The Road to Monticello

by Hayes, Kevin J. ;

  Pairing life and liberty, Jefferson echoed the most famous usage of these two words in the English language, which occur in the Declaration of Independence: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Jefferson’s reference to banishing religious intolerance in the inaugural address recalls another important document he wrote, “A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.” Throughout his life, Jefferson closely linked religious and political tyranny, seeing their elimination as the cornerstone of democracy and the capstone of the Enlightenment.

  In his effort to reconcile opposing political views, he made a commonsense observation: “But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.” Over the next several sentences, Jefferson gradually developed this notion, building to what would be the most quoted line from this address: “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

  This call for reconciliation and consensus won over many of those who heard his words this Wednesday afternoon and many more who read them during the next week or two. Continuing his speech, he encouraged all Americans to speak their minds. In the United States, contradictory opinions can and will be tolerated because they are subject to debate and reason. Considering the freedom citizens have to express themselves, Jefferson offered a paean to the greatness of American democracy, celebrating its superiority to all other types of government and calling the American form of government “the world’s best hope.”

  Anticipating his policy of Western exploration and expansion, he characterized America as a place “with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation.” Jefferson saw no end to what the nation could and would accomplish. He was already foreseeing a United States that would endure for thousands of generations. And why not? With “a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned,” the American people could accomplish much.

  Next, Jefferson outlined his duties and responsibilities as president. To this end, he sketched out the essential principles of American government, which he formulated as one long, breathtaking list:

  Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people—a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected.

  In this list of principles, Jefferson used some of the same rhetorical devices he had used so effectively earlier in the speech. This long sentence also incorporates much figurative language. He applied three different metaphors as he developed the list. Calling the general government a “sheet anchor,” he reiterated his ship-of-state metaphor. The phrase “the sword of revolution” introduces the threat of violence, which the American government must guard against by peacefully correcting any abuses that may arise. Making commerce handmaid to agriculture, Jefferson used dramatic imagery to acknowledge the importance of trade to the American economy, while reinforcing his agricultural ideal.

  He supplied another metaphor that effectively unifies the entire list: “These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.” This evocative sentence is the first of three that summarize his list of principles. The next two share a similarly high level of literary craftsmanship.

  Describing how the United States had acquired such principles, Jefferson observed, “The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment.” In terms of both imagery and structure, this sentence recalls the Samsons-in-the-field, Solomons-in-thecouncil sentence that had been turned against him during his vice presidency. He still liked the complementary images the sentence embodied, but he had learned his lesson: instead of applying a clever metaphor this time, he spoke in realistic terms. He referred to the real sages and real heroes who had helped to establish the United States.

  The final sentence characterizing the set of American principles twice makes use of the list of three as a rhetorical device and hooks it to another metaphor: “They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.” The road—another favorite metaphor of Jefferson’s—provides a land-based equivalent to the ship-of-state metaphor and effectively grounds his principles.

  “I repair, then fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me,” he continued. Getting down to the business of being president, Jefferson asserted his qualifications for the position and asked for patience and tolerance in order “to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all.” Reusing the list of three as a rhetorical device again but varying it by using three infinitive phrases, Jefferson reinforced the actions he intended to take as president.

  At the conclusion of his speech, applause resounded through the Senate chamber. Jefferson had clearly touched the hearts of those in attendance. A sentimental observer noticed that tears “bedewed many manly cheeks.” When the applause abated, Chief Justice John Marshall proceeded to administer the oath of office. Regardless of their divergent political views, even Marshall recognized the effectiveness of Jefferson’s inaugural address. In his opinion, this speech was both judicious and conciliatory.10

  Margaret Bayard Smith came away from Jefferson’s inauguration awe-inspired. She wrote her sister-in-law that she left the Senate chamber with a glow of enthusiasm that lingered for hours. “The changes of administration, which in every government and in every age have most generally been epochs of confusion, villainy and bloodshed, in this our happy country take place without any species of distraction, or disorder,” she observed. “This day, has one of the most amiable and worthy men taken that seat to which he was called by the voice of his country.” Generally speaking, she said that the inaugural address contained “principles the most correct, sentiments the most liberal, and wishes the most benevolent, conveyed in the most appropriate and elegant language and in a manner mild as it was firm. If doubts of the integrity and talents of Mr. Jefferson ever existed in the minds of any one, methinks this address must forever eradicate them.”11

