Leadup to July 4, part 3

Why did John Adams believe Jefferson was the right person to write the Declaration of Independence? Why did he insist that "a Virginian should be at the head of this business," and not a New Englander?

The second question is relatively easy to answer. Adams and his fellow New Englanders descended from a Puritan stock that had been in more or less constant revolt against church and crown since the 1610s, and had already fought two revolutions--in the 1640s, and in 1688. To the rest of the states, Massachusetts in particular was pugnacious, intolerant, and chronically rebellious. It was their incapability of living within the Anglican establishment that brought them to America in the first place. It passed as a truism with these zealous folk that "resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."

The southern states, by contrast, were far more lax about religious practice and belief, but they adhered to the Established Church--that is to say, the Church of England. To them, King George III was not merely the head of the state, but the head of the Church as well; and rebellion against his rule could look very much like rebellion against God.

There was really only one way that loyal Anglicans could be persuaded to take up arms against their King: they must be made to feel that, like his Stuart predecessors, he had placed himself in opposition to the true Church and to God. And that, paradoxically enough, is where Jefferson came in.

(To be continued)

Leadup to July 4, part 2

Between May 27 and mid-June, Jefferson attended sessions of Congress, but gave most of his attention to his plans for the Virginia Constitution, his thoughts drifting southward to Williamsburg--and to Monticello, where his wife Patsy was suffering through a debilitating pregnancy.

On June 7, however, the focus shifted decisively to Congress. Jefferson's colleague, Richard Henry Lee, acted on instructions from the Virginia Assembly to introduce a resolution of independence. The members appointed a drafting committee to produce an instrument of independence. This included its  most passionate advocate, John Adams; the colonies' most famous figure, Benjamin Franklin; Robert Livingston, scion of one of New York's most powerful political clans; the sensible, phlegmatic Connecticut statesman, Roger Sherman, and Jefferson. His appointment was somewhat surprising: he was the youngest member of the committee, and the least experienced in continental affairs. But he had gained substantial recognition for his powerful pamphlet, A Summary View of the Rights of British Americans, which laid out a thoughtful theoretical case for American self-government. Moreover, he had already manifested the quality that many who met him would comment on: a compelling charisma that drew men to him, and made them feel part of something larger than themselves.

John Adams was not a humble man.  But weeks of jousting with more timid and more skeptical congressmen at Philadelphia had given the canny, crusty New Englander a clear understanding of his liabilities as a spokesman for independence, as well as his strengths.  This is why he knew that the tall, taciturn, red-headed Virginian should be the one to draft the language of the Declaration.  He outlined the causes that impelled him to such a conclusion: “Reason first—You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second—I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third—You can write ten times better than I can.”

Adams's first reason requires some investigation. He did not need to place a Virginian figurehead as the drafter of the document for purposes of sectional balance or appearances; Washington's appointment as General in Chief had accomplished this. And anyway, outside of Congress, few would know, and fewer would care, what particular individual had penned the first draft of the Declaration, or what state he hailed from. Why, then, was it important to place a Virginian "at the head of this business?"

Leadup to July 4, part 1

On 14 May, 1776, Thomas Jefferson returned in Philadelphia to resume his duties as a member of the Continental Congress for Virginia. He did so reluctantly, since it required absenting himself from the Virginia constitutional convention, which he considered much more urgent. Nine days later, he moved to a new residence, the house of Jacob Graff, a bricklayer, on the corner of Market and 7th street, which at this time was several blocks from the center of town, located by itself in the middle of a field. Once settled, he took up what he viewed as his most important task: drafting a constitution for his country--Virginia. 

