Visit to Chesterfield County.--Is appointed Plenipotentiary
to Europe.--Letter to the Marquis de Chastellux.--Goes North
with his Daughter.--Leaves her in Philadelphia, and goes to
Congress.--Letters to his Daughter.--Sails for Europe.--His
Daughter's Description of the Voyage.--His Establishment and
Life in Paris.--Succeeds Franklin as Minister there.--Anecdotes
of Franklin.--Extracts from Mrs. Adams's Letters.--Note from
Jefferson to Mrs. Smith.
A short time after Mrs. Jefferson's death, Jefferson went with
his children to Ampthill, in Chesterfield County, the residence
of Colonel Archibald Cary. This gentleman had kindly offered his
house to him, that he might there have his children inoculated
for the small-pox. While engaged as their chief nurse on this
occasion, he received notice of his appointment by Congress as
Plenipotentiary to Europe, to be associated with Dr. Franklin and
Mr. Adams in negotiating peace. Twice before the same appointment
had been declined by him, as he had promised his wife never again to
enter public life while she lived. Mr. Madison, in alluding to his
appointment by Congress, says:
The reappointment of Mr. Jefferson as Minister Plenipotentiary
for negotiating peace, was agreed to unanimously, and without a
single adverse remark. The act took place in consequence of its
being suggested that the death of Mrs. Jefferson had probably
changed the sentiments of Mr. Jefferson with regard to public
life.[23]
[23] Madison Papers.
Jefferson himself, in speaking of this appointment, says in his
Memoir:
I had, two months before that, lost the cherished companion of
my life, in whose affections, unabated on both sides, I had
lived the last ten years in unchequered happiness. With the
public interests the state of my mind concurred in recommending
the change of scene proposed; and I accepted the appointment.
Writing to the Marquis de Chastellux, he says:
Ampthill, November 26th, 1782.
Dear Sir--I received your friendly letters of ---- and June
30th, but the latter not till the 17th of October. It found me a
little emerging from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as
dead to the world as was she whose loss occasioned it.... Before
that event my scheme of life had been determined. I had folded
myself in the arms of retirement, and rested all prospects of
future happiness on domestic and literary objects. A single
event wiped away all my plans, and left me a blank which I had
not the spirits to fill up. In this state of mind an appointment
from Congress found me, requiring me to cross the Atlantic.
Having accepted the appointment, Mr. Jefferson left his two youngest
children with their maternal aunt, Mrs. Eppes, of Eppington, and
went North with his daughter Martha, then in her eleventh year. Some
delay in his departure for Europe was occasioned by news received
from Europe by Congress. During the uncertainty as to the time of
his departure he placed the little Martha at school in Philadelphia,
under the charge of an excellent and kind lady, Mrs. Hopkinson. From
this time we find him writing regularly to his daughters during every
separation from them, and it is in the letters written on those
occasions that are portrayed most vividly the love and tenderness
of the father, and the fine traits of character of the man. That
the reader may see what these were, I shall give a number of these
letters, and, as far as possible, in their chronological order.
The original of the first of the following letters is now in the
possession of the Queen of England. Mr. Aaron Vail, when Chargé
d'Affaires of the United States at the Court of St. James, being
requested by Princess Victoria to procure her an autograph of
Jefferson, applied to a member of Mr. Jefferson's family, who sent
him this letter for the princess. Mr. Jefferson was at this time
again a member of Congress, which was then holding its sessions in
Annapolis.
_Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson._
Annapolis, Nov. 28th, 1783.
My dear Patsy--After four days' journey, I arrived here without
any accident, and in as good health as when I left Philadelphia.
The conviction that you would be more improved in the situation
I have placed you than if still with me, has solaced me on my
parting with you, which my love for you has rendered a difficult
thing. The acquirements which I hope you will make under the
tutors I have provided for you will render you more worthy of
my love; and if they can not increase it, they will prevent
its diminution. Consider the good lady who has taken you under
her roof, who has undertaken to see that you perform all your
exercises, and to admonish you in all those wanderings from what
is right or what is clever, to which your inexperience would
expose you: consider her, I say, as your mother, as the only
person to whom, since the loss with which Heaven has pleased to
afflict you, you can now look up; and that her displeasure or
disapprobation, on any occasion, will be an immense misfortune,
which should you be so unhappy as to incur by any unguarded
act, think no concession too much to regain her good-will. With
respect to the distribution of your time, the following is what
I should approve:
From 8 to 10, practice music.
