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Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) |
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portrait by Charles Willson Peale (1741 - 1827) Oil on Canvas |
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Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3d PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. As the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he is probably the most conspicuous champion of political and spiritual freedom in his country's history. He voiced the aspirations of the new nation in matchless phrase, and one may doubt if any other American has been so often quoted. As a public official--legislator, diplomat, and executive--he served the province and commonwealth of Virginia and the young American republic almost 40 years. While his services as a Revolutionary patriot have been honored by his countrymen with only slight dissent, his later and more controversial political activities have been variously interpreted. Believing that the government was not being conducted in the spirit of 1776, he turned against the administration in Washington's second term and remained in opposition during the presidency of John Adams. Jefferson, who was president from 1801 to 1809, was the acknowledged head of his political party, and his election to the highest office has been interpreted as a vindication of the right of political opposition. His ELECTION checked in the United States the tide of political reaction that was sweeping the Western world, and it furthered the development of political democracy. Throughout his life he sought to do that, though the term he generally used was republicanism. Opinions differ about his conduct of foreign affairs as president. He acquired the vast province of Louisiana and maintained neutrality in a world of war, but his policies failed to safeguard neutral rights at sea and imposed hardships at home. As a result, his administration reached its nadir as it ended. Until his last year as president he exercised leadership over his party that was to be matched by no other 19th century president, and he enjoyed remarkable popularity. He was rightly hailed as the "Man of the People," because he sought to conduct the government in the popular interest, rather than in the interest of any privileged group, and, insofar as possible, in accordance with the people's will. He was a tall and vigorous man, not particularly impressive in person but amiable, once his original stiffness wore off. He was habitually tactful and notably respectful of the opinions and personalities of others, though he had slight tolerance of those he believed unfaithful to republicanism. A devoted family man who set great store by privacy, he built his house upon a mountain, but he did not look down on people. A distinguished architect and naturalist in his own right, a remarkable linguist, a noted bibliophile, and the father of the University of Virginia, he was the chief patron of learning and the arts in his country in his day. And, with the possible exception of Benjamin Franklin, he was the closest American approximation of the universal man.
Early Career
Jefferson was born at Shadwell, his father's home in Albemarle county, Va., on April 13 (April 2, Old Style), 1743. His father, Peter Jefferson, a man of legendary strength, was a successful planter and surveyor who gained minor title to fame as an explorer and mapmaker. His prominence in his own locality is attested by the fact that he served as a burgess and as county lieutenant. Peter's son later held the same offices. Through his mother, Jane Randolph, a member of one of the most famous Virginia families, Thomas was related to many of the most prominent people in the province. Besides being well born, Thomas Jefferson was well educated. In small private schools, notably that of James Maury, he was thoroughly grounded in the classics. He attended the College of William and Mary--completing the course in 1762--where Dr. William Small taught him mathematics and introduced him to science. He associated intimately with the liberal-minded Lt. Gov. Francis Fauquier, and read law (1762-1767) with George Wythe, the greatest law teacher of his generation in Virginia. Jefferson became unusually learned in the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1767 and practiced until 1774, when the courts were closed by the American Revolution. He was a successful lawyer, though his professional income was only a supplement. He had inherited a considerable landed estate from his father, and doubled it by a happy marriage on Jan. 1, 1772, to Martha Wayles Skelton. However, his father-in-law's estate imposed a burdensome debt on Jefferson. He began building Monticello before his marriage, but his mansion was not completed in its present form until a generation later. Jefferson's lifelong emphasis on local government grew directly from his own experience. He served as magistrate and as county lieutenant of Albemarle county. Elected to the House of Burgesses when he was 25, he served there from 1769 to 1774, showing himself to be an effective committeeman and skillful draftsman, though not an able speaker.
