purse & his pen under contribution.
As to the former it is possible I may be obliged
to assume something for you.
As to the latter, let me pray & beseech you to
set apart a certain portion of every post-day
to write what may be proper for the public.
Send it to me while here, & when I go away,
I will let you know to whom you may send
so that your name shall be sacredly secret.
You can render such incalculable services in this way
as to lessen the effect of our loss of your presence here.3
On 11 February 1799 Jefferson informed James Monroe
on military bills being passed in the Senate.
A bill will pass the Senate today for enabling the
President to retaliate rigorously on any French
citizens who now are or hereafter may be in our power,
should they put to death any sailors of ours forced
on board British vessels & taken by the French.
This is founded expressly on their arrest of October 29;
98 communicated by the President by message.
It is known (from the Secretary of state himself) that he
received, immediately after, a letter from Rufus King
informing him the arrest was suspended, and though it has
been known a week that we were passing a retaliating act
founded expressly on that arrest yet the President has not
communicated it, and the supporters of the bill who
themselves told the secret of the suspension in debate
(for it was otherwise unknown), will yet pass the bill.
We have already an existing army of 5,000 men &
the additional army of 9,000 now going into execution.
We have a bill on its progress through Senate
for authorizing the president to raise 30 regiments
(30,000 men) called an eventual army in case
of war with any European power or of imminent
danger of invasion from them in his opinion.
And also to call out & exercise at times the volunteer army,
the number of which we know not.
6 74’s & 6 18’s making up 550 guns
(in part of the fleet of 12 74’s, 12 frigates,
and 20 or 30 smaller vessels proposed to be built
or bought as soon as we can) are now to be begun.
One million dollars is voted.
The government estimate of their cost is
about 4500 (£1000 sterling) a gun.
But there cannot be a doubt they will cost $10,000 a gun,
& consequently the 550 guns will be 5½ millions.
A loan is now opened for 5 millions at 8 percent &
the eventual army bill authorizes another of 2 millions.
King is appointed to negotiate a treaty
of commerce with Russia in London.
Phocion Smith is proposed to go to Constantinople
to make a treaty with the Turks.
Under two other covers you will receive a
copy of the French originals of Gerry’s
communications for yourself, and a dozen of George
Nicholas’s pamphlets on the laws of the last session.
I wish you to give these to the most influential
characters among our countrymen, who are only misled,
are candid enough to be open to conviction;
& who may have most effect on their neighbors.
It would be useless to give them to persons already sound.
Do not let my name be connected with the business.
It is agreed on all hands that the British depredations have
greatly exceeded the French during the last 6 months.
The insurance companies at Boston, this place
& Baltimore prove this from their books.
I have not heard how it is at New York.
The Senate struck out of the bill continuing the suspension
of intercourse with France the clauses which authorized
the President to do it with certain other countries
(say Spanish & Dutch) which clauses had passed the
House of Representatives by a majority of I believe 20.
They agreed however to the amendment of the Senate.
But Toussaint’s clause was retained by both houses.
February 12th. The vessel called the Retaliation,
formerly French property, taken by us, armed & sent to
cruise on them, retaken by them & carried into Guadaloupe,
arrived here this morning with her own captain crew &c.
They say that new commissioners from France arrived
at Guadaloupe, sent Victor Hughes home in irons,
liberated this crew, said to the captain that they found
him to be an officer bearing a regular commission
from the U S, possessed of a vessel called the Retaliation
then in their port; that they should enquire into no preceding
fact, and that he was free with his vessel & crew to depart;
that as to differences with the U S, commissioners were
coming out from France to settle them; in the meantime
no injury should be done to us or our citizens.
This was known to every Senator when we met.
The Retaliation bill came on, on its passage, & was passed
with only 2 dissenting voices; 2 or 3 who would
have dissented happening to be absent.4
Jefferson left Philadelphia on March 1 in 1799
and did not return until late December.
On November 26 Jefferson wrote to Madison,
I suppose it is thought time that the republicans
should know that offices are to be given exclusively
to their opponents by their friends no longer.
It is advantage enough to the Feds to possess the
exclusive patronage of the administration; and so long as
they go on the exclusive principle, we should do the same.
I mentioned that new circumstances would
require consideration as to the line of conduct
they would require from us.
Our objects according to my ideas should be these:
1. peace even with Great Britain.
2. a sincere cultivation of the Union.
