A Magnificent Catastrophe
Page 32
By the 1812 election, after his son, John Quincy, converted to the Republicans and became ambassador to Russia on his way to the presidency, the elder Adams and Jefferson reconciled. Beginning that year, the two former Presidents began an intense and intimate correspondence that continued for the rest of their lives. They bantered over politics, religion, books, farming, family, and their deteriorating health in a remarkable series of letters spanning fourteen years. Early in the exchange, Adams wrote to Jefferson, “You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other”—and to posterity, he could have added, because both men knew that future generations would read these letters.
The two old friends and former rivals outlived most of the founding generation of Revolutionary leaders, and all but one other signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. On the fiftieth anniversary of its signing, July 4, 1826, and twenty-five years after Jefferson became President, both men succumbed to their accumulated infirmities. Adams was then age ninety; Jefferson was eighty-three. Both were surrounded by family. Adams was up the day before and had smoked a final cigar; Jefferson was bedridden by then and heavily medicated. They lived to see that jubilee of liberty, and when it came, Adams observed, “It is a great day. It is a good day.” Near the end, Jefferson could barely speak and was rarely conscious. He knew the day had come, however. About half past six o’clock in the evening, after whispering in a weakening voice, “Thomas Jefferson survives,” John Adams took his last breath. Jefferson had died approximately five hours earlier. The entire nation mourned their passing.
NOTES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Annals of Congress—The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, 42 vols. (Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1834–56).
AFC—L. H. Butterfield, Wendell D. Garrett, and Marjorie E. Sprague, eds., Adams Family Correspondence (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1963–93).
AFP—Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 1954–59 (microfilm edition).
AJL—Lester J. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961).
Complete Jefferson—Saul K. Padover, ed., The Complete Jefferson, 2 vols. (New York: Duell, Sloan, & Pearce, 1943; rpt. Irvine: Reprint Services Corp., 1991).
CJJ—Henry P. Johnston, ed., The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, 4 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1890–93; rpt. New York: Bert Franklin, 1970).
DAJA—L. H. Butterfield, Leonard C. Faber, and Wendell D. Garrett, eds., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 4 vols. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1961).
DGW—Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds., The Diaries of George Washington, 6 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976–79).
DLGM—Anne Cary Morris, ed., The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1888).
EAI—Early American Imprints, Series 1: Evans, 1639–1800, Archive of Americana, Readex (online database).
FLJT—Edwin Morris Betts and James A. Bear, eds., The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1966).
Gibbs Memoirs—George Gibbs, ed., Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams Edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, 2 vols. (New York: Private Printing, 1846; rpt. New York: Burt Franklin, 1971).
LAG—Henry Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1880).
LCJM—Bernard C. Steiner, ed., The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry, Secretary of War Under Washington and Adams (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers Co., 1907).
LCRK—Charles R. King, ed., The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, 6 vols. (New York: Putnam, 1894–1900).
LGM—Jared Sparks, The Life of Gouverneur Morris, 3 vols. (Boston: Gray & Bowen, 1832).
LLGC—Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., Life and Letters of George Cabot (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1877; rpt. New York: Da Capo Press, 1974).
LLHGO—Samuel Eliot Morrison, The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765–1848 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913).
LMA—Charles Francis Adams, ed., Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown, 1840).
MAB—Matthew L. Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, 2 vols. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1837).
NLAA—Stewart Mitchell, ed., New Letters of Abigail Adams (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947).
PAG—The Papers of Albert Gallatin, Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, Delaware, 1985 (microfilm edition).
PAH—Harold C. Syrett and Jacob E. Cooke, eds., Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 27 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961–87).
PCAB—Mary-Jo Kline, ed., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).
PGW—Dorothy Twohig et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington: Retirement Series, 4 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998–99).
PJA—Robert J. Taylor, et al., eds., Papers of John Adams, 8 vols. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1977–89).
PJM—William T. Hutchinson et al., eds., Papers [of James Madison], 17 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1962–1991).
