|
|
| & etc |
FEEDBACK
(C)1998-2012
All Rights Reserved.
Site last updated
13 January, 2012
|
|
|
|
Jefferson and his Colleagues, A Chronicle of the Virginia Dynasty
Chapter XV. The End of an Era
by Johnson, Allen
|
It was in the midst of the diplomatic contest for the Floridas
that James Monroe was for the second time elected to the
Presidency, with singularly little display of partisanship. This
time all the electoral votes but one were cast for him. Of all
the Presidents only George Washington has received a unanimous
vote; and to Monroe, therefore, belongs the distinction of
standing second to the Father of his Country in the vote of
electors. The single vote which Monroe failed to get fell to his
Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. It is a circumstance of
some interest that the father of the Secretary, old John Adams,
so far forgot his Federalist antecedents that he served as
Republican elector in Massachusetts and cast his vote for James
Monroe. Never since parties emerged in the second administration
of Washington had such extraordinary unanimity prevailed.
Across this scene of political harmony, however, the Missouri
controversy cast the specter-like shadow of slavery. For the
moment, and often in after years, it seemed inevitable that
parties would spring into new vigor following sectional lines.
All patriots were genuinely alarmed. "This momentous question,"
wrote Jefferson, "like a fire bell in the night, awakened and
filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of
the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a
reprieve only, not a final sentence."
What Jefferson termed a reprieve was the settlement of the
Missouri question by the compromise of 1820. To the demands of
the South that Missouri should be admitted into the Union as a
slave State, with the constitution of her choice, the North
yielded, on condition that the rest of the Louisiana Purchase
north of 36 degrees 30' should be forever free. Henceforth
slaveholders might enter Missouri and the rest of the old
province of Louisiana below her southern boundary line, but
beyond this line, into the greater Northwest, they might not take
their human chattels. To this act of settlement President Monroe
gave his assent, for he believed that further controversy would
shake the Union to its very foundations. With the angry
criminations and recriminations of North and South ringing in his
ears, Jefferson had little faith in the permanency of such a
settlement. "A geographical line," said he," coinciding with a
marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up
to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and
every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper." And
Madison, usually optimistic about the future of his beloved
country, indulged only the gloomiest forebodings about slavery.
Both the ex-Presidents took what comfort they could in projects
of emancipation and deportation. Jefferson would have had
slaveholders yield up slaves born after a certain date to the
guardianship of the State, which would then provide for their
removal to Santo Domingo at a proper age. Madison took heart at
the prospect opened up by the Colonization Society which he
trusted would eventually end "this dreadful calamity" of human
slavery. Fortunately for their peace of mind, neither lived to
see these frail hopes dashed to pieces.
Signs were not wanting that statesmen of the Virginia school were
not to be leaders in the new era which was dawning. On several
occasions both Madison and Monroe had shown themselves out of
touch with the newer currents of national life. Their point of
view was that of the epoch which began with the French Revolution
and ended with the overthrow of Napoleon and the pacification of
Europe. Inevitably foreign affairs had absorbed their best
thought. To maintain national independence against foreign
aggression had been their constant purpose, whether the menace
came from Napoleon's designs upon Louisiana, or from British
disregard of neutral rights, or from Spanish helplessness on the
frontiers of her Empire. But now, with political and commercial
independence assured, a new direction was imparted to national
endeavor. America made a volte-face and turned to the setting
sun.
During the second quarter of the nineteenth century every ounce
of national vitality went into the conquest and settlement of the
Mississippi Valley. Once more at peace with the world, Americans
set themselves to the solution of the problems which grew out of
this vast migration from the Atlantic seaboard to the interior.
These were problems of territorial organization, of distribution
of public lands, of inland trade, of highways and waterways, of
revenue and appropriation problems that focused in the offices of
the Secretaries of the Treasury and of War. And lurking behind
all was the specter of slavery and sectionalism.
To impatient homeseekers who crossed the Alleghanies, it never
occurred to question the competence of the Federal Government to
meet all their wants. That the Government at Washington should
construct and maintain highways, improve and facilitate the
navigation of inland waterways, seemed a most reasonable
expectation. What else was government for? But these proposed
activities did not seem so obviously legitimate to Presidents of
the Virginia Dynasty; not so readily could they waive
constitutional scruples. Madison felt impelled to veto a bill for
constructing roads and canals and improving waterways because he
could find nowhere in the Constitution any specific authority for
the Federal Government to embark on a policy of internal
improvements. His last message to Congress set forth his
objections in detail and was designed to be his farewell address.
He would rally his party once more around the good old
Jeffersonian doctrines. Monroe felt similar doubts when he was
presented with a bill to authorize the collection of tolls on the
new Cumberland Road. In a veto message of prodigious length he,
too, harked back to the original Republican principle of strict
construction of the Constitution. The leadership which the
Virginians thus refused to take fell soon to men of more resolute
character who would not let the dead hand of legalism stand
between them and their hearts' desires.