3. the disbanding of the army on principles
of economy and safety.
4. protestations against violations of the true principles
of our Constitution, merely to save them, & prevent
precedent & acquiescence from being pleaded against them;
but nothing to be said or done which shall look or lead to
force, and give any pretext for keeping up the army.
If we find the Monarchical party really split into pure
Monocrats & Anglo-monocrats, we should leave to them
alone to manage all those points of difference which
they may choose to take between themselves,
only arbitrating between them by our votes,
but doing nothing which may hoop them together.5
On 18 January 1800 Thomas Jefferson wrote to Dr. Joseph Priestley
to express his ideas for a university, and he wanted to improve
the college of William & Mary in Virginia.
He proposed adding sciences such as Botany, Chemistry, Zoology,
Anatomy, Surgery, Medicine, Natural Philosophy, Agriculture,
Astronomy, Geology, Geography, Mathematics, Politics,
Commerce, History, Ethics, Law, Arts, and Fine Arts.
In a second letter on the 27th he noted that he had forgotten
to include the languages especially Greek and Latin.
On January 29 in a letter to John Breckinridge he praised the revolution
that occurred in Paris and reviewed the recent history
of French politics involving Napoleon Buonaparte.
Two days later Jefferson wrote to Bishop James Madison
about the Philanthropist Adam Wishaupt, who like
Price and Priestley, believed in human perfectibility.
Free masons had preserved some traditions, though it was “disfigured.”
He believed that Wishaupt wanted to correct morals and inspire benevolence.
On 31 March 1800 Aurora published a Boston Federalist’s
five reasons why Jefferson should not be elected President.
They were that he was a deist; that he opposed government measures;
that his party opposed law, order, and destroyed religious principles;
that he was not a capable legislator; and that he was French in
language, dress, manners, associates, library, and philosophy.
Christian ministers began criticizing him.
Jefferson chose not to challenge these charges because there were too many.
He affirmed that the Constitution protected freedom of religion and of the press.
Jefferson on May 26 wrote to James Monroe
and explained why he declined to defend himself.
As to the calumny of atheism, I am so broken to calumnies
of every kind from every department of government
Executive, Legislative, & Judiciary, & from every minion of
theirs holding office or seeking it, that I entirely disregard it;
and from Chace it will have less effect than
from any other man in the United States.
It has been so impossible to contradict all their lies, that I
have determined to contradict none; for while I should be
engaged with one, they would publish twenty new ones.
Thirty years of public life have enabled most of those
who read newspapers to judge of one for themselves.6
On 13 August 1800 Jefferson wrote to Gideon Granger
and described his political theories.
I received with great pleasure your favor of June 4 and
am much comforted by the appearance of a change of
opinion in your state: for though we may obtain, & I believe
shall obtain a majority in the legislature of the United States
attached to the preservation of the Federal Constitution
according to its obvious principles & those on which it was
known to be received, attached equally to the preservation
to the states of those rights unquestionably remaining with
them, friends to the freedom of religion, freedom of the
press, trial by jury & to economical government, opposed to
standing armies, paper systems, war, & all connection other
than of commerce with any foreign nation, in short, a
majority firm in all those principles which we have espoused
and the federalists have opposed uniformly; still should the
whole body of New England continue in opposition to these
principles of government, either knowingly or through
delusion, our government will be a very uneasy one.
It can never be harmonious & solid, while so
respectable a portion of its citizens support
principles which go directly to a change of the
federal Constitution, to sink the state governments,
consolidate them into one, and to monarchize that.
Our country is too large to have all its affairs
directed by a single government.
Public servants at such a distance, & from under the eye of
their constituents, will from the circumstance of distance,
be unable to administer & overlook all the details necessary
for the good government of the citizen; and the same
circumstance by rendering detection impossible to their
constituents, will invite the public agents to corruption,
plunder & waste: and I do verily believe that if the principle
were to prevail of a common law being in force in the U S,
(which principle possesses the general government at once
of all the powers of the state governments and reduces us
to a single consolidated government,) it would become
the most corrupt government on the face of the earth.
You have seen the practices by which the public servants
have been able to cover their conduct, or where that
could not be done, the delusions by which they have
varnished it for the eye of their constituents.
What an augmentation of the field for jobbing,
speculating, plundering, office-building & office hunting,
would be produced by an assumption of all the state
powers into the hands of the general government.
