by Jon Meacham
“THAT NOT A WORD SHOULD BE SPOKEN” PTJ, XXXI, 64.
THE FEDERALISTS “BEGAN TO ENTER” Ibid.
“IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO PROCEED” Ibid.
WAS GOING TO RAISE A “PRESIDENTIAL ARMY” Ibid., 97.
JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE Ibid., 305–6, 314.
THE NEXT EVENING TWO MARINES Ibid., 314.
“JOSTLED AND [HAD] HIS COAT PULLED” Ibid. Characteristically, Randolph refused to drop the matter, petitioning President Adams to dismiss the marines “to afford a remedy, and to restrain men … from giving personal abuse and insult.” Nothing came of the petition. (Ibid., 306–7)
A “REIGN OF WITCHES” Ibid., XXX, 389.
REPORTED THAT HAMILTON HAD LED Ibid., XXXI, 337–38.
“NO MORTAL CAN FORESEE” Ibid., 465.
“WILL NEVER PERMIT” APE, I, 68.
“GOD—AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT” Ferling, Adams vs. Jefferson, 154.
“BECAUSE HE IS NOT A FANATIC” APE, I, 68.
HAD “HARANGUED” A GRAND JURY PTJ, XXXI, 589. The familiar Federalist claim that Jefferson was a nonbeliever was on Chase’s mind in part because of a dinner Jefferson had planned to give on a Sunday. (Ibid.)
JAMES THOMSON CALLENDER, A VIRULENT REPUBLICAN Ibid., 589–90.
THE PROSPECT BEFORE US For discussions of the book, see Ferling, Adams vs. Jefferson, 136–37.
“THE REIGN OF MR. ADAMS” James Morton Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, 339.
“CANNOT FAIL TO PRODUCE” APE, I, 63.
ABIGAIL AND JOHN ADAMS SEETHED Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 273.
GEORGE WASHINGTON DIED JHT, III, 442.
JEFFERSON HAD BEEN LESS THAN HONEST Willard Sterne Randall, George Washington: A Life (New York, 1997), 480–81.
“PERHAPS NO MAN IN THIS COMMUNITY” JHT, III, 443.
FRENEAU WROTE SOME VERSES Ibid.
“THE HORRORS WHICH” PTJ, XXXI, 524.
“THE BATTERIES OF SLANDER” Ibid., 526.
“OUR OPPONENTS PERCEIVE” Ibid., 536.
“MADNESS AND EXTRAVAGANCE” Ibid., 546–47.
“THE PEOPLE THROUGH ALL THE STATES” Ibid., 547.
ADAMS MADE SOME CABINET CHANGES Ibid., 581. See also McCullough, John Adams, 537–39.
ADAMS ALSO DISBANDED Ibid.
“ARE, ON THE APPROACH OF AN ELECTION” Ibid.
PUBLISHED RUMORS THAT JEFFERSON HAD DIED Ibid., XXXII, 42.
“I THOUGHT I HAD LOST” Ibid.
A SMALL GATHERING Ibid., 58–59.
JEFFERSON DENIED IT ALL Ibid., 98–99.
JEFFERSON HAD TO COUNT Ibid., 97. One sign of the tensions of the moment: Jefferson, who did not know McGregory, sent the reply through another Connecticut friend, noting that “the stratagems of the times [are] very multifarious” and he wanted to be sure that no “improper use” would be made of the letter. No one was to be trusted. (Ibid.)
A SLAVE NAMED GABRIEL Ibid., 131–32. For Monroe on the revolt, see ibid., 144–45. See also EOL, 534–42; Miller, Wolf by the Ears, 126–29; and Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, 342–43. James Sidbury, Ploughshares into Swords: Race, Rebellion, and Identity in Gabriel’s Virginia, 1730–1810 (New York, 1997), is also illuminating.
