Revolution in America: Considerations and Comparisons. By Don Higginbotham. University of Virginia Press, 230 pages, $19.50.
Thomas Jefferson had a way with words—and insults.
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Eight years later, Jefferson wrote choice words about fellow revolutionary Patrick Henry in a letter: “While Mr. Henry lives, another bad constitution would be formed, and saddled forever on us. What we have to do I think is devoutly pray for his death.”
So much for Henry’s right to life.
Jefferson wanted a different constitution for Virginia, and he blamed Henry for blocking his legislation. And as historian Don Higginbotham writes in his book of essays, Revolution in America, Henry and Jefferson constantly wrangled over state issues, as well as a federal one—the separation of church and state, in which Jefferson strongly believed and Henry did not. Jefferson won that battle, and the victory probably felt like political retribution, Higginbotham says, because Jefferson had previously blamed Henry for trying to get the Virginia legislature to investigate Jefferson’s conduct as governor in 1781.
“Jefferson lived twenty-six years longer, and to his death he bad-mouthed Henry to friends and travelers to Monticello,” Higginbotham says.
Henry never aspired to national office, but Jefferson did battle with other political heavyweights, including John Adams and George Washington.
Jefferson and Washington respected each other during the Revolution and Jefferson served as Washington’s secretary of state for five years after the war. But the two entrenched themselves on opposite sides of several political issues including the biggie—strong central government versus more states’ rights. Their relationship soured forever when a letter that Jefferson wrote to friend Phillip Mazzei was leaked to the press in 1796. In it, Jefferson wrote of “an Anglican, monarchical, and aristicratical party” that was in favor of mimicking the British form of government. Jefferson was referring to the federalists, whom he called “apostates.” The letter included a disparaging reference to Washington as a British puppet. The two never corresponded after that, and Washington died in 1799.
Their relationship deteriorated so badly that when President Jefferson visited Martha Washington in 1801, the two shared an awkward visit that she later described as the second most painful occurrence of her life—the first being the death of her husband. Martha once called Jefferson “the most detestable of mankind; the greatest misfortune our country had ever experienced.”
Still, Higginbotham says, Jefferson’s attitude toward Washington softened over time.
“Jefferson refers to Washington in his 1801 inaugural address, and in a letter of 1814, Jefferson analyzes Washington’s contributions in a fair and positive light,” Higginbotham says. “There’s a theory that Jefferson was crafting his own image, because no one wanted to go down in history as Washington’s enemy. But I also think Jefferson wanted Americans to know how he felt about the father of the country.”
Jefferson and Washington never made amends, but Adams and Jefferson did. Those two political rivals corresponded more than one hundred times between 1813 and July 4, 1826—the day both of them died.
But Higginbotham reminds readers that these political differences were resolved at the ballot box. The Founding Fathers hung together when it counted most, as Benjamin Franklin advised, instead of hanging separately.
Don Higginbotham is Dowd Professor of History at Carolina.