Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (114 page)

“T
HERE
IS
NOTHING
I
WO
ULD
NOT
SACRIFICE
”
PTJRS,
VII, 652.

“N
OTHING
IS
MORE
CERTAINLY
WRITTEN
”
Jefferson,
Writings,
44.

AN
INTRINSIC
“
DEGRADATION
”
PTJRS,
VII, 603.

R
END
ERING
MORAL
JUDGMENT
S
IN
RETROSPECT
I am indebted to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., for this insight. “Self-righteousness in retrospect is easy—also cheap,” he used to say.

B
EG
INNING
WITH
R
OBERT
C
AR
TER
See Andrew Levy,
The First Emancipator: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves
(New York, 2005).

THE
POLITICIA
NS
OF
THE
N
ORTH
Wilentz,
Rise of American Democracy,
218–22. See also Eric Foner,
The Story of American Freedom
(New York, 1998), 84–94.

“
THE
S
OUTHERN
INTERES
T
”
Sharp, “Unraveling the Mystery of Jefferson's Letter of April 27, 1795,” 411–18.

“I
DO
NOT
SAY
THIS
”
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 499.

“W
HERE
THE
DISEASE
IS
MOST
”
Ford,
Writings,
IX, 516.

“T
HE
MARCH
OF
EVENTS
”
TJ to Frances Wright, August 7, 1825. Extract published at Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series Digital Archive, www.monticello.org/familyletters (accessed 2011).

P
E
RSONAL
DEBT
WAS
ANOT
HER
ENDURING
IRONY
Herbert E. Sloan,
Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt
(New York, 1995), is the standard account. See also TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/debt (accessed 2012); and Gordon-Reed,
Hemingses of Monticello,
629–35.

P
LANTERS
OF
HIS
TIME
AND
PLACE
Robert E. Brown and B. Katherine Brown,
Virginia, 1705–1786: Democracy or Aristocracy?
(East Lansing, Mich., 1964), 96–124.

TH
E
GROWING
OF
TOBACCO
See, for instance, T. H. Breen,
Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution
(Princeton, N.J., 1987); and TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/crops-monticello (accessed 2012).

TRIED
TO
MOVE
AWAY
Ibid.

ALWAYS
GREW
THE
CROP
FB,
255–310.

A
CONFLUENCE
O
F
FACTORS
TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/crops-monticello (accessed 2012). See also Gordon-Reed,
Hemingses of Monticello,
316–17.

WORTH
£4,000
Sloan,
Principle and Interest,
18.

SKYROCKETING
INFLA
TION
Ibid., 16.

“
BUT
A
SHADOW
”
Ibid.

THE
DEBT
REMAINED
Virginia law protected him from British creditors, even under the Treaty of Paris. The signing of the Constitution, however, made him vulnerable to collection, and is probably part of the reason he asked to return from France in late 1788. At home he would be better able to manage the farming at Monticello and to bring his finances into order. (Ibid., 16–17, 21.)
See also http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/debt and
Gordon-Reed,
Hemingses of Monticello,
629–35.

“
BY
THE
SMOOTH
H
ANDLE
”
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 525.

T
HE
PROSPE
CT
OF
RUIN
WAS
REAL
Sloan,
Principle and Interest,
3–12. See also Gordon-Reed,
Hemingses of Monticello,
629–35, and
JHT,
VI, 301–16 and 473–78.

EVEN
MORE
EAGER
TJF,
http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/quotations-university-virginia.

“
AS
WELL
AS
HE
DID
10
YEARS
AGO
”
Elizabeth Trist to Nicholas P. Trist, March 9, 1819. Extract published at Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series Digital Archive, www.monticello.org/familyletters (accessed 2011).

“T
HE
PAPERS
TELL
US
”
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 476.

HE
PUT
A
FOOT
WR
ONG
Ibid., 486–87.

“D
URING
SUMMER
”
Ibid., 476.

“L
IKE
OTHER
YOUNG
PEOPLE
”
Cappon,
Adams-Jefferson Letters,
613–14.

“W
E
HAVE
BEEN
TOO
CARELESS
”
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 488.

