American Sphinx (54 page)

19. Jefferson to Abigail Adams, August 9, 1786; Abigail Adams to Jefferson, October 19, 1785, November 24, 1785, October 7, 1785; Jefferson to Abigail Adams, October 11, 1785, July 9, 1786,
Cappon,
I, 148–49, 84, 79–80, 84–85, 141.

20. Elizabeth Wayles Eppes to Jefferson, October 13, 1784; Jefferson to Francis Eppes, February 5, 1785,
Boyd,
VII, 441, 635; Abigail Adams to Jefferson, July 23, 1786,
Cappon,
I, 146.

21. Abigail Adams to Jefferson, June 26, 1787, July 10, 1787; Jefferson to Abigail Adams, July 1, 1787, July 16, 1787; Abigail Adams to Jefferson, July 6, 1787,
Cappon,
I, 178–79, 183–85, 188.

22. Abigail Adams to Jefferson, September 10, 1787,
ibid.,
I, 197.

23. Abigail Adams to Jefferson, June 6, 1785,
ibid.,
I, 28. For Adams and Jefferson as America’s “odd couple,” see Ellis,
Passionate Sage,
113–42.

24. Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, June 28, 1785,
Boyd,
VIII, 249; John Adams to Jefferson, March 1, 1787,
Cappon,
I, 175–76. Precisely what happened when the two men were introduced at the Court of St. James’s is the subject of some disagreement, though their respective autobiographies tell the same story of George III’s ostentatious gesture of disrespect. See Charles R. Ritcheson, “The Fragile Memory: Thomas Jefferson at the Court of George III,”
Eighteenth Century Life,
VI (1981), 1–16.

25. Jefferson to John Adams, July 28, 1785; John Adams to Jefferson, September 4, 1785,
Cappon,
I, 46, 61.

26. Jefferson and John Adams to American Commissioners, March 28, 1786,
Boyd,
IX, 357–59.

27. See Julian Boyd’s note on “Jefferson’s Proposed Concert of Powers Against the Barbary Pirates,”
Boyd,
X, 560–66.

28. John Adams to Jefferson, November 4, 1785, June 6, 1786, July 3, 1786, July 11, 1786, July 31, 1786; Jefferson to John Adams, July 11, 1786,
Cappon,
I, 89, 133–34, 139, 146, 142–43.

29. Commissioners of the Treasury to Jefferson, May 9, 1786,
Boyd,
IX, 479–81; Jefferson to Abigail Adams, September 25, 1785,
Cappon,
I, 70.

30. Claude Ann Lopez,
Mon Cher Papa: Franklin and the Ladies of Paris
(New Haven, 1990). For Jefferson’s ranking of Franklin as next to Washington, and all others “on the second line,” see Jefferson to William Carmichael, August 12, 1788,
Boyd,
XIII, 502.

31. See Boyd’s note on Jefferson’s introduction to Vergennes,
Boyd,
VIII, 157–58; the Franklin quotation on Adams is repeated, with a slight alteration, in Jefferson to James Madison, July 29, 1789,
ibid.,
XV, 316.

32. John Jay to Jefferson, August 18, 1786; Jefferson to James Monroe, August 11, 1786; James Madison to Jefferson, March 18, 1786,
ibid.,
X, 271–72, 223–25; IX, 334.

33. David Hartley to Jefferson, October 5, 1785; Jefferson to James Madison, April 25, 1786; Jefferson to Benjamin Franklin, October 5, 1785,
ibid.,
VIII, 587; IX, 433–34.

34. On Jefferson’s belief in free markets, see Jefferson to Vergennes, November 20, 1785, and December 20, 1785,
ibid.,
IX, 51, 112. See also Jefferson to Louis Guillaume Otto, May 7, 1786,
ibid.,
IX, 470–71. The quotation is from Jefferson to John Bonfield, December 18, 1787,
ibid.,
XII, 434.

35. Jefferson to James Madison, December 20, 1784; John Jay to Jefferson, June 16, 1786,
ibid.,
VII, 563; IX, 650–51.

36. Jefferson to Calonne, January 7, 1787; Jefferson to John Jay, January 9, 1787; “Documents Concerning the Whale Industry,” 1788,
ibid.,
XI, 25, 30; XIV, 217–72.

37. The most recent scholarly assessment of the Dutch loan is in John Ferling, “John Adams, Diplomat,”
WMQ,
LI (1994), 227–52. See also Jefferson to John Adams, March 2, 1788,
Boyd,
XII, 637–38; Jefferson to John Adams, December 12, 1787,
Cappon,
I, 216.

38. Jefferson to John Adams, February 6, 1788; John Adams to Jefferson, February 12, 1788,
Cappon,
I, 224–25.

39. The selection from Chastellux’s
Travels in America
is conveniently available in
Boyd,
VII, 585–86, along with a note by Julian Boyd on Chastellux, who had served as an officer in the French Army at Yorktown. The appointment to the American Philosophical Society is conveyed in Benjamin Franklin to Jefferson, October 8, 1786,
ibid.,
X, 437, and the Yale honorary degree in Ezra Stiles to Jefferson, September 14, 1786,
ibid.,
X, 385–86. For a picture of Jefferson at court, see Thomas Shippen’s letters, reproduced in
ibid.,
XII, 502–04.

