Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (107 page)

“
S
IT
DOWN
,
S
IR
, I
SAY
SIT
DOWN
”
Irving Brant,
James Madison,
IV (New York, 1961), 316.

“
ASTONISHED
A
LL
HIS
HEARERS
Ibid., 315.

AS
EITHER
THE
“Q
UIDS
”
EOL,
428. The new division in Washington worried some Republicans. “ ‘We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists' read extremely well at the time, and I thought much good would come out of it, but I have found none,” Thomas Leiper wrote Jefferson from Philadelphia in March 1806. “Everything you do is wrong with the Leaders of that party and John Randolph.” (Thomas Leiper to TJ, March 23, 1806, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.) Jefferson refused to overreact to the Randolph defection. “The H. of R. is as well disposed as I ever saw one,” He wrote Wilson Cary Nicholas in April. “The defection of so prominent a leader threw them into dismay and confusion for a moment, but they soon rallied to their own principles, and let him go off with 5 or 6 followers only.” (TJ to Wilson Cary Nicholas, April 13, 1806, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City.)

OR
THE
“O
LD
R
EPUBLICANS
”
JHT,
V, 150.

“N
EVER
,
IN
MY
OPINI
ON
”
John Randolph to James M. Garnett, Jr., October 28, 1806, John Randolph Papers, LOC.

“
SECRET
ENEMIES
”
Ibid.

‘
DAMNING
WITH
FAINT
PRAISE
'
Ibid. “What a tissue of intrigue, conspiracy and cabal does every day open to our view!” Randolph added.

“I
S
THE
PRESENT
EXECUTIVE
PE
RFECT
?”
Ibid.

“
THE
MASK
WHI
CH
AMBITION
HAS
WORN
”
John Randolph to James M. Garnett, Jr., September 4, 1806, John Randolph Papers, LOC.

“T
HE
OLD
REPUBLICAN
P
ARTY
”
John Randolph to James Monroe, March 26, 1808, John Randolph Papers, LOC.

THE
TELLTALE
H
EADACHE
WAS
BACK
JHT,
V, 143.

HMS
L
EANDER
WAS
SCREENING
Ibid., 115. “A letter from the Mayor of N.Y. complains of the murder lately committed, and the trespasses by the
Leander, Cambrian
and
Driver,
and asking for a naval force,” Jefferson wrote in his notes on a cabinet meeting where the administration formulated a response. Notes on a Cabinet Meeting, May 1, 1806 [LOC?].

O
R
DERING
THE
THREE
Ibid.

CA
LLED
FOR
THE
ARREST
Ibid.

“M
Y
PRESENT
MALADY
”
TJ to George Logan, March 12, 1806, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

“
A
LAMENESS
IN
THE
KNEE
”
TJ to Lucy Lewis, May 26, 1806, Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, Massachusetts Historical Society.

“I
HAVE
GOTTEN
”
TJ to John Wayles Eppes, May 24, 1806, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.

HAD
RISEN
A
S
USUAL
Chadwick,
I Am Murdered,
3. See also Gordon-Reed,
Hemingses of Monticello,
592–94.

EATEN
B
REAKFAST
Ibid., 14–15.

SICK
TO
HI
S
STOMACH
Ibid., 15.

A
MIXED
-
R
ACE
TEENAGER
NAMED
M
I
CHAEL
Ibid., 16.

WAS
SUSPICIOU
S
AND
ORDERED
AN
AUT
OPSY
William Duval to TJ, June 4, 1806, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

“I
AM
MURDERED
”
Chadwick,
I Am Murdered,
16.

W
YTHE
“
MENTIONED
NO
NAM
E
”
William Duval to TJ, June 8, 1806, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

W
YTHE
'
S
PRIVATE
L
IFE
I am indebted to Gordon-Reed,
Hemingses of Monticello,
592–94, for this account.

L
YDIA
B
ROADNAX
,
A
FREE
WOMAN
OF
COL
OR
Ibid., 592.

I
N
W
YTHE
'
S
WILL
Ibid., 592–93. Wythe had also left “property to another former slave Benjamin, who predeceased Wythe.” (Ibid., 592.)

PROVISIONS
ASKING
J
EFFERSON
TO
OVE
RSEE
THE
EDUCATION
Ibid., 593. Wythe also left Brown “bank stock.” (Ibid.)

THAT
B
ROWN
WAS
THE
SO
N
OF
B
ROADNAX
AND
W
YTH
E
Ibid. “The exact nature of Michael Brown's connection to Wythe and Broadnax is unknown,” wrote Gordon-Reed. “It has often been assumed that he was Wythe's son and that Broadnax was his mother. No evidence exists to support either conclusion, however, though Wythe's treatment of the pair was extraordinary.” (Ibid.)

“W
HETHER
B
ROWN
”
Ibid.

W
YT
HE
LEFT
J
EFFERSON
Chadwick,
I Am Murdered,
162.

