Through substantial selections from Jefferson's writings--including his earliest writings, Notes on Virginia, and key public papers and personal correspondence--this volume traces the development of his thinking on such fundamental issues as republicanism, constitutionalism, slavery, and the separation of religion from politics. Footnotes identify Jefferson's correspondents and provide useful context.
Aaron Burr fells Alexander Hamilton in a duel in July, but Jefferson, caring little for either adversary or for disruptive partisan warfare, gives the event only limited notice. He contends with the problem of filling the offices necessary for the establishment of Orleans Territory on October 1. He is constrained by his lack of knowledge about potential officeholders. Meanwhile, a delegation with a memorial from disgruntled Louisianians travels to Washington. In August, the U.S. Mediterranean squadron bombards Tripoli. The United States has uneasy relationships around its periphery. Jefferson compiles information on British "aggressions" in American ports and waters, and drafts a bill to allow federal judges and state governors to call on military assistance when British commanders spurn civil authority. Another bill seeks to prevent merchant ships from arming for trade with Haiti. Contested claims to West Florida, access to the Gulf of Mexico, tensions along the Texas-Louisiana boundary, and unresolved maritime claims exacerbate relations with Spain. Jefferson continues his policy of pushing Native American nations to give up their lands east of the Mississippi River. Yellow fever has devastating effects in New Orleans. Abigail Adams terminates the brief revival of their correspondence, musing that "Affection still lingers in the Bosom, even after esteem has taken its flight." In November, Jefferson delivers his annual message to Congress. He also commences systematic records to manage his guest lists for official dinners.
This volume opens on 4 March 1803, the first day of Jefferson's third year as president. Still shaken by the closing of the right of deposit at New Orleans, he confronts the potential political consequences of a cession of Louisiana to France that might result in a denial of American access to the Mississippi. But he resists pressures to seize New Orleans by force, urging patience instead. The cabinet determines in April that "all possible procrastinations" should be used in dealing with France, but that discussions with Great Britain move forward as well. In Paris, a treaty for the cession of the Louisiana Territory to the United States is signed, and in May the right of deposit is restored. On 3 July, word reaches Jefferson in Washington of the agreement that France has sold the entire Territory for $15 million. The glorious news, which may be the most momentous that Jefferson receives while president, appears in the National Intelligencer the following day. Having received congressional approval to send an expedition to locate a continental route to the Pacific, Jefferson drafts instructions and a cipher for Meriwether Lewis and arranges for the needed instruments. Following through on a promise to a friend to give his views of Christianity, Jefferson puts his religious creed on paper, a "Syllabus" of the morals of Jesus and the comparative merits of Christianity. He intends it only for a few trusted friends.
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 Louisiana Purchase dominates the months covered in this volume. Jefferson departs for Monticello to enjoy a needed respite after the busy three and a half months he has just spent in the nation's capital. Shortly before leaving Washington, he has a last meeting with his cabinet, after which he issues a proclamation to reconvene Congress on 17 October, three weeks early. It is the "great and weighty" business of the French government’s stunning offer to transfer all of the Louisiana Territory to the United States that necessitates this important gathering. The event brings Jefferson enthusiastic congratulations from his friends and fellow Republicans. With Jefferson’s great success, however, comes the reality of getting the agreement with France approved and implemented. The boundaries of the territory ceded are not even clear. In private letters to his trusted advisers, Jefferson discusses the proper course of action. Should both houses of Congress be called to consider the French offer? Is it prudent to make the substance of a treaty public? And perhaps most vexing, does this executive action require an amendment to the Constitution? Some Federalists criticize the plan, but an expansion of the nation’s territory, proponents argue, will raise America’s stature in the eyes of the world. With the widening of the country’s borders, Jefferson’s project to send an exploratory party westward seems even timelier. William Clark accepts Meriwether Lewis’s invitation to join the expedition, and on the last day of August Lewis begins his journey down the Ohio River, the building of his boat finally complete.
Thomas Jefferson is most famous for the writing of the Declaration of Independence, which espouses the general principles of freedom and democracies that Americans hold dear. Now, collected here for the first time, is this historical American document, as well as several of his other famous writings. Included in this book are excerpts from his only full-length book, Notes on the State of Virginia, letters to Samual Kercheval and Edward Carrington on liberal democracy and freedom, and an exchange with Danbury Baptists regarding the right to religious freedom to his manual on parliamentary policy. Jefferson provides excellent and timeless quotes on attaining freedom and living a democratic life.
