Madison and Jefferson Read online

  In constitutional matters, Jefferson opposed a strong executive; yet he became one. He served in executive positions for most of his political career: as Virginia governor, as George Washington’s secretary of state, as John Adams’s vice president, and as a two-term president. He was in the Continental Congress and Confederation Congress for relatively short periods and, though respected for his mind, voiced few opinions while there. At the Constitutional Convention, Madison worked to establish a strong executive, yet he was a relatively cautious president (though not a weak one, as some have said) who watched as a more aggressive Congress extended its influence. He was a legislator for longer than he was an executive, a leader both in Virginia and in national bodies.

  From the above, the story of Madison and Jefferson would appear to be as much about unintended consequences as about straightforward political ambition. As is often true in American politics, not everything is what it seems.

  We have written this book to establish what sustained a fifty-year-long personal bond that guided the course of American history. It turns out that beyond the relatively superficial differences outlined above, the Madison-Jefferson relationship was not always as smooth and effortless as history (and the actors themselves) want us to believe. Remarkably, after the Constitutional Convention, Jefferson sought to undermine the ratification process—to Madison’s severe embarrassment.

  We have to question familiar assumptions if we are to achieve greater clarity in our appreciation of the past. Sometimes we find that what history calls triumphs were, in fact, less than billed. Madison was not particularly successful at the Constitutional Convention, certainly not in the way Americans have been taught and certainly not enough to warrant the title “Father of the Constitution.” Nor did The Federalist Papers that he collaborated on with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay carry the weight at the state ratifying conventions that our collective memory imagines. Their real value applies to a later time. Jefferson’s pseudo-scientific racism, iconoclastic statements about religious practices in America, and other philosophical musings were criticized as part of a larger political game—scare tactics, partisan politics—and did not always mean that the driving moral concerns of his critics were joined to practical solutions.

  During much of his public career, Jefferson was steeped in bitter and lasting controversies created by his sometimes careless pen. As the less closely studied of the two, Madison has been grossly oversimplified as a brainy man whose vivacious wife ran his social schedule. Perhaps the most astonishing of ignored facts is Madison’s orchestration of Jefferson’s career. Jefferson might otherwise have retired from public service after the Revolution, in 1782, and again in 1789, after his five years as a diplomat in France. Madison was the driving force behind Jefferson’s reemergence in 1796, when Jefferson was urging Madison, then at the height of his congressional career, to seek the presidency. Rejecting the idea, Madison lured Jefferson away from the quiet of his mountaintop, where he was experimenting with new farming measures, and set him up to battle John Adams. Madison, in short, was Jefferson’s campaign manager, long before the term was coined.

  It has become customary to refer to Madison as Jefferson’s “faithful lieutenant,” and at times he certainly was that. But we should remember that the lieutenancy was constructed in the early years of the republic by a politically charged press. Madison was Jefferson’s secretary of state and successor; to those of their contemporaries who sought a simple calculus, the dutiful lieutenant sounded right—a convenient shorthand—whether or not it properly described their association. Most of what they said to each other remained between themselves, though we have deduced that Madison periodically exercised veto power over Jefferson’s policy decisions.

  It has been too easy for history to tag Madison as “modest.” This was the very word Jefferson used to explain why Madison did not come to the fore in debate during his first three years on the political stage in Virginia, 1776–79, before he and Jefferson became close. To extrapolate from this statement and define Madison’s character as modest is dangerous: “modesty” retrospectively helped to explain, for example, why he was a bachelor until he was past forty. By the same token, contemporaries who identified with the Democratic-Republican Party associated Jefferson’s soft, almost feminine voice with his much vaunted harmony-seeking political style—a dubious designation, to say the least.

  All historians are answerable for their shortcomings. Even the best resort to synecdoche: they seize on one attribute of an individual’s behavior and enlarge it to explain, in the broadest terms, his or her impulses. In the interest of a flowing narrative, much conscientious history is sacrificed. It happens often. The more intensively one researches, the hardier a book’s organizing themes are, and the easier it is to become attached to the book’s trajectory. For this reason, the research process is both a gold mine and a land mine. Contentment is the researcher’s enemy. All of us know what the stakes are when we attempt to overturn received wisdom. We know that readers will judge how scrupulous we have been.

  Of the coauthors, Andrew Burstein has previously concentrated on Jefferson as a citizen of the republic of letters, a political writer, and an ex-president contemplating his own mortality. Nancy Isenberg has tackled Jefferson’s political instincts insofar as they explain the troubled relationship he had as president with his controversial first-term vice president, Aaron Burr. In refocusing on the founding era, our purpose is not to privilege Madison but merely to restore balance where the historical record is skewed.

  Perhaps the bookseller was on to something when he called Madison “more profound,” though genius, especially political genius, cannot be defined in rational terms. If Jefferson occasionally used language as camouflage, he charged his words with feeling. That is why his popular appeal is unmatched by any in his time. Madison was appreciated for his candor, but candor usually comes in second place behind imagination in the business of constructing a national memory.

