Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (82 page)

“I
T
IS
IMPOSSI
BLE
”
Ibid., 45.

THE
KING
SUMMON
ED
AN
A
SSEMBLY
OF
N
OTA
BLES
PTJ,
XI, 31–32. “You will have seen in the public papers that the king has called an Assembly of the Notables of his country,” Jefferson told John Jay in January 1787. “This has not been done for 160 years past.” (Ibid., 31.)

“O
F
COURSE
”
Ibid.

“S
H
OULD
THEY
ATTEMPT
”
JHT,
II, 182.

T
HE
A
SSEMBLY
OF
N
OTABLES
FAILED
Neely,
Concise History of the French Revolution,
47.

ONE
FROM
THE
M
ARQUIS
DE
L
AFAYETTE
Ibid.

CR
EATED
IN
THE
M
IDDLE
A
G
ES
Ibid., 6.

I
TS
LAST
MEETING
HAD
BEEN
HELD
IN
1614
Ibid.

“W
E
TALKED
ABOUT
THE
E
STABLISHMENT
”
Ibid., 57.

“T
HE
IN
EFFICACY
OF
OUR
GOVE
RNMENT
”
PTJ,
X, 488.

A
GROUP
LED
BY
D
ANIEL
S
HAYS
Wilentz,
Rise of American Democracy,
30–32. See also
EOL,
111; William Hogeland,
The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty
(New York, 2006), 52–53; and Don Higginbotham, “War and State Formation in Revolutionary America” in Gould and Onuf,
Empire and Nation,
67. There were international sources for the discontent. Several of the eastern states, Jefferson wrote, “depended before the war chiefly on their whale oil and fish. The former was consumed in London, but being now loaded there with heavy duties, cannot go there. Much of their fish went up the Mediterranean, now shut to us by the piratical states. Their debts therefore press them, while the means of payment have lessened.” (
PTJ,
X, 631.)

“A
SPIRIT
OF
LICENTIOUSNE
SS
”
PTJ,
X, 488. Ezra Stiles of Yale wrote Jefferson about the rebellion on September 14, 1786: “Our enemies are fomenting discord among us and have succeeded to excite some tumults and popular insurrections.” (Ibid., 386.) Liberty would be safe, Stiles said, so long as “property in the United States is so minutely partitioned and transfused among the inhabitants.” (Ibid.)

John Jay also sent Jefferson newspaper accounts of the unrest. “A reluctance to taxes, an impatience of government, a rage for property, and little regard to the means of acquiring it, together with a desire of equality in all things, seem to actuate the mass of those who are uneasy in their circumstances,” Jay wrote. (Ibid., 489.)

To Stiles, Jefferson replied: “The commotions which have taken place in America, as far as they are yet known to me, offer nothing threatening. They are a proof that the people have liberty enough, and I would not wish them less than they have. If the happiness of the mass of the people can be secured at the expense of a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious purchase.
Malo libertatum periculosam quam quietam servitutem
. Let common sense and common honesty have fair play and they will soon set things to rights.” (Ibid., 629.)

SOUGHT
TO
REA
SSURE
J
EFFERSON
Ibid., 557. Contradicting her husband on the Shays violence, Abigail Adams had a different, darker view, writing Jefferson: “With regard to the tumults in my native state … Instead of that laudable spirit which you approve, which makes a people watchful over their liberties and alert in the defense of them, these mobbish insurgents are for sapping the foundation, and destroying the whole fabric at once.” (Ibid., XI, 86.)

“I
CAN
NEVER
FEAR
”
Ibid., 619.

THE
RE
MIGHT
BE
C
ANADIAN
DESIGNS
Ibid., 596.

AN
“
IDEA
THA
T
MAY
DO
”
Ibid. William S. Smith was explicit about the connection between the British and Indians. “I hope there will not be any necessity for [the] spilling of blood, for there is no knowing where it will end,” Smith wrote Jefferson. “If there is an appearance of it, may we not shelter ourselves from the horror and inconvenience of internal commotion by turning the tide on these Britons by a formal declaration of war[?] They are at the bottom of it, and merit our highest indignation.” (Ibid., XI, 90.)

“
T
HE
BASIS
OF
OUR
GOVERNMENTS
”
Ibid., 49.

A
LETTER
TO
M
ADISON
Ibid., 92–97.

“I
HOLD
IT
THAT
A
LITTLE
REBELLIO
N
”
Ibid., 93.

