The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Volume 38: 1 July to 12 November 1802; Volume 39: 13 November 1802 to 3 March 1803

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Volume 38: 1 July to 12 November 1802; Volume 39: 13 November 1802 to 3 March 1803. Edited by Barbara B. Oberg. (Princeton and Oxford, Eng.: Princeton University Press, 2011; 2012. Pp. [li], 755; lii, 699. $115.00, ISBN 978-0-691-15323-0; $115.00, ISBN 978-0-691-15671-2.) July 1802 found President Thomas Jefferson in Washington, D.C., attending to major and minor matters of administration, budgeting, and international affairs. August and September, as usual, found him at Monticello, far from the unhealthy climate of the District of Columbia, enjoying the direct management of his estate but never far from his desk attending to presidential duties. October found him once again in the nation's new capital city. As one reads through the huge quantity of administrative correspondence to and from the president, one marvels again at his good fortune in having such a sturdy, intelligent, and dedicated supporting staff as Secretary of State James Madison, Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, and James Monroe, who accepted a difficult diplomatic mission shortly after completing three one-year terms as governor of Virginia. Untypically, a long paragraph in Barbara B. Oberg's foreword to Volume 39 has stirred this reviewer's imagination more than any document or group of documents in these two volumes. The subject is a six-week visit to the White House, extending from November 1802 into early January 1803, by Thomas Jefferson's daughters Martha Jefferson Randolph and Mary Jefferson Eppes (called Maria, by her preference) and two of Martha's precocious children, ten-year-old Thomas Jefferson Randolph and six-year-old Ellen Wayles Randolph. Holiday celebrations, attending church, and visiting among the Washington elite proved delightful for all concerned. Years later grandson Thomas reported a special visit he enjoyed at the Navy Yard, apparently without the knowledge of his elders. A letter from this grandson to his famous grandfather is reproduced among the illustrations of Volume 39; conventional in message, it shows remarkably smooth penmanship for a ten-year-old boy. Most of the details of this visit Oberg gathered from sources outside the Jefferson papers, but Volume 38 includes a letter by Martha to her father, dated October 29, 1802, requesting wigs for herself and Maria, and Volume 39 contains more documents from this trip, beginning with a bill from Philadelphia dated November 13 for the two wigs, priced at nineteen dollars each. The most important problems confronting President Jefferson during the period covered here were the impending occupation of Louisiana by Napoleonic France and the suspension in October 1802 of the right of deposit for United States citizens in Spanish New Orleans. The familiar narrative is here enriched by letters to the president from old friends. Two examples: Thomas Paine, prophetic once more, urged the buying of all Louisiana, with the interesting idea that its inhabitants be consulted. Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours assured Jefferson that under the French, New Orleans and both banks of the Mississippi River would be friendly and open to the United States. Jefferson remained determined to prevent any great power from controlling access to the Mississippi. To forestall France he mentioned the possibility of an alliance with Great Britain. He secured a secret fund from Congress to underwrite an expedition along and beyond the Mississippi. Jefferson's secretary, Meriwether Lewis, prepared the estimated budget of $2,500. This plan matured into the justly celebrated Lewis and Clark expedition, but only after the Louisiana Territory had become part of the United States. Volume 39 ends with James Monroe departing for France with new and detailed instructions for Robert Livingston, the main goal still being the purchase of New Orleans. …