Read Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power Online

Authors: Jon Meacham

Tags: #Biography, #History, #Non-Fiction, #Politics, #Goodreads 2012 History

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (90 page)


A
NUMBER
OF
CITIZENS

Ibid.

CONSIDER
RETURNING
TO
P
ARIS
Ibid., 243–45. Washington, who characteristically took a moderate position, tended to be warmer toward the French in his conversations with Jefferson. The president, Jefferson wrote on January 3, 1793, said “he considered
France as the sheet anchor of this country and its friendship as a first object
. There are in the U.S. some characters of opposite principles; some of them are high in office, others possessing great wealth, and all of them hostile to France and looking fondly to England as the staff of their hope.… The little party above mentioned have espoused it only as a stepping stone to monarchy, and have endeavored to approximate it to that in its administration, in order to render its final transition more easy.” (Ibid., 14–15.)

W
ASHINGTON
'
S
REPLY
WAS
POINTED
Ibid., 244.

J
EFFERSON
STRUCK
BACK
Ibid.

ASKED
J
E
FFERSON

TO
CONSIDER
MATURELY

Ibid.

TWENTY
-
SIX
·
THE END OF A STORMY TOUR

“I
FEE
L
FOR
YOUR
SITUATION

PTJ,
XXVI, 133.

T
HE
PLANTATION
WAS
CALLED
B
IZARRE
See Cynthia A. Kierner,
Scandal at Bizarre: Rumor and Reputation in Jefferson's America
(New York, 2004), for details and analysis of the episode.

“N
EVER
THROW
OFF
THE
BES
T
AFFECTIONS

PTJ,
XXV, 621.

“I
N
TH
E
COURSE
OF
OUR
CONV
ERSATION

Ibid., 301–2.

SHOULD
NOT

SUFFER
YOURSELF

Ibid., 304.

“M
R
. J
EFFERSON
[
IS
]
 … 
DISTINGUISHED
AS

The Words of Thomas Jefferson
(Charlottesville, Va., 2008), 200. On the public debt, Jefferson said he believed “the only difference which I can see between the two parties is that the republican one wish it could be paid tomorrow, the fiscal party wish it to be perpetual, because they find in it an engine for corrupting the legislature.” (
PTJ,
XXV, 318.) For a list of stockholders in the Congress, see ibid., 432–35.

Civility was strained. “I understood on Saturday from the Attorney General,” Hamilton wrote Jefferson, “that it was your wish a meeting should be had—to which I replied, in substance, that I considered it in your power to convene one; and should attend if called upon; but that I did not perceive the utility of one at this time.” (Ibid., 440.)

A
HOUSE
ON
THE
S
CHUYLKILL
R
IVER
Ibid., 353.

“F
ROM
M
ONTICELLO
YOU

Ibid., 444.


OUR
REPUBLIC

PTJ,
XXVI, 101.


YOU
R
M
IN
.
PLEN
.”
Ibid.


CERTAINL
Y
OURS
WAS
A
REPUBLI
CAN

Ibid., 101–2.

“K
NOX
TOLD
SOME

Ibid., 554–55.


MAKE
HIM
BELIEVE

Ibid., 522.

“H
E
WAS
EVIDENTLY
SORE

Ibid., 102.

THE
F
RENCH
R
EPUBLIC
D
ECLARED
WAR
ON
B
RITAI
N
EOL,
177.

“I
T
HAS
BEEN
ASKE
D

PTJ,
XXVI, 272–73.


UNCONSTITUTIONA
L
AND
IMPROPER

Ibid., 382. “I am extremely afraid that the P. may not be sufficiently aware of the snares that may be laid out for his good intentions by men whose politics at bottom are very different from his own,” Madison wrote in June 1793. “An assumption of prerogatives not clearly found in the Constitution and having the appearance of being copied from a monarchial model will beget animadversion equally mortifying to him, and disadvantageous to the government.” (Ibid., 273.)


WE
HAD
NOT
OBJECTED

Ibid., XXVII, 400.

“O
T
HER
QUESTIONS
AND
AN
SWERS

Ibid., 401.


THOUGH
IT
WO
ULD
BE
A
GOOD
THING

Ibid., 428.

E
DMOND
-C
HARLES
G
ENET
Ibid., XXV, 469–70. Washington, who was to be away, told Jefferson that Genet “should unquestionably be received, but he thought not with too much warmth or cordiality.” Jefferson “wondered at first at this restriction; but.… became satisfied it was a small sacrifice to the opinion of Hamilton.” (Ibid.)