Few men stand with as towering a stature in the annals of American legend as THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826). Author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, he ranks as one of the most significant of the United States' Founding Fathers, his political philosophies continuing to impact the nation to this day. In the late 19th century American biographer PAUL LEICESTER FORD (1865-1902) assembled this collection of Jefferson's most important, most influential, and most revealing writings. This replica of the 12-volume "Federal Edition" of 1904 is considered a masterpiece of historical scholarship, praised for its attention to detail as well as its objective dispassion toward its subject. Here, in Volume IX, discover: [ Jefferson's letters from 1799-1801 to such persons as Aaron Burr, James Monroe, James Madison, Joseph Priestley, Samuel Adams, Pierce Butler, Thomas Paine, and others [ his 1801 inaugural address.
Few men stand with as towering a stature in the annals of American legend as THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826). Author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, he ranks as one of the most significant of the United States' Founding Fathers, his political philosophies continuing to impact the nation to this day. In the late 19th century American biographer PAUL LEICESTER FORD (1865-1902) assembled this collection of Jefferson's most important, most influential, and most revealing writings. This replica of the 12-volume "Federal Edition" of 1904 is considered a masterpiece of historical scholarship, praised for its attention to detail as well as its objective dispassion toward its subject. Here, in Volume II, discover: [ more correspondence and miscellaneous writings, 1760-1774 [ drafts of the Declaration of Independence [ notes on rules for the Continental Congress [ drafts of numerous bills [ correspondence to George Washington [ and much more.
Few men stand with as towering a stature in the annals of American legend as THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826). Author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, he ranks as one of the most significant of the United States' Founding Fathers, his political philosophies continuing to impact the nation to this day. In the late 19th century American biographer PAUL LEICESTER FORD (1865-1902) assembled this collection of Jefferson's most important, most influential, and most revealing writings. This replica of the 12-volume "Federal Edition" of 1904 is considered a masterpiece of historical scholarship, praised for its attention to detail as well as its objective dispassion toward its subject. Here, in Volume XI, discover: [ Jefferson's itinerary and chronology, 1808-1816 [ letters from 1808-1816 to such persons as General Benjamin Smith, Meriwether Lewis, Henry Dearborn, the Emperor of Russia, the Marquis De Lafayette, John Jacob Astor, and others [ papers including "Special Message on British Negotiation," "Message on Public Defence," and others.
The aim of the present compilation, in a single volume, of the basic writings of Thomas Jefferson is to make available the heart of Jefferson's thinking on government and individual freedom. In this volume the reader meets the most notable thinker ever to become President of the United States, the most widely read American of his time, a keen student of nature and the natural sciences, and an inventor of many devices to make human existence happier... Today we pause frequently to remind ourselves of the fundamental principles set down more than two centuries ago by the great architect of our free democracy. Included in this volume: The Declaration of Independence; Bill for establishing religious freedom; Notes on Virginia; the Kentucky resolutions. Also represented are significant writings on the establishment of currency, foreign relations, education and American expansion as well as all of the Presidential Inaugural Addresses, his Autobiography and a chronology of the major events in Jefferson's life."--Jacket.
Aaron Burr fells Alexander Hamilton in a duel in July, but Jefferson, caring little for either adversary or for disruptive partisan warfare, gives the event only limited notice. He contends with the problem of filling the offices necessary for the establishment of Orleans Territory on October 1. He is constrained by his lack of knowledge about potential officeholders. Meanwhile, a delegation with a memorial from disgruntled Louisianians travels to Washington. In August, the U.S. Mediterranean squadron bombards Tripoli. The United States has uneasy relationships around its periphery. Jefferson compiles information on British "aggressions" in American ports and waters, and drafts a bill to allow federal judges and state governors to call on military assistance when British commanders spurn civil authority. Another bill seeks to prevent merchant ships from arming for trade with Haiti. Contested claims to West Florida, access to the Gulf of Mexico, tensions along the Texas-Louisiana boundary, and unresolved maritime claims exacerbate relations with Spain. Jefferson continues his policy of pushing Native American nations to give up their lands east of the Mississippi River. Yellow fever has devastating effects in New Orleans. Abigail Adams terminates the brief revival of their correspondence, musing that "Affection still lingers in the Bosom, even after esteem has taken its flight." In November, Jefferson delivers his annual message to Congress. He also commences systematic records to manage his guest lists for official dinners.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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