  This is a history of two men operating in a world whose cultural and intellectual boundaries Americans are still trying to draw accurately. In that world, the pursuit of happiness was a matter of grave uncertainty. Although it is hard to find agreement among scholars, all are likely to grant that together Madison and Jefferson introduced a mode of persuasion that changed political discourse and moved the country in directions it probably would not otherwise have gone. If history must be a story, then that is the story we tell in this book.

  Chronology

  1743 April 13 Thomas Jefferson born at Shadwell (Albemarle County), Virginia

  1751 March 16 James Madison, Jr., born on the plantation of his maternal relations, raised at Montpelier (Orange County), Virginia

  1760–62 Jefferson attends the College of William and Mary

  1769–72 Madison attends the College of New Jersey (Princeton)

  1772 January Jefferson marries the widow Martha (Patty) Wayles Skelton

  1774 July Jefferson writes A Summary View of the Rights of British America

  1774 August First Virginia Convention meets in Williamsburg

  1774 September First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia

  1775 March Second Virginia Convention meets; Patrick Henry delivers “Give me liberty” speech; Jefferson elected to the Second Continental Congress

  1775 April Battles of Lexington and Concord

  1775 May Second Continental Congress holds opening meeting

  1775 July Third Virginia Convention establishes Committee of Safety

  1776 May Madison joins Virginia Convention, which instructs its delegation in Philadelphia to move for independence

  1776 June Virginia Declaration of Rights, George Mason its principal author; Richard Henry Lee moves for independence; Jefferson assigned responsibility for drafting Declaration of Independence

  1776 October Madison and Jefferson meet for the first time

  1777 Reverend James Madison becomes president of William and Mary

  1778 Madiso
n boards with Reverend Madison, as he serves on Governor Patrick Henry’s Council of Advisors; Jefferson in Williamsburg during Assembly sessions

  1779 June Jefferson elected governor of Virginia; Madison remains on Council of Advisors

  1780 March Madison enters Congress (Philadelphia)

  1781 January Benedict Arnold invades Virginia, marches on Richmond

  1781 June Jefferson’s governorship ends, as British attempt his capture

  1781 October Battle of Yorktown

  1782 September Patty Jefferson dies

  1782 December Believing he is heading to Europe as a peace negotiator, Jefferson arrives in Philadelphia and lodges with Madison, who is courting young “Kitty” Floyd

  1783 April Jefferson returns to Virginia

  1783 October Jefferson travels north again, joining Congress (which has moved to Annapolis), as Madison completes his term

  1783 December Madison leaves Philadelphia for the first time in more than three years, returns to Montpelier

  1784 April Madison elected to Virginia House of Delegates

  1784 July Jefferson sails for France (from Boston)

  1785 May First, limited printing of Notes on Virginia

  1786 September Madison attends Annapolis Convention

  1787 January Shays’s Rebellion takes place in western Massachusetts

  1787 May Madison attends Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia

  1788 June Madison attends Virginia Ratifying Convention

  1789 April Madison defeats Monroe to win a seat in the first Congress of the United States; inauguration of George Washington

  1789 July French Revolution begins

  1789 October Jefferson departs France for home

  1790 January Hamilton’s Report on Public Credit proposes assumption of state debts, infuriating Madison

  1790 March Jefferson arrives in New York, assumes duties as secretary of state

  1791 First signs of coming revolution in St. Domingue (Haiti)

  1791 May Madison tells Jefferson he considers the national bank conclusive proof of Hamilton’s usurpation of power

  1791 May–June Madison and Jefferson tour New York and western New England

  1791 October Philip Freneau’s National Gazette begins operation

  1792 April Madison writes scathing article, “The Union: Who Are Its Real Friends?”

  1792 May Hamilton writes Virginian Edward Carrington, offering an interpretation of Madison’s defection and Jefferson’s lust for power