40. Jefferson to Antonio Giannini, February 5, 1786; Jefferson to James Monroe, June 17, 1785; Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, September 25, 1785, and January 13, 1785; Jefferson to G. K. Hogendorp, August 25, 1786,
ibid.,
IX, 252–55; VIII, 233, 550–51; VII, 602; X, 297–99. His editorial revisions of Jean Nicolas Démeunier’s
Encyclopédie
are in
ibid.,
X, 3–63. Similar revisions of François Soulés,
Historie
(1785) are in
ibid.,
X, 364–65.

41. The correspondence on the Capitol building at Richmond is too extensive to identify in full. See Jefferson to Madison, September 1, 1785; Jefferson to William Buchanan and James Hay, January 26, 1786. The quotation is from Jefferson to James Currie, January 28, 1786,
ibid.,
VIII, 534–35; IX, 220–23, 240.

42. Jefferson’s somewhat comic (except for the moose) quest can be found in Jefferson to John Sullivan, January 7, 1786; Jefferson to Archibald Cary, January 7, 1786; Jefferson to John Sullivan, October 5, 1787, January 26, 1787, April 16, 1787; Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, September 28, 1787,
ibid.,
IX, 158, 160; XI, 68, 295–97; XII, 192–93, 208–09.

43. Jefferson to Eliza House Trist, August 18, 1785,
ibid.,
VIII, 404.

44. Jefferson to Joseph Jones, August 14, 1787; Jefferson to George Wythe, August 13, 1786; Jefferson to David Ramsay, August 4, 1787; Jefferson to John Rutledge, August 6, 1787,
ibid.,
XII, 34; X, 244; XI, 687, 701.

45. ”Hints to Americans Travelling in Europe,” June 19, 1788; Jefferson to John Bannister, October 15, 1785; Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, July 6, 1787,
ibid.,
XIII, 264–77; VIII, 636–37; XI, 556–59.

46. William H. Peden, ed.,
Notes on the State of Virginia
(Chapel Hill, 1954) is the standard and most accessible edition that also contains an introductory essay on the complicated publishing history of the book. The two best secondary accounts of
Notes
are Fawn M. Brodie,
Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History
(New York, 1974), 150–61, and Jordan,
White over Black,
238–85, 481–96. John Adams to Jefferson, May 22, 1785,
Cappon,
I, 21.

47. Jefferson to James Madison, May 11, 1785; James Madison to Jefferson, November 15, 1785,
Boyd,
VIII, 147–48; IX, 38–39.

48. Peden, ed.,
Notes,
138, 163. The literature on Jefferson and slavery is enormous, and a fuller treatment of the subject will be forthcoming in chapters 3 and 4. For now, three basic accounts must suffice: Jordan,
White over Black;
Robert McColley,
Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia
(Urbana, 1964); and John Chester Miller,
The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
(New York, 1977).

49. David Ramsay to Jefferson, May 3, 1786; Reverend James Madison to Jefferson, December 28, 1786,
Boyd,
IX, 441; X, 138. The letters Jefferson received on
Notes
were uniformly encouraging on the slavery issue, congratulating Jefferson on his forthright denunciation. “This is a cancer that we must get rid of,” wrote Charles Thomson from Philadelphia. “It is a blot on our character that must be wiped out. If it cannot be done by religion, reason and philosophy, confident I am that it will one day be by blood.” Charles Thomson to Jefferson, November 2, 1785,
ibid.,
IX, 9–10.

50. Jefferson to Brissot de Warville, February 11, 1788; Jefferson to Richard Price, August 7, 1785,
ibid.,
XII, 577–78; VIII, 356–57. The best secondary account of Jefferson’s more procrastinating posture is William Freehling,
The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776–1854
(New York, 1990), 122–31.

51. Jefferson to Paul Bentalou, August 25, 1786,
Boyd,
X, 296. Jefferson eventually freed James Hemings in 1796.

52. John Adams to Francis Vanderkemp, April 8, 1815,
The Microfilm Edition of the Adams Papers
(608 reels, Boston, 1954–59), Reel 122.

53. Jefferson to George Washington, December 4, 1788; Jefferson to Anne Willing Bingham, May 11, 1788,
Boyd,
XIV, 330; XIII, 151–52.

54. Jefferson to Mary Jefferson Bolling, July 23, 1787; also Jefferson to James Maury, December 24, 1786,
ibid.,
XI, 612; X, 628.

55. Martha Jefferson to Jefferson, May 27, 1787; Martha Jefferson to Jefferson, March 8, 1787; Martha Jefferson to Jefferson, April 9, 1787,
ibid.,
XI, 203–04, 380–81, 282. The story of Jefferson’s removal of Patsy from Panthemont is in
Randall,
I, 538–39.

56. On Jefferson’s idealization of domestic life, see Jan Lewis,
The Pursuit of Happiness: Family and Values in Jefferson’s Virginia
(New York, 1983).