Jefferson explains why the Virginia legislature failed to pass a gradual emancipation law

26 June 1786: Jefferson writes Jean Nicolas Démeunier to ask him to edit the entry on Virginia in the Encyclopédie:    “M. de Meusnier, where he mentions that the slave-law has been passed in Virginia, without the clause of emancipation, is pleased to mention that neither Mr. Wythe nor Mr. Jefferson were present to make the proposition they had meditated; from which people, who do not give themselves the trouble to reflect or enquire, might conclude hastily that their absence was the cause why the proposition was not made; & of course that there were not in the assembly persons of virtue & firmness enough to propose the clause for emancipation. This supposition would not be true. There were persons there who wanted neither the virtue to propose, nor talents to enforce the proposition had they seen that the disposition of the legislature was ripe for it. These worthy characters would feel themselves wounded, degraded, & discouraged by this idea. Mr. Jefferson would therefore be obliged to M. de Meusnier to mention it in some such manner as this. "Of the two commissioners who had concerted the amendatory clause for the gradual emancipation of slaves Mr. Wythe could not be present as being a member of the judiciary department, and Mr. Jefferson was absent on the legation to France. But there wanted not in that assembly men of virtue enough to propose, & talents to vindicate this clause. But they saw that the moment of doing it with success was not yet arrived, and that an unsuccessful effort, as too often happens, would only rivet still closer the chains of bondage, and retard the moment of delivery to this oppressed description of men. What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him thro' his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must await with patience the workings of an overruling providence, & hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these, our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a god of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light & liberality among their oppressors, or at length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality." 

Jefferson's answers to the charges of the Virginia Assembly

"1st Objection-- That General Washington's information was, that an embarkation was taking place, destined for this state.

"Answer-- His information was, that it was destined for the southward, as was given out at New York. Had similar informations from General Washington and Congress been considered as sufficient ground at all times for calling the militia into the field, there would have been a standing army of militia kept up; because there has never been a time, since the invasion expected in December 1777, but what we have had those intimations hanging over our heads. The truth is, that General Washington always considered as his duty to convey every rumor of an embarkation; but we (for some time past, at least) never thought anything but actual invasion should induce us to the expense and harassment of calling the militia into the field; except in the case of December 1779, when it was thought proper to do this in order to convince the French of our disposition to protect their ships. Inattention to this necessary economy, in the beginning, went far towards that ruin of our finances which followed.

"2d Objection-- Where were the post-riders established last summer?

"Answer-- They were established at Continental expense, to convey speedy information to Congress of the arrival of the French fleet, then expected here. When that arrived at Rhode Island, these expenses were discontinued. They were again established on the invasion in October, and discontinued when that ceased. And again on the first intimation of the invasion of December. But it will be asked, why were they not established on General Washington's letters? Because those letters were no more than we had received upon many former occasions, and would have led to a perpetual establishment of postriders.

"3d Objection-- If a proper number of men had been put into motion on Monday, for the relief of the lower country, and ordered to march to Williamsburg, that they would at least have been in the neighborhood of Richmond on Thursday. "Answer-- The order could not be till Tuesday, because we then received our first certain information. Half the militia of the counties round about Richmond were then ordered out, and the whole of them on the fourth, and ordered not to wait to come in a body, but in detachments as they could assemble. Yet were there not on Friday more than two hundred collected, and they were principally of the town of Richmond.

"4th Objection-- That we had not signals.

"Answer-- This, though a favorite plan of some gentlemen, and perhaps a practicable one, has hitherto been thought too difficult.

"5th Objection-- That we had not look-outs.

"Answer-- There had been no cause to order look-outs more than has been ever existing. This is only in fact asking why we do not always keep look-outs.

"6th Objection-- That we had not heavy artillery on traveling carriages.

"Answer-- The gentlemen who acted as members of the Board of War a twelve-month can answer this question, by giving the character of the artificers whom, during that time, they could never get to mount the heavy artillery. The same reason prevented their being mounted from May 1780 to December. We have even been unable to get those heavy cannon moved from Cumberland by the whole energy of government. A like difficulty which occurred in the removal of those at South Quay, in their day, will convince them of the possibility of this.

"7th Objection-- That there was not a body of militia thrown into Portsmouth, the Great Bridge, and Suffolk.

