The character of Thomas Jefferson, as exhibited in his own writings

Chapter I

Introductory remarks — Diiferent opinions of Mr. Jefferson's character- -His Correspondence left for publication — Causes of the Federalists' opposition to Mr. Jeiferson — Mr. Jefferson long in public employment — Was opposed to the Constitution — Correspondence on that subject — Attachment to Revolutionary France — Report on Commerce — Madison's Resolutions — Intended to turn the trade of the United States from Great Britain to France — The sentiments of Federalists justified by events — Mr. Jefferson's confidence in Bonaparte — Change in his feelings in 1814.

Chapter II

The Federalists opposed to Mr. Jefferson because he used the government patronage to promote his own and his party's interests — Case of the removal of the New Haven collector — Letter to the New Haven merchants — Collector not removed for want of integrity, capacity or fidelity — Attempt to fix the charge of political intolerance upon Mr. Adams — If it lay against any person, it was Gen. Washington — Doors of honor, &c., burst open by Mr. Jefferson's election — Origin of the doctrine that a change of administrition involves the principle of a change of subordinate ofiicers — His election considered by him as a revolution — All executive officers viewed by him as executive agents — Proved by a letter to J. MuiiDe.

Chapter III

FedcTalists opposed to Mr. Jefferson because of his known opposition to an independent Judiciary — Letter to Ritchie, December 25, 1820— To Melish, January 1813— To Nicholas, December, 1313 — To Barry, July, 1822 — Importanct of Judicial Indepen-

IV. CONTENTS.

dence — Language used by Mr. Jeffersoa on ihe subject — His opposition to Courts manifested in the prosecution of Burr — Review of Burr's alleged conspiracy, and the proceedings of the government in relation to it — More attempted lo be made of it than the facts would warrant — Nothing said about it by the Executive, after the Message at the opening of the session, until January 22 — Article published on the same subject in the Richmond Enquirer — Burr's arrest and trial — Correspondence relating to the trial — Attack upon Judge Marshall's character — Mr. Jefferson objects in this affair political — Charges the Federalists with favoring Burr — Correspondence on the subject — Hostility to Judge Marshall on the ground of Burr's acquittal.

Chapter IV

Federalists opposed Mr. Jefferson on the ground of his unsound and dangerous opinions respecting the constitution — Correspondence with Mrs. Adams — Friendship for Mr. Adams — Paying Callendar — His acquaintance with Callendar — Discharge of persons convicted under the sedition law, because he conceived the law a nullity — His sentiments respecting the power of the executive to decide on the constitutionality of laws. The executive and judicial powers equal in this case — The sincerity of Mr. Jefferson's professions of friendship for Mr. Adams — Publication of Paine's Rights of Man — Mr. Jefferson's letter to general Washington in relation to it.

Chapter V

Mr. Jefferson's opinion that one generation of men cannot bind J another, individually or collectively, to the fulfilment of obligations — Letter to James Madison on the subject, dated September, 1789 — to doctor Gem — to J. W. Eppes — to J. Cartwright, dated June, 1824 — Examination of his principle — Mr. Jefferson a mere partizan in politics — Letter to F. Hopkinson, March, 1789 — Correspondence respecting the operations of the federal government, 1790, 1791 — Origin of the Ana — Monarchy — Controversy of those days between the advocates of kingly and republican government.

CONTENTS. V-

Chapter VI

Annapolis Convention, 1786— Difference of opinion in that body between a republican or kingly government — Account of that Convention from Pitkin's History — From the Life of Jay — Attempts of the friends of a kingly government, at the Convention, to prevent the formation of a republican government, for the purpose of introducing a monarchy — The charge shoAvn by facts to be unfounded — Only five of the thirteen States represented— His knowledge of the Convention derived from hearsay — No proof of it has ever been adduced — The same charge made against the same party at the Convention which framed the Constitution in 1787 — The Ana utterly unworthy of credit — Mr. Jefferson's enmity against A. Hamilton, its origin and its object — The charge of monarchical principles intended to promote his own interests.

