Madison and Jefferson (52 page)

Marquis de Lafayette (1758–1834), French aristocrat whose ties to Madison and Jefferson, as to the American Revolution itself, were lifelong. Engraving from an 1857 text, based on a portrait of 1790.

James Monroe (1757–1831), Jefferson’s protégé, Madison’s friend and sometime rival, who succeeded Madison as president.
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C
.

John Taylor of Caroline (1753–1824), the nephew of Edmund Pendleton, was a nationally known promoter of agrarianism and an apologist for the institution of slavery.

William Jones (1760–1831), a proactive secretary of the navy during the War of 1812, was one of the few cabinet members Madison came to trust as president.
Courtesy Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Albert Gallatin (1761–1849), born in Geneva, Switzerland, was a western Pennsylvania politician despised by the Federalists. He served as treasury secretary in the Jefferson and Madison administrations and was an irreplaceable policy advisor to both presidents.

A newspaper welcomes Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton to Philadelphia in an entirely too optimistic poem, as the federal government sets up its temporary capital in the City of Brotherly Love at the end of 1790. This is the start of what grew to be the most emotionally exhausting decade in American political history prior to the Civil War.

“The memorable Declaration of American Independence is said to have been penned by him.” In June 1784, a Providence, Rhode Island, newspaper takes note of Jefferson’s arrival in town en route to Boston and his first transatlantic voyage.

“Intercepted Letter from Tall Tommy to Little Jemmy.” Federalist contempt for the diminutive President Madison is unmistakable in the opening lines of a satirical poem published in the
Alexandria Gazette
in 1810.

“I met the P[resident] on the road.… Always & affect[ionate]ly yours.” The congressman shares news with his chief political ally. Madison to Jefferson, June 12, 1792.
Library of Congress

“The motion of my blood no longer keeps time with the tumult of the world.” The secretary of state explains why he is leaving government. Jefferson to Madison, June 9, 1793.
Library of Congress

“The conduct of Mr. A. is not such as was to have been wished or perhaps expected. Instead of smoothing the path for his successor, he plays into the hands of those who are endeavoring to strew it with as many difficulties as possible.” Madison complains about John Adams’s behavior in the days before Jefferson’s inauguration as president. Madison to Jefferson, February 28, 1801.
Library of Congress

“Take care of me when dead.” Sensing that he will not survive much longer, Jefferson asks his trusted friend of fifty years to defend his historical reputation. Jefferson to Madison, February 17, 1826.
Library of Congress