Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson: November 2016

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Jefferson's Stone Stable & North Terrace Restorations Completed !

The restoration of the Stone Stable on Mulberry Row began early 2016. The stable is one of two Jefferson-era buildings on Mulberry Row restored as part of a larger effort to return the mountain-top to its appearance during Jefferson’s lifetime.

Jefferson’s documents identify two generations of stables on Mulberry Row. The first stable was built ca. 1793 and consisted of five log structures. In 1808 Jefferson hired William Maddox, a stone mason, to replace the wood buildings with stone buildings. A long, L-shaped addition was made to the stable soon after. No archaeological or physical evidence has been found to reveal what the addition may have looked like. The structure has been in almost continuous use since its construction in 1809. The two stone buildings, originally part of a larger structure, were likely used to store feed and tack during Jefferson’s lifetime. Enslaved grooms cared for Jefferson’s prized carriage and riding horses here.

The restoration of the Stone Stable is made possible by the generous support of the Sarah and Ross Perot Jr. Foundation. Restoration was completed in October 2016.

Visitors are now able to learn more about Jupiter Evans and Wormley Hughes, the enslaved men responsible for the stables and horses at Monticello, and how their lives were interwoven with Jefferson's.

Jupiter Evans was born at Shadwell in 1743, the same year as the man who would later own him, Thomas Jefferson. After inheriting Evans from his father in 1757, Jefferson appointed this highly skilled slave to assume a variety of roles at Monticello, including valet, hostler, coachman and stonecutter. In 1774, after becoming head coachman, Evans oversaw the care of the riding and carriage horses in the Mulberry Row stable. He and his wife, as well as their sons, may have lived near the stables, in the "Negro quarter" on Mulberry Row.

Another enslaved man, Wormley Hughes, worked at the Mulberry Row nailery and in the terraced vegetable garden before succeeding Jupiter Evans as chief hostler and coachman. Described by Jefferson as "one of the most trusty servants I have," Hughes cared for Jefferson's horses in the stable on Mulberry Row and the carriages in the North Terrace wing. Biographer Henry Randall remarked on Hughes' passion for horses in 1851: "He could distinctly remember, and describe the points, height, color, temper, etc. of every horse."

The stable area located under the north terrace consisted of many separate stalls. One stall for the: Chariot, Double Phaeton, Single Phaeton, Gigg & Sulky; two stalls for the Strangers Carriages, four horse stalls, and one Store Room.

In his lifetime, Jefferson owned dozens of riding and carriage horses, many of them prized for their English bloodlines. Edmond Bacon, a Monticello overseer once noted that Jefferson was "passionately fond of all good horse." Describing the horse as the "most sovereign of all Doctors." Jefferson took daily rides across his 5,000 acre plantation for exercise and to oversee the work of around 130 enslaved men, women and children who lived and labored at Monticello.

Names of Thomas Jefferson's horses at Monticello: Cucullin, Allycroker, Caractacus, Odin, Brimmer, Castor, Peacemaker, Gustavus, Ethelinda, Polly Peachum, Remus & Romulus, Diomede, Eagle, Silvertail, Silveret, Matchless, Bremo, Alfred, The General, Orra Moor, Asaragoa, Fitzpartner, Wellington, Everallyn, Crab, Peggy Waffington, Raleigh, Wildair, Tecumseh, Zanga, Tarquin.

(Articles derived from Th:Jefferson Monticello, spring 2016, Volume 27, Number 1 and www.monticello.org)

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Friday, November 11, 2016

The Most Divisive Election in American History-1800

From the beginning, the stage was set for a serious political showdown. Thomas Jefferson, then vice president, was running against incumbent President John Adams. Jefferson was a Democratic Republican, Adams a Federalist.

It was a rematch of the 1796 presidential election, when Adams emerged victorious. This time around, many believed Jefferson would have the edge, thanks to a shifting mood across the country.

The stakes could not have been higher. The Constitution was 11 years young. The national government was a democratic experiment yet untested in other corners of the world. There was genuine concern that the transfer of power from one political faction to another might lead to civil war. Jeffersonian Republicans knew they would have to carry New York to win the election, so they chose the U.S. senator from New York, Aaron Burr, as Jefferson's running mate. Adams and the Federalists selected Charles Pinckney of South Carolina.

In 1800, the battle for the presidency wasn't waged on the debate stage or in the town hall meetings. The candidates themselves were conspicuously absent from the discourse over who should be elected. Instead, mud was slung in all the newspapers of the day - partisan publications that favored either the Federalist president or his Republican contender.

The question of that day was, "Shall I continue in allegiance to God-and a religious president, or impiously declare for Jefferson-and no God!" Such smear tactics were considered politics as usual at the turn of the century. In a 1798 letter to his daughter Martha, Jefferson wrote of the nation's capitol, "politics and party hatred destroy the happiness of every being here. They seem, like salamanders, to consider fire as their element."

In the end, the 1800 election resulted in a surprising tie in the electoral college between Jefferson and running mate Aaron Burr. If fell to Congress to determine the final outcome. In a letter dated December 23, 1800, Alexander Hamilton wrote, "in a choice of Evils let them take the least - Jefferson is in every view less dangerous than Burr."

Some 200 years later, a pessimist might say that given our track record, there's little hope for civility in American politics. But Jefferson offered a different view. In his 1801 inaugural address, with the vitriol of the campaign still fresh in his mind, he expressed conviction that the American people could find common ground:

"...every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principles. We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists."

After retiring from public office, Jefferson took his own advice to heart, rekindling his friendship with Adams. In Jefferson's words, "I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as a cause for withdrawing from a friend" (1800)

JOHN ADAMS

Age:   65

Political Party:   Federalist

Prior Experience: 2nd U.S. President; 1st U.S. Vice President; U.S. Minister to GB; Founder

Education: Harvard College

Religion:  Unitarian

Hometown:  Braintree (now Quincy) MA

Famous Phrase: "Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."

Nickname:  Atlas of Independence

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Age:  57

Political Party:  Democratic Republican

Prior Experience:  2nd U.S. Vice President; 1st U.S. Secretary of State; Minister to France; Founder; Author of Declaration of Independence

Education:  College of William and Mary

Religion:  No Formal Affiliation

Hometown:  Charlottesville, VA

Famous Phrase:  "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal..."

Nickname:  Sage of Monticello
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