Madison and Jefferson (128 page)

9.
TJ to Short, November 24, 1791,
PTJ
, 22:330–31. Rumors of British intervention circulated in England’s newspapers as early as October 1791, but Britain did not get involved until after France had declared war against it. See David P. Geggus, “The British Government and the Saint Domingue Slave Revolt, 1791–1793,”
English Historical Review
96 (April 1981): 289; Tim Matthewson,
A Proslavery Foreign Policy: Haitian-American Relations during the Early Republic
(Westport, Conn., 2003), 12, 20, 28–29.

10.
Jefferson’s use of the word
assassins
was not accidental but echoed what he was hearing. Jeremy Popkin argues that descriptions of the insurrection followed a rigid formula, focusing on the carnage, including the murders of women and children; blacks were denoted “assassins.” The word
assassins
appeared in the first appeal for aid from the colonial assembly on August 24, 1791, and American newspapers carried similarly graphic accounts. Just days before Jefferson wrote to Short, the
National Gazette
reprinted a letter stating: “St. Domingo continues to bleed by the hands of the infatuated Africans, who have doubtless been led on by emissaries, to act this scene of murder and desolation.” See
National Gazette
, November 17, 1791; and Jeremy D. Popkin,
Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of Haitian Insurrection
(Chicago, 2007), 6–9; also Matthewson,
Proslavery Foreign Policy
, 12, 29.

11.
Some reckoned that the United States might someday annex St. Domingue. That was certainly the conviction of Jefferson’s principal informant on the island, Nathaniel Cutting, an American businessman who had done small favors for Jefferson in Europe. In 1790 he had sailed to Africa from Le Havre and was still actively engaged in the slave trade at the time he wrote Jefferson from St. Domingue that “every Free American who indulges Political Reflections must feel himself peculiarly interested in the Fate of this valuable and flourishing Colony of Saint Domingue, which at some future point may possibly fall within the Jurisdiction of the Thirteen United States!” While Jefferson would not speak of independence for the whites of the troubled colony, he did want to use leverage to pressure France into removing trade restrictions to benefit the United States. See Cutting to TJ, April 19, 1791,
PTJ
, 17:240; Simon Newman, “American Political Culture and the French and Haitian Revolutions: Nathaniel Cutting and the Jeffersonian Republicans,” in David P. Geggus, ed.,
The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World
(Columbia, S.C., 2001), 73–74, 78.

12.
TJ to William Short, November 24, 1791,
PTJ
, 22:331; Matthewson,
Proslavery Foreign Policy
, 25–26, 29, 38.

13.
There was precedent for this. In Jamaica in 1739 the British resolved a rebellion
diplomatically by recognizing a completely separate maroon colony of free blacks in the mountains of the interior. Doing so, they secured the plantation economy, preserved the institution of slavery, and satisfied a defiant free black population all at once. The British strategy in Jamaica was consistent with Jefferson’s thinking in
Notes on Virginia:
segregation, removal, and rejection of a biracial political unit ensured social stability. See TJ to Lafayette, June 16, 1792,
PTJ
, 24:85; Matthewson,
Proslavery Foreign Policy
, 39. Laurent DuBois has argued the importance of maroon communities, in Dubois,
Avengers of the New World
, 52–57.

14.
Geggus,
Slavery, War and Revolution
, 42–45, 64, 78.

15.
JM to Pendleton, March 25, 1792, and “Santo Domingan Refugees,” January 10, 1794, in
PJM
, 14:263, 15:177–79; Eva Sheppard Wolf,
Race and Liberty in the New World: Emancipation in Virginia from the Revolution to Nat Turner’s Rebellion
(Baton Rouge, La., 2006), 26–27, 115; TJ to James Monroe, July 14, 1793,
PTJ
, 26:503.

16.
TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, May 26, 1793, in
The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson
, ed. Edwin Morris Betts and James Adam Bear, Jr. (Charlottesville, Va., 1986), 119–20.

17.
TJ to James Monroe, July 14, 1793,
PTJ
, 26:503. Jefferson did not consider that the principles which set in motion the American and French revolutions had meaning in St. Domingue; but Nathaniel Cutting did, blaming the French Revolution and its “leveling principles” for destroying St. Domingue. See Newman, “American Political Culture and French and Haitian Revolutions,” 79.

18.
See the extended discussion of the wrangling that took place over the neutrality proclamation in John Lamberton Harper,
American Machiavelli: Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of American Foreign Policy
(Cambridge, 2004), 104, 108–14.

