A Magnificent Catastrophe

by Edward J. Larson

  “Civil liberty”: John Jay, “Charge to the Grand Juries,” Apr. 4, 1790, CJJ, 3:395.

  “the Jacobins”: Theophilus Parsons to John Jay, May 5, 1800, CJJ, 4:269–70.

  “The Federalists”: Fisher Ames to Oliver Wolcott, Aug. 3, 1800, in Richard Hildreth, History of the United States of America, rev. ed., vol. 5 (New York: Harper, 1879), p. 376.

  “faction” and ensuing quotes from Morris’s eulogy: Gouverneur Morris, An Oration upon the Death of General Washington (New York: Furman, 1800), pp. 16, 18, and 20.

  “When the people”: Gouverneur Morris to Roger Griswold, Nov. 3, 1803, in David Hackett Fischer, Revolution in American Conservatism (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), pp. 25–26.

  “The whole United States” and ensuing quote from Rush: George W. Corner, ed., The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1948), p. 249.

  “Many will join”: Elaine Forman Crane, ed., The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1991), p. 1248 (entry for Dec. 25, 1799).

  “There is no”: John Adams to James McHenry, Oct. 22, 1798, AFP, reel 119.

  “resistance”: Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, Feb. 2, 1799, PAH, 22:453.

  “take possession”: Alexander Hamilton to Harrison Gray Otis, Jan. 26, 1799, PAH, 22:441.

  “This man is stark mad”: John Adams to Harrison Gray Otis, May 9, 1823, AFP, reel 124 (recalling an earlier declaration made in response to Adams seeing some letters by Hamilton, which seems to have included ones about Hamilton’s plans for the Army).

  “That army”: John Adams to James Lloyd, Feb. 11, 1815, WJA, 10:118.

  “blasphemous panegyrics” and ensuing quotes from Philip Freneau, “Stanzas,” in Fred Lewis Pattee, ed., Poems of Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution, 3 (Princeton: University Library, 1907), pp. 235 and 237.

  “said nothing in public”: Dumas Malone, Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1962), p. 444.

  “Had this party magistrate” and ensuing quote from Gazette of the United States, Jan. 18, 1800, p. 3.

  “The effects”: Gazette of the United States, Mar. 5, 1799, p. 3 (reprint of Federalist broadside).

  “This state is greatly”: Alexander Addison to George Washington, July 6, 1799, PGW, R-4:176.

  “a British partisan”: Aurora, Oct. 8, 1799, p. 3 (reprint of Republican broadside).

  “the Federalists”: Aurora, Sept. 11, 1799, p. 2 (reprint of Republican broadside).

  “This national infatuation”: Aurora, Sept. 21, 1799, p. 2.

  “Mr. McKean”: “Address to the Freemen of Pennsylvania,” (Germantown: Poulson, 1799), pp. 7, 8, 10, 12, Federalist pamphlet reprinted in EAI 1: Evans no. 35081.

  “happiness and independence”: Levi Hollingsworth et al., “Philadelphia,” May 27, 1799 (Federalist broadside reprinted in EAI 1: Evans no. 48956).

  “the whole state”: Gazette of the United States, Mar. 5, 1799, p. 3 (reprint of Federalist broadside).

  “a devout Christian”: Aurora, Oct. 8, 1799, p. 3 (reprint of Republican broadside).

  “The Federal Party”: Aurora, Oct. 10, 1799, p. 2.

  “Such a fire”: Gazette of the United States, Oct. 29, 1799, p. 3.

  “an event most disgraceful”: Theodore Sedgwick to Rufus King, Nov. 15, 1799, LCRK, 3:146.

  “The state of Pennsylvania”: Abigail Adams to William Shaw, in Richard N. Rosenfeld, American Aurora: A Democratic-Republican Returns (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), p. 711.

  “The election of my Democratic judge”: William Cobbett, Porcupine’s Works, 11 (London: Cobbett & Morgan, 1801), pp. 97 and 107 (bound version of articles from Porcupine’s Gazette).

