JEFFERSON NOTES Jefferson Notes is a publication of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society Richard Dixon Editor jeffersonnotes@verizon.net Spring 2010 No. 8
O
n the morning of July 11, 1804, Thomas Jefferson’s
vice president Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel on the banks of the Weehawken River. A warrant was issued for Burr’s arrest ending his political career in New York and his future with Jefferson’s Republican Party.
Wilkinson either lost his nerve, or came to his senses, but in any event, he alerted Jefferson about Burr’s plans. Jefferson issued a warning to all inhabitants of the territory to desist from any military activity, and federal authorities raided Burr’s camp.
sisted to his prosecutor George Hay that surely there was enough evidence to convict. There was Burr’s “coded” message to Wilkinson and Wilkinson’s affidavit, and the corroboration of his assistant William Eaton. The Senate tried to suspend the right of habeas corpus but the House of Representative refused to support the bill and Marshall ruled there was not sufficient evidence to hold Bollman and Swartwout and they were released.
This set the stage for a confrontation for which Richmond had been holding its collective Burr was apprehended breath. Marshall issued a suband brought back to Richmond to poena duces tecum to the presistand trial for treason. The trial dent. This is the writ that comJefferson had completed the excited the public interest and mands a witness in possession or purchase of New Orleans and the drew some of the nation’s most control of a document to produce Louisiana Territory in 1803, even prominent attorneys into the fray. it at trial. The president held the while Burr, still the vice president, Everyone was aware this trial c o d e d message from was exploring a plan to would pit a determined president Burr as well as the separate the t r a n s - who had already pronounced Burr W i l k i n son and Eaton Allegheny terr i t o r y guilty “beyond question,” against a f f i d a vits. Marfrom the U n i t e d John Marshall, Chief Justice of s h a l l ’ s ruling was States. By J u l y the United States Supreme Court. u n i formly ap1806, Burr w a s Burr would be tried before a jury p r o v e d by most legal ready to float down the o b se rv ers, but JefMississippi with men and ferson reacted angrily, Everyone was aware this trial would pit a determined supplies for “glory and accusing Burr’s attorneys president who had already pronounced Burr guilty “beyond fortune.” His exact plan as “accomplices” in his question,” against John Marshall... has been lost in the contreason. fusion of the accusations and the denials of the However, Jefferson’s legal with Marshall sitting as a justice major characters in this grand in- of the Fifth Circuit Court (now the objection to the subpoena was trigue. It is believed his co- Fourth Circuit). solid. The demands on the presiconspirator was Gen. James Wildent to perform the obligations of kinson, who commanded the U.S. Proof of guilt would not be his office cannot be interrupted by Army in the lower Mississippi easy. How Burr planned to take a subpoena. This legal proceeding which he planned to join with territory from the United States would make the executive branch Burr’s force. At the same time, he was unclear. Three grand juries subject to the authority of the juwas a secret agent of the Spanish had refused to indict Burr prior to dicial branch. Jefferson further government. Burr sent Erick Boll- the fourth attempt that returned argued the Wilkinson letter was man and Samuel Swartwout ahead him to Richmond. Jefferson in- not material to with a coded message to Wilkinson. Cont’d on page 5
The Madison Hemings interview with a newspaper reporter occurred about 45 years after he left Monticello. This interview is important to the paternity believers, because it is the only declaration by a Jefferson relative, acquaintance, or slave, that Jefferson fathered children by Sally Hemings. We will continue in Jefferson Notes, to examine it. A concerted effort was started in the 1990s by “slave studies” academics to establish that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings. The problem facing these paternity believers was the lack of any evidence of a relationship between Jefferson and Hemings. If this relationship had started in Paris, it would have covered at least a 20-year period. It was not possible that this could have occurred in total secrecy. Of the hundreds of family members, visitors to Monticello and the resident slaves who would have been aware, only one spoke out. The only eye-witness who claimed such a relationship was Madison Hemings. He had left Monticello after being freed in Jefferson’s will and had migrated to Ohio. It was not until 1873, when he was 68 and 45 years removed from Monticello, that his claim was first recorded. A newspaper editor of the Pike County Republican, S.F. Wetmore, was contacting free blacks in the area and printed his interview with Hemings. Perhaps the newspaper did not have a large circulation, but the claim by Hemings that not only was he the son of Thomas Jefferson, but that three of his siblings were also, garnered little attention. The Hemings claim was ignored for 100 years, but was resurrected by Fawn M. Brodie in her 1974 book, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. Brodie raised the ire of Jefferson biographers who attacked her reliance on the Hemings interview and her thesis that Jefferson did indeed have a long relationship with Sally Hemings. The issue again died out in the public consciousness, but the paternity belief gained increasing acceptance in academia. They provided a ready audience for the appearance in 1997 of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. The author of that book, Annette Gordon-Reed, trained as a lawyer, would take the issue of Madison Hemings’ credibility directly to his critics. The most prestigious of these were Dumas Malone and Stephen A. Hochman, who had authored an article in the Journal of Southern History which contended that Wetmore was predisposed by his aversion to slavery to accept Hemings’ claim. They also evaluated Hemings lack of education and his likely motivation to increase his personal stature by having a prestigious father.
