Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (61 page)

AT
THE
CONCLUSION
OF
T
HE
F
RENCH
AND
I
NDIAN
W
A
R
Fred Anderson,
Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766
(New York, 2001), is a masterful account of the origins, course, and implications of the war. See also Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
17–73, and Risjord,
Jefferson's America, 1760–1815,
71–96. Risjord wrote:

At the close of the French and Indian War in 1763, Great Britain stood at the pinnacle of its power. The peace conference at Paris that year was a triumphant recognition of British conquests in seven bloody years of war. The French empire in North America had disappeared; from Canada to the Floridas, the territory east of the Mississippi River was under British dominion. Yet … it almost seemed as if the empire had been won too quickly and too easily. Unaccustomed to managing dominions flung in desultory fashion around the world, British politicians were slow to comprehend the meaning of their victory and even slower in developing a comprehensive worldview to match their world empire. They remained wedded to local politics, encumbered by petty rivalries, stubborn, and unimaginative. As a result, the first British empire began to crumble almost as soon as it was fully formed.… The very size of the empire set loose centrifugal forces that had to be countered with more efficient administrative ties. (Ibid., 71.)

E
MPIRES
ARE
EXPENSIVE
Risjord,
Jefferson's America, 1760–1815,
71–72. “Adding to the sense of urgency was the enormous debt Britain had incurred in fighting the war and financing allies, such as Frederick the Great of Prussia. Interest on the debt alone amounted to $5 million a year, while the government's annual income was little more than $8 million.” (Ibid.) As Middlekauff pointed out, Britain had fought three wars since the Glorious Revolution, each with France and her allies “in three lengthy periods,” leading to rising debt and military and administrative costs. (Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
23–26.) The landowning interest in Parliament understandably pressed for taxes on imports. “Excises on a vast array of items—soap and salt, beer and spirits, cider, paper, and silk, among other things consumed by ordinary and mighty folk alike—replaced land as the largest source of revenue from taxes.… Customs, that is, duties on trade, also increased as commerce grew in the century.” (Ibid., 23.)

SHOULD
BEAR
MORE
OF
THE
COST
Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act CrisiS,
6.

TROOPS
WERE
TO
REMAIN
IN
N
ORTH
A
ME
RICA
Ibid., 21–23.

GRANTS
OF
THE
WESTERN
LANDS
Risjord,
Jefferson's America, 1760–1815,
72–74. See also Thomas Perkins Abernethy,
Western Lands and the American Revolution
(New York, 1959); and Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
58–60. To Middlekauff, “Among the white Americans no group was more aggressive or greedy than the Virginians.” (Ibid., 58.) A commonly cited example of the colonists' holdings is that of the Ohio Company, whose investors included George Washington, which had received 200,000 acres whose value was now endangered. (IBId.)

AN
UPRISING
OF
O
HIO
V
ALLEY
I
NDIAN
TRIBES
Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
59–60. The campaign was led by Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa. See Gregory Evans Dowd,
War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations, and the British Empire
(Baltimore, Md., 2004).

SOUGHT
TO
GIVE
T
HE
KING
THE
POWER
Ibid., 60. The Proclamation of 1763, issued on October 7, closed the West to white settlement and established Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida. (Ibid.) According to Risjord,

Seeking to reserve all lands west of the Appalachian ridge for the tribes, the proclamation prohibited any further land grants or sales in the West without royal license and ordered the removal of all white squatters
… 
. The result, it was hoped, would prevent border warfare and reduce the expense of maintaining an army in America. The ministry intended to negotiate further land cessions from the Native Americans, thus permitting a gradual advance of the frontier; and the proclamation itself permitted land grants to veterans of the French war. Despite these loopholes, colonists—especially the Virginians, who had the best legal claims to the West, were outraged
… 
. The proclamation was the first seed of imperial disunion. (Risjord,
Jefferson's America, 1760–1815,
73–74.)

ENFORCEMENT
OF
N
AVIGATION
A
CTS
Risjord,
Jefferson's America, 1760–1815,
74–75.

A
CAMPAIGN
TO
USE
“
WRITS
OF
ASSI
STANCE
”
Ibid. See also Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
65, and Oliver M. Dickerson,
The Navigation Acts and the American Revolution
(Philadelphia, 1951), 172–89.

THE
S
UGAR
A
CT
OF
1764
Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
21–40. See also Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
64–66.

LOWERED
THE
TAX
ON
MOLASSES
Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
24.

