20. 20 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 51 (Mem. ed. 1905).
21. 2 JEFFERSON’S MEMORANDUM BOOKS 1299, 1304.
22. DUMAS MALONE, JEFFERSON AND HIS TIME: THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO 253 (1981).
23. This is no more difficult to accept than much of the “evidence” revisionist scholars ask us to accept, including that Jefferson would have carried on this relationship in settings where his daughters were likely to learn of it.
24. S. Allen Chambers, Jr., Of the Best Quality, VIRGINIA CAVALCADE 38, 158–71 (1989). The “Old Sachem” appellation came from fellow University of Virginia board member Joseph Cabell. MALONE, THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO 365.
25. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., A Young Scholar’s Glimpses of the Charlottesville Academy and the University in August 1819, MAGAZINE OF THE ALBEMARLE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 54, 82 (1996).
26. 2 JEFFERSON’S MEMORANDUM BOOKS 1271 n.96.
27. I am indebted to Ms. Pauli Abeles, who found this information in a manuscript written by Sargent she had borrowed from one of his relatives while she was doing genealogical research on an unrelated issue.
28. Monticello Report, Appendix F at 5.
29. S. N. RANDOLPH, THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 268 (1871).
30. Interestingly, Thomas Gibbons later became the petitioner in another landmark Supreme Court opinion by John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. (22 U.S.) 1 (1824), concerning the scope of the federal commerce power.
31. Gibbons to Dayton, Dec. 20, 1802. The original of this letter is located in the Jonathan Dayton Papers in the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
32. Monticello Report Appendix F at 5. See also, Elijah Fletcher’s Account of a Visit to Monticello, [8 May 1810], 3 PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON (RETIREMENT SERIES) 610 (J. Jefferson Looney, ed., 2006).
33. RANDOLPH, THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 269. Professor Dumas Malone quotes the Reverend Azel Bakus as giving a sermon a few days before the 1804 election in which he described Jefferson as “a liar, whoremaster, debaucher, drunkard, gambler” and a man who kept “a wench as his whore, and brings up in his family black females for that purpose.” DUMAS MALONE, JEFFERSON THE PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 378 (1974).
34. Id. at 34–35.
35. 1 PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE, HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 1819–1919 at 168 (Centennial ed., 1920), available online at: http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/BruHist.html. See also, MALONE, THE SAGE OF MONTICELLO 255; and GENE CROTTY, TH. JEFFERSON TRIVIA: THE MANY FACETS OF A FASCINATING MAN 31 (2000).
36. I am indebted to former Monticello guide White McKenzie Wallenborn, who now owns part of the land John Kelly refused to sell for the construction of the university, for bringing this information to my attention.
37. THE LETTERS OF ELIJAH FLETCHER 34–36 (Martha von Briesen, ed. 1965).
38. Id. at 36.
39. Monticello Report at 7.
40. THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 135.
41. See, e.g., JEFFERSON AT MONTICELLO 76–76, 80, 97, 111, 113, 117.
42. GORDON-REED, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS 63.
43. Id.
44. Quoted in 3 HENRY S. RANDALL, THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 676 (1858).
45. Id.
46. Id. at 677.
47. Id.
48. DUMAS MALONE, JEFFERSON THE PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 213 (1970).
49. 11 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 40 (Mem. Ed. 1903). Webster defines “calumny” as “(1) a misrepresentation intended to blacken another’s reputation, (2) the act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations maliciously calculated to damage another’s reputation.”
50. THE REPUBLICAN, Sept. 22, 1804.
51. See, e.g., Fawn M. Brodie, Of Jefferson and Sally, Letter to the Editor, N.Y. TIMES, June 13, 1974 (“Jefferson never publicly denied the relationship.”).
52. ELLIS, AMERICAN SPHINX 73. Professor Ellis’ observation about Jefferson’s sensitivity to criticism is certainly accurate. (See, e.g., Jefferson to Francis Hopkins, Mar. 13, 1789, reprinted in 14 PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 651, Julian P. Boyd, ed. 1958.) (“I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.”)
53. Thomas Paine, Another Callender—Thomas Turner of Virginia, 2 COMPLETE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE 988 (Philip S. Foner, ed. 1945).
