Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (93 page)

TWENTY
-
EIGHT
·
TO THE VICE PRESIDENCY

“T
HERE
IS
A
D
EBT
OF
SERVICE
”
PTJ,
XXIX
,
233
.

“Y
OU
AND
I
HAVE
FORMER
LY
SEEN
”
Ibid., 456–57.

W
ASHINGTON
'
S
FAREWELL
ADDRESS
APE,
I, 38–39.

“
A
SIGNAL
,
LIKE
DROPPING
A
HAT
”
Ibid., 70. See also Ferling,
Adams vs. Jefferson,
85. Word spread quickly. “I rejoice at the news” of Washington's retirement, a correspondent wrote Jefferson, “because I consider him as a man dangerous to the liberties of this country. Misled himself, he lends his influence to others, and by his name gives a sanction to the most dangerous measures.” (
PTJ,
XXIX, 185.)

P
RESIDENTIAL
ELECTIO
NS
IN
THE
FIRST
DECA
DES
In the mysterious way these things became clear in presidential elections from 1796 until Andrew Jackson was nominated for reelection by a national party convention thirty-six years later, it was instantly understood that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the leading candidates to succeed Washington.

U
NTIL
THE
RATIF
ICATION
OF
THE
T
WELFT
H
A
MENDMENT
EOL,
285. See also Bruce Ackerman,
The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy
(Cambridge, Mass., 2007), which is a fascinating study.

T
HE
C
O
LUMBIAN
M
IRROR
AND
A
LE
XANDRIA
G
AZETTE
PTJ,
XXIX, 193.

J
OHN
T
AYLOR
OF
C
AROLINE
Ibid., 194.

DESCRI
BING
A
1794
CONVERSATION
Ibid. The Republicans immediately sensed the political possibilities of the Taylor report about Adams's remarks. John Mason, son of George, asked for a certified copy of the account, saying Adams's comments would “do more good than anything which has yet been spoken of.” (Ibid., 194–95.)

C
AMPAIGN
LITERATURE
RE
AD
APE,
I, 40.

“T
HOMAS
J
EFFERSON
IS
A
FIRM
REPUBLICAN
” Ferling,
Adams vs. Jefferson,
90.

THE
R
ISING
PROSPECT
OF
WA
R
WITH
F
RANCE
Ibid., 93. Pierre Adet, a French diplomat, publicly suggested the Federalists were too favorably disposed toward the British and that Jefferson would be the wiser choice in terms of relations with France. The Federalists in turn used this quasi endorsement against Jefferson. (
APE,
I, 30.)

A
LA
TE
-
AUTUMN
COLD
SPELL
PTJ,
XXIX, 211.

“F
EW
WILL
BELIEVE
”
Ibid.

H
AMILTON
,
WHO
OPPOSED
BOT
H
APE,
I, 40.

A
FASCINATING
ST
RATEGY
Ibid. As Page Smith wrote in
APE,
I:

The plan called for the Federalist electors in New England to cast all their votes for Adam and Pinckney for President and Vice-President while the electors in South Carolina, Pinckney's home state, would throw away a few Adams votes and thus give the Presidency to the man plainly intended to be Vice-President, leaving Adams in that office. Had it succeeded and the Federalist candidate for Vice-President become President by a ruse, the Federalist party would have been split beyond hope of repair. Adams would almost certainly have resigned as Vice-President, leaving that office presumably to Jefferson or Burr. Equally likely was the election of Jefferson as President. (Ibid.)

A
DAMS
“
TOO
HEADSTRONG
”
PTJ,
XXIX, 214. If Pinckney succeeded, Madison also said, “It is to be hoped that P[inckney] may equally disappoint those who expect to make … use of him.… and there is always the chance of a devolution of the business on the House of Reps. which will I believe decide it as it ought to be decided.” (Ibid.)

And there was a chance Jefferson could even place third: “The prevailing idea is that Pinckney will have the greatest number of votes: and I think that Adams will be most likely to stand next.” (Ibid., 218
.)

“Y
OU
MUST
RECONCILE
”
Ibid., 218.

“
A
DIFFICULTY
FROM
WHICH
”
Ibid, 223.

“
FULLY
TO
SO
LICIT
ON
MY
BEHALF
”
Ibid.

P
INCKNEY
FADED
TO
THIRD
APE,
I, 41.

“
IT
IS
EXPECTED
”
PTJ,
XXIX, 226. Madison wrote Jefferson of Adams:

You know that his feelings will not enslave him to the example of his predecessor. It is certain that his censures of our paper system and the intrigues at New York for setting P. above him have fixed an enmity with the British faction. Nor should it pass for nothing, that the true interest of New England particularly requires reconciliation with France as the road to her commerce. Add to the whole that he is said to speak of you now in friendly terms and will no doubt be soothed by your acceptance of a place subordinate to him. It must be confessed however that all these calculations are qualified by his political principles and prejudices. But they add weight to the obligation from which you must not withdraw yourself. (Ibid., 226–27.)

