Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (74 page)

“
UNSUCCESSFUL
BEYO
ND
ALL
”
Ibid., III, 39.

TOURING
V
IRGI
NIA
'
S
GUNNERY
MB,
I, 437.

PLAN
NED
AN
EXPEDITION
Ibid., 321.

C
LARK
WAS
A
TALL
For major treatments of George Rogers Clark see Lowell H. Harrison,
George Rogers Clark and the War in the West
(Lexington, Ky., 1976); John Bakeless,
Background to Glory: The Life of George Rogers Clark
(Philadelphia, 1957); and Temple Bodley,
George Rogers Clark: His Life and Public Services
(Boston, 1926). See also Richard M. Ketchum, “Men of the Revolution: 11. George Rogers Clark,”
American Heritage
25, no. 1 (December 1973): 32–33; 78; Gregory Fremont Barnes and others, eds.,
The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History,
I,
A–D,
222–24.

H
E
CAPTURED
K
ASKASKIA
Barnes and others,
Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War,
I, 223.

AND
V
INCE
NNES
Ibid.

SECURED
A
MERICA
N
INFLUENCE
Ketchum, “Men of the Revolution: 11. George Rogers Clark,” 78.

AFTER
S
EVERELY
BURNING
HIS
LEG
Ibid.

“W
ELL
,
IS
IT
OFF
?”
Ibid.

“
THE
WANT
OF
MEN
”
PTJ,
III, 321.

“T
HERE
IS
REASON
”
Ibid., 317. Jefferson was unflinching. “I am sorry to hear that there are persons in your quarters so far discontented with the present government as to combine with its enemies to destroy it.… The measures they are now taking expose them to the pains of the law, to which it is our business to deliver them.” Try them for treason, he advised William Preston on March 21, 1780. Failing conviction on capital grounds, Jefferson also advised Preston not to give up, for “perhaps it may be sufficient to convict them of a misprision of treason which is punishable by fine and imprisonment at the pleasure of the court.” (Ibid., 325.)

THE
CO
LDEST
WINTER
Ibid., 343. “We have had all over N. America a winter so severe as to exceed everything conceivable in our respective climates,” Jefferson told Mazzei. “In this state our rivers were blocked up to their mouths with ice for six weeks. People walked over York river at the town of York, which was never before done, since the discovery of this country. Regiments of horse with their attendant wagons marched in order over Patowmack at Howe's ferry, and James river at Warwick.” (Ibid.)

SHIFTI
NG
THE
CAPITAL
OF
V
IR
GINIA
Ibid., 333–34.

A
HOUSE
ON
R
IC
HMOND
'
S
S
HOCKOE
H
ILL
MB,
I, 495.

CLIMATE
OF
EXTREME
EMER
GENCY
PTJ,
III, 335. “Among the various conjectures of alarm and distress which have arisen in the course of the revolution, it is with pain I affirm to you, Sir, that no one can be singled out more truly critical than the present,” James Madison wrote Jefferson from Philadelphia on March 27, 1780. (Ibid.) While the Congress begged Virginia for men and matériel, Madison also complained to Jefferson about the feeble national government. “They can neither enlist, pay, nor feed a single soldier,” Madison wrote Jefferson on May 6, 1780. (Ibid., 370.)

C
HARLESTON
F
ELL
TO
THE
B
RITISH
Ferling,
Almost a Miracle,
426–28. From Paris, Mazzei commiserated about Charleston. “Bad news have long legs,” he wrote Jefferson on June 22, 1780, reporting the glee over the South Carolina victory in British circles. “It is amazing the impression such an event makes in Europe,” Mazzei said. “The greater the distance, the more it will be magnified in men's own imagination.” There was much talk of the significance of Charleston, and the talk fed upon itself. “Men of liberal sentiments consider all other causes as secondary, and of little moment, in comparison to the establishment of a free asylum for mankind,” he said. “Want of information makes them apprehensive of consequences too bad, and very distant from probability.” John Adams was “almost worn out” from reassuring allies and friends. (
PTJ,
III, 458–60.) Yet Jefferson's belief in the cause, however troubled the cause might be, was abiding.

“W
HILE
WE
ARE
”
PTJ,
III, 447.

AN
OTHER
T
ORY
UPRISING
Ibid., 479. On August 8, 1780, William Preston wrote: “A most horrid conspiracy amongst the Tories in this Country being providentially discovered about ten days ago.” (Ibid., 533.) Jefferson had specific thoughts about how to fight such rebellions: “It will probably be better to seek the insurgents and suppress them in their own settlements than to await their coming, as time and space to move in will perhaps increase their numbers,” he told Preston on July 3. (Ibid., 481.)

MORE
I
NDIAN
VIOLENCE
Ibid., 544.

E
LECTED
TO
A
SECOND
Ibid., 410. Jefferson was pleased and gratified. “I receive with great satisfaction this testimony of the public approbation,” he said on June 4, 1780. (Ibid., 417.)