54. Jefferson to White, Sept. 10, 1797, in 8 WORKS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 341 (Fed. Ed. 1904).
55. SARAH N. RANDOLPH, THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 268–69.
56. Jefferson to Monroe, May 26, 1800, in 7 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 447–48 (Paul Leicester Ford, ed. 1896). Ironically, Jefferson tells Monroe in the next line: “I think it essentially just and necessary that Callendar should be substantially defended.” This was clearly premised upon his belief that the Alien and Sedition Laws were unconstitutional.
57. Reprinted in RANDOLPH, THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 269; and 10 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 171 (Mem. ed. 1904).
58. MALONE, JEFFERSON THE PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 216.
59. See, e.g., JOSEPH J. ELLIS, AMERICAN SPHINX 7 (1996).
60. This point is conceded by the report of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation. Monticello Report at 4 (“Most historians interpret Jefferson’s statements …as his denial of all Federalist allegations against him, except for improper advances made forty years earlier to John Walker’s wife, Elizabeth. These allegations included the relationship with Sally Hemings.”).
61. BRODIE, THOMAS JEFFERSON 374.
62. Another Callender—Thomas Turner of Virginia, 2 THE COMPLETE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE 980–81 (Philip S. Foner, ed. 1945).
63. This letter is also reprinted in Monticello Report, Appendix E at 6–8 (emphasis added).
64. GORDON REED, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS 143, 145. In a letter to the editor of the New York Times, Professor Brodie asserted: “Though the scandal broke in the Federalist press in 1802, Jefferson never publicly denied the relationship. The letter Malone believes to indicate a private denial actually refers only to charges regarding Mrs. Betsey Walker.” Brodie, N.Y. TIMES, June 13, 1974.
65. Emphasis added.
66. ELLIS, AMERICAN SPHINX 7.
67. Jefferson to Robert Livingston, Oct. 10, 1802, in 10 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 335 (Mem. ed. 1904).
68. Id. at 336.
69. Jefferson to Levi Lincoln, Oct. 25, 1802, in 10 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 339. Both this and the Livingston letter are quoted by Brodie, but she dismisses them because Jefferson did not expressly say that Callender’s comments about Sally Hemings were lies. BRODIE, THOMAS JEFFERSON 360.
70. MALONE, JEFFERSON THE PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 214–15.
71. Jefferson to George Logan, June 20, 1816, reprinted in 11 Works of Thomas Jefferson 527 n.1 (Paul Leicester Ford ed., Fed. Ed. 1905).
72. Eric S. Lander and Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Father, NATURE, Nov. 5, 1998 at 13.
73. Monticello Report, Appendix F at 5–6.
74. This is obviously technically not fully accurate, as Jefferson could have had a descendant who married into the Woodson family, but there is no reason to suspect such a coincidence.
75. For example, Eston might have told his son Beverly that he was fathered by “Uncle Randolph Jefferson,” but—having learned of the Callender charges and Madison Hemings’ assertion—Beverly may have, either seriously or as a joke, asserted to a friend that he was “Thomas Jefferson’s grandson.” Or the friend could have decided to add this “fact” sua sponte, to make his deceased friend seem more important. It is even possible that a copy editor at the Tribune had heard the story and decided to add the reference. There are numerous possible explanations for how this might have occurred, and it is unlikely we will ever know the correct one.
76. GORDON-REED, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS 220.
77. Id.
78. SANDOR SALGO, THOMAS JEFFERSON: MUSICIAN & VIOLINIST 29 (2000).
79. Id. at 30.
80. HELEN CRIPE, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND MUSIC 27–31 (1974).
81. See Chapter Ten. It is, in reality, far more likely that Eston was taught by an older slave (perhaps Beverly?) or one of the European workers than by either Thomas Jefferson or brother Randolph (who died in 1815 when Eston was about seven years old). It is also possible that neither Madison nor Eston took up the violin until they were freed and lived in Charlottesville; we simply do not know.
82. LUCIA STANTON, FREE SOME DAY: THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES OF MONTICELLO 13, 101 (2000).
