295. Difficulty of Enforcing the Embargo.—It proved very difficult, however, to enforce such legislation, for the Federalists made capital out of it, while Jefferson’s Southern supporters upheld it against their wills. New England ships rotted at their wharves, and in Virginia the staple tobacco remained unsold. Jefferson was overwhelmed with petitions to change his policy, but held out persistently. The British government also held to its former course and Napoleon to his. Before Jefferson’s second term had expired, it was quite clear that new measures must be tried in order to assert the nation’s dignity abroad and to secure civil peace at home. The pupil Madison, who became President in 1809, had to undo in part, at least, the work of the master.
CHARACTER OF JEFFERSON’S STATESMANSHIP.
Eli Whitney.
296. General View of Jefferson’s Administrations.—Viewed as a whole, Jefferson’s two administrations do not prove him to have been a great executive. He was a political philosopher rather than a practical statesman. He was more at home with ideas than with facts. But by his purchase of Louisiana he saved the country far more than his ineffective diplomacy and his Embargo cost it, and he proved conclusively that democracy was not contradictory to the idea of union. He proved also that the responsibilities of office are likely always to prevent a theorist from going to extremes; for, although the father of the strict constructionists of the Constitution, he left them the difficult task of explaining at least one very loose construction of his own. Perhaps at another period his weakness might not have been apparent. He was intellectually far in advance of his countrymen, and was thus an object of suspicion to many worthy citizens of a land which had then done little for the cause of letters or of science. On the other hand, he only slowly and partly outgrew the prejudices of the agricultural class to which he belonged. It was not until late in life that he showed sympathy with the manufacturing and commercial enterprise which was destined in a few years to make the country of Robert Fulton[[124]] and Eli Whitney[[125]] one of the wealthiest and most prosperous nations in the world.
297. Jefferson an Idealist.—Americans have been right in recognizing in Jefferson their main political spokesman. No other man has ever so thoroughly brought the people to his way of thinking, or so completely held his own with politicians of all degrees of ability and ambition. Congress followed his lead almost blindly, even in military matters, about which he knew little. His popularity speedily recovered from the decline it experienced during the days of the Embargo, and for nearly twenty years his home at Monticello was almost like a pilgrim’s shrine. His fame has suffered at the hands of some historians, but it is not unlikely that posterity will conclude that he was in advance not merely of his age, but of his century.
References.—General Works: same as for Chapter XIII., with the addition of: Henry Adams, History of the United States (1800–1817, 9 vols.).
Special Works: J. Schouler, Thomas Jefferson (“Makers of America”); H. S. Randall, Thomas Jefferson (3 vols.); J. Parton, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr; Henry Adams, Albert Gallatin, John Randolph (“American Statesmen”); A. B. Magruder, John Marshall (“American Statesmen”). See also T. Roosevelt, Winning of the West, Vol. IV.; and the writings of Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin. E. E. Hale’s Philip Nolan’s Friends deals with Burr’s Conspiracy, and G. W. Cable’s Grandissimes with New Orleans shortly after the American occupation.