The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Series

includes the almost incredible volume of Jefferson's writings on practically every aspect of human life-from politics and diplomacy to architecture, philosophy, agriculture, and music. The series includes 18,000 letters written by Jefferson and, in full or summary, 25,000 letters written to him by the great and humble of many nations. No previous edition has included more than fifteen per cent of the total, and only about a fifth of the documents have ever been published anywhere. Covering the years 1760-1776.

Volumes 11 and 12 cover the period from January 1787 through March 1788 and deal with Jefferson's stay in France, as American Minister there. This is a rich period of personal correspondence and important documents, revealing, particularly, Jefferson's interest in agriculture and architecture, his extended trade negotiations, his reports on the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and his skilled efforts to establish friendly relations between Europe and his own nation.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 8: February 1785 to October 1785, will be forthcoming.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 3: June 1779 to September 1780, will be forthcoming.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 9: November 1785 to June 1786, will be forthcoming.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4: October 1780 to February 1781, will be forthcoming.

Volume 14, from October 1788 through April 1789, continues and almost completes Jefferson's stay in France as American minister.

In Volume 15 Jefferson, a veteran of the councils of his own country's revolution, becomes an eyewitness of the opening events of the great upheaval in France in 1789. The Archbishop of Bordeaux and his colleagues of the National Assembly ask Jefferson's aid and counsel in drafting a new constitution; he declines in July but gives a private dinner in August for Lafayette and the moderates who wish to form a coalition and thus avoid civil war. He is catapulted into the limelight by Mirabeau's attack on Necker for the shortage of grain and flour. He advises Lafayette about the latter's proposed draft of a Declaration of Rights and proposes a compromise charter for France in order to gain time, to consolidate the advances already made, and to allow public opinion to ripen. Jefferson dines with De Corny and learns at first hand what happened at the fall of the Bastille. Three days later he is among the crowds with Dugald Stewart, the young Scottish philosopher, as Louis XVI is "led in triumph by his people thro' the streets of the capital." He writes long dispatches to Jay and private letters to Thomas Paine and Richard Price, among others, detailing the events that he regarded as "the first chapter of the history of European liberty." Early in September Jefferson becomes ill and, treated by a philosopher-physician, is possessed by the idea that "the earth belongs in usufruct to the living." He urges Madison to develop this concept and to apply it to American legislation--but his ostensible purpose is supported by arguments addressed wholly to the situation in France, whereby he furnishes justification for the abolition of ancient debts, the public appropriation of feudal grants, the wiping out of hereditary privileges, and the eradication of monopolies. Late in September, with Polly, Patsy, Petit, and two servants, Jefferson leaves Paris for a six months' leave, unaware that the same day the United States Senate confirmed his nomination as Secretary of State. Four weeks later he lands in Norfolk, where he is greeted by the officials--and finds that politics and anti-federalism are far from inactive in Virginia.

The second volume in this series, dealing with 1777-1779.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 5: February 1781 to May 1781, will be forthcoming.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 6: May 1781 to March 1784, will be forthcoming.

The months covered by this volume illustrate the variety of topics characteristic of the Jefferson Papers. Subjects range from Jefferson's continued overseeing of the planning of the Federal District that became Washington, D.C., to his worries over his debts and his exchange of correspondence with the free black Benjamin Banneker. This period, an unusually significant time for Jefferson as Secretary of State, saw the opening of a new phase of diplomacy. When Jefferson returned to the capital after a stay at Monticello in the fall, the first British minister to the United States had arrived, and the new representative from France had been in the city since August. During this time Jefferson began keeping private notes on important political conversations, notes that he later collected and bound. These notes were published after his death as Jefferson's Anas, a work never closely examined until now and often extended beyond Jefferson's evident intention. Ascertaining that Jefferson collected and intended only those documents from his tenure as Secretary of State to be used to challenge the Federalist interpretation of Washington's administration, the present editors publish the Anas notes not as compiled late in Jefferson's life or as amplified by others, but in chronological order, in the context in which they were written. Also discovered during the preparation of this volume was a new, later date or that portion of Jefferson's famous Espistolary Record written in his own hand.

Volumes 11 and 12, cover the period from January 1787 through March 1788 and deal with Jefferson's stay in France, as American Minister there. This is a rich period of personal correspondence and important documents, revealing, particularly, Jefferson's interest in agriculture and architecture, his extended trade negotiations, his reports on the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and his skilled efforts to establish friendly relations between Europe and his own nation.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 7: March 1784 to February 1785, will be forthcoming.