83. GORDON-REED, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS 221.
84. See Chapter Four.
85. BRODIE, THOMAS JEFFERSON 435.
86. Monticello Report at 7.
87. GORDON-REED, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS 211, 220.
88. See Chapter Four.
89. GORDON-REED, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS 291.
90. Id. at 293.
91. GORDON-REED, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS 177–79 (1997). As discussed in Chapter Two, in his 1799 letter to John Wayles Eppes, Jefferson did not refer to Sally by name, and there is considerable reason to question whether “Maria’s maid” at that time was Sally Hemings. See discussion on pages 91–93.
92. WILLIAM HOWARD ADAMS, THE PARIS YEARS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 108 (1997).
93. FAWN BRODIE, THOMAS JEFFERSON 459 (emphasis added).
94. BRODIE, 239.
95. Id. at 233.
96. STANTON, FREE SOME DAY 109.
97. I am not suggesting that Thomas Woodson was not conceived in Paris by Sally Hemings. That may or may not be true. What has been proven is that his father was someone other than Thomas Jefferson. For the purposes of this inquiry, that is the only issue of relevance.
98. BRODIE 249.
99. See, e.g., 1 JEFFERSON’S MEMORANDUM BOOKS 400, 424, 446–47, 494, 498, 506, 510, 512, 529–30, 537, 542, 545–56, 548.
100. BRODIE 249.
101. STANTON, FREE SOME DAY 106.
102. See, e.g., Jefferson to George Buchanan, Aug. 30, 1793, 26 PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 788 (John Catanzariti, ed. 1995); Jefferson to Edward Coles, Aug. 25, 1814, 11 WORKS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 416 (Fed. ed. 1905); and Jefferson to William Short, Jan. 18, 1826, 12 id. 434. THOMAS JEFFERSON, NOTES ON VIRGINIA, Query XIV, in 2 WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 201 (Mem. ed. 1903.)
103. THOMAS JEFFERSON, NOTES ON VIRGINIA, Query XVIII, in 2 WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 225–26. (“The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. …If a parent could find no motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present.”)
104. Jefferson to Edward Coles, Aug. 25, 1814, 11 WORKS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 416.
105. See Chapter Four.
106. BRODIE 235.
107. The acts of diplomats are viewed as the acts of another sovereign state, and as such are generally immune from the host state’s municipal laws and the jurisdiction of its courts.
10
Revisionist Arguments Reconsidered: Evidence Too Quickly Dismissed?
* * *
Having in the previous chapters addressed the major affirmative arguments supporting Thomas Jefferson’s paternity of one or more children by Sally Hemings, it is now useful to reexamine some of the evidence in Jefferson’s defense that was acknowledged, but then largely dismissed, by revisionist1 historians and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Research Committee in reaching their conclusion that Jefferson likely fathered Sally’s children.
The Testimony of Edmund Bacon
Consider, for example, the testimony of former Monticello overseer Edmund Bacon, recounted in a manuscript2 by the Reverend Hamilton W. Pierson and first published in book form in 1862. It was conveniently republished by the University Press of Virginia in 1967 as part of James A. Bear, Jr.’s, Jefferson at Monticello.
It is undisputed that Edmund Bacon served as Monticello overseer from September 29, 1806, until around October 1822.3 It is clear that he was present at Monticello before assuming that position,4 and Bacon asserted: “I went to live with him the 27th of the December before he was inaugurated as President; and if I had remained with him from the 8th of October to the 27th of December, the year that I left him, I should have been with him precisely twenty years.”5
What little we know about Bacon’s character is positive. Jefferson described him as “an honest, correct man in his conduct, and worthy of confidence in his engagements,”6 and Reverend Pierson added: “Captain Bacon has now resided in Kentucky about forty years, and his neighbors, who have known him during all that time, would vouch as strongly for his character as Mr. Jefferson and his son-in-law, Governor Randolph, have done. He is a man of wealth and character.”7
There is no reason to assume that Bacon misrepresented the length of his stay at Monticello, but his statement is nevertheless difficult to reconcile with the known facts. He seems to be asserting that he went to live at Monticello in late 1802, but Jefferson’s two inaugurations were in March 1801 and 1805. It is not necessary to reconcile these details, but it is possible that Bacon lived at Monticello before formally assuming the position as overseer—a fact that could be significant in understanding his testimony.
