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27. President of the United States
ot long after the election of Mr. Adams, the political contest for his successor was renewed with increased vehemence. Mr. Jefferson was again with one accord selected as the Republican candidate for the Presidency and Aaron Burr of New York for the office of Vice-President. With equal unanimity, John Adams, the incumbent, and Charles Pinkney of South Carolina were designated as the candidates of the Federalist party. It would be tedious to describe the opposition offered to Mr. Jefferson. The press cast the strongest reflections upon his political principles, and in some instances, the pulpit was made the organ of party. The strife which then raged was of a nature, the vehemence of which has seldom been equaled. Mr. Jefferson was accused of having betrayed his native State into the hands of the enemy on two occasions while at the head of the government by a cowardly abandonment of Richmond on the sudden invasion of Arnold and subsequently, by an ignominious flight from Monticello on the approach of Tarlton, with circumstances of such panic and precipitation as to occasion a fall from his horse and the dislocation of his shoulder. He was charged with being the libeler of Washington and the retainer of mercenary libelers to blast the reputation of the Father of his Country. He was accused of implacable hostility to the Constitution, of employing foreign scribblers to write it down, and of aiming at the annihilation of all law, order, and government and the introduction of general anarchy and licentiousness. He was characterized as an atheist and the patron of French atheists, whom he encouraged to migrate to this country; as a demagogue and disorganizer, industriously sapping the foundations of religion and virtue and paving the way for the establishment of a legalized system of infidelity and libertinism. Decency would revolt were we to pursue the catalogue into that region of invective which was employed to vilify his private character and which abounded in fabrications that have been the theme of infinite ridicule in prose and verse.
While the madness of party was thus raging and attempting to despoil him of his reputation, Mr. Jefferson remained a passive spectator of the scene. Supported by a consciousness of his innocence, he surveyed with composure the tempest of detraction which was howling around him. His confidence in the justice of public opinion was stronger than his sensibility under its temporary reproaches, and he quietly submitted to the licentiousness of the press as an alloy which was inseparable from the boon of its freedom. Besides, he felt an animating pride in being made the subject of the first great experiment in the world, which was to test the soundness of his favorite principle, "that freedom of discussion, unaided by power, was sufficient for the protection and propagation of truth." Although frequently solicited by his friends, he never would descend to a newspaper refutation of calumny, and he never in any instance appealed to the retribution of the laws. "I know," he wrote to a friend in Connecticut, "that I might have filled the courts of the United States with actions for these slanders and have ruined, perhaps, many persons who are not innocent. But this would be no equivalent for the loss of character. I leave them, therefore, to the reproof of their own consciences. If these do not condemn them, there will yet come a day when the false witness will meet a judge who has not slept over his slanders. If the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith of Shena believed this as firmly as I do, he would surely never have affirmed that I had obtained my property by fraud and robbery, that in one instance I had defrauded and robbed a widow and fatherless children of an estate to which I was executor, of ten thousand pounds sterling by keeping the property and paying them in money at the nominal rate when it was worth no more than forty for one, and that all this could be proved." (to Uriah McGregory, Aug. 13, 1800. ME 10:171) Every tittle of this grave denunciation was founded in falsehood. Mr. Jefferson was an executor but in two instances, which happened about the beginning of the Revolution, and he never meddled in either executorship. In one of the cases only were there a widow and children. She was his sister and retained and managed the estate exclusively in her own hands. In the other case, he was coparcener and only received on division the equal portion allotted him. Again, his property was all patrimonial except about seven or eight hundred pounds' worth purchased by himself and paid for, not to widows and orphans, but to the gentleman from whom he purchased. The charges against Mr. Jefferson were indeed so audacious and persevered in with such assurance as to excite the solicitude of his friends in different sections of the union, and they addressed him frequent letters of inquiry on the subject. These he invariably answered with frankness and liberality, but he annexed to every answer a restraint against it publication. In a letter of this kind to Samuel Smith of Maryland, he concludes:
"These observations will show you how far the imputations in the paragraph sent me approach the truth. Yet they are not intended for a newspaper. At a very early period of my life, I determined never to put a sentence into any newspaper. I have religiously adhered to the resolution through my life, and have great reason to be contented with it. Were I to undertake to answer the calumnies of the newspapers, it would be more than all my own time and that of twenty aids could effect. For while I should be answering one, twenty new ones would be invented. I have thought it better to trust to the justice of my countrymen, that they would judge me by what they see of my conduct on the stage where they have placed me, and what they knew of me before the epoch since which a particular party has supposed it might answer some view of theirs to vilify me in the public eye. Some, I know, will not reflect how apocryphal is the testimony of enemies so palpably betraying the views with which they give it. But this is an injury to which duty requires every one to submit whom the public think proper to call into its councils. I thank you, my dear Sir, for the interest you have for me on this occasion. Though I have made up my mind not to suffer calumny to disturb my tranquillity, yet I retain all my sensibilities for the approbation of the good and just. That is, indeed, the chief consolation for the hatred of so many who, without the least personal knowledge and on the evidence of mercenary calumniators alone, cover me with their implacable hatred. The only return I will ever make them will be to do them all the good I can in spite of their teeth." (Aug. 22, 1798. ME 10:58)
r. Jefferson was successful over his opponent by a vote of seventy-three to sixty-five in the electoral colleges. The States of New York, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee were unanimous for him. The New England States, with Delaware and New Jersey, were unanimous for Mr. Adams. Pennsylvania and North Carolina, acting by districts, gave a majority of votes to Mr. Jefferson, and Maryland was equally divided between the two candidates.
