John Catanzariti – författare

This volume finds Thomas Jefferson grappling with problems arising from the radicalization of the French Revolution in Europe and the polarization of domestic politics in the United States. The overthrow of the French monarchy leads the Secretary of State to suspend debt payments to that nation and to formulate a diplomatic recognition policy that will long guide American diplomacy. After an abortive effort to initiate negotiations with the British minister in Philadelphia on the execution of the Treaty of Paris, Jefferson deflects a British proposal to establish a neutral Indian barrier state in the Northwest Territory. As he awaits the start of negotiations on major diplomatic issues with Spain, he deals with a Spanish effort to incite hostilities between the Southern Indians and the United States. The conflict between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton reaches a new stage when the Secretary of the Treasury brings the cabinet struggle into full public view with four series of pseudonymous newspaper attacks on Jefferson.In letters to President Washington, Jefferson insists that Hamiltonian policies pose a fundamental threat to American republicanism, and in other documents he sets forth remedies for the defects he sees in Hamilton's system. During this period he also finds time to investigate the ravages of the Hessian fly on American wheat and to make plans to remodel Monticello.

The dramatic escalation in the conflict between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to determine the future course of the new American nation is the main theme of this volume. Under pressure from other Republicans, Jefferson decides to continue as Secretary of State instead of retiring to Monticello at the end of President Washington's first term. At the same time he begins to play a more active role as a Republican party leader, involving himself secretly in a major effort by House Republicans to have Hamilton dismissed from office by censuring his management of public finances. France's declaration of war on Great Britain and the Netherlands leads Jefferson into a serious conflict with Hamilton over how to protect American neutrality in the face of the widening European war. After persuading Washington to preserve the treaties of alliance and commerce with France, Jefferson must then confront the first in a series of French violations of American neutrality that will sorely test the relationship between the two republics.Testifying to the catholicity of Jefferson's interests, this volume also deals with his efforts to promote a voyage of western exploration by the noted French botanist Andr Michaux, his observation of the first manned balloon flight in America by the celebrated French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard, and his concern for expediting work on the new national capital.

This volume documents exhaustively for the first time Edmond Charles Genet's dramatic challenges to American neutrality and Jefferson's diplomatic and political responses. After welcoming Genet's arrival as the harbinger of closer relations between the American and French republics, Jefferson becomes increasingly distressed by the French minister's defiance of the Washington administration's ban on the outfitting of French privateers in American ports, the enlistment of American citizens in French service, and the exercise of admiralty jurisdiction by French consuls in American ports. Although the Supreme Court declines to advise the executive branch on neutrality questions that Jefferson prepares with the President and the Cabinet, he helps to formulate a set of neutrality rules to meet Genet's challenge. Unable to convince the impetuous French envoy to adopt a more moderate course, Jefferson works in the Cabinet to bring about Genet's recall so as to preserve friendly relations with France and minimize political damage to the Republican party, in which he takes a more active role to prevent the Federalists from capitalizing on Genet's defiance of the President.Grappling with the threat of war with Spain, Jefferson involves himself equivocally in a diplomatically explosive plan by Genet to liberate Louisiana from Spanish rule. In this volume Jefferson also plays a decisive role in resolving a dispute over the design of the Capitol and plans agricultural improvements at Monticello in preparation for his retirement to private life.

This volume brings to a close Jefferson's increasingly stormy tenure as Secretary of State, documenting, among many things, his epochal duel with Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton over the conduct of American foreign policy. Against the background of the deadly yellow fever in Philadelphia, he copes with obstreperous French consuls and informs Edmond Charles Genet that the American government has requested his recall. After resuming his work on the definition of U.S. maritime limits, Jefferson prevails upon President Washington to inform Congress not only of Genet's recall but also of the British refusal to carry out the disputed provisions of the Treaty of Paris. In a final effort to implement his policy of commercial retaliation against Great Britain, Jefferson submits to Congress in December his long-awaited Report on Commerce, vividly detailing the various forms of discrimination imposed on American trade by the British. The volume presents the early and final versions of the in all their textual complexity.Disappointed by Washington's tepid response to his criticisms of Hamilton's fiscal policies, frustrated by the Treasury Secretary's rising influence over American foreign policy, and eager to enjoy uninterruptedly the pleasures of domestic life, Jefferson retires from office on 31 December 1793, determined never again to suffer the torments of public life. Volume 27 contains a supplement that covers some 270 documents for the period 1764-93 that have been found or reclassified since the publication of the last supplement in Volume 15.