C
ROSSING
THE
R
IVA
NNA
Virginia J. Randolph (Trist) to Nicholas Philip Trist, May 13, 1823. Extract published at Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series Digital Archive, http://retirementseries.dataformat.com (accessed 2011).

I
N
O
CTOBER
1823
HE
AN
SWERED
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 491. See also T. R. Schellenberg, “Jeffersonian Origins of the Monroe Doctrine,”
Hispanic American Historical Review
14 (February 1934): 1–31.

“T
HE
QUES
TION
PRESENTED
”
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 491.

“Y
O
U
ARE
NOT
TO
BELIEVE
”
IbID., 495.

J
EFFERSON
FAVORED
C
RAWFORD
Howe,
Wrought,
203. See also
JHT,
VI, 431–32.

J
ACK
SON
'
S
CHARGES
OF
A
“
C
ORRUPT
BARGAIN
”
See, for instance, Wilentz,
Rise of American Democracy,
254–57.

A
RRIVING
AT
M
ONTICELLO
TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/lafayettes-visit-to-monticello-1824 (accessed 2012). I am indebted to these accounts for my portrait of the visit. See also Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 503. For a general account of Lafayette's journey to America, see Howe,
WroughT,
304–5.

A
T
A
BANQUET
IN
L
AFAYETTE
'
S
HONOR
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 504.

“H
IS
DEEDS
IN
THE
WAR
”
IBID.

“B
ORN
AND
BRED
AMONG
YOUR
FATHERS
”
IBID.

“I
N
CONVERS
ATION
”
Ibid., 506.

“I
FEEL
MUCH
AL
ARMED
”
IBID.

“I
CANNOT
PRETE
ND
”
IBID., 507.

COSIGNED
A
NOTE
FOR
$20,000
Ibid., 533–35. Randall is my source for the Nicholas EpISODE.

T
HE
MARKET
WAS
BAD
For the story of the lottery, see
JHT,
VI, 473–82, 488, 495–96, 511.

H
E
HAD
BEEN
, P
A
TSY
SAID
IbId., 473.

I
N
AN
APPE
AL
TO
THE
G
ENERAL
A
SSE
MBLY
Ibid., 473–78.

TO
HIS
HORROR
IBID., 479.

WAS
IN
CHARGE
OF
THE
ARRANGEMENTS
IBId.

A
SKED
TO
SEND
COUN
SEL
TO
A
YOUNG
NAMES
AKE
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 524–25.

I
N
A
BIZARRE
EPISODE
IbiD., 540.

“T
HE
REVOLUT
ION
IN
PUBLIC
OPINIO
N
”
Jefferson,
Writings,
1516. The occasion was a letter to James Heaton dated May 20, 1826.

“I
T
IS
NOW
THREE
WEEKS
”
Bear, “Last Few Days in the Life of Thomas Jefferson,” 63–79.

S
TILL
,
HE
REF
USED
TO
GIVE
UP
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 538.

O
RGANIZERS
OF
THE
W
ASH
INGTON
CELEBRATIONS
Jefferson,
WritingS,
1516.

“A
LL
EYES
ARE
OPENED
”
Ibid., 1517.

“T
AKE
CARE
OF
ME
WHEN
DEA
D
”
IbId., 1515.

A
DIFFERENT
PASSI
ON
:
WINE
J. Jefferson Looney, “Thomas Jefferson's Last Letter,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
112, no. 2 (2004): 178–84.

H
E
CONTIN
UED
TO
READ
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 539.

FORTY
-
THREE
·
NO, DOCTOR, NOTHING MORE

“T
HE
LOSS
OF
M
R
. J
EFFERSON
”
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 551.

J
EFFERSON
PAINFULLY
PUT
PEN
TO
PA
PER
Bear, “Last Few Days in the Life of Thomas JefferSOn,” 65.

T
HE
DOCTOR
SAID
HE
WAS
“
APPREHENSIVE
”
IBID.

HIS
DAUGHTER
SAT
W
ITH
HIM
DURING
THE
D
AY
Randall,
Jefferson,
III, 543.