The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Vol. 18: November 1790 to March 1791

About this book

Volume 18 covering part of the final session of the First Congress shows Jefferson as Secretary of State continuing his effective collaboration with James Madison in seeking commercial reciprocity with Great Britain by threatening--and almost achieving--a retaliatory navigation bill. During these few weeks Jefferson produced a remarkable series of official reports on Gouverneur Morris abortive mission to England on the first case of British impressment of American seamen to be noticed officially on the interrelated problems of Mediterranean trade and the American captives in Algiers and on the French protest against the tonnage acts. All of these state papers reflected the consistency of Jeffersons aim to bolster the independence of the United States to promote national unity and even as his report on the Algerine captives indicates to lay the foundations for American maritime power. This volume reveals Jeffersons continuing interest in a unified system of weights and measures his effort to create a mint and his concern over executive proceedings in the Northwest Territory. It contains also his suggestions for the Presidents annual message and his first encounter at the hands of Noah Webster with Federalist ridicule of his interest in science. Despite his heavy official duties and the confusion into which his household was thrown when 78 crates of books wines and furniture arrived from France Jefferson never failed to write his promised weekly letter to his daughters and son-in-law under the alternating plan which obligated each of them to write only once every three weeks. The record of this time of extraordinary pressure shows that Jefferson retained his usual equanimity except when after a full two months he failed to receive any scrap of writing from the little family at Monticello.