JEFFERSON’S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
On
April 13, 2010, the 267th birthday of Thomas Jefferson, the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society placed a floral wreath in the Rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol. The tribute to Jefferson on his birthday was hosted by Edward Leake, as Commemoration Chairman and by W. McKenzie Wallenborn, President of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society. The attendees gathered in the Old Hall of the House of Delegates to hear addresses by Jack Ackerley and Gordon Rainey, both former Rectors of the University of Virginia. Mr. Ackerley reviewed the highlights of Jefferson’s life and mentioned the little-known fact that the first child born in the White House was Jefferson’s grandson, James Madison Randolph. Mr. Rainey reviewed Jefferson’s vision and efforts that brought about the creation of the University of Virginia.
Hemings did not reveal to Wetmore any “evidence” of a relationship between his mother and Jefferson other than his empty statement that it existed. So, Gordon-Reed had to create arguments that she could refute. First, she argued that the motivation of Wetmore or Hemings does not impair the value of the evidence. Of course, as a lawyer, she knows this is universally not true. Motivation or predisposition is a valid consideration in any issue of credibility. Next, she exaggerates the Malone-Hochman discussion of Hemings presentation of his story as the “feebleminded black person as pawn to a white man.” She then proceeds to discuss what Hemings achieved in his life and how acute his memory is about the details. This leads to her conclusion that the critics have so disparaged the real man that they have missed “the value of the information” in the Hemings’ interview. What “value” there may be in the Hemings statement is slight. He does not support it by a description of his mother, or of her daily life which reflected a relationship to Jefferson, or of any activities of him and his siblings that would indicate they were the children of Thomas Jefferson. Most of his “recollections” are hearsay, and Hemings does not even reveal the source of his information. Gordon-Reed’s arguments continue in much the same vein. “Telling this story would have been extremely risky,” for Hemings. We are not told why it was risky but now she can argue that Hemings wouldn’t have chanced a false story that would “inflame his neighbors.” In any event, she takes care of that by assuming, “it would be safe for him to talk about his life story because others had heard it, in varying degrees of detail, before.” So, Gordon-Reed just gives up. The evidence will not lead her there. But she doesn’t have to prove Jefferson’s paternity by the Hemings’ evidence because everybody already knew it.
William G. Hyland’s new book, IN DEFENSE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, has been nominated for the 2010 Virginia Literary Award for non-fiction. The book concerns the historical controversy surrounding Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings, and casts severe doubt on the cultural myth that Jefferson had any relationship with Ms. Hemings. Jefferson Notes page 2
Ken Wallenborn, President of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, along with Gordon Rainey and Jack Ackerley, former Rectors of the University of Virginia, place a floral wreath below the bust of Thomas Jefferson in the Rotunda of the Virginia Capitol.
