The Road to Monticello

by Hayes, Kevin J. ;

  Reaching New York in late March, Jefferson hoped to find a house on Broadway. Unable to locate anything suitable to his tastes there, he took a small house in Maiden Lane. Knowing he would not be returning to France as ambassador, he slowly realized that he would never see France again. The first week of April he undertook the melancholy task of putting pen to paper to say goodbye to his French friends. To one he explained: “Could I have persuaded myself that public offices were made for private convenience, I should undoubtedly have preferred a continuance in that which placed me nearer to you: but believing on the contrary that a good citizen should take his stand where the public authority marshals him, I have acquiesced. Among the circumstances which reconcile me to my new position, the most powerful is the opportunities it will give me of cementing the friendship between our two nations.”22

  The most memorable phrase from this set of goodbye letters occurs in one to Lafayette. Confronting the violence associated with the French Revolution, Jefferson diminished the bloodshed and waxed philosophic: “So far it seemed that your revolution had got along with a steady pace: meeting indeed occasional difficulties and dangers, but we are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather-bed.”23 These oft-quoted words remain applicable as new democracies face brutal violence as they emerge from political and religious tyranny.

  Diplomacy was not the only task the first secretary of state faced. Within Washington’s administration, there were three executive departments, each headed by a secretary. Alexander Hamilton served as treasury secretary, and Henry Knox served as secretary of war. Attorney General Edmund Randolph rounded out the cabinet. As secretary of state, Jefferson had the most demanding job of all four men. Not only did he oversee foreign affairs, he also oversaw domestic policy. His concern for the new government prompted him to oversee treasury matters in order to keep an eye on Hamilton. Jefferson realized that the course the government took during its first administration would establish the nation’s direction for centuries to come. He took the same care and seriousness in nurturing the new government as he did in raising his daughters.

  Fresh from the French Revolution, he began his duties as secretary of state with much enthusiasm. His experience in France had revitalized his passion for republicanism. Describing his state of mind at this time, he recalled, “I had left France in the first year of her revolution, in the fervor of natural rights, and zeal for reformation. My conscientious devotion to these rights could not be heightened, but it had been aroused and excited by daily exercise.”24

  Given his passionate devotion to the principles of natural law and natural rights, Jefferson was shocked when he started hearing high-ranking members of Washington’s administration questioning the value of a republican form of government and wanting something closer to a monarchy. The ideas John Adams was articulating in print made him seem like a monarchist, too. But Adams’s position as vice president, which largely involved presiding over the Senate, isolated him from decisions made by Washington and his cabinet. Hamilton was emerging as a much more dominant force on the national political scene.

  In a brief character sketch, Jefferson identified Hamilton’s positive traits but also recognized his major shortcoming: “Hamilton was, indeed, a singular character. Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and honorable in all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly valuing virtue in private life, yet so bewitched and perverted by the British example, as to be under thorough conviction that corruption was essential to the government of a nation.”25

  To paraphrase Jefferson’s last remark more objectively: Hamilton was convinced that the best way to further the public interest would be to encourage private self-interests. Often called the father of American capitalism, Hamilton sought to make money rule America. Jefferson accused Hamilton of being a monarchist, but this accusation is imprecise. While appreciating the British system of government and hoping the United States would emulate it, Hamilton was against making the president into a king. What he really wanted was to make money king.

  While disagreeing with Hamilton’s policies, Jefferson held little personal animosity toward him when they first began serving together in Washington’s cabinet. He tried working with Hamilton as much as possible. Upon his arrival, Jefferson found himself thick in the controversy over the proposal for the federal government to assume the debts incurred by individual states since the beginning of American independence. States like Virginia that had already retired much of their debt independently were reluctant to assume responsibility for states like Massachusetts that had been unable to pay off their debts. James Madison successfully led the fight against the assumption of state debt in Congress.

  Convinced of the proposal’s importance, Hamilton tried to win over the secretary of state. Jefferson vividly remembered Hamilton catching up with him while on the way to see President Washington shortly after he settled in New York. The two walked back and forth past Washington’s house for half an hour as Hamilton argued for the proposal’s validity. Unwilling to commit himself so quickly, Jefferson forestalled a decision. Instead, he and Madison invited Hamilton to dinner, when they could discuss the matter at length and devise a workable solution.

  Since the assumption of state debts favored New England, Jefferson and Madison realized the South would need an incentive to approve the measure. Or, as Jefferson put it: “But it was observed that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the southern States, and that some concomitant measure should be adopted, to sweeten it a little to them. There had before been propositions to fix the seat of government either at Philadelphia, or at Georgetown on the Potomac; and it was thought that by giving it to Philadelphia, for ten years, and to Georgetown permanently afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, calm in some degree the ferment which might be excited by the other measure alone.”26 Hamilton agreed. If they would find enough votes in Congress to pass the assumption bill, he would find enough votes to move the seat of the federal government to Philadelphia first and then, ten years later, to the banks of the Potomac.