Chapter VII

Mr. Jefferson had no regard for the constitution if it stood in the way of his interests — Treaty-making power — Opposed to Mr. Jay's treaty with Great Britain — Attempts to prevent its ratification — Doctrine advanced by him regarding the power of the representatives over treaties — Letters to Monroe and Madison — Gallatin's and Madison's opinions — Livingston's resolution in the House of Representatives — Arguments used on both sides in debate — Resolution adopted by House of Representatives — Mr. Jefferson's sentiments opposed to the constitution, of which he seemed to be sensible — His sentiments contradicted in the case of the treaty with France, in 1831 ; but urged against that treaty by members of the French legislature — Livingston at this time minister at Paris, and obliged to act in opposition to the sentiments avowed by him on Mr. Jay's treaty.

Chapter VIII

Mr. Jefferson a secret enemy of general Washington — Ambitious of being considered as the greatest political character of his country — Willing to concede to Washington pre-eminence as a military officer, but not as a statesman — Formed a French party soon after his return from France — Accused the federalists of British

VI. CONTENTS.

partialities — Aristocratic and monarchical propensities — Proclamation of neutrality— Strongly opposed by the French party- Extracts from newspapers concerning it — Attacks upon the executive as the enemy of France — Philip Freneau and the National Gazette — Conversation between general Washington and Mr. Jefferson respecting that paper— His enmity to Washington more manifest after the Whisky insurrection broke out — President's speech to congress, November, 1794 — Allusion to democratic societies as the sources of it — Mr. Jefferson's opinion of insurrections, November, 1787 — Sentiments respecting the] Whisky insurrection — Democratic societies and the Cincinnati — Judge Marshall's account of the insurrection, and its suppression — Letter to Mazzei — to James Madison — Effects of general Washington's popularity — John Jay's corruption — Letter to Aaron Burr respecting Washington !

Chapter IX

Mr. Jefferson afraid to attack general Washington's character openly — Letter to W. Jones, January, 1814, a specimen of his insidiousness — Great body of republicans think of Washington as he does — His belief that we should eventually come to something like the British constitution had some weight in his adopting levees, &x. — Pains taken by the federalists to make him Triew Jefferson as a theorist, &c. — Jefferson never saw Washington after the former left the state department, otherwise these impressions would have been dissipated — Letter from Jefferson to M. Van Buren, June, 1824 — Notice of charges in a work published by T. Pickering — Letter to Mazzei — Not a word in that letter that would not be approved by every republican in the United States — Not a word in that letter about France — By forms of British government was meant levees, &c. — Subject of ceremonies at Washington's second election referred to heads of departments — Jefferson and Hamilton thought there was too much ceremony — The phrase, " Samsons in the Jield,'^ Tciesmt the society of the Cincinnati — Jefferson says general Washington knew this — Never had any reason to believe that general Washington's feelings towards him ever changed — Washington a sincere friend to the republican principle — Knew Jefferson's suspi-

CONTENTS. Vll.

cions of Hamilton — After the retirement of his first cabinet, general Washington fell into federal hands — Eemarks on this letter.

Chapter X

The society of Cincinnati could not have been meant by the phrase " Samsons in the field " — The language of the Mazzei letter, as published in Jefferson's Works, absurd — Jefferson's last parting with general Washington — The time of his death, as stated in the letter to Van Buren not true — Federalists, pretending to be Washington's friends, did what they could to sink his character — The measures of his second administration not imputable to him, but to his counselors — Not approved by the republicans — Answers of the houses to his speech when about to retire, opposed by Giles — Judge Marshall's account of the feelings of the republican party upon the ratification of the British treaty — Letters to Melish, W. Jones, and John Adams — Jefferson says general Washington was not a federalist — No truth in the assertion that Washington was not a federalist — Letter to Jay, May, 1796 — ^-Letter to Jefferson, July, 1796— No correspondence after this letter appears on Washington's books with Jefferson — Letter to La Fayette, December, 1798 — to Timothy Pickering, January, 1799— To P. Henry, January, 1799— Letters to H. Lee— [Bache's and Freneau's papers, and western insurrection] — Letter to J. Jay — Washington not a republican in the sense of Jefferson — Washington a federalist — Letter to B. Washington, May, 1799 — Jefferson's letters intended for history.