M
ADEIRA
WINE
,
A
FA
VORITE
OF
THE
YOUNG
J
EFFERSON
Ibid., 25. We know about Jefferson's affection for the wine from his remarks about Mrs. Wythe's entertaining (see above) and TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/wine (accessed 2011). After his residence in France in early middle age, he lost his preference for MadEIRA.

ATTEMPT
TO
ESTABLISH
A
PRINCIP
LE
AND
A
PRECEDENT
Ibid., 27.

HAD
RISEN
TO
ANNOUNCE
Ibid., 54–55.

J
AMES
O
TIS
'
S
R
IGHTS
OF
THE
B
RIT
ISH
Morgan,
Birth of the Republic,
18.

W
YTHE
DRAFTED
A
PET
ITION
JHT,
I, 91–92. See also Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
97.

“
THAT
THE
P
EOPLE
”
Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
39–40.

HAD
LEFT
W
IL
LIAMSBURG
FOR
HOME
Henry Mayer,
A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic
(New York, 2001), 81.

“
YET
A
STUDENT
”
Jefferson,
Writings,
5.

A
NUMBER
OF
ANTI
–S
TA
MP
A
CT
RESOLUTIONS
Mayer,
Son of Thunder,
82–85. See also Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
95–97.

STOOD
AT
THE
DOOR
OF
THE
H
OUSE
Jefferson,
Writings,
5.

“
GRE
AT
INDEED
”
Ibid., 6. Henry's talents as a “popular orator,” Jefferson wrote, were “such as I have never heard from any other man.” (IbID.)

H
ENRY
SAI
D
T
ARQUIN
AND
C
AESAR
“Journal of a French Traveller in the Colonies, 1765, I,” 745.

ACCORDING
TO
THE
SINGLE
CONTEMPORA
NEOUS
ACCOUNT
Ibid. A grander account, oft-repeated, appeared in William Wirt,
Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry
(Philadelphia, 1878), 78–83. In 1921 the account of the French traveler emerged. (Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
93–95.)

“H
E
APPEARED
TO
ME
”
Jefferson,
Writings,
6.

“
SPOKE
TREASON
”
“Journal of a French Traveller in the Colonies, 1765, I,” 745.

“
HE
WAS
READY
TO
ASK
PAR
DON
”
IBID.

“
MOST
BLOODY
”
Mayer,
Son of Thunder,
85.

THE
“F
IFTH
R
ESOLUTION
”
Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
96–97.

M
EN
SUCH
AS
P
EYTON
R
ANDO
LPH
Reardon,
Peyton Randolph,
21–23.

“B
Y
G
OD
”
Ibid., 22.

THE
SE
NSE
THAT
THEY
HAD
LO
ST
CONTROL
Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
97–98, explains the dynamics well. “Why Randolph, Robinson, Robert Carter Nicholas, and even Richard Bland and George Wythe, all of whom are said to have opposed the resolutions, should have been so hostile to them is not apparent,” wrote Morgan and Morgan.

George Wythe, who had drawn the petition to the House of Commons, told Jefferson that his first draft had required toning down because the other members of the committee thought it treasonable. And Richard Bland was soon to express in print a view of Parliament's authority which was at least as restricted as that taken in the resolutions. The argument of the opposition … was that the petitions of the preceding year were a sufficient statement of the colonial position and that no further step should be taken until some answer was received to these. But this argument was specious, for the Burgesses knew that the petitions had not received a hearing. In all probability, the opposition is not to be explained so much by the measure itself as by the men who were backing it. Henry and his friends were upstarts in Virginia politics, and their introduction of the resolves constituted a challenge to the established leaders of the House of Burgesses. (IbID.)

H
ENRY
LEFT
THE
CAPITAL
Mayer,
Son of Thunder,
88. Mayer referred to Henry's early exit as “unaccountab[le].” (IBID.)

ARRI
VED
AT
THE
CHAMBER
E
ARLY
PTJRS,
VII, 544–51. See also Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
97–98.

EXAMINING
T
HE
RECORDS
OF
THE
H
OU
SE
Ibid. “The cautious leaders found themselves arguing for quiet submission in the most angry terms,” wrote Henry Mayer. “This was no time for hot-headed, ill-considered, and possibly treasonous assertion, they insisted.” (Mayer,
Son of Thunder,
85.)

F
AUQUIER
WROTE
THE
B
OARD
OF
T
RADE
Morgan and Morgan,
Stamp Act Crisis,
98.

THE
ANNUAL
BIRTH
-
NIGHT
BALL
“Journal of a French Traveller in the Colonies, 1765, I,” 746. See also Hayes,
Road to Monticello,
81.

TO
BEND
THE
NATURAL
WORLD
JHT,
I, 115–16. See also Parton,
Life,
42.