19.
TJ to JM, July 11 and August 3, 1793; JM to TJ, July 18 and September 2, 1793,
RL
, 2:792–93, 797, 814–15; Alexander DeConde,
Entangling Alliance: Politics and Diplomacy Under George Washington
(Durham, N.C., 1958), 206–13. Adding to the confusion, Genet’s predecessor, Ternant, did not know which way to turn when the Jacobins refused to credit him for his work in America. Having sentiments for Louis XVI, Ternant turned for comfort to Hamilton, “put on mourning for the king, and became a perfect Counter-revolutioner.” Then he received word from Genet that he might be given an army appointment under the Jacobins and did another turnabout. TJ to JM and Monroe, May 5, 1793,
RL
, 2:770–71.

20.
The seven “Pacificus” essays were published between June 29 and July 27, 1793; quotes are from “Pacificus No. V,” July 13–17, 1793,
PAH
, 15:90–91, 95.

21.
TJ to JM, May 13, 1793,
RL
, 2:773; “Notes of a Conversation with George Washington,” August 6, 1793,
PTJ
, 26:628; Brant, 3:377–79.

22.
JM to Monroe, September 15, 1793,
PJM
, 15:110–11.

23.
Madison wrote the “Helvidius” essays from August 24 to September 18, 1793. He published them in Fenno’s
United States Gazette
, wishing for the essays to appear in the same publication as Hamilton’s “Pacificus.” See “Helvidius No. 1,” August 24, 1793, “Helvidius No. 5,” September 18, 1793,
PJM
, 15:67–68, 71, 73, 115–16; JM to TJ, June 19, 1793,
RL
, 1:786.

24.
Madison’s knowledge of Helvidius Priscus most likely comes from Book 4 of Tacitus.

25.
JM to TJ, May 27, 1793; TJ to JM, June 9, 1793,
RL
, 2:776, 779–81.

26.
Eugene R. Sheridan, “Thomas Jefferson and the Giles Resolutions,”
William and Mary Quarterly
49 (October 1992): 589–608; Malone, 3:14–33; Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick,
The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800
(New York, 1993), 295–301.

27.
Taylor to JM, May 11, June 20, and September 25, 1793; Monroe to JM, May 18, 1793; JM to Monroe, September 15, 1793,
PJM
, 15:13–14, 17, 34–35, 110–11, 123;
National Gazette
, September 11, 1793. The pamphlet would be published as
An Enquiry into the Principles and Tendency of Certain Public Measures.

28.
Pendleton to Washington, September 11, 1793,
The Letters and Papers of Edmund Pendleton
, ed. David John Mays (Charlottesville, Va., 1967), 2:613–15.

29.
TJ to JM, August 11, 1793,
RL
, 2:802–3.

30.
“Notes of a Conversation with George Washington,” August 6, 1793,
PTJ
, 26:627–30;
PGW-PS
, 13:312n.

31.
TJ to JM, August 11, 1793,
RL
, 2:803–4. Jefferson first expressed frustration with Randolph a few months earlier, when Randolph came up with a compromise position for enforcement of neutrality laws in U.S. ports. Hamilton wanted the responsibility conferred upon customs officials, which meant shifting more power to the Treasury Department. To mollify Jefferson, Randolph proposed that all customs officials report instead to federal attorneys. Rather than see this as a workable solution, Jefferson came to resent Randolph’s mediation. It appeared to him that Randolph was subtly outmaneuvering both Hamilton and him and puffing himself up.

32.
TJ to JM, May 13, 1793,
RL
, 1:772–73. Randolph agreed with Jefferson on sixteen out of nineteen issues raised in cabinet meetings. When Hamilton attacked Jefferson for supporting Freneau’s newspaper, Randolph was the first to defend him in print, calling his “calumniator” a “cowardly assassin.” But Randolph refused to be bullied by Jefferson. In most of his disagreements with Jefferson, he had valid reasons. When Jefferson suggested sending the controversial Gouverneur Morris, currently the minister to France, to England, Randolph warned that such a move would insult France since that country might soon be at war with Great Britain. In 1793 Jefferson suggested a special Board of Advice to decide on constitutional questions, which would have usurped the duties of the attorney general. Randolph refused to allow this to happen. For a balanced view of Randolph’s actions, see John Garry Clifford, “A Muddy Middle of the Road: The Politics of Edmund Randolph, 1790–1795,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
80 (July 1972): 288–94.