From 10 to 1, dance one day and draw another.
From 1 to 2, draw on the day you dance, and write a letter next
day.
From 3 to 4, read French.
From 4 to 5, exercise yourself in music.
From 5 till bed-time, read English, write, etc.
Communicate this plan to Mrs. Hopkinson, and if she approves of
it, pursue it. As long as Mrs. Trist remains in Philadelphia,
cultivate her affection. She has been a valuable friend to you,
and her good sense and good heart make her valued by all who
know her, and by nobody on earth more than me. I expect you
will write me by every post. Inform me what books you read,
what tunes you learn, and inclose me your best copy of every
lesson in drawing. Write also one letter a week either to your
Aunt Eppes, your Aunt Skipwith, your Aunt Carr, or the little
lady[24] from whom I now inclose a letter, and always put the
letter you so write under cover to me. Take care that you never
spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider
how it is spelt, and, if you do not remember it, turn to a
dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. I
have placed my happiness on seeing you good and accomplished;
and no distress which this world can now bring on me would equal
that of your disappointing my hopes. If you love me, then strive
to be good under every situation and to all living creatures,
and to acquire those accomplishments which I have put in your
power, and which will go far towards ensuring you the warmest
love of your affectionate father,
TH. JEFFERSON.
P.S.--Keep my letters and read them at times, that you may
always have present in your mind those things which will endear
you to me.
[24] Her little sister, Mary Jefferson.
_Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson._--[_Extract._][25]
[25] We find the key to this and the letter following it in the
following paragraph of a letter from Mrs. Trist to Mr. Jefferson:
"Patsy is very hearty; she now and then gives us a call. She
seems happy, much more so than I expected. When you write, give
her a charge about her dress, which will be a hint to Mrs. H. to
be particular with her. De Simitière complains that his pupil
is rather inattentive. You can be particular to these matters
when you write, but don't let her know you heard any complaints.
I fancy the old lady is preparing for the other world, for she
conceits the earthquake we had the other night is only a prelude
to something dreadful that will happen."
Annapolis, Dec. 11th, 1783.
I hope you will have good sense enough to disregard those
foolish predictions that the world is to be at an end soon.
The Almighty has never made known to any body at what time he
created it; nor will he tell any body when he will put an end
to it, if he ever means to do it. As to preparations for that
event, the best way is for you always to be prepared for it. The
only way to be so is, never to say or do a bad thing. If ever
you are about to say any thing amiss, or to do any thing wrong,
consider beforehand you will feel something within you which
will tell you it is wrong, and ought not to be said or done.
This is your conscience, and be sure and obey it. Our Maker has
given us all this faithful internal monitor, and if you always
obey it you will always be prepared for the end of the world; or
for a much more certain event, which is death. This must happen
to all; it puts an end to the world as to us; and the way to be
ready for it is never to do a wrong act.
_Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson._--[_Extract._]
Annapolis, Dec. 22d, 1783.
I omitted in that letter to advise you on the subject of dress,
which I know you are a little apt to neglect. I do not wish you
to be gaily clothed at this time of life, but that your wear
should be fine of its kind. But above all things and at all
times let your clothes be neat, whole, and properly put on. Do
not fancy you must wear them till the dirt is visible to the
eye. You will be the last one who is sensible of this. Some
ladies think they may, under the privileges of the _déshabillé_,
be loose and negligent of their dress in the morning. But be
you, from the moment you rise till you go to bed, as cleanly
and properly dressed as at the hours of dinner or tea. A lady
who has been seen as a sloven or a slut in the morning, will
never efface the impression she has made, with all the dress
and pageantry she can afterwards involve herself in. Nothing is
so disgusting to our sex as a want of cleanliness and delicacy
in yours. I hope, therefore, the moment you rise from bed, your
first work will be to dress yourself in such style, as that you
may be seen by any gentleman without his being able to discover
a pin amiss, or any other circumstance of neatness wanting.
_Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson._
Annapolis, Jan. 15th, 1783.
