Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

by Jon Meacham

  CITING THE “DISASTER” PTJ, III, 564.

  BENEDICT ARNOLD, THE AMERICAN GENERAL Boyer and Dobofsky, Oxford Companion to United States History, 50. See also MB, I, 504–5. Jefferson’s anger at Arnold was intense and personal. “You will readily suppose that it is above all things desirable to drag him from those under whose wing he is now sheltered,” Jefferson wrote General Peter Muhlenberg on January 31, 1781.

  Jefferson wanted Arnold dead. “I shall be sorry to suppose that any circumstances may put it out of their power to bring him off alive after they shall have taken him and of course oblige them to put him to death,” Jefferson wrote in lines he deleted from the final version of the letter to Muhlenberg. “Should this happen … I must give my approbation to their putting him to death.” (PTJ, IV, 487.)

  WORD OF THE BRITISH ATTACK Michael Kranish, Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War (New York, 2010), 166.

  A SERIES OF INVASION RUMORS Hoffman and Albert, Sovereign States, 214–15.

  CREATED “DISGUST” WHEN THE MILITIAMEN Ibid.

  HE DECLINED TO CALL OUT Kranish, Flight from Monticello, 166–67.

  A MESSENGER FOUND HIM Ibid., 166.

  JEFFERSON HAD ISSUED Ibid., 174–75.

  ROBERT HEMINGS AND JAMES HEMINGS Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 6.

  PROPERTY JEFFERSON OWNED ON FINE CREEK Ibid., 124.

  AT ABOUT ONE O’CLOCK Kranish, Flight from Monticello, 191.

  TOOK OFF THE TOP OF A BUTCHER’S HOUSE Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 7.

  “IN TEN MINUTES” Ibid., 7–8.

  “THE BRITISH WAS DRESSED IN RED” Ibid., 8.

  SPENT THE HOURS OF THE INVASION Kranish, Flight from Monticello, 190.

  BROUGHT ALONG HANDCUFFS Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 9.

  A BRITISH OFFICER ASKED Ibid., 8.

  HIS FATHER HAD “PUT ALL THE SILVER” Ibid.

  “LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE” Ibid., 9.

  “MEN OF ENTERPRISE” PTJ, IV, 487. See also JHT, I, 340–41.

  UNHAPPY AND SKEPTICAL McDonnell, Politics of War, 399–477, is a brilliant account of the actual politics of the hour in Virginia. Militiamen disliked being too long away from home (ibid., 404–5), were uncomfortable serving under Continental officers (ibid., 405–10), and resisted draft orders from the Continental army (ibid., 411–19). “By this point, many Virginians were reluctant to aid the patriot cause in any way,” wrote McDonnell. “Many were tired of giving supplies—through both impressments and taxes—and getting little back.” (Ibid., 442.)

  “MILD LAWS, A PEOPLE” PTJ, V, 113.

  RISKING THE WRATH OF THE PEOPLE McDonnell, Politics of War, 452.

  THIRTEEN · REDCOATS AT MONTICELLO

  “SUCH TERROR AND CONFUSION” JHT, I, 358–59.

  RETREATED FROM RICHMOND McDonnell, Politics of War, 462–63.

  THE DEATH OF YET ANOTHER CHILD MB, I, 508.

  JEFFERSON CHOSE TO STAY Scharff, Women Jefferson Loved, 139.

  THERE WERE RIOTS OVER A DRAFT McDonnell, Politics of War, 453–61.

  REDUCED TO ASKING GEORGE WASHINGTON PTJ, VI, 32–33.

  HIS “LONG DECLARED” Ibid., 33.

  “THE LABORS OF” Ibid.

  HE SPENT SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1781 Ibid., 78.

  ELECT THOMAS NELSON, JR. Hayes, Road to Monticello, 231.

  FOR A “UNION OF” Ibid.

  CORNWALLIS HAD ORDERED TARLETON Ibid.

  RIDING FAST, THE BRITISH DRAGOONS Virginius Dabney, “Jouett Outrides Tarleton, and Saves Jefferson from Capture,” Scribner’s Magazine, June 1928, 690.

  IT WAS LATE Ibid., 691.

  A GIANT OF A VIRGINIA MILITIAMAN Ibid.

  “THE BEST AND FLEETEST OF FOOT” Ibid.

  CRASHED THROUGH THE WILDERNESS Ibid.

  HIS FACE WAS “CRUELLY LASHED” Ibid., 691–92.

  BROKE THEIR MARCH AT A PLANTATION Ibid., 692.

  FOR ABOUT THREE HOURS Ibid.

