Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (84 page)

J
EFFERSON
WANTED
TO
COME
HOME
Ibid., 189. “I consider as no small advantage the resuming the tone of mind of my constituents, which is lost by long absence, and can only be recovered by mixing with them.” (Ibid.)

ESPECIALLY
INTERES
TED
IN
ESTABLISHING
Ibid., 332. “I shall hope … for the pleasure of personal conferences with your Excellency on the subjects of this letter and others interesting to our country, of getting my own ideas set to rights by a communication of yours, and of taking again the tone of sentiment of my own country which we lose in some degree after a certain absence.” (Ibid.)

“B
Y
THE
BYE
,
YOU
HAVE
BEEN
OFTEN
”
Ibid., 324.

THE
SPIRIT
OF
FACTION
Richard Hofstadter,
The Idea of a Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780–1840
(Berkeley, Calif., 1969), viii. (The first 121 pages of Hofstadter are on point.) The Founders, Hofstadter wrote, “did not believe in political parties as such, scorned those that they were conscious of as historical models, had a keen terror of party spirit and its evil consequences, and yet, almost as soon as their national government was in operation, found it necessary to establish parties.” (Ibid., viii.) See also Wood,
Radicalism of the American Revolution,
298–301.

“I
AM
NOT
”
PTJ,
XIV, 650.

“M
Y
GREAT
W
ISH
”
Ibid., 651.

“J. A
DAMS
ESPOUSED
THE
CAUSE
”
Ibid., XV, 147–48.

J
EFFERSON
CALLED
A
DAMS
'
S
PROPO
SAL
Ibid., 315. In May 1789, Madison tucked an intriguing point in the middle of a letter. “I have been asked whether any appointment at home would be agreeable to you. Being unacquainted with your mind I have not ventured on an answer.” (Ibid., 153.)

A
BRUTALLY
COLD
WINTER
IN
F
RANCE
JHT,
II, 205.

“O
UR
NEW
CONSTITUTION
”
PTJ,
XIV, 420. Kaplan,
Jefferson and France,
makes an interesting point, arguing that Jefferson's reactions to events both in France and in America were colored by his consistent belief in the centrality of the French alliance. “Fear of alienating the support of French liberals rising to power with the Revolution made him look upon the suppression of Shays' Rebellion and the creation of the Constitution as threats to America's republicanism and hence to America's continued friendship with France.” (Ibid., 35.) Jefferson hoped that France would peaceably find its way to a kind of English constitution with defined individual rights. He hoped, too, that reform would come with relative ease and that France might “within two or three years, be in enjoyment of a tolerably free constitution, and that without its having cost them a drop of blood.” It was, of course, not to be. (William Howard Adams,
Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson,
252;
JHT,
II, 193.)

RIOTS
IN
P
ARIS
KILLED
ABOUT
ONE
HUNDRED
PEOPLE
PTJ,
XV, 104.

INTERPRETED
THE
VI
OLENCE
IN
THE
MOST
B
ENIGN
LIGHT
Ibid., 111. By way of explanation, Kaplan wrote: “With the future of his own country in mind, Jefferson gave wholehearted support to the revolutionists in their struggle against the internal hostility of the privileged classes and the external enmity of the rest of Europe.” (Kaplan,
Jefferson and France,
36.)

J
EFFE
RSON
HAD
SKETCHED
A
CHARTER
OF
RIGHTS
PTJ,
XV, 167–68.

THE
FRUSTRATED
T
HIRD
E
STATE
Doyle,
Oxford History of the French Revolution,
104–7.

H
IS
HOUSE
WAS
ROBBED
Ibid., 260. “My hotel having lately been robbed, for the third time, I take the liberty of uniting my wish with that of the inhabitants of this quarter” in hoping for “the protection of a guard,” he wrote Comte de Montmorin on July 8, 1789. (Ibid.)

HE
MONI
TORED
A
STREET
BATTL
E
Ibid., 273.

HE
WAS
AT
HIS
FRI
END
M
ADAME
DE
C
ORNY
'
S
William Howard Adams,
Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson,
287.

“T
HE
TUMULTS
IN
P
AR
IS
”
PTJ,
XV, 276–77.

“T
HE
HEAT
OF
THI
S
CITY
”
Ibid., 277.

“
A
MORE
DANG
EROUS
SCENE
OF
WAR
”
Ibid., 279.

“
HERE
IN
THE
MIDST
OF
TUMULT
”
Ibid., 305.