My dear Martha--I am anxious to know what books you read, what
tunes you play, and to receive specimens of your drawing. With
respect to your meeting M. Simitière[26] at Mr. Rittenhouse's,
nothing could give me more pleasure than your being much with
that worthy family, wherein you will see the best examples of
rational life, and learn to esteem and copy them. But I should
be very tender of intruding you on the family; as it might,
perhaps, be not always convenient for you to be there at your
hours of attending M. Simitière. I can only say, then, that
if it has been desired by Mr. and Mrs. Rittenhouse, in such a
manner as that Mrs. Hopkinson shall be satisfied that they will
not think it inconvenient, I would have you thankfully accept
it; and conduct yourself with so much attention to the family
as that they may never feel themselves incommoded by it. I hope
Mrs. Hopkinson will be so good as to act for you in this matter
with that delicacy and prudence of which she is so capable. I
have much at heart your learning to draw, and should be uneasy
at your losing this opportunity, which probably is your last.
[26] M. Simitière was a Frenchman, from whom, as his letters
show, Mr. Jefferson was anxious for his daughter to take drawing
lessons.
_Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson._--[_Extract._]
Annapolis, February 18th, 1784.
I am sorry M. Simitière can not attend you, because it is
probable you will never have another opportunity of learning
to draw, and it is a pretty and pleasing accomplishment. With
respect to the payment of the guinea, I would wish him to
receive it; because if there is to be a doubt between him and me
which of us acts rightly, I would wish to remove it clearly off
my own shoulders. You must thank Mrs. Hopkinson for me for the
trouble she gave herself in this matter; from which she will be
relieved by paying M. Simitière his demand.
In the spring of this year (1784) Mr. Jefferson received definite
orders from Congress to go to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary, and
act in conjunction with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams in negotiating
treaties of commerce with foreign nations. He accordingly sailed
in July, taking with him his young daughter Martha. The following
description of his voyage, establishment in Paris and life there, is
from her pen. The other two children, Mary and Lucy Elizabeth, were
left with their good aunt, Mrs. Eppes. Mrs. Randolph says, in her
manuscript:
He sailed from Boston in a ship of Colonel Tracy's (the Ceres,
Capt. St. Barbe); the passengers--only six in number--of whom
Colonel Tracy himself was one, were to a certain degree select,
being chosen from many applying. The voyage was as pleasant as
fine weather, a fine ship, good company, and an excellent table
could make it. From land to land they were only nineteen days,
of which they were becalmed three on the Banks of Newfoundland,
which were spent in cod-fishing. The epicures of the cabin
feasted on fresh tongues and sounds, leaving the rest of the
fish for the sailors, of which much was thrown overboard for
want of salt to preserve it. We were landed at Portsmouth, where
he was detained a week by the illness of his little travelling
companion, suffering from the effects of the voyage. Nothing
worthy of note occurred on the voyage or journey to Paris.
On his first arrival in Paris he occupied rooms in the Hôtel
d'Orléans, _Rue des Petits Augustins_, until a house could
be got ready for him. His first house was in the Cul-de-sac
Têtebout, near the Boulevards. At the end of the year he removed
to a house belonging to M. le Comte de L'Avongeac, at the
corner of the Grande Route des Champs Elysées and the Rue Neuve
de Berry, where he continued as long as he remained in Paris.
Colonel Humphreys, the secretary of legation, and Mr. Short, his
private secretary, both lived with him. The house was a very
elegant one even for Paris, with an extensive garden, court, and
outbuildings, in the handsomest style.
He also had rooms in the Carthusian Monastery on Mount Calvary;
the boarders, of whom I think there were forty, carried their
own servants, and took their breakfasts in their own rooms. They
assembled to dinner only. They had the privilege of walking in
the gardens, but as it was a hermitage, it was against the rules
of the house for any voices to be heard outside of their own
rooms, hence the most profound silence. The author of Anacharsis
was a boarder at the time, and many others who had reasons for
a temporary retirement from the world. Whenever he had a press
of business, he was in the habit of taking his papers and going
to the hermitage, where he spent sometimes a week or more till
he had finished his work. The hermits visited him occasionally
in Paris, and the Superior made him a present of an ivory broom
that was turned by one of the brothers.