From 1784 to 1789 Jefferson was in France, first as commissioner to negotiate peace treaties and then as American minister. Volume 13 continues the account of these years (which are covered in Volumes 7 to 14) and includes material on his travels through Holland, Germany, and northern France; on his study of wine cultivation, whale fishing, and the tobacco trade; on the consular convention with France; on the news from the United States concerning the beginnings of the Federal Government under the new Constitution.

This volume brings Jefferson back to the U.S. from France, to become the first American Secretary of State, and marks the beginning of Jefferson's work in the Cabinet with Alexander Hamilton.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 17: July 1790 to November 1790, will be forthcoming.

Volume 18, covering part of the final session of the First Congress, shows Jefferson as Secretary of State continuing his effective collaboration with James Madison in seeking commercial reciprocity with Great Britain by threatening--and almost achieving--a retaliatory navigation bill. During these few weeks Jefferson produced a remarkable series of official reports on Gouverneur Morris' abortive mission to England, on the first case of British impressment of American seamen to be noticed officially, on the interrelated problems of Mediterranean trade and the American captives in Algiers, and on the French protest against the tonnage acts. All of these state papers reflected the consistency of Jefferson's aim to bolster the independence of the United States, to promote national unity, and even, as his report on the Algerine captives indicates, to lay the foundations for American maritime power. This volume reveals Jefferson's continuing interest in a unified system of weights and measures, his effort to create a mint, and his concern over executive proceedings in the Northwest Territory. It contains also his suggestions for the President's annual message and his first encounter, at the hands of Noah Webster, with Federalist ridicule of his interest in science. Despite his heavy official duties and the confusion into which his household was thrown when 78 crates of books, wines, and furniture arrived from France, Jefferson never failed to write his promised weekly letter to his daughters and son-in-law under the alternating plan which obligated each of them to write only once every three weeks. The record of this time of extraordinary pressure shows that Jefferson retained his usual equanimity except when, after a full two months, he failed to receive any scrap of writing from the little family at Monticello.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 10: June 1786 to December 1786, will be forthcoming.

This volume brings Jefferson into retirement after his tenure as Secretary of State and returns him to private life at Monticello. He professes his desire to be free of public responsibilities and live the life of a farmer, spending his time tending to his estates. Turning his attention to the improvement of his farms and finances, Jefferson surveys his fields, experiments with crop rotation, and establishes a nailery on Mulberry Row. He embarks upon an ambitious plan to renovate Monticello, a long-term task that will eventually transform his residence. Although Jefferson is distant from Philadelphia, the seat of the federal government, he is not completely divorced from the politics of the day. His friends, especially James Madison, with whom he exchanges almost sixty letters in the period covered by this volume, keep him fully informed about the efforts of Republican county and town meetings, the Virginia General Assembly, Congress, and the press to counter Federalist policies. An emerging Republican opposition is taking shape in response to the Jay Treaty, and Jefferson is keenly interested in its progress. Although in June, 1795, he claims to have "proscribed newspapers" from Monticello, in fact he never entirely cuts himself off from the world. At the end of that year, he takes pains to ensure that he will have two full sets of Benjamin Franklin Bache's Aurora, the influential Republican newspaper, one set to be held in Philadelphia for binding and one to be sent directly to Monticello.

Volume 19, covering the final critical weeks of the First Congress, reveals Washington and Jefferson in the closest and most confidential relationship that existed at any time during their official careers. It opens with the proclamation announcing the exact location of the Federal District, an unexplained choice made in the utmost secrecy by the President in consultation with the Secretary of State some weeks before Washington toured the upper Potomac in an ostensible journey to inspect rival sites and to encourage competition for the location of the national capital. It includes the politically related question of the chartering of the Bank of the United States, on which Jefferson delivered his famous opinion challenging its constitutionality. But the conflict with Hamilton over the Bank, important as it was, did not bring the two men on the public stage as contestants. Instead, the first focusing of public attention on the breach in the administration occurred with the publication of Jefferson's report on the whale and cod fisheries. This widely disseminated report is here presented in a context showing that, after Hamilton declined to cooperate in reciprocating the favors France had granted to American trade, Jefferson deliberately and publicly challenged the Hamiltonian opposition. In unusually blunt language, his report called for commercial retaliation against Great Britain, thus causing a sensation both in the ... ministry. This volume shows Jefferson's concern over the growing discontent in the South and West over fiscal and other policies of the national government, his resistance to interested promotion of consular appointments in business circles, his grappling with the political and constitutional questions concerning the admission of Kentucky and Vermont, his involvement in the political consequences of the death of Franklin that affected even the proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, his cautious relationship with Tench Coxe as a source of statistical information which the Secretary of the Treasury failed to supply, and his report to Washington on a judicial appointment that brought on both embarrassment and constitutional questions. Once Congress had dispersed, Jefferson was able to turn his attention to long-neglected private concerns and to the correspondence that gave him most satisfaction, that with the family at Monticello.