The Revolutionary Era
From the beginning of the struggle with the mother country,
Jefferson stood with the more advanced Patriots, grounding his position on a
wide knowledge of English history and political philosophy. His most notable
early contribution to the cause of the Patriots was his powerful pamphlet A
Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774), originally written
for presentation to the Virginia convention of that year. In this he
emphasized natural rights, including that of emigration, and denied
parliamentary authority over the colonies, recognizing no tie with the
mother country except the king. As a member of the Continental
Congress (1775-1776), Jefferson was chosen in 1776 to draft the
Declaration
of Independence. He summarized current revolutionary philosophy in a brief
paragraph that has been regarded ever since as a charter of American and
universal liberties. He presented to the world the case of the Patriots in a
series of burning charges against the king. In the light of modern
scholarship some of the charges require modification. But there is a
timeless quality in the philosophical section of the Declaration, which
proclaims that all men are equal in rights, regardless of birth, wealth, or
status, and that government is the servant, not the master, of human beings.
The Declaration alone would entitle Jefferson to enduring fame.
Desiring to be closer to his family and also hoping to translate his
philosophy of human rights into legal institutions in his own state,
Jefferson left Congress in the autumn of 1776 and served in the Virginia
legislature until his election as governor in 1779. This was the most
creative period of his revolutionary statesmanship. His earlier proposals
for broadening the electorate and making the system of representation more
equitable had failed, and the times permitted no action against slavery
except that of shutting off the foreign slave trade. But he succeeded in
ridding the land system of feudal vestiges, such as entail and
primogeniture, and he was the moving spirit in the disestablishment of the
church. In 1779, with George Wythe and Edmund Pendleton, he drew a highly
significant report on the revising of the laws. His most famous single bills
are the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (adopted in 1786) and the
Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, which was never adopted as
he drew it. His fundamental purposes were to destroy artificial privilege of
every sort, to promote social mobility, and to make way for the natural
aristocracy of talent and virtue, which should provide leadership for a free
society.
As governor from 1779 to 1781, Jefferson had little power, and he
suffered inevitable discredit when the British invaders overran Virginia. An
inquiry into his conduct during his last year in office was voted by the
legislature after his retirement in June 1781. He was fully vindicated by
the next legislature, but these charges were afterward exaggerated by
political enemies, and he was hounded by them to some extent throughout his
national career. The most important immediate effect of his troubles was to
create in his own mind a distaste for public life that persisted in acute
form until the death of his wife on Sept. 6, 1782, which reconciled him to a
return to office. He also acquired an aversion to controversy and censure
from which he never wholly recovered. During this brief private interval
(1781-1783) he began to compile his Notes on the State of Virginia,
which was first published when he was in France (1785). This work was
described at the time by competent authority as "a most excellent
natural history not merely of Virginia but of North America."
Undertaken in response to a series of queries by the secretary of the French
legation, it was ostensibly an account of the resources, productions,
government, and society of a single state. But it spanned a continent and
contained reflections on religion, slavery, and the Indians. It afterward
appeared in many editions and was the literary foundation of his deserved
reputation as a scientist. In the Continental Congress (1783-1784),
Jefferson's most notable services were connected with the adoption of the
decimal system of coinage, which later as secretary of state he tried vainly
to extend to weights and measures, and with the Ordinance of 1784. Though
not adopted, the latter foreshadowed many features of the famous Ordinance
of 1787, which established the Northwest Territory. Jefferson went so far as
to advocate the prohibition of slavery in all the territories.
Minister to France
Jefferson's stay in France (1784-1789), where he was first a
commissioner to negotiate commercial treaties and then Benjamin Franklin's
successor as minister, was in many ways the richest period of his life. He
gained genuine commercial concessions from the French, negotiated an
important consular convention in 1788, and served the interests of his own
weak government with diligence and skill. He was confirmed in his opinion
that France was a natural friend of the United States, and Britain at this
stage a natural rival, and thus his foreign policy assumed the orientation
it was to maintain until the eve of the Louisiana Purchase. The publication
of his book on Virginia symbolized his unofficial service of information to
the French. His services to his own countrymen were exemplified by the
books, the seeds and plants, the statues and architectural models, and the
scientific information that he sent home. His stay in Europe contributed
greatly to that universality of spirit and diversity of achievement in which
he was equaled by no other American statesman, except possibly Franklin.
