Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch | Page 7

the colleges in the United
States, and he collected a vast quantity of seeds, roots and nuts for
transplanting in American soil.
It need hardly be said that his loved Monticello was not forgotten, and,
as stated elsewhere, he grew about everything of that nature that would
stand the rigor of the Virginia winters. No office or honor could take
away Jefferson's pride as a cultivator of the soil.
Returning to Virginia on leave of absence, in the autumn of 1789, he
was welcomed with official honors and the cordial respect of his fellow

citizens. On the same day he learned of his appointment by Washington
as his Secretary of State.
He would have preferred to return to his former post, but yielded to the
wishes of the first president, and, arriving in New York in March, 1790,
entered at once upon the duties of his office.
In the cabinet Jefferson immediately collided with the brilliant
Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
The two could no more agree than oil and water.
Jefferson was an intense republican-democrat, and was shocked and
disgusted to find himself in an atmosphere of distrust of a republican
system of government, with an unmistakable leaning toward
monarchical methods. This feeling prevailed not only in society, but
showed itself among the political leaders.
Jefferson's political creed may be summed up in his own words:
"The will of the majority is the natural law of every society and the
only sure guardian of the rights of man; though this may err, yet its
errors are honest, solitary and short-lived. We are safe with that, even
in its deviations, for it soon returns again to the right way."
Hamilton believed in a strong, centralized government, and on nearly
every measure that came before the cabinet, these intellectual giants
wrangled. Their quarrels were so sharp that Washington was often
distressed. He respected both too deeply to be willing to lose either, but
it required all his tact and mastering influence to hold them in check.
Each found the other so intolerable, that he wished to resign that he
might be freed from meeting him.
Hamilton abhorred the French revolution, with its terrifying excesses,
and Jefferson declared that no horror equalled that of France's old
system of government.
Finally Jefferson could stand it no longer and withdrew from the

cabinet January 1, 1794.
An equally potent cause for his resignation was the meagreness of his
salary of $3500. It was wholly insufficient and his estate was going to
ruin. He yearned to return to his beloved pursuit, that of a farmer.
The request by Washington to act as special envoy to Spain did not
tempt him, but he allowed his name to be put forward as a candidate for
the presidency in 1796. John Adams received 71 votes and Jefferson 68,
which in accordance with the law at that time made him vice-president.
President Adams ignored him in all political matters, and Jefferson
found the chair of presiding officer of the senate congenial. He presided
with dignity and great acceptability, and his "Manual of Parliamentary
Practice" is still the accepted authority in nearly all of our deliberative
bodies.
The presidential election of 1800 will always retain its place among the
most memorable in our history.
The Federalists had controlled the national government for twelve years,
or ever since its organization, and they were determined to prevent the
elevation of Jefferson, the founder of the new Republican party. The
Federal nominees were John Adams for president and Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney for vice-president, while the Republican vote was
divided between Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
A favorite warning on the part of those who see their ideas threatened
with overthrow is that our country is "trembling on the verge of
revolution." How many times in the past twenty-five, ten and five years
have ranting men and women proclaimed from the housetops that we
were "on the verge of revolution?" According to these wild pessimists
the revolution is always at hand, but somehow or other it fails to arrive.
The probabilities are that it has been permanently side-tracked.
During the campaign of 1800, Hamilton sounded the trumpet of alarm,
when he declared in response to a toast:

"If Mr. Pinckney is not elected, a revolution will be the consequence,
and within four years I will lose my head or be the leader of a
triumphant army."
The Federalist clergy joined in denouncing Jefferson on the ground that
he was an atheist. The Federalists said what they chose, but when the
Republicans grew too careless they were fined and imprisoned under
the Sedition law.
The exciting canvas established one fact: there was no man in the
United States so devotedly loved and so fiercely hated as Thomas
Jefferson. New York had twelve electoral votes, and because of the