His habits of study in Paris were pretty much what they were
elsewhere. He was always a very early riser and the whole
morning was spent in business, generally writing till one
o'clock, with the exception of a short respite afforded by the
breakfast-table, at which he frequently lingered, conversing
willingly at such times. At one o'clock he always rode or walked
as far as seven miles into the country. Returning from one of
these rambles, he was on one occasion joined by some friend, and
being earnestly engaged in conversation he fell and broke his
wrist. He said nothing at the moment, but holding the suffering
limb with the other hand, he continued the conversation until he
arrived near to his own house, when, informing his companion of
the accident, he left him to send for the surgeon. The fracture
was a complicated one and probably much swollen before the
arrival of the surgeon; but it was not set, and remained ever
after weak and stiff. While disabled by this accident he was in
the habit of writing with his left hand, in which he soon became
tolerably expert--the writing being well-formed but stiff. A few
years before his death another fall deprived him in like manner
of the use of his left hand, which rendered him very helpless in
his hands, particularly for writing, which latterly became very
slow and painful to him.... He kept me with him till I was sent
to a convent in Paris, where his visits to me were daily for the
first month or two, till in fact I recovered my spirits.
Nothing could have been more congenial or delightful to him than the
society in which Jefferson moved in Paris. At the head of an elegant
establishment, as an American and the friend of Lafayette, his house
was the favorite resort of all the accomplished and gallant young
French officers who had enthusiastically taken up arms in defense of
the great cause of liberty in the New World; while as a philosopher
and the author of the "Notes on Virginia," his society was sought for
and enjoyed by the most distinguished savants and men of science,
who thronged from all parts of Europe to the great French capital.
Nor were the ease and grace of his address, the charms of his
eloquent conversation, and the varied extent of his learning, lost
upon the witty and handsome women who were found at the court of
the amiable young Louis the Sixteenth and of his queen, the lovely
Marie Antoinette--so sadly pre-eminent for beauty and misfortune. His
social intercourse with them, and the pleasant friendships formed for
many, we discover in his gracefully-written letters to them.
Mr. and Mrs. John Adams were in Paris with Jefferson, and Mrs. Adams
pays a graceful tribute to his talents and worth in her letters home,
and in one of them speaks of him as being one of the "choice ones of
the earth." His intercourse with his two colleagues, Dr. Franklin
and Mr. Adams, was of the most delightful character, and by both he
was sincerely loved and esteemed. The friendship then formed between
Mr. Adams and himself withstood, in after years, all the storms and
bitterness of political life, at a time when, perhaps, party feeling
and prejudice ran higher than ever before.
When Franklin returned home, loaded with all the honors and love that
the admiration of the French people could lavish on him, Jefferson
was appointed to take his place as Minister from the United States at
the Court of St. Germains. "You replace Dr. Franklin," said Count de
Vergennes, the French Premier, to him--"I _succeed_ him; no one could
replace him," was Jefferson's ready reply. Perhaps no greater proof
of Jefferson's popularity in Paris could be given, than the fact that
he so soon became a favorite in that learned and polished society in
which the great Franklin had been the lion of the day. I quote from
Jefferson's writings the following anecdotes of Franklin, which the
reader will not find out of place here:
When Dr. Franklin went to France on his revolutionary mission,
his eminence as a philosopher, his venerable appearance, and the
cause on which he was sent, rendered him extremely popular--for
all ranks and conditions of men there entered warmly into the
American interest. He was, therefore, feasted and invited to
all the court parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess
of Bourbon, who being a chess-player of about his force, they
very generally played together. Happening once to put her king
into prise, the Doctor took it. "Ah," says she, "we do not take
kings so." "We do in America," said the Doctor.
At one of these parties the Emperor Joseph II., then at Paris
_incog._ under the title of Count Falkenstein, was overlooking
the game in silence, while the company was engaged in animated
conversations on the American question. "How happens it, M.
le Comte," said the Duchess, "that while we all feel so much
interest in the cause of the Americans, you say nothing for
them?" "I am a king by trade," said he.
The Doctor told me at Paris the following anecdote of the Abbé
Raynal: He had a party to dine with him one day at Passy, of
whom one half were Americans, the other half French, and among
the last was the Abbé. During the dinner he got on his favorite
theory of the degeneracy of animals and even of man in America,
and urged it with his usual eloquence. The Doctor, at length
noticing the accidental stature and position of his guests at
table, "Come," says he, "M. l'Abbé, let us try this question
by the fact before us. We are here, one half Americans and one
half French, and it happens that the Americans have placed
themselves on one side of the table, and our French friends are
on the other. Let both parties rise, and we will see on which
side nature has degenerated." It happened that his American
guests were Carmichael, Harmer, Humphreys, and others of the
finest stature and form; while those of the other side were
remarkably diminutive, and the Abbé himself, particularly, was a
mere shrimp. He parried the appeal, however, by a complimentary
admission of exceptions, among which the Doctor himself was a
conspicuous one.