HANGING TWENTY-SIX CONSPIRATORS Ibid., 145. Once reassured the rebellion had been broken up, Jefferson took a moderate tone. “There is a strong sentiment that there has been hanging enough,” he wrote to James Monroe, then governor. “The other states and the world at large will forever condemn us if we indulge in a principle of revenge, or go one step beyond absolute necessity.” (Ibid., 160.)
“THEIR PLAN WAS TO MASSACRE” Ibid., 137.
A PANIC PTJ, XXXVII, 335–36. Gabriel’s conspiracy was in 1800; the subsequent episodes during what John C. Miller called the “Great Fear” (Miller, Wolf by the Ears, 127) included one in Norfolk in 1802. (PTJ, XXXVII, 335–36.)
Jefferson linked St. Domingue to the American situation. “The course of things in the neighboring islands of the West Indies appears to have given a considerable impulse to the minds of the slaves in different parts of the U.S.,” Jefferson wrote Rufus King on July 13, 1802.
A great disposition to insurgency has manifested itself among them, which, in one instance, in the state of Virginia broke out into actual insurrection. This was easily suppressed: but many of those concerned, (between 20. and 30. I believe) fell victims to the law. So extensive an execution could not but excite sensibility in the public mind, and beget a regret that the laws had not provided, for such cases, some alternative, combining more mildness with equal efficacy. The legislature of the state, at a subsequent meeting, took the subject into consideration, and have communicated to me through the Governor of the state, their wish that some place could be provided, out of the limits of the U.S. to which slaves guilty of insurgency might be transported; and they have particularly looked to Africa as offering the most desirable receptacle. we might, for this purpose, enter into negotiations with the natives, on some part of the coast, to obtain a settlement, and, by establishing an African company, combine with it commercial operations, which might not only reimburse expenses but procure profit also. (PTJ, XXXVIII, 54.)
THE STATE’S HOUSE OF DELEGATES ASKED JEFFERSON Ibid., XXXVIII, 56.
A FOREIGN LAND Ibid.
AN APPROACH WAS MADE Miller, Wolf by the Ears, 128. Jefferson had suggested Sierra Leone to Monroe. (PTJ, XXXVIII, 56.)
WHERE ABOLITIONISTS HAD RESETTLED SOME AFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVES Simon Schama, Rough Crossings (New York, 2006), 11. The slaves who settled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, had joined the British during the Revolutionary War and had briefly lived in Nova Scotia before making the journey to Sierra Leone. (Ibid., 3–5, 269–81.)
DECLINED TO TAKE ANY OTHERS Miller, Wolf by the Ears, 132.
HAMILTON WAS UNHAPPY APE, I, 60–61.
NEW YORK ELECTION RESULTS PTJ, XXXI, 509.
LEGISLATURES CHOSE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS APE, I, 61.
“A MOST AUSPICIOUS GLOOM” PTJ, XXXI, 554.
APPEALED TO JOHN JAY APE, I, 61. See also Walter Stahr, John Jay: Founding Father (New York, 2005), 360–61.
“IN TIMES LIKE THIS” Ibid.
“PROPOSING A MEASURE” Ibid.
JEFFERSON MET WITH ADAMS PTJRS, III, 306.
TALK OF FIELDING PTJ, XXXI, 509. See also APE, I, 61–62.
ANTI-ADAMS FEDERALISTS SUCH AS HAMILTON APE, I, 61.
“TO SUPPORT ADAMS and PINCKNEY” Ibid.
“HOCUS-POCUS MANEUVERS” PTJ, XXXI, 561.
AN ATTACK ON THE SECOND PRESIDENT Ibid., XXXII, 238–39.
“OUR ENEMIES ARE” Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III, ed. Charles R. King (New York, 1971), 331.
“IF WE MUST HAVE” Ferling, Adams vs. Jefferson, 141. Troup, Hamilton’s old college roommate, echoed the point to Rufus King on December 4, 1800: “General Hamilton makes no secret of his opinion that Jefferson should be preferred to Adams.” (Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III, 340.)
“I HAVE SOMETIMES ASKED MYSELF” PTJ, XXXII, 122.
