The Louisiana Purchase dominates the months covered in this volume. Jefferson departs for Monticello to enjoy a needed respite after the busy three and a half months he has just spent in the nation's capital. Shortly before leaving...
This volume opens on 4 March 1803, the first day of Jefferson's third year as president. Still shaken by the closing of the right of deposit at New Orleans, he confronts the potential political consequences of a cession of Louisiana to...
This volume opens on 13 November 1802, when Jefferson is in Washington, and closes on 3 March 1803, the final day of his second year as president. The central issue of these months is the closing of the right of deposit at New Orleans...
Volume 38 opens on 1 July 1802, when Jefferson is in Washington, and closes on 12 November, when he is again there. For the last week of July and all of August and September, he resides at Monticello. Frequent correspondence with his...
This volume opens on 4 March 1802, the first anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's inauguration as the nation's third president, and closes on 30 June. In March, a delegation of Seneca Indians comes to Washington to discuss their tribe's...
The period covered by this volume brings to a conclusion Thomas Jefferson's first year as president. On 8 December he communicates his first annual message to Congress: peace between France and England is restored; a rise in population...
For the first two months covered by this volume, Thomas Jefferson is residing at Monticello, avoiding the "rather sickly" season in the nation's capital. His mountaintop house finally has a roof and both daughters and their families...
In Volume 34, covering May through July 1801, the story of Thomas Jefferson's first presidential administration continues to unfold. He quickly begins to implement his objectives of economy and efficiency in government. Requesting the...
Under normal circumstances, Thomas Jefferson would have had more than two months to prepare for his presidency. However, since the House of Representatives finally settled a tied electoral vote only on 17 February 1801, he had two...
"I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all?" Jefferson muses in this volume. His answer: "I do not know that it is." Required by custom to be "entirely passive" during the presidential...
As this volume opens, partisan politics in the United States are building to a crescendo with the approach of the presidential election. Working for a Republican victory, Jefferson consults frequently with Madison, Monroe, and others to...
During the thirteen months covered by this volume, Thomas Jefferson spent more than half of his time in Philadelphia serving as vice president under President John Adams and presiding over a Senate that was dominated by his political...
In the twenty-two months covered by this volume, Jefferson spent most of his time at Monticello, where in his short-lived retirement from office he turned in earnest to the renovation of his residence and described himself as a...