  1792 July Hamilton reopens newspaper attacks aimed principally at Jefferson

  1792 September Madison authors “A Candid State of Parties”

  1793 April America learns England and France are at war; Genet arrives in the United States

  1793 June Hamilton begins publishing “Pacificus” letters

  1793 August Madison responds with his first “Helvidius” letter

  1794 January Jefferson resigns from cabinet and retires to Monticello

  1794 September Madison marries the widow Dolley Payne Todd; Hamilton and Washington overreact to Whiskey Rebellion

  1795 June Senate approves Jay Treaty

  1795 August Edmund Randolph resigns from cabinet, authors self-vindication

  1796 April Madison gives up protesting House exclusion from treaty-making, and Jay Treaty is implemented

  1797 March John Adams inaugurated as second president, Jefferson becomes vice president

  1797 May Jefferson’s Mazzei letter of April 1796 translated and published, angering Washington

  1798 April News of XYZ Affair widely disseminated, war fever develops

  1798 July Alien and Sedition Acts passed

  1798 September Jefferson covertly authors Kentucky Resolutions

  1798 December Madison’s Virginia Resolutions approved by state assembly

  1799 December Washington dies

  1800 September Gabriel’s Rebellion (in vicinity of Richmond) foiled

  1800 December Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied, election moved to House of Representatives

  1801 February James Madison, Sr., dies

  1801 March Jefferson inaugurated as third president

  1802 September Callender publishes articles linking Jefferson and Sally Hemings

  1803 Louisiana Purchase

  1804 April Death of Maria Jefferson Eppes

  1804 May Lewis and Clark expedition gets under way (from St. Louis)

  1804 July Burr kills Hamilton in duel

  1804 Jefferson easily reelected, George Clinton of New York as vice president

  1805 March Impeachment trial of Justice Samuel Chase ends in acquittal

  1807 May Treason trial of Aaron Burr begins in Richmond

  1807 June Chesapeake incident, Royal Navy fires on U.S. ship near Norfolk

  1807 December Embargo approved by Congress

  1808 January Further importation of slaves prohibited by U.S. Constitution

  1809 March Madison inaugurated as fourth president

  1810 October West Florida throws off Spanish rule, is annexed to United States

  1811 April Madison prods Secretary of State Robert Smith to resign

  1812 June Congress declares war on Great Britain

  1812 Fall Madison reelected, defeating DeWitt Clinton

  1813 United States achieves naval supremacy on Great Lakes

  1814 August British burn government buildings in Washington, D.C.

  1814 September Madison proclaims British actions “deliberate disregard of the principles of humanity”

  1814 December Treaty of Ghent signed, ending War of 1812

  1815 January Battle of New Orleans

  1817 March James Monroe inaugurated as fifth president; Madison retires to Montpelier

  1820 Missouri Compromise

  1821 Madison drafts parable based on Missouri question, “Jonathan Bull and Mary Bull” (not published until 1835)

  1824 November Lafayette visits with Madison and Jefferson

  1826 July 4 Jefferson and John Adams die

  1829 February Nelly Conway Madison (mother of president) dies at age ninety-seven

  1829 March Andrew Jackson becomes president

  1829 December Madison and Monroe attend Virginia Constitutional Convention

  1831 July 4 Monroe dies

  1831–32 Nullification controversy

  1836 June 28 Madison dies

  A TIME OF BLOOD AND FORTUNE

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Virginians

  1774–1776

  This morning I received a letter from Mr. Maddison who is a member of the Virginia Convention, informing me of the declaration of Independency made by that body.

  —FROM THE MEMORANDUM BOOK OF PHILADELPHIAN WILLIAM BRADFORD, CA. MAY 21, 1776

  You’l have seen your Instructions to propose Independance and our resolutions to form a Government … The Political Cooks are busy in preparing the dish.

  —EDMUND PENDLETON, IN VIRGINIA, TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, IN PHILADELPHIA, MAY 24, 1776

  IN MAY 1776, AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE, THE SLIGHTLY FORMED James Madison, Jr., was party to a critical conversation taking place among Virginia’s leaders in the colonial capital of Williamsburg. Across the middle colonies, some still believed that negotiation with Great Britain could have its desired effect. But in Virginia active debate had already ended, and a formal break was to take place. Instructions to that effect were being forwarded to the Virginia delegation at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia—a precise directive from the “Political Cooks” in Virginia. Without this, thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson would have had priorities other than writing the Declaration of Independence. And that is where we begin.

  Before there was a United States of America, its colonists belonged to separate competing units within a sprawling empire. Cultures were as diverse as currencies were dissimilar. For most of its existence, Virginia cared more about its own vital interests, and securing its own expanse, than it cared about forging a common
continental bond. The Old Dominion, in total square miles, was the largest of the thirteen colonies. This fact bred satisfaction among its landed elite and a distinctive sensibility as well. Mannered country gentlemen oversaw broad estates that enjoyed commanding views. They had names such as Lee, Randolph, Carter, Harrison, Taylor, and Byrd. They counted their herds, their hogsheads of tobacco, their silver, and the luxuries of the dining table. They calculated provisions for the slave families who shared their land but little else. They sat for portraits; they rode in coaches.

  The Virginians were substantially different in temperament from New England’s elite. The latter, it was said, were solemn, critical, and intense, trained for the bustle of business. Harsh seasons and a rocky coastline conditioned them. Along with good, plain common sense, the northern environment appeared to have produced a severity of manners and a tautness of disposition that stood in contrast to southerners’ relative laxness and fondness for amusement. One can debate whether these traits—exuberance and extravagance versus cunning and conceit—were any better than stereotypes. Nevertheless they prevailed in the literature for quite some time and adhered most to those who guided the political direction of the country.1

  Only a series of extraordinary events could induce the otherwise divergent colonies to imagine a cooperative future. Once provoked, the states found common ground and eventually united. Before they could, however, the constituent parts of British America had to acknowledge on some level the Virginians’ sense of their own importance—their special place on the continent.

  We all know that North and South, fourscore and five years after celebrating their initial union, entered into a ruinous civil war. While its origins are debated by scholars, its general contours are well established. Historical memory is hazier as we retreat in time and ask what triggered the French and Indian War, and why it matters. That war eventually extended into Canada and established collective purposes among otherwise disobliging colonies. Hostilities, begun in 1753, were not settled until the French were expelled from all of North America ten years later.