Toward the end of his mission he reported with scrupulous care the
unfolding revolution in France. His personal part in it was slight, and such
advice as he gave was moderate. Doubting the readiness of the people for
self-government of the American type, he now favored a limited monarchy for
France, and he cautioned his liberal friends not to risk the loss of their
gains by going too fast. Though always aware of the importance of French
developments in the worldwide struggle for greater freedom and happiness, he
tended to stress this more after he returned home and perceived the dangers
of political reaction in his own country. Eventually he was repelled by the
excesses of the French Revolution, and he thoroughly disapproved of it when
it passed into an openly imperialistic phase under Napoleon. But insofar as
it represented a revolt against despotism, he continued to believe that its
spirit could never die.
Because of his absence in Europe, Jefferson had no direct part in the
framing or ratification of the Constitution of the United States, and at
first the document aroused his fears. His chief objections were that it did
not expressly safeguard the rights of individuals, and that the unlimited
eligibility of the president for reelection would make it possible for him
to become a king. He became sufficiently satisfied after he learned that a
bill of rights would be provided and after he reflected that there would be
no danger of monarchy under George Washington.
Secretary of State
Although his fears of monarchical tendencies remained and colored
his attitude in later partisan struggles, it was as a friend of the new
government that he accepted Washington's invitation to become secretary of
state.
During Jefferson's service in this post from 1790 to 1793, Alexander
Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, defeated the movement for commercial
discrimination against Britain, which Jefferson favored. Hamilton, also,
connived with the British minister George Hammond to nullify Jefferson's
efforts in 1792 to gain observance of the terms of peace from the British,
and especially to dislodge them from the northwest posts. Jefferson's policy
was not pro-French, but it seemed anti-British. Hamilton was distinctly
pro-British, largely for financial reasons, and he became more so when
general war broke out in Europe and ideology was clearly involved. In 1793,
Jefferson wanted the French Revolution to succeed against its external foes,
but he also recognized that the interests of his own country demanded a
policy of neutrality. Such a policy was adopted, to the dissatisfaction of
many strong friends of democracy in America, and was executed so fairly as
to win the reluctant praise of the British.
Jefferson was greatly embarrassed by the indiscretions of the fiery
French minister, Edmond Charles Genet, who arrived in Washington in the
spring of 1793, but he skillfully brought about Genet's recall and avoided a
breach with the revolutionary government of his country.
Jefferson helped Hamilton gain congressional consent to the
assumption of state debts, for which the location of the federal capital on
the Potomac was the political return. His growing objections to the
Hamiltonian financial system were partly owing to his belief that the
treasury was catering to commercial and financial groups, not agricultural,
but he also believed that Hamilton was building up his own political power
by creating ties of financial interest and was corrupting Congress. The
issue between the two secretaries was sharply joined by 1791, when the Bank
of the United States was established. They gave to the president their rival
interpretations of the Constitution in this connection. The victory at the
time and in the long run was with Hamilton's doctrine of liberal
construction, or interpretation, of the Constitution and his assertion of
broad national power. But Jefferson's general distrust of power and his
reliance on basic law as a safeguard have enduring value.
By late 1792 or 1793 the opponents of Hamiltonianism constituted a
fairly definite national party, calling itself Republican. Jefferson's
recognized leadership of this group can be more easily attributed to his
official standing and his political philosophy than to his partisan
activities. In the summer and autumn of 1792, by means of anonymous
newspaper articles, Hamilton sought to drive Jefferson from the government.
The alleged justification was the campaign being waged against Hamilton by
the editor of the National Gazette, Philip Freneau. Jefferson had
given Freneau minor employment as a translator for the State Department, but
he claimed that he never brought influence to bear on him, and there is no
evidence that he himself wrote anything for the paper. But he had told
Washington precisely what he thought of his colleague's policies, and had
already said that he himself wanted to get out of the government.
Early in 1793 the Virginians in Congress vainly sought to drive
Hamilton from office or at least to rebuke him sharply for alleged financial
mismanagement. Jefferson undoubtedly sympathized with this attack and
probably drafted the resolutions that were introduced by Rep. William Branch
Giles (Va.) and soundly defeated. A degree of unity was forced on the
president's official family by the foreign crisis of 1793, which also caused
Jefferson to delay his retirement to the end of the year.