"Answer-- In the summer of 1780, we asked the favor of General Nelson, to call together the county lieutenants of the lower counties, and concert the general measures which should be taken for instant opposition, on any invasion, until aid could be ordered by the Executive; and the county lieutenants were ordered to obey his call; he did so the first moment, to wit, on Saturday, December the 31, at eight o'clock, A.M., of our receiving information of the appearance of a fleet in the bay. We asked the favor of General Nelson to go down, which he did, with full powers to call together the militia of any counties he thought proper, to call on the keepers of any public arms or stores, and to adopt for the instant such measures as exigencies required, till we could be better informed.

"Query-- Why were not General Nelson, and the brave officers with him, particularly mentioned?

"Answer-- What should have been said of them? The enemy did not land, nor give them an opportunity of doing what nobody doubts they would have done; that is, something worthy of being minutely recited.

"Query-- Why publish Arnold's letter without General Nelson's answer?

"Answer-- Ask the printer. He got neither from the Executive.

"Objection-- As to the calling out a few militia, and that late.

"Answer-- It is denied that they were few or late. Four thousand and seven hundred men (the number required by Baron Steuben) were called out the moment an invasion was known to have taken place, that is on Tuesday, January 2.

"Objection-- The abandonment of York and Portsmouth fortifications.

"Answer-- How can they be kept without regulars, on the large scale on which they were formed? Would it be approved of to harass the militia with garrisoning them?"

From Marie Kimball, Jefferson, War and Peace, 1776 to 1784, 248-250.

Jefferson learns he is being investigated by the Virginia House of Delegates for misconduct

Archibald Cary

Archibald Cary to Jefferson, 19 June 1781: “You must have heard that Nelson is your successor [as Governor].” Russia and Austria have offered to mediate between the US and Britain.  “At length the Assembly are giving Ample Powers to the Executive. The Bill for that purpose stands for a Committee of the Senate this day and will Pass. It is what that body have long Wished. A Bill has Passed both Houses for establishing Martial Law 20 Miles round both Armys.”

“So Much for Assembly but I must give you one more peice of News respecting your Self. An Address was ready to be offered the Senate to you. What Can you think Stopt it? George Nicholas made a Motion in the Delegates House for an Inquire into your Conduct, a Catalogue of omissions, and other Misconduct. I have not Seen the Particulars. Your Friends Confident an Inquire would do you Honor Seconded the Motion. I presume you will be Serv’d with the order. As this Step was Taken I persuaided Winston not to make his Motion; I had heard something of this Kind was to be brought on the Carpit, and If I know you, it will Give you no pain.” PTJ 7:96-97  

Va. House of Delegates, 6.18.1781

“The Speaker laid before the House a letter from the Honorable Major General Marquis La Fayette, respecting the present state and movements of the army under his command, which was read and ordered to lie on the table.
  “The Speaker laid before the House a letter from John Walker, Esq; respecting his endeavors for the removal and security of certain public stores, which was read, and ordered to be referred to the Committee of the whole House on the state of the Commonwealth.”(Journal 1781, p. 31)

6.18.1781: Monroe to Jefferson

Monroe to TJ, Fredericksburg:  “I hope…that neither yourself nor Mrs. Jefferson have sustaind injury from these obtrusions of the enemy. In former I advis’d you I would not stay at home in the present state of the country and should be happy to bear some post in her defence. For that purpose I sate out to join the Marquis’s army to act in any line either himself or Council would employ me in."

Escape from Monticello: the damage done

Fawn Brodie (An Intimate History, p. 146) has succinctly described Jefferson’s retreat from Monticello and its effect on his future career:

His behavior was cool, and could certainly be described as brave, but the flight over Carter’s Mountain was eventually turned by Jefferson’s enemies into a legend of military ineptness and cowardice. The fact that everyone in the Virginia civil government was fleeing—“Governor, council, everybody scampering,” in the words of Betsey Ambler—did not serve to spare Jefferson abuse in his presidential years.  And the charge of cowardice, like an evil shadow, would follow him throughout his life. 

