JEFFERSON AND HIS COLLEAGUES A CHRONICLE OF THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY

CONTENTS

I. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S COURT

II. PUTTING THE SHIP ON HER REPUBLICAN TACK

III. THE CORSAIRS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

IV. THE SHADOW OF THE FIRST CONSUL

V. IN PURSUIT OF THE FLORIDAS

VI. AN AMERICAN CATILINE

VII. AN ABUSE OF HOSPITALITY

VIII. THE PACIFISTS OF 1807

IX. THE LAST PHASE OF PEACEABLE COERCION

X. THE WAR-HAWKS

XI. PRESIDENT MADISON UNDER FIRE

XII. THE PEACEMAKERS

XIII. SPANISH DERELICTS IN THE NEW WORLD

XIV. FRAMING AN AMERICAN POLICY

XV. THE END OF AN ERA

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE




JEFFERSON AND HIS COLLEAGUES



CHAPTER I. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S COURT

The rumble of President John Adams's coach had hardly died away in
the distance on the morning of March 4,1801, when Mr. Thomas Jefferson
entered the breakfast room of Conrad's boarding house on Capitol
Hill, where he had been living in bachelor's quarters during his
Vice-Presidency. He took his usual seat at the lower end of the table
among the other boarders, declining with a smile to accept the chair
of the impulsive Mrs. Brown, who felt, in spite of her democratic
principles, that on this day of all days Mr. Jefferson should have the
place which he had obstinately refused to occupy at the head of the
table and near the fireplace. There were others besides the wife of the
Senator from Kentucky who felt that Mr. Jefferson was carrying
equality too far. But Mr. Jefferson would not take precedence over the
Congressmen who were his fellow boarders.

Conrad's was conveniently near the Capitol, on the south side of the
hill, and commanded an extensive view. The slope of the hill, which
was a wild tangle of verdure in summer, debouched into a wide plain
extending to the Potomac. Through this lowland wandered a little stream,
once known as Goose Creek but now dignified by the name of Tiber. The
banks of the stream as well as of the Potomac were fringed with native
flowering shrubs and graceful trees, in which Mr. Jefferson took great
delight. The prospect from his drawing-room windows, indeed, quite as
much as anything else, attached him to Conrad's.