After the commemoration program, everyone adjourned to Meriwether’s at the Capitol to enjoy a piece of Jefferson’s birthday
Cont’d on page 6
THE JEFFERSON IMAGE JEFFERSON and THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Prelude to War
A
fter the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Great Britain controlled the eastern seaboard from Georgia to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with the Appalachian Range as the western boundary. A large area between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River remained in dispute. France retained the province of Quebec. It also kept Louisiane, a large slice of territory in the middle of America which became known as the Louisiana Terri- Jefferson left a sketch for tory. his tombstone on which War flared again in 1739, he wanted these words. and although an uneasy peace HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON was reached, both England and AUTHOR OF THE France continued to covet the DECLARATION OF disputed area to the Mississippi AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE OF THE River. France edged down from STATUTE OF VIRGINIA Quebec and England stretched FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM its colonies westward to the AND FATHER OF THE Ohio Valley and they collided in UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 1754. Over the next two years, England and France collected allies on the European continent and in 1756, the Seven Years War began, called in America the French and Indian War. Great Britain looked to the colonies to pay its share for the French and Indian War, but the Americans felt no such obligation. They believed that the actions of Parliament were antagonistic to their rights as British citizens and to their tradition of independence. Parliament did not back down. It rejected the argument that it had no authority to levy against the colonies directly, and continued to impose various duties and taxes. With England’s constitutional history as the foundation of his paper, a young Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, penned A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Jefferson went beyond the common argument that the colonists were entitled as Englishmen to be ruled only by their elected representatives. He berated the king for permitting Parliament to tax and regulate within the colonies and asserted that the rights of the colonists were “derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift” of the king.
Its tone was a little too strong for the delegates assembled in Philadelphia in September 1774, as the First Continental Congress. There were many loyalists to the crown not swept up by the fervor of the revolutionists. The Second Continental Congress offered in July 1775 the Olive Branch Petition. Again, it promised the continued loyalty of the people if the king would stop hostilities. Reconciliation did not happen. George III answered the Olive Branch Petition by declaring the colonies in "open and avowed rebellion.” Drafting the Declaration Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, rose on June 7, 1776, to offer a resolution that these “colonies are, and of a right, ought to be free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” Before voting on the resolution, the Congress appointed a committee to draft a declaration of independence. The “draft committee” was composed of Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, John Adams of Massachusetts, Robert Livingston of New York, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Adams proposed Jefferson as the draftsman because a Virginian was needed to show support from the southern colonies. Adams credited Jefferson with a “masterly pen” and the natural draftsman of the committee. Jefferson recalled that the committee “passed on myself alone to undertake the draught,” to justify throwing off any allegiance to the British Crown. He was to draw from the history of English liberty, from the Magna Carta, through the long struggle between the people and the Crown, to the Petition of Rights of 1629 and the Bill of Rights of 1689, to the statements of freedom in the charters of the colonies. By the time Jefferson sat down to synthesize the mind of this new American citizen, the colonists had for a dozen years pondered their relationship with Great Britain in an increasing output of handbills, pamphlets and newspaper articles. In the past year, the delegates were often reminded of the emerging American attitude from the statements of protest issued by states, counties and towns. After the committee decided on the general points to be Cont’d on page 4
Jefferson Notes page 3
JEFFERSON and THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Cont’d from page 3
made, Jefferson prepared his draft which he showed to Adams and Franklin. After slight changes, he prepared a “fair draft” which was approved by the full committee. It was reported to Congress on June 28. On July 2 Lee’s resolution was adopted. The declaration was then debated and approved by nine of the thirteen colonies. It was put to a vote on July 4 and approved by all except New York, which later consented on July 19. The Declaration was signed by all members of Congress on August 2, 1776. Jefferson was not happy with the editing of his work. He sent a copy of his draft along with the final version as changed by Congress to Richard Henry Lee. Lee agreed the declaration had been “mangled.” He also sent a copy to Edmund Pendleton who agreed that it was “offered for the worse.” Again, in 1783, Jefferson wrote to James Madison about the “alterations.” He never accepted them. In his Autobiography in 1821, he included a copy of his draft with the “parts struck out” and “inserted” by Congress. The role of Congress in the final version of the Declaration has been examined in detail by a number of historians. There were word changes and additions. In some cases, large portions, on the slave trade, and the relationship of the colonies to the king, were deleted. But the preamble, Jefferson’s statement of how government relates to its people, remained virtually as Jefferson had conceived it. What Jefferson wrote cannot be disputed. He had also furnished a copy of his draft to George