  Jefferson’s personal animosity toward Hamilton did not begin until one evening in April 1791, when they dined with Vice President Adams, and the conversation turned to the British constitution.27

  “Purge that constitution of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of representation,” Adams observed, “and it would be the most perfect constitution ever devised by wit of man.”

  “Purge it of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of representation,” Hamilton responded, “and it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect government which ever existed.”

  These words convinced Jefferson that Hamilton was attempting to reshape the American republic into a mirror image of the British system. Jefferson subsequently scrutinized everything Hamilton did in order to keep his ideas and ambitions in check. Political parties per se had yet to form, but in their opposition to the federal policies of Adams and Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison began laying the foundation of what would be called the Anti-Federalist or Republican Party. Essentially, the clash between the policies of Hamilton and Jefferson initiated the development of the Federalist and Republican parties.

  Not all of Jefferson’s responsibilities in Washington’s administration were so contentious. One of the most agreeable tasks he undertook as secretary of state let him pursue his scientific interests and indulge his penchant for precision. Washington asked him to prepare a report on weights and measures and, basically, to create the standards that would ensure smooth-running systems of commerce and transportation. This responsibility came unexpectedly: Jefferson was caught without his mathematical books. Having somewhat neglected his mathematics in recent years, he wrote David Rittenhouse, asking him to send whatever textbooks he could spare. Jefferson also had the opportunity to consult the holdings of the New York Society Library. Furthermore, he asked people in New York about
any recent developments in the field. Count Paolo Andreani, for one, remembered a work on the subject of weights and measures recently published in Milan.28

  The first of many official reports he would write as secretary of state, Jefferson’s completed work was published as Report of the Secretary of State, on the Subject of Establishing a Uniformity in the Weights, Measures and Coins. More than merely a government document, Jefferson’s Report amounts to a learned treatise on standards and measurements. He sent copies to his scholarly friends, a group that included George Wythe and Ezra Stiles. The always gracious Wythe thanked Jefferson for the Report, saying the book “is deposited among my treasures.” Stiles was “extremely pleased with it as a philosophic Production.” He told his students at Yale about the Report and had them study it. The letter of thanks he wrote Jefferson includes much additional literary news, the kind of information he enjoyed reading. Stiles ended his letter by expressing hope that one day Jefferson would become President of the United States, an idea he did not necessarily want to hear.29

  The thank-you letters from Wythe and Stiles were among the few pieces of literary correspondence Jefferson received during his tenure as secretary of state. Others came as cover letters accompanying presentation copies of books he received. Mercy Otis Warren, for instance, presented him with a copy of her Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous. Thanking her for the book, Jefferson applauded it as proof that Americans could excel at poetry. Though the letter does not mention the Comte de Buffon by name, Jefferson clearly had Buffon’s theories in mind when he suggested that the superiority of her verse refuted the hypothesis that “supposed a degeneracy even of the human race on this side of the Atlantic.”30

  Once Congress adjourned on Saturday, August 14, the U.S. government began the long, slow process of moving its operations to Philadelphia. Correctly surmising that he would never be this far north again, Jefferson took the opportunity to visit Rhode Island with the president. They left New York the day after Congress adjourned, sailing up Long Island Sound and reaching Newport Tuesday. Washington was feted and toasted and honored; Jefferson was happy to remain in the president’s shadow. They left Newport Wednesday and reached Providence that afternoon. More festivities ensued. Perhaps Jefferson enjoyed the visit to the library of Rhode Island College best. Like most New England college libraries, the collection was heavy in religious treatises, but it did show some signs of Enlightenment. In addition to its divinity collection, the college library contained works on aesthetics, astronomy, botany, chemistry, commerce, conic sections, electricity, optics, and surgery.

  The president and the secretary of state returned to New York on August 21.31 Jefferson spent the rest of the month arranging to leave New York permanently. He settled several bills, paying for some madeira and some porter. He bought more books and had local bookbinder Thomas Allen bind some volumes for him.32 On Wednesday, September 1, 1790, he and Madison left New York together in Jefferson’s trusty phaeton. They proceeded through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, reaching Rock Hall, Maryland on the tenth, when Thomas Lee Shippen caught up with them.

  Shippen was one of the young men for whom Jefferson had written “Hints to Americans Travelling in Europe.” He had followed Jefferson’s hints during his long sojourn in Europe and had become a seasoned traveler. Shippen also became a fine travel writer, as his account of this current trip indicates. Unlike Jefferson, Shippen recorded many incidental details regarding their experience.33

  Like Jefferson and Madison, Shippen hoped to cross the Chesapeake Bay from Rock Hall to Annapolis. Forced to wait a long time for a boat to take them across, they did the same things modern-day visitors to the Chesapeake would do. Shippen explained, “We talked and dined, and strolled, and rowed ourselves in boats, and feasted upon delicious crabs.”

  It took them six hours to cross the bay, but their horses, which crossed on a separate vessel, took eighteen. With more time on their hands, they toured Annapolis. Here Shippen met an old Annapolis friend named Shaaff, who showed them around the city: “We passed 3 hours on the top of the State House steeple from which place you descry the finest prospect in the world, if extent, variety Wood and Water in all their happiest forms can make one so. My good friend Shaaff was not displeased at my comparing him to the Diable Boiteux whose office he seemed to fill in opening the roofs of the houses and telling us the history of each family who lived in them.”