This volume deals with an unusually active, dramatic period during Thomas Jefferson's tenure as Secretary of State.

This volume finds Thomas Jefferson grappling with problems arising from the radicalization of the French Revolution in Europe and the polarization of domestic politics in the United States. The overthrow of the French monarchy leads the Secretary of State to suspend debt payments to that nation and to formulate a diplomatic recognition policy that will long guide American diplomacy. After an abortive effort to initiate negotiations with the British minister in Philadelphia on the execution of the Treaty of Paris, Jefferson deflects a British proposal to establish a neutral Indian barrier state in the Northwest Territory. As he awaits the start of negotiations on major diplomatic issues with Spain, he deals with a Spanish effort to incite hostilities between the Southern Indians and the United States. The conflict between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton reaches a new stage when the Secretary of the Treasury brings the cabinet struggle into full public view with four series of pseudonymous newspaper attacks on Jefferson. In letters to President Washington, Jefferson insists that Hamiltonian policies pose a fundamental threat to American republicanism, and in other documents he sets forth remedies for the defects he sees in Hamilton's system. During this period he also finds time to investigate the ravages of the Hessian fly on American wheat and to make plans to remodel Monticello.

The period covered by this volume brings to a conclusion Thomas Jefferson's first year as president. On 8 December he communicates his first annual message to Congress: peace between France and England is restored; a rise in population will increase revenue and help abolish internal taxes; the standing army can be done away with; "peace & friendship" prevail with Indian neighbors. He recommends two particular matters to the attention of Congress: a revision of the laws on naturalization and a review of the Judiciary Act. Two delegations of Indian nations hold conferences with Jefferson and Secretary of War Henry Dearborn in Washington. Jefferson observes that it is good for them to "renew the chain of affection." The president receives a "Mammoth Cheese" as a token of esteem from the citizens of Cheshire, Massachusetts, and the letter from the Danbury Baptists arrives. In his famous reply to the Baptists, Jefferson states that "religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god." Shortly after legislators arrive in town for the opening of Congress, he begins to entertain at the President's House. He uses such occasions to bridge the divide between the executive and legislative branches and foster political understanding between Republicans and Federalists. As he moves into his second year as president, he is optimistic about his legislative program and the Republican majority in Congress.

Under normal circumstances, Thomas Jefferson would have had more than two months to prepare for his presidency. However, since the House of Representatives finally settled a tied electoral vote only on 17 February 1801, he had two weeks. This book, which covers the two-and-a-half-month period from that day through April 30, is the first of some twenty volumes that will document Jefferson's two terms as President of the United States. Here, Jefferson drafts his Inaugural Address, one of the landmark documents of American history. In this famous speech, delivered before a packed audience in the Senate Chamber on March 4, he condemns "political intolerance" and asserts that "we are all republicans: we are all federalists," while invoking a policy of "friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." Jefferson appoints his Cabinet members and deals with the time-consuming process of sifting through the countless appeals and supporting letters of recommendation for government jobs as he seeks to reward loyal Republicans and maintain bipartisan harmony at the same time. Among these letters is one from Catharine Church, who remarks that only women, excluded as they are from political favor or government employment, can be free of "ignorant affectation" and address the president honestly. Jefferson also initiates preparations for a long cruise by a squadron of American warships, with an unstated expectation that their destination will probably be the Barbary Coast of the Mediterranean.