C
ORNWALLIS
ROUTED
THE
A
MERICAN
GENERAL
Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
460–63. See also
PTJ,
III, 558–59. Edward Stevens told Jefferson to “picture it as bad as you possible can and it will not be as bad as it really is.” The militia had performed miserably. “Their cowardly behavior has indeed given a mortal wound to my feelings,” Stevens said. (Ibid.) While John Page thought Gates was to blame (“Did not the General venture on too boldly, relying too much on a continuance of his former good fortune?” [Ibid., 576]), Jefferson felt a personal responsibility for the loss and was humiliated by the reports of the Virginia militia's performance. “I am extremely mortified at the misfortune incurred in the South and the more so as the militia of our state concurred so eminently in producing it,” Jefferson wrote to Gates on September 3, 1780. (Ibid., 588.) To Edward Stevens, Jefferson tried to make the best of things. “I sincerely condole with you on our late misfortune which sits the heavier on my mind as being produced by my own countrymen,” he wrote. “Instead of considering what is past, however, we are to look forward and prepare for the future.” (Ibid., 593.) It was a mature point of view, but he could not hide his embarrassment.

He wanted out—or thought he did. “The application requisite to the duties of the office I hold is so excessive, and the execution of them after all so imperfect, that I have determined to retire from it at the close of the present campaign,” Jefferson wrote to Richard Henry Lee on September 13, 1780. “I wish a successor to be thought of in time who to sound whiggism can join perseverance in business, and an extensive knowledge of the various subjects he must superintend. Such a one may keep up above water even in our present moneyless situation.” (Ibid., 643.) He repeated his thoughts about standing down early to John Page, suggesting that perhaps Page should take his place. Page was having none of it, telling Jefferson that “should you resign, you will give me great uneasiness, and will greatly distress your country.” (Ibid., 655.)

C
ITING
THE
“
DISASTER
”
PTJ,
III, 564.

B
ENEDICT
A
RNOLD
,
THE
A
ME
RICAN
GENERAL
Boyer and Dobofsky,
Oxford Companion to United States History,
50. See also
MB,
I, 504–5. Jefferson's anger at Arnold was intense and personal. “You will readily suppose that it is above all things desirable to drag him from those under whose wing he is now sheltered,” Jefferson wrote General Peter Muhlenberg on January 31, 1781.

Jefferson wanted Arnold dead. “I shall be sorry to suppose that any circumstances may put it out of their power to bring him off alive after they shall have taken him and of course oblige them to put him to death,” Jefferson wrote in lines he deleted from the final version of the letter to Muhlenberg. “Should this happen … I must give my approbation to their putting him to death.” (
PTJ,
IV, 487.)

W
ORD
OF
THE
B
RITISH
ATTACK
Michael Kranish,
Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War
(New York, 2010), 166.

A
SERIES
OF
INVASION
RUMORS
Hoffman and Albert,
Sovereign States,
214–15.

CREATED
“
DISGUST
”
WHEN
T
HE
MILITIAMEN
Ibid.

HE
DE
CLINED
TO
CALL
OUT
Kranish,
Flight from Monticello,
166–67.

A
MESSENGER
FOUND
H
IM
Ibid., 166.

J
EFFERSON
HAD
IS
SUED
Ibid., 174–75.

R
OBERT
H
EMINGS
AND
J
AMES
H
EMINGS
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello,
6.

P
ROPERTY
J
EFFERSON
OWN
ED
ON
F
INE
C
REEK
Ibid., 124.

A
T
A
BOUT
ONE
O
'
CLOCK
Kranish,
Flight from Monticello,
191.

TOOK
OFF
THE
TOP
OF
A
BUTCHER
'
S
HOUSE
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello,
7.

“I
N
TEN
M
INUTES
”
Ibid., 7–8.

“T
HE
B
RITISH
W
AS
DRESSED
IN
RED
”
Ibid., 8.

S
PENT
THE
HOURS
OF
TH
E
INVASION
Kranish,
Flight from Monticello,
190.

BROUGH
T
ALONG
HANDCUFFS
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello,
9.

A
B
RITISH
OFFICER
AS
KED
Ibid., 8.

HIS
FATHER
HAD
“
PUT
ALL
THE
SILVER
”
Ibid.

“
LIKE
AN
EARTHQUAKE
”
Ibid., 9.

“
MEN
OF
ENTERPRISE
”
PTJ,
IV, 487. See also
JHT,
I, 340–41.

UNHAP
PY
AND
SKEPTICAL
McDonnell,
Politics of War,
399–477, is a brilliant account of the actual politics of the hour in Virginia. Militiamen disliked being too long away from home (ibid., 404–5), were uncomfortable serving under Continental officers (ibid., 405–10), and resisted draft orders from the Continental army (ibid., 411–19). “By this point, many Virginians were reluctant to aid the patriot cause in any way,” wrote McDonnell. “Many were tired of giving supplies—through both impressments and taxes—and getting little back.” (Ibid., 442.)