  “the faithful guardian”: Kline’s Carlisle Weekly Gazette, Nov. 6, 1799, p. 2.

  “May the spirit”: Aurora, Nov. 12, 1799, p. 2.

  “Ye true sons”: Aurora, Nov. 9, 1799, p. 3.

  “The success of McKean’s election”: Thomas Jefferson to Charles Pinckney, Oct. 29, 1799, PTJ, 31:227.

  “The success of the Republican interest”: Charles Pinckney to James Madison, Sept. 30, 1799, PJM, 17:272–73.

  “All agree”: Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, Jan. 12, 1800, PTJ, 31:300.

  “The present assembly”: James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 12, 1800, PJM, 17:355.

  “exclude one third”: Virginia Federalist, Mar. 19, 1800, pp. 2–3.

  “the ancient usages”: Virginia Federalist, May 28, 1800, p. 3 (reprint of Federalist broadside also in EAI 1: Evans nos. 36773 and 36774).

  “best calculated to preserve”: Franklin, Vindication of the General Ticket Law (Richmond: Samuel Pleasants, March 1800), p. 7.

  “guard against one anti-federal vote”: unnamed Federalist member of Congress quoted in Susan Dunn, Jefferson’s Second Revolution: The Election Crisis of 1800 and the Triumph of Republicanism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004), p. 186.

  “republican spirit”: Benjamin Rush to Thomas Jefferson, Mar. 12, 1801, L. H. Butterfield, ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush, 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), p. 832 (refers to earlier letter from Jefferson).

  “The death of the General!”: Henry Van Schaack to Theodore Sedgwick, Dec. 26, 1799, in Fischer, Revolution of American Conservatism, p. 56.

  CHAPTER THREE: “ELECTIONEERING HAS ALREADY BEGUN”

  “The French Republic”: Gazette of the United States, Feb. 7, 1800, p. 2.

  “That revolution”: John Marshall, The Life of George Washington, 5 (Philadelphia: Wayne, 1807), p. 389.

  “The rights of mankind”: George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 1, 1788, PTJ, 12:490.

  “The [French] nation”: Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, Nov. 4, 1788, PTJ, 14:330.

  “the union of principles”: George Washington to French Ambassador, Feb. 1793, in Marshall, Life of Washington, 5:391.

  “There seems to be”: Marshall, Life of Washington, 5:390.

  “I much fear”: Charles Carroll of Carrollton to Alexander Hamilton, Aug. 27, 1800, PAH, 25:94.

  “The friends of order”: William Cobbett, Porcupine’s Works, 12 (London: Cobbett & Morgan, 1801), pp. 114–15.

  “If our people”: Fisher Ames to Oliver Wolcott, Jan. 12, 1800, WFA, 2:1349.

  “must act as his party” and following: Fisher Ames to Oliver Wolcott, June 12, 1800, WFA, 2:1360–61.

  “should prevail” and following: Boston Gazette, Apr. 1799, reprint in WFA, 1:189–90.

  “the great arch priest”: Theophilus Parsons to John Jay, May 5, 1800, CJJ, 4:270.

  “Whatever his views”: Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Adams, Feb. 26, 1800, PTJ, 31:395.

  “Whether the lesson,” James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, Feb. 14, 1800, PJM, 19:364.

  “Nothing more solemnly”: Aurora, Jan. 30, 1800, p. 2.

  “The enemies of our Constitution”: Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, Feb. 2, 1800, PTJ, 31:358.

  “were endeavoring to”: Elbridge Gerry, “Minutes of a Conference with the President,” Mar. 26, 1799, quoted in Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 617 (quoting Adams).

  “The people of [France]”: Thomas Jefferson to John Breckenridge, Jan. 29, 1800, PTJ, 31:344–45.

  “The late defection”: James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, Apr. 4, 1800, PJM, 17:377.

  “had to struggle”: Aurora, Jan. 29, 1800, p. 2.

  “Our vessel”: Thomas Jefferson to John Breckenridge, Jan. 29, 1800, PTJ, 31:345.

  “a thousand anecdotes”: John Adams to James Lloyd, Feb. 11, 1815, WJA, 10:118.