JOURNEY
THROUGH
T
HE
SOUTH
Ibid., 415–64. See also TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/journey-through-france-and-italy-1787 (accessed 2011).

“A
RCHITECTU
RE
,
PAINTING
,
SCULPTUR
E
PTJ,
XI, 215.

“I
AM
NOW
IN
THE
L
AND
”
Ibid., 247.

THE
C
ONSTITUTION
AL
C
ONVENTION
HAD
BEG
UN
Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
642–44.

SKEPTICAL
OF
A
PROPOSAL
Ibid., 480–81.

P
OLLY
DID
NOT
WANT
TO
PART
WI
TH
THE
MAN
Ibid., 501–2.

“T
HE
OLD
NURSE
WHOM
YOU
”
Ibid., 502.

APPE
ARED
NEARLY
WHITE
Bear,
Jefferson at Monticello,
4. The source is Isaac Jefferson, who said: “Sally Hemings's mother Betty was a bright mulatto woman, and Sally mighty near white.” (Ibid.)

“
VERY
HANDSOME
, [
WITH
]
LONG
HAIR
ST
RAIGHT
DOWN
HER
BACK
”
Ibid.

WAS
WELL
DEVELOPED
Gordon-Reed,
Hemingses of Monticello,
194–95. I am indebted to Gordon-Reed for her insights on possibilities suggested by Abigail Adams's account of receiving Sally Hemings.

A
BIGAIL
A
DAMS
GUE
SSED
SHE
WAS
OLDER
Ibid.

R
AMSEY
WAS
HOPING
Ibid., 197–208.

“I
TELL
HER
THAT
I
DID
NO
T
”
Ibid., 502.

SHOULD
COME
FETCH
HIS
YOUNGER
DAUGHTE
R
Ibid.

“
AS
CONTENTED
 … 
AS
SHE
WAS
MISERABLE
”
Ibid., 503.

“T
HE
GIRL
WHO
IS
WITH
[P
OLLY
]”
Ibid.

J
EFFERSON
THANKED
A
BIG
AIL
Ibid., 514–15.

C
RYING
AND
“
THRO
WN
INTO
ALL
”
Ibid., 551.

P
OLLY
J
E
FFERSON
AND
S
ALLY
H
EMI
NGS
ARRIVED
MB,
I, 674.

“S
HE
HA
D
TOTALLY
FORGOTTEN
”
PTJ,
XI, 592.

“H
ER
READING
,
HER
WR
ITING
”
Ibid., 634.

“I
T
IS
REALLY
”
Ibid., XII, 69.

“N
OTHING
CAN
EXCEED
”
Ibid., 103.

“T
HE
REPORT
OF
AN
INTENTION
”
Dunbar,
Study of “Monarchical” Tendencies,
96.

H
AMILTO
N
WAS
SAID
TO
BELIEV
E
Ibid., 97.

ALLEGED
PLAN
OF
H
A
MILTON
'
S
“
THAT
HAD
IN
VIEW
”
Ibid., 96–97.

“A
T
THIS
MOMEN
T
THERE
IS
NOT
”
Brymner, Douglas,
Report on Canadian Archives, 1890,
97–98. Lord Dorchester sent this report to Lord Sydney on April 10, 1787.

“T
H
EY
ARE
DIVIDED
INTO
THREE
”
Ibid., 99.

A
CRISIS
IN
T
HE
U
NITED
N
ETHERLANDS
JHT,
II, 184–87.

“I
T
CONVEYS
TO
US
THE
IMPORTANT
LESSON
”
Ibid., 184.

“W
E
ARE
,
THER
EFORE
,
NEVER
SAFE
”
Ibid., 187.

G
E
ORGE
W
ASHINGTON
DISPA
TCHED
PTJ,
XII, 149–50.

B
ENJAMIN
F
RAN
KLIN
SENT
ONE
Ibid., 236–37.

LETTE
RS
ABOUT
THE
C
ONSTITU
TION
FLOWED
“It has in my mind great faults, but … it is fairly to be concluded that this is a better scheme than can be looked for from another experiment,” wrote Edward Carrington. (Ibid., 255.) St. John de Crèvecoeur told Jefferson, “I trust that every man who [is] attached to the glory and happiness of his country, as well as to his property, will be for it.” (Ibid., 332.)

IT
“
SEEMS
TO
BE
”
Ibid., 335.

“H
OW
DO
YOU
LIKE
”
Ibid., 350–51.

“H
E
MAY
BE
REELECTED
FROM
”
Ibid., 351.