PJMar—Herbert A. Johnson, ed., The Papers of John Marshall, 12 vols. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1974–2006).
PP—Frederick S. Allis, Jr., ed., The Timothy Pickering Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 1966 (microfilm edition).
PTJ—Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 32 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950–2006).
Spur of Fame—John A. Schutz and Douglass Adair, eds., The Spur of Fame: Dialogues of John Adams and Benjamin Rush, 1805–1813 (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1966).
WAG—Henry Adams, ed., The Writings of Albert Gallatin, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1879).
WAH—Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., The Works of Alexander Hamilton, 9 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1885–86).
WFA—W. B. Allen, ed., Works of Fisher Ames, 2 vols. (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1983).
WGW—John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, 39 vols. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931–44).
WJA—Charles Francis Adams, ed., The Works of John Adams, 10 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1850–56).
WJM—Stanislaus Murray Hamilton, ed., The Writings of James Monroe, 7 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898–1903).
WTJ (Ford)—Paul Leicester Ford, ed., The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904–05).
WTJ (Lipscomb & Bergh)—A. A. Lipscomb and A. E. Bergh, eds., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 20 vols. (Washington: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1900–04).
INTRODUCTION: INDEPENDENCE DAY, JULY 4, 1776
“My good man”: Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, Oct. 6, 1766, AFC, 1:56.
“He should be painted”: John Adams to William Tutor, Mar. 29, 1817, WJA, 10:245.
“a morose philosopher”: John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, Nov. 25, 1775, PJA, 3:318.
“Vanity”: John Adams, May 3, 1756, DAJA, 1:25.
“There must be” and “we must, indeed”: John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin, in Jarad Sparks, Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1 (Boston: Gray, 1840), p. 408 (apparent source for these quotes).
“I shall have”: Benjamin Harrison, in Benjamin Rush to John Adams, July 20, 1811, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Letters of Benjamin Rush, 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), p. 1090 (Rush’s firsthand recollection of Harrison’s quip).
CHAPTER ONE: FROM FRIENDS TO RIVALS
“Qu’il etoit charmant” and following: John Adams, Apr. 29, 1778, DAJA, 4:81.
“The attenti
on of the court”: John Adams, Feb. 9, 1779, DAJA, 2:347.
“It was a settled point”: John Adams, Feb. 11, 1779, DAJA, 2:352.
“The life of Mr. Franklin” and following: John Adams, May 26, 1778, DAJA, 4:118–19.
“Always an honest man”: Benjamin Franklin to Robert R. Livingston, July 22, 1783, Benjamin Franklin: Writings (New York: Library of America, 1987), p. 1065.
“the sufficiency”: Thomas Jefferson to Citizens of Albemarle County, Virginia, Feb. 12, 1790, PTJ, 16:179.
“appointment gives”: John Adams to James Warren, Aug. 27, 1784, PTJ, 7:382.
“Jefferson is an excellent” and following: John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, Dec. 12, 1784, PTJ, 7:382.
“My new partner”: John Adams to Arthur Lee, Jan. 31, 1785; PTJ, 7:382.
“appeared to me”: John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 22, 1825, AJL, 2:606–07.
“the only person”: Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 6, 1785, PTJ, 8:178.
“The departure”: Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, May 25, 1785, PTJ, 8:164.
“I do love this people”: Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, June 21, 1785, PTJ, 8:239.
“He is so amiable”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Jan. 30, 1787, PTJ, 11:95
“I am with an affection”: John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 2, 1789, PTJ, 14:411.
“Reputation ought to be”: John Adams, Mar. 14, 1759, DAJA, 1:78.
“I am not ashamed”: John Adams to Jonathan Sewall, Feb. 1760, PJA, 1:42.
“could tear himself”: John Page, in Dumas Malone, Jefferson: The Virginian (Boston: Little Brown, 1948), p. 58.
“be admired”: Thomas Jefferson to John Page, Dec. 25, 1762, PTJ, 1:5.
“advantage” and following: Thomas Jefferson, “Education for a Lawyer,” c. 1767, Complete Jefferson, 2:1043–46.