  “to write”: U.S. Statutes at Large, 1:596–97.

  “palpably in the teeth”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, June 7, 1798, PTJ, 30:393.

  “altogether void”: Kentucky Legislature, in WTJ (Ford), 8:458–59.

  “reign of witches”: Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, June 4, 1798, PTJ, 30:389.

  “The most vigorous”:
Stevens Thomson Mason to James Madison, Apr. 23, 1800, PJM, 19:382.

  “pests of society”: Timothy Pickering to P. Johnson, Albany Centinel, Sept. 22, 1798, p. 2.

  “a disbanding”: Cobbett, Porcupine’s Works, 12:45.

  “devote their valor”: The Bee, May 8, 1799, p. 2.

  “publication to be”: Newport Mercury, May 6, 1800, p. 2.

  “libel against”: John Adams to Thomas Pickering, Aug. 13, 1799, WJA, 9:13–14.

  “in his former”: Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, Nov. 26, 1799, NLAA, p. 216.

  “A more oppressive”: Stevens Thomson Mason to James Madison, Apr. 23, 1800, PJM, 17:382.

  “If a man attempts”: Samuel Chase, in Account of the Trial of Thomas Cooper (Philadelphia: John Bioren, 1800), pp. 42–43.

  “Chase’s repository”: Aurora, Nov. 5, 1800, p. 4.

  “Punishment only hardens”: The Bee, Sept. 3, 1800, p. 4.

  “the conspicuous victim”: Aurora, Nov. 5, 1800, p. 2.

  “I consider these laws”: Thomas Jefferson to Stevens Thomson Mason, Oct. 11, 1798, PTJ, 30:560.

  “The report”: Aurora, Feb. 19, 1800, p. 2.

  “properly appointed”: James Ross, Jan. 23, 1800, Annals of Congress, 10:29.

  “Their being no law”: Theodore Sedgwick to Rufus King, May 11, 1800, LCRK, 3:237.

  “If this course”: Oliver Wolcott to Fisher Ames, Dec. 29, 1799, WFA, 2:1339–40.

  “This bill was a sweeper”: Cobbett, Porcupine’s Works, 12:41.

  “In every state”: Charles Pinckney, Mar. 28, 1800, Annals of Congress, 10:134–35.

  “obnoxious principles”: Stevens Thomson Mason to James Madison, Mar. 7, 1800, JMP, 17:371.

  “deadly blow”: John Beckley to Tench Coxe, Jan. 24, 1800, Gerard W. Gawalt, ed., Justifying Jefferson: The Political Writings of John James Beckley (Washington: Library of Congress, 1995), p. 164.

  “The bill brought”: Kline’s Carlisle Weekly Gazette, May 7, 1800, p. 2. See also Aurora, May 1, 1800, p. 2.

  “alarming attempt”: Aurora, Jan. 27, 1800, p. 2.

  “Venetian Council”: Aurora, Feb. 22, 1800, p. 2.

  “If there was nothing”: Aurora, Mar. 11, 1800, p. 2.

  “Is there any thing evil”: John Adams to Thomas Pickering, Aug. 1, 1799, WJA, 9:5.

  “The right of self-preservation”: Uriah Tracy, Mar. 5, 1800, Annals of Congress, 10:87.

  “Although you”: John Dawson to James Madison, Mar. 30, 1800, PJM, 17:376.

  “be sure to reach”: Aurora, Mar. 28, 1800, p. 3.

  “Questions of privilege”: John Marshall to James Markham Marshall, Apr. 4, 1800, PJM, 4:121–22.

  “that the House”: Stevens Thomson Mason to James Madison, Mar. 7, 1800, PJM, 17:371.

  “On this question”: Theodore Sedgwick to Rufus King, May 11, 1800, LCRK, 3:238.

  “Let me do what I will”: John Marshall to James Markham Marshall, Apr. 4, 1800, PJMar, 4:124.

  “Next week Congress”: Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, Nov. 26, 1799, NLAA, p. 217.