It is one of the ironies of American history that the settlement
of the Mississippi Valley and of the Gulf plains brought acute
pecuniary distress to the three great Virginians who had bent all
their energies to acquire these vast domains. The lure of virgin
soil drew men and women in ever increasing numbers from the
seaboard States. Farms that had once sufficed were cast
recklessly on the market to bring what they would, while their
owners staked their claims on new soil at a dollar and a quarter
an acre. Depreciation of land values necessarily followed in
States like Virginia; and the three ex-Presidents soon found
themselves landpoor. In common with other planters, they had
invested their surplus capital in land, only to find themselves
unable to market their crops in the trying days of the Embargo
and NonIntercourse Acts. They had suffered heavy losses from the
British blockade during the war, and they had not fully recovered
from these reverses when the general fall of prices came in 1819.
Believing that they were facing only a temporary condition, they
met their difficulties by financial expedients which in the end
could only add to their burdens.
A general reluctance to change their manner of life and to
practice an intensive agriculture with diversified crops
contributed, no doubt, to the general depression of planters in
the Old Dominion. Jefferson at Monticello, Madison at Montpelier,
and to a lesser extent Monroe at Oak Hill, maintained their old
establishments and still dispensed a lavish Southern hospitality,
which indeed they could hardly avoid. A former President is
forever condemned to be a public character. All kept open house
for their friends, and none could bring himself to close his door
to strangers, even when curiosity was the sole motive for
intrusion. Sorely it must have tried the soul of Mrs. Randolph to
find accommodations at Monticello for fifty uninvited and
unexpected guests. Mrs. Margaret Bayard Smith, who has left
lively descriptions of life at Montpelier, was once one of
twenty-three guests. When a friend commented on the circumstance
that no less than nine strange horses were feeding in the stables
at Montpelier, Madison remarked somewhat grimly that he was
delighted with the society of the owners but could not confess to
the same enthusiasm at the presence of their horses.
Both Jefferson and Madison were victims of the indiscretion of
others. Madison was obliged to pay the debts of a son of Mrs.
Madison by her first marriage and became so financially
embarrassed that he was forced to ask President Biddle of the
Bank of the United States for a long loan of six thousand dollars
--only to suffer the humiliation of a refusal. He had then to
part with some of his lands at a great sacrifice, but he retained
Montpelier and continued to reside there, though in reduced
circumstances, until his death in 1836. At about the same time
Jefferson received what he called his coup de grace. He had
endorsed a note of twenty thousand dollars for Governor Wilson C.
Nicholas and upon his becoming insolvent was held to the full
amount of the note. His only assets were his lands which would
bring only a fifth of their former price. To sell on these
ruinous terms was to impoverish himself and his family. His
distress was pathetic. In desperation he applied to the
Legislature for permission to sell his property by lottery; but
he was spared this last humiliation by the timely aid of friends,
who started popular subscriptions to relieve his distress. Monroe
was less fortunate, for he was obliged to sell Oak Hill and to
leave Old Virginia forever. He died in New York City on the
Fourth of July, 1831.
The latter years of Jefferson's life were cheered by the renewal
of his old friendship with John Adams, now in retirement at
Quincy. Full of pleasant reminiscence are the letters which
passed between them, and full too of allusions to the passing
show. Neither had lost all interest in politics, but both viewed
events with the quiet contemplation of old men. Jefferson was
absorbed to the end in his last great hobby, the university that
was slowly taking bodily form four miles away across the valley
from Monticello. When bodily infirmities would not permit him to
ride so far, he would watch the workmen through a telescope
mounted on one of the terraces. "Crippled wrists and fingers make
writing slow and laborious," he wrote to Adams. "But while
writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the
recollection of ancient times, when youth and health made
happiness out of everything. I forget for a while the hoary
winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep
ourselves warm, and how to get rid of our heavy hours until the
friendly hand of death shall rid us of all at once. Against this
tedium vitae, however, I am fortunately mounted on a hobby,
which, indeed, I should have better managed some thirty or forty
years ago; but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give
exercise and amusement to an octogenary rider. This is the
establishment of a University." Alluding to certain published
letters which revived old controversies, he begged his old friend
not to allow his peace of mind to be shaken. "It would be strange
indeed, if, at our years, we were to go back an age to hunt up
imaginary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections
so sweetening to the evening of our lives."
As the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
approached, Jefferson and Adams were besought to take part in the
celebration which was to be held in Philadelphia. The infirmities
of age rested too heavily upon them to permit their journeying so
far; but they consecrated the day anew with their lives. At noon,
on the Fourth of July, 1826, while the Liberty Bell was again
sounding its old message to the people of Philadelphia, the soul
of Thomas Jefferson passed on; and a few hours later John Adams
entered into rest, with the name of his old friend upon his lips.
|
|
| |