This volume brings to a close Jefferson's increasingly stormy tenure as Secretary of State, documenting, among many things, his epochal duel with Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton over the conduct of American foreign policy. Against the background of the deadly yellow fever in Philadelphia, he copes with obstreperous French consuls and informs Edmond Charles Genet that the American government has requested his recall. After resuming his work on the definition of U.S. maritime limits, Jefferson prevails upon President Washington to inform Congress not only of Genet's recall but also of the British refusal to carry out the disputed provisions of the Treaty of Paris. In a final effort to implement his policy of commercial retaliation against Great Britain, Jefferson submits to Congress in December his long-awaited Report on Commerce, vividly detailing the various forms of discrimination imposed on American trade by the British. The volume presents the early and final versions of the in all their textual complexity. Disappointed by Washington's tepid response to his criticisms of Hamilton's fiscal policies, frustrated by the Treasury Secretary's rising influence over American foreign policy, and eager to enjoy uninterruptedly the pleasures of domestic life, Jefferson retires from office on 31 December 1793, determined never again to suffer the torments of public life. Volume 27 contains a supplement that covers some 270 documents for the period 1764-93 that have been found or reclassified since the publication of the last supplement in Volume 15.

The description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 21: Index, Vols. 1-20, will be forthcoming.

Volume 38 opens on 1 July 1802, when Jefferson is in Washington, and closes on 12 November, when he is again there. For the last week of July and all of August and September, he resides at Monticello. Frequent correspondence with his heads of department and two visits with Secretary of State James Madison, however, keep the president abreast of matters of state. Upon learning in August of the declaration of war by Mawlay Sulayman, the sultan of Morocco, much of the president's and the cabinet's attention is focused on that issue, as they struggle to balance American diplomatic efforts with reliance on the country's naval power in the Mediterranean. Jefferson terms the sultan's actions "palpably against reason." In September, he addresses the concerns of the mayor of New York City and the governor of South Carolina that free blacks expelled from Guadeloupe by the French will be landed onto American shores. Although he believes the matter will be dealt with by the states, he also instructs Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin to direct custom house officers to be watchful. In late August, Jefferson is alerted that he has been touched by the "breath of Slander," when James T. Callender's accusations appear in the Richmond Recorder and make public his relationship with Sally Hemings. The president offers no comment, and a month later returns to Washington, where he continues planning for an impending visit by his daughters. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

"I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all?" Jefferson muses in this volume. His answer: "I do not know that it is." Required by custom to be "entirely passive" during the presidential campaign, Jefferson, at Monticello during the summer of 1800, refrains from answering attacks on his character, responds privately to Benjamin Rush's queries about religion, and learns of rumors of his own death. Yet he is in good health, harvests a bountiful wheat crop, and maintains his belief that the American people will shake off the Federalist thrall. He counsels James Monroe, the governor of Virginia, on the mixture of leniency and firmness to be shown in the wake of the aborted revolt of slaves led by the blacksmith Gabriel. Arriving in Washington in November, Jefferson reports that the election "is the only thing of which any thing is said here." He is aware of Alexander Hamilton's efforts to undermine John Adams, and of desires by some Federalists to give interim executive powers to a president pro tem of the Senate. But the Republicans have made no provision to prevent the tie of electoral votes between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Jefferson calls Burr's conduct "honorable & decisive" before prospects of intrigue arise as the nation awaits the decision of the House of Representatives. As the volume closes, the election is still unresolved after six long days of balloting by the House.

During the thirteen months covered by this volume, Thomas Jefferson spent more than half of his time in Philadelphia serving as vice president under President John Adams and presiding over a Senate that was dominated by his political opponents, the Federalists. Debates in Congress took place against a backdrop of bitter partisan rivalry, characterized most famously by the near-brawl on the floor of the House between Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold. Congress and the nation waited, in a "state of extraordinary suspense," for dispatches from the American envoys in France. When the accounts of the XYZ Affair became public, the nation prepared for war. Two days after the Alien Friends Act was signed into law Jefferson left for Monticello, stopping at Montpelier to convey the latest news to James Madison. Disheartened and frustrated by the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson penned the famous resolutions adopted in November by the Kentucky legislature. He kept his authorship a secret, however, seeking to avoid any appearance of "rashness" by Republicans. This endeavor reflected his struggle to make sense of the political direction of the nation in times he could neither comprehend nor accept. Jefferson continued to engage in scientific pursuits and fulfill his role as a promoter of American science and learning. He was reelected to the presidency of the American Philosophical Society, to which he presented his paper on the moldboard plow. He corresponded on American Indian languages, astronomy, and the Anglo-Saxon language. He longed for Monticello, and, as Jefferson had learned before, his property fell into neglect when he was away on public business. Renovations to the house slowed, supplies for the nailery were disrupted, and he had to arrange for the sale of his crops through intermediaries. With the prices of wheat low, he was drawn back into financial dependence on tobacco.