  “In all our measures”: Theodore Sedgwick to Rufus King, Dec. 12, 1799, LCRK, 3:155.

  “Our parties in Congress”: Fisher Ames to Christopher Gore, Mar. 5, 1800, WFA, 2:1355.

  “Congress will rise”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, May 12, 1800, PTJ, 31:579.

  “a real feebleness” and following quote: Theodore Sedgwick to Rufus King, May 11, 1800, LCRK, 3:237.

  “This seems to be”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Mar. 8, 1800, PTJ, 31:408–09.

  CHAPTER FOUR: BURRV. HAMILTON

  “I have never known”: John Adams to James Lloyd, Feb. 17, 1815, WJA, 10:123.

  “a bastard brat”: John Adams to Benjamin Rush, Jan. 25, 1800, Spur of Fame, p. 48. Adams used the same phrase in John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 12, 1813, AJL (Cappon), 2:354.

  “Colonel Burr”: George Washington quoted in John Adams to James Lloyd, Feb. 17, 1815, WJA, 10:124.

  “the most restless”: John Adams to James Lloyd, Feb. 17, 1815, WJA, 10:124.

  “It was ever one”: Matthew L. Davis, in MAB, 2: 55–56.

  “As a public man”: Alexander Hamilton to unnamed correspondent, Sept. 26, 1792, PAH, 12:480.

  “I suspect”: Gore Vidal, Burr: A Novel (New York: Random House, 1973), p. 221.

  “If the city election”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Mar. 4, 1800, PTJ, 31:409.

  “We are full”: Robert Troup to Rufus King, Mar. 9, 1800, LCRK, 3:209.

  “It is asserted”: Charles Carroll of Carrollton to Alexander Hamilton, Apr. 18, 1800, PAH, 24:412.

  “In the new election”: Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, Jan. 12, 1800, PTJ, 31:301.

  “Your fellow citizens”: Christopher Gore to Rufus King, Apr. 24, 1800, LCRK, 3:228.

  “the election”: Commercial Advertiser, Apr. 23, 1800, p. 2.

  “Citizens choose”: Daily Advertiser, Apr. 28, 1800, p. 3.

  “Great God”: Commercial Advertiser, Apr. 26, 1800, p. 2.

  “Merchants, your ships”: Daily Advertiser, Apr. 28, 1800, p. 3.

  “It is for you”: Daily Advertiser, Apr. 30, 1800, p. 2.

  “Those of you”: Daily Advertiser, Apr. 29, 1800, p. 2.

  “men of little weight”: John Adams to Benjamin Stoddard, Nov. 16, 1811, AFP, reel 118. For similar comments, see John Adams to James Lloyd, Feb. 17, 1815, WJA, 10:125.

  “men of no note”: Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, May 15, 1800, AFP, reel 397.

  “Hamilton, who ruled”: James McHenry to John Adams, May 31, 1800, AFP, reel 397 (recounting Adams’s comments to McHenry).

  “It is next”: Robert Troup to Rufus King, Mar. 9, 1800, LCRK, 3:208.

  “Now I have him”: John Adams to James Lloyd, Feb. 17, 1815, WJA, 10:125.

  “If the Federal ticket”: Commercial Advertiser, Apr. 23, 1800, p. 2.

  “the standing army”: American Citizen, Apr. 5, 1800, p. 3.

  “Peace or war”: American Citizen, Apr. 9, 1800, p. 3.

  “The political happiness”: American Citizen, Apr. 19, 1800, p. 3.

  “that whoever disapproves”: American Citizen, Apr. 30, 1800, p. 2.

  “if you waver”: American Citizen, Apr. 8, 1800, p. 3.

  “A little patience”: Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, June 4, 1798, PTJ, 308:389.

  “The Republican spirit”: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Mar. 25, 1800, PTJ, 31:455.

  “By this time”: Thomas Jefferson to Edward Livingston, Apr. 30, 1800, PTJ, 31:546–47.