33.
TJ to JM, June 2, 1793; JM to TJ, June 13 and July 22, 1793,
RL
, 1:778, 783, 794–95; TJ to Monroe, May 5, 1793,
PTJ
, 25:661–62. Nicholas confirmed for Madison that Randolph’s views on France were not different from theirs, and Madison continued to defend Randolph and Nicholas by blaming “tainted sources” for any errors in Randolph’s report on the sentiments of Virginians. In September, though, he straddled the issue, defending Nicholas as a sound Republican while listing possible reasons that might “derogate from a full confidence in” Nicholas. See JM to TJ, July 30 and September 2, 1793,
RL
, 1:796–97, 816.

34.
Genet to Washington, August 13, 1793,
PGW-P
, 13:436–37; TJ to Genet, August 16, 1793,
PTJ
, 26:684.

35.
DeConde,
Entangling Alliance
, 214–16, 224–26, 235–39, 248–50; “The Recall of Edmond Charles Genet,” and supporting documentation,
PTJ
, 26:685ff.; TJ to Isaac Shelby (first governor of Kentucky), November 6, 1793,
PTJ
, 27:312. Cynical in their assessment of the Republicans and too quick to credit or condone Hamilton, Elkins and McKitrick nevertheless present a thoroughgoing account of the politics surrounding the neutrality proclamation and the furor over Genet. See
Age of Federalism
, chap. 8. Contemptuous of Hamilton’s motives, Malone predictably praises Jefferson as fair and realistic, “wise and patriotic,” throughout this trying period. See Malone, 3:90–131.

36.
Douglas B. Chambers,
Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia
(Jackson, Miss., 2005), 131–32; Brant, 3:380; TJ to JM, June 2, 1793,
RL
, 2:779, and several references to Billey in the Madison-Jefferson correspondence of 1793. Douglas R. Egerton says of the decision to leave Billey in Philadelphia, “Madison was able to flatter himself a humanitarian even while turning a small profit.” Egerton,
Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America
(New York, 2009), 131.

37.
Annals of Congress
, 2nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1414–15; Paul Finkelman,
Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson
(Armonk, N.Y., 2001), chap. 4. Pennsylvania had had a Gradual Emancipation Act in force since 1780, after which time children born of slaves were free at birth.

38.
TJ to JM, September 8 and September 12, 1793,
RL
, 2:818–19; Malone, 3:472–73. The classic treatment on the epidemic is J. H. Powell,
Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793
(Philadelphia, 1993).

39.
JM to James Madison, Sr., May 4, 1794,
PJM
, 15:322–33; Brant, 3:385; Ketcham, 375–76.

40.
Noble E. Cunningham, Jr.,
The Jeffersonian Republicans: The Formation of Party Organization, 1789–1801
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1959), 63–66; Andrew Burstein,
Sentimental Democracy: The Evolution of America’s Romantic Self-Image
(New York, 1999), 176–80.

41.
Spectator
no. 125, July 24, 1711, in Crissy and Markley edition (Philadelphia, 1851), 3:90–94.

42.
William Wyche,
Party Spirit: An Oration
(New York, 1794), 8–15, 19; though Wyche’s address was given in the spring of 1794, it reflected a state of affairs amply evidenced in public statements of 1793 as well; advertisement for its publication in
American Minerva
(New York), June 30, 1794;
New-York Gazette
, December 21, 1747;
Boston Evening-Post
, March 23, 1772; [Donald Fraser],
Party Spirit Exposed, or Remarks on the Times
(New York, 1799), 5–6; Pendleton to TJ, July 22, 1776,
PTJ
, 1:472; “Impartiality, No. 2, To the Mechanics of New-York,”
Loudon’s Register
, January 18, 1793; “Principles of the Democratic Society of Pennsylvania,” in
Middlesex Gazette
[Middletown, Conn.], July 27, 1793;
Mirrour
[Concord, N.H.], January 6, 1794;
American Apollo
[Boston], January 9, 1794;
Philadelphia Gazette
, April 19, 1794;
Medley
[New Bedford, Mass.], October 31, 1794; John Adams to Abigail Adams, December 28, 1792,
Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive
, Massachusetts Historical Society (
http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams
); Franklyn George Bonn, Jr., “The Idea of Political Party in the Thought of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison,” Ph. D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1964, chap. 2, showing the strict political usage of
faction
and the occasional nonpolitical usage of
party;
Washington Irving, “The Poor Devil Author,” in
Tales of a Traveller
, ed. Judith Giblin Haig (Boston, 1987), 92.