RESULTS FROM THE STATES REACHED MONTICELLO See, for instance, ibid., 225–26, in which Stevens Thomson Mason reported the Maryland tallies. See also ibid., 263. Jefferson was relieved at the results of the different state elections. “Whatever may be the event of the Executive election, the Legislative one will give us a majority in the H. of R. and all but that in the Senate,” he wrote. “The former alone will keep the government from running wild, while a reformation in our state legislatures will be working and preparing a complete one in the Senate. A President can then do little mischief.” (Ibid., 227.)
“DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES SEEM” Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III, 353.
“I HAVE NEVER HEARD” APE, I, 128.
“I BELIEVE WE
MAY CONSIDER” PTJ, XXXII, 300.
“TEMPESTS AND TORNADOES” Caesar A. Rodney to Joseph H. Nicholson, February 19, 1801, Joseph H. Nicholson Papers, LOC.
“HIGHFLYING FEDERALISTS” PTJ, XXXII, 306–7.
“HAS PRODUCED GREAT DISMAY” Ibid., 322.
“SOME OF THE JACOBINS” Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III, 354.
“OUR TORIES BEGIN TO GIVE” John Randolph to Joseph Nicholson, December 16, 1800, Joseph H. Nicholson Papers, LOC.
“I DO NOT … APPREHEND” PTJ, XXXII, 343.
SHOWED NO OUTWARD SIGNS Isenberg, Fallen Founder, 210–12.
THERE IS NO EVIDENCE Ibid, 216–20. Joanne Freeman points out, however, something that clearly bothered the Jeffersonians. “In the end, Burr kept his word [about not working against Jefferson in the House] but left things open; he didn’t court the Presidency, but once the tie was announced, he said nothing about declining the office if offered, an ambiguity that kept Federalist hopes alive until the final hour.” (Freeman, “The Presidential Election of 1800,” in Cogliano, ed., A Companion to Thomas Jefferson, 155.)
JEFFERSON SOON CAME TO BELIEVE Ibid., 230–31.
THE EVENTUAL OUTCOME PTJ, XXXII, 347.
“THE PRESIDENT, I AM TOLD” Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III, 366–67.
“THE DREAD NOW” J. Preston to John Breckenridge, December 28, 1800, Breckinridge Family Papers, LOC.
“THE FEDS APPEAR” PTJ, XXXII, 358.
THEY CAME TO JEFFERSON Ibid., 367.
“WHERE,” MCHENRY ASKED Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III, 362.
THIRTY-ONE · A DESPERATE STATE OF AFFAIRS
“RUMORS ARE VARIOUS” Horn, Lewis, and Onuf, Revolution of 1800, 65.
“IT IS EXTREMELY UNCERTAIN” The Papers of John Marshall, VI, ed. Herbert A. Johnson and others (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1974–), 41.
SIX OR SEVEN BOARDINGHOUSES Records of the Columbia Historical Society., Vol. 25, 1923, 198–99.
A PHILADELPHIA BOOT MAKER National Intelligencer, February 6. 1801.
A BOOKSTORE Ibid., February 16, 1801.
BENJAMIN W. MORRIS AND CO. GROCERIES Washington Federalist, February 17, 1801.
WILD, WOODED, AND FILLED WITH GAME Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 10. “Conrad’s boarding house was on the south side of Capitol Hill and commanded an extensive and beautiful view,” Margaret Bayard Smith wrote. “It was on the top of the hill, the precipitous sides of which were covered with grass, shrubs, and trees in their wild uncultivated state.” (Ibid.) There was only one church in the city. “At this time the only place for public worship in our new city was a small, a very small frame building at the bottom of Capitol Hill. It had been a tobacco-house belonging to Daniel Carroll and was purchased by a few Episcopalians for a mere trifle and fitted up as a church in the plainest and rudest manner. During the first winter, Mr. Jefferson regularly attended service on the Sabbath-day in the humble church.” (Ibid., 13.)
“THE ELECTION” PTJ, XXXII, 385.
BURR “WAS HEARD TO INSINUATE” Ibid., 400.