  TO SET FIRE TO A WAGON TRAIN Ibid. “Tarleton says in his account of the expedition that he burned the wagons with their contents, instead of taking them with him, in order that no time might be lost,” wrote Dabney. “He adds: ‘Soon after daybreak some of the principal gentlemen of Virginia who had fled to the borders of the mountains for security, were taken out of their beds.… In the neighborhood of Doctor [Thomas] Walker’s a member of the Continental Congress was made prisoner, and the British light troops, after a halt of half an hour to refresh the horses, moved on toward Charlottesville.’ ” (Ibid.)

  JOUETT ARRIVED AT MONTICELLO Ibid. “The raiders were still many miles away,” wrote Dabney. “Jack gave the alarm to the governor.… He then spurred his all-but-exhausted mount to Charlottesville, two miles farther on, and warned the legislature. He had beaten the British by about three hours. Paul Revere’s fifteen-mile jaunt over fairly good roads in the moonlight seems almost nothing by comparison.” (Ibid.)

  COOLLY, JEFFERSON ORDERED BREAKFAST Ibid.

  PATTY AND THE TWO CHILDREN Kranish, Flight from Monticello, 279.

  HIDING SILVER IN ANTICIPATION Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 8. See also Kranish, Flight from Monticello, 284.

  “IN PREPARING FOR FLIGHT” PTJ, VI, 84.

  TO A NEIGHBORING PEAK Dabney, “Jouett Outrides Tarleton,” 693.

  TOOK HIS SPYGLASS Ibid.

  LOOKING OUT AT CHARLOTTESVILLE Ibid.

  HE TURNED TO GO Ibid.

  HIS SWORD CANE Ibid.

  AS HE RETRIEVED IT, HIS CURIOSITY Ibid.

  HE SAW THE BRITISH Ibid.

  MOUNTED HIS BEST HORSE Kranish, Flight from Monticello, 283.

  THE REDCOATS ARRIVED Ibid., 284.

  ONE COCKED A PISTOL Ibid.

  “FIRE AWAY, THEN” Ibid.

  DRANK SOME OF JEFFERSON’S WINE Ibid.

  LEGEND HAS IT Hayes, Road to Monticello, 284.

  ESPECIALLY ELK HILL MB, I, 515–16. See also PTJ, VI, 224–25.

  TWENTY-THREE OF JEFFERSON’S SLAVES I am grateful to Lucia Stanton for these figures. See also Stanton, “Those Who Labor for My Happiness,” 132–33.

  RIDING AWAY FROM MONTICELLO Ibid., 510.

  AT POPLAR FOREST Joan L. Horn, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest: A Private Place (Forest, Va., 2002), 22.

  EXPRESSED ITS GRATITUDE Dabney, “Jouett Outrides Tarleton,” 694–95. “What would have been the fate of Jefferson, Henry, Lee, Harrison, and Nelson had they been taken captive by Tarleton?” wrote Dabney. “Some are of the opinion that Jefferson, at least, would have been tried in England as a traitor and hanged, but it is quite unlikely that such severe punishment would have been meted out to him. It is probably safe to assume, however, that these leaders in the revolutionary movement would have been treated as harshly as any civilian Americans who could have fallen into British hands. If the career of Jefferson alone had been cut short or substantially altered at this period of his life, the history of the United States would have been vastly changed. It is conceivable that, if he had been made prisoner, this country would have been deprived for all time of the services of the American who did most to burst the fetters which bound the souls of men 150 years ago, and to fix the principles upon which democracy in the Republic rests today. Nor should we forget that the capture of the author of the Declaration of Independence, three of its signers, and Patrick Henry would have been a severe blow to the struggling colonials.” (Ibid., 697.)

  IT ALSO PASSED A RESOLUTION PTJ, VI, 88–90.

  “RESOLVED, THAT AT THE NEXT SESSION” Ibid., 88.

  “COULD NOT BE INTENDED” Ibid., 105.

  TIME HAD COME FOR A “DICTATOR” McDonnell, Politics of War, 465.

  NEEDED TO BE “ARMED” Ibid.

  THE MOTION FAILED Ibid.

  ACCOUNTS OF JEFFERSON’S TERR
IBLE TIME For a sympathetic view, see Evans, “Executive Leadership in Virginia,” 215–16. “In evaluating Thomas Jefferson’s governorship, historians have more often than not focused on his last five months in office and especially on the few days in late December and early January 1781,” wrote Evans.

  The result is that, in the popular mind, he is considered not to have been a very good chief executive. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is true, of course, that the governor did not respond as quickly as he should have on December 31 to the news that a “fleet of 27 sail” had been sighted at the mouth of the James River.… Invasion scares and raids during the past several years had made both the public and its leaders less alert than they should have been. But the demands on the state were now tremendous, and the governor did not want to take any action that would strain its resources unnecessarily.… Under the circumstances the conclusion must be that he did remarkably well. (Ibid., 215–18.)

