Chapter III The Philosophy of Old Age
Old people are often accused of being too conservative, and even reactionary. They seem out of step with the younger generations, and very few preserve enough resiliency to keep in touch with the ceaseless changes taking place around them. But a few men who, born in the second half of the eighteenth century, lived well up into the nineteenth, were able to escape this apparently unavoidable law of nature. After witnessing political convulsions, commotions and revolutions, they clung tenaciously to the faith of their younger days. They refused to accept the view that the world was going from bad to worse; they looked untiringly for every symptom of improvement and thought they could distinguish everywhere signs foretelling the dawn of a new era. The growing infirmities of their bodies did not leave them any illusion about their inevitable disappearance from the stage and they were not upheld by any strong belief in personal immortality. But however uncertain and hazy may have been their religious tenets, they had a stanch faith in the unlimited capacity of human nature for improvement and development. They believed in the irresistible power of truth, in the ultimate recognition of natural principles and natural laws, in the religion of progress as it had been formulated by the eighteenth-century philosophers. Thus, rather than follow the precept of the ancient poet and unhitch their aging horses, they had anticipated the advice of the American philosopher by hitching their wagon to a star.
Du Pont de Nemours, experimenting with his sons to develop American industries in order to make America economically independent from Europe; Destutt de Tracy, almost completely blind, dictating his treatise on political economy and appearing in the streets of Paris during the glorious days of 1830; Lafayette, yearning and hoping for the recognition of his ideal of liberty during the Empire and the Restauration—all of these were more than survivors of a forgotten age. Even to the younger generations they represented the living embodiment of the political faith of the nineteenth century. It is not a mere coincidence that most of them were friends and admirers of the Sage of Monticello, whose letters they read “as the letters of the Apostles were read in the circle of the early Christians.”
Jefferson could complain that “the decays of age had enfeebled the useful energies of the mind”,550 but he kept, practically to his last day, his alertness, his encyclopædic curiosity and an extraordinary capacity for work. A large part of his time was taken by his correspondence. Turning to his letter list for 1820 he found that he had received no less than “one thousand two hundred and sixty-seven communications, many of them requiring answers of elaborate research, and all of them to be answered with due attention and consideration.”551 I may be permitted to add that a large part of the letters he received as well as those he wrote deserve publication and would greatly contribute to our knowledge of the period.
Among them essays and short treatises on every possible subject under heaven will be found. With Du Pont de Nemours, Jefferson discussed not only questions of political economy, education and government, but the acclimation of the merino sheep, the manufacturing of woolen goods and nails, the construction of gunboats and the organization of the militia. With Madame de Tessé, Lafayette’s aged cousin, he resumed the exchange of botanical views, interrupted by his presidency and the continental blockade. He undertook to put together the scraps of paper on which he had scribbled notes during Washington’s and Adams’ administrations and compiled his famous “Anas”; he wrote his “Autobiography”, furnished documents to Girardin for his continuation of Burke’s “History of Virginia”; he answered queries on the circumstances under which he had written the Declaration of Independence, the Kentucky Resolution, on his attitude towards France when Secretary of State and President; he criticized quite extensively Marshall’s “History of Washington” and one of his last letters, written on May 15, 1826, was to inform one of his friends of the facts concerning “Arnold’s invasion and surprise of Richmond, in the winter of 1780-81.”552
His interest in books was greater than ever; he had scarcely sold his library to Congress when he undertook to collect another, going systematically through the publishers’ catalogues, writing to booksellers in Richmond, Philadelphia, New York and even abroad, requesting his European friends to send him the latest publications and asking young Ticknor to procure for him, in France or Germany, the best editions of the Greek and Latin classics. He drew up the plans for the University of Virginia and supervised the construction of the building. Between times he took upon himself the task of rewriting entirely the translation of Destutt de Tracy’s “Review of Montesquieu” and directed the printing of his treatise on “Political Economy.” After writing letters, regulating the work of the farm, he spent several hours on horseback every day and during the balance of the afternoon read new and old books, played with his grandchildren, walked in the garden to look at his favorite trees, listened to music and, during the fine weather, received the visitors who flocked to Monticello by the dozens. Some were simply idlers coming out of curiosity, many were old friends who stayed for days or weeks; but all were welcomed with the same affable courtesy and the same generous hospitality, according to the best traditions of old Virginia.
They came from all nations, at all times—wrote Doctor Dunglison—and paid longer or shorter visits. I have known a New England judge bring a letter of introduction and stay three weeks. The learned abbé Correa, always a welcome guest, passed some weeks of each year with us during the whole time of his stay in the country. We had persons from abroad, from all the States of the Union, from every part of the State—men, women, and children.... People of wealth, fashion, men in office, Protestant clergymen, Catholic priests, members of Congress, foreign ministers, missionaries, Indian agents, tourists, travellers, artists, strangers, friends.553
No sound estimate of the extraordinary influence exerted by Jefferson upon the growth of liberalism can be made at the present time. It would require separate studies, careful investigation and the publication of many letters, safely preserved but too little used, which rest in the Jefferson Papers of the Library of Congress, and with the Massachusetts Historical Society. I have already printed Jefferson’s correspondence with Volney, Destutt de Tracy, Lafayette and Du Pont de Nemours; many other letters, no less significant, remain practically unknown. He encouraged his European friends, Correa de Serra, Kosciusko, the Greek Coray, to keep up their courage, to hope against hope. To all of them he preached the same gospel of faith in the ultimate and inevitable recognition throughout the world of the principles of American democracy. This was not done for propaganda’s sake, for no man would deserve less than Jefferson the dubious qualification of propagandist. The many letters written to his American friends on the same subject clearly show that this was his profound conviction and almost his only raison d’être. His was not an over-optimistic temperament; he did not fail to notice all “the specks of hurricane on the horizon of the world.” Yet, all considered, and in spite of temporary fits of despondency, his conclusion on the future of democracy can be summed up in the words he wrote to John Adams at the end of 1821:
I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance. We have seen indeed, once within the record of history, the complete eclipse of the human mind continuing for centuries... even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.554
Jefferson felt such a dislike for unnecessary controversies that he was apt to adopt the tone and the style of his correspondents and apparently to accept their ideas, so that many contradictions can be found in these letters. To a chosen few only he fully revealed his intimate thoughts and without reticence, without fear of being betrayed, communicated his doubts, his hopes and his hatred. The letters he wrote to Short, Priestley, and Thomas Cooper are most remarkable in this respect. But with none of them did he communicate so freely as with his old friend John Adams. The correspondence that passed between them during the last fifteen years of their lives constitutes one of the most striking and illuminating human documents a student of psychology may ever hope to discover. To those who have had the privilege of using the manuscripts to follow month by month the palsied hand of Adams until he had to cease writing himself and dictated his letters to a “female member of his household”, it seems unthinkable that the wish expressed by Wirt in 1826,—to see the correspondence between the two great men published in its entirety,—should not have received its fulfillment.