The following interesting quotations from Mrs. Adams's letters, in
which she alludes to Mr. Jefferson, will be found interesting here.
To her sister she writes:
There is now a court mourning, and every foreign minister,
with his family, must go into mourning for a Prince of eight
years old, whose father is an ally to the King of France. This
mourning is ordered by the Court, and is to be worn eleven days
only. Poor Mr. Jefferson had to hie away for a tailor to get a
whole black silk suit made up in two days; and at the end of
eleven days, should another death happen, he will be obliged to
have a new suit of mourning of cloth, because that is the season
when silk must be left off.
To her niece Mrs. Adams writes:
Well, my dear niece, I have returned from Mr. Jefferson's.
When I got there I found a pretty large company. It consisted
of the Marquis and Madame de Lafayette; the Count and Countess
de ----; a French Count who had been a general in America, but
whose name I forget; Commodore Jones; Mr. Jarvis, an American
gentleman lately arrived (the same who married Amelia B----),
who says there is so strong a likeness between your cousin and
his lady, that he is obliged to be upon his guard lest he should
think himself at home, and commit some mistake--he appears a
very sensible, agreeable gentleman; a Mr. Bowdoin, an American
also; I ask the Chevalier de la Luzerne's pardon--I had like
to have forgotten him; Mr. Williams, of course, as he always
dines with Mr. Jefferson; and Mr. Short--though one of Mr.
Jefferson's family, as he has been absent some time I name him.
He took a resolution that he would go into a French family at
St. Germain, and acquire the language; and this is the only way
for a foreigner to obtain it. I have often wished that I could
not hear a word of English spoken. I think I have mentioned Mr.
Short before, in some of my letters; he is about the stature
of Mr. Tudor; a better figure, but much like him in looks and
manners; consequently a favorite of mine.
They have some customs very curious here. When company are
invited to dine, if twenty gentlemen meet, they seldom or never
sit down, but are standing or walking from one part of the room
to the other, with their swords on, and their _chapeau de bras_,
which is a very small silk hat, always worn under the arm. These
they lay aside while they dine, but reassume them immediately
after. I wonder how the fashion of standing crept in among a
nation who really deserve the appellation of polite; for in
winter it shuts out all the fire from the ladies; I know I have
suffered from it many times.
At dinner, the ladies and gentlemen are mixed, and you converse
with him who sits next you, rarely speaking to two persons
across the table, unless to ask if they will be served with
any thing from your side. Conversation is never general as
with us; for, when the company quit the table, they fall into
_tête-à-tête_ of two and two, when the conversation is in a
low voice, and a stranger unacquainted with the customs of the
country, would think that every body had private business to
transact.
Mrs. Adams writes to her sister:
We see as much company in a formal way as our revenues will
admit; and Mr. Jefferson, with one or two Americans, visits us
in the social, friendly way. I shall really regret to leave
Mr. Jefferson; he is one of the choice ones of the earth. On
Thursday, I dine with him at his house. On Sunday he is to dine
here. On Monday we all dine with the Marquis.
The intimate and friendly relations which existed between Mr.
Jefferson and Mrs. Adams's family is seen from the following playful
note from him to her daughter, Mrs. Smith:
Mr. Jefferson has the honor to present his compliments to Mrs.
Smith and to send her the two pair of corsets she desired. He
wishes they may be suitable, as Mrs. Smith omitted to send her
measure. Times are altered since Mademoiselle de Sanson had the
honor of knowing her; should they be too small, however, she
will be so good as to lay them by a while. There are ebbs as
well as flows in this world. When the mountain refused to come
to Mahomet, he went to the mountain. Mr. Jefferson wishes Mrs.
Smith a happy new-year, and abundance of happier ones still
to follow it. He begs leave to assure her of his esteem and
respect, and that he shall always be happy to be rendered useful
to her by being charged with her Commands.
Paris, Jan. 15, 1787.