“Determine never”: Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson, May 5, 1787, PTJ, 11:349.
Thinking back: John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Nov. 15, 1817, AJL, 2:403; Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, Oct. 18, 1813, AJL, 2:389.
“When heaven designs” and following: John Adams to Jonathan Sewall, Feb. 1760, PJA, 1:41.
“How shall I gain”: John Adams, Mar. 14, 1759, DAJA, 1:78.
“fabricated by the British”: John Adams, Dec. 18, 1765, DAJA, 1:263.
“will neither lead”: John Adams, Jan. 30, 1767, DAJA, 1:337.
“desultory life”: John Adams, Jan. 30, 1768, DAJA, 1:238.
“dull”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, June 30, 1774, AFC, 1:115.
“tedious”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, June 23, 1874, AFC, 1:109.
“irksome”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, June 29, 1769, AFC, 1:66; John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 9, 1774, AFC, 1:134.
“mere jargon”: Thomas Jefferson to John Page, Dec. 25, 1762, PTJ, 1:5.
“so prompt, frank”: John Adams to Timothy Pickering, Oct. 6, 1822, WJA, 2:514.
“We hold these truths”: Thomas Jefferson, “Original Rough Draft,” PTJ, 1:243.
“You are afraid”: John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Dec. 6, 1787, AJL, 1:213.
“No man on earth”: Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, May 10, 1789, PTJ, 15:116.
“the best in the world”: Alexander Hamilton, in Edward J. Larson and Michael P. Winship, The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison (New York: Modern Library, 2005), p. 49 (from Madison’s notes).
“Those who labor”: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781–85), in Complete Jefferson, 2:678.
“The will of the majority”: Thomas Jefferson to Citizens of Albemarle County, Virginia, Feb. 12, 1790, PTJ, 16:179.
“The voice of the people”: Alexander Hamilton, in Larson and Winship, Constitutional Convention, p. 50 (from Yates’s notes).
“the avarice”: John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Nov. 15, 1813, AJL, 2:398.
“balanced”: E.g., John Adams praised the “balanced” British Constitution in John Adams, Discourses on Davila (New York: Da Capo, 1973 facs. rpt.), p. 248.
“I like a little”: Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, Feb. 22, 1787, PTJ, 11:174.
“Ignorant, restless”: Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 29, 1787, PTJ, 11:86.
“the absence of want”: Thomas Jefferson, The Anas, in WTJ (Lipscomb and Bergh), 1:280.
“Republican”: E.g., James Madison, “The Union: Who Are Its Real Friends?” Mar. 31, 1792, PJM, 14:275.
“regal” and following: John Adams, quoted in James H. Huston, “John Adams’ Title Campaign,” New England Review, 41 (1968), p. 34.
“the most superlatively”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, July 29, 1789, PTJ, 15:315.
“I hope the terms”: Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, Aug. 9, 1789, PTJ, 15:336–37.
“almost all the nations” and following: [John Adams], “Discourses on Davila,” Gazette of the United States, Apr. 27, 1791, p. 1.
“Mr. Adams had”: Thomas Jefferson, The Anas, in WTJ (Lipscomb and Bergh), 1:279–80.
“heretic”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, May 9, 1791, PTJ, 20:293 (reporting what he told Adams).
“that something is”: Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan B. Smith, Apr. 26, 1791, PTJ, 20:290.
“I had in my view”: Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, May 8, 1791, PTJ, 20:291–92.
“That you and I”: Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, July 17, 1791, PTJ, 20:302.
“The friendship”: John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 29, 1791, PTJ, 20:307.
“The revolution of France”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, May 11, 1789, PTJ, 15:121.
“They took all the arms” and following: Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, July 19, 1789, PTJ, 15:288 and 290.
“This scene is too interesting”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, July 22, 1789, PTJ, 15:301.
“The liberty of the whole earth”: Thomas Jefferson to William Short, Jan. 3, 1793, PTJ, 25:14.