They had been estranged for a long time, and no word had passed between them for more than ten years after Adams’ sulky departure from Washington on the morning of March 4, 1801. At the beginning of 1811, Doctor Benjamin Rush made bold to deplore “the discontinuance of friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson.” Jefferson answered quite lengthily, giving a long account of his difficulties with Adams, including the letter written by Abigail Adams in 1802, but adding that he would second with pleasure every effort made to bring about a reconciliation. However, he did not entertain much hope that Doctor Rush would succeed, for he knew it was “part of Mr. Adams’ character to suspect foul play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his suspicions.”555
It was not until the end of the same year that Jefferson took up the subject again, having heard that during a conversation Adams had mentioned his name, adding: “I always loved Jefferson, and still love him.” This was enough, and it only remained to create an opportunity to resume the correspondence without too much awkwardness; but “from this fusion of sentiments” Mrs. Adams was “of course to be separated”, for Jefferson could not believe that the woman wounded in her motherly pride had forgotten anything. This was no insuperable obstacle, however: “It will only be necessary that I never name her” wrote Jefferson.556
Adams took the first step, and, knowing how much Jefferson was interested in domestic manufactures, sent him a fine specimen of homespun made in Massachusetts. Jefferson could but acknowledge the peace offering, which he did most gracefully, without mentioning Mrs. Adams.557 But he was too much of a Southern gentleman to hold a resentment long even against a woman of such a jealous disposition. Two months later he sent for the first time the homage of his respects to Mrs. Adams, after which he never forgot to mention her. On two occasions he even wrote her charming letters, in the same friendly tone as he had used with her twenty-five years earlier, when he used to do shopping for her in Paris. On hearing of her death on November 13, 1818, he sent to his stricken old friend a touching expression of his sympathy:
Will I say more where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both, that the term is not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love and never lose again.558
Quite naturally, as the circle of his friends grew narrower and one after the other were called by death, Jefferson’s thoughts turned to the hereafter. In his youth he had apparently settled the problem once for all; but the solution then found was scarcely more than a temporary expedient. It may behove a young man full of vigor, with a long stretch of years before him, to declare that “the business of life is with matter” and that it serves no purpose to break our heads against a blank wall. There are very few men, if they are thinking at all, who can entirely dismiss from their minds the perplexing and torturing riddle, as the term grows nearer every day. Such an ataraxia may have been obtained by a few sages of old, but it is hardly human, and Jefferson, like Adams, was very human. This is a subject, however, which I cannot approach without some reluctance. Jefferson himself would have highly disapproved of such a discussion. After submitting silently to so many fierce criticisms, after being accused of atheism, materialism, impiety and philosophism by his contemporaries, he hoped that the question would never be broached to him again. With those who tried to revive it, he had absolutely no patience.
One of our fan-coloring biographers—he wrote once—who paint small men as very great, inquired of me lately, with real affection too, whether he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion much spoken of in some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what had been my religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom I certainly never made the confidants of my creed. My answer was: “Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.”559
Unfortunately the controversy is still going on and at least a few points must be indicated here. The simplest and to some extent the most acceptable treatment of the matter was given a few years after his death by the physician who attended him up to the last minutes:
It is due, also, to that illustrious individual to say, that, in all my intercourse with him, I never heard an observation that savored, in the slightest degree, of impiety. His religious belief harmonized more closely with that of the Unitarians than of any other denomination, but it was liberal, and untrammelled by sectarian feelings and prejudices.560
But Doctor Dunglison’s declaration is somewhat unsatisfactory and misleading, for Jefferson once gave his own definition of Unitarianism. From a letter he wrote to James Smith in 1822 it appears he was not ready to join the Unitarian Church any more than any other:
About Unitarianism, the doctrine of the early ages of Christianity... the pure and simple unity of the Creator of the universe, is now all but ascendant in the Eastern States; it is dawning in the West, and advancing towards the South; and I confidently expect that the present generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the United States.... I write with freedom, because, while I claim a right to believe in one God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others that of believing in three.561
On the other hand, one might easily be misled by some declarations of Jefferson to his more intimate friends. “I am a materialist—I am an Epicurian,” he wrote on several instances to John Adams, Thomas Cooper and Short, with whom he felt that he could discuss religious questions more freely than with any others. Rejecting the famous Cogito ergo sum of Descartes, he fell back when in doubt on his “habitual anodyne”: “I feel therefore I exist.” This in his opinion did not imply the sole existence of matter, but simply that he could not “conceive thought to be an action of a particular organisation of matter, formed for the purpose by its Creator, as well as that attraction is an action of matter, or magnetism of loadstone.” Then he added: “I am supported in my creed of materialism by the Lockes, the Tracys and the Stewarts. At what age of the Christian Church this heresy of immaterialism or masked atheism, crept in, I do not exactly know. But a heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it.”562
In the same sense he could write to Judge Augustus S. Woodward: “Jesus himself, the Founder of our religion, was unquestionably a Materialist as to man. In all His doctrines of the resurrection, he teaches expressly that the body is to rise in substances.”563
His definition of Epicurism would seem equally remote from the popular acceptation, and certainly Jefferson was never of those who could deserve the old appellation of Epicuri de grege porcus; for his Epicurus is the philosopher “whose doctrines contain everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.”564
All through the year 1813 and on many occasions after that date, Adams tried to draw him out on the question of religion. “For,” as he said, “these things are to me, at present, the marbles and nine-pins of old age; I will not say beads and prayer books.” But Jefferson could not have declared, as did his old friend: “For more than sixty years I have been attentive to this great subject. Controversies between Calvinists and Arminians, Trinitarians and Unitarians, Deists and Christians, Atheists and both, have attracted my attention, whenever the singular life I have led would admit, to all these questions.”565
Not so with Jefferson, who felt a real abhorrence for theological discussions and considered them as a sheer waste of time. They belonged to a past age and were to be buried in oblivion lest they create again an atmosphere of fanaticism and intolerance; at best, they could be left to the clergy. But tolerant as he was, there were certain doctrines against which Jefferson revolted even in later life, as he probably did when a student at William and Mary:
I can never join Calvin in addressing his God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was dæmonism. If ever man worshipped a false God, he did. The God described in his five points, is not the God whom you acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent Governor of the world; but a dæmon of malignant spirit.
But right after this virulent denunciation comes a most interesting admission. If Jefferson’s God was not the God of Calvin, he was just as remote from the mechanistic materialism of D’Holbach and La Mettrie as he was from Calvinism and predestination. Leaving aside all questions of dogmas and revelation he held that:
When we take a view of the universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. So irresistible are these evidences of an intelligent and powerful Agent, that of the infinite numbers of men who have existed through all time, they have believed, in the proportion of a million at least to a unit, in the hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a Creator, rather than in that of a self existing universe.566
From this passage, it would seem that Jefferson founded his belief in the existence of God on the two well-known arguments: the order of the Universe and the general consensus of opinion. If it were so, he would follow close on the steps of the English deists of the school of Pope. But religion to him was something more than the mere “acknowledgement” and “adoration of the benevolent Governor of the world”;
It is more than an inner conviction of the existence of the Creator; true religion is morality. If by religion we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is just, “that this would be the best possible of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.” But if the moral precepts, innate in man, and made a part of his physical constitution, as necessary for a social being, if the sublime doctrines of philanthropism and deism taught us by Jesus of Nazareth, in which we all agree, constitute true religion, then, without it, this would be, as you again say, “something not fit to be named even, indeed, a hell.”567
On this point as on so many others Jefferson is distinctly an eighteenth-century man. One of the pet schemes of the philosophers was to prove that there is no necessary connection between religion and morality. It was an essential article of the philosophical creed from Pierre Bayle to Jefferson, and long before them, Montaigne had filled his “Essays” with countless anecdotes and examples tending to prove this point. But Jefferson went one step farther than most of the French philosophers, with the exception of Rousseau. Morality is not founded on a religious basis; religion is morality. This being accepted, it remains to determine the foundation of morality. In a letter written to Thomas Law during the summer of 1814, Jefferson examined the different solutions proposed by theologians and philosophers and clearly indicated his preference.
“It was vain to say that it was truth; for truth is elusive, unattainable, and there is no certain criticism of it.” It is not either the “love of God”, for an atheist may have morality, and “Diderot, d’Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been the most virtuous of men.” It is not either the to kalon, for many men are deprived of any æsthetic sense. Self-interest is more satisfactory, but even the demonstration given by Helvétius is not perfectly convincing. All these explanations are one step short of the ultimate question.
The truth of the matter is, that Nature has implanted in our breasts a love of others, a sense of duty to them, a moral instinct, in short, which prompts us irresistibly to feel and succour their distresses. It is true that these social dispositions are not implanted in every man, because there is no rule without exceptions; but it is false reasoning which converts exceptions into the general rule. Some men are born without the organs of sight, or of hearing, or without hands. Yet it would be wrong to say that man is born without these faculties. When the moral sense is wanting, we endeavor to supply the defect by education; by appeals to reason and calculation, by presenting to the being so unhappily conformed other motives to do good. But nature has constituted utility to man the social test of virtue. The same act may be useful and consequently virtuous in a country which is injurious and vicious in another differently circumstanced. I sincerely then believe, with you, in the general existence of a moral instinct. I think it is the brightest gem with which the human character is studded, and the want of it is more degrading than the most hideous of the bodily deformities.568
The test of morality then becomes, not self-interest, as Helvétius had maintained (and Jefferson reproved Destutt de Tracy for having accepted this theory), but general interest and social utility. This is almost the criterium of Kant and one would be tempted to press this parallelism, if there was any reason to believe that the Philosopher of Monticello had ever heard the name of the author of “Practical Reason.” On this point, as on so many others, Jefferson differs radically from Rousseau, who admitted also a benevolent governor of the world and the existence of a moral instinct, but who would have strenuously denied that this moral instinct was nothing but the social instinct. Jefferson, on the contrary, is led to recognize the existence of morality, chiefly because, man being a social being, society cannot be organized and subsist if it is not composed of moral beings.
Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts in which all religions agree, (for all forbid us to murder, steal, plunder or bear false witness,) and that we should not intermeddle with the particular dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are totally unconnected with morality. In all of them we see good men, and as many in one as another. The varieties of structures of action of the human mind as in those in the body, are the work of our Creator, against which it cannot be a religious duty to erect the standard of uniformity. The practice of morality being necessary for the well-being of society, he has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain.569
This was stated more humorously by John Adams after they had treated the subject exhaustively in a series of letters: “Vain man, mind your own business. Do no wrong—; do all the good you can. Eat your canvasback ducks, drink your Burgundy. Sleep your siesta when necessary, and TRUST IN GOD.”570
This being the case, it remained to determine whether man could not find somewhere a code of morality that would express the precepts impressed in our hearts. In his youth, Jefferson had copied and accepted as a matter of course the statement of Bolingbroke that:
It is not true that Christ revealed an entire body of ethics, proved to be the law of nature from principles of reason and reaching all duties of life.... A system thus collected from the writings of the ancient heathen moralists, of Tully, of Seneca, of Epictetus, and others, would be more full, more entire, more coherent, and more clearly deduced from unquestionable principles of knowledge.571
In order to realize how far away Jefferson had drawn from his radicalism, it is only necessary to go back to his “Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus, compared with those of others”, written for Benjamin Rush, in 1803, after reading Doctor Priestley’s little treatise “Of Socrates and Jesus compared.”572 There he had declared that
His moral doctrines relating to kindred and friends, were more pure and perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers, and... they went far in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants and common aids. A development of this head will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all others.
Jefferson had been won over to Christianity by the superior social value of the morals of Jesus. In that sense, he could already say, “I am a Christian, in the only sense in which He wished any one to be, sincerely attached to His doctrines, in preference to all others.”
This profession of faith made publicly might have assuaged some of the fierce attacks directed against Jefferson on the ground of his “infidelity”, and yet even at that time he emphatically begged Doctor Rush not to make it public, for “it behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself... to give no example of concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by answering questions of faith, which the laws have left between God and himself.” To a certain extent, however, his famous “Life and Morals of Jesus”, compiled during the last ten years of his life573 may well be considered an indirect and yet categorical recantation of Bolingbroke’s haughty dogmatism. Age, experience, observation had mellowed the Stoic. He was not yet ready to accept as a whole the dogmas of Christianity, but the superiority of the morals of Jesus over the tenets of the “heathen moralists” did not any longer leave any doubt in his mind.
Whether after the death of the body something of man survived, was an entirely different question—one that human reason could not answer satisfactorily. It cannot even be stated with certainty that he would have agreed with John Adams when the latter wrote: “Il faut trancher le mot. What is there in life to attach us to it but the hope of a future and a better? It is a cracker, a rocket, a fire-work at best.”574
He never denied categorically the existence of a future life, but this life was a thing in itself, and after all, it was worth living. Altogether this world was a pretty good place, and when John Adams asked him whether he would agree to live his seventy-three years over again, he answered energetically: “Yea.—I think with you,” he added, “that it is a good world on the whole; that it has been framed on a principle of benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt to us.... My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail, but not oftener than the foreboding of the gloomy.”575 His old friend was far from attaining such an equanimity and could not help envying the Sage of Monticello sailing his bark “Hope with her gay ensigns displayed at the prow, Fear with her hobgoblins behind the stern. Hope springs eternal and all is that endures....” But Jefferson was bolstered up in his confident attitude by the intimate conviction that he had done good work, that he had contributed his best to the most worthy cause and that he had not labored in vain.
This was not only a good world, but it was already much better than when he had entered it. He had
... observed the march of civilization advancing from the sea coast, passing over us like a cloud of light, increasing our knowledge and improving our condition, insomuch as that we are at that time more advanced in civilization here than the seaports were when I was a boy. And where this progress will stop no one can say. Barbarism has, in the meantime, been receding before the steady step of amelioration; and will in time, I trust, disappear from the earth.576
Scarcely two weeks before he died—and this is practically his last important utterance—he recalled in a letter to the citizens of the city of Washington who had invited him to attend the celebration held for the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, how proud he was that his fellow citizens, after fifty years, continued to approve the choice made when the Declaration was adopted. “May it be to the world,” he added, “what I believe it will (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.”577
This faith in the ultimate recognition of the ideals, which he had defined with such a felicity of expression half a century earlier, was, even more than any belief in personal immortality, “the rocket” that John Adams thought so necessary to attach us to this life. It was a real religion, the religion of progress, of the eighteenth century which had its devotees and with Condorcet its martyr. Strengthened by the intimate conviction that he would be judged from his acts and not “from his words”, he saw the approach of Death without any qualms, and he turned back to his old friends of Greece and Rome, for “the classic pages fill up the vacuum of ennui, and become sweet composers to that rest of the grave into which we are sooner or later to descend.”578 On many occasions he expressed his readiness to depart: “I enjoy good health,” he wrote once to John Adams; “I am happy in what is around me, yet I assure you I am ripe for leaving all, this year, this day, this hour.”579 It took almost ten years after these lines were written for the call to come. Most of his biographers have dealt extensively with the remarkable vigor preserved by Jefferson even to his last day. For several years after his retirement he remained a hale and robust old man. But he felt none the less the approaching dissolution and watched anxiously the slow progress of his physical limitations. His letters do not completely bear out on this point the statement made by Mrs. Sarah Randolph in her “Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson.”
At seventy-three he was still remarkably robust and, with the minuteness of a physician, described his case in a letter to his old friend Charles Thomson:
I retain good health, am rather feeble to walk much, but ride with ease, passing two or three hours a day on horseback.... My eyes need the aid of glasses by night, and with small print in the day also; my hearing is not quite so sensible as it used to be; no tooth shaking yet, but shivering and shrinking in body from the cold we now experience; my thermometer having been as low as 12° this morning. My greatest oppression is a correspondence afflictingly laborious, the extent of which I have been long endeavoring to curtail. Could I reduce this epistolary corvée within the limits of my friends and affairs... my life would be as happy as the infirmities of age would admit, and I should look on its consummation with the composure of one “qui summum nec metuit diem nec optat.”580
This remarkable preservation of his faculties he attributed largely to his abstemious diet. For years he had eaten little animal food, and that “not as an aliment so much as a condiment for the vegetables”, which constituted his principal diet. “I double however the Doctor’s glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend, but halve its effects by drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I cannot drink, nor do I use ardent spirits in any form.”581
Yet he had to admit to Mrs. Trist in 1814 that he was only “an old half-strung fiddle”,582 and as he advanced in age the “machine” gave evident signs of wearing out. The recurrence of the suffering caused by his broken wrist, badly set in Paris by the famous Louis,583 and still worse the very painful “disury” with which he was afflicted584 gave him many unhappy hours. To die was nothing, for as he wrote then in his old “Commonplace Book”, “I do not worry about the hereafter, even if now the doom of death stands at my feet, for we are men and cannot live forever. To all of us death must happen.”585 But “bodily decay” was “gloomy in prospect, for of all human contemplation the most abhorrent is a body without mind. To be a doting old man, to repeat four times over the same story in one hour”, if this was life, it was “at most the life of a cabbage.”586 He was spared this affliction he dreaded so much, and when Lafayette visited him in November, 1824, the Marquis found him “much aged without doubt, after a separation of thirty-five years, but bearing marvelously well under his eighty-one years of age, in full possession of all the vigor of his mind and heart.”587 Six months later, when Lafayette took his final leave, Jefferson was weaker and confined to his house, suffering much “with one foot in the grave and the other one uplifted to follow it.”
