Joseph J. Ellis (48 page)

53.
Adams to Abigail Adams, 31 December 1798, 1 January 1799; Abigail Adams to Adams, 27 February 1799,
Adams
, reels 392, 393.

54.
Abigail Adams to Elizabeth Peabody, 7 April 1799,
Adams
, reel 393.

55.
Adams to James McHenry, 22 October 1798,
Adams
, reel 119. The standard work on the threat posed by the New Army is Richard W. Kohn,
Eagle and Sword: The Beginnings of the Military Establishment in America
(New York, 1975). See also Syrett, vol. 22, 452–454.

56.
Abigail Adams to William Smith, 7 July 1798,
Adams
, reel 392.

57.
Jefferson to Madison, 2, 21, 22 March 1798, Smith, vol. 2, 1024, 1029.

58.
Madison to Jefferson, 18 February 1798, ibid., 1021.

59.
Jefferson to Madison, 6 April 1798; Madison to Jefferson, 15 April 1798, 13, 20 May 1798, ibid., 1002, 1036–1038, 1048–1049, 1051.

60.
Jefferson to Madison, 24 May 1798, 3 January, 19, 26 February 1799, ibid., 1053, 1056, 1085, 1086.

61.
For Callender’s career, see Michael Durey,
With the Hammer of Truth: James Thomas Callender and America’s Early National Heroes
(Charlottesville, 1990). Jefferson to Monroe, 26 May 1801, 15 July 1802, Ford, vol. 8, 57–58, 164–168. The best scholarly study of the Republican effort to smear Adams is C. O. Lerche, Jr., “Jefferson and the Election of 1800: A Case Study in the Political Smear,”
WMQ
8 (1948): 467–491.

62.
Jefferson to Monroe, 5 April 1798, Ford, vol. 7, 233; Madison to Jefferson, 18 February 1798; Theodore Sedgwick to Rufus King, 9 April 1798, Smith, vol. 2, 997, 1021.

63.
Jefferson’s draft of the Kentucky Resolutions is reprinted in Smith, vol. 2,
1080–1084. The introductory essay in ibid., 1063–1075, provides the fairest and fullest coverage of the context. The previous account, more charitable toward Jefferson, is Adrienne Koch and Harry Ammon, “The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: An Episode in Jefferson’s and Madison’s Defense of Civil Liberties,”
WMQ
5 (1945): 170–189.

64.
Smith, vol. 2, 1108–1112; see also the editorial notes in Rutland, vol. 17, 199–206, 303–307.

65.
Jefferson to Madison, 23 August 1799, Smith, vol. 2, 1118–1119; Jefferson to Wilson Cary Nicholas, 5 September 1799, Ford, vol. 7, 389–392. For an elegant appraisal of the Madisonian influence on Jefferson, and the huge constitutional gap the two colleagues managed to ignore, see Drew R. McCoy,
The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy
(Cambridge, 1989). See also Leonard Levy,
The Emergence of a Free Press
(New York, 1985), 315–325.

66.
Madison to Jefferson, 4 April 1800, Smith, vol. 2, 1131–1132. For the enforcement of the Sedition Act, see Smith,
Freedom’s Letters
, 176–187.

67.
Smith,
Freedom’s Letters
, 270–274; Elkins and McKitrick,
The Age of Federalism
, 694–713; Ellis,
American Sphinx
, 217–219. The scientific evidence establishing Jefferson’s paternity of at least one of Sally’s children, Eston Hemings, was published in
Nature
, November 1998, 27–28. See also the explanatory note by Eric S. Lander and Joseph J. Ellis, “DNA Analysis: Founding Father,”
Nature
, November 1998, 13–14.

68.
Jefferson to John Breckenridge, 29 January 1800, Ford, vol. 7, 417–418; Jefferson to Madison, 4 March 1800, Smith, vol. 2, 1128–1130. For an overview of the election from the Jeffersonian perspective, see Daniel Sisson,
The American Revolution of 1800
(New York, 1974).

69.
Ferling,
John Adams
, 403–404; Abigail Adams to Cranch, 5 May 1800, Mitchell, ed.,
New Letters
, 251, 265.

70.
Syrett, vol. 25, 178–202, for the text of Hamilton’s pamphlet as well as the correspondence by Adams and other Federalists in response to it.

71.
Jefferson to Levi Lincoln, 25 October 1802, Ford, vol. 8, 175–176; see the concluding thoughts of Elkins and McKitrick,
The Age of Federalism
, 750–754.

72.
The first Adams quotation is from Zoltán Haraszti,
John Adams and the Prophets of Progress
(Cambridge, 1953), 57; Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 24, 26 January 1801,
Adams
, reel 400; Ferling,
John Adams
, 405–413, provides a nice summary of Adams’s sense of resignation.

