His Masterly Pen by Fred Kaplan

Author:Fred Kaplan [Kaplan, Fred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2022-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The Stage of Public Life

1789–1794

As Jefferson sailed across the Atlantic in September and October 1789, he did not expect the voyage to mark his permanent departure from Europe. Regardless of expressions of homesickness, of missing his friends, of needing to get his affairs in order, of the importance of his two daughters growing up in an American environment, he expected the recently elected first president of the United States to reappoint him to the Court of Versailles. It was a special incentive to him that the Court he would return to would be different than the one currently in place. He hoped, almost expected, the new government to be a constitutional monarchy, with “a tolerably free constitution, and that without its having cost them a drop of blood.” William Short had been left in what they both expected to be temporary charge of the embassy. Not that Jefferson left possessions or obligations behind, though he kept his Paris household in place. The hold of his cross-channel ship, sailing from Le Havre after a long delay, contained thirty-eight boxes and miscellaneous baggage, his portable printing press, and his personal and official papers. Sally Hemings, pregnant, and her brother James were members of the entourage.

Most of the caravan of luggage was intended for Monticello, an exemplification of his material self-indulgence, his collector’s passion, his appreciation of fine objects, and his artistic sensibility—all this though he had every reason to believe he would be reappointed for another three-year term, at the end of which he would have shipped home more crates of fine furniture, art objects, wine, porcelain, silks, linens, and “colonies of plants and birds.” The shipment also contained a beautifully crafted crane-neck carriage that he had had made in England, had had shipped to Paris, and was now transporting across the Atlantic. It would be for his daughters in Virginia. He intended to have another made for his own use when he returned to Paris.

Unable to locate a direct connection, his sea voyage required transit via England, which meant his possessions had to go through customs. In London, Trumbull petitioned the prime minister to instruct his officials to forgo inspection of Jefferson’s possessions and payment of duties and have them moved directly to a warehouse, then to be loaded onto the Virginia-bound Clermont. “It is my Duty to return my warmest thanks for your goodness in this Business,” Trumbull wrote to William Pitt, “and to repeat my assurances that it shall not be forgotten by me or my friends:—Mr. Jefferson will know by a letter which I write him this Evening to whom He is obliged for the politeness of his Reception.” There is no indication that Jefferson wrote a note of thanks to the prime minister.

No matter how warmly he expressed in letters that his fervent wish was to retire to private life, his expectation (and apparent hope) was that he would be reappointed to another three-year term in Paris. After all, who could better serve the United States

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