American Sphinx (60 page)

17. The standard account of the embargo and the Anglo-American diplomacy of the era is Bradford Perkins,
Prologue to War: England and the United States
(Berkeley, 1961). My interpretation tends to follow the line best traced by Tucker and Hendrickson,
Empire of Liberty.
For a succinct summary of the way Jefferson thought about the choices of war and peace in 1807, see Reginald C. Stuart, “Thomas Jefferson and the Function of War: Policy or Principle,”
Canadian Journal of History,
XI (1976), 160–71. The most recent scholarly appraisal is Walter La Feber, “Jefferson and an American Foreign Policy,” Onuf, ed.,
Jeffersonian Legacies,
382–86. When all is said, however, and a great deal has been said, the account by Henry Adams,
History,
I, 1031–48, has never been surpassed.

18.
History,
I, 1239–52, for the political mood surrounding Jefferson’s retirement; an elegant summary is also available in
Smith,
III, 1551–54; Jefferson to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, March 2, 1809,
L&B,
XII, 259–60.

19. John Adams to Benjamin Rush, March 4, 1809,
Microfilm Edition of Adams Papers,
Reel 118.

20. Benjamin Rush to John Adams, February 17, 1812, Schutz and Adair, eds.,
Spur of Fame,
211; John Adams to Benjamin Rush, August 31, 1809, and July 12, 1812, in Alexander Biddle, ed.,
Old Family Letters . . .
(Philadelphia, 1892), 246, 297–98. See also Lyman H. Butterfield, “The Dream of Benjamin Rush: The Reconciliation of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,”
Yale Review,
40 (1950–51), 297–319.

21. John Adams to Benjamin Rush, August 31 and December 21, 1809, July 3 and February 10, 1812, Biddle, ed.,
Old Family Letters,
246, 249, 297, 313.

22. John Adams to Jefferson, January 1, 1812,
Cappon,
II, 290. Donald Stewart and George Clark, “Misanthrope or Humanitarian? John Adams in Retirement,”
New England Quarterly,
XXVIII (1955), 216–36, for the “brother sailor” reference. I have also devoted a chapter to the Adams-Jefferson correspondence in
Passionate Sage,
113–42.

23. Jefferson to John Adams, January 21, 1812, John Adams to Jefferson, February 3, 1812, Jefferson to John Adams, April 8, 1816, John Adams to Jefferson, May 3, 1816,
Cappon,
II, 291–92, 295, 467, 471.

24. John Adams to Benjamin Rush, February 10, 1812,
Microfilm Edition of Adams Papers,
Reel 118; Jefferson to John Adams, August 15, 1820, and September 12, 1821, John Adams to Jefferson, September 24, 1821,
Cappon,
II, 566–67, 574, 576.

25. The troublesome letter that Adams worried about referred to Jefferson as a congenital liar whose presidency was likely to produce “only calamities.” See John Adams to William Cunningham, January 16, 1804,
Microfilm Edition of Adams Papers,
Reel 118. Jefferson to John Adams, October 12, 1823, John Adams to Jefferson, November 10, 1823,
Cappon,
II, 599–601, 601–02.

26. Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, December 5, 1811,
Ford,
IX, 300; for Jefferson’s “Adams Problem,” see Ellis,
Passionate Sage,
143–45.

27. Philip F. Detweiler, “The Changing Reputation of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years,”
WMQ,
XIX (1962), 551–73. I am also indebted to Robert S. McDonald, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who shared a draft chapter from his dissertation on Jefferson’s early anonymity as author of the Declaration. On Madison’s conference with John Trumbull about the Rotunda paintings, see
Smith,
III, 1774–75.

28. John Adams to Jefferson, June 22, 1819, Jefferson to John Adams, July 9, 1819, John Adams to Jefferson, July 21, 1819,
Cappon,
II, 542–46. John Adams to Francis Vanderkemp, August 21, 1819,
Microfilm Edition of Adams Papers,
Reel 124.

29. For the account in Adams’s autobiography, see L. Butterfield, ed.,
Diary and Autobiography,
III, 335–38. For Jefferson’s account in his autobiography, see
Ford,
I, 30–38. Jefferson to James Madison, August 30, 1823,
Smith,
III, 1875–76; James Madison to Jefferson, September 6, 1823,
ibid.,
1877–78.

30. John Adams to Benjamin Rush, September 30, 1805, and June 21, 1811,
Microfilm Edition of Adams Papers,
Reel 118; John Adams to Jefferson, November 12, 1813,
Cappon,
II, 392–93.