“SOME OF OUR FRIENDS” Ibid., 399.
“THERE WOULD BE REALLY CAUSE” Dunn, Jefferson’s Second Revolution, 198.
“WHAT WILL BE THE PLANS” Ibid., 204.
“JEFFERSON AS A POLITICIAN” Roger Griswold to Fanny Griswold, January 22, 1801, William Lane Griswold Memorial Collection, Yale University.
ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 1801 Ibid., January 11, 1801.
“OPENS UPON US” PTJ, XXXII, 318.
TOLD BY “HIGH AUTHORITY” Ibid., XXXIV, 21.
“SOME STRANGE REPORTS” Ibid., XXXII, 403.
DEBATING WHETHER TO REMAIN Ibid.
“UNFRIENDLY FOREIGN MINISTERS” Ibid., 425–26.
THE JUDICIARY ACT OF 1801 Kathryn Turner, “Federalist Policy and the Judiciary Act of 1801,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 22 (January 1965): 3–32. See also Miller, Federalist Era, 275. John Marshall described things to Rufus King this way on January 18, 1801: “The Congress are probably about to pass a bill reorganizing our judicial system. The principal feature in the new bill is the separation of the supreme from the circuit courts.” (Papers of John Marshall, VI, 57.)
“THE JUDICIARY BILL HAS BEEN” Stevens Thomson Mason to John Breckinridge, February 12, 1801, Breckinridge Family Papers, LOC.
A “PARASITICAL PLANT” EOL, 420.
HAD “RETIRED INTO THE JUDICIARY” Ibid.
“MIDNIGHT JUDGES” Miller, Federalist Era, 275.
TO NAME JOHN MARSHALL Kathryn Turner, “The Appointment of Chief Justice Marshall,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 17 (April 1960): 143–63.
MET IN JANUARY 1801 Simon, What Kind of Nation, 134.
THOUGH ADAMS HAD SOUGHT TO REENLIST JOHN JAY Ibid.
“WHO SHALL I NOMINATE NOW?” Ibid.
HE TOLD THE PRESIDENT THAT HE HAD NO COUNSEL TO GIVE Ibid.
“I BELIEVE I MUST NOMINATE YOU” Ibid.
MARSHALL RECALLED BEING “PLEASED” Ibid.
CONFIRMED THE PRESIDENT’S NOMINATION Ibid.
“MR. JEFFERSON IS UNDOUBTEDLY” Caesar A. Rodney to Joseph H. Nicholson, February 17, 1801, Joseph H. Nicholson Papers, LOC.
JEFFERSON HIMSELF WAS WORRIED ENOUGH PTJRS, III, 306. The ensuing scene is drawn from this account of Jefferson’s.
“INTEREST, CHARACTER, DUTY” PTJ, XXXII, 432.
“BUT SHOULD IT BE POSSIBLE” Ibid.
“IF BAD MEN WILL DARE” Ibid., 433.
THE PENNSYLVANIA MILITIA WAS TO BE READIED Ibid., XXXIII, 391.
EVEN A FEW FIRES Ibid., XXXII, 435.
“THE BURNING OF THE WAR-OFFICE” Ibid.
“IT SEEMS HEAVEN” Roger Griswold to Fanny Griswold, January 20, 1801, William Lane Griswold Memorial Collection, Yale University.
“I LONG TO BE” PTJ, XXXII, 475.
“THE APPROACH OF THE 11TH FEB.” Ibid., 559.
NOTES JEFFERSON MADE Ibid., 583.
BAYARD SOON SHIFTED TACK Sharp, Deadlocked Election of 1800, 161.
“THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE” Anas, 238–39.
DID JEFFERSON STRIKE A DEAL See, for instance, EOL, 285; JHT, IV, 487–93; Sharp, Deadlocked Election of 1800, 159–62; Joanne B. Freeman, “Corruption and Compromise in the Election of 1800: The Process of Politics on the National Stage” in Horn, Lewis, and Onuf, Revolution of 1800, 87–120; Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 637–38; Wilentz, Rise of American Democracy, 93–94 (“After discussions with two of Jefferson’s supporters—though not with the candidate himself—Bayard was persuaded that Jefferson had made specific concessions about preserving the public credit,” wrote Wilentz.)