The true theory of our Constitution is surely
the wisest & best, that the states are independent
as to everything within themselves & united
as to everything respecting foreign nations.
Let the general government be once reduced to foreign
concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from
those of all other nations, except as to commerce which
the merchants will manage the better, the more they
are left free to manage for themselves,
and our general government may be reduced to
a very simple organization & a very unexpensive one;
a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants.
But I repeat that this simple & economical mode
of government can never be secured if the New England
states continue to support the contrary system.
I rejoice therefore in every appearance of their
returning to those principles which I had always
imagined to be almost innate in them.
In this state a few persons were shaken
by the X Y Z duperies.
You saw the effect of it in our last Congressional
representation chosen under their influence.
This experiment on their credulity is now seen into,
and our next representation will be as republican
as it has heretofore been.
On the whole we hope that by a part of the Union having
held on to the principles of the Constitution, time has been
given to the states to recover from the temporary frenzy
into which they had been decoyed, to rally round the
Constitution & to rescue it from the destruction with
which it had been threatened even at their own hands.7
On 23 September 1800 Jefferson in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote,
When great evils happen, I am in the habit of looking out
for what good may arise from them as consolations to us,
and Providence has in fact so established the order of things
as that most evils are the means of producing some good.
The yellow fever will discourage the growth of great cities
in our nation; & I view great cities as pestilential
to the morals, the health and the liberties of man.
True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful
ones can thrive elsewhere, and less perfection in the others
with more health virtue & freedom would be my choice….
The returning good sense of our country threatens
abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any
position of power confided to me will be
exerted in opposition to their schemes.
And they believe truly; for I have sworn
upon the altar of god eternal hostility against
every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
But this is all they have to fear from me:
& enough too in their opinion; & this is the cause
of their printing lying pamphlets against me,
forging conversations for me with Mazzei &
Bishop Madison &c., which are absolute falsehoods
without a circumstance of truth to rest on;
falsehoods, too, of which I acquit Mazzei &
Bishop Madison, for they are men of truth.8
Jefferson wrote two letters on September 20 and November 8
to James Monroe about land and the Negro insurrection.
Jefferson had resided at Monticello from the end of May
until he left home to ride to the new city of Washington on November 22
to wait for the results of the election.
The federal government had moved to Washington in June 1800,
and on 26 February 1801 the United States Congress
approved the District of Columbia Organic Act.
On 14 December 1800 Jefferson wrote to Robert R. Livingston
and asked him to be the Secretary of the Navy.
The next day Jefferson wrote to the Republican’s candidate for Vice President
Aaron Burr about the election in which he wrote,
However it was badly managed not to have arranged
with certainty what seems to have been left to hazard.
It was the more material because I understand several of
the highflying federalists have expressed their hope that the
two republican tickets may be equal, & their determination
in that case to prevent a choice by the House of
Representatives (which they are strong enough to do) and
let the government devolve on a President of the Senate.
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 republican wish;
nor did I doubt till lately that such had been made.9
Jefferson wrote to Madison on December 19 about the election results.
The tally was Jefferson 73, Burr 73, Adams 65, and Pinckney 64.
A tie would have to be decided in the House of Representatives
with each state having one vote, and he estimated that they had seven votes.
They also hoped to get Maryland, New Jersey and perhaps Vermont.
On December 26 Jefferson wrote that he was concerned that the Federalists
might give the government to Chief Justice John Jay
or Secretary of State John Marshall.
On 1 February 1801 Jefferson wrote this letter
advising Burr about a forged letter:
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 satisfies me you will be on
your guard against this, as I assure you I am strongly.
I hear of one stratagem so imposing & so base
that it is proper I should notice it to you.
Mr. Munford, who is here, says he saw at New York before
he left it, an original letter of mine to Judge Breckenridge
in which are sentiments highly injurious to you.
He knows my handwriting
and did not doubt that to be genuine.
I enclose you a copy taken from the press copy
of the only letter I ever wrote to Judge Breckenridge
in my life: the press copy itself has been shown
to several of our mutual friends here.
Of consequence the letter seen by Mr. Munford
must be a forgery, and if it contains a sentiment unfriendly
or disrespectful to you I affirm it solemnly to be a forgery:
as also if it varies from the copy enclosed.
With the common trash of slander I should
not think of troubling you: but the forgery
of one’s handwriting is too imposing to be neglected.10
Jefferson wrote to Madison on February 18 about the election.