57. Jefferson to Martha Jefferson, May 5, 1787; Jefferson to Martha Jefferson, March 28, 1787; Jefferson to Mary Jefferson, September 20, 1785,
Boyd,
XI, 348–49, 250–51; VIII, 532–33.

58. Jefferson to Angelica Schuyler Church, February 17, 1788; Jefferson to Madame de Tessé, March 20, 1787,
ibid.,
XII, 600–01; XI, 226.

59. Helen D. Bullock,
My Head and My Heart: A Little Chronicle of Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway
(New York, 1945) remains the fullest telling of the story. Though excessively psychiatric, Brodie’s
Intimate History,
109–215, is a full rendering.

60. Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, October 20, 1786,
Boyd,
X, 478–79; Lyman Butterfield and Howard C. Rice, “Jefferson’s Earliest Note to Maria Cosway and Some New Facts and Conjectures on His Broken Wrist,”
WMQ,
II (1948), 26–33. Jefferson to Maria Cosway [October 5, 1786],
Boyd,
X, 431–32.

61. Jefferson to Elizabeth House Trist, December 15, 1786,
Boyd,
X, 600.

62. Jefferson to Maria Cosway, October 12, 1786,
ibid.,
X, 443–55.

63. Jefferson to Maria Cosway, December 24, 1786,
ibid.,
X, 627–28.

64. Maria Cosway to Jefferson, February 15, 1787,
ibid.,
XI, 148–51.

65. Jefferson to Maria Cosway, July 1, 1787; Maria Cosway to Jefferson, March 7, 1788,
ibid.,
XI, 519–20; XII, 645.

66. Jefferson to Maria Cosway, April 24, 1788; Maria Cosway to Jefferson, April 29, 1788,
ibid.,
XIII, 103–04, 114–16.

67. Maria Cosway to Jefferson, August 19, 1789; Jefferson to Maria Cosway, May 21, 1789,
ibid.,
XV, 351, 142–43. This is only a small sampling of the extensive correspondence between Jefferson and Cosway, which is rich enough to merit a fuller treatment than space allows here.

68. Jefferson to James Madison, February 8, 1786; Jefferson to James Madison, December 16, 1786,
ibid.,
IX, 264; X, 603.

69. Douglass Adair, “ ‘That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science’: David Hume, James Madison and the Tenth Federalist,” in Trevor Colbourn, ed.,
Fame and the Founding Fathers
(New York, 1974), 3–26; the arrival of the load of books is reported in James Madison to Jefferson, January 22, 1786,
Boyd,
IX, 194. The quotation is from Jefferson to James Monroe, June 17, 1785,
ibid.,
VIII, 227–28. Two recent books on Madison’s political thought offer different interpretations of his legacy: Lance Banning,
The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Creation of the Federal Republic
(Madison, 1995) and Richard K. Matthews,
If Men Were Angels: James Madison and the Heartless Empire of Reason
(Lawrence, 1995).

70. John Jay to Jefferson, October 27, 1786,
Boyd,
X, 488–89; Abigail Adams to Jefferson, January 29, 1787,
Cappon,
I, 168–69. On Shays’s Rebellion, see David P. Szatmary,
Shays’s Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection
(Amherst, 1980) and Robert Gross, ed.,
In Debt to Shays: The Bicentennial of an Agrarian Rebellion
(Charlottesville, 1993).

71. Jefferson to Abigail Adams, February 22, 1787,
Cappon,
I, 173; Jefferson to Ezra Stiles, December 24, 1786; Jefferson to James Madison, January 30, 1787; Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787,
Boyd,
X, 629; XI, 92–93; XII, 356–57.

72. Jefferson to James Madison, January 30, 1787; Jefferson to Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787,
Boyd,
XI, 92–93, 48–50.

73. James Madison to Jefferson, March 19, 1787; Jefferson to James Madison, June 20, 1787; Edward Carrington to Jefferson, June 9, 1787,
ibid.,
XI, 219–20, 480, 407–11. Jefferson to John Adams, November 13, 1787,
Cappon
I, 212.

74. Jefferson to C. W. F. Dumas, September 10, 1787; James Madison to Jefferson, July 18, 1787,
Boyd,
XII, 113; XI, 600.

75. James Madison to Jefferson, October 24, 1787; Jefferson to James Madison, December 20, 1787,
ibid.,
XII, 270–86, 438–43.

76. Jefferson to Edward Carrington, December 21, 1787,
ibid.,
XII, 446.

77. Jefferson to George Washington, May 2, 1788,
ibid.,
XIII, 128.

78. Francis Hopkinson to Jefferson, December 1, 1788; James Madison to Jefferson, July 24, 1788,
ibid.,
XIV, 324; XIII, 412.

79. Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, February 2, 1788; Jefferson to John Brown, May 28, 1788; Edward Carrington to Jefferson, May 14, 1788; Jefferson to James Madison, November 18, 1787; Jefferson to James Madison, July 31, 1788; Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789,
ibid.,
XII, 557–58; XIII, 212–13, 157; XIV, 188; XIII, 443; XIV, 650.