Vice President
During a respite of three years from public duties, he began to
remodel his house at Monticello and interested himself greatly in
agriculture, claiming that he had wholly lost the "little spice of
ambition" he had once had. He was outraged by Washington's attack on
the Democratic societies, which were identified with his party, and by what
he regarded as the surrender to the British in Jay's Treaty, but at this
stage he was playing little part in politics. Nonetheless, he was supported
by the Republicans for president in 1796, and, running second to John Adams
by three Electoral votes, he became Vice President. His Manual of
Parliamentary Practice (1801) was a result of his experience as the
presiding officer over the Senate. His papers on the extinct mega onyx and
on the moldboard of a plow invented by him attested to his scientific
interests and attainments. These papers were presented to the American
Philosophical Society, of which he became president in 1797.
A private letter of his to his friend Philip Mazzei, published that
year, severely criticized Federalist leaders and was interpreted as an
attack on Washington. Jefferson's partisan activities increased during his
vice presidency. He deplored the Federalist exploitation of a dangerous
quarrel with France, although Jefferson's own sympathy with France had
declined.
The notorious Alien and Sedition Acts were the principal cause of
Jefferson's disapproval of the Adams administration. Jefferson's grounds
were both philosophical and partisan. The historic Republican protest
against laws that attempted to suppress freedom of speech and destroy
political opposition was made in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions
(1798). Jefferson wrote the former, as James Madison
did the latter. Jefferson's authorship was not known at the time. In the
Kentucky Resolutions he carried his states'-rights doctrines to their most
extreme point in his career. In invoking the authority of the states against
laws that he regarded as unconstitutional, his resolutions were in the
tradition that finally led to nullification and secession. But they were
also in the best tradition of civil liberties and human rights.
President: First Term
Jefferson's victory over John Adams in the presidential election
of 1800 can be partially explained by the dissension among the Federalists,
but the policies of the government were unpopular, and as a party the
Federalists were now much less representative of the country than were the
Republicans. Jefferson's own title to the presidency was not established for
some weeks, because he was accidentally tied with his running mate, Aaron
Burr, under the workings of the original electoral system. The election was
thrown into the House of Representatives, where the Federalists voted for
Burr through many indecisive ballots. Finally, enough of them abstained to
permit the obvious will of the majority to be carried out.
Jefferson later said that the ousting of the Federalists and the
accession of his own party constituted a "revolution," but that
statement was hyperbole. He was speaking of the principles of the government
rather than of its form, and his major concern was to restore the spirit of
1776. He regarded himself as more loyal to the U. S. Constitution than his
loose-constructionist foes were, though in fact he was less a strict
constructionist in practice than in theory. Although he had objected to
features of Hamilton's financial system, he had no intention of upsetting it
now that it was firmly established. Instead, the purpose he had in mind, and
was to be highly successful in carrying out, was to obviate some of the
grave dangers he saw in the system by reducing the national debt.
Jefferson's accession to the presidency is notable in American
history because it marked the first transfer of national authority from one
political group to another, and it is especially significant that, despite
Federalist obstructionism for a time, the transition was effected by
peaceful and strictly constitutional means. Jefferson himself emphasized
this in his conciliatory inaugural address. These events set a precedent of
acquiescence in the will of the majority. The new president described this
as a "sacred principle" that must prevail, but he added that, to
be rightful, it must be reasonable and that the rights of minorities must be
protected. His accession removed the threat of counterrevolution from his
country. The government he conducted, in its spirit of tolerance and
humanity, was without parallel in his world.
His first term, most of it in a period of relative international
calm, was distinctly successful. He was the undisputed leader of a party
that had acquired cohesion during its years in opposition. In James Madison
as secretary of state and Albert Gallatin as secretary of the treasury, he
had lieutenants of high competence whom he treated as peers but whose
loyalty to him bordered on reverence. By virtually ruling himself out of the
party, Vice President Aaron Burr relieved Jefferson of a potential rival.