Notwithstanding the suspected infidelity of the post,
I must hazard this communication.
The minority in the House of Representatives
after seeing the impossibility of electing Burr,
the certainty that a legislative usurpation would
be resisted by arms, and a recourse to a
convention to reorganize and amend the government,
held a consultation on this dilemma, whether it would be
better for them to come over in a body and go with the tide
of the times, or by a negative conduct suffer the election
to be made by a bare majority, keeping their body entire
& unbroken, to act in phalanx on such ground of opposition
as circumstances shall offer; and I know their determination
on this question only by their vote of yesterday.
Morris of Vermont withdrew,
which made Lyon’s vote that of his state.
The 4 Maryland Federalists put in 4 blanks which made
the positive tickets of the colleagues the vote of the state.
South Carolina & Delaware put in 6 blanks.
So there were 10 states for one candidate,
4 for another & 2 blanks.
We consider this therefore as a declaration of war
on the part of this band.
But 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 anxiously to wish the very administration they had
opposed, & to view it when obtained as a child of their own.
they see too their quondam leaders separated fairly from
them & themselves aggregated under other banners.
Even Hamilton & Higginson have been
zealous partisans for us.
This circumstance with the unbounded confidence,
which will attach to the new ministry as soon as known,
will start us on high ground.
Mr. Adams embarrasses us.
He keeps the offices of State & War vacant,
has named Bayard M P to France, and has called
an unorganized Senate on the fourth of March.
As you do not like to be here on that day,
I wish you could come within a day or two after.
I think that between that & the middle of the month
we can so far put things under way, as that we may go
home to make arrangements for our final removal.11
On February 28 Jefferson gave a short speech as his farewell to the Senate.
Sometime after 2 March 1800 Jefferson
wrote this list of his services up to that time:
I have sometimes asked myself whether
my country is the better for my having lived at all?
I do not know that it is.
I have been the instrument of doing the following things;
but they would have been done by others,
some of them perhaps a little better.
The Rivanna river had never been used for navigation;
scarcely an empty canoe had ever passed down it.
Soon after I came of age, I examined its obstructions,
set on foot a subscription for removing them,
got an Act of Assembly passed, and the thing effected,
so as to be used completely and fully
for carrying down all our produce.
The declaration of independence.
I proposed the demolition of the church establishment
and the freedom of religion.
It could only be done by degrees; to wit, the Act of 1776
c. 2, exempted dissenters from contributions to the church,
and left the church clergy to be supported by voluntary
contributions of their own sect; was continued from
year to year and made perpetual 1779. c. 36.
I prepared the act for religious freedom in 1777
as part of the revisal, which was not reported to the
Assembly till 1779, and that particular law not passed
till 1785, and then by the efforts of Mr. Madison.
The act putting an end to entails.
The act prohibiting the importation of slaves.
The act concerning citizens and establishing the
natural right of man to expatriate himself at will.
The act changing the course of descents and
giving the inheritance to all children, &c. equally,
I drew as part of the revisal.
The act for apportioning crimes and punishments,
part of the same work I drew.
When proposed to the legislature by Mr. Madison in 1785,
it failed by a single vote.
G. K. Taylor afterwards in 1796 proposed the same subject;
avoiding the adoption of any part of the diction of mine,
the text of which had been studiously drawn in
the technical terms of the law, so as to give
no occasion for new questions by new expressions.
When I drew mine, public labor was thought
the best punishment to be substituted for death.
But while I was in France, I heard of a society in England
who had successfully introduced solitary confinement,
and saw the drawing of a prison at Lyons in France,
formed on the idea of solitary confinement.
And being applied to by the Governor of Virginia
for the plan of a Capitol and prison, I sent them
the Lyons plan, accompanying it with a drawing
on a smaller scale better adapted to their use.
This was in June 1786.
Mr. Taylor very judiciously adopted this idea,
(which had now been acted on in Philadelphia,
probably from the English model) and substituted
labor in confinement, to the public labor proposed by the
Committee of revisal; which themselves would have done,
had they been to act on the subject again.
The public mind was ripe for this in 1796,
when Mr. Taylor proposed it, and ripened chiefly
by the experiment in Philadelphia, whereas in 1785
when it had been proposed to our assembly,
they were not quite ripe for it.
In 1789 and 1790 I had a great number of olive plants
of the best kind sent from Marseilles to Charleston
for South Carolina and Georgia.