73.
Adams to Gerry, 30 December 1800,
Adams
, reel 399. This is a much-condensed version of the historic vote in the House to choose between Jefferson and Burr. The standard account is now Elkins and McKitrick,
The Age of Federalism
, 743–750.

74.
Jefferson to Madison, 19 December 1800, Smith, vol. 2, 1154, for Jefferson’s expectations concerning civility. I have told the story of these last days of the Adams presidency more fully in
Passionate Sage, 1
9–25.

  1.
Adams to Samuel Dexter, 23 March 1801; Adams to Benjamin Stoddert, 31 March 1801,
Works
, vol. 10, 580–582.

  2.
Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 12 July 1801,
Adams
, reel 400; Adams to Francis Vanderkemp, 25 January 1806,
Adams
, reel 118.

  3.
Adams to William Cranch, 23 May 1801,
Adams
, reel 118; Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 29 October 1805, Worthington C. Ford., ed.,
Statesman and Friend: The Correspondence of John Adams and Benjamin Waterhouse, 1184–1822
(Boston, 1927), 31.

  4.
Abigail Adams to Jefferson, 20 May 1804, Cappon, vol. 1, 268–269.

  5.
Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 14 June 1804, ibid., 270–271.

  6.
Abigail Adams to Jefferson, 1 July 1804, ibid., 271–274.

  7.
Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 22 July, 11 September 1804, ibid., 274–276, 279–280.

  8.
Abigail Adams to Jefferson, 25 October 1804, ibid., 280–282.

  9.
Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 13 March 1789, Boyd, vol. 14, 650.

10.
Adams postscript, 19 November 1804, Cappon, vol. 1, 282.

11.
Adams to Benjamin Rush, 18 April 1808,
Spur, 1
07.

12.
Adams to Rush, 30 September 1805, Alexander Biddle, ed.,
Old Family Letters
(Philadelphia, 1892), 86; Lyman H. Butterfield, ed.,
The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams
, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1961), vol. 3, 335–336; Adams to Rush, 21 June 1811,
Spur, 1
82.

13.
I have covered these early years of the Adams retirement in greater detail in
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams
(New York, 1993), 57–83. Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, 7, 15 August 1807, Charles Francis Adams, ed.,
Correspondence Between John Adams and Mercy Otis Warren
, reprinted in
Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society
, vol. 4 (1878), 422–423, 449; Adams to William Cunningham, 22 February, 31 July 1809,
Correspondence Between the Honorable John Adams … and William Cunningham, Esq
. (Boston, 1823), 93, 151; Adams to Nicholas Boylston, 3 November 1819,
Adams
, reel 124.

14.
Adams to Rush, 23 July 1806,
Spur
, 61.

15.
Rush to Adams, 23 March 1805; Adams to Rush, 29 November 1812, ibid., 25, 254–255.

16.
Adams to Rush, 22 December 1806, ibid., 72–73.

17.
Adams to Rush, 17 August 1812, Biddle, ed.,
Old Family Letters
, 420.

18.
Adams to Rush, 12 June, 17 August 1812,
Spur
, 225, 242.

19.
Adams to Rush, 20 June 1808, 14 November 1812, ibid., 110, 252.

20.
Adams to Rush, 30 September 1805, 14 March 1809, 21 June 1811, 11 November 1807, 8 January, 14 May 1812,
Spur
, 39–42, 97–99, 181, 204, 216–217.

21.
Ellis,
Passionate Sage, 1
43–173; Adams to Rush, 27 September 1809,
Spur, 1
55; John Ferling and Lewis E. Braverman, “John Adams’s Health Reconsidered,”
WMQ
55 (1998): 83–104.

22.
Adams to Cunningham, 16 January 1804,
Correspondence Between the Honorable John Adams … and William Cunningham, Esq.
, 7–9; Adams to Rush, 18 April 1808,
Spur, 1
07–108.

23.
Adams to Rush, September 1807,
Spur
, 93.

24.
Adams to Rush, 10 October 1808, ibid., 122–123.

25.
Adams to Rush, 23 March 1809, ibid., 139.

26.
Rush to Adams, 16 October 1809, ibid., 156–157.

27.
Adams to Rush, 25 October 1809, ibid., 158–159.

28.
Rush to Jefferson, 2 January 1811, quoted in
Spur, 1
57–158.

29.
Jefferson to Rush, 5 December 1811, Ford, vol. 9, 300. See also Lyman H. Butterfield, “The Dream of Benjamin Rush: The Reconciliation of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,”
Yale Review
40 (1950–1951): 297–319.

30.
Adams to Rush, 25 December 1811,
Spur
, 200–202.

31.
Adams to Jefferson, 1 January 1812, Cappon, vol. 2, 290; Adams to Rush, 10 February 1812,
Adams
, reel 118; Rush to Adams, 17 February 1812,
Spur
, 211I; the remark about “a brother sailor” is in Donald Stewart and George Clark, “Misanthrope or Humanitarian? John Adams in Retirement,”
NEQ 28
(1955): 232.