Chapter XI

Mr. Jefferson's last parting with general Washington at Mr Adams's inauguration, March, 1797 — Washington's faculties impaired — He had become alienated from Jefferson — general Washington's powers of mind never stronger than at the period alluded to — The origin, character, and object of Jefferson's Ana — Persons employed in collecting materials for the work — Story of Sir I. Temple, Hamilton, King and Smith — Story of governor Clinton and a militia general — Conversation between Langdon and Cabot, reported by Lear — Story from Baldwin and Skinner — Jefferson's account of the convention of 1787 — Account not

Vlll. CONTENTS.

entitled to credit — The constitution made by federalists — Opposed by Jefferson's republicans — The account of both conventions untrue — Not a delegate from the eastern states at Annapolis — Assumption state debts part of a system of corruption — Scheme Hamilton's, Washington ignorant of the plan — Hamilton a monarchist — Conversation at Jefferson's dinner table — Conversation in August, 1791, between Jefferson and Hamilton about the constitution — Hamilton's opinion of it — Practice of noting do\\Ti private conversations insidious — Such evidence unworthy of credit — Conversation between Jefferson and Washington, October, 1792 — Jefferson informed Washington that Hamilton was a monarchist — Character of Hamilton by judge Marshall — Washington's letter, accepting Hamilton's resignation.

Chapter XII

Mr. Jefferson's policy to render the federalists unpopular by stigmatizing them as monarchists — In his letter to Mazzei he charges general Washington with being a monarchist — John Adams originally a republican — Essex federalists — No proof adduced to support the charge — Truth to be ascertained by the measures of the government while under their control — Judiciary — Payment of the national debt — Hamilton's funding system adopted — National bank — Opposed by the republicans — Its constitutionality established by the supreme court and acknowledged by congress— Not monarchical — The true ground of opposition its being owned and managed by federalists — Establishment of a navy — Its necessity and utility universally admitted — Mr. Jefferson's opposition to the British treaty and wish to screen Genet, evidence of his attachment to France — Jefferson discovered nothing monarchical in the federalists until after his party was formed — Letter to Carmichael, March, 1791 — Sentiments in the Ana in 1818 — His greatest apprehension of monarchy arose from the levees, &c. — All ground of fear had been removed before his Ana were written.

Chapter XIII

The federalists had no confidence in Mr. Jefferson as a politician

CONTENTS, IX.

— His election a revolution — To ascertain the nature of that revolution his messages to congress must be examined — No act alluded to in his messages to congress as having a monarchical tendency — No original national measures recommended by him but gun-boats and dry docks — Letter to'Nicholson on gun-boats — Committee' under Madison on gun-boats — Secretary of navy's report to that committee — Correspondence between general Washington and Nicholas, &c., respecting John Langhorne.

Chapter XIV

Mr. Jefferson's feelings on his return from France in 1789 — Found here a preference for kingly government prevalent — Mr. Jefferson an ambitious man — Called himself a republican and his opponents monarchists — Monarchy talked of at dinner parties — Attacks upon Hamilton — Asserts that Hamilton introduced a draft of a constitution to the convention for a monarchy— Letter from Hamilton to T. Pickering on his proposition for a constitution — No monarchical feature in it — The charge of monarchical principles in the federalists traced by Jefferson to the conventions of 1786 and 1787 — Judge Marshall's notice of the convention of 1787 — Names of some of the principal members of that body — Mr. Jefferson's artful manner of establishing his claim to a republican character — Letter to R. M. Johnson — Conversation with general AVashington — Character of the early federalists — Great courage necessary to attempt the destruction of general Washington's character.

Chapter XV

Alien and sedition laws — Reasons for passing the alien law — Copy of the act — Zealously opposed by Mr. Jefferson — His opinion of it as expressed in his letters — Urges Pendleton to write against it — Copy of parts of the sedition law — His opinion of it as ex pressed in a letter to Mrs. Adams — Petitions to congress for the repeal of the laws — Report of committee in the house of representatives — Letter to Madison, February, 1799, giving an account of the proceedings in the house on the report — Law respecting alien enemies— Still in force— Extract from Tucker's Life of Jefferson — His object in opposing the law to court popu.