They were planted and are flourishing;
and though not yet multiplied, they will be
the germ of that cultivation in those States.
In 1790 I got a cask of the heavy upland rice from the
river Denbigh in Africa about lat. 9° 30′ North,
which I sent to Charleston in hopes it might supersede
the culture of the wet rice which renders South Carolina
and Georgia so pestilential through the summer.
It was divided, and a part sent to Georgia.
I know not whether it has been attended to in South
Carolina; but it has spread in the upper parts of Georgia
so as to have become almost general and is highly prized.
Perhaps it may answer in Tennessee and Kentucky.
The greatest service which can be rendered any country
is to add a useful plant to its culture, especially a bread grain;
next in value to bread is oil.
Whether the act for the more general diffusion
of knowledge will ever be carried into complete effect,
I know not.
It was received by the legislature with great
enthusiasm at first, and a small effort was made
in 1796 by the act to establish public schools
to carry a part of it into effect, viz., that for the
establishment of free English schools; but the option
given to the courts has defeated the intention of the act.12
On 14 October 1800 the Republican Aurora published an article describing
eleven policies of the Republicans as patriotic and revolutionary principles,
opposing monarchy, peace with the world, appealing to reason,
equal laws for all citizens, making plunderers accountable, separate church and state,
reducing taxes and the public debt, not meddling in European affairs,
freedom of the press, and religious freedom.
Then they described the Federalists as having the opposite of these principles.
Election voting was from October 31 to December 3.
Republicans received 65% of the popular votes in legislative elections,
and they gained 22 seats in the House of Representatives from the Federalists
that gave the Republicans a 68 to 38 majority.
In the US Senate the Republicans gained three seats as the Federalists lost four.
This reduced the Federalist advantage in the Senate from 21-11 to 17-14.
Jefferson received a little over 60% of the votes
while John Adams got just under 40%.
In the electoral college votes Jefferson and Aaron Burr each had 73.
The Federalist Adams had 65 and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 64.
The Republicans failed to make it so that Burr, the candidate for Vice President,
had at least one less vote than Jefferson.
That threw the election into the House of Representatives according to the Constitution
which requires that each state would have one vote,
and a majority would determine the President.
They began voting on 11 February 1801.
Eight states had Republican majorities; Federalists controlled four states;
and Maryland and Delaware were equally divided.
The House Speaker Theodore Sedgwick supported Burr
who decided not to support Jefferson, though most Federalists did not want Burr.
Hamilton’s Federalists demanded support for their fiscal system, neutrality,
increasing the Navy, and not removing cabinet secretaries or federal workers.
Jefferson rejected any deal or conditions that would limit him.
In the first vote Jefferson had 8 states to Burr’s 6,
though only one of them had given him an electoral vote.
Maryland and Vermont were deadlocked in the House.
Since there were 16 states, 9 would be needed for a majority.
In four days they cast ballots 33 times, and on Sunday
February 14 they rested and negotiated.
Delaware’s only voter James Bayard wanted to leave Burr and vote for Jefferson,
and John Nicholas persuaded him to abstain from voting
so that Jefferson would have an 8 to 7 majority.
On the 36th ballot Jefferson had 10 states and Burr only 4.
Jefferson would be President, and Aaron Burr would be Vice President.
On 13 February 1801 the Federalists enacted the Judiciary Act
that reduced the six judges on the Supreme Court to five on the next vacancy.
They also established 16 new judges that outgoing President John Adams
managed to appoint by midnight on March 3.
They increased the number of circuit courts from three to six,
and they added three new judges for five of the six circuits.
These judges were to have lifetime appointments, though all of these
circuit judgeships would be repealed by the Jefferson Administration in 1802.
Adams also made the Federalist John Marshall the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court on 4 February 1801.
Notes
1. The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Volume IX ed. Paul Leicester Ford, p. 3-4.
2. Thomas Jefferson Writings, p. 1055-1062.
3. The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Volume IX, p. 32-35.
4. Ibid. p. 35-37.
5. From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 26 November 1799 (Online)
6. The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Volume IX, p. 136.
7. Ibid. p. 138-141.
8. Thomas Jefferson Writings, p. 1080-82.
9. The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Volume IX, p. 155.
10. Ibid. p. 173-174.
11. Ibid. p. 182-183.
12. Ibid. p. 163-166.
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