Download Jefferson And The Ordeal Of Liberty Produced By Dumas Malone Readable In Mobi

III of Malone's exhaustive study of Thomas Jefferson, This book covers his last year as Secretary of Statethrough his three year retirement to his home in Virginia, then his one term as Vice Presidentand concluding with his election to his first term as President inyes,, notdue to the election being a tie and thus thrown into the House of Representatives to decide.
Being that there literally was nothing for the Vice President to do back then other than preside over the Senate, one would think that this volume would be shorter than the others.
Not so! As usual, Malone has plenty of things to write about, thanks to an endlessly fascinating subject,

As with the first two books, Malone's bias in favor of Jefferson is apparent, However, it never reaches the point of becoming so blatant as to be ridiculous, In fact, while reading through this series, more and more I am struck by Malone's professionalism and thorough research, Yes, he almost always paints Jefferson in the brightest light possible, But it is done in an intelligent and reasoned manner, and I get the sense that he genuinely believed that Jefferson was an outstanding human being and he frequently cites examples to show Jefferson's good deeds.


One area where I and I would suspect, many others find it difficult to agree with Malone on is his treatment of Jefferson's owning of slaves.
Such a hideous practice how can anyone accept it as being human Now, to be sure, Malone does not excuse Jefferson for being a slave owner.
Nor does he make light of the situation at all, What he does do is to put Jefferson's owning of slaves within the context of the times that he lived, This is proper for a historian to do: the biographical subject must be depicted within the context political, economic, geographic, social, religious that he/she lived in.
Thus, Jefferson was far from the only slaveholder around, That he was probably more benevolent and considerate than most other slaveholders I do not doubt, But the bottom line is that he still owned human beings! Malone writes that Jefferson abhorred selling or trading slaves, and that he went to great lengths to not break up slave families, and to care for elderly slaves.
I do not question this, But no matter how kind he may have been and probably was, he was still a hypocrite for owning slaves yet writing about freedom for men.


Another item though not nearly as important as the slavery issue speaks to the kind of person that Jefferson could be.
He and George Washington had a falling out basically from Jefferson making oblique criticisms here and there about Washington's being used and misled by Hamilton and the Federalists, and from Washington having thin skin for criticism and being susceptible to believing everything he heard.
As usual with Jefferson, there was no direct confrontation, just a gradual separation culminating in a time where they stopped communicating with each other.
I bring this up to note that, when Washington died, Jefferson seemed to go out of his way to avoid any all eulogies and tributes to him, specifically arriving in Philadelphia a few days after the start of the Senate session although he frequently did this anyway.
But he did not pay a visit to Martha Washington until a year later, even though he easily could have done so.
And, he made no comment in public or private about someone who trusted him enough to appoint him as the very first Secretary of State.
Things such as that do not buttress Malone's claim on pagethat Jefferson ", . . was in fact one of the most moral of men, . . ".

Overall, this book like the first two is essential reading for anyone interested in learning about Jefferson, It is hard to understand how someone could become an authority on Jefferson without devouring Malone's works, Even though the level of detail can grow cumbersome at times such as the chapter about Jefferson's complete rebuilding of Monticello and when the roof was/was not on, Malone really gives the reader a sense of what Jefferson was actually doing in his life on an everyday basis.
In the end, isn't that what a good biographer is supposed to do

Grade: A A very readable, detailed, and exhaustive look from the end of Jefferson as Secretary of State to the election of.
There's a lot of interest in this volume as Washington retires and the two party system really kicks in with some vicious fighting.
Malone is clearly one sided here and also quickly dismisses the Sally Hemings story without even exploring it, Still, it's very informative and enjoyable, Brilliantly written biography in a series of biographies by Dumas on Thomas Jefferson, HIGHLY recommend for anyone interested in the political history of our country, I'm on a quest to truly understand the details about how the United States was founded, why, and the personalities of the major players in that task.
Will be posting about each of the biographies in this series, but cannot state emphatically enough how much I enjoy reading these over and over.


Each book sequentially covers a part of Jefferson's robust life, He was, as many know, not just an enormous influence in American history, but a prolific author and highly educated man.
He was also very clinical about his beliefs in life and made no secret of his suspicion of religious ideals,

This would be an incredible summer reading series for someone in high school or college, The weakest volume so far, mainly because I couldn't really care much less about theish pages Malone spends on Jefferson's miniretirement.
But his final months as Secretary of State and his time as Vice President both get plenty of coverage, which makes me believe the next two volumes will be the strongest yet.
Volumeof.
This volume bring Jefferson up to his first term as President,

I'm going to take a Brake from Jefferson for a couple of months before I start to tackle the lastvolumes.
: Thomas Jefferson, by the midpoint of his life, found himself becoming an adversary of his old friend John Adams, as Dumas Malone chronicles in this third volume of Jefferson and His Time, Malones sixvolume biography of Jefferson.
Written in, Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty covers the period from August of, when Jefferson was still George Washingtons Secretary of State, through January of, when Jefferson as PresidentElect prepared to be sworn in as Third President of the United States.


Part of what stands out about Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty, in comparison with the previous two volumes of Jefferson and His Time, is Malones seemingly greater willingness, in this volume, to offer mild criticisms of a subject he is usually eager to defend.
Consider, in that regard, Malones examination of the “Genêt affair” of, when Edmond Charles Genêt, then the French minister to the U.
S. A. , sought to draw the Americans into an alliance with France against England, As Secretary of State for the Washington Administration, Jefferson was the “point person” for diplomatic conversations with the French minister, and Genêt seems to have done his best to take advantage of Jeffersons wellknown affection for all things French.