But owing to a defect in the Constitution or an inattention to its provisions, an unexpected contingency arose which threatened to reverse the will of the nation and to place in the executive chair a man who, it was notorious, had not received a solitary vote for that station. Mr. Jefferson was elected President, and Aaron Burr Vice-President, by an equal number of votes; and as the Constitution required no specification of the office for which each respectively was designed, but simply confined the choice to the person having the highest number of votes, the consequence was that neither had the majority required by law. In this dilemma, the election devolved on the House of Representatives and produced storms of an unprecedented character. The Federalists seized on the occasion to favor their own peculiar political principles. They held a caucus and resolved on the alternative either to elect Burr in the place of Jefferson or, by preventing a choice altogether, to create an interregnum. In the latter event, they agreed to pass an act of Congress devolving the government on a President Pro Temp of the Senate, who would perhaps have been a person of their choice.
On the 11th of February, the House proceeded in the manner prescribed by the Constitution to elect a President of the United States. The representatives were required to vote by States instead of by persons. On opening the ballots, it appeared that there were eight States for Mr. Jefferson, six for Col. Burr, and two divided; consequently there was no choice. The process was repeated, and the same result was indicated, through FIVE successive days and nights and THIRTY-FIVE ballotings!
During this long suspense, the decision depended on a single vote! Either one of the Federalists from the divided States -- Vermont and Maryland -- coming over to the Republican side would have made a ninth State and decided the election in favor of Mr. Jefferson. But the opposition appeared invincible in the resolution to have a President of their own choice.
"Mr. N., a representative from Maryland, had been for some weeks confined to his bed and was so ill that his life was considered in danger. Ill as he was, he insisted on being carried to the hall of representatives in order to give his vote. The physicians forbade such a proceeding; Mr. N. insisted, and they appealed to his wife, telling her that such a removal and the consequent excitement might prove fatal to his life. 'Be it so, then,' said she, 'If my husband must die, let it be at the post of duty; no weakness of mine shall oppose his noble resolution.' How little did these physicians expect this courage when they appealed to the influence of one of the fondest and most devoted of wives. They of course withdrew their opposition; the patient was carried in a litter to the capitol, followed by his wife, where a bed was prepared for him in an ante-room adjoining the Senate chamber. During the four or five days and nights of balloting, his wife remained by his side, supporting the strength of the feeble invalid who with difficulty traced the name of Jefferson each time the ballot box was handed to him. Such was the spirit of that day -- the spirit of that party!"
Finally, on the thirty-sixth ballot the opposition gave way, apparently from exhaustion. Mr. Morris of Vermont withdrew, which enabled his only colleague, Lyon, to give the vote of that State to Mr. Jefferson. The four Federalists from Maryland who had hitherto supported Burr voted blanks, which made the positive ticket of their colleagues the vote of that State. South Carolina and Delaware, both represented by Federalists, voted blanks. So there were on the last ballot ten States for Mr. Jefferson, four for Col. Burr, and two blanks. [note] The result, on being proclaimed, was greeted with applause from the galleries, which were immediately ordered by the Speaker to be cleared. Mr. Jefferson did not receive a Federalist, nor Col. Burr a Democrat-Republican vote. The latter became, of course, Vice-President; but his apostasy separated him irretrievably from the confidence of the republicans, while it demonstrated his fitness for those treasonable purposes of ambition which he subsequently manifested.