31. John Adams to Jefferson, July 30, 1815, Jefferson to John Adams, August 10–11, 1815,
Cappon,
II, 451–53.

32. Butterfield, ed.,
Diary and Autobiography,
III, 335–36.

33. John Adams to Jefferson, July 13, 1813, and December 16, 1816,
Cappon,
II, 355–56, 500–01.

34. John Adams to Jefferson, May 6, 1816,
ibid.,
472.

35. Jefferson to John Adams, August 1, 1816, and October 14, 1816,
ibid.,
483, 490; John Adams to Jefferson, February 2, 1816,
ibid.,
461.

36. Jefferson to John Adams, June 27, 1813,
ibid.,
335.

37. John Adams to Jefferson, July 9, 1813, and November 13, 1813,
ibid.,
351, 456.

38. John Adams to Jefferson, July 9, 1813, August [14], 1813, December 19, 1813,
ibid.,
351, 365, 409.

39. Jefferson to John Adams, October 28, 1813,
ibid.,
387–92.

40. John Adams to Jefferson, September 2, 1813, September 15, 1813, November 15, 1813,
ibid.,
371, 376, 400.

41. Jefferson to John Adams, March 25, 1826,
ibid.,
613–14.

42. The Whitehead reference and the larger point about the influence that posterity’s judgment had on the revolutionary generation are elegantly suggested in Adair, “Fame and the Founding Fathers,” Colbourn, ed.,
Fame and the Founding Fathers,
3–26.

43. Jefferson to William Wirt, September 4, 1816, Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, March 3, 1818,
Ford,
X, 59–60, 102–04.

44. Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, January 31, 1819, Jefferson to Samuel Adams Wells, May 12, 1819,
ibid.,
124, 129.

45. Jefferson to James Madison, June 22, 1817,
Smith,
III, 1786. When Marshall’s biography first appeared, Jefferson tried to get Joel Barlow to write a rebuttal. See Jefferson to Joel Barlow, May 3, 1802,
Ford,
VIII, 148–51.

46. Jefferson to William Johnson, March 4, 1823,
Ford,
X, 246–49.

47. John Adams to Jefferson, July [3], 1813,
Cappon,
II, 349; John Marshall,
The Life of George Washington
(5 vols., Philadelphia, 1804–07), V, 33; Franklin B. Sawvel, ed.,
The Complete Anas of Thomas Jefferson
(New York, 1903), 43.

48.
Boyd,
XXV, 33–38, for the editorial note on the rather odd history of these materials, whatever we wish to call them. The note is by Charles Cullen and includes Jefferson’s comment quoted here.

49. The most accessible version of the “Anas” is in
Ford,
I, 154–339. As we now know, Jefferson did not intend to include material after 1792, and most of the earlier editions of his papers violated that intention by adding material up to and through his presidency. Keeping that editorial fact in mind, I have chosen to quote from the Ford edition of the “Anas” for reasons of convenience.
Ibid.,
156, 165, 166–67.

50. The appraisal of Washington is in Jefferson to Dr. Walter Jones, January 2, 1814,
Domestic Life,
356–57. The many conversations between Jefferson and Washington constitute the largest section of the “Anas” and are reproduced in
Ford,
I, 168–278. Jefferson also repeated these stories in several letters in the years after compiling the material. See especially Jefferson to Martin Van Buren, June 29, 1824, and Jefferson to William Short, January 8, 1825,
Ford,
X, 305–16, 328–35.

51. Joanne B. Freeman, “Slander, Poison, Whispers, and Fame: Jefferson’s ‘Anas’ and Political Gossip in the Early Republic,”
JER,
XV (1995), 25–59.

52.
Ford,
I, 20–47, for the autobiographical version of the drafting of the Declaration and the debate in the Continental Congress.

53.
Ibid.,
118–47, for the story of the coming of the French Revolution;
ibid.,
140, for the quotation on the culpability of the queen.

54. Jefferson to Benjamin Austin, January 9, 1816, and February 9, 1816,
Ford,
X, 7–11.

55. Jefferson to William H. Crawford, June 20, 1816,
ibid.,
36. The best discussion of Jefferson’s evolution on this subject is in McCoy,
The Elusive Republic,
34–57.

56. O. I. A. Roche, ed.,
The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
(New York, 1964). The earlier version, “Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus, Compared with Those of Others,” is in
Ford,
VIII, 223–28. The quotations come from his many letters on this subject: Jefferson to Charles Thomson, January 9, 1816, Jefferson to Horatio Gates Spafford, January 10, 1816, Jefferson to William Short, October 31, 1819, Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, June 26, 1822, Jefferson to John Davis, January 18, 1824,
Ford,
X, 5–7, 12–15, 144, 219–20, 287–88.

57. Jefferson to Judge Spencer Roane, September 6, 1819,
ibid.,
140–43. The classic Jeffersonian interpretation of the era, indeed of all American history, is Vernon L. Parrington,
Main Currents in American Thought
(3 vols., New York, 1927–30).

58. Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816, Jefferson to John Taylor, May 28, 1816,
Ford,
X, 37–39, 27–31.

59. Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816, and September 5, 1816,
ibid.,
40–43, 45–46. The issue was on his mind at this time, as can be seen in other letters in which it comes up. See especially Jefferson to du Pont de Nemours, April 24, 1816, and Jefferson to Francis W. Gilmer, June 7, 1816,
ibid.,
22–25, 31–33. The most recent revisionist interpretation of the American Revolution is Wood,
The Radicalism of the American Revolution,
which argues that there were incipient democratic implications embedded within the independence movement, which most of the revolutionary generation did not fully appreciate at the time and which seeped out slowly over the next fifty years, becoming fully discernible only in the Age of Jackson. On the one hand, Jefferson is an almost perfect illustration of the argument, and his own revisionist views of 1816–19 document Wood’s interpretation handsomely. On the other hand, as Wood himself has often noted, Jefferson had only a partial grasp of the leveling implications inherent in democratic culture and was never comfortable in the world that Andrew Jackson symbolized and Alexis de Tocqueville described.

60. Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, September 5, 1816,
Ford,
X, 45–46.

61. Jefferson to John Hambden Pleasants, April 19, 1824,
ibid.,
302–04.

62. Jefferson to James Madison, February 25, 1822,
Smith,
III, 1837–38.

63.
Ford,
I, 77.

64. Jefferson to George Logan, May 11, 1805, Jefferson to Dr. Thomas Humphreys, February 8, 1817,
Ford,
IX, 141, X, 76–77. In the same vein, see Jefferson to Fanny Wright, August 7, 1825, and Jefferson to William Short, January 18, 1826,
ibid.,
343–45, 361–62. The best discussion of Jefferson’s procrastinating tendencies is in Freehling,
Road to Disunion,
122–31, 152–57.

65. Jefferson to John Adams, December 10, 1819,
Cappon,
II, 548–49; Jefferson to Hugh Nelson, February 7, 1820, and March 12, 1820,
Ford,
X, 156–57; Peterson, ed.,
Visitors to Monticello,
90–91. I am much indebted to Peter Onuf, who shared an early draft of his lengthy essay “Thomas Jefferson, Missouri and the ‘Empire of Liberty,’ ” which focuses in a fresh way on these years as a culmination of Jefferson’s somewhat tortured thinking on the slavery question.

66. Jefferson to John Holmes, April 22, 1820,
Ford,
X, 157–58. Good discussions of this important letter are readily available in: Miller,
Wolf by the Ears,
221–52;
Malone,
VI, 328–44; and Donald E. Fehrenbacher, “The Missouri Controversy and the Sources of Southern Separatism,”
Southern Review,
XIV (1978), 653–67.

67. For the Adams view, see John Adams to Robert Walsh, January 19, 1820, and John Adams to Joshua Cushman, March 16, 1820,
Microfilm Edition of Adams Papers,
Reel 124.

68. John Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, January 29, 1820, and John Adams to William Tudor, November 20, 1819,
ibid.

69. John Adams to Jefferson, February 3, 1821,
Cappon,
II, 571; Jefferson to Charles Pinckney, September 30, 1820,
Ford,
X, 162–63.

70. Jefferson to David Bailey Warden, December 26, 1820, and Jefferson to Jared Sparks, February 4, 1824,
Ford,
173, 289–93.

71. Jefferson to Fanny Wright, August 7, 1825, and Jefferson to William Short, January 18, 1826,
ibid.,
343–45, 361–62.

72. Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, December 26, 1820, and Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, August 17, 1821,
ibid.,
175–78, 191–92.

73. John Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, January 29, 1820, John Adams to John Quincy Adams, December 23, 1819,
Microfilm Edition of Adams Papers,
Reel 124. On the large question of what the revolutionary generation intended concerning slavery, see Gary Nash,
Race and Revolution
(Madison, 1990).

74. Jefferson to Charles Pinckney, September 30, 1820,
Ford,
X, 161–62.

75. Jefferson to Marquis de Lafayette, October 28, 1822,
ibid.,
233; Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, October 29, 1822,
ibid.,
235–36.

76. On this phase of Jefferson’s superheated response to national events, especially the vilification of those endorsing internal improvements, see the following: Joseph H. Harrison, Jr.,
“Sic et Non:
Thomas Jefferson and Internal Improvements,”
JER,
VII (1987), 335–49; John Lauritz Larson, “Jefferson’s Union and the Problems of Internal Improvements,” Onuf, ed.,
Jeffersonian Legacies,
340–69; Robert Shalhope, “Thomas Jefferson’s Republicanism and Antebellum Southern Thought,”
JSH,
XLII (1976), 529–56.