It is impossible to overstate the damage that this period, with its many trials, failures, tragedies, and humiliations, inflicted on Jefferson's psyche.  The Virginia assembly’s final report in December exonerating him, and their resolution of thanks, did not remove the sting. "It is unfortunate for our peace that unmerited abuse wounds,” he wrote later, “while unmerited praise has not the power to heal."  

Ex-Governor Jefferson under fire

For several days after regrouping in Staunton after Tarleton's attack on Charlottesville, the Virginia Assembly continued fruitlessly to issue resolutions to the governor, not realizing that he had relinquished the seat on June 1. On June 12, after electing his successor, the House also voted to conduct “an inquiry into the conduct of the Executive for the past twelve months” to account for the “numberless miscarriages and losses” Virginia had suffered during his administration. This was a particularly insensitive phrase to one whose wife had experienced miscarriages and who had recently lost their third child.

On June 19, Jefferson's friend Archibald Cary, the Speaker of the Senate, caught him up on events in the Virginia legislature. "You must have heard that Nelson is your successor," he reported. Moreover, the House had voted to give "Ample Powers to the Executive"--in other words, to empower a dictator--and the Senate was likely to concur. At last, Cary came to the real point:

So Much for Assembly but I must give you one more peice of News respecting your Self.,,,George Nicholas made a Motion in the Delegates House for an Inquire into your Conduct, a Catalogue of omissions, and other Misconduct. I have not Seen the Particulars. Your Friends Confident an Inquire would do you Honor Seconded the Motion. I presume you will be Serv’d with the order....I had heard something of this Kind was to be brought on the Carpit, and If I know you, it will Give you no pain.

Cary clearly did not know Jefferson. He was stricken by the news, utterly and permanently mortified.  For the rest of his life, he would recall the Assembly's action--which he attributed to the machinations of Patrick Henry--with bitterness and shame.

6/12/ 1781: Richard H. Lee urges Congress to send General Washington to VA "with Dictatorial power"

Richard Henry Lee to the Virginia Delegates in Congress, Chantilly:  

“Dear Gentlemen

 "I am not informed who of our Delegates remain at Congress and therefore this letter is addressed to you whom I have good reason to suppose are yet there. The unhappy crisis of our countrys fate demands the closest attention of all her sons, and calls for the united wisdom and strongest exertions of all others who may be affected by our ruin. I suppose you have been informed of the junction of the enemies forces on James river and of many of their subsequent movements—that they have quickly mounted a very formidable Cavalry by seising on all the fine horses in that part of our country where they most abound to the number of 5 or 600. Being thus provided, and greatly superior in numbers and quality of troops to the Marquis, they moved as if intending to cross the Country to Fredericksburg. Our army keeping at a prudent distance advanced upon their left or western flank. The Marquis proceeding forward in daily expectation of being joined by Gen. Waynes long, very long delayed force, approached Rappahanock above Falmouth, when the enemy halted their main body in the forks of Pomunkey, and detatched 500 Cavalry with an Infantryman behind each to Charlottesville where our unformed Assembly was collecting by adjournment from Richmond. The two houses were not compleated, and Mr. Jefferson had resigned his office and retired, as some of our dispersed Delegates report, when the enemy entered Charlottesville this day sennight and dispersed the whole taking Mr. Digges the Lieutenant Governor prisoner and some Delegates, Mr. Lyons the Judge and many others…[90] You will then judge of the situation of thiscountry, without either executive or Legislative authority, every thing in the greatest possible confusion, the enemy far superior in force to that with the Marquis, and practicing every thing that force and fraud can contrive. I do give it to you gentlemen as my serious opinion, uninfluenced by vain apprehension, that if immediate and powerful interposition does not take place, commensurate to the certain danger, that all the country below the Mountains will be in the power of the enemy in a few months. It is true that we have in Virginia a number of Men much greater than the enemies force, but it is also true that their dispersed, unarmed, and unadvised condition; without government and without system of any kind, renders them an easy prey to the combined force and concerted system of our enemies….In the popularity, the judgement, and the experience of Gen. Washington we can alone find the remedy. Let Congress send him immediately to Virginia, and as the head of the Fœderal Union let them possess the General with Dictatorial power until the general Assembly can be convened…. Both antient and modern times furnish precedents to justify this procedure, but if they did not, the present necessity not only justifies but absolutely demands the measure.” PTJ 7:91-92