  “The [Federalist] bank”: Matthew L. Davis to Albert Gallatin, Mar. 29, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “Here, when all”: Pasquin Petronius, The Echo, pp. 276–77, quoted in Arthur Irving Bernstein, The Rise of the Democratic-Republican Party in New York City, 1789–1800, 1964 Ph.D. Disc., Columbia University, p. 403.

  “Mr. Burr is arranging”: Matthew L. Davis to Albert Gallatin, Mar. 29, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “to himself the right”: Matthew L. Davis, MAB, 2:58.

  “I believe we shall”: Matthew L. Davis to Albert Gallatin, Mar. 29, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “They have got names”: Commercial Advertiser, Apr. 25, 1800, p. 2.

  “Citizen Clinton”: Daily Advertiser, Apr. 26, 1800, p. 2.

  “their sole object”: Commercial Advertiser, April 25, 1800, p. 2.

  “If the General”: Daily Advertiser, Apr. 30, 1800, p. 2.

  “the veterans”: “Recollections of Washington Irving,” Continental Monthly, 1 (1862), p. 691.

  “As soon as the room”: Mordici Myers, Reminiscences, 1780 to 1814 (Washington: Crane, 1900), p. 11.

  “Our organization”: Ibid., p. 12.

  “Never have I observed”: Matthew L. Davis to Albert Gallatin, Apr. 15, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “pledged himself”: Matthew L. Davis to Albert Gallatin, Mar. 29, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “Many people wonder”: Daily Advertiser, Apr. 28, 1800, p. 3.

  “Every day he is seen”: Co
mmercial Advertiser, Apr. 25, 1800, quoted in Milton Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Years from Princeton to the Vice President, 1756–1805 (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1979), p. 244.

  “Both parties”: Elizabeth DeHart Bleecker, Diary, p. 115, quoted in Bernstein, Rise of the Democratic-Republican Party in New York City, p. 407.

  “Can it be possible”: American Citizen, Apr. 30, 1800, p. 2.

  “the unconciliating conduct”: Joseph Hale to Rufus King, May 13, 1800, LCRK, 3:240.

  “They repeatedly addressed”: Matthew L. Davis, MAB, 2:60.

  “I have been night”: Robert Troup to Peter Van Schaack, May 2, 1800, quoted in Noble E. Cunningham Jr., The Jeffersonian Republicans: The Formation of Party Organization, 1789–1801 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957), p. 183.

  “carriages, chairs”: New York Gazette, May 13, 1800, quoted in Lomask, Aaron Burr, p. 245. (The Sixth Ward was in what is now the Tribeca neighborhood, and the Seventh Ward comprised parts of what became known as Little Italy and the Lower East Side.)

  “This morning”: Commercial Advertiser, May 1, 1800, p. 3.

  “The purse-proud landlord”: Commercial Advertiser, Apr. 30, 1800, p. 3.

  “This day”: Matthew L. Davis to Albert Gallatin, May 1, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “Republicanism Triumphant”: Ibid.

  “The New York election”: Aaron Burr quoted in Lomask, Aaron Burr, p. 246.

  “an earthquake”: Edward Livingston to Thomas Jefferson, May 3, 1800, in ed. James A. Padgett, “Letters of Edward Livingston to United States Presidents,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 19 (1976), p. 941.

  “Dear Sir!”: John Dawson to James Madison, May 4, 1800, PJM, 17:386.

  “To Colonel Burr”: Matthew L. Davis to Albert Gallatin, May 1, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “The management”: Matthew L. Davis to Albert Gallatin, May 5, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “His generalship”: James Nicholson to Albert Gallatin, May 6, 1800, PAG, reel 4.

  “The victory”: Aaron Burr to Thomas Jefferson, May 3, 1800, PCAB, 1:426.

  “We have beat”: Aaron Burr quoted in Lomask, Aaron Burr, p. 246.

  “But yesterday”: Edward Livingston to Thomas Jefferson, May 3, 1800, in ed. Padgett, “Letters of Edward Livingston,” p. 940.

  “The event”: Peter Augustus Jay to John Jay, May 3, 1800, PJJ (Columbia), no. 6094.

  “They do not confine”: Commercial Advertiser, May 5, 1800, p. 2.