BOOK REVIEW: The Great Divide – The Conflict Between Washington And Jefferson That Defined The Nation , by Scipio

Thomas Fleming is one of America’s foremost historians of America’s early political development.  This book is not a casual read.  However, if you are looking for the stick figures of history to come alive, this book is for you. It’s extremely well footnoted, many of which are annotated.

Professor Fleming’s research is made up of mostly  primary resources of speeches and letters written by the principals themselves or letters they received from their contemporaries, many of which were signers of the Declaration of Independence or The Constitution.  Contemporary newspapers are cited for additional sources.  Very importantly, Jefferson wrote daily in his personal journal that he named, “ANAS” (Greek for “friend” or “confidant”) so Fleming studied Jefferson’s thoughts and plans from Jefferson’s own words.

The title of the book, The Great Divide, is about two streams of political thought of our founding fathers that is best described in the debates between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists during the formation of The Constitution.

In The Great Divide, those two opposing interpretations of “liberty” is personified in George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s interpretation of “liberte’”, as understood from their administrative policies.

Put simply, George Washington emphasized that “liberty’s” strength lay in the “union” and the centralized administration of the Executive Branch. Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, believed in the French Revolution’s version of “liberte’” with the thrust of governing being done through the Legislative Branch in junction with state legislatures. After all, Jefferson argued, two thirds of The Constitution was written about the legislature.

Also, Washington believed the Constitution held “implied powers” that could be used to strengthen the fledging new nation.  Jefferson, meanwhile, believed in a strict constructionist interpretation of The Constitution.

Fleming states, “The defining differences between Thomas Jefferson and George Washington was for Jefferson liberty was a sacred, semi-religious goal.   Washington was the polar opposite of the utopian.  He drew his own conclusions about politics and business rooted largely in his experiences.”  Jefferson attempted to apply the principles of the French Revolution into American political thought.

The clash between these two streams of political thought would eventually blossom into the Civil War with Abraham Lincoln and North’s emphasis on “union”, while the South espoused state’s rights and decentralized power.  Those two currents have manifested themselves throughout American history in different movements and expressions that runs through American politics even today.

Fleming does an excellent job of bringing the reader’s imagination back to the beginning of young nation’s history.  What 21^st century readers often assume is the nation’s long history of established Executive Orders, proclamations, and procedures etc. that we have today existed when George Washington became President.  The Constitution only authorized the Executive Branch, vaguely defining its duties. There was no blue print for “how” to govern.  George Washington was given the task of figuring that out.

Washington inherited a fledgling new nation that was in debt because of the Revolution, and undeclared war was being fought against Indians in the West, and British forts remained in the West. Spanish colonies in New Orleans threatened to cut off access to the Mississippi River. Secessionist movements were simmering in Kentucky, Maryland, and New England.  War was brewing in Europe between Great Britain and France that threatened to draw the young United States into it.

To put the US on sound a financial basis, President Washington sought Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton on how to establish a national bank.  The Bank of the United States was created by Washinton based on reading Hamilton’s 15,000-word paper concluding the Constitution had “implied powers” not spelled out in the Constitution. VP Jefferson opposed the bank for two reasons; first he believed it was not allowed in The Constitution. Also, Jefferson opposed the Bank of the United States absorbing all the individual state’s previous debts from the Revolutionary War.  This angered the southern states who had paid their debts but it rewarded the northern “debtor states” who paid back nothing.  This was the first seed for a future Civil War.

Meanwhile, Merchants were having cargos seized on the open seas depriving the government of tariff income.  Hamilton proposed a whisky tax to make up for the shortfall which sparked the Whisky Rebellion.  Washington issued a Presidential Proclamation for Whisky tax protestors to disperse.  Jefferson said the Constitution did not authorize the President to issue proclamations nor the use force against its citizens.   Ignoring Jefferson, Washington put the rebellion down forcefully.

Meanwhile the nation was split over supporting Great Britain or France in the Napoleonic wars raging in Europe.  Washington kept the US neutral, with the passage of the hated Jay Treaty.

Despite Washington’s political mandate by being unanimously elected as President, Jefferson fought Washington in opposition to the Jay Treaty.  Jefferson believed the Executive Branch should be limited and he opposed any use Washington made with so-called Constitutional “implied powers”.  Personally, Jefferson always looked down on Washington as an uneducated simpleton compared to his own education at William & Mary.

Vice President Thomas Jefferson undermined every effort Washington made to strengthen the Executive Branch.  Having lived in Paris before and after the French Revolution, Jefferson felt a strong ideological connection with the French Revolution’s principles and ideals which reinforced his own utopian ideals.  As a result of his ideological world view, Jefferson always viewed the world as an ideologue.  Washington was, on the other hand, always pragmatic.