X. CONTENTS.

larity, and render the federalists unpopular — Letter from general Washington to Spotswood, on the alien and sedition laws — Letter toB. Washington — Prosecutions under the sedition law- Persons convicted pardoned by Jefferson — Prosecutions in Connecticut — Case of Rev. Dr. Backus — Letter from Jefferson to W. C. Nicholas, professing ignorance of these cases — Facts to show that he was acquainted with them.

Chapter XVI

The Federalists believed Mr, Jefferson insincere and hypocritical — Professed great friendship for John Adams in a letter to Mrs. Adams, in 1804— In a letter to general Washington, in 1791, he charges Mr. Adams with apostacy to monarchy — The friendly intercourse between them not interrupted by this apostacy, but by Mr. Adams's appointments to office at the close of his admin-

~ istration— Apparent that Jefferson had, upon coming into the secretary of state's office, laid his plan to place himself at the head of the government — Hamilton, being a more formidable obstacle to his ambition than Adams, became the object of peculiar animosity — Correspondence between general Washington and Jefferson and Hamilton, in August, 1792, respecting dissensions in the cabinet — Washington's letter to Jefferson — Letter to Hamilton — 3Ir. Jefferson's answer, September, 1792 — Reasons for employing Freneau — Objections to the constitution, that it wanted a bill of rights, &c. — Says Hamilton's objection was, that it wanted a king and house of lords — Hamilton made great exertions in the formation and adoption of the constitution — Jefferson did nothing — Hamilton's answer to Washington's letter, August, 1792 — Washington's confidence in Hamilton never shaken by Jefferson's attempts to that end — Jefferson never appealed to the country, as suggested in his letter.

Chapter XVII

Mr. Jefferson made use of unworthy means to gain popularity — Alleges that he had more confidence in the people than general Washington had ; which was the only point on which they differed — He assumed the title of " Friend of the People " — Dress-

CONTENTS. ' XI.

ed plainly — affected unassuming manners — professed never to have written a word for newspapers — He urged others to write — In one instance he wrote himself, but proposed to procure somebody to father it — Tells Madison he must take up his pen in reply to Hamilton — Letter to E. Pendleton, Jan. 1799, urges him to write on the negociation with France — Letter to Madison, and calls upon him to write — The federalists viewed Jefferson as an unbeliever in Christianity — Letter to Dr. Priestly, JMarch, 1804 — Letter to Dr. Rush, April, 1803 — estimate of the merits of the doctrines of Jesus, compared with the others — Letter to J. Adams, August, 1813— Letter to W. Short, April, 1820— Jefferson a materialist J Jesus on the side of spiritualism — Paul the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus — Letter to Short, Aug. 1820 — The God of the Jev/s cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust — Letter to J. Adams, April, 1823 — The three first verses of John, 1st chapter, mistranslated — Jefferson not a Christian — doubtful whether he believed in a God — His translation of John 1st absurd — Recapitulation of the subjects in the work — Conclusion.

Ekrata. — Oa page 64, line 20, read, least color; 65, 5th line from bottom, judice ; 11 , 2d line from bottom, insert instead of after the word that ; 95, line 5, Tea.d,Jiftt/ years ; 103, line 5, read are called ; 106, first line, read address ; 116, 2d line from bottom and on pa.s^es 187, and 193, read Backers paper; 117 and 121, read gulped; 121, 2d line from bottom, read changed; 123, 4th line from bottom, read 1795 ; and on pages 125, 144, 158, read Mazzei ; 305, line 10 from bottom, read Tapping Reeve ; 308, line 18 from top, read David M. Randolph.

CHARACTER OF JEFFERSON.

Chapter I

introductory remarks — Diflferent opinions of Mr. Jefferson's character — His Correspondence left for publication— Causes of the Federalists' opposition to Mr. Jefferson — Mr. Jefierson long in public employment — Wets opposed to the Constitution — Correspondence on that subject — Attachment to revolutionary France — Report on Commerce — Madison's Resolutions — Intended to turn the trade of the United States from Great Britain to France — The sentiments of Federalits justified by events — Mr. Jefferson's confidence in Bonaparte — Change in his feelings in 1814.