“France standing on”: William Wordsworth, The Prelude, lns. 341–42 (impression of France in 1790, following Louis XVI’s initial concessions to the National Assembly).
“It has served”: Alexander Hamilton, “Fragment on the French Revolution,” WAH, 7:376.
“I’ll tell you what”: John Adams, quoted in Thomas Jefferson, The Anas, Dec. 26, 1797, WTJ (Lipscomb & Bergh), 1:417.
“Our news from France”: Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jan. 7, 1793, PTJ, 25:30.
“None can deny”: Alexander Hamilton, “Americanus No. 1,” Jan. 31, 1794, PAH, 15:670–71.
“Jefferson thinks”: John Adams, in Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 516.
“It seems the mode”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, Jan. 14, 1797, AFP, reel 383.
competition: Jonathan Dayton to Oliver Wolcott, Sept. 15, 1796, Gibbs Memoirs, 1:383–84 (referring to the emerging contest for President as a “competition”).
“the most insignificant”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, Dec. 19, 1793, WJA, 1:460.
“I am heir apparent”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, Jan. 20, 1796, AFP, reel 381.
“Prince of Wales”: John Adams to Henry Knox, Mar. 30, 1797, WJA, 8:536.
“My letters inform”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Jan. 22, 1797, PTJ, 29:271.
“where our road”: Thomas Jefferson, The Anas, Mar. 2, 1797, WTJ (Lipscomb and Bergh), 1:415.
“delighted”: Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, Mar. 27, 1798, PAH, 21:379.
“insane”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Mar. 21, 1798, PTJ, 30:189.
“were war measures”: John Adams, “Correspondence Originally Published in the Boston Patriot,” (1809), WJA, 9:29.
CHAPTER TWO: CROSSING THE BAR
“I have been occupied”: George Washington to William Vans Murray, Dec. 3, 1797, WGW, 36:88.
“I was the first”: George Washington to Burgess Ball, Sept. 22, 1799, PGW, R-4:318.
“good health”
: George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull Jr., July 21, 1799, PGW, R-4:202.
“From the moment”: Thomas Jefferson, The Anas, WTJ (Lipscomb and Bergh), 1:282–83.
“An Anglican”: Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, Apr. 24, 1796, PTJ, 29:82.
“the next election”: Jonathan Trumbull Jr. to George Washington, June 22, 1799, PGW, R-4:144.
“My fears”: Jonathan Trumbull Jr. to George Washington, Aug. 10, 1799, PGW, R-4:236.
“The leading federal”: Gouverneur Morris to George Washington, Dec. 9, 1799, PGW, R-4:452.
“About one o’clock”: George Washington, Dec. 12, 1799, DGW, 6:378.
“He had taken cold”: Tobias Lear, “Narrative Accounts of the Death of George Washington,” Dec. 14–15, 1799, PGW, R-4:543.
“In this sense”: George Washington, “Farewell Address,” Sept. 19, 1796, WGW, 35:222 and 225.
“Against us are”: Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, Apr. 24, 1796, PTJ, 29:82.
“At that time”: George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull Jr., July 21, 1799, PGW, R-4:202.
“hanging upon”: George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull Jr., Aug. 30, 1799, PGW, R-4:275.
“Virginia’s misfortune”: Virginia Federalist, Dec. 7, 1799, p. 2.
“He appeared” and ensuing quotes about Washington’s death: Tobias Lear, “Narrative Accounts of the Death of George Washington: Diary Account,” Dec. 14–15, 1799, PGW, R-4:543–49.
“His last scene”: Tobias Lear to John Adams, Dec. 16, 1799, WGW, 14:260.
“Every paper”: Columbian Centinel, Dec. 28, 1799, p. 2.
“I feel myself alone”: John Adams to Gentlemen of the Senate, Dec. 3, 1799, WGW, 14:264.
“First in war” and ensuing quotes from Lee’s eulogy: Henry Lee, Funeral Oration on the Death of General Washington (Boston: Nancrede, 1800), pp. 3 and 14–15.