Joseph J. Ellis (47 page)

65.
Paltsits, ed.,
Washington’s Farewell Address
, 252–253.

66.
Though inadequate, the only book-length treatment of the subject is Fritz Hirschfeld,
George Washington and Slavery: A Documentary Portrayal
(St. Louis, 1997). Still valuable for its discussion of Washington’s posture as a slave owner is Flexner,
George Washington
, 432–448. The most thorough assessment in the recent works is Robert E. Dalzell, Jr., and Lee Baldwin Dalzell,
George Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America
(New York, 1998), 112, 211–219.

67.
Writings
, 956–957.

68.
Ibid., 957–960.

69.
Paltsits, ed.,
Washington’s Farewell Address
, 261–262; William Duane,
A Letter to George Washington … Containing Strictures of His Address
(Philadelphia, 1786), 11-12;
Aurora, 1
7 October 1796; Washington to Benjamin Walker, 12 January 1797, Fitzpatrick, vol. 35, 363–365.

70.
Washington to Citizens of Alexandria, 23 March 1797, Fitzpatrick, vol. 35, 423.

71.
Washington’s opinion concerning the state of Virginia’s politics is best expressed in Washington to Patrick Henry, 9 October 1795, ibid., 335. His views of the Republican party in the state after his retirement are illustrated in Washington to Henry Knox, 2 March 1797,
Writings
, 986–987, and Washington to Lafayette, 25 December 1798, Fitzpatrick, vol. 37, 66. Jefferson’s immediate opinion of Washington was equally critical: “The President is fortunate to get off just as the bubble is bursting, leaving others to hold the bag.… He will have his usual good fortune of reaping credit from the good arts of others, and leaving to them that of his errors.” See Jefferson to Madison, 8 January 1797, Smith, vol. 2, 955, and Malone,
Jefferson and His Times
, vol. 3, 307–311, who tries to paper over the rift. For Washington’s role in the construction of the nation’s capital, and his dedication to national rather than Virginia priorities, see C. M. Harris, “Washington’s Gamble, L’Enfant’s Dream: Politics, Design, and the Founding of the National Capital,”
WMQ
56 (July 1999): 527–564.

72.
Flexner,
George Washington
, 456–462.

  1.
Merrill Peterson,
Adams and Jefferson: A Revolutionary Dialogue
(Oxford, 1978), views the collaboration from Jefferson’s perspective. I have offered two accounts of the Adams-Jefferson partnership:
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams
(New York, 1993), 113–142; and
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
(New York, 1997), 235–251.

  2.
Abigail Adams to Jefferson, 6 June 1785, Cappon, vol. 1, 28.

  3.
This sketch of Adams’s career draws on the standard biographies: Gilbert Chi-nard,
Honest John Adams
(Boston, 1933); Page Smith,
John Adams
, 2 vols. (New York, 1962); Peter Shaw,
The Character of John Adams
(Chapel Hill, 1976). The most satisfying one-volume life, covering his entire public career with respect for the history in which it was imbedded, is John Ferling,
John Adams: A Life
(Knoxville, Tenn., 1992). Two succinct and shrewd appraisals of the Adams temperament are Bernard Bailyn,
Faces of Revolution: Personalities and Themes in the Struggle for American Independence
(New York, 1990), 3–21; and Edmund S. Morgan, “John Adams and the Puritan Tradition,”
NEQ
34 (1961): 518–529. The freshest and fullest study of Adams as a political thinker is C. Bradley Thompson,
John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty
(Lawrence, Kans., 1998).

  4.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 December 1793, Charles Francis Adams, ed.,
Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife
, 2 vols. (Boston, 1841), vol. 2, 133. There is no satisfactory book on the Adams vice presidency. Ferling,
John Adams, 1
85–217, offers the fullest coverage among the biographies. See also Linda Dudek Guerrero,
John Adams’s Vice-Presidency i/8p—p/: The Neglected Man in the Forgotten Office
(New York, 1982).

  5.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 December 1793, 12 March 1794,
Adams
, reel 377; Adams to Thomas Brand-Hollis, 19 February 1792,
Adams
, reel 375.

  6.
See the exchanges between Adams and Abigail, most especially during the period from 1794 to 1796,
Adams
, reels 378–381. Adams to Benjamin Rush, 4 April 1790, Alexander Biddle, ed.,
Old Family Letters
(Philadelphia, 1892), 168–170.