Nearly forty years have elapsed since the first election of Thomas Jefferson to the office of president of the United States. That event was then considered by him, and is still claimed by his partizans, to have been a revolution in the political condition of this country scarcely if at all inferior in importance to that which severed the United States from their allegiance to the government of Great Britain. There ought to be a good foundation on which to rest such a claim as this. If it had been advanced originally for the mere purpose of promoting the views and interests of a political party, it might be suffered to pass out of remembrance with many other things of a somewhat similar character that are now nearly forgotten. But 2 a new generation of men have grown up since the period above alluded to, who know very little of the characters, principles or services of those who formed the constitution of the United States, or of the policy which was adopted and pursued by the men who organized the government, and, for the first twelve years of its existence, influenced and directed its operations. Mr. Jefl^erson and his friends claim the merit of having accomplished ''the revolution of 1801 " with as much confidence as if such an event had actually been achieved, and had been brought about by their own personal exertions. Federalists and federalism are used by them as terms of reproach, applicable, in their opinion, to a large number of men and a series of measures which, it would seem from their language, deserve nothing short of unqualified reprobation.

Without troubling themselves to examine the characters of the persons alluded to. or to discuss and understand the nature and tendency of their system of measures, they arrive at their object by a much shorter and easier route. In order to avoid the trouble of examination, they content themselves with stigmatizing both with opprobrious names which stupidity itself can learn to repeat, and which, when once got by heart, answer all the purposes that their artful inventors had in view when they introduced them to public use. And although the federalists, as a political party, have long ceased to act, or even to exist, such has been the effect of this peculiar kind of political machinery, and the despotic influence of party spirit, that the term has been and is still relied upon, by every modification of the party which has held the power of the general government, for nearly forty years past — from March, 1801, to the present time — as the source of their own popularity and the maintenance of their supremacy and power over the affairs of the nation. A political engine which, under such a variety of circumstances, and in the hands of so many different individuals, could be safely relied upon for such important consequences, must have been the device of no ordinary mind ; and when it is added that it originated with Mr. Jefferson, those who are well acquainted with his character will cease to wonder ; and those who are not, may gain some insight into it from the following pages.

It is very doubtful whether, in the whole extent of political history, a more singular and extraordinary personage can be found than Thomas Jefferson. Flattered, admired, and extolled by his partizans, as the greatest of statesmen and patriots — viewed by his opponents as an artful and dangerous intriguer, visionary in his notions, unsound in his principles, selfish in his feelings and opinions, and ambitious in his views and projects — no person can be surprised to hear that the sentiments entertained of his principles and character, by the parties which then prevailed in the country, were widely and essentially different from each other. The federalists formed their estimate of both from the facts which fell under their observation while he was engaged in the active concerns of the government, and from evidence which they occasionally derived from other sources. His immediate friends took much for granted in forming their opinions of his merit. They gave him full credit for the services he had rendered during the revolutionary struggle, particularly as the author of the declaration of independence. On the strength of these services, without understanding precisely their nature, extent or importance, they claimed much in favor of his talents and patriotism ; and, as he was as necessary to their interests as they were to the success of his ambitious projects, they required but little positive proof of what they might expect from his future services and influence. In such a state of things, it is not to be wondered at that his opponents should become, in the warm confl.icts of political parties, objects of the greatest animosity to his devoted friends and admirers.

It so happened that Mr. Jefferson, at his death, left behind him very voluminous collections of letters, addressed to his multiplied correspondents, and other written documents, which, since his death, have been published to the world by his grandson, to whose care they were confided. It is to be presumed they were selected, prepared and arranged by himself, and that his representative had nothing to do but to place them, according to that arrangement, before the public. The internal evidence in favor of this supposition is very strong. But whether the fact was so, or they were left to the discretion of the editor, is of no importance in the view which will here be taken of their contents. Their authenticity is neither denied nor doubted ; and it is, therefore, of no moment to the world at large by whose agency they were placed before them. In this work, so far as may be necessary for the accomplishment of the object which the author has in view, they will be freely scanned ; and the main purpose of the writer will be to show, that the estimate which the federalists formed of his principles and character, political, moral and religious, was not merely justifiable but strictly correct — that his works show that all and more than all they said of him was true.