A
DAMS
W
ON
,
BARELY
APE,
I, 41.

“O L
ORD
!”
Miller,
Federalist Era,
264–65.

BELIEVED
DEEPLY
IN
“
T
HE
SENSE
”
Ibid.

“I
VALUE
THE
LATE
VOTE
HIGHLY
”
PTJ,
XXIX, 258. He was always a precise vote counter: “In this point of view the difference between 68 and 71 votes is little sensible, and still less that between the real vote which was 69 and 70 because one real elector in Pennsylvania was excluded from voting by the miscarriage of the votes, and one who was not an elector was admitted to vote.” (Ibid.)

“I
KNEW
IT
WAS
IMPOSSIBLE
”
Ibid., 232. To Edward Rutledge, Jefferson wrote: “You have seen my name lately tacked to so much of eulogy and of abuse, that I daresay you hardly thought it meant for your old acquaintance of 76. In truth I did not know myself under the pens either of my friends or foes. It is unfortunate for our peace that unmerited abuse wounds, while unmerited praise has not the power to heal. These are hard wages for the services of all the active and healthy years of one's life.” (Ibid.)

His supporters braced him for the inevitable criticism that was to come during the administration, in part by portraying the attackers as agents of what Jefferson hated and feared most. “It is true that you have been abused,” James Sullivan, a Republican lawyer and politician in Massachusetts, wrote Jefferson from Boston on January 12, 1797. “But this abuse came from a party who are determined to abuse every one who will not, with them, bow in adoration to the British monarchy. If the abuse and calumny of these men can deprive the public of the services of those on whom they may confide with safety, there will be an end to our free constitutions: and the enemies of an elective republic will obtain a complete triumph.” (Ibid., 262.)

“T
HE
HONEYMOO
N
WOULD
BE
”
Ibid.

“T
HIS
IS
CERTAINLY
NOT
A
MOME
NT
”
Ibid.

W
HISPERS
OF
POSS
IBLE
SECESSION
Ibid., 364.

THE
THREE
-
FIFTHS
CLAUSE
Ibid. See also Garry Wills,
“Negro President”: Jefferson and the Slave Power
(New York, 2003), for a discussion of the role of the three-fifths clause in the politics of the early republic.

“W
E
SHALL
NEVER
”
PTJ,
XXIX, 364.

“I
HAVE
NO
AMBITION
”
Ibid., 235. Benjamin Rush believed, with Jefferson, that it had been a lucky thing to lose the top post for now. “Accept of my congratulations upon your election to the Vice President's Chair of the United States, and upon your
escape
of the Office of President,” Rush wrote. “In the present situation of our country it would have been impossible for you to have preserved the credit of republican principles, or your own character for integrity, had you succeeded to the
New York
administration of our government. The seeds of British Systems in everything have at last ripened. What a harvest of political evils is before us!” (Ibid., 251.)

A
DRAFT
OF
THE
LETTER
Ibid., 247–51. See also McCullough,
John Adams,
465–66.

M
ADISON
REPLIED
WITH
A
SIX
-
POINT
CASE
Ibid., 263–65.

H
E
WOULD
NOT
MAIL
Ibid., 280–81. A significant moment in the exchange with Madison over the virtues of the letter to Adams lies in a philosophical passage of Jefferson's—a passage informed by a sense of tragedy. “In truth I do not recollect in all the animal kingdom a single species but man which is eternally and systematically engaged in the destruction of its own species,” Jefferson wrote. “What is called civilization seems to have no other effect on him than to teach him to pursue the principle of
bellum omnium in omnia
[an allusion to Thomas Hobbes's notion of “the war of all against all”] on a larger scale, and in place of the little contests of tribe against tribe, to engage all the quarters of the earth in the same work of destruction.” (Ibid., 248.)

J
EFFERSON
REACHED
P
HI
LADELPHIA
MB,
II, 954–55.

A
DAMS
,
WH
O
LODGED
AT
F
RANCIS
'
S
PTJ,
XXIX, 551.

REPAID
THE
COURTE
SY
THE
NEXT
MORNING
Ibid.

C
LOSING
THE
DOOR
BEHIND
HIM
Ibid.

WAS
GLAD
J
EFFERSON
W
AS
ALONE
Ibid.

HAD
MUCH
T
O
TALK
ABOUT
Ibid.

J
EFFER
SON
AGREED
THAT
HE
S
HOULD
Ibid., 552.

“H
E
SAID
THAT
IF
M
R
. M
ADISON
”
Ibid.