Death was slowly approaching, without any particular disease being noticeable; after running for eighty-three years “the machine” was about to “surcease motion.” The end has been told by several contemporaries and friends. No account is more simple and more touching in its simplicity than the relation written by his attending physician, Doctor Dunglison:
Until the 2d. and 3d. of July he spoke freely of his approaching death; made all arrangements with his grandson, Mr. Randolph, in regard to his private affairs; and expressed his anxiety for the prosperity of the University and his confidence in the exertion in its behalf of Mr. Madison and the other visitors. He repeatedly, too, mentioned his obligation to me for my attention to him. During the last week of his existence I remained at Monticello; and one of the last remarks he made was to me. In the course of the day and night of the 2d of July he was affected with stupor, with intervals of wakefulness and consciousness; but on the 3d the stupor became almost permanent. About seven o’clock of the evening of that day he awoke and, seeing me staying at his bedside, exclaimed, “Ah, Doctor, are you still there?” in a voice, however, that was husky and indistinct. He then asked, “Is it the Fourth?” to which I replied, “It will soon be.” These were the last words I heard him utter.
Until towards the middle of the day—the 4th—he remained in the same state, or nearly so, wholly unconscious to everything that was passing around him. His circulation, however, was gradually becoming more languid; and for some time prior to dissolution the pulse at the wrist was imperceptible. About one o’clock he ceased to exist.588
A few days before he had taken his final dispositions and seen all the members of his family. He was not a man to indulge in a painful display of emotions, but he told his dear daughter Martha that “in a certain drawer in an old pocket book she would find something for her.” It was a piece of paper on which he had written eight lines “A death bed adieu from Th. J. to M. R.” There was no philosophism nor classical reminiscence in it; it was the simple expression of his last hope that on the shore
“Which crowns all my hopes, or which buries my care” he would find awaiting him “two seraphs long shrouded in death”, his beloved wife and his young daughter Maria.
He was buried by their side in the family plot of Monticello. According to his wishes no invitations were issued and no notice of the hour given. “His body was borne privately from his dwelling by his family and servants, but his neighbors and friends, anxious to pay the last tribute of respect to one they had loved and honored, waited for it in crowds at the grave.” A typically American scene, without parade, without speeches and long ceremonies—almost a pioneer burial in a piece of land reclaimed from the wilderness.
Footnotes
1 To Mrs. Bingham, Paris, February 7, 1787, Memorial Edition, VI, 81.
2 To Jefferson Randolph, November 24, 1808, Memorial Edition, XII, 197.
3 To John Adams, June 11, 1812. Memorial Edition, XIII, 160.
4 “Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson”, by S. N. Randolph. New York, 1857, p. 27.
5 “Notes on Virginia.” Query XV.
6 “Autobiography.” Memorial Edition, I., 3.
7 November 24, 1808. Memorial Edition, XII, 197.
8 William Wirt Henry: “Life of Patrick Henry.” New York, 1891, vol. I, p. 41.
9 January 20, 1763. Memorial Edition, IV, 6.
10 July 15, 1763. Ibid., IV, 8.
11 “The Commonplace Book of Thomas Jefferson.” Paris, Baltimore, 1927. “The Literary Bible of Thomas Jefferson.” Paris, Baltimore, 1928.
12 To John Page, Shadwell, July 15, 1763. Memorial Edition, IV, 10.
13 Mary Newton Stanard: “Colonial Virginia.” Philadelphia, 1917, p. 306.
14 To Peter Carr. Memorial Edition, VI, 258.
15 “Samson Agonistes”, v, 1025.
16 See also “Commonplace Book”, p. 330, and “Writings.” Memorial Edition, XV, 239, March 14, 1820.
17 “Hecuba”, 592, in “Literary Bible of Thomas Jefferson.”
18 “Hecuba”, 306.
19 Bolingbroke, in “Literary Bible.”
20 Stanard, p. 240.
21 These memoranda are in the Jefferson Coolidge Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
22 To Wirt, August 5, 1815. Memorial Edition, XIV, 335.
23 “Autobiography.” Ibid., I, 6.
24 Randall, “Life of Jefferson”, I, 16, n.
25 “Paradise Lost”, 1. 4, v., 337.
26 To John Page, February 21, 1770. Memorial Edition, IV, 17.
27 June 9, 1770, and June 6, 1773. The diplomas are preserved in the Jefferson papers of the Library of Congress.
28 Quoted by Stanard, p. 163.
29 Quoted by T. N. Page, p. 147.
30 “Autobiography”, p. 10.
31 “Autobiography.” Memorial Edition, I, 11.
32 This passage has been overlooked by Randall, and naturally by Mr. Hirst, who follows Randall very closely here as elsewhere. Hirst, p. 69. The Fairfax resolutions did not recognize the right of the British Parliament to regulate the commerce of the colony; they admitted the expediency but denied the right of such a procedure.
33 George Mason, I, 393.
34 See “Commonplace Book”, 229-257.
35 “Commonplace Book”, p. 135.
36 Stanard, p. 250.
37 To John Randolph, Attorney-general, August 25, 1775. Memorial Edition, IV, 28.
38 Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.
39 August 31, 1775.
40 November 29, 1775. Memorial Edition, IV, 31.
41 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress.
42 The full text will be found in the Ford Edition, II, 7.
43 See “Life of G. Mason”, I, Appendix.
44 “Journals of Congress”, V, 425.
45 Ibid., V, 431.
46 “Autobiography.” Memorial Edition, I, 25.
47 “Life and Correspondence of G. Mason”, I, 438.
48 To Thomas Nelson, May 16, 1776. Memorial Edition, IV, 253.
49 “Writings”, Ford, II, 41.
50 Ford, II, 61.
51 “Journals of Congress”, July 12, V, 546 and August 20, V, 674.
52 “Journals of Congress”, October 14, 1774, I, 67.
53 See “Commonplace Book”, 107, 111 et ff.
54 “Journals of Congress”, V., 517.
55 August 13, 1776. Ford, II, 78.
56 Ford, II, 91, October 11, 1776.
57 Randall, I, 196.
58 Ford, II, 79.
59 Concerning the opposition he encountered, see “Autobiography.” Ford, I, 54.
60 “Autobiography”, Ibid., I, 58.
61 “Life and Correspondence of George Mason”, I, 276.
62 “Life and Correspondence of George Mason”, I, 277.
63 Note for the biography of John Saunderson, Esq., August 31, 1820. “Autobiography”, Appendix A. Ford, I, 107.
64 Monticello, November 1, 1778. Memorial Edition, I, 216.
65 “Notes on Virginia”, Query XVII.
66 “Commonplace Book”, p. 362.
67 This seems to be the first draft of the document; another copy in the Jefferson Coolidge Collection presents few variants, the most important being found in the second sentence which reads, “Yet desirous of encouraging and supporting the Calvinistical Reformed Church, and of deriving” etc. The list of names appended to that second version is considerably longer and besides the original signers includes fourteen other supporters of the Reverend Charles Clay.
68 “Autobiography.” Memorial Edition, I, 73.
69 See my edition of the Jefferson-Lafayette Correspondence, Paris and Baltimore, 1929.
70 Jefferson to General Philips. Quoted by Randall, I, 235.
71 See his letter dated from Paris, November 20, 1789.
72 To Baron de Riedesel, July 4, 1779. Ford, II, 245.
73 July 17, 1779. Ibid., II, 247.
74 July 22, 1779. Ibid., II, 249.
75 October 1, 1779. Ford, II, 258.
76 October 8, 1779. Ibid., II, 261.
77 Ibid., II, 263.
78 To The Virginia Delegation in Congress, October 27, 1780. To Colonel Vanmeter, April 27, 1781. Ibid., III, 24.
79 “A Diary kept by Th: J. from Dec. 31. 1780 to Jan. 11. 1781 and more general Notes of subsequent transactions during the British invasion.” Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress.
80 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress.
81 Lafayette transmitted the letter on June 26, 1781, but Jefferson did not receive it until the beginning of August. Ibid.
