The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson 1 Jan 1798 To 31 Jan 1799

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 the XYZ Affair became public, the nation prepared for war. Two days after the Alien Friends Act was signed into law Jefferson left for Monticello, stopping at Montpelier to convey the latest news to James Madison. Disheartened and frustrated by the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson penned the famous resolutions adopted in November by the Kentucky legislature. He kept his authorship a secret, however, seeking to avoid any appearance of "rashness" by Republicans. This endeavor reflected his struggle to make sense of the political direction of the nation in times he could neither comprehend nor accept. Jefferson continued to engage in scientific pursuits and fulfill his role as a promoter of American science and learning. He was reelected to the presidency of the American Philosophical Society, to which he presented his paper on the moldboard plow. He corresponded on American Indian languages, astronomy, and the Anglo-Saxon language. He longed for Monticello, and, as Jefferson had learned before, his property fell into neglect when he was away on public business. Renovations to the house slowed, supplies for the nailery were disrupted, and he had to arrange for the sale of his crops through intermediaries. With the prices of wheat low, he was drawn back into financial dependence on tobacco.

"The Papers of Thomas Jefferson is a projected 60-volume series containing not only the 18,000 letters written by Jefferson but also, in full or in summary, the more than 25,000 letters written to him. Including documents of historical significance as well as private notes not closely examined until their publication in the Papers, this series is an unmatched source of scholarship on the nation's third president"--Publisher's description.

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. Jefferson grows concerned at Federalist promotion of English common law in American jurisprudence and at proceedings in the Senate against William Duane, printer of the Philadelphia Aurora. Drawing heavily on British legislative practice, however, as well as advice from Virginia, he begins in earnest to compile a manual of parliamentary procedures for the Senate. As president of the American Philosophical Society, Jefferson calls for reform of the United States census. He publishes an appendix to Notes on the State of Virginia defending his account of the Mingo Indian Logan's legendary 1774 speech. And Jefferson consults Joseph Priestley and Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours about the curriculum for a projected new university in Virginia. While continuing the reconstruction of Monticello, he mourns the death of the infant girl of his younger daughter, Mary Jefferson Eppes.

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 the XYZ Affair became public, the nation prepared for war. Two days after the Alien Friends Act was signed into law Jefferson left for Monticello, stopping at Montpelier to convey the latest news to James Madison. Disheartened and frustrated by the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson penned the famous resolutions adopted in November by the Kentucky legislature. He kept his authorship a secret, however, seeking to avoid any appearance of "rashness" by Republicans. This endeavor reflected his struggle to make sense of the political direction of the nation in times he could neither comprehend nor accept. Jefferson continued to engage in scientific pursuits and fulfill his role as a promoter of American science and learning. He was reelected to the presidency of the American Philosophical Society, to which he presented his paper on the moldboard plow. He corresponded on American Indian languages, astronomy, and the Anglo-Saxon language. He longed for Monticello, and, as Jefferson had learned before, his property fell into neglect when he was away on public business. Renovations to the house slowed, supplies for the nailery were disrupted, and he had to arrange for the sale of his crops through intermediaries. With the prices of wheat low, he was drawn back into financial dependence on tobacco.

In Print Technology in Scotland and America Louis Kirk McAuley investigatesthe mediation of popular-political culturein Scotland and America, from thetransatlantic religious revivals known as theGreat Awakening to the U.S. presidentialelection of 1800. By focusing on Scotlandand America—and, in particular, thetension between unity and fragmentationthat characterizes eighteenth-centuryScottish and American literature andculture—Print Technology aims to increaseour understanding of how tensions withinthese corresponding political and culturalarenas altered the meaning of printas an instrument of empire and nationbuilding. McAuley reveals how seeminglydisparate events, including journalism andliterary forgery, were instrumental andinnovative deployments of print not as a liberation technology (as Habermas’s analysis of print's structural transformation of the public sphere suggests), but as a mediator of political tensions.

States in American Constitutionalism: Interpretation, Authority, and Politics examines the often overlooked role that states have played in the development and maintenance of American constitutionalism by examining the purpose and effect of state resolutions on national constitutional meaning. From colonial practices through contemporary politics, subnational governments have made claims about what national constitutional provisions and principles ought to mean, fashioned political coalitions to back them, and asserted their authority to provoke constitutional settlement. Yet, this practice has been far from static. Political actors have altered the practice in response to their interpretive objectives and the political landscape of the day. States in American Constitutionalism explains both the development of the practice and the way each innovation to the practice affected subsequent iterations. Hays presents a series of case studies that explore the origins of the practice in colonial constitutionalism, its function in the early Republic, subsequent developments in antebellum and twentieth century politics, and contemporary practice in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. States in American Constitutionalism will be of great interest to students and academics interested in constitutional law and politics, political and constitutional development, and federalism.