Wythe, who was the head of Virginia’s delegation to the Continental Congress. When Wythe died in 1806, a copy of Jefferson’s final draft was found among his papers. Sources of the Declaration Jefferson is acknowledged as the author of the preamble to the Virginia Constitution in which he listed the grievances suffered by Virginia at the hands of Parliament. These are similar to the grievances Jefferson listed in the Declaration of Independence, but in the Declaration, Jefferson created a different preamble. He opened with the arresting: “When in the course of human events…,” and from there to the promise that “all men are created equal.” It is this preamble which makes the Declaration unique, but Congress seems to have given it the least attention. Perhaps they were not so captivated by the majesty of this language, as were generations of Americans to come. There are strong similarities in the Declaration to the Virginia Bill of Rights authored by George Mason. The Bill of Rights was adopted by the Virginia Convention on June 12, 1776, and was available to the delegates at the Second Continental Congress prior to Jefferson’s writing of the Declara-
tion. Earlier, in July 1774, the Fairfax County Resolves asserted that the laws and taxes by Parliament were “totally incompatible with the Privileges of a free People, and the natural Rights of Mankind.” More so than in England, the colonists were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. John Locke’s theory of the “social compact,” was well known. When Parliament moved to impose the Stamp Act, and other levies, resistance to Parliament grew. The spirit of independence was felt in the American mind, but the spirit needed expression. Jefferson defined it for us, in a timeless way, so that each July 4th these words can ring again, as though new. Jefferson’s Emergence as the Author It does not appear that Jefferson’s unique role in drafting the Declaration was generally known by the public. Jefferson did not advance himself, an attitude in keeping with the times. It was not until the early 1780s that Jefferson’s role began to emerge. A sermon published in 1783 cited Jefferson’s contribution. In the 1790s, while Secretary of State, as factions of political differences intensified between Federalists and Republicans, the Declaration became a weapon or shield, and Jefferson was increasingly identified as its author. The originality of Jefferson’s preamble was directly attacked in 1819 when the Raleigh Register published the Mecklenburg Resolves, which were supposedly adopted in 1775. These Resolves, by a number of Mecklenburg county residents, claimed independence for this North Carolina county. Such an action predates the Declaration of Independence by more than a year and contains phrases identical to the Declaration. No basis has ever been produced to support this claim, but it caused a brief flare-up over Jefferson’s authorship. John Adams seemed perturbed by the increasing fame accorded Jefferson and he asserted in 1822 that “there is not an idea in it but has been hackneyed in Congress for two years before.” In response to this, Jefferson acknowledges in a letter to James Madison in 1823 that this may be true. “Whether I gathered my ideas from reading or reflection, I do not know. I know only that I turned to neither book or pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether and to offer no sentiment which had ever been expressed before.” In a letter to Henry Lee in 1825, Jefferson conceived his task was to give “expression to the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.” Jefferson reflected that the colonies were forced to resort to arms for redress and must then appeal to the tribunal of the world for justification. “This was the object of the Declaration of Independence.”
Jefferson Notes page 4
By Richard E. Dixon
ORDER COMMEMORATIVE JEFFERSON POSTER
A SUBPOENA FOR JEFFERSON Cont’d from page 1
the defense, it contained matter which should not be disclosed, and if production was ordered, he should be permitted to submit a copy. Sensing the coming impasse, Jefferson proposed a compromise. The documents could be examined by Hay and Attorney General Caesar Rodney and any matters of vital national interest would be redacted, and copies of the documents would be submitted to the court. Marshall also backed away from his earlier ruling and agreed that copies could be produced. Burr was acquitted and Marshall’s ruling was not appealed to the Supreme Court and the issue of the authority of a federal court to review a President’s constitutional position was not decided. The issue did not arise again for 165 years, when the Watergate tapes of Richard Nixon were surrendered by order of the Supreme Court. Marshall’s ruling was upheld that the president’s claim of privilege under the separation of powers doctrine could be reviewed by the judicial branch.
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Jefferson Notes page 5
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JEFFERSON’S LIBRARY
JEFFERSON’S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Cont’ from page 2
cake. The Virginia Capitol may be visited from Monday through Saturday. Details are available on http:// www.virginia capitol.gov/ visitors.php? p=index
Called the library of the United States by Jefferson, the entire collection was destroyed when the British burned the building during the War of 1812. Jefferson sold to the Congress his collection of books at Monticello, twice the size of the collection lost in the fire and considered the best private library in America. A second fire in 1851 destroyed much of Jefferson's contribution.
Jefferson’s birthday cake, with a picture of his statue and the Rotunda at the University of Virginia.
There is an exhibit of the books Jefferson donated to the library. The collection was assembled from other books at the library, and books obtained by gifts or purchased. For information on visiting the exhibit, see http://myloc.gov/ exhibitions/jeffersonslibrary/Pages/default.aspx
Visit the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society at www.TJHeritage.org for other articles on Thomas Jefferson and discussions on the Hemings paternity claim and exactly what the DNA tests proved.
Jefferson Notes page 6