Malone is unwontedly critical of Jefferson when he quotes a letter from Jefferson to James Monroe, one in which Jefferson states that “France has explained herself generously” in spite of outrageous demands that Genêt had already made “A question arises, therefore, about Jeffersons gullibility,” Malone sternly notes.
Even here, however, Malone feels obliged to add that Jefferson “was drawing a contrast between the friendliness of the French and the unfriendliness of the British government”, and to insist that Jeffersons “failure to mention difficulties which had already arisen does not mean that he was unaware of them” p.
. No doubt Jefferson would have been appreciative of the alacrity with which Malone almost always rises to the great Virginians defense.


Malones description of Jeffersons period of semiretirement betweenandlikewise contains some atleastimplied criticism, When it comes to managing a plantation estate like Monticello where the beauty of the beautiful mountaintop home increased right along with Jeffersons indebtedness Malone writes that Jefferson “had found that it ran the owner into debt if he was absent from it and if he was forced to deal on credit.
” Yet Malone notes that Jefferson “might have added that its proceeds could not be expected to pay off heavy debts already existing, or to finance extensive construction projects, or to provide for the failures of others” p.
.

From my home here in Northern Virginia, I can travel to Monticello quite easily, I have made many visits to Monticello, and I have no doubt that I will visit there many more times in the course of my life and whenever I go there, I feel mixed emotions.
On the one hand, there is the dazzling beauty of the great house ample evidence of the order and brilliance of Jeffersons mind.
On the other hand, there is the knowledge that the constant expansion and reconstruction of Monticello contributed to Jeffersons everincreasing indebtedness, and to the certainty that most of the hundreds of people held in slavery by Jefferson could never even hope for freedom.


However much Jefferson may have hoped at some level that he could remain in gentlemanly retirement at Monticello, he remained an active leader of the nascent DemocraticRepublican party and in the election of, he finished second to John Adams.
Under the constitutional system as it existed at that time one that is strongly different from our system today this meant that he automatically became Vice President of the United States.
Had we the same system today, the result would be that Donald Trumps Vice President would be Hillary Rodham Clinton! Interesting to wonder what cabinet meetings nowadays would be like under those circumstances.


Given the widely differing political philosophies that Adams and Jefferson held, it should be no surprise that relations between the two men eventually became strained at a special session of Congress in, Jefferson said “that political passions had reached such a point that men now crossed the street to avoid meeting men with whom they had long been intimate, and turned their heads the other way lest they be obliged to touch their hats” p.
. Sad to think of the decadeslong rift that developed between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams two great Americans, two Founding Fathers, and previously two great friends.
Even sadder to contemplate, perhaps, is the permanent breach that developed between Jefferson and George Washington two letters critical of Washington Administration policies one written by Jefferson, the other unjustly ascribed to him angered the everproud Washington to the extent that “After Washingtons retirement to Mount Vernon he and Jefferson never met again, nor did they correspond on any subject whatever not even agriculture” p.
.

Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty also engages one of the most difficult and challenging aspects of the Jeffersonian legacy the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions crafted inby Jefferson and James Madison respectively.
The resolutions were developed against the background of the Alien and Sedition Acts passed into law under the Adams Administration, At a time when most new immigrants supported Jeffersons DemocraticRepublican party rather than Adamss Federalist party, the Alien Acts made naturalization more difficult and made it easier for the federal government to deport noncitizens in a time when DemocraticRepublican newspapers were harshly critical of Adamss Federalist administration, the Sedition Act facilitated the prosecution of publishers deemed to have made false statements against the government.


Antiimmigrant sentiments! Challenges to freedom of the press! Controversial new measures being championed by an unpopular president! Plus ça change, plus cest la même chose.


Both acts, to Jefferson, constituted a potentially dangerous expansion of federal power and biographer Malone seems to agree hence the Ordeal of Liberty portion of the title of this volume from Jefferson and His Time.
And yet the “solution” that Jefferson and Madison proposed that the states could declare unconstitutional any federal government act that went outside the provisions of the United States Constitution contained its own potential problems.
In it, one can see the spectre of “interposition” or “nullification” of states defying federal power in order to preserve unjust social or political systems within their own state boundaries.
It happened during the time of slavery it happened when eleven states seceded from the Union to form the Confederacy and initiate civil war and it happened throughout the time of the Civil Rights Movement.


Malone seems to understand that hes going to have to do some heavy lifting here, if he is to offer his usual strong support for Jeffersons decisions and policies.
Defending the decision of Jefferson and Madison to issue the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions anonymously, Malone suggests that “As the avowed author of the

Kentucky Resolutionsthe Vice President of the United States could have been charged with sedition and perhaps impeached for treason.
In this period of hysteria almost anything could have happened” p,. It is an interesting and forcefully presented argument, and yet it is a melancholy spectacle to contemplate an American vicepresident and president working against one another so forcefully.
Perhaps it is no wonder that the current system of presidential and vicepresidential candidates running on the same party ticket was adopted so early.


History records that Jefferson ran for president against Adams one more time inand won, after what is still one of the bitterest and most divisive elections in the nations history.
As Jefferson had run on a platform indicating that the Adams Administration had been guilty of gross presidential overreach, Malone points out, “There was little likelihood that Jefferson would be reckless or destructive, but no one could yet say whether or not he could unify the country after these bitterly divisive years.
Many might wonder whether he would be a leader or a presiding officer” p,.

Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty ends on that cusp, as PresidentElect Jefferson prepares to take on the burdens of his nations highest office.
Like all of the books in the Jefferson and His Time series, it is characterized by mellifluous writing, by meticulous scholarship, and by author Malones strong sympathy for his subject.
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