Mr. Jefferson spent a large part of a very long life in public employment. In the course of his political career, he held many important offices, and among them that of chief magistrate of the United States. Previously to the commencement of the French revolution, he was appointed to the office of minister plenipotentiary of the United States to the court of France, where he remained until the year 1789, when he returned to this country, and from general Washington received the appointment of secretary of state under the newly formed national government. Before that time, he had been generally considered as a man of learning and talents, thoroughly versed in the political affairs of the nation, and sincerely devoted to its welfare and prosperity. There was, moreover, an extraordinary degree of popularity attached to his name, from the circumstance that he was chairman of the committee who reported the declaration of independence ; and it was understood that he was the principal draftsman of that famous document. Before the formation of the present federal government, political parties, like those which have since divided and distracted the country, were unknown. Local views and interests operated upon the minds of men in various cases, and gave rise to differences of opinion upon different subjects ; but the Union had never before been divided into two great political parties, as it was very shortly after the new government was formed and organized. This division, however, took place very soon after its organization, and the names of federalists and anti-federalists soon came into common use.

But as the latter term indicated opposition to the constitution, Mr. Jefferson, with an adroitness that marked all his movements as the head of a party, soon devised the more captivating title of republican for his adherents to adopt as their watchword and countersign. This new designation was well conceived for the purpose which he had in view when he threw it out as a bait for his followers. It held out the idea of a sincere and devoted regard for the general polit- 2# ical feeling and sentiment of the country, and, by implication at least, charged those to whose principles and measures he was opposed, with the heinous offence of aristocratic or monarchical predilections and propensities. This, it will be perceived, was an ingenious mode of securing popularity to himself, and at the same time of rendering his opponents suspected and odious. And it answered all the purposes which its author had in view — it established him, in popular opinion at least, as the friend, the " man of the people ; " and in the end it destroyed the political influence and credit of those who framed and supported the constitution and government. Its more remote effects have been alluded to. It remains to this day, notwithstanding the changes of men and the vicissitudes of parties and politics, the talisman which enables those who use it to govern and control the public councils of the nation.

One cause for Mr. Jefferson's unpopularity with the federalists was his well known opposition to the constitution of the United States. At the time when the convention met by which it was formed, and until after its adoption by the states, he was in France as minister plenipotentiary from this country. It was well understood here, that he had imbibed many of the wild and visionary notions of the early revolutionists of that nation ; and when he came to see the constitution which was prepared, and was about to be submitted to the people of the United States for their approbation, he began to discover many serious objections to it. His letters to his American friends and correspondents, contain abundant evidence of his dislike to that instrument. In page 64 of his biography of himself, prefixed to the first volume of his memoirs, published since his death, he says — " This convention (which framed the constitution) met at Philadelphia on the 25th of May, 1787. It sat with closed doors, and kept all its proceedings secret until its dissolution on the 17th of September, when the results of its labors were published all together. I received a copy, early in November, and read and contemplated its provisions with great satisfaction. As not a member of the convention, however, nor probably a single citizen of the Union, had approved of it in all its parts, so I, too, found articles which I thought objectionable. The absence of express declarations ensuring freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of the person under the uninterrupted protection oiihe habeas corpus, and trial by jury in civil as well as in criminal cases, excited my jealousy ; and the re-eligibility of the president for life I quite disapproved." This memoir appears to have been written in January, 1821, when Mr. Jefferson was 77 years of age, and many years after he had retired from public life.

In a letter to John Adams, (vol. 2, page 265,) dated Paris, November 13, 1787, he says — "How do you like our new constitution ? I confess there are things in it Avhich stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to what such an assembly has proposed. The house of federal representatives will not be adequate to the management of affairs, either foreign or federal. Their president seems a bad edition of a Polish king. He may be elected from four years to four years for life. Reason and experience prove to us that a chief magistrate, so continuable, is an office for life. When one or two generations shall have proved that this is an office for life, it becomes, on every succession, worthy of intrigue, of bribery, of force, and even of foreign interference. It will be of great consequence to France and England to have America governed by a Galloman or an Angloman. Once in office, and possessing the military force of the Union, without the aid or check of a council, he would not be easily dethroned, even if the people could be induced to withdraw their votes from him. I wish that at the end of four years they had made him forever ineligible a second time. Indeed, I think all the good of this constitution might have been couched in three or four new articles to be added to the good, old, and venerable fabric, which should have been preserved even as a religious relique."