This volume brings to a close Jefferson's increasingly stormy tenure as Secretary of State, documenting, among many things, his epochal duel with Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton over the conduct of American foreign policy. Against the background of the deadly yellow fever in Philadelphia, he copes with obstreperous French consuls and informs Edmond Charles Genet that the American government has requested his recall. After resuming his work on the definition of U.S. maritime limits, Jefferson prevails upon President Washington to inform Congress not only of Genet's recall but also of...

This volume brings Jefferson into retirement after his tenure as Secretary of State and returns him to private life at Monticello. He professes his desire to be free of public responsibilities and live the life of a farmer, spending his time tending to his estates. Turning his attention to the improvement of his farms and finances, Jefferson surveys his fields, experiments with crop rotation, and establishes a nailery on Mulberry Row. He embarks upon an ambitious plan to renovate Monticello, a long-term task that will eventually transform his residence.

Although Jefferson is...

In the twenty-two months covered by this volume, Jefferson spent most of his time at Monticello, where in his short-lived retirement from office he turned in earnest to the renovation of his residence and described himself as a ''monstrous farmer.'' Yet he narrowly missed being elected George Washington's successor as president and took the oath of office as vice president in March 1797. In early summer he presided over the Senate after President John Adams summoned Congress to deal with the country's worsening relations with France. As the key figure in the growing ''Republican quarter,...

During the thirteen months covered by this volume, Thomas Jefferson spent more than half of his time in Philadelphia serving as vice president under President John Adams and presiding over a Senate that was dominated by his political opponents, the Federalists. Debates in Congress took place against a backdrop of bitter partisan rivalry, characterized most famously by the near-brawl on the floor of the House between Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold. Congress and the nation waited, in a "state of extraordinary suspense," for dispatches from the American envoys in France. When the accounts of...

As this volume opens, partisan politics in the United States are building to a crescendo with the approach of the presidential election. Working for a Republican victory, Jefferson consults frequently with Madison, Monroe, and others to achieve favorable results in state elections. He corresponds with controversial journalist James T. Callender. Sifting information from published rumors and private letters, he follows events in Europe, including Bonaparte's unexpected rise to power in France, and sees the value of his tobacco crop plummet as U.S. legislation cuts off the French market....

This volume inaugurates the definitive edition of papers from Thomas Jefferson's retirement. As the volume opens, a new president is installed and Jefferson is anticipating his return to Virginia, where he will pursue a fascinating range of personal and intellectual activities. He prepares for his final departure from Washington by settling accounts and borrowing to pay his creditors. At Monticello he tells of his efforts to restore order at his mismanaged mill complex, breed merino sheep, and otherwise resume full control of his financial and agricultural affairs.

Though he is...

"I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all?" Jefferson muses in this volume. His answer: "I do not know that it is." Required by custom to be "entirely passive" during the presidential campaign, Jefferson, at Monticello during the summer of 1800, refrains from answering attacks on his character, responds privately to Benjamin Rush's queries about religion, and learns of rumors of his own death. Yet he is in good health, harvests a bountiful wheat crop, and maintains his belief that the American people will shake off the Federalist thrall. He...

The definitive edition of Thomas Jefferson's papers from the end of his presidency until his death continues with Volume Two, which covers the period from 16 November 1809 to 11 August 1810. Both incoming and outgoing letters are included, totaling 518 documents printed in full. General themes include Jefferson's financial troubles, which eventually led him to loan himself a large sum of money he was managing for Tadeusz Kosciuszko; his preparations to face a lawsuit stemming from his decision as president to remove Edward Livingston from a valuable property in New Orleans; other legal...