n the 4th of March, 1801, Mr. Jefferson was inducted into office. The crowd of strangers who had thronged the city during the previous period of agitation had disappeared on the understanding that it was the pleasure of the President to be made the subject of no homage or ceremony. The city of Washington had been occupied as the seat of government but a few months only; the number of its inhabitants at this time did not exceed that of a small village; the individuals composing the late administration had taken their departure with the ex-President early on the 4th of March, and now, divested of half its migratory population, the infant metropolis presented a solitary appearance. The simplicity of the scene and of the ceremony of inauguration is described by a Washington reminiscent:
"The sun shone bright on that morning. The Senate was convened. Those members of the Republican party that remained at the seat of government, the judges of the Supreme Court, some citizens and persons from the neighboring country, and about a dozen ladies made up the assembly in the Senate chamber who were collected to witness the ceremony of the President's inauguration. Mr. Jefferson had not yet arrived. He was seen walking from his lodgings, which were not far distant, attended by five or six gentlemen who were his fellow lodgers. Soon afterwards he entered accompanied by a committee of the Senate, and bowing to the Senate, who arose to receive him, he approached a table on which the Bible lay and took the oath which was administered to him by the Chief Justice. He was then conducted by the president of the Senate to his chair, which stood on a platform raised some steps above the floor; after the pause of a moment or two, he arose and delivered that beautiful inaugural address which has since become so popular and celebrated, with a clear, distinct voice, in a firm and modest manner. On leaving the chair, he was surrounded by friends who pressed forward with cordial and eager congratulations. The new President walked home with two or three of the gentlemen who lodged in the same house. At dinner, he took his accustomed place at the bottom of the table, his new station not eliciting from his democratic friends any new attention or courtesy. A gentleman from Baltimore, an invited guest, who accidentally sat next to him, asked permission to wish him joy. "I would advise you," answered Mr. Jefferson smiling, "to follow my example on nuptial occasions when I always tell the bridegroom I will wait till the end of the year before offering my congratulations." And this was the only and solitary instance of any notice taken of the event of the morning."
In the short compass in which the inaugural address of Mr. Jefferson is compressed, the essential principles of a free government are stated with the measures best calculated for their attainment and security and an ample refutation of adverse principles. Nor was it intended as an ostentatious display of his political sentiments. The principles advanced in it were subsequently reduced to practice.
ames Madison was appointed Secretary of State, Albert Gallatin Secretary of the Treasury, General Dearborn Secretary of War, Robert Smith Secretary of the Navy, and Levi Lincoln Attorney General. Agreeably to the example set by himself, the Vice-President was not invited to take any part in the executive consultations. Mr. Jefferson addressed a circular to the heads of departments establishing the mode and degree of communication between them and the President. All letters of business addressed to himself were referred by him to the proper department to be acted upon. Those addressed to the Secretaries, with those referred to them, were all communicated to the President, whether an answer was required or not; in the latter case simply for his information. If an answer was requisite, the Secretary of the department communicated the letter and his proposed answer. If approved, they were simply sent back after perusal; if not, they were returned with an informal note suggesting an alteration or query. If any doubt of importance arose, he reserved it for conference.
At the threshold of his administration, Mr. Jefferson was met by difficulties which called into requisition all the firmness of his character. He found the principal offices of the government and most of the subordinate ones in the hands of his political opponents. This state of things required prompter correctives than the tardy effects of death and resignation. On him, therefore, for the first time devolved the disagreeable enterprise of effecting this change. The general principles of action which he sketched for his guide on this occasion were the following:
1st, All appointments to civil office during pleasure, made after the event of the election was certainly known to Mr. Adams, were considered as nullities. He did not view the persons appointed as even candidates for the office, but replaced others without noticing or notifying them.
2nd, Officers who had been guilty of official malfeasance were proper subjects of removal.
3rd, Good men, to whom there was no objection but a difference of political principle, practiced only so far as the right of a private citizen would justify, were not proper subjects of removal except in the case of attorney and marshals. The courts being so decidedly Federalist, it was thought that those offices, being the doors of entrance, should be exercised by Republican citizens as a shield to the republican majority of the nation.
4th, Incumbents who had prostituted their offices to the oppression of their fellow citizens ought to be removed, in justice to those citizens and as examples to deter others from like abuses.To these means of introducing the intended change was added one other in the course of his administration; to wit, removal for electioneering activity or open and industrious opposition to the principles of the government. "Every officer of the government," said he, "may vote at elections according to his own conscience; but we should betray the cause committed to our care were we to permit the influence of official patronage to be used to overthrow that cause." In all new appointments, the President confined his choice to Republicans or republican Federalists.
The change in the public offices was the first measure of importance which gave a character of originality to the administration. Various abuses existed dependent on executive indulgence, which soon called into action the reforming hand of the President. In a letter of the President to Nathaniel Macon, member of Congress from North Carolina, dated May 14, 1801, it is curious to notice the following laconic statement of the progress and intended course of reform:
"Levees are done away.
"The first communication to the next Congress will be, like all subsequent ones, by message, to which no answer will be expected.
"The diplomatic establishment in Europe will be reduced to three ministers.
"The compensations to collectors depend on you and not on me.
"The army is undergoing a chaste reformation.
"The navy will be reduced to the legal establishment by the last of this month.
"Agencies in every department will be revised.
"We shall push you to the uttermost in economizing.
"A very early recommendation had been given to the Post Master General to employ no printer, foreigner, or revolutionary Tory in any of his offices. This department is still untouched.
"The arrival of Mr. Gallatin yesterday completed the organization of our administration." (ME 10:261)
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