  Jefferson had given Samuel Harrison Smith an advance copy of his inaugural address that morning so that he could print it in the National Intelligencer and have copies available directly after the inauguration. As the crowd left the Senate chamber, multiple rounds of artillery fire sounded in celebration. The cries of newsboys, eager to distribute copies of the National Intelligencer containing Jefferson’s speech, sounde
d almost as loud. Throughout the afternoon, people crowded around the Intelligencer office clamoring for copies of the inaugural address. Demand was so great that Smith could hardly print copies fast enough to meet it. Catching up her correspondence later that day, Mrs. Smith related what had happened as she left the Capitol: “On coming out of the house, the paper was distributed immediately. Since then there has been a constant succession of persons coming for the papers.”12

  Newspapers throughout the nation reprinted Jefferson’s inaugural address. The speech was available in other formats, too. It was issued as a pamphlet in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. One pamphlet issued in Washington presented the text in English, French, German, and Italian. The speech was also available as a broadside. Publishers in Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Hagerstown, Hartford, New York, Newport, and Philadelphia all issued broadside reprints.

  Some of these broadsides were quite special. The Boston firm of Adams and Rhoades issued a copy of the speech printed on silk. Philadelphia publisher Matthew Carey offered copies printed on superfine wove paper with a miniature likeness of Jefferson, and more expensive versions printed on satin. Carey sent President Jefferson a paper copy; Jefferson wrote back to request a satin print. His appreciation of fine printing partly accounts for the request, which also shows how proud Jefferson was of what he had written.

  People were buying copies of his speech not only to read but also to possess. These silk and satin printings were handsome keepsakes intended to be framed and hung on the wall as constant reminders of the principles Jefferson represented. Advertising one of these fancy copies, the Independent Chronicle made clever use of the speech’s most memorable words: “The work will be executed with neatness, and in a form calculated to adorn the Parlours of all the Federal Republicans. A few copies will be struck on white satin—at different prices.”13 Multiple copies of silk broadsides survive handsomely mounted and framed.

  Several magazines reprinted Jefferson’s speech later that month: the Connecticut Magazine, the New York Weekly Museum, and the Philadelphia Repository and Weekly Register. On the special request of its readers, the Baltimore Weekly Magazine reprinted it in May. And almanac-maker Joshua Sharp issued the address as part of his Citizen’s and Farmer’s Almanac, for the Year 1802.

  John Davis incorporated the entire address in his Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America, which he dedicated to Jefferson. Davis’s popular book of travels brought Jefferson’s words to many English readers, including some of the era’s most distinguished men of letters. Reading Jefferson’s inaugural address in Davis’s Travels, Percy Bysshe Shelley was inspired to add a paean to America in his long poem Revolt of Islam:14

  There is a People mighty in its youth,

  A land beyond the Oceans of the West …

  That land is like an eagle, whose young gaze

  Feeds on the noontide beam, whose golden plume

  Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze

  Of sunrise gleams when Earth is wrapped in gloom …

  Yes, in the desert, then, is built a home

  For Freedom!

  Other English readers were also impressed with the stirring words Jefferson spoke this day. Alexander Baring, a young but prominent British financier living in the United States, said that the inaugural address confirmed his high opinion of Jefferson, whom Baring called “a visionary theorist.” Subsequent events would confirm this opinion. Two years later Baring would take charge of financing the Louisiana Purchase.15

  In June, Philadelphia publisher R. T. Rawle reprinted Jefferson’s inaugural address as an appendix to a new edition of Notes on the State of Virginia, one of several editions issued that year. The controversial outcome of the presidential election had created much interest in Jefferson’s book. New editions had begun to appear even before the election had been decided. In February, the New York firm of Furman and Loudon issued a new edition of Notes on the State of Virginia.16 Another New York firm issued its own edition of the work later that year. Two Boston editions appeared, as did an edition by a publisher in Newark, New Jersey.

  While the election made readers curious about what Jefferson had to say in Notes on the State of Virginia, the fine writing he demonstrated in the inaugural address made them anxious to enjoy what else he had written. Rapine, Conrad, and Company, a bookseller located at the corner of South B Street and New Jersey Avenue near the Capitol, began advertising a new edition of Notes on the State of Virginia shortly after the inauguration. In a newspaper advertisement that ran for months, the title appeared on a list advertising several current works, including Charles Brockden Brown’s Edgar Huntley and Arthur Mervyn.17 Now fifteen years old, Jefferson’s book was being read as avidly as the latest popular novels.