82 To E. Randolph, September 16, 1781. Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress.
83 June 11, 1782. Randall, I, 376.
84 The story of the publication has been told by P. L. Ford in a most scholarly edition of the “Notes on Virginia” in the “Writings” of Jefferson.
85 June 7, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 3.
86 To Arch. Stuart, September 8, 1818. Ford, III, 231, n.
87 Iliad XXII, 389.
88 “Domestic Life”, p. 67.
89 To Chastellux, November 26, 1782, in Randall, I, 1782.
90 “Autobiography”, Memorial Edition, I, 76.
91 January 22, 1783. Ibid., IV, 215.
92 To Madison, May 7, 1783. Ford, III, 329.
93 This point appears even more clearly in Jefferson correspondence with Du Pont de Nemours, to appear shortly.
94 “Report on letters from the Ministers in Paris.” December 20, 1783. Ford, III, 355.
95 Ford, III, 377.
96 February 1, 1784. Ford, III, 393.
97 Ford, III, p. 430.
98 See Ford, III, 407 and 429.
99 Ibid., III, 476.
100 March, 1784. Ibid, III, p. 428.
101 To George Washington, April 16, 1784. Ford, III, 466 and 470.
102 To James Madison, February 20, 1784. Ibid., III, 403.
103 To Mrs. Trist, Paris, August 18, 1785. “Domestic Life”, 79.
104 See G. Chinard, “Les Amitiés américaines de Madame d’Houdetot.” Paris, 1923.
105 May 24, 1785, November 12, 1785, etc. Massachusetts Historical Society.
106 Chinard, “Trois Amitiés Françaises de Jefferson.” Paris, 1927.
107 Most of her letters to Jefferson are in the Jefferson Coolidge Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
108 April 6, 1785. “Domestic Life”, p. 80.
109 Diary of Martha. Ibid., p. 74.
110 Ibid., p. 84.
111 April 11, 1787. Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress.
112 May 4, 1786. Memorial Edition, V, 303.
113 Ibid., XVII, 153.
114 Nismes, March 20, 1787.
115 To J. Bannister, Junior, October 15, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 185.
116 To Bellini, September 30, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 153.
117 To Crevecoeur, January 15, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 53.
118 To Carmichael, December 26, 1786.
119 To Skipwith, July 28, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 187.
120 August 10, 1787. Ibid., VI, 262.
121 Jefferson to the Governor of Maryland. June 16, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 8.
122 To Messrs. French and Nephew. July 13, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 34.
123 August 15, 1785. Ibid., V, 68.
124 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, Feb. 20, 1786.
125 Lafayette’s letter. March 18, 1786. Ibid.
126 To the Governor of Virginia, January 24, 1786. Memorial Edition, V, 253.
127 To James Ross, May 8, 1786. Memorial Edition, V, 321.
128 To James Ross, May 8, 1786. Ibid., V, 329.
129 For a brief but satisfactory treatment see W. K. Woolery. “The Relation of Thomas Jefferson to American Foreign Policy, 1783-1793.” Baltimore, 1927.
130 Letter to Lafayette, July 17, 1786. Library of Congress.
131 July 9, 1786. Memorial Edition, V, 357.
132 To Washington, August 14, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 277.
133 Ibid., VII, 478.
134 July 30, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 45.
135 To Jay, August 14,1785. Memorial Edition, V, 65.
136 To John Jay, April 23, 1786. Ibid., V, 300.
137 To T. Pleasants, May 8, 1786. Ibid., V, 324.
138 To Jay, September 26, 1786. Ibid., V, 426.
139 To Jay, September 26, 1786. Memorial Edition, V, 426; to Adams, July 17, 1787. Ibid., VI, 173; to James Madison, August 2, 1787. Ibid., VI, 215.
140 To J. Adams, July 17, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 173.
141 To John Jay, August 6, 1787. Ibid., VI, 248.
142 December 21, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 394.
143 To Dumas, February 12, 1788. Ibid., VI, 429.
144 To Adams, February 6, 1787. Ibid., VI, 419. To The Commissioners of the Treasury, Feb. 7, 1788. Ibid., VI, 421.
145 March 16, 1788. Memorial Edition, VI, 438.
146 To the Commissioners of the Treasury, March 29, 1788. Ibid., VI, 433.
147 Ibid., VI, 447 and 445.
148 To the Honorable, The Board of the Treasury, May 16, 1788. Memorial Edition, VII, 9.
149 To John Jay, May 23, 1788. Ibid., VII, 22; To the Commissioners of the Treasury, September 6, 1788. Ibid., VII, 136.
150 To James Madison, November 18, 1788. Ibid., VII, 186.
151 To John Jay, March 12, 1788. Memorial Edition, VII, 296.
152 To John Jay, May 9, 1788. Ibid., VII, 345.
153 To John Jay, September 19, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 471.
154 To John Langdon, September 11, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 129.
155 To John Adams, February 23, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 97.
156 To James Madison, June 20, 1787. Ibid., VI, 132.
157 August 4, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 227.
158 September 10, 1787. Ibid., VI, 295.
159 To John Adams, November 13, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 370. See also letter to Colonel Smith, written the same day. Ibid., VI, 372.
160 December 11, 1787. Ibid., VI, 380.
161 December 20, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 393.
162 To Donald, February 7, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 425.
163 To Carmichael and to Colonel Carrington, May 27, 1787. Ibid., VII, 27, 29.
164 To Carmichael, August 12, 1787. Ibid., VII, 124; to James Madison, November 18, 1788, Ibid., VII, 183; to General Washington, December 4, 1788, Ibid., VII, 223.
165 To Colonel Humphreys, March 18, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 324.
166 Jefferson to Monroe, May 10, 1786. Memorial Edition, V, 327.
167 To Major General Greene, January 12, 1786. Ibid., V, 246.
168 “Autobiography”, Ibid., I, 97 and July 11, 1786, Ibid., V, 364.
169 See my edition of the Jefferson Lafayette correspondence, chapter II. Paris, Baltimore, 1929.
170 “Memoirs”, II, 148.
171 To John Jay, August 14, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 63.
172 To Baron Geismer, September 6, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 128.
173 To John Langdon, September 11, 1785. Ibid., V, 131.
174 To Count Hogendorp, October 13, 1785. Ibid., V, 182.
175 To John Page, May 4, 1786. Memorial Edition, V, 306.
176 To Dumas, May 6, 1786. Ibid., V, 309.
177 To John Jay, May 4, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 119.
178 To Carmichael, May 27, 1788. Memorial Edition, VII, 27.
179 To Count Hagendorf, October 13, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 181.
180 November 12, 1785. Memorial Edition, V, 202.
181 December 21, 1787, Memorial Edition, VI, 396; see also letter to John Jay, May 4, 1787. Ibid., VI, 122.
182 See “Les Amitiés Françaises de Madame d’Houdetot.” Paris, 1925.
183 To Mrs. Trist. Paris, August 18, 1785. “Domestic Life”, p. 79.
184 To James Monroe, April 15, 1785. Ford, IV, 59.
185 To Abigail Adams, June 21, 1785. Ibid., IV, 59.
186 To Mrs. Adams, July 7, 1785. Ford, IV, 68.
187 To George Wythe, August 13, 1786. Ibid., IV, 268-269.
188 To Mrs. Maria Cosway, October 12, 1786. Ford, IV, 323.
189 November, 1786. Ibid., IV, 328.
190 To Edward Carrington. January 16, 1787. Ibid., IV, 357.
191 To J. Jay, January 9, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 45.
192 January 16, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 56.
193 February 23, 1787. Ibid., VI, 99.
194 February 28, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 101.
195 March 20, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 105.
196 To James Madison, June 20, 1787. Ibid., VI, 134.
197 August 5, 1787, Memorial Edition. VI, 235.
198 Ibid., VI, 247.
199 To Washington, August 14, 1787. Ibid., VI, 276.
200 August 14, 1787. Ibid., VI, 279.
201 To John Adams, August 30, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 287.
202 October 8, 1787. Ibid., VI, 338.
203 To William Rutledge, February 2, 1788. Ibid., VI. 417.
204 To De Moustier, May 17, 1788. Memorial Edition, VII, 13.
205 July 18, 1788. Ibid., VII, 81.
206 July 24, 1788. Memorial Edition, VII, 87.
207 To Colonel Monroe, August 9, 1788. Ibid., VII, 113.
208 August 12, 1788. Ibid., VII, 124.
209 To Cutting, August 23, 1788. Ibid., VII, 131.
210 To Short, November 2, 1788. Memorial Edition, VII, 159.
211 To Washington, December 4, 1788. Ibid., VII, 228.
212 To Doctor Currie, December 20, 1788. Ibid., VII, 259.
213 To Shippen, March 11, 1789. Ibid., VII, 291.
214 March 17, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 317.
215 Ibid., VII, 321.
216 To Lafayette, May 6, 1788. Memorial Edition, VII, 334. To Carmichael, May 8, 1788. Ibid., VII, 337.
217 To John Jay, May 9, 1789. Ibid., VII, 345.
218 To Crevecœur, May 20, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 368.
219 To Madison, June 18,1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 386.
220 To John Jay, June 24-25, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 395.
221 Ibid., VII, 268.
222 “Letters of Lafayette and Jefferson.” Paris, Baltimore, 1929.