“
GRATIFIED
ME
UNCEASINGLY
”
Gordon-Reed,
Hemingses of Monticello,
593.

“S
UCH
AN
INSTANCE
OF
DEPRAVITY
”
TJ to William Duval, June 14, 1806, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC. Violence had cost him his friend. Soon it threatened to strike even closer to home. One day in the House of Representatives, where Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., had kept largely to himself, speaking rarely, a quarrel sprang up involving—unsurprisingly—John Randolph of Roanoke. Words were exchanged, and Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., believed himself so insulted that only a duel could resolve matters. (TJ to James Ogilvie, June 23, 1806, Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, Massachusetts Historical Society.) The possibility both horrified and terrified Jefferson.

“It is with an aching heart I take up my pen, and this circumstance must apologize for my interference in the present case but where everything which I hold dear in this world is at stake, where the future happiness of our whole family, or their future misery unmixed and unabating, are hanging in even suspense, it must be justifiable to urge our rights to a due share of weight in your deliberations,” Jefferson wrote his son-in-law on June 23. (TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., June 23, 1806, University of Virginia.)

A duel was madness, Jefferson believed, sheer madness, but he understood he had to be delicate with his sensitive son-in-law. “Certainly I would not wish you to do what might lessen you in the esteem of the world,” Jefferson said. “But I wish you to estimate correctly the public opinion in such a case, and not to volunteer beyond what that might require or approve.” He could not keep his own emotions in check. “How different is the stake which you two would bring into the field!” Jefferson said. “On his side, unentangled in the affections of the world a single life, of no value to himself or others. On yours, yourself, a wife, and a family of children all depending, for all their happiness and protection in this world on you alone.” (Ibid.)

Finally tempers cooled sufficiently, and the matter went away. But for a time it had been yet another source of stress and strain for Jefferson—a cause of personal worry at a time of public anxiety.

A
DEBILIT
ATING
DROUGHT
TJ to James Madison, July 26, 1806, James Madison Papers, LOC.

“B
URR
IS
UNQUESTIONABLY
”
TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., November 3, 1806, Massachusetts Historical Society.

H
E
WAS
ALLEGEDLY
Stewart,
American Emperor,
134–42. “We learn that he is actually building 10 or 15 boats able to take a large gun and fit for the navigation of those waters. We give him all the attention our situation admits: as yet we have no legal proof of any overt act which the law can lay hold of.” TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., November 3, 1806, Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, Massachusetts Historical Society.

“T
HIS
IS
INDEED
”
James Wilkinson to TJ, November 12, 1806, in
Report of the Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Conduct of General Wilkinson
(Washington, D.C., 1811), 425–28.

TO
ISSUE
A
PROCLAMATION
Proclamation on Military Expeditions against Spain, November 27, 1806, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC.

W
HAT
WAS
B
URR
DOING
?
For details, see Isenberg,
Fallen Founder,
and Stewart,
American Emperor
.

P
LUM
ER
DINED
WITH
J
EFFERS
ON
William Plumer's
Memorandum,
543–44.

I
NCRIMINATING
PAPERS
JHT,
V, 264.

DRAFTED
A
BILL
“
AUTHORIZING
”
TJ to John Dawson, December 19, 1806, Thomas Jefferson Papers, LOC. “On the whole, this squall, by showing with what ease our government suppresses movements which in other countries requires armies, has greatly increased its strength by increasing the public confidence in it,” Jefferson said in February 1807. “It has been a wholesome lesson, too, to our citizens, of the necessary obedience to their government.” (Johnstone,
Jefferson and the Presidency,
198.)

“
STRICT
LINE
OF
THE
LAW
”
Message to Congress, January 22, 1807, LOC.

“
GUILT
IS
PLACED
BEYOND
QUESTION
”
Sofaer,
War, Foreign Affairs, and Constitutional Power,
191.

J
EFFERSO
N
PAID
CAREFUL
ATTEN
TION
TJ to Caesar A. Rodney, March 22, 1807 private collection of William I. Davis, Newark, Ohio. “Burr, as a prisoner under a guard of 10 men, passed Coweta 800 miles from here, on the 3d inst.,” Jefferson wrote Rodney on Sunday, March 22, 1807.

At 30 miles a day he will be at Cartersville on James River on Thursday the 26th. There is not therefore one moment to be lost in deciding and acting on these questions. 1. Must he not be ordered from Cartersville down to Richmond for trial? 2. Should not an express go off instantly to meet him at Cartersville? Will Mr. Rodney be so good as to call on me between 8. and 9. this morning to consult on the above? I ask him thus early, because between 9 and 10 my headache comes on which renders me incapable of business. (Ibid.)

“N
O
MAN
'
S
HISTO
RY
”
TJ to Levi Lincoln, March 25, 1807, Massachusetts Historical Society.

“
LEAVES
ME
BUT
A
N
HOUR
”
Ibid.