Working through the Republican leaders in Congress, whom he treated with the
utmost respect, Jefferson exercised influence on that body that was
unexampled in previous presidential history and was to be rarely matched in
later administrations. Because of his own commitment, and that of most of
his countrymen, to the doctrine of division of powers between the executive
and legislative branches, his leadership, except in foreign affairs, was
indirect and generally unadmitted. He also shared with most of his fellows a
rather negative concept of the functions of the federal government in the
domestic sphere. The policy of economy and tax reduction that the favorable
world situation permitted him to follow served to reduce rather than
increase the burdens of his countrymen, and it contributed no little to his
popularity.
Dispute with the Judiciary
Jefferson restored the party balance in the civil service, but he was relatively unsuccessful in his moves against the judiciary, which had been reinforced by fresh Federalist appointees at the very end of the Adams administration. In the eyes of Jefferson and the Republicans, the federal judiciary constituted a branch of the opposing party and could be expected to obstruct the administration in every possible way. He treated as null and void late appointments by Adams that seemed of doubtful legality, and the Republicans repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801 with his full approval. But he was rebuked by Chief Justice John Marshall in the famous case of Marbury v. Madison (1803) for withholding the commission of a late-hour appointee as justice of the peace. The effort to remove partisan judges by impeachment was a virtual failure, and the Federalists remained entrenched in the judiciary, though they became less actively partisan.
The Louisiana Purchase
These partial political failures were more than compensated by the
purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the most notable achievement of Jefferson's
presidency. His concern for the free navigation of the Mississippi River had
caused him, while secretary of state, to assume a more belligerent tone
toward Spain, which controlled the mouth of the river, than toward any other
nation. The retrocession of the province of Louisiana from Spain to France,
now powerful and aggressive under Napoleon, aroused his fears and, for the
first time in his career, caused his diplomatic friendship to veer toward
the British.
The acquisition of an imperial province, rather than the mouth of the
river, was a fortunate accident that added the West to the American Union.
The treaty that Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe
sent home aroused constitutional scruples in Jefferson's mind, which he
expressed privately. Because this vast acquisition of territory would
inevitably change the character of the Union, it seemed to him that it
should be authorized by a constitutional amendment. But the process of
amendment was painfully slow, and the treaty had to be ratified by a
specified date. Napoleon, who was thought by some to have already repented
this transaction, could not have been expected to tolerate any departure
from its terms. Recognizing that this was no time for constitutional purism,
the president yielded to his friends, while strict constructionist arguments
were taken up ineffectually by the New England Federalists. Nearly everybody
else enthusiastically approved of the acquisition.
In May 1801 the Pasha of the piratical state of Tripoli, dissatisfied
with his tribute, declared war on the United States. Jefferson ordered a
naval squadron to the Mediterranean Sea to blockade Tripoli. The bizarre
conflict that ensued served as a training school for the American Navy, and
the relatively favorable treaty of 1805 justified Jefferson's resort to
force.
Personal Attacks on Jefferson
During his first term Jefferson was subjected to attacks on his
personal character that have rarely, if ever, been matched in presidential
history. In 1802 sensational charges against him were publicized by James
Thomson Callender, a dissolute and unscrupulous journalist whom he had
unwisely befriended and who had turned on him when not given a lucrative
federal appointment. These charges were gleefully taken up by Jefferson's
political enemies, but he maintained his policy of making no public reply to
personal attacks. The abuse he suffered from newspapers weakened his
confidence in a free press. He believed that his triumphant reelection in
1804 justified his toleration of his critics and reflected approval of his
public conduct.
But the Federalists in their desperation continued to publicize the
stories Callender had told, and in 1805 in a private letter Jefferson
admitted that, while unmarried, he had made improper advances to the wife of
a friend. For this he had made honorable amends, and he denied all the other
charges. There appears to be no evidence that he ever again referred to
them, and he undoubtedly believed that the best answer to them was the whole
tenor of his life.