223 Memorial Edition, VIII, 454.
224 To J. Jay, July 19, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 409 and to James Madison July 22. Ibid., VII, 424.
225 Manuscript. Library of Congress, July 20, 1789.
226 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, probably August, 1789.
227 September 20, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 474.
228 “Autobiography”, I, 156.
229 To M. l’Abbé Arnoud, Paris, July 19, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 422.
230 To Madison, August 28, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 448.
231 To John Jay, September 19, 1789. Ibid., VII, 467.
232 To James Madison, January 30, 1787. Memorial Edition, VI, 70.
233 To James Madison, August 28, 1789. Memorial Edition, VII, 448.
234 “Trois amitiés françaises de Jefferson”, p. 188.
235 Madison to Washington. January 4, 1790.
236 Washington to Jefferson. January 21.
237 “Autobiography”, p. 161.
238 “Trois amitiés françaises de Jefferson”, p. 195. February 28, 1790.
239 “Autobiography.” Memorial Edition, I, 103.
240 Memorial Edition, I, 274.
241 March 28, 1790. Memorial Edition, VIII, 9.
242 June 13, 1790. Ibid., VIII, 36.
243 June 20, 1790. Memorial Edition, VIII, 43.
244 June 23, 1790. Memorial Edition, VIII, 47.
245 To Gilmer, June 27, 1790. Ibid., VIII, 53.
246 Ibid., VIII, 63.
247 November 26, 1790. Memorial Edition, VIII, 107.
248 December 3, 1790. Ibid., VIII, 109.
249 February 4, 1791. Memorial Edition, VIII, 123.
250 “Writings”, VI, 19-43.
251 To the President of the United States. Memorial Edition, VIII, 192. May 8, 1791.
252 Memorial Edition, VIII, 208.
253 Ibid., VIII, 223.
254 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, January 2, 1793.
255 August 24, 1791. Memorial Edition, VIII, 229.
256 August 30, 1791. Memorial Edition, VIII, 241.
257 To John Adams, August 30, 1791. Ibid., VIII, 245.
258 December 23, 1791. Memorial Edition, VIII, 275.
259 March 1, 1792. Memorial Edition, I, 292, “Anas.”
260 May 23, 1792. Memorial Edition, VIII, 341.
261 September 9, 1792. Memorial Edition, VIII, 408.
262 To Thomas Pinckney, December 3, 1792. Memorial Edition, VIII, 443.
263 To Doctor George Gilmer, December 15, 1792. Ibid., VIII, 444.
264 Ibid., VIII, 445.
265 April 6, 1790. Memorial Edition, VIII, 19.
266 April 2. Memorial Edition, VIII, 11.
267 July 26, 1790. Memorial Edition, VIII, 65.
268 To Carmichael, August 2, 1790. Memorial Edition, VIII, 70.
269 To Short, August 10, 1790. Memorial Edition, VIII, 79.
270 To Gouverneur Morris, August 12, 1790. Ibid., VIII, 85.
271 To Colonel Mason, February 4, 1791. Memorial Edition, VIII, 123.
272 To the President of the National Assembly, March 8, 1791. Memorial Edition, VIII, 37.
273 To W. Short, April 25, 1791. Ibid., VIII, 185.
274 See also my edition of the “Letters of Lafayette and Jefferson”, chapter III. Paris, Baltimore, 1929.
275 To W. Short, July 28, 1791. Memorial Edition, VIII, 217.
276 July 30, 1791. Ibid., VIII, 225.
277 To Edward Rutledge, August 25, 1791. Ibid., VIII, 234.
278 To Short, November 24, 1791. Memorial Edition, VIII, 261.
279 To Short, January 28, 1792. Ibid., VIII, 297.
280 March 10, 1792. Ibid., VIII, 311.
281 To Lafayette, June 16, 1792. Memorial Edition, VIII, 381.
282 November 7, 1792. Ibid., VIII, 437.
283 November 20, 1792. Memorial Edition, VIII, 441.
284 January 3, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 9.
285 To G. Morris, March 12, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 37.
286 To ——, March 18, 1793. Ibid., IX, 45.
287 “Anas”, February 20, 1793.
288 To Messrs. Carmichael and Short, March 23, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 55.
289 March 21, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 49.
290 To C. W. Dumas, March 23, 1793. Ibid., IX, 57.
291 To E. P. Van Berckel, April 23, 1793. To Morris, Pinckney and Short, April 26, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 68-69.
292 April 27, 1793. Ibid., IX, 70.
293 May 5, 1793. Ibid., IX, 75.
294 May 7, 1793. Ibid., IX, 79.
295 To Ternant, May 3, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 74.
296 May 15, 1793. Ibid., IX, 89.
297 May 19, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 98.
298 June 6, 1789. Ibid., IX, 115.
299 June 13, 1789. Memorial Edition, IX, 123.
300 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, June 24, 1793.
301 Ibid. Library of Congress, June 27, 1793 and Writings of J. Monroe, I, 261.
302 To J. Madison, July 7, 1793. Ford, VII, 436.
303 To James Madison, August 25, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 211.
304 To Madison, September 1, 1793. Ibid., IX, 211.
305 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, 15832.
306 December 31, 1793. Memorial Edition, IX, 277.
307 December 13, 1793. Ibid., IX, 279.
308 Angelica Church to Jefferson, August 19, 1793. Chinard, “Trois Amitiés Françaises”, p. 155.
309 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, February, 1794.
310 “Amitiés françaises”, p. 161.
311 February 3, 1794. Memorial Edition, IX, 279.
312 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, February 15, 1794.
313 December 16, 1793. Memorial Edition, III, 261-283.
314 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, March 3, and March 11, 1794.