  THE HOUSE INQUIRY WAS SHORT-LIVED McDonnell, Politics of War, 465. Jefferson believed Patrick Henry, an emerging political rival, was the motivating force behind the censure. “The trifling body who moved this matter was below contempt; he was more an object of pity,” Jefferson said of George Nicholas. “His natural ill-temper was the tool worked by another hand. He was like the minnows which go in and out of the fundament of the whale. But the whale himself was discoverable enough by the turbulence of the water under which he moved.” (PTJ, VI, 143.)

  “NO FOUNDATION” Ibid.

  “TAKEN MY FINAL LEAVE” Ibid., 118.

  “A DESIRE TO LEAVE PUBLIC OFFICE” Ibid.

  THE AMERICANS TRIUMPHED AT YORKTOWN At Yorktown on October 17, 1781, a European soldier fighting with Cornwallis described the siege. “At daybreak the enemy bombardment resumed, more terribly strong than ever before,” he wrote. “They fired from all positions without let-up.… There was nothing to be seen but bombs and cannonballs raining down on our entire line.” (Black, Crisis of Empire, 166.)

  “THERE WAS TREMENDOUS FIRING” Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 10–11.

  “LET ME DESCRIBE TO YOU” TDLTJ, 58–60.

  “STOOD ARRAIGNED” PTJ, VI, 185. In May 1782, Patty Jefferson gave birth to another daughter, also Lucy Elizabeth. As a result of the birth Mrs. Jefferson was quite ill. Two days before the birth of the daughter, Jefferson had informed the Speaker of the House of Delegates, John Tyler, that he declined his recent election to the House of Delegates. (See JHT, I, 393–97; PTJ, VI, 179–87; and Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson, 347.)

  Speaker Tyler responded with a possible threat that Jefferson might be arrested and forced to attend. James Monroe also sent a letter to Jefferson on May 11, 1782, urging him to attend. According to the historian Dumas Malone’s account, Jefferson wrote Monroe what Julian P. Boyd called a long “embittered” letter of May 20 spelling out in “extreme anxiety” why he would not attend. (See JHT, I, 394–97; and PTJ, VI, 184–87.)

  In a footnote to this letter, the editor of the Monroe papers wrote: “Jefferson, still smarting from the criticism of his conduct as governor and gravely concerned about the dangerous state of his wife’s health, declined to serve in the House of Delegates, following his election as a delegate. He used this response to JM’s letter of 11 May as a means of communicating to the House the justification for his decision not to serve.” There is no indication that they actually arrested or seized Jefferson to compel his attendance. There was only the threat. Patty Jefferson, of course, died four months later on September 6, 1782. (The Papers of James Monroe, II, ed. Daniel Preston and Marlena C. Delong [Westport, Conn., 2003–], 36.)

  “MRS. JEFFERSON HAS ADDED” Ibid., 186.

  FOURTEEN · TO BURN ON THROUGH DEATH

  “MRS. JEFFERSON HAS AT LAST” Scharff, Women Jefferson Loved, 151.

  MAY HAVE SUFFERED FROM TUBERCULOSIS MB, I, 521. See also Gordon Jones and James A. Bear, “Thomas Jefferson: A Medical History,” unpublished manuscript, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Charlottesville, Va.

  JEFFERSON “WAS NEVER OUT OF CALLING” TDLTJ, 63.

  HELPING HER TAKE MEDICINES Ibid.

  EITHER AT HER BED Ibid.

  CRAVED JEFFERSON’S COMPANY Randall, Jefferson, I, 380.

  SOME LINES FROM STERNE PTJ, VI, 196–97.

  “I HAVE BEEN MUCH” Scharff, Women Jefferson Loved, 148.

  “THE HOUSE SERVANTS” Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 99.

  “HAVE OFTEN TOLD MY WIFE” Ibid.

  “WHEN SHE CAME TO THE CHILDREN” Ibid., 99–100.

  HE GAVE HIS PROMISE Ibid., 100.

  TO HELP THE GRIEVING HUSBAND TDLTJ, 63.

  “THE SCENE THAT FOLLOWED” Ibid.

  A PALLET TO LIE ON Ibid.

  “HE KEPT HIS ROOM” Ibid.

  “WHEN AT LAST” Ibid.

  “I HAD HAD SOME THOUGHTS” PTJ, VI, 197.

  RUMOR HAD JEFFERSON Ibid., 199.

  “I EVER THOUGHT HIM” Scharff, Women Jefferson Loved, 151.

  HIS EPITAPH FOR PATTY Randall, Jefferson, I, 383.

  THE POSSIBILITY OF SUICIDE PTJ, VI, 198–99.