“
BREAK
EVERY
ENGAGEM
ENT
”
Ibid., 354.

ADOPTED
THE
D
ECL
ARATION
Larry E. Tise,
The American Counterrevolution: A Retreat from Liberty, 1783–1800
(Mechanicsburg, Pa., 1998), 440–41. In addition, the Comte de Mirabeau, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, and Jean-Joseph Mounier each played a part in determining its final form. (David P. Forsythe,
Encyclopedia of Human Rights,
I, [Oxford, 2009], 406.)

INFLUENC
ED
BY
THE
D
ECLARATION
Peter Hanns Reill and Ellen Judy Wilson,
Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
(New York, 1996), 143. Other influences included the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights (Ibid.) and the U.S. state constitutions, especially those of Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts. (Forsythe,
Encyclopedia of Human Rights,
I, 406.)

GIVEN
COUNSEL
Forsythe,
Encyclopedia of Human Rights,
I, 406. Before writing the Declaration, Lafayette consulted with Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson sent Madison a copy of the draft, which Gouvernour Morris also reviewed while in Paris. (Ibid.)

BEGAN
AT
FOUR
PTJ, XV, 355.

“
A
SILENT
WITNESS
”
Ibid., 355. He knew that he was in a dangerous position—an American diplomat appearing to meddle in the internal politics of his host nation. The next morning, Jefferson went to Montmorin to confess and perform the “duties of exculpation.” The count, though, was ahead of Jefferson—or chose to pretend that he was. “He told me he already knew everything which had passed, that, so far from taking umbrage at the use made of my house on that occasion, he earnestly wished I would habitually assist at such conferences, being sure I should be useful in moderating the warmer spirits, and promoting a wholesome and practicable reformation only.” (Ibid.)

AGREED
TO
A
STRUCT
URE
Ibid. “The result was an agreement that the king should have a suspensive veto on the laws, that the legislature should be composed of a single body only, and that to be chosen by the people.” The decisions made by the Assembly that evening “reduced the Aristocracy to insignificance and impotence.” (Ibid.)

“
DECIDED
THE
FAT
E
OF
THE
[F
RENCH
] C
ONSTI
TUTION
”
Ibid.

WHO
HAD
SENT
G
EORGE
W
ASHINGTON
THE
KEY
TO
THE
B
ASTILLE
TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/marquis-de-lafayette (accessed 2012).

P
ATSY
J
EFFERSON
RECALLE
D
STANDING
AT
THE
WI
NDOW
Mrs. O. J. Wister and Miss Agnes Irwin, eds.
Worthy Women of Our First Century
(Philadelphia, 1877), 22. See also TJF, http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/marquis-de-lafayette (accessed 2012).

F
IRST
CAME
T
HE
ROYAL
COACH
,
AND
A
CHAMBERLAIN
BOWED
Ibid.

RESEMBLED
“
THE
BELLOW
INGS
OF
THOUSAND
OF
BULLS
”
Ibid.

“L
AFAYETTE
! L
AFA
YETTE
!”
Ibid.

NOTICING
P
ATSY
WATCHING
FROM
THE
W
INDOW
,
BOWED
TO
HER
Ibid.

A
MARK
OF
RESPECT
SHE
NEVER
FORGOT
Ibid.

A
L
L
HER
LIFE
SHE
KEPT
A
TRICOLORED
COCKADE
Ibid.

“S
O
FAR
IT
SEEMED
”
PTJ,
XVI, 293. The letter was written in 1790.

A
LONG
LETTER
TO
J
AM
ES
M
ADISON
Ibid., XV, 384–99.

HE
DID
NO
T
SERIOUSLY
PRESS
Consider, for instance, a letter Jefferson wrote later, in 1816.

I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. (TJ to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.)

C
LAY
WAS
SEEKING
A
CO
NGRESSIONAL
SEAT
PTJ,
XVI, 129.

“
YOU
ARE
TOO
WELL
INF
ORMED
”
Ibid.

THE
ISSUE
OF
RIFLE
MANUFACTURING
Ibid., XV, 422.

“T
HE
SPIRIT
OF
PHILOSOPHICAL
”
Ibid., XVI, 150.

J
E
FFERSON
LEFT
P
ARIS
Ibid., XV, 487.

H
OW
TO
MEASURE
THE
WI
DTH
Ibid., 493.

TUTORED
P
OLLY
IN
S
PANISH
Ibid., 497.