Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (68 page)

Just how impotent those designs were was now the prevailing question. Jefferson was worried enough to speculate on how to evacuate his clan. On December 2, 1775, John Hancock called on Washington to “effectually repel [Dunmore's] violences and secure the peace and safety of that colony.” On December 4 the Congress as a whole urged Virginia to resist the governor “to the utmost.” (IBId.)

“B
UT
FOR
G
OD
'
S
SAKE
”
PTJ,
I, 167. He lined out the sentence in a draft of the letter. (IBID.)

“W
ITHIN
T
HIS
WEEK
”
Ibid., 165.

SEEMED
TO
DOOM
IbID.

THE
MILITIA
DE
CLARED
McDonnell,
Politics of War,
61–62.

THE
PARTIC
ULAR
MANIFESTATION
In a section of the letter he composed but deleted from the version he sent to Small, Jefferson said:

It is a lamentable thing that the persons entrusted by the king with the administration of government should have kept their employers under … constant delusion. It appears now by their letters laid before the Parliament that from the beginning they have labored to make the ministry believe that the whole ferment has been raised and constantly kept up by a few
hot headed demagogues
principal men in every colony, and that it might be expected to subside in a short time either of itself, or by the assistance of a coercive power. The reverse of this is most assuredly the truth: the utmost efforts of the more intelligent people having been requisite and exerted to moderate the almost ungovernable fury of the people. That the abler part has been pushed forward to support their rights in the field of reason is true; and it was there alone they wished to decide the contest. (
PTJ,
I, 166–67.)

Jefferson thought “principal men” such as himself could ultimately control the Virginians. There was no central command, however, and different counties dispatched—or threatened to dispatch—troops to Williamsburg. Dunmore took no chances, sending his wife and children to live on board the HMS
Fowey
. (McDonnell,
Politics of War,
61–62, 73–74.) Jefferson also held the king responsible for the haughty tone and tough tactics of the British. “It is a lamentable circumstance that the only mediatory power acknowledged by both parties”—that is, George III—“instead of leading to a reconciliation [of] his divided people, should pursue the incendiary purpose of still blowing up the flames as we find him constantly doing in every speech and public declaration,” Jefferson wrote Small. “This may perhaps be intended to intimidate into acquiescence, but the effect has been unfortunately otherwise.” (
PTJ,
I, 165.)

“A
LITTLE
KNOWLEDGE
”
PTJ,
I, 165–66.

A
SPIRITED
SESSION
McDonnell,
Politics of War,
71. They were there at Dunmore's invitation—or, more precisely, at the invitation of Lord North's ministry, which had directed each colonial governor to convene the local legislatures. The business at hand: consideration of conciliatory proposals from North. London was asking that the colonists contribute toward the common defense and the support of the imperial government in each colony. In exchange, Britain would not tax the colonists for these services beyond the initial amount. (IBID.)

CONCILIATO
RY
PROPOSALS
IBId.

THREE
V
IRGINIA
COLONISTS
Ibid., 72–73.

D
UNMORE
FELT
THE
SITU
ATION
Ibid., 73. Dunmore said that his “house was kept in continual alarm and threatened every night with an assault.” (IBID.)

SEEKING
REFUG
E
ABOARD
THE
HMS
F
OWEY
Quarles, “Lord Dunmore as Liberator,” 497.

A
MEASURED
TONE
PTJ,
I, 170–74.

A
S
J
EF
FERSON
RECALLED
IT
Jefferson,
Writings,
10–11.

P
EYTON
R
ANDOLPH
,
WHO
BELIEVED
Ibid., 11. Randolph was just back from Philadelphia, where the sense of the Continental Congress opposed London's proposals. It would be useful, then, for Virginia to be in the forefront of the movement against the overtures. Randolph, Jefferson said, “was anxious that the answer of our assembly … should harmonize with what he knew to be the sentiments and wishes of the body he had recently left.” (IBID.)

“
LONG
AND
DOUBTFUL
”
IBId.

UNITY
AMON
G
THE
COLONIES
PTJ,
I, 173. In closing, Jefferson asked: “What then remains to be done?” Virginia deferred the matter to the Congress in Philadelphia, praying for “the even-handed justice of that being who doth no wrong, earnestly beseeching him to illuminate the councils and prosper the endeavors of those to whom America hath confided her hopes.” (IBID.)

EIGHT
·
THE FAMOUS MR. JEFFERSON

“
A
S
OUR
ENEMIES
HAVE
FOUND
”
PTJ,
I, 186.

“
T
HE
PRESENT
CRISIS
”
Ibid., 224.

L
OD
GING
ON
C
HESTNUT
MB,
I, 399.

SE
NT
ACCOUNTS
OF
THE
M
ILITARY
SITUATION
PTJ,
I, 246–47.

B
ENJAMIN
F
RANKLIN
'
S
P
ROPOSAL
Ibid., 177–82.