  George Washington, engraved by H. B. Hall’s Sons, New York, after a painting by Gilbert Stuart. From Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (1915). (Collection of Kevin J. Hayes)

  Shippen was referring to the popular novel by Alain-René Lesage, Jefferson’s favorite French novelist. In fact, Jefferson kept a copy of Diable Boiteux in his vacation library at Poplar Forest. This novel tells the story of a student named Cleofas who releases a spirit named Asmodée, a lame, misshapen devil who walks about on crutches. Leading Cleofas on a tour of Madrid, Asmodée shows him what the city is really like by lifting the roofs from the houses and portraying what goes on behind closed doors. Lesage’s voyeurism has the potential to be mean-spirited, but his light tone and delicate touch save the narrative from scathing exposé.

  Mann’s Tavern, where they stayed in Annapolis, Shippen placed “among the most excellent in the world.” They feasted on turtle here and enjoyed some mellow old madeira. Their accommodations the next night at Queen Anne’s were, in Shippen’s words, “a most perfect contrast to Mann’s—Musquitos, gnats, flees and bugs contended with each other for preference, and we had nothing decent to eat or drink. You may imagine how much we slept from the company we were in.”

  Once they reached Georgetown, Jefferson and Madison lingered here to scout locations for the new national capital. Several local men joined the party, which became quite a sizable group. Since Shippen left them at Georgetown, the colorful story of their adventures ends here, too. Jefferson reached Monticello on Sunday, September 19.

  He did not stay long. Less than two months later, he left home for Philadelphia. He and Madison first stayed together at a boarding house, but Jefferson eventually rented a four-story brick house on Market Street and Eighth, right across from the offices of the State Department.34 He threw himself into his work, relying on his correspondence with his daughters to keep him connected to home. The month after he arrived, Jefferson wrote his daughter Martha, scolding her for not writing: “Perhaps you think you have nothing to say to me. It is a great deal to say you are all well, or that one has a cold, another a fever etc., besides that there is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me, nor any thing that moves, from yourself down to Bergere.”35

  His letters to Maria admonish her to continue studying Spanish. Hers inform him of her progress in Don Quixote and, upon completing that, her intention to read Lazarillo de Tormes, which is considered the first Spanish picaresque romance. Maria also mentioned that she had been reading William Robertson’s History of America and reminded him of his promise to send her copies of Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Jean-Jacques Barthélmy’s Voyage de Jeune Anacharsis. Maria would never become as bookish as her big sister, but these letters show that she was trying to obey her father and pursue her studies as diligently as she could.36

  Actually, Jefferson’s letters to and from his daughters constitute the fullest literary correspondence he maintained while secretary of state.

  Maria provided other bookish information beyond her studies. She told her father that for Christmas she had presented Martha a copy of Comtesse de Genlis’s Tales of the Castle: or, Stories of Instruction and Delight, a collection of didactic juvenile fiction—a gift that may reflect Maria’s own tastes more than those of her married sister. A contemporary educator recommended Tales of the Castle as a book that “young ladies, from the age of six to sixteen years, may read with advantage.” Like her father, Maria apparently bought books for Martha she wished to read herself. Martha, in turn, presented her sister a co
py of Richard Cumberland’s Observer, a collection of essays that is part conduct manual and part literary criticism.37

  Since her marriage, Martha had been neglecting her studies—but she had a good excuse. To her father the third week of January 1791, she wrote, “I can give but a poor account of my reading having had so little time to my self that tho I have the greatest inclination I have not as yet been able to indulge it.”38 This letter does not say so, but Martha was pregnant with her first child. The following week, in fact, she gave birth to Anne Cary Randolph, Thomas Jefferson’s first grandchild.

  Grandpa Jefferson wrote one letter of congratulations to Martha and another to her sister. The charming letter he wrote Maria on this occasion is notable for the self-effacing humor it contains: “I congratulate you my dear aunt on your new title. I hope you pay a great deal of attention to your niece, and that you have begun to give her lessons on the harpsichord, in Spanish etc.”39 Telling Maria to give the newborn baby harpsichord lessons and teach her Spanish, Jefferson was poking fun at himself and his unflagging insistence that Maria attend to her studies. Still, his comments are not entirely tongue-in-cheek. He felt that the sooner children acquire good study habits, the more quickly they will learn and the longer those habits will last.

  With this letter to Maria, Jefferson enclosed a book for her sister, John Gregory’s Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with Those of the Animal World, a pioneering work of comparative psychology and one of the most widely read eighteenth-century manuals on child rearing. Presenting the book, Jefferson said that it contained much useful advice for the young mother. Later that spring, he sent Martha a large package containing more books, some for her, some for her husband, and others for her sister, including the promised copy of Barthélemy’s Voyage de Jeune Anacharsis, which Jefferson called “a very elegant digest of whatever is known of the Greeks.”40