  HE KNEW HIS DUTY Ibid. “The care and instruction of our children indeed affords some temporary abstractions from wretchedness and nourishes a soothing reflection that if there be beyond the grave any concern for the things of this world there is one angel at least who views these attentions with pleasure and wishes continuance of them while she must pity the miseries to which they confine me,” Jefferson wrote. (Ibid.)

  HE WAS A LONG WAY Ibid., 198. He neglected Elk Hill, saying that he was “finding myself absolutely unable to attend to anything like business.” (Ibid.)

  FIFTEEN · RETURN TO THE ARENA

  “I KNOW NO DANGER SO DREADFUL” PTJ, VI, 248.

  “THE STATES WILL GO TO WAR” Ibid.

  MUSING ON THE PERILS OF FAME Ibid., 204–5.

  “IF YOU MEANT” Ibid., 205.

  ASKED HIM TO SERVE Ibid., 202. According to James Madison, “the act took place in consequence of its being suggested that the death of Mrs. J had probably changed the sentiments of Mr. J with regard to public life, and that all the reasons which led to his original appointment still existed.” (Ibid.) See also ibid., 210–15.

  “I HAD TWO MONTHS BEFORE” Ibid., 210.

  VISITING AMPTHILL, THE CARY PLANTATION Ibid., 206–7.

  “PURSUE THE OBJECT OF MY MISSION” Ibid., 206.

  “I SHALL LOSE NO MOMENT” Ibid.

  “A LITTLE EMERGING” Ibid., 203.

  PUBLISHED A NOTICE IN THE VIRGINIA GAZETTE Ibid., 210.

  HE AND PATSY EXPECTED TO SAIL Ibid., 211.

  TOOK ROOMS AT MARY HOUSE’S MB, I, 527.

  CHARMING POLITICAL COMPANY Ibid.

  ELIZA HOUSE TRIST PTJ, VI, 375. “Your character was great in my estimation long before I had the pleasure of your acquaintance personally, for I always understood your country was greatly benefited by your counsels; and I value you now because I know you are good,” she wrote him in late 1783. (Ibid.)

  MADISON’S WOOING OF FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD Ibid., 262–64. See also Gordon-Reed, Hemingses of Monticello, 309–12. Gordon-Reed made an illuminating point about the marriageable ages of women in these years, noting that men of Jefferson and Madison’s generation often pursued teenaged girls. Hence Jefferson and Sally Hemings and Madison and Kitty Floyd. There are other examples: John Marshall was twenty-five when he set out to win Polly Ambler—who was fourteen at the time. (Ibid., 311.) Thomas Mann Randolph, Sr., was to marry a seventeen-year-old when he was fifty. (Ibid.) “Much as it may assault present-day sensibilities, fifteen- and sixteen-year-old girls were in Hemings’s time thought eligible to become seriously involved with men, even men who were substantially older,” wrote Gordon-Reed. (Ibid., 309.)

  TOOK DETAILED NOTES Ibid., 212–13.


  “HAD I JOINED YOU” Ibid., 217.

  “MY INDIVIDUAL TRIBUTE” Ibid., 222. Jefferson understood, he wrote to Washington, “you must receive much better intelligence from the gentlemen whose residence there has brought them into a more intimate acquaintance with the characters and views of the European courts, yet I shall certainly presume to add my mite.” (Ibid., 222–23.)

  JEFFERSON RETURNED TO VIRGINIA Ibid., 259–61. His mission suspended, he left Philadelphia for Virginia on April 12. Madison kept him apprised of romantic and political developments. “Before you left us,” Madison wrote of Kitty Floyd, “I had sufficiently ascertained her sentiments. Since your departure the affair has been pursued.” (Ibid., 262.) On his way home Jefferson stopped in Richmond. For two weeks he reacquainted himself with the minutiae of Virginia, “associating and conversing with as many” legislators as he could. It was his first sustained period of time among these men since the end of the gubernatorial crisis, and Jefferson seems to have hurled himself back into the action with enthusiasm. He wrote Madison with his impressions of possible candidates for the Congress—and of his sense of how the state’s leadership viewed the fundamental question of national power. Jefferson confided this political intelligence in a letter written from Tuckahoe on the morning of Wednesday, May 7, 1783. (Ibid., 265–67.)

  “SHOULD THE CALL BE MADE” Ibid., 267.

  “MR. JEFFERSON WAS PLACED” Ibid.

  THE CONGRESS TO WHICH JEFFERSON WAS ELECTED Boyer and Dubofsky, Oxford Companion to United States History, 51, summarizes the powers of the Confederation Congress (and the lack thereof).

  TO DEVISE A “VISIBLE HEAD” PTJ, VI, 516–29.

  “THIS WAS THEN IMPUTED” Randall, Jefferson, I, 394–95.