The manuscript of Notes in person

I had the extraordinary privilege this morning of working with the original manuscript of Notes on the State of Virginia, in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The Jefferson scholar Douglas Wilson examined the watermarks of the base pages of the manuscript, and listed the eight different marks he found. My purpose was to inspect the paper on which Jefferson's inserts--his "Post-It Notes," so to speak--were written, for the same purpose. (More later on why this is significant.)

It quickly became evident why Wilson had not analyzed the watermarks of the inserts: they almost never appear on the small slips of paper Jefferson employed for them.

Here's an exception: note the fleur-de-lys (lower left)
from the watermark of J. Honig & Zoonen, a well-known
Dutch manufacturer. Notes mss., p. 19, tab 1. MHS

I was able to extract some valuable information about the paper, but the most powerful revelation about the pages was how small they were, and how small and precise Jefferson's handwriting is on them. Because the MHS scans are of such high resolution, I can hone in on a sentence or a word and fill the screen of my 32-inch monitor--or connect my laptop to my 42" television if I need to zoom in closer to decipher a crossed-out phrase. So I'm used to viewing the mss at a high magnification. In person, however, the script is small, and the interlineations are tiny--much smaller, and just as precise, as the fine print in a credit card contract.

Notes mss., p. 16. MHS

The MHS's scan of Notes is here.

Retreat to Poplar Forest

          Jefferson considered his governorship to have ended on June 1, but when he fled from Monticello the next day, the Assembly, now convened in the western town of Staunton, had not been able to elect a successor. Nor was it able to until June 12, when it followed Jefferson’s recommendation and elected militia commander Thomas Nelson, Jr., investing him with both the military and civil leadership, and thus the authority Jefferson had lacked. Technically, then, Virginia had been without a head for ten days, and because Jefferson declined to join the Assembly when it regrouped in Staunton, many members considered that he had deserted his post at the time of his state’s greatest danger.
          For his part, Jefferson seemed to have vanished. For two weeks after his arrival at Poplar Forest, he drafted not a single letter. Even more extraordinary, he did not enter a single entry in his memorandum book, his daily accounting of expenses that provides the most complete record of his activities and whereabouts. Then, after a notation on June 30 of a payment of £600 to a Dr. Brown for two visits, two more weeks of silence.  Later he explained these days of isolation as recuperation from a fall from his horse, which may well be true; but it is equally certain that he passed through an agony of shame, humiliation, and self-reproach that would haunt him for a lifetime.
        Jefferson did more during these six weeks at Poplar Forest than just nurse his injuries, physical and psychic; it was here that he drafted the main part of his answers to the queries of M. Marbois about Virginia, the supremely-troubled, unmanageable country that he had failed so conspicuously to govern. “The subjects are all treated imperfectly; some scarcely touched on,” he would attest six years later in his introduction to the published version. “To apologize for this by developing the time and place of the circumstances of their composition, would be to open wounds which have already bled enough." In this passage at least, we can trust that Jefferson was being completely candid.
Jefferson buffs imagine him and his family in the charming octagonal country house, a kind of mini-Monticello, which he designed and built at the site. It would be hard to conceive of a more perfect writer’s retreat. But that beautiful Palladian dwelling would not be constructed for another quarter century. The estate in 1781 was bare of buildings besides the slave quarters and one or perhaps two overseers’ cabins. The Jefferson family took up residence in one of these for the better part of two months.
        The replies to Marbois’ Queries provided Jefferson with an opportunity to reimpose order on a world over which he had lost control, and which had cut him to the quick. It evidently had begun to serve this purpose even before he left office. Famous for his imperturbability, Jefferson displayed an uncanny degree of detachment from the several crises surrounding him during his work on the Notes. Scholars have indulgently recounted the evident eagerness and enthusiasm with which Jefferson turned to the task of compiling facts about his home state for the French diplomat. It is disconcerting, however, to realize that these absorbing researches were conducted while that state was under invasion, and its governor under attack for his inattention.