From an early stage in his public career, Jefferson had been
subjected to attacks on religious grounds. While he kept his opinions
regarding religion very much to himself, believing that they were a private
concern, his insistence on the complete separation of church and state was
well known. This gained him the support of "dissenting" groups,
notably the Baptists, but it aroused bitter opposition among
Congregationalists in those parts of New England where the clergy and
magistrates still constituted a virtual establishment. From the presidential
campaign of 1796 at least, New England clergymen denounced him from their
pulpits as an atheist and as anti-Christ.
Unlike Thomas Paine, who attacked all sects, Jefferson attacked none,
and he contributed to many churches, but he was distinctly anticlerical and
was as opposed to absolutism in priests and presbyters as in kings. In a
private letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1800, he said: "I have sworn
upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over
the mind of man." That assertion is properly recognized as one of his
most characteristic.
In another strictly private communication to Dr. Rush, made in his
first term as president, Jefferson revealed his own religious opinions. He
believed in God and immortality and was a Unitarian in theology, though he
rarely used the term. Comparing the ethical teachings of Jesus with those of
the ancient philosophers and the Jews, he expressed the highest appreciation
of the former. He began at this time, and finished in old age, a compilation
of extracts from the Gospels in English, Greek, Latin, and French. He
carefully excluded miracles from the compilation. Entitled The Life and
Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, it remained unpublished until the 20th
century. While opposed to what he regarded as the corruptions of
Christianity, he described himself as a Christian, and he undoubtedly sought
to follow the ethical precepts of Jesus.
President: Second Term
On both the domestic and foreign fronts Jefferson encountered greater difficulties in his second term than in his first. But he was relatively successful at home during most of it. Factionalism increased among Republicans. But the revolt of John Randolph, an uncompromising strict constructionist and formerly the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, was contained. Until the last session of Congress in his presidency, Jefferson maintained his influence over that body and his undisputed leadership of his party.
The Burr Conspiracy
Meanwhile, the conspiracy of former Vice President Aaron Burr was
foiled. It is still uncertain whether that adventurer proposed to separate
the western states from the Union or to invade Mexico, but his expedition
down the Mississippi River was unquestionably a threat to national unity and
domestic security. Heeding the warning of Gen. James Wilkinson, the governor
of the Louisiana Territory, Jefferson took steps in the fall of 1806 that
led to the seizure of most of Burr's boats on the Ohio River and his later
apprehension on the Mississippi. Burr's trial for treason and afterward for
a misdemeanor, in the federal circuit court presided over by John Marshall,
became a fiasco when Marshall's rulings made conviction impossible.
Jefferson erred gravely in saying in advance that Burr's guilt was
beyond dispute, but his conduct in connection with the trial did not support
the charge of persecution made by Burr's lawyers and the Federalists.
Jefferson was more justly criticized for his support of Wilkinson, to whom
he was grateful for the exposure of the conspiracy, but whose actions
against alleged supporters of Burr in New Orleans was high-handed.
Jefferson's persistent efforts to acquire West Florida, which he
continued to claim as part of the Louisiana Purchase, may be regarded as an
exercise in futility. But he was properly concerned to round out the
territory of the United States, and he contributed significantly to its
exploration. In his first term he projected the expedition to the Pacific
that was concluded by Lewis and Clark during his second term. Other
expeditions that he sent out failed or had slight geographical and
scientific significance, but his title as the chief presidential patron of
exploration remains unchallenged.
The Embargo
The situation of the United States as a neutral nation became
increasingly hazardous as the conflict between Britain and France, which
embraced the whole Western world, increased in ruthlessness and desperation.
Both powers trampled on neutral rights, but Britain, because it commanded
the sea, was the greater offender. Despite reiterated protests by the U.S.
government, the British policy of impressing American seamen was pursued
with increased vigor. The attack of the British man-of-war Leopard on
the American frigate Chesapeake in 1807 could have been regarded as
an act of war. It was the subject of negotiations, but proper atonement for
it was not made in Jefferson's administration.