RECORDED
TH
E
“F
INANCIAL
AND
M
ILITA
RY
”
Ibid., 182–84.

NEW
IDEAS
,
NEW
PE
OPLE
,
NEW
FORCES
For portraits of Philadelphia as it was in these years, see McCullough,
John Adams,
78–85; and Paul H. Smith, ed.,
Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789,
IV
, May 16–August 15, 1776
(Washington, D.C., 1976), 123–24; 194–95; 307–8; 311–12.

WERE
“
A
PEOPLE
,
THROWN
TOGETHER
”
United States National Park Service,
Independence
:
A Guide to Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(Washington, D.C., 1982), 20.

“T
HE
POOREST
LABOR
ER
”
Ibid. America's connection to larger forces was also self-evident. “French vessels frequently arrive here,” wrote Josiah Bartlett, a delegate from New Hampshire. “Two came up to this city yesterday, their loading chiefly cotton, molasses, sugar, coffee, canvass etc. Last Saturday an American vessel arrived from the French West Indies with 7400 lb. of powder, 149 stand of arms.” (Paul H. Smith,
Letters of Delegates to Congress,
IV, 124.)

J
OHN
A
DAMS
OF
M
A
SSACHUSETTS
PTJ,
I, 175. Jefferson reported Washington's selection as what he called “Generalissimo of all the Provincial troops in North-America,” adding: “The Congress have directed 20,000 men to be raised and hope by a vigorous campaign to dispose our enemies to treaty.” (Ibid.) See also Scheer and Rankin,
Redcoats and Rebels,
68–73. As Adams described the nomination, “Mr. Washington, who happened to sit near the door, as soon as he heard me allude to him, from his usual modesty, darted into the library-room.” (Ibid., 70–71.)

THE
BATTLE
AT
B
UNKER
H
ILL
Scheer and Rankin,
Redcoats and Rebels,
52–64.

RECORDED
SEEING
“
THE
FAMOUS
M
R
. J
EFFERSON
”
Hayes,
Road to Monticello,
167.

“J
EFFERSO
N
IS
THE
GREATEST
”
Kaminski,
Founders on the Founders,
286.

A
DAMS
AND
J
EFFERSON
See, for instance, McCullough,
John Adams,
110–17; Ferling,
Adams vs. Jefferson
; and Lester J. Cappon, ed.,
The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1987), for accounts of the relationship between the two men, and between Jefferson and Abigail Adams and their larger famILIeS.

B
ORN
IN
B
RAINT
REE
, M
ASSACHUSETTS
,
IN
1735
McCullough,
John Adams,
30.

“I
CONSIDER
YOU
AND
HIM
”
Ibid., 604.

AN
INTENSE
ADMI
RATION
He had already personally contributed toward the support of Boston during the Port Act siege (
MB,
I, 396), but now his appreciation rose to a new level. “The adventurous genius and intrepidity of those people is amazing,” Jefferson said of the New Englanders in early July 1775. (
PTJ,
I, 185.)

C
ONGRESS
AUTHORIZED
AN
INVAS
ION
OF
C
ANADA
Middlekauff,
Glorious Cause,
309–14. From the Declaration of Causes: “We have received certain intelligence that General Carleton, the Governor of Canada, is instigating the people of that province and the Indians to fall upon us; and we have but too much reason to apprehend that schemes have been formed to excite domestic enemies against us.” (
PTJ,
I, 217.)

M
O
NTREAL
SURRENDERED
B
UT
Q
UEBEC
HELD
OUT
Paul S. Boyer and Melvyn Dubofsky, eds.,
The Oxford Companion to United States History
(New York, 2001) 285.

“N
OBODY
NOW
ENTERTAINS
”
PTJ,
I, 186.

J
EFFERSON
AND
J
OHN
D
ICKINSON
MB,
I, 400. See also
PTJ,
I, 187–219.

D
EC
LARATION
OF
THE
C
AUSE
S
PTJ,
I, 187–219. The audience was a trans-atlantic one. Jefferson argued that America was not the aggressor and that all was not yet lost. Americans, he said, “mean not in any wise to affect that union with [Great Britain] in which we have so long and so happily lived, and which we wish so much to see again restored.” (Pauline Maier,
American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
[New York, 1997], 19–20.) They did not wish to “disquiet the minds of our Friends and fellow subjects in any part of the empire.” He offered a triptych of declarative assertions to support his case: “We did not embody a soldiery to commit aggression on them; we did not raise armies for glory or for conquest. We did not invade their island carrying death or slavery to its inhabitants.” Americans took up arms in defense only, Jefferson said, and longed for a reconciliation to “deliver us from the evils of a civil war.” (
PTJ,
I, 203.)

RODE
THE
FER
RY
TO
THE
W
OODLANDS
MB,
I, 401.

MADE
A
TRIP
TO
THE
FALLS
Ibid., 403.

EXTENDED
ITS
HAND
T
O
THE
KING
PTJ,
I, 219–23.