315 April 3, 1794. Memorial Edition, IX, 281 and Manuscript Library of Congress, March 16.
316 April 24, 1794. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.
317 May 1, 1794. Memorial Edition, IX, 285.
318 May 14, 1794. Memorial Edition, IX, 287.
319 September 7, 1794. Ibid., IX, 291.
320 December 28, 1794. Memorial Edition, IX, 293.
321 April 27, 1795. Ibid., IX, 301.
322 April 27. Ibid., IX, 305.
323 See S. F. Bemis. “Jay’s Treaty.” New York, 1923.
324 August 30, 1795. Memorial Edition, IX, 307.
325 September 21, 1795. Ibid., IX, 309.
326 November 30, 1795. Memorial Edition, IX, 313.
327 March 21, 1796. Memorial Edition, IX, 329.
328 January 16, 1796. Ibid., IX, 319.
329 To James Madison, March 6, 1796. Ibid., IX, 323.
330 March 19, 1796. Memorial Edition, IX, 326.
331 To James Madison, March 27, 1796. Ibid., IX, 330.
332 April 9, 1790. Memorial Edition, IX, 334.
333 April 24, 1796. Memorial Edition, IX, 335.
334 June 19, 1796. Ibid., IX, 339.
335 To Jonathan Williams, July 3, 1796. Memorial Edition, IX, 347.
336 December 17, 1796. Memorial Edition, IX, 351.
337 To Rutledge, December 27, 1796. Memorial Edition, IX, 353.
338 To Madison, January 1, 1797. Memorial Edition, IX, 357.
339 James Madison to Jefferson, January 15, 1797. “Works”, VI, 303.
340 January 22, 1797. Memorial Edition, IX, 370.
341 April 9, 1797. Ibid., IX, 380.
342 June 24, 1797. Memorial Edition, IX, 408.
343 May 29, 1797. Memorial Edition, IX, 389.
344 June 15, 1797. To James Madison, Memorial Edition, IX, 397.
345 June 17, 1797. Memorial Edition, IX, 400.
346 June 21, 1797. Ibid., IX, 405.
347 To Colonel A. Campbell, September 1, 1797. Memorial Edition, IX, 419.
348 June 24, 1797. Memorial Edition, IX, 409.
349 January 3, 1798. Ibid., IX, 431.
350 February 22, 1798. Memorial Edition, IX, 444.
351 March 15, 1798. Ibid., X, 6.
352 March 21, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 9.
353 To Madison, March 29, 1798. Ibid., X, 17.
354 March 27, 1798.
355 To Madison, April 12, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 27.
356 April 12, 1798. Ibid., X, 28.
357 April 12, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 29.
358 To Madison, April 26, 1798. Ibid., X, 31.
359 See Chinard, “Volney et l’Amérique.” Paris, Baltimore, 1923.
360 To Madison, April 26, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 33.
361 To Madison, May 31, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 43.
362 To John Taylor, June 1, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 45.
363 To Madison, June 21, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 49-53.
364 August 22, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 61.
365 October 11, 1798. Ibid., X, 62.
366 To Madison, November 17, 1798. Memorial Edition, X, 62.
367 December 11, 1821. Ibid., XV, 351.
368 See pp. 80-82.
369 November 17. Memorial Edition, X, 63.
370 November 26, 1798. Ibid., X, 63.
371 To James Madison, January 3, 1799. Memorial Edition, X, 67.
372 Madison to Jefferson, June 26, 1799. Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress.
373 January 16, 1799. Memorial Edition, X, 69.
374 To Elbridge Gerry, January 26, 1799. Memorial Edition, X, 77-78.
375 January 29, 1799, Memorial Edition, X, 87 and Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, February 14, 1799.
376 To Madison, February 5, 1799. Memorial Edition, X, 95.
377 John Ogden to Jefferson, February 7, 1799. Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress.
378 February 11, 1799. Ibid.
379 To Madison, February 19, 1799. Memorial Edition, X, 111.
380 To Bishop James Madison, February 27, 1799. Ibid., X, 122.
381 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, February 26, 1799.
382 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. To Bishop Madison, March 12, 1799.
383 Ibid. Callender to Jefferson, August 10, 1799. From Richmond.
384 Ibid. Marked received December 11, undated.
385 August 18, 1799. Memorial Edition, X, 125.
386 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. To Callender, undated, unsigned.
387 To Madison, November 22, 1799. Memorial Edition, X, 133.
388 January 12, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 136.
389 Priestley’s answer, never hitherto published, will be found in my volume on “Jefferson and the Physiocrats.”
390 March 14, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 110.
391 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, February 11, 1800.
392 To Henry Innis, January 23. Memorial Edition, X, 143.
393 To T. M. Randolph, February 2, 1800. Ibid., X, 151.
394 February 26, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 153.
395 To Madison, March 8, 1800. Ibid., X, 157-159.
396 To P. N. Nicholas, April 7, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 163.
397 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. Callender to Jefferson, February 10 and March 15, 1800.
398 March 18, 1800. Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress.
399 Ibid.
400 April 30, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 163.
401 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, May 26, 1800.
402 Ibid., August 14, 1800.
403 March 14, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 160.
404 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, Benjamin Rush to Jefferson, August 22, 1800.
405 September 23, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 173.
406 December 14, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 176.
407 December 18, 1800. Memorial Edition, X, 183.
408 Memorial Edition, X, 188.
409 January 10, 1800. Ibid., X, 188.
410 February 3. Memorial Edition, X, 197.
411 February 15, 1801. Memorial Edition, X, 201.
412 February 18, 1801. Memorial Edition, X, 203.
413 Ibid., X, 206.
414 To Thomas Lomax, February 25, 1801. Memorial Edition, X, 211.
415 To Thomas Lomax, February 25, 1801. Memorial Edition, X, 210.
416 March 7, 1801. Memorial Edition, X, 218.
417 To Doctor Benjamin Rush, March 24, 1801. Ibid., X, 241.
418 To Elias Shipman and others, July 12, 1801.
419 June 13, 1804. Memorial Edition, XI, 28.
420 A. J. Beveridge: “Life of Marshall”, II, 51-53 and Appendix.
421 “Life of Marshall”, II, 51-222; McMaster, “History of the People of the United States”, Vol. III.
422 To Elbridge Gerry, March 20, 1801. Memorial Edition, X, 251.
423 To the Attorney-general, January 1, 1802. Ibid., X, 305.
424 July 18, 1804. Ibid., XI, 38.
425 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, June 13, 1800.
426 To W. Short, October 3, 1801. Memorial Edition, X, 288.
427 November 24, 1801. Ibid., X, 294.
428 “Volney et L’Amérique.” Paris and Baltimore, 1923.
429 King to the Secretary of State, January 1, 1802.
430 Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, April 21, 1802.
431 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, April 25, 1802.
432 May 12, 1802. Manuscript, Library of Congress.
433 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. Du Pont de Nemours to Jefferson, October 4, 1802.
434 Annals of Congress, p. 1059.
435 Ibid., p. 286.
436 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, marked received December 31.
437 Annals of Congress. Appendix, p. 1065.
438 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, February 1, 1803.
439 To James Madison, January 24, 1803. Annals of Congress, p. 1066.
440 To the Secretary of State, March 24, 1803. Ibid., p. 1083.
441 To Madison, March 3, 1803. Ibid., p. 1083.
442 March 2, 1803. Annals of Congress, p. 1098.
443 King to Livingston, May 7, 1803. Ibid., p. 1803.
444 Annals of Congress, p. 1167.
445 July 11, 1803. Memorial Edition, X, 402.
446 Memorial Edition, X, 424.
447 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, January 19, 1804.
448 July 4, 1803. Memorial Edition, X, 398.
449 July 12, 1803. Ibid., X, 404.
450 To Madison, August 25, 1803. Memorial Edition, X, 412.
451 To James Madison, August 15, 1804. Memorial Edition, XI, 45.
452 “Anas”, January 26, 1804.
453 To W. B. Giles, April 20, 1807. Memorial Edition, XI, 187.
454 To Gideon Granger, March 9, 1814. Memorial Edition, XIV, 113.
455 To Lafayette, July 14, 1807. Ibid., XI, 277.
456 To William B. Giles, April 20, 1807. Memorial Edition, XI, 187.
457 To George Hay, September 4, 1807. Ibid., XI, 360.
458 October 27, 1808. Memorial Edition, XII, 183.
459 Memorial Edition, X, 399.
460 H. Adams, II, 257.
461 To James Madison, August 27, 1805. Memorial Edition, XI, 86.
462 April 19, 1806. Memorial Edition, XI, 103.
463 To Colonel James Monroe, May 4, 1806. Memorial Edition, XI, 106.
464 Turreau to Talleyrand, December 12, 1806, in H. Adams, III, 424.
465 To Monroe, March 21, 1807. Memorial Edition, XI, 167.
466 June 29, 1807. Memorial Edition, XI, 256.
467 July 6, 1807. Ibid., XI, 258.
468 See particularly his letters to Cabell, August 11, 1807, and to Dearborn, August 28. Memorial Edition, XI, 318, 342.
469 To John Page, July 17, 1807. Memorial Edition, XI, 285.
470 November 22, 1807. Ibid., XI, 397.
471 Memorial Edition, XI, 401. This may be simply a draft of the message written on a sheet of paper which happened to bear the name of General Mason. See Henry Adams, IV, 168.