  One contemporary commentator saw similarities between the inaugural address and Notes on the State of Virginia, at least in terms of their literary quality. Discussing the address, he mentioned the principles of American government Jefferson delineated, observing, “They are compressed within such precise limits, as to enforce them on the memory, and expressed with such classical elegance, as to charm the scholar with their rhetorical brilliancy.” Directly after this statement, this reviewer mentioned “the peculiar happiness attached to Mr. Jefferson’s literary performance” and used Notes on the State of Virginia to support his point: “His Notes on Virginia are strewed with flowers selected from the parterre of the Belles Lettres.”18

  Benjamin Rush wrote from Philadelphia to congratulate Jefferson on his brilliant speech. Rush’s letter, which incorporates phrases from the inaugural address, shows how infectious Jefferson’s words could be: “You have opened a new era by your speech on the 4th of March in the history of the United States. Never have I seen the public mind more generally or more agreeably affected by any publication. Old friends who had been separated by party names and a supposed difference of principle in politics for many years shook hands with each other immediately after reading it, and discovered, for the first time, that they had differed in opinion only, about the best means of promoting the interests of their common country.”19

  Rush mentioned several men who had enjoyed the speech, including his friend Joseph Wharton, who had read it “seven times, and with increasing pleasure.”20 Wharton’s experience shows the value of the printed word over the spoken. Those who attended Jefferson inauguration could only hear it once—and some not even that much. Margaret Bayard Smith reported, “The speech was delivered in so low a tone that few heard it.”21 Buying reprints, especially fancy silk reprints designed as wall hangings, people could reread the speech as often as they wished. Advertising a broadside of the inaugural address, Baltimore publisher William Pechin puffed, “It is handsomely printed on a large size type, and in a form which will not only be convenient for perusal, but will give it a chance of durability beyond what its insertion in a daily paper can ensure.”

  A moving composition as a whole, the inaugural address contained many memorable phrases that could be easily extracted from it. Congratulating Jefferson on the speech, Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours observed, “With these maxims you will enchant one half of the human race, and finally the other half.”22 Du Pont de Nemours clearly recognized the ease with which phrases and sentences could be detached from Jefferson’s inaugural address for purposes of quotation. Benjamin Rush greatly appreciated the aphoristic quality of Jefferson’s address, too, as he said in his letter of congratulations: “You have concentrated whole chapters into a few aphorisms in defense of the principles and form of our government.” Rush also echoed what was becoming the speech’s most famous passage: “In the third month of the year 1801,” Rush observed, “we have become ‘all Republicans, all Federalists.’ ”23 Already Jefferson’s literary abilities were serving him well as president.

  After his inauguration, President Jefferson left the Senate chamber on his way back to Conrad and McMunn’s. Upon his exit from the Capitol, more rounds of artillery sounded
. Accompanied by Vice President Burr, Chief Justice Marshall, and several other dignitaries, he walked back to his boarding house. Two more weeks would pass before he would relocate to the President’s House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

  Jefferson had made no plans for the evening of his inauguration. Throughout Washington, the rest of the day was devoted to festivities, but there is no indication that the new president took part. Once darkness fell, the city looked quite different than it had the night before. After dark, there was “a pretty general illumination.”24 People throughout Washington placed candles in their windows to celebrate the start of Jefferson’s presidency.

  When he went down to dinner at Conrad and McMunn’s, according to a story Margaret Smith heard, Jefferson took the same seat he had always taken at the table, the lowest seat at the end of the long dinner table, which was also the coldest, being the farthest from the fire. Mrs. Smith was indignant that more was not done to give the new president a place of honor at the table, but her story ably captures Jefferson’s character.

  Though he may have done nothing special to celebrate his inauguration that evening, Jefferson realized how much the nation had changed with his election. The general illumination confirmed the public support for the democratic ideals he had articulated in his inaugural address—each light in every window was a vote of support. A new era in American democracy had begun.

  CHAPTER 32

  The Wall of Separation

  Writing to Benjamin Rush a few months before the 1800 presidential election, Thomas Jefferson made one of his most famous pronouncements: “I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”1 Save for the fact that these words occur in a private letter to a trusted friend, they have the aura of a campaign slogan. But Jefferson was not solely inveighing against political tyranny. He was also speaking against religious tyranny. Read within the context of this letter, his words are tinged with irony: they occur in a paragraph recalling ideas about Christianity he and Rush had discussed in Philadelphia during the winter of 1798–99. Their energetic conversations had encouraged Jefferson to think about religion further, and he had promised to write up his thoughts on Christianity for Rush. This letter reiterates that promise.