32.
The quotation is from Adams to Jefferson, 15 July 1813, Cappon, vol. 2, 357. I have explored the Adams-Jefferson correspondence in two previous books: from the Adams perspective in
Passionate Sage, 1
13–142; from the Jefferson perspective in
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
(New York, 1997), 281–300. My account here represents an attempt to combine the perspectives of both men and to assess the correspondence as a self-conscious capstone to the work of the revolutionary generation.

33.
Jefferson to Adams, 12 October 1823; Adams to Jefferson, 10 November 1823, Cappon, vol. 2, 600–602. A typical letter took from a week to ten days to go from Quincy to Monticello, or vice versa, and both men were amazed at the relative speed of delivery, seeing it as a measure of technological progress and the arrival of a “new age” quite different from that of their time.

34.
Jefferson to Adams, 21 January 1812; Adams to Jefferson, 3 February 1812, ibid., 291–292, 295.

35.
Jefferson to Adams, 5 July 1814; Adams to Jefferson, 16 July 1814, ibid., 430–431, 435.

36.
Jefferson to Adams, 11 June 1812; Adams to Jefferson, 11 June 1813; Jefferson to Adams, 12 September 1820, ibid., 305–307, 328, 566–567. The Adams quotation on Samuel Johnson comes from his correspondence with Catherine Rush, 23 February 1815,
Adams
, reel 118.

37.
Adams to Jefferson, 1 May 1812; Jefferson to Adams, 27 May 1813, Cappon, vol. 2, 301, 324.

38.
Adams to Jefferson, 10 June 1813; Jefferson to Adams, 15 June 1813, ibid., 326–327, 331–332.

39.
Jefferson to Adams, 15 June 1813, ibid., 331–332.

40.
Adams to Jefferson, 14, 25, 28, 30 June 1813, ibid., 329–330, 333–335, 338–340, 346–348.

41.
Adams to Jefferson, 15 July 1813, ibid., 358.

42.
Jefferson to Adams, 27 June 1813, ibid., 335–336.

43.
Jefferson to Adams, 27 June 1813, ibid., 336–338.

44.
Jefferson to Adams, 27 June 1813, ibid., 337.

45.
Adams to Jefferson, 9 July 1813, ibid., 350–352.

46.
Adams to Jefferson, 9, 13 July, 14 August, 19 December 1813, ibid., 351–352, 355, 365, 409.

47.
Jefferson to Adams, 28 October 1813, ibid., 387–392.

48.
Jefferson to Adams, 24 January 1814, ibid., 421–425.

49.
Adams to Jefferson, 15 November 1813, 16 July 1814, ibid., 397–402, 438.

50.
Adams to Jefferson, 2, 15 September, 15 November 1813, ibid. 371–372, 376, 398.

51.
Works
, vol. 6, 461–462.

52.
Jefferson to Adams, 11 January 1816, Cappon, vol. 2, 458–461.

53.
Adams to Jefferson, 2 February 1816, ibid., 461–462.

54.
Adams to Jefferson, 16 December 1816, ibid., 500–501.

55.
Adams to Jefferson, 16 December 1816, ibid., 501–503.

56.
Adams to Jefferson, 2 February 1816, ibid., 462.

57.
Adams to Reverend Coleman, 13 January 1817,
Adams
, reel 124; Jefferson to George Logan, 11 May 1805, Ford, vol. 9, 141.

58.
Jefferson to Adams, 10 December 1819, 20 January 1821, Cappon, vol. 2, 448–450, 569–570. Jefferson’s extreme reaction to the Missouri crisis is a major problem for his more admiring biographers. See Dumas Malone,
Jefferson and His Times
, 6 vols. (Boston, 1948–1981), vol. 6, 328–344. More balanced and critical assessments include Robert Shalhope, “Thomas Jefferson’s Republicanism and Antebellum Southern Thought,” 1
11
72 (1976): 529–556, and Donald S. Fehrenbacher, “The Missouri Controversy and the Sources of Southern Separatism,”
Southern Review 1
4(1978): 653–667. My own appraisal is in
American Sphinx
, 314–334.

59.
Adams to Jefferson, 23 November 1819, Cappon, vol. 2, 547–548; Adams to William Tudor, 20 November 1819; Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, 29 January 1820,
Adams
, reel 124.

60.
Jefferson to John Holmes, 22 April 1820, Ford, vol. 10, 157–158; Adams to Jefferson, 3 February 1821, Cappon, vol. 2, 571–572. If one were to take the generational argument literally, the Adams family provides a perfect example of the unwritten rules. John Adams sustained his commitment to silence and avoidance, but his son John Quincy Adams became a leader in the antislavery movement. Moreover, John Quincy’s leadership was rooted in his personal knowledge of the sectional compromise consented to by his father and his strong sense that the South, especially Virginia, had not kept its end of the bargain.