472 A. J. Nock, “Jefferson”, p. 266. New York, 1926.
473 To John Taylor, January 6, 1808. Memorial Edition, XI, 413.
474 March 30, 1808. Memorial Edition, XI, 23.
475 To Governor Charles Pinckney. November 8, 1808. Ibid., XII, 190.
476 Henry Adams, IV, chapter XII, “The Cost of Embargo.”
477 Henry Adams, IV, 277.
478 Walter W. Jennings, “A History of economic progress in the United States”, p. 160, New York, 1926.
479 To Doctor George Logan, December 27, 1808. Memorial Edition, XII, 219.
480 January 14, 1809. Ibid., XII, 227.
481 To Thomas Mann Randolph, February 7, 1809. Ibid., XII, 248.
482 March 8, 1809. Memorial Edition, XII, 264.
483 March 17, 1809. Ibid., XII, 266.
484 Memorial Edition, XII, 267.
485 February 10, 1810. Memorial Edition, XII, 357.
486 To J. B. Colvin. September 20, 1810. Ibid., XII, 422; see also letter to Cæsar Rodney, September 25. Ibid., XII, 426.
487 To Madison, April 27, 1809. Memorial Edition, XII, 275.
488 To Madison, April 19, 1809. Memorial Edition, XII, 271.
489 June 28, 1809. Ibid., XII, 293.
490 To Rodney, February 10, 1810. Memorial Edition, XII, 357.
491 To Governor John Langdon, March 5, 1810. Ibid., XII, 373.
492 To Thomas Cooper, August 6, 1810. Ibid., XII, 401.
493 To Thomas Law, January 15, 1810. Ibid., XII, 439.
494 April 25, 1812. Memorial Edition, XIII, 145.
495 June 29, 1812. Memorial Edition, XIII, 173.
496 August 5, 1812. Ibid., XIII, 183.
497 Ibid., XIII, 206.
498 October 1, 1812. Memorial Edition, XIII, 187.
499 To William Duane, April 4, 1813. Ibid., XIII, 231.
500 To Thomas Leiper, January 1, 1814. Memorial Edition, XIV, 45.
501 To John Clark, January 27, 1814. Ibid., XIV, 79.
502 September 21, 1814. Memorial Edition, XIV, 191.
503 To William Short, November 28, 1814. Ibid., XIV, 214.
504 To Correa de Serra, December 27, 1814. Memorial Edition, XIV, 221.
505 To William H. Crawford, February 25, 1815. Ibid., XIV, 243, and June 15, 1815. Ibid., XIV, 312.
506 December 1, 1815. Ibid., XIV, 369.
507 October 16, 1816. Memorial Edition, XIV, 85.
508 October 16, 1816. Ibid., XVI, 80.
509 To Thomas Leiper, June 14, 1815. Memorial Edition, XIV, 311; and to John Adams, August 10, 1815. Ibid., XIV, 343.
510 October 16, 1815. Ibid., XIV, 355.
511 January 2, 1812. Ibid., XIII, 117.
512 December 6, 1813. Memorial Edition, XIV, 22.
513 To Don Valentino de Torunda Corunda, December 14, 1813. Memorial Edition, XIV, 31.
514 To John Adams, January 22, 1812. Memorial Edition, XV, 309.
515 To Lafayette, May 14, 1817. Ibid., XV, 117.
516 To W. Short, August 4, 1820. Memorial Edition, XV, 263.
517 October 24, 1820. Ibid., XV, 285.
518 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. December 26, 1820, and Chinard, “Jefferson et les Idéologues.” Paris, Baltimore, 1925, p. 203.
519 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress, July 18, 1824.
520 To Monroe, June 11, 1823. Memorial Edition, XV, 455.
521 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. December 10, 1817.
522 October 20, 1820. Memorial Edition, XV, 284.
523 About the economic and banking theories of Jefferson, I can only indicate here some points more fully treated in my book on “Jefferson et les Idéologues.” Paris, Baltimore, 1925.
524 To William H. Crawford, June 20, 1816. Memorial Edition, XV, 27.
525 April 7, 1809. Ibid., XII, 271.
526 January 9, 1816. Memorial Edition, XIV, 387.
527 To Thomas Cooper, September 10, 1814. Memorial Edition, XIV, 179.
528 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. April 15, 1811.
529 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. April 15, 1811.
530 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. January 18, 1802.
531 Ibid. February 28, 1815.
532 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. December 12, 1815.
533 October 28, 1813. Memorial Edition, XIII, 396.
534 January 2, 1814. Memorial Edition, XIV, 46.
535 To John Adams, October 16, 1816. Ibid., XVI, 85.
536 To Lafayette, February 14, 1815. Memorial Edition, XIV, 245.
537 To James Madison, November 29, 1820. Memorial Edition, XV, 295.
538 December 10, 1819. Memorial Edition, XV, 233.
539 To John Adams, January 22, 1821. Ibid., XV, 309.
540 August 4, 1811. Memorial Edition, XIII, 68.
541 July 12, 1816. Ibid., XV, 32.
542 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. May 8, 1800.
543 Jefferson Papers. Library of Congress. April 21, 1800.
544 Ibid., July 26, 1800.
545 To Thomas Cooper, January 16, 1814. Memorial Edition, XIV, 60.
546 February 15, 1821, Memorial Edition, XV, 315.
547 The latest account is the monumental “History of the University of Virginia” by Professor Philip Alexander Bruce, New York, 4 vols., 1920. See also the excellent study of Herbert B. Adams, “Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia”, United States Bureau of Education. Circular of information No. 1, 1888.
548 To Richard Rush, April 26, 1824. Memorial Edition, XVI, 31.
549 To the Honorable J. Evelyn Denison, M. P., November 9, 1825. Ibid., XVI, 129.
550 To John Brazier, August 24, 1814. Memorial Edition, XV, 207.
551 June 27, 1822. Ibid., XV, 387.
552 Memorial Edition, XVI, 173.
553 Doctor Dunglison’s Memorandum, in “Domestic Life”, p. 402.
554 September 12, 1821. Memorial Edition, XV, 334.
555 January 16, 1811. Memorial Edition, XIII, 9.
556 December 5, 1811. Ibid., XIII, 114.
557 January 21, 1812. Ibid., XIII, 123.
558 Memorial Edition, XV, 174.
559 January 11, 1817. Memorial Edition, XV, 97.
560 February 21, 1825. “Domestic Life”, p. 423.
561 To James Smith, December 8, 1822. Memorial Edition, XV, 410.
562 To John Adams, August 15, 1820. Ibid., XV, 269-276.
563 March 24, 1824. Ibid., XVI, 17.
564 October 31, 1819. Memorial Edition, XV, 219.
565 July 13, 1813. Ibid., XIII, 319.
566 To John Adams, April 11, 1820. Memorial Edition, XV, 427.
567 To John Adams, May 5, 1817. Ibid., XV, 109.
568 June 13, 1814. Memorial Edition, XIV, 141.
569 To James Fishback, September 27, 1809. Ibid., XII, 315.
570 May 26, 1817. Memorial Edition, XV, 122.
571 See my edition of “The Literary Bible of Thomas Jefferson.” Paris, Baltimore, 1928, p. 58.
572 April 21, 1803. Memorial Edition, X, 379.
573 See the introduction of Doctor Cyrus Adler, in the Congressional Edition reproduced in the Memorial Edition, XX.
574 May 3, 1816. Memorial Edition, XV, 10.
575 April 6, 1816. Memorial Edition, XIV, 467.
576 To William Ludlow, September 6, 1824. Ibid., XVI, 75.
577 June 24, 1826. Memorial Edition, XVI, 181.
578 To John Brazier, August 24, 1819. Ibid., XV, 207.
579 August 1, 1816. Ibid., XVI, 56.
580 January 9, 1816. Memorial Edition, XIV, 385.
581 To Doctor Vine Ulley, March 21, 1819. Ibid., XV, 187.
582 Jefferson Papers. Massachusetts Historical Society, March 5, 1814.
583 Ibid., To Short, December 17, 1822.
584 Ibid., To Samuel Smith, October 22, 1825.
585 “Literary Bible”, p. 36. Paris, Baltimore, 1928.
586 To John Adams—August 1, 1816. Memorial Edition, XV, 56, and June 1, 1822. Ibid., XV, 371.
587 November 8, 1824, “Mémoires”, VI, 183.
588 “Domestic Life”, p. 425.