LENGTHY
CONSIDERAT
IONS

Ibid., 469

J
EFFERSON
HOPE
D
AN
ENTHUSIASTIC
PU
BLIC
RECEPTION
Ibid., 619. On April 28, 1793, he wrote Madison: “We expect Mr. Genet here within a few days. It seems as if his arrival would furnish an occasion for the
people
to testify their affections without respect to the cold caution of their government.” (Ibid.)

TH
E
ENVOY
WAS
ORGANIZI
NG
PRIVATEERS
EOL,
185–89.

“H
OTH
EADED
,
ALL
IMAGINATIO
N

PTJ,
XXVI, 444.

I
NDEED
G
ENET
DID
EOL,
188.


NOT
AS
SECRETARY
OF
STATE

Ibid.

TO
REC
ALL
G
ENET
PTJ,
XXVI, 598, 685–715. There was a second element to the decision: that Genet be informed of the requested recall. Jefferson disagreed with the last, thinking “it would render him extremely active in his plans, and endanger confusion. But I was overruled by the other three gentlemen and the President.” (Ibid., 598.)

H
AMILTON
HAD
WON
THIS
BATTLE
Ibid., 502–3. “H., sensible of the advantage they have got, is urging a full appeal by the government to the people” to have Genet recalled to France, Jefferson said. “Such an explosion would manifestly endanger a dissolution of the friendship between the two nations.” (Ibid.)

“H
E
WILL
SINK

Ibid., 606.

“T
O
MY
FELLOW
-
CITIZENS

Ibid., 239.

“T
H
E
MOTION
OF
MY
BLOOD

Ibid., 240.

“W
ORN
DOWN

Ibid., 240–41.


TORN
T
O
PIECES
AS
WE
ARE

Ibid., 552.

A
RUMOR
REACHED
J
EFFERSON
Ibid., 219.

WHAT
WERE
CALLED
D
EMOCRAT
IC
-R
EPUBLICAN
SOCIETI
ES
Ibid., 601–3.

“T
HE
P
RESIDENT
WAS
MUCH
INFLAMED

Ibid., 602–3.

J
EFF
ERSON
WANTED
OUT
Ibid., 593–94, 660. For a benign view of Jefferson's motivations, see Philip M. Marsh, “Jefferson's Retirement as Secretary of State,”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
69, no. 3 (July 1945): 220–24.

HE
PAID
A
CALL
PTJ,
XXVI, 627–30. For Jefferson's successor, Washington's mind was on the politics of the moment. He liked Robert R. Livingston of New York, but “to appoint him while Hamilton was in and before it should be known he was going out, would excite a newspaper conflagration, as the ultimate arrangement would not be known.” (Ibid., 629.)

THE

PARTICULAR
UNEASINE
SS

Ibid., 628.


THE
CONSTITUTIO
N
WE
HAVE

Ibid.


MEN
NEVE
R
CHOSE
TO
DESCEND

Ibid., 630.

Y
ELLOW
FEVER
STRUCK
Ibid., XXVII, 7.

“I
T
HAS
NOW
GOT

Ibid.

“V
IEWING
WI
TH
SORROW

Ibid., 334.

“H
AMILTON
IS
ILL
OF
THE
FEVER

Ibid., 62.

“I
WOULD
REALLY
GO
AW
AY

Ibid.


WITH
SINCERE
RE
GRET

Ibid., XXVIII, 3.

“L
ET
A
CONVICTI
ON

Ibid.


THAT
R
ICHMOND
IS
MY
NEAREST
PORT

Ibid., XXVII, 661.


C
OVERED
WITH
GLORY

PTJ,
XXVIII, 7.

THE
MARVEL
OF
HOW
WELL
Adams, ed.,
Letters of John Adams,
II, 240.

“J
EFFERSO
N
WENT
OFF

Words of Thomas Jefferson,
201.

“M
Y
PRIV
ATE
BUSINESS

PTJ,
XXVIII, 14.

TWENTY
-
SEVEN
·
IN WAIT AT MONTICELLO

“T
O
PRESERVE
THE
FRE
EDOM

PTJ,
XXXI, 128.

“I
LIVE
ON
MY
H
ORSE

PTJ,
XXVIII, 332.

“I
ENTREAT
YOU

Ibid., 607.

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