American commerce was caught in the crossfire between British Orders
in Council and Napoleonic decrees. Recognizing the impossibility of coping
with both blockades, but undisposed to take sides in this conflict and
convinced that peace was in the best interest of his young country,
Jefferson and his government sought to safeguard American life and shipping
and to bring pressure on the rival powers by suspending commerce. The
embargo, adopted in December 1807 and strengthened by later legislation, was
regarded by Jefferson as the only alternative to war and submission. The act
barred all exports to Britain and France. But it had less effect abroad than
had been expected and caused economic difficulty at home. This was
especially true in New England, heavily reliant on commerce, where it was
strongly opposed from the outset by pro-British Federalists and was resisted
more extensively and more successfully than elsewhere.
In the effort to enforce the embargo, the government was drawn step
by step into infringements on the liberties of individuals that were
inconsistent with Jefferson's most cherished principles. He exercised no
authority that was not vested in him by law, and, distrustful of power as he
was, he did not seize it for its own sake. He believed that individuals
should accept financial sacrifice on patriotic grounds. Many did so, but
there was little glamour in this commercial warfare and the negative heroism
it required. Toward the end of his administration, he assented to the
embargo's repeal, to save the Union, he said. A more moderate measure was
adopted, but it did not avert war with Britain in 1812.
Retirement
Jefferson, meanwhile, was succeeded as president in 1809 by his
loyal lieutenant, James Madison. During the last 17 years of his life,
Jefferson remained in Virginia. His failures tended to be forgotten, and as
the "Sage of Monticello" he engaged in a vast and rich
correspondence with John Adams and others. He abandoned newspapers for
Tacitus and Thucydides, he said, and until his dying day he feasted on
classical writings. He read them in the original, as he did authors in
French, Spanish, and Italian. Toward the end of the War of 1812, he sold his
magnificent collection of books to the government for the Library of
Congress, of which he has been regarded ever since as the virtual founder.
Jefferson resigned the presidency of the American Philosophical
Society, which he had held for many years, but maintained his interest in
all branches of human learning. He kept charts of the temperature. He
personally directed the operations of his mills and farms into his 70s. He
never ceased his efforts to advance agriculture. Jefferson's last great
public service was the founding of the University of Virginia, which was
chartered in 1819. He inspired the legislative campaign for a university,
got it located in his own county, planned the buildings, and served as the
first rector.
He gave much attention to the education of his grandchildren, chiefly
the offspring of his daughter Martha and Thomas Mann Randolph. His daughter
Maria, who married John W. Eppes, died during his first term as president.
For her son Francis, he built a gem of a house at Poplar Forest in Bedford
county. This served him as a retreat from the host of visitors at
Monticello.
Jefferson had long been troubled by debt, and the failure of a friend
whose note he had endorsed brought him to virtual bankruptcy. But he was
rich in honor, friendship, and domestic happiness when he died at Monticello
on July 4, 1826 just hours before John Adams, on the 50th anniversary of the
Declaration of Independence.
Dumas Malone
University of Virginia, Author of Jefferson and His Time
Recommended readings: (Click on the link to purchase)
|
Title: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson || Author: Joseph J Ellis || ISDN: 0-67976-441-0|| Released: April 1998 |
| Well timed to coincide with Ken Burns's documentary (on which the author served as a consultant), this new biography doesn't aim to displace the many massive tomes about America's third president that already weigh down bookshelves. Instead, as suggested by the subtitle--"The Character of Thomas Jefferson"--Ellis searches for the "living, breathing person" underneath the icon and tries to elucidate his actual beliefs. Jefferson's most ardent admirers may find this perspective too critical, but Ellis's portrait of a complex, sometimes devious man who both sought and abhorred power has the ring of truth. |
 |
Title: Thomas
Jefferson : Writings : Autobiography / Notes on the State of
Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters
(Library of America) || Author: Thomas Jefferson || ISDN: 0-94045-016-X || Released: September 1984 |
| Today, perhaps the most anti-democratic bipartisan political elements in American history infiltrated the United States Congress ... wrapping themselves in the mantle of Thomas Jefferson. The ONLY antidote for their well orchestrated propaganda is to actually know what Jefferson stood for by reading what he himself advocated for the democratic republic of the United States of America. |
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