Fleming observed, “Men in the grip of an ideology have little or no interest in contrary facts.” Idealogues also believe in “moral equivalency”.  Jefferson turned a blind eye to the excesses of the reign of terror reported to him by the American Ambassador to France, William Short. Jefferson was unmoved and merely equated it with the tens of thousands who perished under the rule of the rich and monarchs.

Jefferson believed in the goodness of men and “the will of the people” governing through legislation.  Washington believed, as did many signers of The Constitution, that the will of the people can be “recruited” and “mobocracy” was a better description of “the will of the people”.

In addition, ideologues tend to be strong believers in conspiracies and Jefferson was no different.  In a letter to James Madison he said, “a faction has entered into a conspiracy to chain down the legislature.” He also saw Hamilton’s bank as just the beginning of violating the constraints in the Constitution.  He also believed Washington wanted to set up the Presidency as a monarchy for the executive to serve for life. Furthermore, Jefferson believed Washington wanted to align with monarchist England in opposition to the “liberte’” unleased by the French Revolution.

What finally brought Jefferson’s conflict with Washington’s vision for America in the open was the Citizen Genet Affair.  Jefferson did everything he could indirectly to support Genet, who was openly trying to undermine the US President, and draw America in the war on the side of France.  Eventually, Washington asked for Genet to be recalled to France.

When George Washington left the Presidency for Mt. Vernon he was at the height of his fame.  He left behind a legacy of a statesman whose only interest was the well-being and happiness of America’s citizens.  He said, the only award he ever sought for his decades of public service was being “remembered as a disinterested patriot and a country that was prosperous and happy.” Before leaving he left America his famous “Farewell Address”, considered by many second only to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in its grandeur and espousal of the nation’s highest ideals.

Following President Washington, President Adams’ Administration was hampered immediately by bickering between Adams and Jefferson that resulted in the passage of the 12^th Amendment.  One issue Adams faced was the “X,Y,Z Affair” which inflamed American opinion against France.  

Another issue facing Adams was the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts passed to supposedly counter a potential French fifth element in America, that had been created under Citizen Genet’s influence. The realization that thirty thousand Frenchmen lived in the Western Territories didn’t help ease those fears.

Using the Alien and Sedition Acts, Adams started imprisoning newspaper editors for publishing pro-French sentiments. Jefferson vehemently and openly attacked the law, and by extension the President, claiming the Act was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment. Chief Justice John Marshall, however, wrote a pamphlet defending the Acts as Constitutional.

With the split in Adams’ Federalist political party, and President Adam’s aloofness and condescending attitude, Jefferson narrowly won the next presidential election.

The political vacuum that followed Adams’ weak Presidency allowed for Jefferson to be elected President despite having accomplished nothing while in public service.  He was a complete failure as governor of Virginia during the revolution.  His “only” (I use that word sarcastically) accomplishment was writing most of the Declaration of Independence, one of the world’s most revolutionary and enduring documents for liberty loving people for all generations.  That authorship alone, coupled with Adams’ incompetence, got Jefferson elected.

Once elected, Jefferson declared his election as “The Revolution of 1800” thus repudiating the previous administration’s stand for a powerful Executive.  The first thing Jefferson did was to declare the end of Presidential Proclamations. To strengthen the Legislative Branch, he repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801.

Four months after taking office Jefferson began to supply arms and supplies to insurrectionists in Santo Domingo to overthrow Tousant Louverture’s government so France could invade the island.  Napolean then sent 20,000 troops, but was forced to send another 15,000 more, then 35,000 more, and Napoleon finally gave up on the conquest of the tiny island because he found out 70% of his soldiers were dying being bitten by yellow fever infected mosquitos.  Napoleon gave up on his plans for Santo Domingo and withdrew his remaining troops. This failure in Santo Domingo would later become pivotal in France selling the Louisiana Territory to Jefferson.

Because of his fear of a standing army, Jefferson located the newly approved military service academy at West Point, far up the Hudson River and far away from influencing the new capital located now in Washington, DC.  To make sure it didn’t grow he failed to staff it with unqualified instructors and only admitted cadets who were from his own political party, the Democratic-Republican Party.

To keep Napolean’s army from invading Spain, King Carlos IV sold the Louisiana territory to France. With Napoleon’s urging he asked the Spanish to remain in New Orleans and block western river traffic as punishment for the US remaining neutral in the war.

Pressured by merchants in the West to reopen the Mississippi to commercial traffic, Jefferson was forced to take action. He sent emissaries to France with authorization to spend up to $9 million dollar to buy New Orleans.  By the time the emissaries were sailing for France, Napoleon decided to attack England directly after his failed back door attack in Egypt earlier.