Arnold's invasion of Virginia

During the first week of January, Benedict Arnold's troops headed up the James toward Richmond. On January 5, he ordered his troops to spread out to look like a large invasion force. The inhabitants scattered, and the unopposed redcoats captured the new capital (moved from Williamsburg to be safe from invasion at Jefferson's urging). The next day, General Nelson, commander of the militia, launched a counterattack, but it was thwarted by torrential rains that nearly drowned his troops and rendered his guns and ammunition useless. 

After the British moved on from Richmond, Major Richard Claiborne, the deputy quartermaster general, reported: “There is no commander here, nor will anybody be commanded. This leaves what public stores a few of the virtuous inhabitants have collected, exposed to every passenger, and the property of the individuals to the ravages of the Negroes. Both public and private property have been discovered to a considerably quantity, that was secreted clandestinely in and about town; and I am sorry to say that there is a stigma which rests upon the conduct of some of our own men with respect to the pillaging of public and private goods, that does not upon the British troops.”

Jefferson himself came under withering criticism for his unpreparedness and inattentiveness. It was not until January 19 that he convened the Governor's Council, and four days later that he called for the Assembly to convene. For weeks, he issued orders--more like suggestions--calling for the establishment of a battery at Hood's Point, a vital bottleneck on the James that would impede Arnold's ships if fortified. But nothing happened, and the incredulous British were able to pass through at will. Fortunately, however, they were in no rush to reduce the state, and redeployed to Portsmouth to spend the winter.

While the British fortified  Portsmouth, Jefferson had more time to devote to M. Marbois’ Queries. The Frenchman wrote him on February 5 to thank him for undertaking the project. “Hitherto it has been in my power to collect a few materials only," Jefferson apologized on March 4, explaining with supreme understatement that "my present occupations disable me from completing” it. Soon, however, he would “be in a condition which will leave me quite at leisure to take them up,” i.e., when he relinquished the governorship in June.

The lull in the invasion was only temporary, however.  On April 18, Major General William Phillips sailed past Newport News toward Richmond. Exactly a week later, Cornwallis's army crossed into Virginia from the South, and the two forces converged at Petersburg on May 20. Once again, the Virginia Assembly was routed from the capital, intending to reconvene at Charlottesville; but Col. Banastre Tarleton continued in pursuit, taking seven lingering Assembly members prisoner and laying waste Jefferson’s plantation at Elk Hill before sending an officer to Monticello to attempt to seize the governor himself. Warned in the nick of time, Jefferson rode off from his mountaintop home through the back roads to reunite with his family at his property at Poplar Forest some sixty miles to the southwest. 

Governor Jefferson begins work on Notes on the State of Virginia while the British invade

Jefferson embarked on his response to the queries of M. François Barbé-Marbois, the secretary to the French legation in Philadelphia, in November of 1780, while a fleet of British warships lay at anchor at Hampton Roads, with 5000 Redcoats under General Alexander Leslie ready to strike and the state almost entirely without defenses. Virginia, with its strategic position, rich fields, and hundreds of thousands of potentially rebellious slaves, was a ripe target for invasion. With thousands of miles of coastline and a network of rivers penetrating deep into the country, Virginia’s only hope of safety, Jefferson knew, was a strong naval defense.  This, however, had proved “unsuccessful beyond all my fears.”