  7.
Adams to Ebenezer Stokes, 20 March 1790,
Adams
, reel 115.

  8.
James H. Hutson, “John Adams’s Title Campaign,” 1
11
41 (1968): 30–39; Jefferson to Madison, 29 July 1789, Boyd, vol. 15, 315–316.

  9.
Adams to William Tudor, 28 June 1789; Adams to Rush, 5 July 1789,
Adams
, reel 115.

10.
For an analysis of Adams’s political thought as reflected in
Discourses on Davila
, see Ellis,
Passionate Sage, 1
43–173, and Thompson,
John Adams, 1
49–173. For a convenient synthesis of the press coverage of Adams as a closet monarchist, see Dumas Malone,
Jefferson and His Times
, 6 vols. (Boston, 1948–1981), vol. 3, 283–285.

11.
Discourses on Davila
first appeared as a series of thirty-one articles in the
Gazette of the United States
, starting in April of 1790. Jefferson to Washington, 8 May 1791, Ford, vol. 5, 328–330; see also Jefferson in his “Anas,” Ford, vol. 1, 166–167; Jefferson to Adams, 30 August 1791; Adams to Jefferson, 39 July 1791, Cappon, vol. 1, 245–250.

12.
Jefferson to Adams, 30 August 1791, Cappon, vol. 1, 250. For Jefferson’s latter-day recollection of the episode, in which he emphasizes his abiding sense of Adams as a traitor to the republican tradition, see Jefferson to William Short, 3 January 1825, Ford, vol. 10, 328–335. Jefferson simply told Adams a different version of the story than he told everyone else.

13.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 February 1793,
Adams
, reel 376.

14.
For a convenient summary of Adams’s most colorful fulminations against the French Revolution, see Ellis,
Passionate Sage
, 91–98. For his assessment of Jefferson’s motives for supporting the French Revolution, see Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 February, 26 December 1793,
Adams
, reel 376.

15.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 January 1794,
Adams
, reel 377.

16.
Adams to John Quincy Adams, 3 January 1794, ibid.

17.
The seminal study of the Jefferson-Madison collaboration is Adrienne Koch,
Jefferson and Madison: The Great Collaboration
(New York, 1950). Madison to Jefferson, 5 October 1794, Smith, vol. 2, 857.

18.
Jefferson to Madison, 5 October 1794, 27 April 1795, Smith, vol. 2, 857, 897–898; Jefferson to Adams, 25 April 1794, Cappon, vol. 1, 254; Jefferson to Washington, 14 May 1794, Ford, vol. 6, 509–510. And these are merely illustrative of the much larger exchange in this vein.

19.
See Malone,
Jefferson and His Times
, vol. 3, 276–283, for an incisive discussion of the Burr visit and the political context in Virginia at this time. See Ellis,
American Sphinx, 1
21–133, for Jefferson’s capacity to seclude himself at Monticello while silently and surreptitiously launching a campaign for the presidency.

20.
Madison to Monroe, 26 February 1796, Smith, vol. 2, 940–941; Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 4 January 1797, Ford, vol. 7, 103.

21.
Three modern biographies of Abigail Adams are especially useful: Charles W. Akers,
Abigail Adams: An American Woman
(Boston, 1980); Lynne Withey,
Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams
(New York, 1981); Phyllis Lee Levin,
Abigail Adams: A Biography
(New York, 1987). Though not a full life, the best character study of Abigail is Edith B. Gelles,
Portia: The World of Abigail Adams
(Blooming-ton, IL, 1992). For the quotations, see Adams to Abigail Adams, 5 December, 16 December 1794,
Adams
, reel 378; Abigail Adams to Adams, 5 January 1795,
Adams
, reel 379.

22.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 December, 1793, 12 March 1794; Abigail Adams, 6 December 1794,
Adams
, reel 378.

23.
Abigail Adams to Adams, 4 January 1795; Adams to John Quincy Adams, 25 August 1795,
Adams
, reel 379.

24.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 2, 6 December 1794,
Adams
, reel 378; Abigail Adams to Adams, 10 April 1796,
Adams
, reel 381.

25.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 10 February 1796,
Adams
, reel 381.

26.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 February 1796, ibid.

27.
Abigail Adams to Adams, 21 January, 20 February 1796; Adams to Abigail Adams, 15, 19 March 1796, ibid.

28.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 January 1796, ibid.; Abigail Adams to Adams, 31 December 1796, 1 January 1797,
Adams
, reel 382.

29.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 8 April, 8, 12 December 1796,
Adams
, reels 381, 382.