Napoleon’s advisors told him he would need $16 million dollars for the operation.  When Jefferson’s emissaries arrived in France with an offer to buy New Orleans for $9 million dollars, they were shocked when Prime Minister Talleyrand counter offered for them to buy all of the Louisiana territory for $16 million dollars.   Although they were not authorized to spend that much, and the US Treasury didn’t have that much money, Napoleon offered for the US to get loans from European Banks to pay for the difference. Just like that the Louisiana Purchase fell into Jefferson’s lap. Although the Louisiana purchase is considered Jefferson’s greatest achievement, he had nothing to do with it.  The truth is it happened because of a mosquito and a megalomanic despot, Napoleon.  Within two weeks of the Louisiana purchase, France was at war with England.

Ironically nothing in the Constitution provided for this acquisition.  Jefferson, ever the focus on the Legislature, tried to legislatively approve the purchase by calling for a Constitutional Amendment to do so but that failed. He had no problem going forward with the purchase anyway.

This was a reversal of Jefferson’s ideals.  It tacitly accepted Washington’s interpretation of “implied powers” in the Constitution that Jefferson had repeatedly opposed.  Fleming noted, “The Louisiana Purchase was the death nail to Jefferson’s “strict Constitution theory”.

Jefferson then made a proclamation, in direct contradiction to what he said upon taking office, claiming credit for the purchase and touting the “peaceful” acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase thereby denying the thousands of soldiers who died in Santo Domingo and the thousands that would die in Napolean’s most recent adventure that made the purchase possible.

With the purchase of the Louisiana Purchase a new problem arose.  The purchase agreement did not allow for Westerners in the territory to vote or have a trial by jury.  This was particularly embarrassing for a man who in the Declaration of Independence proclaimed, “all men are created equal”.

The popularity of Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase and its offer of free land for the taking was all that was need for Jefferson to be reelected in a landslide.

But when full blown war broke out between Great Britian and France, both countries started capturing American merchant ships seizing their cargos and as well as an estimated 3,000 seaman. It caused economic hardship, especially in the middle and New England states. For four years now the US was still having problems with the Muslims commandeering American ship’s cargos and capturing America sailors forcing them into slavery.

In the meantime, Napoleon had gained control of every major European seaport.  He decided to starve out Great Britian with an embargo to keep out all neutral nations from trading with Great Britian. Great Britain responded with a similar embargo act against France. Unfortunately, the US was one of the neutral nations affected.

Jefferson had congress to respond to the French and English embargos with the United States’ own embargo called The Embargo Act of 1807 against both nation’s goods.  Dissatisfaction was already spreading throughout the nation.  New England was once again talking about secession because of the Burr-Hamilton incident causing division in the nation.

The Embargo Act caused an economic collapse in America. It was suicidal economically.  According to Thomas Fleming, “Massachusetts harbors accounted for 50% of all merchant ships leaving for Europe or the West Indes. From 1808 to 1809 exports had dwindled from $103 billion (in today’s dollars) to $23 billion (in todays’ dollars).

One thing Jefferson had done when he first took office was to immediately stop all internal taxation causing lost tax revenues and putting stress on the Treasury.  Things had gotten so bad that the seeds of secession spread from New England to Georgia and Connecticut.  Jefferson did nothing during this crisis. He hid behind his ideology waiting on the Legislature to act.

By the end of Jefferson’s second term, he was extremely unpopular and was subject of vicious assaults in newspapers and public opinion.  He spent his last months as President withdrawn in his home at Monticello leaving his staff in Washington, DC to handle the duties of his office.

Fleming points out Jefferson will always be remembered for his inspiring words and the voice of hope found in the Declaration of Independence.  Both he and Washington loved their country. Jefferson was a politician and Washington was a statesman. They differed, in Jefferson’s case, often undermining and manipulating his political rivals.  Washington’s lack of a formal education and his experience in war probably helped him in avoiding traps and making thoughtful decisions that impacted more than an immediate issue.  Jefferson could never see, nor care, about the long-term implications of his policies. He just wanted immediate success.

Thomas Fleming concludes; “The contrast between George Washington’s departure to Mt. Vernon at the summit of his popularity leaving behind his Farewell Address to echo thru the centuries, and Thomas Jefferson’s return to Monticello in an aura of confusion and failure underscores the importance of seeing the difference between these two men as a great divide in America’s journey to world power.”

The great divide that divided Washington and Jefferson on what principles the nation should be governed still persists today.  Like Washington and Jefferson, it has separated many who were once friends into becoming advisories.