During his conversations with Reverend Pierson, Bacon spoke highly of several members of the Hemings family. For example, he stated:
Mr. Jefferson had a large number of favorite servants that were treated just as well as could be. Burwell was the main, principal servant on the place. …Mr. Jefferson had the most perfect confidence in him. …Mr. Jefferson gave him his freedom in his will, and it was right that he should do it.8
Similarly, carpenter John Hemings was described as a “first-rate workman”9; Joe Fossett was “a very fine workman …[who] could do anything it was necessary to do with steel or iron”10; and “Burwell was a fine painter.”11 In contrast, he offered no praise for Sally Hemings, noting only that she “went to France with Maria Jefferson when she was a little girl. …They crossed the ocean alone. I have often heard her tell of it.”12
But Edmund Bacon’s most important comment of relevance to the present inquiry appears to concern Sally’s daughter Harriet:
Mr. Jefferson freed a number of his servants in his will. I think he would have freed all of them if his affairs had not been so much involved that he could not do it. He freed one girl some years before he died, and there was a great deal of talk about it. She was nearly as white as anybody and very beautiful. People said he freed her because she was his own daughter. She was not his daughter; she was _______’s daughter. I know that. I have seen him come out of her mother’s room many a morning when I went up to Monticello very early. When she was nearly grown, by Mr. Jefferson’s direction I paid her stage fare to Philadelphia and gave her fifty dollars. I have never seen her since and don’t know what became of her.13
This may be the most valuable single piece of evidence about the paternity of Sally Hemings’ children. Bacon is a mature observer of established good character, who was clearly in a position to observe what was happening at Monticello for nearly two decades. He was testifying to facts he personally observed time and again, unlike virtually all of the sources being relied upon by the revisionists: a disreputable journalist who had never even been to Monticello reporting neighborhood gossip as part of a personal vendetta and effort to blackmail Jefferson into giving him a public job, Federalist politicians who admitted to having no first-hand knowledge of the facts, a New England schoolteacher who shared a stagecoach with one of Jefferson’s bitter enemies and was reporting gossip from other Charlottesville critics with no apparent first-hand knowledge, and the unsourced allegations attributed to Madison Hemings and Israel Jefferson about matters which occurred years before they were born.
I
ndeed, one of the most troubling aspects of the January 2000 Monticello Report was its almost total dismissal of this important source. A photocopy of the excerpt is attached to the report in Appendix E,14 and there are two other brief references to it. In the report itself, Bacon is dismissed with this language:
1862. The published account of former overseer Edmund Bacon—indicating but not naming another man as the father of Sally Hemings’s daughter Harriet (born 1801)—has problems of chronology: Bacon was not employed at Monticello until five years after Harriet Hemings’s birth.15
In Appendix F, we find this further reference in the Monticello Report:
VIEWS OF OTHER MONTICELLO RESIDENTS:
Edmund Bacon, Monticello overseer from 1806 to 1822, stated that Jefferson was not the father of Sally Hemings’s children.
Bacon told Hamilton Pierson in 1862 that “people said” Jefferson freed Sally Hemings’s daughter Harriet “because she was his own daughter. She was not his daughter; she was _______’s daughter. I know that. I have seen him come out of her mother’s room many a morning when I went up to Monticello very early.” Pierson presumably deleted the name of the father for publication; the original manuscript has not been located. Harriet Hemings was born in 1801, five years before Bacon’s arrival at Monticello (1862 Bacon recollections, p. 102).16
This superficial treatment of the only eyewitness account of Sally Hemings’ apparent sexual behavior makes no sense at all if one is engaged in a serious search for the truth. It is akin to a police investigator finding an otherwise credible witness who can place the accused at the scene of the crime a week before it was committed. But then the officer discovers that his witness erred, and, instead of witnessing the accused perhaps “casing the joint” a week early, his observation actually occurred on the night of the crime. So the officer makes a small notation about the witness having “problems of chronology” and refuses to consider the testimony further.
The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy Page 36