30.
Jefferson to Madison, 1 January 1797, Smith, vol. 2, 953; Jefferson to Stuart,
4 January 1797, Ford, vol. 7, 102–103; Abigail Adams to Adams, 31 December 1796,
Adams
, reel 382.

31.
Jefferson to Madison, 22 January 1797, Smith, vol. 2, 959–960; Abigail Adams to Adams, 15 January 1797,
Adams
, reel 382.

32.
Fisher Ames to Rufus King, 24 September 1800, Charles R. King, ed.,
The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King
, 6 vols. (New York, 1895), vol. 3, 304; Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 20 February 1797,
Adams
, reel 117.

33.
Madison to Jefferson, 22 January 1797, Smith, vol. 2, 961.

34.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 March 1797,
Adams
, reel 382.

35.
Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, 27 December 1796, Ford, vol. 7, 93–95; Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, 28 November 1796, quoted in Malone,
Jefferson and His Times
, vol. 3, 290–291; Jefferson to Madison, 16 January 1797, Smith, vol. 2, 958–959.

36.
Jefferson to Madison, 8 January 1797, Smith, vol. 2, 955; Merrill D. Peterson,
Visitors to Monticello
(Charlottesville, 1989), 31.

37.
Jefferson to Adams, 28 December 1796, Smith, vol. 2, 954–955.

38.
Madison to Jefferson, 15 January 1797, ibid., 956–958.

39.
Jefferson to Madison, 30 January 1797, ibid., 962–963.

40.
Ford, vol. 1, 272–273; Smith, vol. 2, 966–997.

41.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 9, 17, 27 March 1797,
Adams
, reel 383.

42.
This is my own interpretive synthesis based on the standard accounts of the Adams presidency: Stephen G. Kurtz,
The Presidency of John Adams: The Collapse of Federalism, 1795–1800
(Philadelphia, 1957); Manning Dauer,
The Adams Federalists
(Baltimore, 1953); Ralph A. Brown,
The Presidency of John Adams
(Lawrence, KS, 1975). The authoritative account of this entangled moment in American politics is Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick,
The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1787–1800
(New York, 1993), 513–528.

43.
Jefferson to Rutledge, 24 June 1797, Ford, vol. 7, 154–155; Jefferson to John Wise, 12 February 1798; Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 17 May 1798, Smith, vol. 2, 996, 1063.

44.
Adams to John Quincy Adams, 3 November 1797,
Adams
, reel 117.

45.
Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, 8 June 1798,
Adams
, reel 392; Smith,
John Adams
, vol. 2, 933.

46.
Adams to John Quincy Adams, 2 June 1797,
Adams
, reel 119.

47.
Abigail Adams to Mary Cranch, 20 March 1798, Stewart Mitchell, ed.,
New Letters of Abigail Adams, 1788–1801
(Boston, 1947), 146–147.

48.
Smith,
John Adams
, vol. 2, 937.

49.
Ibid, 958; Abigail Adams to William Smith, 20, 30 March 1798,
Adams
, reel 392; Smith, vol. 2, 1010.

50.
The standard work on the Alien and Sedition Acts is James Morton Smith,
Freedom’s Letters: The Alien and Sedition Laws and American Civil Liberties
(Ithaca,
N.Y., 1956). Among Adams’s biographers, Smith,
John Adams
, vol. 2, 975–978, tends to defend Adams by playing down the severity of the threat to civil liberties; Ferling,
John Adams
, 365–368, sees this episode as a major blunder by Adams. The discussion in Elkins and McKitrick,
The Age of Federalism
, 590–593, 694–695, is elegantly balanced and warns against imposing our modern notion of civil liberties or freedom of the press on an age that was still groping toward a more expansive version of First Amendment protections. This latter warning, which strikes me as historically, if not politically, correct, clearly needs to be underlined. As a monumental example of how to make all the presentistic mistakes, see Richard Rosenfeld’s blunderbuss of a book,
American Aurora: A Democratic-Republican Returns
(New York, 1997).

51.
Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 25 April 1798, quoted in Ferling,
John Adams
, 365; Abigail Adams to Cranch, 26 April 1798, Mitchell, ed.,
New Letters, 1
65; Smith, vol. 2, 1003–1005.

52.
Richard Welch,
Theodore Segwick, Federalist: A Political Portrait
(Middletown, Conn., 1965), 185–186; Syrett, vol. 22, 494–495; Abigail Adams to Adams, 3 March 1799,
Adams
, reel 393.