“HE STOPPED ME” Anas, 239.
STANDING ON THE STEPS Ibid.
“I TOLD HIM” Ibid.
“IT WAS UNDERSTOOD” Ibid., 239–40.
JEFFERSON HAD SIMILAR EXCHANGES Ibid., 240.
“I DO NOT RECOLLECT” Ibid.
“JEFFERSON IS TO BE PREFERRED” JHT, III, 500.
“IS AS LIKELY” Kaminski, Founders on the Founders, 308.
“MR. JEFFERSON IS A MAN” Ibid., 307–8.
LAWMAKERS SLEPT ON PALLETS Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 23–24.
AN AILING REPRESENTATIVE Ibid., 24.
CARRIED THROUGH THE SNOW Ibid.
HIS WIFE HELPED GUIDE HIS HAND Ibid.
AT ONE P.M. ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1801 PTJ, XXXII, 578. See also Joanne B. Freeman, “A Qualified Revolution: The Presidential Election of 1800,” in Cogliano, ed., A Companion to Thomas Jefferson, 145–63.
“THE CONSPIRATORS” Margaret Bayard Smith, First Forty Years, 25.
“HURRIED TO THEIR LODGINGS” Ibid.
“TO GO WITHOUT A CONSTITUTION”
PTJ, XXXIII, 4.
“IN THE EVENT OF A USURPATION” Ibid., 230.
“WHEN I LOOK BACK” PTJ, XXXIV, 258–59.
IN ALEXANDRIA, THIRTY-TWO ROUNDS WERE FIRED Ibid., XXXIII, 3.
IN RICHMOND, THERE WERE FIREWORKS Ibid., 46.
RANG BELLS FROM BEFORE NOON TO SUNDOWN Ibid., 28.
“OUR PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTY” Noble E. Cunningham, Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operations, 1801–1809 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1963), 6.
“MANY DECLARE YOU AN ATHEIST” PTJ, XXXIV, 39.
“THE STRANGE REVOLUTION” Papers of John Marshall, VI, 82.
“THE COURSE TO BE PURSUED” Ibid.
WOULD “EXCITE THE RESENTMENT” Ibid., 83.
ASKED THE VICE PRESIDENT TO DINNER McCullough, John Adams, 558.
“MR. JEFFERSON DINES WITH US” Ibid.
SHE WAS TO LEAVE WASHINGTON Ibid., 561.
JEFFERSON “MADE ME A VISIT” Ibid., 559.
“I CANNOT REGRET” PTJ, XXXIII, 37.
“AS TO THE FUTURE” Ibid., 32.
“TO YOU, SIR, DOTH” Ibid., 42.
“IF WE SPEND” Ibid., XXXV, 90.
THE “DUTY OF THE CHIEF MAGISTRATE” EOL, 283. Jefferson articulated this particular view after he left office, in 1810.
“I SINCERELY THANK YOU” PTJ, XXXIII, 422.
THIRTY-TWO · THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS BEGINS
“ALL … WILL BEAR IN MIND” PTJ, XXXIII, 149.
“YOU ALWAYS HAD THE PEOPLE” Ibid., 127.
“I KNOW INDEED” Ibid., 465.
“AS THE TWO HOUSES” Ibid., 119.
MARSHALL REPLIED Ibid., 120–21.
HAD MADE PLANS McCullough, John Adams, 565.
LEAVE WASHINGTON ON THE FOUR A.M. Papers of John Marshall, VI, 89.
HE WENT THROUGH NEW YORK, IT WAS SAID Miller, Federalist Era, 276.
“SENSIBLE, MODERATE MEN” McCullough, John Adams, 564. Also see Sharp, Deadlocked Election of 1800, 165–66.