CHAPTER III THOMAS JEFFERSON-IDEAL PARENT AND PRESIDENT Retires to Monticello; daughter Martha-Mrs. Thomas Mann_Randolphbecomes its mistress; Rochefoucauld-Liancourt's visit; Excise Law, revolts in Pennsylvania; Curtius and Camillus; Jay Treaty; VicePresident, Talleyrand, Alien and Sedition Acts; President-Burr VicePresident; inauguration, address, principles; death of daughter Mary; Judge Samuel Chase, John Randolph; Embargo Act; administrations compared; retirement, declines public reception; reconciliation with Adams; employment, advocate and user of machinery; correspondence, etc. MR. JEFFERSON had served four years as Secretary of State, and now sought rest in retirement at his beloved Monticello, where he expected to pass the remainder of his life. Although only fifty-one years of age he fancied himself, from temporary feelings of indisposition, a very old man, but fortunately the new and more congenial order of living and enjoyment soon restored his health and youthful energies. William Randolph, the neighbor friend of Mr. Jefferson's father, left one son, Thomas Mann Randolph, who, in turn, gave to his only son the same name. This Thomas Mann Randolph, the second, became a member of Congress, Colonel in the war of 1812, Governor of Virginia, and the husband of Mr. Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha, February 23, 1790. They were second cousins, had known each other from childhood, and now came with their two children to live permanently at Monticello, to grace, minister and comfort Mr. Jefferson's surroundings. Mrs. Randolph was highly accomplished, attractive in manners and conversation, possessing rare judgment and a strong fondness for her father-with whom John Randolph of Roanoke quarrelled, but in spite of that pronounced her, the noblest woman in Virginia." The household was completed by the younger daughter, Mary (Maria), who had spent the last three years in Philadelphia with her father, being now just seventeen, frail, beautiful-resembling her mother -and above all noted for her extreme unselfishness. Thus 66 again Mr. Jefferson began the quiet farmer's life for which he had a supreme thirst, devoting most of his time to general supervision, reading from his choice library, and in writing an occasional letter to his former colleagues-Edmund Randolph, John Adams, Tenche Coxe, etc.-but declining to take and read any newspapers. To Randolph he wrote: "I think it is Montaigne who has said that ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head. I am sure it is true as to everything political, and shall endeavor to estrange myself to everything of that character "; while in a letter to Adams he made this admission: "Instead of writing ten or twelve letters a day, which I have been in the habit of doing as a thing of course, I put off answering my letters now, farmlike, till a rainy day, and then find them sometimes postponed by other necessary occupations." His estate now consisted of ten thousand six hundred and forty-seven acres-about two thousand acres being continually in tillage; one hundred and fifty-four slaves; three hundred and ninety hogs; three sheep; thirty-four horses; five mules; two hundred and forty-nine cattle. In a letter to Washington he said: "I find on a more minute examination, that a ten years' abandonment of them to the ravages of overseers has brought on them a degree of degradation far beyond what I had expected. . . . I am not yet satisfied that my acquisition of overseers has been a happy one, or that much will be done this year towards rescuing my plantations from their wretched condition. Time, patience and perseverance must be the remedy; and the maxim of your letter, 'Slow and sure,' is not less a good one in agriculture than in politics." In 1796 Rochefoucauld-Liancourt visited Monticello, and shortly thereafter wrote: "He manages his farms and buildings, orders, directs and pursues every branch of business relative to them. His negroes are cabinetmakers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, smiths, etc., and they are nourished, clothed and treated as well as white servants could be; the children he employs in a nail-factory-the source of much profit; the young and old negresses spin for the clothing of the rest. He animates them by rewards and distinctions, etc." It was in this year that Mr. Jefferson solved mathematically the mould-board of least resistance, and operated on his own lands his ideal plows, which became known throughout the progressive agricultural world. He neglected only a few months the political activities of his country, for Washington's address to Congress, November 1794, gave him the deepest interest, as it dealt chiefly with suppressing revolts in Pennsylvania, incited by the attempted enforcement of the Excise Law-an obnoxious law of Hamilton that Mr. Jefferson opposed bitterly from the very first, and equally now the manner of enforcing it-by the aid of fifteen thousand militia. Consequently he could no longer keep silent, as Washington also vigorously denounced the Democratic Corresponding Societies, which in some States had been established in imitation of the French societies of that name, as responsible for the outbreak. Mr. Jefferson wrote Madison: "The denunciation of the democratic societies is one of the extraordinary acts of boldness of which we have seen so many from the faction of Monocrats. It is wonderful indeed that the President should have permitted himself to be the organ of such an attack on the freedom of discussion, the freedom of writing, printing and publishing. I expected to have seen some justification of arming one part of the society against another; . . . but the part of the speech which was to be taken as a justification of the armament reminded me of Parson Sanders' demonstration why minus into minus makes plus. After a parcel of shreds of stuff from Æsop's Fables and Tom Thumb, he jumps at once into his ergo, minus multiplied by minus makes plus. Just so the fifteen thousand men enter after the fables in the speech." Scarcely had the Excise Law troubles abated, when arose a general dissatisfaction over the "Jay Treaty" with England -that which Mr. Jefferson heartily disapproved writing Madison: "Thus it is that Hamilton, Jay, etc., in the boldest act they ever ventured on to undermine the Government, have the address to screen themselves, and direct the hue and cry against those who wish to drag them into light. A bolder party stroke was never struck; for it certainly is an attempt of a party who find they have lost their majority in one branch of the Legislature, to make a law by the aid of the other branch and of the Executive, under color of a treaty which shall bind up the hands of the adverse branch from ever restraining the commerce of their patron nation. There appears a pause at present in the public sentiment which may be followed by a revolution. . . . For God's sake take up your pen and give a fundamental reply to Curtius and Camillus." When the "Treaty" was ratified there arose even a greater storm of criticism from the Republicans, in which Mr. Jefferson shared strongly-not even sparing Washington, assailing the treaty-making power of the Executive. Mr. Jefferson, however, seemed determined to remain out of the activities of politics, desiring Madison to stand at the helm of his party, and writing him to that effect: "The whole mass of your constituents are looking to you, as their last hope, to save them from the effects of the avarice and corruption of the first agent (Jay), the revolutionary machinations of others, and the incomprehensible acquiescence of the only honest man who has assented to it. I wish that his honesty and his political errors may not furnish a second occasion to exclaim: 'Curse on his virtues, they have undone his country.' . . . There is not another person (besides yourself) in the United States, who being placed at the helm of affairs, my mind would be so completely at rest for the future of our political bark." On the other hand Madison was just as insistent that Mr. Jefferson take the leadership of the party, which finally he did much against his will, as he preferred looking after his impaired health, enjoying the society of his family, agreeable pursuits, and the healthy establishment of his business affairs. He wrote Madison: "The little spice of ambition which I had in my younger days has long since evaporated, and I set still less store by a posthumous than present name. In stating to you the heads of reasons which have produced my determination, I do not mean an opening for future discussion, or that I may be reasoned out of it-the question is forever closed with me, my sole object is to prevent any division or loss of votes which might be fatal to the Republican interests." Mr. Jefferson's nomination for Vice-President, however, was the spontaneous and unanimous wish of his party, and in it he felt constrained to acquiesce, since political conditions badly needed his counsel and personality, but during the campaign he wrote only one political letter, and did not go outside of his county in the three months preceding election. On |